GM_Chris wrote:Remember the point of the warrior is to take damage, not to deal damage.
Infact the warrior IMO should do only slightly more damage than a sage.
Francesco DeLemuerte wrote:Warrior has the best defensive abilities, but they also have some of the best offensive abilities as it stands right now.
This, again. In this setting, each of the paths has their primary role. If warriors are the best (or second best..and I still think they come close to best) offensively AND defensively, what is the point of playing anything else except for roleplaying reasons? If warriors can do as good of damage as a rogue (while wearing heavy armour, at that), why play a rogue?
Sage - Hints/gather information
Healer - Healing life/status
Warrior - Front Man
Rouge - Light Armoured Burst Damage
Empath - Ranged Burst Damage
Wizard - ??? (Haven't seen it in action long enough)
Now, there is a little bit of crossover if you just look at straight up paths...for example, warriors can increase their damage by taking weapon specialization or trading off their defense by going into rage mode. Healers can learn how to use shields. Empaths have transference for a little emergency heal backup. Sages dabble in a little bit of this and that, outside of info gathering. Rogues...I'm not really sure that rogues HAVE anything that really steps into another path's role at all, I don't know where my book is at the moment.
But NONE of the other paths have access to the soak a warrior does. I'm fairly sure that while a few warrior abilities have weapon/shield restrictions, NONE of them have armor restrictions. No path gets the kind of access to CR that a warrior does (A sage can take a +2 CR and I THINK rogues get to pick up a couple? Or maybe not.) But NO PATH OTHER THAN WARRIOR gains bonus LPs. Period. I think that in itself shows what the main purpose of the warrior is.
Now, if you want to give warriors a "damage" stance OTHER than rage (Because that's it's purpose...trading off safety for damage), I'd be okay with that...at the cost of removing accessibility to a lot of their LP, CR and ability to wear heavy armour. In other words, make them more like a rogue. Or you could take Jack of All Trades and dabble in both at the cost of not having access to the master/specialized abilities.
Wyrmwrath wrote: If you relegate them to being just a meat shield, why not strip them of all weapon damage above 1 and just double thier CBR and Life totals and let em stand there and get boffer weapon mauled?
You mention warriors in other games, good or bad, my opinion is that a lot of other games rules allow for more open skill picking, higher powered games, and less categorizing (Which FH/WH ruleset does to simplify play), so I think it's more likely to see these kinds of "meaty warrior swinging a lot of damage" in these other games. There has actually been a lot of expansion to what the "category" of a path is with the H&V expansion...I still don't think that means warriors need more damage.
I have to disagree that even leaving them as they are now and NOT making any changes relegates them to being "just a meat shield." Kyle hit it on the head, they seriously are the best suited combat path, both offensively AND defensively. True, their skill set is more reliable than flashy in comparison to the other paths, but I seriously believe that IS the intention.
While I had a few damage based suggestions (That weren't liked because they weren't "big" enough) now that we are further in this discussion I actually believe even LESS that they need a new damage call of ANY kind. I was game for a flat, LP driven skill (A LASH PRESS and FEAR or something neat with utility that wasn't necessarily a damage call), but I actually don't think there should be any change at all just because an OPTIONAL skill no longer stacks.
My thoughts.