What do you think a Fighter should be?

[The LOBster]

When I think of Fighters, I think of someone who's skilled in the art of combat - more like a class out of ToB than the standard 3.5 Fighter. As someone who's a bit of an amateur history buff when it comes to warriors, it doesn't make sense for Fighters to just be "Durr, I hit things with a sword." Real life combat involves tactics, stances, and technique - if you just go into combat with a sword and just swing it at everything without putting any more thought into it than "Durr, I hit things with a sword," you're gonna get killed. That's probably why I love the ToB classes and 4E Martials so much.

Wizards and other Casters should be very powerful, yes but a Fighter (and other Martial classes), if we're going by real life, should be a bit more complex than merely a meat tank who hits things. And if we're going by fantasy and mythological heroes, he should also be pretty daggone powerful at higher levels thanks to a combination of special techniques and powerful weapons. Sure, he may not have spells like a Wizard, but his magic sword and all the special techniques he's learned - including some that no ordinary human could perform - should allow a Fighter to go toe-to-toe with a Wizard with a roughly 50/50 chance of victory for either of them.