Fighter has been my favorite class when i discovered NWN. It is an excellent class to start NWN with due to its huge flexibility, and since it allows to get to know the meaning and wide variety of feats. And it's also very nice because it is so multiclassing-friendly. They key aspect of the fighter class is the huge number of feats he gets, many many feats, sometimes too many. Due to this, it is easy to design any kind of martial adept, from the full-plated wannabe paladin, to the light armored duelist, with rarer choices as an archer. Because there are 3 things almost always ignored about the fighter class : -Because you have heavy armor proficiency doesn't mean you HAVE to wear one. -Fighters don't have any key stat but the ones you choose for the role you choose. -Fighters don't have any philosophical, political or ethical requirement, unlike the ranger, arcane archer, barbarian, paladin or blackguard classes they are sometimes compared to him when it comes to martial proficiencies. Thus a fighter in the role of an archer is not a good choice, it's an excellent one ! His skills in the matter of bow can come toe to toe with those of a dedicated ranger archer (a choice i never understood, rangers having nothing in NWN making them good archers) or a bard archer, and only the lack of arcane spellcasting makes them weaker than the latter because of the arcane archer. A mix of both is a potent combination.
Hit Dice 1D10 –This is the second best hit dice available in NWN. Let's face it : most fighters build are melee, and they get hit more often than they would like to, so having a nice hit dice is important. They don't get the best, but 1d10 us definitly a good asset.
BAB progression (pre-level 21) +1 every level- Fighter levels can be used to gain a 4th attack by taking enough levels below level 20 to increase your BAB to at least 16. Fighters are a popular and good choice to get the forementionned 4th attack, since they also give some often lacking feats to the build taking it.
Preferred Saving Throw Fortitude- This is one of the more useful saving throws as it protects against most instant death attacks. On an archer or dex based melee build (duelist or whatever you may call it), it allows to have 2 decent saving throws, leaving will behind, the weakest on most classes anyway. Let's face it though, you're not the best to resist magic.
Skill Points per Level +2 per level- The worst. But it's complemented with the small skill selection, and the only really important is discipline, so it's not a big deal. But due to the popularity of feats like expertise, disarm and improved knockdown, who all require 13+ intelligence, you'll often have more skill points than you might have thought.
Class Skills Concentration : Nice to have, but it's mostly useful to spellcasters. I don't see taunt being used often. Discipline : The critical skill. Don't hesitate maxing it, even for an archer or a dex fighter. Heal : Everybody has it. Its usefulness depends on the world. Lore : Everybody has it. Its usefulness depends on the world. Parry : Everybody has it, i think. Its bug renders it useless. It's too bad, because it would open nice opportunities of diversity.
Class Abilities Feats : A Fighter gets a feat on 1st level and every even level, even at epic. It's a perfect match for a martial class lacking feats, and almost necessary when building a weapon-master that is so demanding on feats. With its BAB and the weapon and armor proficiencies the fighter gets at 1st level, it's also a good match for melee druids, clerics and bards. Weapon Specialization : +2 to damage, +4 with the epic equivalent, on a chosen weapon. At first, i thought +2 damage was nothing, but i used to play on Uber servers. For a weapon master and arcane archer, who are linked to their weapons, it's an excellent feat choice (up to +10 (+20 epic) damage on their critical hits). For other classes, it depends on the world. Low magic worlds should make this feat particularly useful.
Multiclass Combinations In general the Fighter is not taken as a major class. Too many feats are just too many feats. It's mostly useful to complement classes lacking weapons or armor proficiencies, BAB and/or feats. Bard - for all kinds of bards, the BAB increase and the martial weapon proficiency is incredibly useful. The armor proficiency they are lacking is a nice addition for strengh melee bards as well. Weapon specialization is also useful for a bard going arcane archer. Rogue & Assassin - Dual-wielding rogues might like the feats for weapon finesse and the dual-wielding feats. The BAB increase is nice too, at the cost of a little sneak attack power. Ranger - A ranger might like the feats given by the fighter, but that's pretty much it. Cleric & Druid - One of the most popular choices, a cleric fighter is a powerful complement, making the character a divine spellcaster and a melee character of rare effectiveness. Paladin might be better suited for a cleric Lawful Good, but fighter allows all alignements, and gives some free feats. Paladin - A less popular choice as well, a few fighter levels to make up for the lack of feats helps a paladin. Barbarian - Uncanny dodge is useful to a dex fighter, but i think the most popular comination is Barbarian X / Fighter 4, for weapon specialization. Blackguard - Although the hide skill isn't a fighter class skill, fighters are a good choice for blackguards, although probably not the best. Shadowdancer - Ok, this sounds weird at first, but think about it : a dex or archer fighter can really use the dex-related feats of the shadowdancer, and although hide, move silently and tumble aren't class skills for the fighter, a decent intelligence will help get the skills. As for the feats required, well, it's not a problem, as always. Weapon Master - The numerous feats required find their fulfillment in the fighter class, and it nicely fits the concept of a melee fighter, be it dex or strengh. The fact that weapon master gets reflex as a major saving throw can help. Dwarven Defender - A good mix. But i'm not found of dwarves, so i don't know if there are better choices. Champion of Torm - Another popular choice, although CoT gets some free feats himself, it might be better to take paladin instead of fighter. _________________ If you call IGMS, Harm, Mestil's acid shield, the Bigby hands or Devastating Critical balanced in your post, don't expect me to like you.
I'm sorry about my bad english, I'm french. In every lie lies a part of truth.
i don't think fighters make that good archers, due to there low missile wepeon damage output. for example even a ranger going to have more damage thanks to bane of enermies and favored enermies bonuses.
i don't think fighters make that good archers, due to there low missile wepeon damage output. for example even a ranger going to have more damage thanks to bane of enermies and favored enermies bonuses.
Well, with weapon spec. and epic weapon spec. a fighter will get a +6 to damage with a bow against all enemies and with their bonus feats they won't have a hard time picking up point blank shot, rapid shot, called shot, weapon focus, epic weapon focus and the two weapon spec. feats. Now a ranger at high levels with bane of enemies will do more damage to his favored enemies and with a good choice of favored enemies will probably fight mostly favored enemies. However, at level 40 a ranger will have +9+2D6 damage (+16 on average) and +2 to hit against his favored enemies while a fighter 10/wizard 1/arcane archer 29 will have +21 to damage and +15 to hit against all opponents. So the AA puts the ranger archer to shame.
When it comes to choosing a base class for an AA, the fighter class is one of the best (bard and rogue arguably being the other good choices). The ranger doesn't really surpass the fighter as an archer until he reaches level 21, and none of the other warrior classes compare to the fighter as an AA base, so, assuming you are going to go the AA route, fighters make very good archers. _________________ Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
Personaly i think one of best archers is bard/aa/sd but thats me. _________________ the number of questions people ask that could be simply answered by looking in the manual is simply amazing....
i don't think fighters make that good archers, due to there low missile wepeon damage output. for example even a ranger going to have more damage thanks to bane of enermies and favored enermies bonuses.
I don't see how this is different from melee. Think about it, neither for ranger nor for fighter, there is nothing that makes any of them more archer-like or more melee-like. I don't claim that Fighters make the best archers. I just say that they can be very good at the task. Given damage on bow is often a problem, their weapon spec feats are a blessing to archers. _________________ If you call IGMS, Harm, Mestil's acid shield, the Bigby hands or Devastating Critical balanced in your post, don't expect me to like you.
I'm sorry about my bad english, I'm french. In every lie lies a part of truth.
Quote: Posted 12/16/04 09:14:27 (GMT) -- Agifem
Given damage on bow is often a problem, their weapon spec feats are a blessing to archers.
That's one of the reasons why the Fighter/Wizard/Arcane Archer is so popular.