KDubya

Why? I would do the exact opposite: Weapon Mastery (and perhaps even Bonus Knock Down) from talents to abilities. The reason is that most Fighter abilities are defensive or not particularly useful, to the point that I can basically pick the last one or two in my build at random, safe in the knowledge they'll make no difference. Talents, on the other hand, still have a bunch fighting for the last slot when I play Fighters (which is always, pretty much): Bonus Knock Down, Interrupting Blows, Quick Switch, Marksman, Penetrating Shot, Weapon Mastery, any of the defensive ones like Unstoppable etc., or even the the one that improves recovery. The reason that I would move weapon specialization to a talent would be to free up a choice to take something else like confident aim, vigorous defense, or into the fray. The fact that most of the abilities are not very useful is a big part of the problem. Edit - I agree that Knock down would be missed. Armored Grace is something I always take but math wise it is approximately equal to +11% action speed. Nice but not game changing. The weapon spec and mastery get you +15% and +10% damage. Again I always take them but they don't do anything special and the increases are not large. They don't change how you play or build your character, you just take them for the increased damage. In comparison a Barbarian can take the Blooded? (the one that increases attack speed after you get two kills) ability and actively look for the kill shot, or take One Stands Alone and actively try and be surrounded to get the boost. You change your behavior based on what you pick. Fighters before let you stand in the front and whoop ass. Not as fast or as flashy as others but you could grab a big two hander and still have enough defense to take on the world. Now the requirements to be able to survive at the front precludes a lot of your capacity to dispense damage. I can understand why changes were made but it leaves Fighters in a purgatory between tanking or damaging. Since it won't go back to the way it was give the Fighter the role of disrupter, have him be tactical in his use of knockdowns, pulls (Into the Fray) and dis-engagement attacks (Defender).

No one, or at least I'm not, is saying that Fighters are broken, just that they don't have much of a niche. Also balance is just as important in a single player game as in multiplayer. Eder is going to be used, firstly because he is a great character and secondly because there are only two possible frontline melee story companions to take with you and Pellegrinas stats are a bit wonky while Eder's high might and con are pretty much were you'd choose them to be if you had the choice. In your party you have the main Monk and Eder on the front lines, maybe Kana in plate as another melee, Durance to keep everyone alive and Hirvias and Aloth to blast away from the back. Your Eder's job is to not die, hold the attention of the enemies and any damage done is just gravy, basically a better pet or summon. If there were no story companions would you choose a fighter, a paladin or another monk to be your second frontline melee? And what are in your opinion the amazing Fighter abilities that no one brings up? What is the sine qua non of the Fighter?

Pretty much all the posters saying Fighters are fine as they currently are, are playing on Hard level. Not trying to be insulting or anything but I'd like to hear from PotD vets who say that Fighters are fine as is. My first play through was on hard with a two handed estoc wielding Fighter who took all the damage dealing talents and abilities. I had Eder with shield and sabre and even had another fighter dual wielding flails with Defender. My three fighter frontline face tanked everything, no buffing, no food, hell I didn't even scout. Enter the room and see what happens. If things went bad the three fighters could all self rez and get back at it. Based on my experiences on Hard I thought Fighters were the cat's meow. Onto PotD with a rogue main and a hired merc fighter with Eder. The fighter dumped his intellect into his resolve, pumped might and perception and the rest into dex. Wielding estocs with Defender he could tank good enough for long enough while putting out big damage hits consistently. All my Fighter experience and theories were coming together just as envisioned. The Fighter was no simple meatsack with a hatchet but a durable hard hitting Sherman Tank. Now with the overall, and needed, deflection downgrade and the over-reaching changes to Defender, a Fighter can't stand on the frontline without a shield and put the wood to the enemy as he could before. With a good enchanted shield he is as good defensively as he was before with a two hander or dual wielding but his offensive output is much smaller. This is where the issue lies. If you need to be super defensive a Paladin is clearly better. If you need to be a durable frontline combatant the Monk is clearly better, he's as or more durable with a fist and a shield and has more offense when swapping to dual fists. Having different choices to achieve similar goals is a good thing for class balance and design. Both Rogues and Rangers are viable ranged damage dealers who achieve their mission via different paths. One with sneak attacks, one with modals and a pet. Fighter's need something to set them apart from the rest. They're not broken unplayable, they just come up short when compared to others. My suggestions are: 1.) Have the passive regen scale with level. 2.) Add a bonus to accuracy and/or damage to disengagement attacks when running Defender. 3.) Change Clear Cut, the cone knockdown, from per rest to per encounter. 4.) Move weapon specialty from an ability to a talent 5.) Increase weapon mastery from +10% to having an accuracy buff as well, graze>hit, more damage or something. 6.) Add something to Wary Defender like reduced duration debuffs/status effects or something. As is its just not that good. 7.) (Not sure on how this would balance but) Have some Fighter abilities be available automatically at certain levels. At level 4 they get vigorous defense, at level 8 they get armored grace, at level 12 they get unbroked. In DnD Fighters got bonus feats so maybe something similar here would be good.

On hard everyone can steamroll, especially with good gear. No one is saying that Fighters are worthless or that they can't be used to complete the game. People are identifying real structural issues with Fighters and in comparison to the other classes they are found wanting. Previously there was a lot of discussion about issues with Paladins and Rangers. Both have since been altered in balance patches and both are now viable and fun to use. We'd like a similar treatment for Fighters.

Ya, I don't necessarily want to increase the number of spells, just give a rational system that incorporates more strategy while giving the Wizard more fun casts between inns. Last night I retrained my mage for the first time to get a talent I desperately wanted just for a quest event. It was a bit painstaking to have to pick all the spells per 2 levels again, but I knew I was going to retrain back to normal afterwards so I didn't put any thought in to it. The tragedy was that after retraining back to normal, my Wizard had forgotten ALL spells, including those I'd paid to transcribe from grimoires I sold long ago. I must have spent around 20,000 pands just re-scribing all that he currently had stored in his grimoire plus what I could get from the 6 or so grimoires I had on me. Fail, grimoires, fail. You were trying to game the system by taking a re-spec for a talent to use on only one quest so ......

And a fighter can't survive keeping 5 enemies that would be a threat to the rest of the party on themself. Nor is their much point to doing so, unless you literally only have a single frontliner. It's not just about surviving, but it's about controlling the enemy and locking them in place. Locking that many enemies it places is great for me since I like to use a lot of AoE CC spells. But you don't lock them on to your Fighter, you just engage them. The enemies have the choice to eat a disengagement attack and go where ever they please unless they are physically blocked from doing so. If you are in a doorway engagement does not matter as no one can get past you in the first place. In a big open area the enemies can eat the disengagement attack and go hit your wizard. Or if your Fighter gets stunned, prone or a few other CC effects he loses all engagement locks and the enemies can run around without penalty. I am with you on the dual Paladin approach. I'm doing a Kind Wayfarer on kill pally on PotD who'll have Eder and Pellegrina tanking in front while I use a pike or swap to hammer and shield when I need to help hold the front line. Two auras (accuracy and the DR), four lay on hands, four reinforcing exhortations, it is going to be awesome. Won't be bringing the priest along. Going to see if I make Eder dual wield Sabres he can do more damage and be kept alive with the multiple Paladin buffs. My plan would probably work better if I went with two tanky type Paladins instead of trying some sort of on-kill. If need be there is always re-spec. Maybe this is an area where Fighters can get there niche, being the best dis-engager counter-attacker. Give Defender some large accuracy and damage buff that applies to a dis-engagement attack. Make it +30% - 50% so that it would be noticeable since it will be fairly limited in its application. Then a fighter with a reach weapon could cover a large area of the battlefield and enforce a "dis-engage at your own risk" type policy. It would make Fighters more of a battlefield tactician which could be their theme. Another general issue with Fighters is their limited choices for abilities, especially at the early levels. Some abilities are only available at higher levels when they'd make for more interesting builds if they could be taken earlier. For example, at level 3 you can take Defender, Confident AIm, the starting ability you did not take, or the universally condemned Guardian. Why not let you take weapon specialization, or Armored Grace, or Into the Fray? Even taking unbroken for a self rez would not be game breaking as an early ability since you get a second chance item with Eder and how often is your Fighter getting knocked out anyway?

Unbroken - nice ability, but how often do you get knocked out? Also can be replaced with a second chance item. Not worth a level 11 class ability slot. If it was available at an earlier level like 5th it'd be better or if it was the default ability. Unbending - short duration and at best heals 50%. If you have 200 endurance and you take 200 damage over 15 seconds you die, activate your unbending and you heal 100 endurance over 15 seconds. Way less powerful than the barbarian savage defiance or the paladins lay on hands. Armored Grace - not bad ability. I think that -50% armor penalty is roughly equal to -33% action speed, so the -16% from armored grace is roughly equal to +11% action speed. Not bad but not game changing. Clear Out - would be a great per encounter, as a 2x rest it is terrible. When you can pick this at level 9 a wizard can cast 4 slickens per encounter. Confident Aim - I like this, would like to see this theme expanded throughout the fighters other abilities. make them better at minimum damage and graze>hit Vigorous defense - short duration, vastly less powerful then a paladin's reinforcing exhortation, less deflection, less duration and less uses per encounter. Critical Defense - not bad just not very sexy. I still take it especially if I dumped intellect and the duration based ones are out of the question. Fighters need something sexy, something that makes you want to have a fighter. Paladins have their auras and exhortations, barbarians have their carnage and frenzy, Roques have massive sneak attacks, Monks have spammable AoE torments and can zoom around the battlefield and Fighters have????? The old Defender covered up a lot that was missing. With that Fighters were effective, they'd face tank a mob and beat it down. Now you can't avoid taking the beating and you are found wanting.

Everyone can get three engagements via their one inherent, the talent Hold the Line and one from a weapon. Everyone is not re-specing their melee in order to get the indispensable Hold the Line. In fact no one bothers since engagements are nice but not critical. Enemies will now choose to disengage which at best gets you one free attack with +20? accuracy buff, at worst the one that disengages is the one you were attacking and you run after him getting disengagement attacks from everyone else. If no one disengages all Defender gets you is a penalty to your deflection. Defender is +2 engagements, -5 deflection and stops you from using any other modal. It is pretty useless and the follow on Wary Defender is at best average in worth. How can a Fighter be considered an Ace? Keeping casters and ranged people out of the discussion for fairness's sake, lets just look at melee. You have Fighters, Paladin, Barbarian, Rogue and Monk. Lets consider tanking ability 1.) Paladin (A+) - Hands down better defenses, deflection, and healing. 2.) Monk (B-) - better deflection from duality and higher base health, plus they can use a shield. 3.) Fighter (C+) - If intellect is average or higher and if you spend an ability you can get a short term buff to approach a Paladin's level and surpass a monk. 4.)Rogue (D)- Give them heavy armor, a shield and weapon and shield style and they can do as good as a Fighter except for the base deflection being so low to start 5.) Barbarian (C-)- Their deflection is too low to avoid damage and their accuracy can't handle the large malus from shield use. Their per encounter heal can keep them in the game. Now lets look at damage output. 1.) Rogue (A) - damage is what they do 2.) Barbarian (A) - Carnage is where they shine, the ability to cause splash damage with every swing is hard to quantify. 3.) Monk (B) - fast speed fists that do average damage. Can add +25% speed and +25% damage via lightning strikes. multiple AoE attacks. 4.) Fighter (C+) - can take weapon spec and mastery for +25% damage, can take confident aim for +20% minimum damage 5.) Paladin (D) - possibly two FoD strikes Crowd Control 1.) Monk (A) - stunning blows, can take weakening on crit, torment's reach is spammable AoE debuff, Force of Anguish is spammable long duration prone, flagellents path. They have a lot of choices and all are at least per encounter. 2.) Fighter ((C+)- two knockdowns per encounter. Not bad but not great. 3.)Barbarian (D) - can take a few debuffing shouts and a passive AoE sickness but no real control 4.) Rogue - © - can take a blind or a hobble attack, main crowd control is applying the dead effect, very useful. 5.) Paladin (F) - I don't think they have any. Team synergy 1.) Paladin (A) -its what they do. heals auras, exhortations all are good and all help the team 2.)Barbarian (D) - can take the AoE sicken to help debuff the enemy to assist the team 3.(Monk, Rogue, Fighter (F) - Don't think they have any team assist type powers. All have a purpose - Paladins can tank and help the team with many abilities, Rogues can strike down single enemies easily, Barbarians clear out mobs better than anyone, Monks are durable enough to stand in the front and fight and Fighters? Fighters get many lackluster talents and abilities.. Before they could spec for damage and still tank good enough for long enough. Now you need to choose one or the other and which ever way you choose, others are just flat out better.

Throne of Bhaal was an expansion.Mask of the Betrayer was an expansion. See, I've played games too! Disclaimer: I'm completely fine with White March being like TotSC and not ToB. An expansion adds new areas. A sequel continues the adventure. Not sure what point you are trying to make.....

You can re-spec the story companions and select their talents and abilities from level one onward. You can't change the story companion's stats without using an editor like the IE mod. Try not to re-spec Eder as he will lose his free talent. The story companions level one ability can't be changed. Eder always has knockdown, Kana takes the summon skeleton not the phantom. You can re-spec Durance and get rid of his level 3 Bullheaded talent which previously was the main reason that I got the IE mod I like to hire two or so mercs while I am level two when I first arrive in Guilded Vale. This gets me five guys right off the bat. As I add story guys I can drop the mercs. I make a ranger and when I get Sagani I send the merc away.

With Swift Aim all of your attacks get a 20% increase to attack speed. This includes melee attacks, bows, crossbows, and guns. The 50% faster reload speed helps you with crossbows, arbalests and all of the guns. Bows do not have a reload so they do not benefit. The other modal Vicious Aim only works with ranged weapons. +20% damage, -20% speed and +10 accuracy. For me I take Swift Aim if I'm going for crossbows and Vicious Aim if I am going for bows.

It is an expansion not a sequel. Just like Tales of the Sword Coast was for Baldur's Gate. Just like any of the four expansions for Fallout New Vegas. Just like Obsidian promised.

First thing Eder is a great companion and will find a place in the team just because of his personality. He also gets an extra general talent, the one that increases the passive regen. His stats are actually pretty balanced and in the new 2.0 PotD his large constitution will serve you well. Give him plate, a shield, sabre and a pistol for an alpha strike and you have a solid supporting cast member. Take Eder out of the discussion. Consider only as a main character, or as a custom built merc. Also stick to PotD, the lower difficulties are beatable with anything so it doesn't have a bearing on whether Fighters need help. The problem is that every role that a fighter has, someone else does it a lot better. Frontline Tank - A Paladin has higher deflection and higher defenses due to Faith and Conviction. A Paladin's Lay on Hands scales with level, gets more healing in a shorter time then the Fighter's regen, can be used twice per encounter and can be used on anyone. A Paladin also gets auras and all those great exhortations which are both better in power, uses per encounter and can be used to benefit the team. All of a Fighter's abilities only help the Fighter, not the team. A Fighter can take Confident Aim, weapon spec and mastery for approximately +38% damage in auto attacks at the expense of two abilities and a talent. A Frontline Fighter Tank will have less survivability, far less utility, but will have slightly more damaging auto attacks then a Paladin. If the goal is to be able to survive on the frontline, then the Paladin is clearly better. A tanky Monk is better in this role as well due to more deflection and defenses, and more damage. Frontline Melee - Someone who can stay on the frontline and dish out damage. Lets compare a Fighter and a Monk. Both have the same high base accuracy, deflection, endurance and a Monk has higher health. The Fighter build is the same as above, stacking passive bonuses. The Monk will have the same armor, a toggle-able +8 deflection/defense buff, fast attacking fists that do average speed damage, a +25% attack speed buff with a +25% lightning lash. This is two abilities and a talent and is better than the Fighter's +38% damage and also gets him more deflection. Plus the Monk is dual wielding his fists compared to a Fighter with a shield. Give the Monk a shield and he is still ahead by the +8 deflection. This does not even consider Torments Reach, Flagellent Path, or any of the other great Monk abilities. If the response is that fists can't be enchanted, well the monk can use weapons as well. Swap in dual wielded spears that can get two lash effects, one on the weapon and one from lightning strikes and the Monk is not losing in the comparison. A frontline Monk will deal more damage then a Fighter as well as being more defensive. Even going full tank mode with weapon and shield you can use the Larder Door for extra damage doing a Full Attack Torment's Reach. Go dual wield style for extra damage with a shield in the other slot for when you need a big deflection buff. Add in one wasted talent for weapon and shield style and your swap to tanky shield Monk gives you even more deflection. A Fighter will do +25% damage with a ranged weapon in the same weapon group. That's pretty much all he has on the Monk. DPS or second row damage dealer - A rogue is far squishier but deals so much more damage it is hard to compare. If the second row is safe the Rogue will be massively ahead in damage. A Barbarian will have carnage which puts out a lot of damage. All the Fighter gets for extra damage is the same +38% from Confident Aim, weapon spec and mastery. Compare a Fighter with a two hander with a tanky rogue with a sabre, large shield, and weapon and shield style with reckless assault. The accuracy is the same (+8-, deflection starts 15 points behind a fighter, you lose 8 with reckless but gain 6 with W&S style, and 16 with the shield. Net -1 deflection before adding enchantments which would put the Rogue ahead. Damage wise the Rogue will put out more damage with sneak and deathblows then a fighter ever could. Less endurance and a lot less health would require more resting but depending on playstyle it might not make a difference. In what scenario does one say that they'd prefer to have a fighter? They aren't any more durable then a Paladin or Monk, they have way less utility than a Paladin and deal less damage than a Monk. The old Defender let them go for damage and have a good defense at the same time. You didn't need to get to the unhittable level of 140 deflection, 100 was enough. Now it is hard to get to 100 without a shield except for short duration buffs. I suppose Monks were always better but most conventional wisdom was to put them in robes with bad deflection. paladin's surpassed them with their enhancements in prior patches. Fighter's need something to set them apart. One thought from the Defender thread was to give them more graze>hit type abilities and increased minimum damage so that they'd be the consistent hitter that'd be more useful the tougher the enemy.

Maybe my memory is fudged, but in other DnD, didn't Int rather than level determine spells per level per day? That way you could potentially cast any spell you transcribe so long as your int was high enough and the game devs had placed the spell in your path at that point.On top of awesome gear, it also gave Wizards some nice extra incentive to explore into harder areas. As far as I remember you always needed to have both the intelligence and the level to cast the spell. Plus in 2nd edition AD&D, Baldurs Gate I and II, you also needed to have found or bought a scroll before you could learn a spell. I remember the frustration in BG 1 using the SCS mod and not being able to find a breach spell until after I made it to the big city. In later editions intelligence gave you bonus spell slots but you still needed the right level. A first level wizard with an 18 int got bonus spells up to level 3 or 4 but not at first level, that'd be game breaking.

I'd lower dex before I'd lower might. You only have a few spells to cast so you want them to hit and you want them to hurt. An archer can just fire more arrows faster and come out with the win but you can't fire off more and more spells. (per encounter and resting more frequently might change the dynamics on this) For CC duration is big and at 5% per intellect point it is worth more than +1 accuracy. I'm probably mistaken in the CC analysis above.

I think that raising perception is worth it. For me the biggest issue on PotD is hitting the enemies since their defenses are all much higher than on hard or lower difficulties. For melee you could try and act faster but miss more and come out OK. Spells are limited in resource so you really want to hit. A graze does 50% less damage, approximately worth 16 stat points in Might. In trash encounters accuracy is not as important but in the toughest fights it makes all the difference. If you miss or graze with your 'gaze of the Adragon' spell in a dragon fight it might be game over. Better to hit it with 20% less base duration than to graze it for 40% less duration (1.2 duration X 50% on a graze) There is probably some buffer healer type priest build that only targets friendlies and can dump perception to 3, but anyone who has to hit the enemy is going to want as much accuracy as they can get. Unless everyone is perma-paralyzed or petrified.

We already have accuracy covering shot placements. Your argument would be marginaly applicable to burst fire weapons, where recoil control is a factor, but we have no such things here. Accuracy controls whether you hit or miss, shot placement determines if I shoot you in the head or in the arm. Recoil does not need a fully automatic weapon to be an issue. Here is a thought experiment (you could try in real life but someone could get killed) 1.) Take a blackpowder arquebus and hang it from the ceiling by a single string through the center of mass. Or better yet place it in a weightless vacuum. 2.) Now line up your shot at a target 50 feet away 3.) Activate the firing mechanism via an electronic ignition set off remotely so that no force is applied to the arquebus during ignition. 4.) What do you think happens? Does the bullet travel straight at the target, hitting right where you aimed? Or does the recoil cause the arquebus to swing wildly causing a danger to anyone in the area? The arquebus is moving in reaction to the firing before the bullet has traveled down the barrel. There is a reason why benchrest shooters uses vices and clamps to hold their rifles firmly and the reason is recoil which affects the path of the bullet unless it is controlled and resisted. In PoE your Might is the stat that controls the recoil of a firearm.

I think PoE greatly improved attributes. Their system has everything being useful for every character, nothing is an auto dump stat. BG, BG2, IWD all had 2nd edition AD&D where a melee guy would get 18/xx strength, 18 dex and 18 con with the rest being ignored and useless. On top of this you rolled dice so there was a huge luck factor that promoted rolling many times to get good stats. Hell there were even third party programs that would roll characters for you while you slept so that you did not have to do it yourself. The system would work fine with a human DM who can tailor the game and difficulty to whatever stats you had but it failed badly for a CRPG. DnD 3.0 and beyond had weighted point buy systems where increases cost more and more which limited your ability to max a score. Didn't change the basic issue of certain classes only needing certain abilities and could dump the rest, it just changed the math. A wizard still dumps strength, most can dump charisma and the armor system made it so that dumping dex did not hardly affect your AC. A wizard in PoE wants might for damage, perception for accuracy, intellect for larger foe only AoE and dexterity for the rate at which you can do an action. Resolve and constitution have a lesser role but carry penalties if dumped. The four main stats can be varied from one build to another and all be effective. Max might and accuracy with low dex so that your spells are slow but powerful and accurate. Max dex and intellect for rapid fire AoE and CC. All are viable and can be further enhanced with talents. Take interrupting blows on your max perception wizard and get interrupts all the time. Take one of the elemental damage boosters to increase your already large damage from might. Melee has similar synergy between the various stats, talents and playstyles. Have your barbarian hit hard with a small carnage area, hit softer but cover a bigger area or somewhere in between. It might not be perfect but it is the best attribute system that I've ever seen.

I agree on the health loss. Doing two PotD games, both still act I, one is a tanky monk and the other is a Kind Wayfarer on kill Paladin using reach weapons. In both the limiting factor is attrition health loss to the frontline melee. The ranged DPS usually never get targeted and if they do get some heavy hitting melee on them they drop pretty fast so they don't take lots of health damage. That and they also might be able to go five straight fights without ever taking a hit. The melee guys get heals, lay on hands, and/or regen to try and stay in the fight. They'll end up surviving without the KO but their health goes down and they need to rest more often than before. This is also where I really notice the benefits of a decent constitution. It seems like you are always behind the enemy's accuracy curve, your gear and abilities never seem to put you over the top to get to that "Go grab a sandwich, I've got this handled" level.

Go at least normal difficulty I personally do not like the godlike race, or at least the moon and possibly fire due to being OP. Having three AoE heals per encounter for free that auto activate sounds like cheating to me. The Death one seems balanced as does the Nature. I like Dwarves, Boreal ones anyway. The +15 accuracy to two of the more common enemy types is noticeable. Plus Dwarves are cool. Pale elves are nice with their +10 fire and frost DR, really takes the sting out of many magic attacks. Humans are always solid. Getting bonuses if you take a bunch of damage could change the outcome of a fight. Coastal Amaumau get a bonus versus stun and prone, ok but not game changing. Island Amaumau get an extra weapon slot which can make a big difference. Have a ranged weapon, a two hander and a weapon and shield, swapping as needed. Or as a Paladin you could go with Soldier weapon group have a warhammer and shield or two handed sword in one slot and have two arquebus in the other two to switch to for a big time Flame of Devotion shot and not worry about the reload, just fire and switch weapons. Really any of the races will work fine, better to go with what you like. For stats I wouldn't drop any below a 10 and I would not max any of them either. All of them are useful depending on your playstyle and build. For the Order I'd go with one that interests you either for their abilities or for their personality likes and dislikes. If you can't role play aggressive and cruel stay away from a Bleak Walker. Likewise If you need to sacrifice a companion for a minor stat buff don't pick any order that dislikes cruel behavior.

SNIP SNIP I agree about defender. It's useful, unique, but not poweful. It's an ability that is not really better that a talent and as Njall said, abilities should be more powerful than talents, especially when they are linked to a class special strength. In its current form, I'd give it 4/10, not more. A bonus to disengagement attack is a very nice idea. As AI chooses to disengage based your accuracy, I think +10 accuracy to disengagement attacks is what could make the skill interesting. SNIP Weapon Specialization : Sure, deflecting assault is better (It's a really good ability, I would rank it 9/10), but you can also compare it to barbarian's One Stand Alone or Blooded which have quite annoying conditions for their +20% damage. +15% damage that also works with ranged weapons is not so bad, and stengthen Fighter speciality for reliable consistant damage dealing. It's okayish, so 5/10 would be more accurate than 6/10. Weapon Mastery : A bit the same as Specialization. Bitting Whip is a bit OP, and is a bid out of comparison from other talents. Better to compare it with 2Handed Style (that doesn't work with ranged and is less tactically flexible) or the new Sneak Attack talent which is conditional. Both are +15%, but are conditional. Weapon Mastery is not great but okayish. 5/10 still seems fine to me. Let's compare Specialization and Mastery to Rogue's "Hit to Crit" ability and talent. These 2 are not so good mathematically speaking. But they add to Rogue's playstyle so they are still OK in a Rogue Build. Specialization and Mastery are not for me Fighter biggest issue IMHO. A bit of "Graze to Hit" added to Specialization and Mastery would be nice, though. "Graze to Hit" could be a very nice trademark for the supposed reliable fighters. For the "Other Guy" final comment : During my last playthrough, I played a bit badly against Thaos and the fight ended with my party wiped and Eder alone to face him. And Eder won. And Eder was the hero of the day, not just the other Guy. Epic feeling ^^. Good old times... I think giving fighters more graze to hit as their niche would be nice. Barbarians are reckless warriors who get attack speed buffs, get better the more they kill, get better when surrounded and get better when they get hurt. Plus they can have one final "I'm dead but I'm taking you with me" attack. They have a nice consistent theme and are effective in carrying it out. Paladins are battlefield generals helping the team via auras, heals, targeted attacks and exhortations. They have a nice consistent theme and are effective in carrying it out. Monks central theme is mobility and redirecting force. They can zoom around the battlefield while taking the pain they receive and sending it back at their enemies. Their theme is a little jumbled but they are effective in carrying it out. Rogues central theme is to brutally take advantage of any weakness in an enemy and exploit it. They are king of damage output when they can get the advantage. Their theme is consistent and they are effective in carrying it out. What is the central theme of the fighter? And are they effective in carrying it out? They get bonuses to specializing in a single weapon group but the bonuses are not exciting and mastery at 10% is lacking in oomph. They can get duration based buffs but they are fairly short in duration and are weaker and more limited than what other classes get. They can get more engagement slots than anyone else but at a high cost and a limited effectiveness. This is an area that should be improved. I think your idea of making fighters the graze>hit masters would be a good one. Maybe expand on the concept of increasing minimum damage so that fighters become the consistent damage dealers and the consistent hitters via graze>hit.

In the real world firearms do varying amounts of damage that is controlled by shot placement. Getting shot in the head is worse than getting shot in the ass. Physical strength plays a large role in holding the firearm on target and achieving a hit, especially after you fire. Take an arquebus - large caliber, 0.80 or so, and an overall heavy and unwieldy weapon. There were no polymers nor the study of ergonomics back then. When you pull the trigger the hammer strikes the flint, the match comes into contact with the powder, whatever the mechanism there is a delay between pulling the trigger and the gunpowder being ignited. All this time you need to physically keep the weapon pointed at want what you want to hit. Next the gunpowder burns at a very fast rate causing an explosion. This action causes a reaction of the bullet being propelled out of the barrel, the only available route for the energy to be dissipated. This action also causes a reaction, recoil, to be transmitted to the hands and shoulder of the shooter. Failure to properly control the recoil will result in the barrel moving before the bullet has left the barrel. This will cause a miss or at least a sub-optimal shot placement resulting in less damage inflicted and is a function of physical strength. Physical strength affects being able to maintain control of a firearm during shooting by properly controlling the recoil, which is a function of the action=reaction law from Newton. On a similar subject the above holds true for archery as well. Watch Olympic level archers, they have an intricate follow through because their actions, or reactions, after releasing the string will affect the placement of their shot. Plus a bow could be restrung for a heavier pull for a stronger archer.

I like to have either 2 melee with a ranger pet or 3 melee guys up front to establish the battle line. Having just Eder and five guys in dresses casting spells might not work as well as it used to. A higher intellect gives you and expanded foe only zone in your AoE attacks that you can use to hit the enemies but not your own team. Also many AoE are foe only and these can be cast with impunity. On the paladin or rogue discussion, you can choose a starting trade that gets you +1 mechanics as a paladin. It costs 9 more skill points then someone like a chanter or cipher who gets one point at free or 17 more skill points than a rogue but you can get a paladin's mechanic skill up to ten. Finding the mechanic gloves would help a bunch. I always liked to have the trap finder be up front and a squishy caster type might not like to be the first thing that enemies see. Really all you need are 3 athletics for everyone on the team, you're going to rest when the weakest gets fatigued anyway so no use to go past 3 except for one dedicated athlete to do the swimming type missions. Depending on your use of consumables survival can be left low at 3 or so, wherever they start to get expensive. Stealth at 3 or so is cheap and lets you get into range easily. All that remains is lore and a paladin starts with two free points. Add in another free at start and you are at 3. Level two scrolls will take one skill point, level three will take six skill points, level four will take fifteen skill points. Its easy enough to get to level three scroll use and have ten in mechanics.

If they were to have it that firearms did base damage only without any benefit from might or any talent/ability such as cipher's biting whip , there be ten threads a day complaining on the forums. Gameplay > Realism It is a world full of magic and souls, dwarves and elves and even godlike. If you can suspend belief to believe all that, then having might affect magic and firearms is pretty easy. How would you have them set the attributes such that all were useful for all types of characters and that none are auto dump stats? As said before if Might only affected melee damage then every caster and every ranged weapon user would dump it to 3. Would it make you happy if it was named something else like "Soul Power"?

As others have said drop Resolve to 10. If it was me I'd put 8 into perception since missing or grazing is bad. Better to attack slower with a 10 dex and hit then fire faster and miss, especially if you will try and save your per rest spells until you really need them. If you are going to rest after every encounter then go ahead and max dex. A less than maximum intellect will still cover a huge area, 15 should be plenty. Might is one of the few ways to increase spell power so feel free to max it out.