Originally Posted by
Loxagn
The issue of mundane characters' inability to meaningfully contribute past a certain point is a reason I don't really play 3.X anymore. Just taking the issue of skills, for a moment:
Your average Fighter, who is supposed to be a master of warfare, lacks the basic ability to survey the battlefield, and is incapable of knowing anything other than what is directly spoon-fed to him. In 3.5, he can't even have a day job if he wants one, and also wants to be able to, say, be an athletic individual, because a measure of how athletic he is, is divided into Climb, Swim, and Jump. Do you want to have a soldier who enjoys baking in his spare time, but is also a skilled horseman with a working knowledge of siege warfare? What a shame, you can't do that. As a fighter, if you are a human, you are likely to have, at best, four things you can do, assuming you have a 12 in Intelligence. And you can't have Ride, Handle Animal, Knowledge (Architecture & Engineering), Profession (Baker), and be a Fighter; if you have instead Average human Intelligence (10), you even have to give up those things. And you're going to die the instant you encounter water, or, say, an ambush, because as a master of warfare you can't even perceive your enemies.
Contrast a young man who was born to a couple of tailors who through years and years of hard work saved up enough to get their son into a good Wizard University. He picked up a working knowledge of tailoring from his parents, studied hard to become a wizard, anddeveloped a knack for dead languages and took a few semesters of Alchemy into the bargain. With a 16 in Intelligence and as a human, he can be an expert in Knowledge (Arcane), Spellcraft, and Concentration, and have points leftover for Profession (Tailor), Craft (Alchemy), and Decipher Script. The result is a character who is, in fact, already more well-rounded and deeper roleplay-wise. He's not terribly athletic or perceptive, but he can make up for (and even render useless) those weaknesses with spells, while the Fighter has nothing to make up for it.
The Fighter has the same problem as the Barbarian, who gets all the Fighter's limitations except he's even more of a moron because he can't even read.
You can't just say 'so put bonuses in Intelligence', either, because that expressly limits the Fighter's ability to do what his Class ought to be capable of.
If you roll 3d6x6 and get the results 16, 12, 11, 9, 6, 13, and you're playing a Fighter, you rapidly come to the realization that you need a lot of things to be any good as a Fighter. If you don't put that 16 in Strength, you're just gimping yourself. And you need at least a +1 in Constitution, so you stick 12 there. Oh, but you need Dex 13 to qualify for some feats you want to take, so you put a 13 there and... oh. Your choices for mental stats become 11, 9, and 6. You really don't want a -1 in Wisdom, because your Will and Spot are already awful and making them worse will only complicate matters... so you spend your precious 11 on Wisdom. Leaving you with a 9 in Intelligence and a 6 in Charisma. Congratulations, you only have one skill point now. Two, if you're human. And, according to stats, you're also ugly and socially retarded, which you don't need to be effective at Fighting, but leaves little opportunity for roleplay.
Give the same array to a Wizard, and he can freely assign that 16 to his Intelligence. That's all he needs to be good at Wizarding, and he gets five or six (if human) skills into the bargain. He can stick a 12 in Dexterity and an 11 in Constitution, giving him no penalty to any of his saves and even letting him drop that 13 into Charisma and 9 into Wisdom, since he wants to be a little bit social as well. As for the 6, throw it in Strength. Who needs it? The heaviest thing his character's ever had to lift is a spellbook. A wizard who wants to have lots of things to do outside of his class's basic functions just needs to be a Wizard to do it. A Fighter who wants the same has to actively hurt his effectiveness as a class.
Ability score prerequisites are also a thing. Casters have none, and Mundane classes, who will already be stretched thin, have lots.
And the Fighter is, at least, better than the poor Monk. Who has the melee fighter issue of needing Three decent stats, like the Fighter, as well as needing a decent Wisdom. And in exchange for that ludicrous investment, can't even really perform in his advertised role. Someone who rolls the Fighter mentioned above, expecting to have a well-rounded character with a deep set of skills that would be reminiscent of, say, an actual human being with that background, will be sorely disappointed and have to sacrifice aspects of his character's concept, whereas the Wizard's player will have to sacrifice... very little, actually.
There is literally no reason that a Player Character class, that is not a full caster singularly dependent on Intelligence, should be limited to 2+Int Skills. And yet, the Fighter remains an ignorant buffoon who can't climb a rope, ride a horse, and know basic local history at the same time.
Sorry for the long-winded post.
TL;DR version:
If a Wizard wants to excel in combat, the Wizard can do that. If a Fighter wants to excel in combat, the Fighter can do that.
If a Wizard wants to excel outside of combat, the Wizard can do that. If a Fighter wants to excel outside of combat, the Fighter can do that.
If a Wizard wants to excel in and out of combat, the Wizard can do that. If a Fighter wants to excel in and out of combat, the Fighter can't do that.
And that's not fair.