3.5e or Next?

[CharonsHelper]

It's been done to death, but I'm with the bandwagon of "go with whatever works best for you and your mates". Since it'd (if 3.5) E6, the ugly face of 3.5 won't show itself and it's pretty much a coin toss of which one you should choose.

Yeah - both 3.5 & Pathfinder even moreso are pretty balanced for the first 8ish levels. It's really only when level 5+ spells come into play that the wheels start to come off. (And at most tables it's not bad until the teens.)

Yeah. All those people dissuading you from just taking Toughness feats assume you want a character that can contribute equally as a spellcaster. Is that really important to you? If so, playing a Fighter at all is pointless in 3.5, unless the others are passive players or have pity on you and hold back...

In an E6 game a fighter should be able to contribute fine (they do somewhat better in Pathfinder than 3.5 - but both are okay). They won't get all of the OOC goodness, but a decent fighter should be churning out a good chunk of damage, which is pretty much all you need at low levels. (Though - their bonus feats will become less useful in an E6 game as everyone keeps gaining more feats past level 6. And really - in an E6 game is the one time besides a level 1-3 one-shot where I might consider taking 3.5's Toughness.)