Revised Fighting-Man Level Titles

The “boring old fighter” trope has always bothered me. It’s also spawned many combat classes with different wrinkles, as if being the best at fighting in a game that features good fighting isn’t enough. 

Awesome like this. 

I have given a lot of thought on how to — not necessarily improve the fighting-man class, but to change a player’s eye level when he looks at the class. 

I’ve decided to restrict commanding military operations to the fighting-man. The higher the level, the more troops he can command on a battlefield. I did the math and I think a 10th level Lord can command almost 27,000 men; a few directly, but most through a solid chain of command structure. 

This is why every evil wizard has a fighter in tow. This is why kings are kings: they have the loyalty of great fighting-men. 

Therefore there is a lot of implied setting here. Fighting-men are not just better at this particular thing; being a fighting-man affords political power and respect that a plain old +1 arming sword cannot. 

And from there, it is obvious I should change the level titles. Here they are:

Alt. Fighter ranks 

Veteran 1st

Sergeant 2nd

Lieutenant 3rd

• can lead 10x level men 

Captain or Hero 4th

Centurion 5th

Tribune 6th

Legate 7th

Prefect 8th

• can lead 20x level men and additionally 2 of the next lowest rank 

Lord 9th