Home » Ancient Posts » Beefing Up the Fighter — Option I    
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Reese Laundry

I like it. I essentially play BX, but use some of the options from BECMI/RC as well. I don't use Weapon Mastery as written, but offer fighters the option of WM (add a new weapon or up one mastery level in an existing) at 1/4/8/12 as you've done.
I also use the 1 attack per level vs. foes 1HD or less.

I like your version here though, and will be adding it to my S&W:WhiteBox game. It's quite neat – I like the crit on 19 or 20 rule!

Randall

Nick: If you find that post, please do post a link. I've never been a fan of the Chainmail combat system for D&D, it's a bit fiddly (and requires more dice to attack) for me. However, it robably does give fighters a boost.

Nick

There was a pretty good post on the abilities that a Fighting Man would have in oD&D if you used Chainmail rather than the original "alternate rules."

I'll see if I can't dredge it up and post it here. The gist is that Fighting Men were pretty strong; a lot stronger than they ended up in a lot of later editions. Multiple attacks a round (against anybody, no less), immune to fear, that sort of deal.

Randall

JB: I run a M74 campaign (think modified OD&D) so must of what I do will probably work better in OD&D and may need slight modifications for other systems. If I were beefing up the fighter in B/X, I would drop the natural 20 always hits for all but fighters. BECMI fighters (even more so that other TSR D&D fighters) do not need beefing up IMHO — at least if the weapon mastery rules are used. However, many people do not seem to use them as they are fairly complex. These rules were an attempt to do something like BECMI weapon mastery (in effect) but in a much less detailed/complex way. Method II should be cominnf later today.

JB

Hmm…in B/X a natural 20 always hits anyway, and BECMI has a lot of "high level options" for fighters that make them a tastier treat. Not sure if this is geared more to the OD&D crowd?

I'll wait for Option 2.