Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Fighters - What's the point?

There's an issue in Dungeons and Dragons, and it's one I'd hope that Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't follow. It's the fact that fighters don't really do anything except hit things. This isn't so bad in a tabletop experience, where you have a DM who can give the fighter things more interesting than being the 'combat guy' but a CRPG is going to potentially run into issues.

Think of it this way. Fighters are there for combat, and they're really only there for combat. Maybe they can help out on Strength checks in dialogue, but I'm yet to encounter any. For the vast majority I've seen, the dialogue checks are Charisma-based, with some Intelligence and Wisdom ones. If you pick a fighter, you get to be good at combat, but if you want to potentially be good at any checks that come up over the course of your adventure, you need to take points away from your niche and put them into, say, Charisma.

Compare this to any of the classes like Cleric, Mage, Warlock - their statistics do far more than Strength does. Not only do they grant increased combat ability, but they also grant increased roleplaying opportunities. They also add to way more skill checks. If we assume a Fighter is going to go heavy on Strength and Constitution, they get exactly one skill that enjoys the benefits - Athletics. If I want to have a shot at some of these checks that come up, then I need to put stats into skills I don't otherwise use. Say, for example, Charisma. And all this does is make my Fighter worse at the thing he's supposed to be good at - combat.

I imagine people will say that it's the price you pay for picking Fighter, you're the combat guy. But let's not pretend that picking any of the other classes will mean you can't prevail in just about every combat encounter you'll have over the course of a CRPG. I doubt there'll be many encounters where having a fighter will make the difference between life and death. In fact, I'll suggest that there'll be many encounters where you'd prefer having one more spellcaster, given the number of things they bring to table beyond 'use sword on enemy.' I imagine people will say that's just how it is in DnD as well, but this isn't a faithful adaptation and, ideally, I'd suggest all classes be somewhat equivalent. As it is, when you pick Fighter you get to use a lot of weapons and armor - at the price of being sub-optimal at anything outside of combat.

it wasn't so much an issue in DOS:2, because you could pick and choose your skills as you wished. The class-based system will not change, I imagine, but it's really making Fighter to be a bad choice for a player who might be interested in anything beyond combat. Ranger, for example, is probably better in all circumstances. It's exacerbated by the limited party size, too. It'll be made even worse if the spellcasting classes get opportunities to cast spells during dialogue. Like, it's a little bit silly that Charisma controls Persuasion and Intimidation, isn't it? Deception, too! I think you could make a case that Strength could bolster Intimidation, for example.

At this point, Fighters need something to make them feel like they're a real choice for a player character, and not a trap choice.

Fighters have a lot of interesting stuff going on in 5e. They can be weapon masters with unique moves, they have great control over enemy movement, and they can give all sorts of buffs and bonuses to their teammates.

Unfortunately, in BG3 so far they've massively buffed even the most basic spells to apply powerful debuffs and crowd control effects, and warriors are very much second rate in comparison

That can change with balancing, though, and hopefully it will

Fighters in 5e basically come with a handful of builds that you could have made in 3.5. Eldritch Knight, Battlemaster, etc. In 3.5 you could have done countless different things but now you are restricted to a set of binary choices, but I digress.

Fighters can cast spells and hit things, or be the best at hitting things, like no one ever was, to hit things is his real test, to hit them is his cause. What more do you want? It's fighter from DnD. Not complicated NOR SHOULD IT BE.

All I'm going to say is that I notice the lack of a fighter in my party make up in this current edition of EA. I have no meat shield just glass cannons and a healer. Can i play this way? yes but a fighter to take and give damage would be so nice.

^ I'm the opposite, I got the fighter and no healer (shadowhearts stats are a disaster).

Yeahhhh I'm running two warlocks a wizard and a fighter (just to tank and spam scrolls, the gith hits like a pool noodle). Don't need cleric heals with all the potions and exploits and she ain't good for anything else! You even get an item that lets you cast Create Water, the one thing she's good for.