They Can Be Heroes !!!

Folks often argue fighters feel like they lag behind in old-school and not so old school rpg campaigns. Their combat prowess, decent Ac and hit-points eventually seem to play second fiddle to the world shaking encounter ending spells of the Magic-User.

Recently playing S&W where fighters get 1 attack per level against foes of 1 Hit Die or less really opened my eyes in how effective and heroic the fighter can be. Even being second level and getting 2 blows per round vs common foes of 1 HD or less really makes the player of the fighter feel heroic.

This heroic combat prowess fades as levels go up to some degree but I feel this can be countered simply by raising the flunky HD the fighter is able to fight against. In my last post I touched on this in by allowing a random chance to increase the HD the fighter is able to get multiple attacks against.

A 6th level fighter able to get six attacks per round vs 3HD monsters (for example) doesn't' break the game, it actually frees the DM to toss in more monsters and have fighters that just might be able to face off against hordes/companies of the enemy leaving the fighters standing triumphantly upon a mountain of corpses.
Higher HD monsters are still evidently really tough as the fighter that is able to wade into combat versus dozens of orcs with a touch of confidence is now clearly in a bitter battle for his life only able to get in one blow against a horrible foe of high HD, the fighter feels like a bad ass facing foes that are a distinct challenge and in being able to slash into a horde of enemies, they can be heroes.