Is a pure fighter great or meh?

[Silvetris]

Its main purpose is to reach the requirements of prestige classes faster than any other class. But I think I misinterpret that it is a tanky, but instead a balanced weapon class. The fighter has no variety of spells and lacks of defensive feat when being targeted by two people. It can attack a lot but some prestige classes can do that too.

[sick duck]

Yes, it is quite good because of all the bonus feats. I use it to get the extra damage bonus specializations and have so many to spare that I can afford the elemental resists. You can take a lot of damage when you ignore the first 5 damage of every elemental attack.

I don't like taking lots of fighter though. I am currently planning to take someone through as a level 15 into this mod called tyrants of the moonsea. It took 10 levels of rogue, 4 of fighter and 1 of shadowdancer. I feel like this is the right balance of utility with tanking, plus quite a lot of damage on sneak attacks which shodwdancer will ensure I get a lot of. If I have problems I have a plethora of options from my use magic device skill.

[red255]

In Nwn a fighter is top loaded you get weapon spec at level 4 and can get the epic one at like level 6 or something minor.

In NwN2 it gives you a second weapon spec at like level 12 with a second weapon focus and the epic ones require the level 12 fighter perk.

its strength is the extra perks yes but since like everything has favorite class fighter its also designed for multiclassing.

if you want defensive you could multi into dwarven defender. but aside from dwarven defender what class DOES have more defensive stuff than the fighter if you dont mind me asking?

[VengeanceBringer]

Fighter is an excellent class by itself. It can run almost any kind of martial build you can think of (be it damage or defense focused). You could run it all the way into epic levels and have a great time. The one thing you'll notice quickly is that you'll run out of good feats to pick and you'll have to start just taking them for the sake of getting past the level up screen. However, you're very much correct in that fighter is FANTASTIC for meeting prestige class requirements. Personally one of my favorite builds is to run the weapon master with just about any weapon. The damage is completely absurd sometimes. If you're looking for a more defensive build you can always go into dwarven defender and you'll have a blast. It's like being a barbarian but you are just an immovable wall of death.

[Silvetris]

Originally posted by red255:

In Nwn a fighter is top loaded you get weapon spec at level 4 and can get the epic one at like level 6 or something minor.

In NwN2 it gives you a second weapon spec at like level 12 with a second weapon focus and the epic ones require the level 12 fighter perk.

its strength is the extra perks yes but since like everything has favorite class fighter its also designed for multiclassing.

if you want defensive you could multi into dwarven defender. but aside from dwarven defender what class DOES have more defensive stuff than the fighter if you dont mind me asking?

Probably a cleric or paladin. The fighter doesn't have spells and would have to rely on quick attacks. In this game, there a lot of things that bypass a fighter. For example, sneak attacks would penetrate its defenses especially at early level. You would just get the major combat feats and would be left with skills feats. The suggested classes have buff and debuff spells that could change the situation of the battleground without arcane failure. Even a barbarian might be tanky because there is uncanny dodge and damage reduction in its class levels and high HP.

[ayrtep]

The fighter's advantage is having a lot of extra feats, so as long as you find you have good feats to pick every level then they are great.

However if you find you are reduced to picking second rate feats that are not that useful, then you should probably have switched to a more specialised class at some point.

[Smugass Braixen-Chan]

The selection of Feats is severely limited in Neverwinter Nights.

While a Human Fighter is very strong in the early game, they drop off very rapidly once you already have all of the feats that you want. (And even if you don't, you will be gaining feats so fast that you will have to pick sub-optimal feats because you don't even meet the requirements for the feats you actually want yet (Usually Base Attack Bonus requirements))

I usually go Fighter/Champion of Torm or Fighter/Weapon Master. Though I have had good success with Fighter/Bard/Dragon-Disciple. (The latter of which got so powerful during the Original Campaign that I got bored and stopped playing...)

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If I just want a basic 1 class melee character. I usually go Paladin. Since they get a whole bunch of very useful abilities on top of being competent in melee. (Also spells, which are always useful)

Also, Paladins can be Champions of Torm to be more like fighters, though I don't know how "Meta" this is.

[Beefy79]

Meh imo, to many fun multi class options.

[Jackie Daytona]

i have a blast using my two hand fighter. i'm a man of simple pleasures though.

[wendigo211]

In 3.x the general rule is, if you aren't a caster you don't count. That said, NWN is different from 3.x in that there's a smaller selection of spells, the enemy AI doesn't really know how to use its abilities to screw you over, and the game gives you magic items that are more powerful than the +1/5 levels that the system is "balanced" around. So Fighters aren't bad. Actually, playing through the campaigns, I'm pretty sure the devs used a Fighter for balancing purposes, because they seem to have the middle road with other classes finding the game either too easy (e.g. Cleric) or too difficult (e.g. dex Monk).

For the martials, kept pure I tend to rank them as, Paladin>Fighter=Barbarian>Rogue>Ranger>Monk
When you consider multiclassing, then the CoT does steal some of the Fighter's thunder. But the Fighter does retain it's standard 3.x use as a way to add martial feats to a feat starved character.

[sick duck]

I often find that 4 levels of fighter is ideal for me... beyond level 1 the returns become a lot smaller, because level 1 comes with most of the equipment profieciencies an extra feat and then it is every second level. Then level 5 and beyond gives you even less.

[St_Bonaventura]

Pure fighter has the highest BAB and attacks 4 (not counting (Great) Cleave which gives him ability to wipe out hordes of thrash mobs) times per round with great, if not the greatest, precision in melee. Even without prestige class like Weapon Master of Champion of Torm this class is capable of getting the job done very easily. You just have to look out for Will saving throws, but usually campaigns give you means to defend from such things, as well as good gear which helps you to stay on par with casters or half-casters.

And feats. Fighter is so packed with them that using 20 levels of fighter instead of, say, 4 or 6 before moving to a prestige class feels like a waste. It does, however, give you room for errors.

So, great class. Essential for multiclassing with melee.

[RACHMANOVSKI]

Start with rogue, finish with Fighter maybe.

More feats, can crits, can open box, can disable trap, no need to bring Tomi (big plus). More stuff to get from the box means more gp, more gp means better equipment and stacks of potions.

BAB can be mitigated by buying +[value] weapons. you probably lose 2-4 bab anyway in exchange for extra stuff Rogue can do.