Fighting Men

Fighters in the Game
It is a rather odd term for a major character class and it isn't long before White Box's Fighting Men become Greyhawk's  Fighters, but the Fighting Men of White Box remain a powerful icon in my mind, in part due to the dozens of plain Fighting Men characters I played during those early days when the game was new and I had not yet cast about for something new to try. With a d6 +1 hit points on average the Fighting Man will have one extra hit point over Clerics and  Magic Users. That in itself isn't much of an advantage compared to the Greyhawk Fighter with his d8 hit die. Fighting Men can use any weapon which is an advantage once the party starts to accumulate magic items, but when all weapons do d6 damage, even the Magic User's dagger is effective as a non-magic weapon. Fighting Men have a plus one to hit opponents, which amounts to a 5% improvement over Clerics and Magic Users using the alternative combat system. Fighting Men have the advantage of the ability to wear any armor including shield, but so does the Cleric.
The Saving Throw Matrix might convince some to abandon Fighting Men altogether as only against Dragon Breath is their save better than the Cleric and Magic User. Fighting Men have the worst saves against Staves & Spells, which makes them vulnerable to every evil priest and vile sorcerer plotting against them. Against Death Ray or Poison, Wands, Polymorph or Paralyzation, and Stone their save is between the higher and lower scores of the Cleric and Magic User classes. Fighting Men do benefit at a faster rate from advancing gaining to-hit bonuses more frequently, improving in Saving Throws more and adding more hit points per level compared to the other classes.
Perhaps the most compelling draw of playing a Fighting Men is found in the sources from which players draw their character inspiration, real, literary or imagined. Legend is ripe with colorful heroes who best fit the class of Fighting Men, Hercules, Roland, Sir Lancelot and Robin Hood, to name a few. Looking to history, we find Alexander the Great, Harald Hardrada, Bohemond, Richard The Lionheart, and many more. And of course fantastic fiction is full of Fighting Men like Conan, John Carter, and other sword swinging warriors to inspire our imaginations to create player characters in their image.
Fighting Men are likely the easiest of the three White Box character classes to identify with. They have no spell abilities, no magic at their fingertips with which to confront their challenges. Armed with muscle and wit and a steel blade they rescue noble youth in distress, slay dragons and win great treasures. Drawing more on American industrialist tradition than historic medieval institutions, they become barons, build castles and rule as lords.
Most importantly, Fighting Men allow us to play the part of the mighty muscled hero, overwhelmed by crawling inhuman masses, swinging steel right and left, dealing death with every blow, finally to fight our way through...bloody, torn, but standing atop a heap of fallen foes. Yeah, that's the stuff adventure games are made of.