In the earlier Barbarian post, I stated that I enjoyed fighters more than barbarians, stick with me and you’ll learn why.
When a player wants to start a fighter, almost any race is available and viable. For those min-maxers out there, the type of fighter you wish to make may sway the race selection. Going fr a ranged fighter with a bow? You’d be best off rolling, wait for it, an elf. Is two-handed face smashing more your forte? Then a half-orc is your best bet. There is one race that might favor the fighter a bit more and that is the human. Humans edge out other races thanks to an extra feat and the fighter gets an extra feat to select every 2 levels.
The added feat every two levels eventually creates a massive pool of feats at a player’s disposal. A whopping 18 feats, 19 as a human. The player is going to need those feats though, as those are pretty much your only power as a fighter. Fighter feats are all focused on combat, going from choices like power attack to weapon focuses on slashing or blunting weapons. The feats that focus on the player’s weapons are the best ones to choose when the player is going into the prestige enhancement called the kensai.
The kensai is one of two prestige enhancements focus on, and, in my opinion, is the better of the two. The kensai focuses on just one weapon. Not a single-handed weapon, just one. This can be any weapon that the player can wield going from the longbow to the longsword to the great-axe. On the flip side, the weapon not focused on will be at a disadvantage, a tactical trade-off. Leads to some tough, yet interesting decisions (and spreadsheets!). I have seen a good combo of feats with someone that played as a Fighter, Sorcerer and Ranger and as race he was an Elf.
The second prestige enhancement for fighters is a tanking enhancement. Due to the scope of the enhancement and its dramatic alteration to the class, the tanking enhancement will be covered in its own post.