|
You can mix things up by fishing for criticals. Here is a crit fiend build. That's always fun and exciting, especially when you can blind and stun with your attacks.
Otherwise, here is a link to two guides that could help spice things up.
Big damage is fun enough to watch on it's own imho, however because of the plethora of feats the fighter gets you can really make use of all the feats available. If you dont have Ultimate Combat, you need to get it before you play a fighter nowadays, even without it, spring attack is a decently fun line. Remember the reason fighters dont have rage,spells,sneak attack,etc is: FEATS, use them to flesh out your character and find fun things to do with his/her time.
Get a reach polearm then use trip and/or disarm on opponents all over the field of battle. We had a group one time where I did a lot of disarming and the rogue would hold his action to run spring in, grab the weapon, and run away. Most modules do not give bad guys good secondary weapons, staves, wands, etc...
I found it great wreck the module combat plan in round 1 or 2 without actually killing the guy. We were able to capture several guys that we shouldn't have been able to take alive.
Grappling and bullrushing is also fun and really shuts down casters, archers, and most melee'ers that are specialized in a particular weapon.
You can build a very good fighter on either of those concepts. If you are in combat with something that it doesn't work on, then you can hack like a normal (but not as optimal) fighter.
Add fun things apart from standard attack that you can do when you have to move and can't full attack.
Like eldrich heritage for some touch attack with no save. But you can't dump cha when you want to do that.
|
Lore Warden fighter is what you are looking for.
This.
Lore Warden is perfect for playing a fighter who can actually serve a useful role out of combat, and, with some Maneuver Feats and/or Lunge also has some serious options for what to do in a fight.
All it gives upis Medium and Heavy Armor and Armor Training, and you can buy Meium Armor back casually if you want to.
With Cosmpolitan and/or some Traits invested you can even get some social skills as class, a decent Charisma, and play a proper swashbuckler.
|
Stop describing it as "I swing at the dragon but I miss"
and Start describing it as "I nimbly dodge the oversized lizards clumsy blow and swing my greatsword into its exposed underbelly scratching off a few scales in the process but not severely damaging the beast"
Remember this is a game of imagination, your character should not be literally trading blows, its a moving combat.
Stop describing it as "I swing at the dragon but I miss"
and Start describing it as "I nimbly dodge the oversized lizards clumsy blow and swing my greatsword into its exposed underbelly scratching off a few scales in the process but not severely damaging the beast"
Remember this is a game of imagination, your character should not be literally trading blows, its a moving combat.
This may work depending on the player. It is unclear if the OP is unhappy with the fighter because his actions aren't flashy enough, or if he is unhappy with the tactics available to fighters.
Stop describing it as "I swing at the dragon but I miss"
and Start describing it as . . . .
HP damage is difficult or clumsy to narrate--this system does not lend itself well to flavorful descriptions because of the binary nature of hps and because it scales to odd effect. And there is no taking advantage of terrain and so on in the mechanics.
You can work hard and narrate interesting combat descriptors, of course, but you're fighting the mechanics, not working with them. So I empathize with his frustration.
Put a mask on him take his shirt off and call him a combination of a color and an animal
1. red eagle
2. silver python
3. blue cobra
4. pink dolphin
6. purple antelope.
7. you get the idea.
How do you figure? Being on a step so you can swing down at someone counts as high ground. A low wall is partial cover. A tree can be cover or concealment. I use that stuff constantly.
High ground can be handy, I'll agree, but it's harder in practice--most dungeons combats and field combats are in pretty flat places as a matter of (unfortunate) course. Also, practically speaking, terrain tends to interfere with those 5 foot steps that are so important to fighters. As a result, a number of those bonuses are easier when applied to ranged combat than hand-to-hand, just as a matter of course.
And usually terrain is limited in descriptors, just as a matter of course. There are no handy fruitstands to kick over, as in the movies that's all scripted to be convenient, and this is all simulationist, and there are no handy conveniences. Aside from obvious bottlenecks, it's hard for hand-to-hand fighters to make heroic and interesting use of terrain.
As far as HP goes, all you have to do is pick a convention for describing it and the stick to it. My group remembers how many HP they had at first level. If they drop into level one HP, they are stabbed, otherwise they defend it.
Yeah, I follow--so you shift the disjunction to the healing side. What would save that man's life barely covers this man's scratch. All damage is fungible, mechanically--running someone through or stabbing someone in the pinky toe. At the table, narration can slow down the flow and pace of the game. You can't preformulate narration during other people's turns because you can't know what effect to narrate until after you throw the dice on your turn. The system doesn't work to give you any fresh or quick ideas. There's also no mechanical reward for interesting narration of damage (unfortunately). So when you do so, you're delaying play, and you don't know whether it's adding value to other peoples' play. And then there's a bit of a question of scope roles. Who gets to narrate damage, the DM or the player? Are there limits? What are they? There are no mechanics and rules for this, unfortunately, (and there could be--I mean, Robin Laws writes for Pathfinder sometimes now, author of Feng Shui). These things are what I mean by you're fighting the system, rather than have it help us.
As I said, you can (and should) work that narration, but this system doesn't help us. I'm not saying it's all some parade of horribles. Some people like this aspect of the system, but I can understand why it can get tedious and difficult and uninteresting for others.
Wow, Big M I disagree with you on almost every single point. In fact the only thing I agree with is that the system does not help you narrate outside of certain specific cases (such as spells).
Big M, in this system, the person receiving damage always narrates the effect of the damage.
Right. See, under your system, I'm not narrating what my character is doing. The person receiving the damage narrates what my character does--so you're not solving the problem of the bored fighter. I don't get to narrate my character's heroism--I rely on someone else to do so. Still doesn't solve the staleness issue, delay at the table, and other problems--some people don't narrate well (and understandably, given the fungible nature of damage). Various stenches of smoldering man-meat is simpler than duck, stab, jab, twirl, slice, bleed. (And what are the limits, if any, on narration?)
And your systems are house rules, correct? So, as I said, you're working against the system--that was my point. And your latter one about jealous gods--it doesn't fly for me. Your other about DP--that's a heavy add on to the system that will hit other problems. It's cool that it works at your table. It's cool you have figured out a solution. But my point was simply that I understand why some folks would find the system as-is to be awkward or tedious for hand-to-hand narration.
Wow, Big M I disagree with you on almost every single point.
That's okay. I feel bad about hijacking the dude's thread, so I'm happy to move to a thread about hps generally if you'd like, though I'm sure it's been beaten over and over and over. (It's also nice to know that your game has handy fruitstands nearby for folks to kick over :) .)
This sounds MOSTLY like a playstyle issue, rather than a character build issue. My number one rule when DMing is Cinematic before Mechanic.
Mechanically, I hit an orc with my greatsword, dropping him to negative HP. He's just a mook, so the DM let's me finish him off with this last blow.
Cinematicly, I flavor it as a quick kick to the knee, fallowed by an overhand chop onto the orcs bowed head. This approach makes combat feel like a natural flow. I figure, so long as the description doesn't surpass the actual mechanical damage, it doesn't matter what spices you throw onto that damage.
As far as build goes, it comes down a lot to skills and equipment. Pick up acrobatics, a Agile Breatplate, and boots of Sprinting and Springing. This makes for a MUCH more adaptable fighter.
Well, If you want to avoid the Rock em Sock Robot Fighter, you could take the vital Strike or Spring Attack feat line.
You might also raise Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma higher than is normal for a Fighter. Some Arch-types might fit the bill, Tactician comes to mind. If all else fails, splash another class into your build.
One thing you can try if you have other melee, esp a Rogue or a Ninja try get a Great Sword, some way to make yourself large, the Vital Strike line and Greater Feint. They will all love you.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I've tried playing fighters before, and while they do great melee damage, they're kinda boring to play in practice. Stand there and swing, every turn. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but what do you do to make fighters exciting to play, beyond watching the big damage pop up?
I would get some new interesting class skills and get access to some spells. Either thru multiclassing or by using UMD or both. I'm sad to say that the easiest way would be multiclassing.
a) Play human so you get the extra skill point
b) Get the feat Extra Trait so you can get more traits.
c) start with 13 int and pick the new feat Fast Learner (see the Paizo blog)
d) Don't dump charisma.
e) Get UMD as class skill and max it (trait or multiclass)
f) Get at least one social skill and add some ranks in it (No need to max it)
g) Get perceptions as a class skills and max it.
h) Add some ranks in some knowledge skills and some ranks to survival (no need to max them)
i) Play some strange race just to challenge yourself. Gnome or halfling or whatever.
j) Multiclass
k) Play a dex fighter and add some Int and pick some magus levels or
l) ) Play a dex fighter and add some charisma to it and pick some bard levels (Core Bard, Arcane Duelist or, Dervish Dancer or Archaeologist).
I used to play fighter/rogue, but now I would probably play Fighter/Bard (Core Bard, Arcane Duelist or, Dervish Dancer or Archaeologist) or Fighter/Ranger (Urban ranger or Guide) or Fighter/Inquisitor or even Fighter/Paladin. Other Options could be
Fighter/Oracle
Fighter/Magus
Fighter/Barbarian
Fighter/Druid
Fighter/Alchemist
Fighter/Ninja
If you multiclass and only take one or two levels in another class human is probably the best race but if you plan to pick more levels in a second class half-elf isn't a bad class. The bonus to saves isn't bad and skill focus UMD, Perception or diplomacy might be useful. Two favored classes will also come in handy.
The Fighter is a powerful class but boring.
BTW, I never did like the concept of playing a crappy race, but some think it is fun. If you don't, you can ignore "i)".
Well, If you want to avoid the Rock em Sock Robot Fighter, you could take the vital Strike or Spring Attack feat line.
You might also raise Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma higher than is normal for a Fighter. Some Arch-types might fit the bill, Tactician comes to mind. If all else fails, splash another class into your build.
You can't use vital Strike with Spring Attack
I've tried playing fighters before, and while they do great melee damage, they're kinda boring to play in practice. Stand there and swing, every turn. Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but what do you do to make fighters exciting to play, beyond watching the big damage pop up?
It's confusing to me because when you say, "boring to play," I don't know if it's the combat that's boring, the noncombat that's boring, or both!
if it's noncombat that's boring to you, maybe write up some quirks, personality traits, catch phrases, phobias, philias, etc., until you feel like you can get into your character?
if it's combat that's boring to you (and I think that it is), maybe go more "general" in your feat selection than specialized? Each level a fighter can basically open up an entirely new area of combat, so if you're bored with power attacking, you could get a bull rush/sunder feat, or get combat expertise to prepare for a different maneuver line, or get some ranged weapon feats so you can respond from a distance, or teamwork feats like Broken Wing Gambit for some team-attack type deals, oryou could go with any of the other fine build suggestions in this thread.
If it's combat flavor you're missing, I agree with what some of the other people are saying here: Ask the DM to make your battle actions more epic, or ask him/her if you can narrate your own battle actions to be a little more exciting.
...or...multiclass...? dun dun dun