Do non-spellbased classes here almost no active abilities?

[Shajirr]

I've had this problem with Neverwinter Nights, where most non-spellbased classes were boring as ♥♥♥♥ to play, since their proper development was just consisting of stacking passive bonuses. So they end up with like maybe 3 active abilities at most, one of which can be per day and not per rest so you would never use it. This is in contrast with someone like a Wizard who would have tons of spellslots and could theoretically learn every spell.

Looking at fighter builds here, I notice a similar trend.
Around 80-90% suggested abilities are passive bonuses.

[Tyler Durden]

Everyone has abiliies - toggles/modes and and per combat / per rest. For example, your tank can sacrifice some deflection to boost the number of enemies he engages. He also has a per combat ability to knockdown his foes. Your ranger can toggle a mode which allows them to shoot two arrows at once, and your monk can summon ethereal allies to help the party. I think there's a fair variation to each class that makes it unique.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Fighter can learn an extra Knock-Down, which gives him three knock-downs per encounter. Additionally, he can pull an enemy from some distance into melee range two times per encounter, too. He can choose to increase attack Accuracy for some time, defensess, and storming through the battle field to an enemy doing damage to everyone in the path is my favorite.

http://pillarsofeternity.gamepedia.com/Fighter

[hibbidy_jibbidy]

i have a high sped/ dex monk, freaking amazing, moves around the battle feild at will, has many ablilities, and is tough as eff....i might have made him too tough, thats where the self wound ability is handy lol

interrupts like mad,

[hibbidy_jibbidy]

including all the potions/use items hes a busy guy

[Zabu]

Thats the thing with Dungeons and Dragons White Spirit. Non spellcasters in general do not have a lot of abilities or in general stuff they need to look out for. The exception here may be theifs with traps and backstap abilities that require some setting up. Neverwinter build on the Baldurs Gate formula, only slightly updated core rules and a 3d world. What they forgot was how badly the party system works in 3d games where you basicly follow a character. Meaning its quite annoying that your image shifts whenever your shift character. DnD pc games are balanced around a party of several people where some requier next to no micro-management and some require a lot. Neverwinter is mostly solo based and still uses the same. Dont forget that DnD originally is tabletop and was done with friends where fighting was... in most cases less of "the game" then it is today.

In PoE the fighters also require less management but in this case its more like Baldurs gate where you mostly have a party. The combat is also more fluid and characters need to be moved around to avoid engaging the wrong enemies.

[Briggs]

Originally posted by Zabu:

Dont forget that DnD originally is tabletop and was done with friends where fighting was... in most cases less of "the game" then it is today.

A bit off subject, but this caught my attention. I haven't played real D&D in years, but when I played we didn't use graph paper or anything like that because it wasn't important. As you say, it wasn't about combat. The last campaign I was in was a Star Wars campaign which devolved into "fighting" over "the talky box" (a hand radio) because we all caught a brain rotting infection of some sort. It was so funny we were physically ill from all the laughter. It even started off with "for the lulz" stuff since I was playing a half blind sniper (I was surprisingly effective actually). For me, P&P RPGs are about freinds socializing in an imaginary world in new and interesting ways.

What is it like now?

[K_Dizzle]

If you got the expansions, the fighter gets an ability called charge. It is awesome, as long as you're not fight crush immunes. I will agree that while some of their best skills are just passives, they are rather good ones.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Several such warriors in the party can keep you quite busy with per encounter abilities. Also Paladin for example with Flames of Devotion, Sworn Enemy, Sacred Immolation.