The Primary Colors: The Fighter

Hey all,

I thought now would be a good chance to take a look at the classes in tabletop gaming that I'd call the primary colors. The reasons should be obvious, there's three of them, and every other class can be described as one of these three "but" . . .

The three classes I'm talking about are, of course, Fighter, Rogue, and Mage. This is tabletop gaming, so these won't be the same as MMOs' "Holy Trinity" of Tank, DPS, and Heal. We'll start with the most straightforward of these classes: the fighter.

The fighter is what I'll call a blow for blow combatant. At the most basic level, these are martial experts who are intended to both deliver and receive the physical violence of the adventure. Their most important attributes in the OGL are Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution. In d20 systems, the fighter is what we'll call the "feat monkey". Fighters collect feats, and feats make fighters more and more specialized for a specific form of combat.

The fighter's twin strengths are his defensive and offensive might. The fighter is difficult to best in head-to-head single combat. However, the fighter can easily become so specialized that they lose any battlefield versatility, and their lack of need for mental and social stats places those traits lower in their priorities. Fighters are not necessarily dumb and brutish, they simply often lack intrinsic motivation to improve mentally or socially.

The stereotypical fighter fills the party role of the muscle, the intimidator, the enforcer, and more often than other classes: the leader. They are commonly associated with traits such as: stoic, harsh, blunt, uncharismatic, tough, brutal, and disciplined.

Within fantasy, many variants on the fighter exist: the knight, the ranger, the barbarian, and the monk are some of the classic modified versions of the vanilla fighter. In other genres, the fighter is simply the blow for blow combatant who puts his faith in strength of arms. Soldiers, mech pilots, gunslingers, sheriffs, dockworkers, bouncers, prize fighters, raiders, gladiatorial slaves, and even some career military officers would best be played as variants of the basic fighter.

Now, on to the fun part: in a gag campaign, there are a lot of fun ways to add humor to the stereotypes and archetypes of the fighter. "Lawful stupid" is the classic, and it turns the fighter into anything from a penal-code spouting deputy all the way up to a raging inquisitioner.

Their inaptitude for all things magical opens up some opportunities to make mischief through ignorance. Just say "Oooo, what does this rune do?" in your best Deedee impression, and let the shenanigans commence.

Their hero complex can also be played for laughs. Zap Brannigan gets laughs for a reason, and JourneyQuest had one of the best lines, as the dim-witted Glorion boasted "Mercy? Perf, I'm far too brave to show you mercy!"

Finally, you can pick your airplane. B.A. Baracus from The A Team is a fighter in every sense of the word, and yet, his fear of airplanes not only draws a laugh, but humanizes his character amazingly well. Think of Indiana Jones and snakes. Think of Son Goku and needles. The classic humor route for the larger-than-life bringer of the pain is a major fear of a minor thing.

So, with that, we close for now on our discussion of the fighter. Did you agree with my thoughts on the fighter class? Do you have anything to add on what makes this "primary color" class what it is? Let's talk about that in the comments below, and until next time: happy gaming, all.