Prestige – Fighter

Back to the orginial matter in my D&D discourse. Prestige classes: should you or shouldn’t you?

Let’s compare some possbile Fighter progressions with and without an appropriate Prestige class.

The Base Fighter

Taking an unremarkable array of stats: 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8 (as with your NPC templated in the DMG) We start building our fateful Fighter as follows:

  • str: 15
  • dex: 13
  • con: 12
  • int: 14
  • wis: 8
  • cha: 10

Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence were given priority to ensure that access to Dodge, Expertise, and Power Attack were all options regardless of future Attribute progress (+1 to one Attribute every 4 levels).

As this base fighter will be compared to the Weapon Master Prestige class from the Sword and Fist sourcebook, we will be taking a focused Expertise path (for Whirlwind Attack at 4th level).

  1. Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Dodge
  2. Expertise
  3. Mobility
  4. +1 Strength (16 total), Weapon Specialization (Warhammer)
  5. –
  6. Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack

Weapon Specialization is available to this Fighter, but we choose Whirlwind Attack instead at 4th level so that the split between characters can be more immediate and obvious. A +5 attack bonus is required to become a Weapon Master, so with all other prerequisites out of the way (let’s assume Intimidate was invested in at some point), they diverge till 10th level.

The Weapon Master and Fighter progress identically for Hit Point and Base Attack bonus, making that aspect less relevant.

The Weapon Master

The Weapon Master does not gain the advantage of a bonus feat every other level, but instead gets a regular dosage of special class abilities that only apply to the chosen weapon (provided the weapon is of Masterwork quality at least).

  1. Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Dodge
  2. Expertise
  3. Mobility
  4. +1 Strength (16 total), Weapon Specialization (Warhammer)
  5. –
  6. Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack
  7. Ki Damage 1/day/level
  8. +1 Strength (17 total), Increase Multiplier 1/day
  9. Superior Weapon Focus, Improved Critical
  10. Increase Weapon Multiplier 2/day
  11. Superior Combat Reflexes
  12. +1 Strength (18 total), Increased Multiplier 3/day, Power Attack

Straight Fighter

  1. Combat Reflexes, Weapon Focus (Warhammer), Dodge
  2. Expertise
  3. Mobility
  4. +1 Strength (16 total), Weapon Specialization (Warhammer)
  5. –
  6. Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack
  7. –
  8. +1 Strength (17 total), Power Attack
  9. Improved Initiative
  10. Improved Bull Rush
  11. –
  12. +1 Strength (18 total), Sunder, Cleave

At the end of 12 levels our straight Fighter has much of the Expertise and Dodge paths, and is quite accomplished with his Warhammer.

Level 12

Attack Bonus

The Weapon Master has a slight edge here, as the result of his Superior Weapon Focus, an additional +1 to attacks with any Warhammer of Masterwork or better quality.

Damage

Here things get a little odd. 6 times per day, the Weapon Master can opt to deal maximum damage. This decision is made after the success of the strike is determined, but before the damage is rolled.

Similarly, 3 times per day the Weapon Master may increase the critical multiplier from x3 to x4 after determining that a strike is a critical but before damage is rolled.

Both have the Power Attack feat, and can divert up to 12 points from the attack roll to the damage roll for a given blow. Both may divert up to 5 points from attack to Expertise.

The Intangibles

Every round the straight Fighter has the option of using an attack to strike his opponent’s weapon without drawing an attack of opportunity, care of Sunder.

Every round the straight Fighter may opt to use the Bull Rush maneuver without drawing an attack of opportunity.

A weapon master gets to add his Wisdom bonus to his Dexterity bonus for the purpose of determining how many attacks of opportunity per round he can use (as a part of Superior Combat Reflexes). In this case, this is irrelevant.

The straight Fighter has Improved Initiative, and thus has a better average initiative than the Weapon Master.

A mock combat

On average, the Weapon Master will do better damage than the straight Fighter. An excellent tactic for this straight Fighter to use is to take advantage of his Sunder feat and break his opponent’s weapon. If successful, his opponent will be roundly outclassed.

A Warhammer is a tough weapon, capable of taking a lot of punishment, so it is entirely possible that while the Fighter is trying to bust the Weapon Master’s weapon, a substantial ammount of damage will be dealt out. Each of these guys have three attacks per round, after all.

Overall, when faced with opponents who aren’t likely to use good tactics (unsophisticated or stupid foes), the Weapon Master is prefferable, as more damage will be dealt on an average round (an extra +1 to attack really adds up when you do the math). However, on average a straight Fighter weapon specialist will win on average at 12th level.