My favorite playable class is the Warrior from the third edition Unearthed Arcana. Unlike the Fighter from the Player's Handbook, or any of the other base classes for that matter, the Warrior allowed for me to have a level of customization that I craved.
The Fighter is a hero from most any movie you've ever watched. He's strong, resolute, and resistant to massive amounts of damage. By comparison the Warrior is Alvin C. York capturing a 132 German prisoners all on his lonesome
The Warrior follows the same basic progression as the Fighter, in fact there is no difference as the Warrior has the exact same progression when it comes to bonus feats, combat progression, and save progression. Reading that it's easy to imagine that there are no substantive differences between the two classes, and there you would be wrong. Unlike the Fighter and other base classes the Warrior has access to the Generic Class Bonus Feat selection list which allows the Warrior to pick up feats such as Evasion, Favored Enemy, Uncanny Dodge, Improved Evasion, and Sneak Attack. These feats can quickly make him a far superior combatant to most any other class, but the goodness does not end there. He is also able to pick which six skill he would like to declare as Class Skills and which save progresses on the Good Save scale and which two progress on the Bad Save scale. All that is a bit esoteric for people who have never played third edition and are unfamiliar with the terminology so let me explain that another way.
The Fighter is a hero from most any movie you've ever watched. He's strong, resolute, and resistant to massive amounts of damage. By comparison the Warrior is Alvin C. York capturing a 132 German prisoners all on his lonesome. His vast array of skills and abilities place him far beyond the standard fighter and make him a hero among heroes.
The only problem that I have with class is the name. The Dungeon Master's Guide has a non-player character (NPC) class of the same name which is far inferior of both the Warrior and the Fighter. So in my games I have always called the class the Man-at-Arms. It distinguishes the class from the NPC and allows for a clear mental distinction between the three classes.
See, I would have called the NPC class a "Man-at-Arms." :)
ReplyDeleteRegardless, now I am intrigued by the Warrior and want to read more...
The only reason why I changed the Unearthed Arcana Warrior over to Man-at-Arms was because the Warrior in the DMG appeared first. But either way is cool.
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