So you want to play a Fighter

What is a Fighter?

The straightforwards I hit it until it falls down character is often a Fighter. Someone who specializes in doing stead damage fromt he front and surviving the enemy's attacks.
But also someone who sends damage flying across the field with their arrows or bolts, or across the line with thrown daggers, and yet can still stand toe to toe and take down a big foe.

You won't be great at magic or crafting poisons or magical items but your blows do serious damage and your armor and skills protect you from any sort of normal attack. With support from a Scholar or magic Items to keep you cover with protective spells and heal damage as it is dealt you defeat most enemies and pin down the rest so the other team members can do their part.

Pick a simple solid weapon form such as Long Sword (One-Handed Edged) and Shield (Sword and Board in fighter slang) which gives a good mix of offense and defense to start. Racial bonuses or the right magical items may make other one handed weapons such as Axes or Hammers (One handed Blunt) a good choice. In this style you want to maximize the armor value you have, starting with the heaviest armor that lets you move, taking skills ushc as Wear Extra Armor and/or Dexterity Armor to build up towards the maximum of 40 points of static armor and a five point bonus for great costuming. And of course practice. Sword and Shield scales very well into line tactics. Training with other team mates in the same style can make a powerful unit.

Two handed weapons and Florentine fighters (wielding both a Long and a Short sword, one in each hand) can be very powerful on offense but require more personal skill to make work as defenses. That's why armies have historically gone with sword and shield. But do not underestimate the great weapons and florentine styles, once mastered they can confuse and defeat opponents that the Sword and Shield man is slowly plinking away at. This style can require better armor than Sword and Board due to the lack of a shield but agility is key as you often end up playing basic range games, ensuring your longer weapon can hit but the opponents can not. Combat practice is a key here as your personal skills are paramount. Finding a good skilled teacher helps a lot.

Polearms offer an intermediate variation, giving you a good range to hit your opponent when they are still too far from hitting you. They can be used defensively but also take personal skill more than character skills to wield well. As with other styles than Sword-and-Board a solid armor base is your fall back to keep going if any enemy gets within your range.

Finally the ranged warrior uses bows or crossbows (or occasionally throwing daggers) to pump damage into their opponent's while staying far away. Armor is less critical than keeping your rate of fire high and your accuracy higher. Practice hitting targets and different ranges with your packets both standing still and then while moving.

You will want to take the appropriate weapon skills from the Weapons and Armor tab and plan to buy Armor skills as needed. for the initial weapons you are going to use which are not already covered by a racial mastery as well as any combat style such as Florentine. Similarly you will want to reserve points now or soon to raise your armor level using Wear Extra Armor and Dexterity Armor as you improve the physical representations of your equipment.

Once you have a basic weapon skill and can swing 1s or 2s depending on the weapon you will want buy up some specific skills from the Fighting tab. The normal path is to buy Critical Attack with your primary weapon up until you can trade four in for a Proficiency in it and gain the permanent plus one damage on each swing with that weapon.

After you build up Proficiencies you can buy a Slay which costs a lot but lets you call "Prepare to die" and then "100 Normal Slay" once a day. This should be enough to take out any normal foe and to seriously damage a lieutenant or big villain, though there are monsters such as Kaurathi Trolls which can soak up multiple Slays and kill swinging.

You can also use those Slay's as Parry's which let you avoid any single weapon attack.

Refitting Armor

As an armored fighter you should remember that your armor is absorbing damage but slowing being damaged and you need to take a minute outside combat to refit your armor (physical) or stretch and restore your Dexterity Armor. There sre also some low level spells which can instantly refit armor as well as an ability for someone with Smithing to refit armor in a few seconds a few times a day.

Healing

Beyond that an Earth Scholar is your best aid in combat. You keep the monsters away from them. They restore your hit points as they are eventually taken away by the enemy. The best thing a warrior can have is a healer standing behind her keeping her at full strength and removing any annoying spell effects such as diseases or taint blood. There is an often unspoken compact between warriors and the healers and the damage oriented archers and Celestial Scholars and Rogues. You are moving slowly, engaged with the enemy, they are more flexible and pumping damage into the opponents who do not fall to your weapons, they are also in a position to search bodies and collect the treasure. A wise team makes sure that the healers get what they need first. It makes the team stronger and frankly it would be awkward if the healer did not feel strong motivated to keep you up and fighting.

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