In
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition, Warrior was the name given to the main class group consisting of
Fighters,
Rangers and
Paladins. However, the distinction of the main class groups was seldom if ever exploited in subsequent expansions for the game.
In Third Edition, the Warrior as distinct from the
Fighter is an
non-player character class, described in the
Dungeon Master's Guide. It is strictly inferior to the Fighter, but much better at fighting than many non-fighter-type classes. The warrior class is used as a default
template when designing fighting characters of races such as
orc. However, there's nothing to stop a DM giving his orcs levels of Fighter,
Barbarian or
Ranger, and indeed, the second of those three is positively encouraged.