Editing Fighter (section)

===2nd edition===
Fighters in 2nd edition continued all of the trends from 1st edition. Although potentially every bit as powerful as every other spellcasting in every other system, 2nd edition spellcasting was limited by onerous regulations, costly material components (which back then were consumed upon casting unless otherwise stated), and the likely permanent crippling of the caster (who got even shittier hitpoints than they do today), making fighters the kings of the 2e battlefield.  They had the best "THAC0" (''T''o ''H''it ''A''rmor ''C''lass 0) chance of any class to hit enemies.  In 2nd edition, fighters received bonus attacks based on their level, and these bonus attacks had no penalty to hit.  With new 2e rules for bows allowing 2 shots per combat round at level 1, with the common sheaf arrow dealing an entire d10 "hit die" worth of damage, and with the advent of the "Odysseus-style" composite longbow adding Strength bonus to arrow damage, fighters were a serious threat at any range. The (optional) proficiency system meant that fighters couldn't quite achieve the "pick up anything they find and use it" levels of gear efficiency that they had in 1st edition, but since the fighter's penalty for using a weapon unskilled was only -2 to hit, and the nonweapon proficiencies were mostly worthless medieval fluff like Cobbling and Heraldry, Fighters still weren't particularly worried about Rust Monsters and Ethereal Filchers nicking all of their stuff.  

Weapon specialization got added to the Player's Handbook and became a standard, further improving the fighter's combat ability. Around the end days of the edition, the notoriously unbalanced Player's Option line of books further developed this into weapon mastery, high mastery, and grandmastery, which allowed the fighter to swing his chosen weapon even faster, crit more often, and even increase the damage dice to the next highest. A grandmaster swordsman could swing his bastard sword four times in a round, dealing [[Powergaming|1d20+3 instead of 1d12 damage]] against an ogre or a dragon or something. Meanwhile, his buddy, the [[Baldur's Gate|fastest dart-thrower in the Sword Coast]], gets to throw [[Awesome|seven darts for 1d4+7 damage each and one out of four will crit, and only a natural 1 would miss]]. No high-level fighter with a DM stupid enough to allow him to use these rules was to be fucked with in 2nd edition.

Out of combat, again, the 1e trends of puzzle solving over skill checks largely prevailed, unless the specific problem required specific spells or thief skills.