Here I go being crazy again. You’ve probably heard that saying that Thieves are skill based characters. Well, I want to add Fighters as skill based characters. It’s just that their skill is fighting.

Just hear me out. In most games, the Fighter just get better at hitting things. You could say that the higher Hit Die simulates an extra ability to parry or get out of the way. You could also that their proficiency with all armor and weapons gives them that extra edge. But not really. Most actual bumps to the character’s combat effectiveness come from magical gear and not any skill on the character’s part.

Yes, a player can be creative about the use of tactics but that same player with a different class character would probably be using roughly the approach no matter what class they are playing. This isn’t about player skill, it’s about character skill. And a bit of an approach to that age old problem of linear fighters and quadratic wizards.

I’ve played around with various systems and looked at rules from various games. And, well, I’m still playing around and looking. Here’s what I’m using currently in my home game:

Prowess: The character uses their action to maneuver and assess the battle and opponents to their advantage. Decide if the character is attempting to gain a bonus to Attack, AC, or Damage then roll 1d6. If the result is 1 to 3 then gain the number rolled as a bonus for 1d4 rounds. If the result is 4 to 6 then character couldn’t gain any advantage or find any openings.

It’s simple and it’s old school. Sure it doesn’t cover all those nifty combat maneuvers like disarming or feinting but I can work on that later and sort of milk my players for ideas and inspiration.

Thanks again for stopping by the blog. And roll dice. Kill monsters. And take their stuff. And have fun doing it.