Class Warfare - Fighters

Dungeons and dragons is in its fourth edition now and has been for several years. Through those years the basic classes that started the game Fighter, Magic User (now called Wizards) Cleric, Thief (rogue) have remained. Looking back how have these core ideas changed over nearly 40 years of product evolution? Lets take a look at the lowly fighter.

Fighters

1st edition - The most basic class, best at swinging a sword and had the most hit points, was one of two classes that could use plate armor
2nd edition - Still very basic, had the best Thac0 and could wear plate most fighters stood around and hit stuff a lot.
3rd edition - Fighters were the go to class for getting tons of feats. Still got plate armor still got the best hit bonuses still got the most HP. 3rd did give them more options than "Hit the monster with my sword" but not by much.
4th edition - Fighters now have tons of options just like everyone else. They can choose to be offensive or defensive depending on how they choose their stats and skills and they get some really nice knockdowns and conditional abilities. One thing they lost from all the previous editions was the ability to wear plate. They get up to scale now and can easily upgrade to plate with a single feat.

Fighters have always been the core learners class in dungeons and dragons. Whenever you got a new players who didn't want a bunch of complicated rules when they started the fighter was a safe bet. True they were a bit under-powered at higher levels but at first with that high AC and higher hit points they were great to have around especially when the wizard shot his one magic missile and hid behind a tree :)

With the advent of fourth edition fighters don't seem to be getting the same respect they used to. True there are a lot of shiny choices to choose from (especially if you add in PH2 and PH3 and various other sources)

The four at wills for fighters are Cleave, Reaping Strike, Sure Strike, and Tide of Iron.

Cleave - Hits two adjacent foes, second damage is low. Attacks AC Rating ***/5

Reaping Strike - Standard attack roll but if you miss you still get some damage. Attacks AC. You have to use a two hander to get the miss damage so no good for sword and board types. Rating: **/5 (very situational)

Sure Strike - An attack that gives you +2 to hit. Attacks AC. To me this is the gem of the warriors at wills. It makes the warrior attack as though he were four levels higher than he actually is. Add in a flanking bonus and your going to be hitting alot with this one. Sure the damage is low but constant damage is better then adding that strength mod every third attack. Rating: ****/5

Tide of iron - Lets you push an enemy and slide into his spot, if your a player that likes to set up flanks and advantages for your friends this at will is your best friend. not only do you get to push them but you get to stay base to base to help with the flank. rating ****/5

Fighters are a solid choice for players that like to protect their friends from monsters and generally irritate the DM with trips and pushes.

The Lies of Locke Lemora

I'm an avid fantasy book reader. I find its important as a game master to read a lot since it gives you new ideas and helps you think in ways you hadn't before. Im not advocating swiping entire plots or anything but scenes that were particularly apt or characters you really likes can make appearances under new pseudonymous. The book I'm currently reading is the Lies of Locke Lemora by Scott Lynch. It is probably one of the best books I've ever read about thieves and the rogues life. It's sort of Oceans 11 meets Oliver Twist in the Venetian middle ages. Lynches system of bosses and underlings and the whole prose of the work makes me think that he will be a big name in fantasy in years to come. Lies has already been optioned for a movie and I for one cant wait to see them do this excellent tale of betrayal and the gentlemen bastards justice.

Top 10 Dumbest monsters from 1st edition Monster Manual 5-1

Number 5

If you don’t know why Toothy here is on the list, it’s his name. Again stretching for water monsters, his name is like they tossed a bag of scrabble tiles and named it what came out. Either that or it’s something from Lovecraft. These guys actually got reprinted in second and third editions with the same name. I imagine a game where these are in a module GM:” You are approached by a vicious looking Isik.. Isi.. Tooth fish”

Number 4

Otyugh also suffers from scrabble bag disease but he’s got more wrong with him. He literally lives in poop. The only way your characters will run afoul of him is if they see the big pile of monster droppings and say “Hey let’s go poke around in that.”

Number 3

Peryton was compiled by placing animal pictures on a dart board and tossing them with a blind fold. He has a human shadow because Gygax took a dart while getting a soda. That’s the only explanation I can come up for this freak of nature. He’s a deer eagle with the shadow of a man. Jorge Luis Borges was actually the person who created this creature in his 1957 book “Book of imaginary Beings” but it’s still absurd.

Number 2

Thought eater… magic psychic duck… It’s completely useless unless you happen to have a psionic character and anyone who ever read the rules for 1^st and 2^nd edition psionics and understood them had far better things to do in the 80’s, like brain surgery or rocket science. I joke, they weren’t that complicated but they were needlessly overpowered unless you based your campaign around it (dark sun) and had their own weird set of rules to play by.

Number 1

Brain Mole let me count the ways I despise you. First you’re a psionic creature, see Thought Eater, second you’re a stupid mole, third you managed to get reprinted in second and third edition, fourth YOU’RE A STUPID MOLE. I really hate this creature. It’s another one of those monsters that unless you happen to have a psi character around is completely useless. Even if you do happen to have a psi, using it kind of feels like a jerk move. You’re picking on the guy cause of the class he plays; it’s a no win really.

If your wondering where 10-6 are click here

Top 10 Dumbest monsters from 1st edition Monster Manual 10-6

Number 10

Apatosaurus and various other dinosaurs take up about 2 pages of the Monster Manual. Why? Has anyone ever used these? I’m pretty sure the game is called Dungeons and Dragons not Land of the Lost. These would have been better suited to be detailed, as many monsters are, in theme specific modules like a Land of the Lost or Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Number 9

Ogre Mage is a good monster but my problem with him is he is called a “Japanese Ogre” in the description. None of the other monsters have nationalities. We don’t see Irish leprechauns or Serbian Night Hags. Why does the Ogre Mage get this special modifier? My only thought is perhaps it’s to define him as not a regular ogre that just knows magic, if that’s the case he should have probably been called an oriental ogre instead.

Number 8

Herd Animal is very bland. About the only way they could have gotten any less descriptive is to just call it an animal. It isn’t even helpful on stats the whole block is pretty much dashes and nil with the hit dice being 1-5.0 So these “Herd Animals” have anywhere from 1 to 40 hit points, thanks for the specifics Monster Manual. This creature falls into that category of “who would ever use it” with the dinosaurs. My personal theory is that Tom Wham was doodling during a boring part of a game and drew a cool giraffe chasing the party and everyone at TSR was like OMG we have to put that in a book!

Number 7

Another Tom Wham Drawing, Blink dog is a prairie dog that can blink. I’m scared, seriously I’m shaking. When you actually look at its stats it has a respectable block. It’s just the concept of fighting a monster that looks like it belongs in Paris Hilton’s purse.

Number 6

This one didn’t have a drawing it’s just a stat block and description. I get the feeling that they were trying really hard to come up with monsters for ocean encounters. When has any DM ever anywhere said “You know what I’m going to have them fight dolphins, now if only I knew how tough dolphins were?”

Dark Dungeons

If you've never read the Chick Tract Dark Dungeons, treat yourself to some christian right absurdity. Dark Dungeons I think my favorite part is when Debbie uses mind control on her dad to get him to buy her Dungeons and Dragons books. Clearly the writers of this one were more in fantasy land than anyone who ever really played the game.

This kind of misinformation really hurt the hobby of role playing back in the 70's and 80's. Its hard to remember back in the days before Google and the internet. I know this makes me seem old (I'm only 30) but back before internet fact checking this kind of garbage was a lot harder to do. Chick tracts and their ilk relied on misinformation and the gullibility of the public especially the religious.

You might be saying to yourself "what does it matter its just a stupid little pamphlet" but I have a personal reason to dislike this kind of thing. I was raised in a very conservative christian home and my folks freaked out when I started role playing back in high school. Their views were shaped by this kind of garbage and by people like Pat Robertson and Patricia Pulling (who wrote a book named Mazes and Monsters).

Dungeons and Dragons has been one of the most positive things in my life. It's an outlet for creativity, It's helped me make some of the best friends I've ever known, and it's a heck of a lot of fun. I have never heard of these "REAL POWERS" they keep insinuating and the thought of having real spells to cast in real life is about as stupid as saying that someone who plays Call of Duty is trained as a commando.