Fighter is my second favorite class ngl

[u/Reluctant-Paladin]

[u/dantheforeverDM]

I see martial characters like this too though. There are many ways to kill or harm a person, with just one weapon, while spells are kinda limited to be "i wave hands and shit dies".

The problem is that the mechanics don't support this image, unless you spend five minutes explaining something that could be done in thirty seconds.

That's why i can't stand playing pure martials in longer fights. You can't come up with cool descriptions to your seventh hit, that didn't even bloody the enemy.

For oneshots, it's fine, unless there is a specific time constraint.

[u/vexatiouslawyergant → u/dantheforeverDM]

I found with spells too, it's a lot more fun if you have an image of how it works. The problem is that the table needs to be in the mood to have people describing those things.

That said, if everyone is in for it I would argue it makes the game slower but a lot more fun than "I attack, I cast chill touch, I attack..."

[u/seguardon → u/dantheforeverDM]

Had a DM for 3rd edition who bought into the idea that HP was an intangible measurement of stamina, luck and ability the attacker would whittle down until the last hit to 0 hp was the one that fully landed. It was an interesting idea but the reality is there's only so many ways to describe dueling blades, narrow misses, flesh wounds and the like before you're repeating yourself in a campaign.

And the mechanics can screw up that narrative. It's great to get into a flashy swashbuckling fight with a foe. Less so if you last described the PC's sword locked with their foe's, staring murderous hatred at each other but then another player incurs an attack of opportunity by running by. Breaks the illusion if the foe, whose sword is trapped, can take that hit. So the DM has to forego a lot of panache and style (no fancy footwork, no getting behind an opponent in single combat, no locking swords, very little creative use of furniture/surroundings for an edge, etc.) to prevent a broken combat narrative. It'd be better to redo the melee system at that point.

I miss the Tome of Battle from 3.5.

[u/Galaxymicah → u/seguardon]

I do that too. Mostly cause it's never set right with me that someone can do 15 damage and cut one dude in half but do 15 damage and barely break the skin of that same dude at higher level.

I just flavor the attacks of opportunity as something else. Like... yeah mechanically it's doing 1d10 plus str slashing damage. But in narrative the rogue tries to slip by only for the knights fist to shoot out and grab him by the scalp throwing him back while letting your blade slide off his disentangling from the blade lock... or something.