Advanced Fantasy - Fighter

Right now I'm working on my Advanced Fantasy set of house rules. Before, with Arcane Adventures, I ran into a big problem, because I was trying to mix all of the versions of D&D ever; Basic, OD&D, AD&D, 2nd Edition, 3E, Pathfinder, Retroclones, etc... Any idea that I thought was cool, I wanted to use. I didn't realize at the time, there was such a difference in game play focus. Now to achieve that, I've switched to a largely free form method, that we've been having a bast playing. At the same time, I love AD&D, and generic D&D is pretty fun.

To make things easier I've decided to only include ideas and material from AD&D inspired games. The list I have for right now includes: 1st Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Adventures Dark & Deep, Castles & Crusades, and a tiny bit from 3rd Edition and Pathfinder. Later I might include some material from other games, like Grey Matter (a fun Swords & Wizardry expansion, that is just awesome), or Blood & Treasure.

As of right now I've started to work on classes, as I feel that is the most defining part of AD&D style play. This is also the part I'm never fully happy with in any game. Something might have all the classes I want, but they might suck. Another might have some awesome classes, but be missing a key one. You get the idea.

I'm starting with the four core classes to get an idea of what power level I want the game to be on. From there I'll decide if I want to do the "subclass" system from 1st Edition, the "class groups" from 2E, make every class independent like 3E, or make them all function like "kits" like I've talked about before. So far I have notes for the Fighter class finished, which I'll share below.

Fighter Notes

Something a lot of people know, and why so many people have gone back to playing TSR era D&D, and it's derivatives, is that it's largely the same. For several classes, the Fighter being the prime example, it's the same across the board for TSR era D&D. The 2nd Edition Fighter, is the same as the 1st Edition one, just with the material from Unearthed Arcana included. Since Adventures Dark & Deep is largely a 1E clone, it's the same there as well. So for three of my sources the Fighter has the following:

Hit Dice: d10
Weapons & Armor: All

Abilities:

Exceptional Strength - The Fighter has the ability to have better bonuses to attack rolls and damage than other classes.

Constitution - The Fighter also has better possible bonuses to hit points from constitution.

Extra Attacks - The Fighter gains extra attacks, in fractional attacks, such as attacking twice every other round. In 1st Edition, he also has the ability to attack less than one hit die creatures a number of times equal to his level.

Weapon Specialization - Using the weapon proficiency system, the fighter can specialize in a weapon, gaining +1 "to hit", +2 damage, and an extra attack every other round.

Castles & Crusades, attempting to be a 1E/2E inspired game, has a Fighter looking mostly the same. It has weapon specialization, which works slightly differently: +1 attack and damage, increasing to +2 at level 7. He has multiple attacks against 1HD creatures, and he gains an extra attack at 10th level. The hit dice and armor are the same.

3rd Edition and Pathfinder add the use of feats, which function similarly to weapon proficiencies. I'm still not sure if I'll include feats, but it's a possibility. In Pathfinder they add some benefits for armor that are largely irrelevant in older D&D, since there aren't armor check penalties; then armor mastery adds damage reduction (an interesting thought). The fighter gets weapon training, that functions like weapon specialization, and finally weapon mastery that increases critical hit damage. There's also a bonus to Will saves.

Advanced Fantasy

With all of that in mind I already have a picture of what my fighter class will look like. The d10 hit dice, and same weapons and armor allowed, of course. Abilities as follows:

Exceptional Strength - I'm going to go with the +3/-3 modifiers found in B/X I think, so the fighter will simply get to double his Strength bonus to Damage (not to attack rolls).

Extra Attack (10th Level) - I like this from Castles & Crusades, and feel it's much easier for players to get.

Combat Dominance - Multiple attacks against 1 hit dice or lower creatures. I feel this is a hallmark of the original Fighter, and definitely strengthens him against other classes.

Weapon Specialization: I'm not sure on the specifics of this. It will mostly depend on whether I include feats or weapon proficiencies, but definitely something along the lines of +1 "to hit" and damage.

A simple fighter, and will probably be one of, if not the simplest class for players to choose from. I think this is clearly recognizable as an AD&D fighter, and interesting enough, but not too complex. Next I'll discuss the Cleric, Wizard, and Thief. They should be pretty quick posts, because they're also relatively the same across the board.