Hello Everyone,
I'm starting a game soon with a fighter who's gonna go into the Stalwart Defender PrC when he can. I've read a bit into building a Stalwart Defender and I saw that taking the Stalwart feat is really good, but I'm confused as to why. I don't get why I should get DR over just having a higher AC, unless I'm missing something. Can anyone explain/give their own advice for Stalwart Defender?
Its useful if you can manage a solid amount of base DR to add to it.
If you can get to about 1/2 character level in DR/- it becomes a surprisingly significant amount of protection. Stalwart gets you there and even higher. From the looks of it a Stalwart Defender PRC with improved stalwart can run around with dr 15/- which..well...gross.
Ah, so it's good to have just in case something gets past my armor then?
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Basically, yes. It's not a good idea to completely abandon AC just 'cos you've got DR, but DR is always nice to have.
E.g. your character wears adamantine full plate, granting DR 3/-. If a tribe of goblins all hurls rocks at him, totally 300 points of damage, but no individual rock does more than 3 points of damage, then he's taken no damage at all from the assault. If the dragon the goblins worship walks up and chomps him for 300 points of damage in one hit your character's taken 297 points of damage and is dead...
Oh ok, I get it now. Hrm, gonna need to figure out how to fit it into my build now...
Sorry to highjack the thread, but you can use fighting defensively and combat expertise at the same time with respect to this feat correct?
It just says or and I think that's because they had to mention total defense in the feat.
Since a natural 20 always hits there is no such thing as never being hit. You always have at least a 5% chance of being hit. There are also lots of ways to either reduce your AC, or increase the attacker’s bonus to hit. Surprise, flanking and magical effects like spells and hexes can often increase your chance of taking damage. Having a way to still negate damage when this happens is a good way to increase your survivability.
You should definetly consider that utilizing Stalwart will negatively affect your to hit or your AC via fighting definsively / Combat Expertise.
You will also be investing quite a few feats (and stat points) to get there and it takes quite some time to get going.
Also from a math perspective if you have a high AC (which as a fighter you should) further raising your AC to nigh unhittable levels will probably do more for you in the long term than DR 5.
Do remember there is a feat that doubles the effects of stalwart- that is, inproved stalwart.
An 11th level invelnurable rager barbarian can have DR 15/-.
A fighter can just have a nice DR 10/-.
Unfortunatly, it only stacks with class features, not armor, so a fighter is often better off with armored juggernaut, getting dr 6/- for far less investment.
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If you're interested in taking the Stalwart Feats as well as going Stalwart Defender, I'd recommend taking the Unbreakable Archetype from Ultimate Combat for your Fighter levels. Unbreakable gives you the two Feats you need to qualify for the Stalwart Feat 'two for one' (in place of the Fighter's usual level one bonus Combat Feat), also a bonus on Will saves Vs mind-affecting is generally going to come up more than a bonus on Will saves vs fear - and getting good Will saves is one of the big draws of the Stalwart Defender Prestige Class.
Other than that I'd suggest keeping your Sense Motive Skill ranks up (as Bluff can both force you to abandon your defensive stance and - via feint - rob you of your Dexterity bonus to AC / DR bonus from Stalwart) and taking the Quick Draw Feat. The big drawback to defensive stance is the lack of ability to move, so you'll likely find yourself switching between a reach weapon, a non-reach weapon and throwing weapons (to utilize your buffed Strength bonus on the damage rolls without needing a collection of different draw-strength composite bows) during the course of a fight.