My Life As A Gamer: The Fighter Is A Heroic Warlord, Not A Mere Butcher

The review of Combat in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, 1st Edition (AD&D1e) revealed elements of the Fighter (and its sub-classes) that have been ignored.

Too much criticism of the Fighter focuses on his capacity as a single combatant, fighting as an individual, with language that is closer to how one speaks of mecha designs, which is not only Mech-Piloting, but betrays the mistaken premise implicitly assumed: that the RPG is a hobby about specific, atomized individuals that loosely collaborate.

As the past few weeks shows, this is not how AD&D1e works.

The Fighter (and its sub-classes) are what wargamers know as Hero Figures. They are the leaders and champions, around whom warbands and armies form. While this is narrowed for Paladins and Rangers, for the Fighter this ability to attract, recruit, and lead bodies of armed men is a core competency. This post will specify what is dispersed through the rules, with citations as needed.

The Fighter As Officer

In contemporary terms, the Fighter is a natural military officer. This capacity to directly lead men into combat is recognized as being inherent to the class from 1st level. (DMG p. 31)

Serjeant: A serjeant is the leader of a small body of troops, a non-commissioned officer equivalent. All serjeant are 1st level fighters, but incapable of of progressing further. A serjeant can command up to 10 soldiers as an independent unit or assure orders from lieutenants or a captain are carried out. There must be one serjeant for every 10 regular soldiers, and there can be 1 per 5.

The Fighter, not being a NPC, is capable of progressing further. Soon he will be recognized and promoted to Lieutenant. (ibid)

Lieutenant: A lieutenant is an assistant to a captain, or a leader in his or her own right. Fighter level is 2nd (d10 score 1-7) or 3rd (d10 score of 8-0), and the lieutenant can command as many decades of troops as he or she has levels. This is exclusive of serjeants, of course. A lieutenant serving under the command of a captain extends the number of troops the captain can effectively command and control. The level of a lieutenant determines how many serjeants he or she is able to direct, these in addition to those normally serving with the troops; i.e., 2 or 3 additional serjeants who can do special duty.

Which means that the Fighter, as early as 4th level, is recognized as a Captain. (DMG p.30)

Captain: A captain is nothing more than a capable leader, a fighter of 5th, 6th, 7th, or 8th level (according to the d10 score, 1-4 = 5th, 5-7 = 6th, 8-9 = 7th, 0 = 8th). but NOT capable of working upwards. A captain can command as many scores of troops as he or she has levels, i.e. 4th level enables command of 80 men, 5th level enables command of 100 men, etc. In addition the level of the captain dictates the number of lieutenants which can be controlled. This is exclusive of serjeants and any auxillary types such as servants, cooks, etc.

(For those lacking familiarity with certain terms quoted above, "decade" means "Troops = Fighter level x10" and "scores" are "Troops = Fighter level x20".)

Now recall that a 9th level Fighter--at Name Level--is called "Lord" and is entitled to establish a freehold and attract a private army to his banner, an army that includes lower-level Fighter subordinates, and you can see how the actual career path of a Fighter is meant to go: to be a local gang leader, and building up with success from a core gang to leading up to a full cohort of soldiers directly and a series of subordinate officers directly commanding their own men as well as their own subordinates (etc.) down to the serjeants- as your Fighter once was.

So lets put that down on paper.

The Fighter goes from 10 men at 1st level to 20 at 2nd level, then 30 at 3rd. This is Serjeant to Lieutenant; at 4th he gets promoted to Captain, so the multiplier increases to x20 and now he directly commands 80 men. At 8th this doubles to 160. Add in the troops directly commanded by his subordinates and that 160 number swells to well over 300, and being an 8th level Fighter--a Fighting Man--he can (and should) lead from the front.

This means that, for the Fighter, Charisma (CHA) is NEVER a dump stat. This is because Charisma directly adds to his ability to maintain order with his troops (Morale, DMG p. 67) and influence those met to his favor (Encounter Checks, DMG p. 63) as well as determining how many Henchmen shall seek him out and be to him as the Paladins of history were to Charlemange (who can be Fighters, thus yet again expanding a Fighter's command capacity).

Paladins & Rangers

As noted above, these Fighter sub-classes enjoy similar, but not identical, capacities.

The Paladin is constrained by his association limitations (PHB p. 24) but otherwise is able to raise and command armies, including the capacity to establish himself in a castle and make a freehold of it, but not as a class-specific feature- that remains the domain exclusive of the Fighter.

The Ranger cannot employ such hirelings or take on Henchmen at all until 8th level, and they are constrained like Paladins to give away wealth in excess of their needs that they cannot carry on their person or their mount. (PHB p.24-25).

They are, by virtue of being Fighter sub-classes, able to step into the command of troops as a Fighter can. It is therefore permissible for a Paladin or Ranger to have such troops seconded to him for a task as circumstances allow. We see this happen in the sources for these classes; they are soldiers, albeit specialized, and thus are expected to possess similar baseline competencies.

Furthermore, while the Ranger is forbidden from directly employing such troops early on the Paladin is not; they need only not violate his association limits, and with that 17 CHA will quickly prove its worth in action. Both Paladins and Rangers may take Fighters as Henchmen, expanding their command capacity accordingly while allowing them to focus on their specific strengths to best advantage.

The Multi/Dual-Classed Fighter

Demi-humans that multi-class with Fighter possess the same command capacities as any single-classed Fighter. The constraint comes in that the demands of the role that the other class imposes may inhibit his command opportunities or effectiveness or prove detrimental to post-game performance grading by the Dungeon Master (DM). (DMG p. 86)

Human Fighters that are Dual-Class characters possess the full command capacity of their Fighter level, provided that either of the following is true: (a) Fighter is the active class that the character changed into or (b) the new class has surpassed the character's previous level as a Fighter. (PHB p. 33) The DM is within his rights to sanction a character who has not met the latter criteria and does so anyway.

Yes, this means that Bards are also Captain-tier battlefield commanders (due to previous Fighter experience), every single one of them.

Other Classes

There is nothing forbidding other Classes from taking Fighters as Henchmen, or employing NPC hirelings of the sort noted above, and enjoying these benefits by such means. Now you see why so many Magic-Users have an obvious Fighter in command of his minions; keep in mind that evil Magic-Users are not adverse to using Charm spells to guarantee loyalty, and certain tropes now make sense.

Conclusion

The first Class in the game was the Fighting-Man. His roots go back to the hero-kings and warrior generals of old, and in literature to John Carter the Fighting Man from Virginia who left a Lost Cause to become Warlord of Mars with the beautiful Princess of Helium as his bride. Be his heart brilliant and fair, or blackened and befouled, his is a character of martial virtue and command presence. (STR + CHA, in game terms.) You can fault Gygax for obscuring the latter, but it is there in the game, and proper play means making the most of it.

This is yet more proof that AD&D1e is a wargame, and as this defines the hobby so does that proof and truth. The closer any RPG hews to it, the better it becomes. Go forth and conquer.