Post/Author/DateTime

Post

#1 zombiegleemax Jun 30, 2007 7:34:17

Fighter vs. Druid Introduction Assume that a thirteenth level party needs a melee specialist and has to choose between a fighter and a druid. If the classes were properly balanced this decision wouldn’t be worth discussing a fighter should win by a large margin. I believe that the classes are not properly balanced and that the party is significantly better off if it chose a druid. I will also propose a house rule that will address this issue. I have played second edition extensively. My third edition knowledge is somewhat limited so if I am overlooking a critical component feedback would be much appreciated. Analysis I will be comparing a thirteenth level fighter using a longsword versus a thirteenth level druid who has a dire bear animal companion, who has cast summon nature's ally 7 (greater earth elemental), and has wild shaped into a dire bear. The fighter has a combined +10 to hit and +10 to damage. I simplified the damage by taking the average of all die rolls and excluding critical hits and misses. I also did not include feats. This could bias the results against the fighter because of the number of fighter feats. This will be somewhat offset by not including it for the elemental and dire bears. The following listing shows the average damage for the dire bears (DB1 DB2), the earth elemental (EE), the total for the druid (TD), and total for the fighter (TF). I selected a range of armor classes. AC 20, DB1 40, DB2 40, EE 42, TD 122, TF 38 AC 25, DB1 29, DB2 29, EE 40, TD 98, TF 30 AC 30, DB1 18, DB2 18, EE 29, TD 65, TF 20 AC 35, DB1 8, DB2 8, EE 19, TD 34, TF 9 From this the dire bear animal companion alone is very close to equivalent to a fighter. The druid does more than three times as much melee damage at every AC. This would make the druid a significantly better melee expert. Solutions A DM can relatively easily change the availability of magic items. If magic items are rarer than normal this would hurt the fighter and have little effect on the druid. If magic items were ridiculously common a fighter may achieve +20 to hit and +20 damage. The following is what would occur. AC 20, TD 122, TF 74 AC 25, TD 98, TF 72 AC 30, TD 65, TF 65 AC 35, TD 34, TF 51 In this situation the fighter is closer but the druid still has the edge. On the downside handing out artifacts and +10 swords at thirteenth level is not ideal. My proposal for a house rule to give fighters a melee ability greater than druids would be to double the number of levels a fighter gets. For instance this thirteenth level fighter would have a base attack of +26/+21/+16/+11/+6/+1. They would get 26 hit dice. They would also get +1 damage/ experience level. The thirteenth level fighter would get +13 damage. This would lead to the following: AC 20, TD 122, TF 150 AC 25, TD 98, TF 132 AC 30, TD 65, TF 107 AC 35, TD 34, TF 80 Summary If a druid can just up and decide at thirteenth level that he wants to mostly do melee damage today and significantly outperform a fighter who has practiced melee to the exclusion of everything else, something is out of balance. Fighters need to be modified or else they will lose their significance at higher levels. I hope this helps to quantify the common belief that druids are overpowered and fighters are underpowered. I look forward to any questions or comments that could improve my limited understanding.