[PFS] Help creating a two-weapon fighter

Hi all, I'm fairly new to PFS and was wondering if I could get help creating a Two-weapon (dual wield) fighter? My character is currently a human level 1, and everyone tells me to go down the "Dawnflower Dervish" archetype, I was wondering how do I do this and track it? I'm sorry for my noobish questions, I hope someone with more expertise can point me where to find more resources

The statistics can be found here under a different name. It's all right, but keep in mind that:

-it has some flavor implications that might not match your character concept
-you'll be trading away your Armor Training class feature, which might be very useful to you as a partially Dex-based fighter
-you'll need a copy of the Inner Sea Primer for PFS

Might I recommend the slayer class? It lets you use the ranger's combat style ability, which means you can skip the Dexterity prerequisites of the Two-Weapon Fighting feats. You'll need a copy of the Advanced Class Guide, though.

Other than that, I can help you with any other questions you might have. Ask away! ^_^

Ranger style feats are okayish, but you'll need to have at least 15 Dexterity unless you want to forego Double Slice. You can get TWF on level two, but the next bonus feat comes in at level 6 and by then you've been without DS for a long time. And you really want to pick Improved TWF with that style feat since it needs a whopping 17 Dex. Dex 15 ain't too costly though.

Thank you very much! I'm looking into Slayer now and it seems fun, I was looking mainly into either

- Dirty Trick Fighter
- High damage fighter (which slayer fits beautifully)

Besides that, could you tell me a good stat spread for slayer? Currently I'm running 16 strength, 15 Dex, 14 con, 10 int, 12 wis and 11 cha, what would be best?

Thank you so much for your help though, there's so much to learn, it's a little overwhelming

That sounds fair, I can extend to other builds with more practice, so what's best to focus on for TWF fighter? :)

Basically, you'll want good Strength, Dex, Con, and enough Wisdom to keep your Will save decent. Ability spreads can be tough.

For feats... you'll want Two-Weapon Fighting and its later variants, obviously. If you use two of the same weapon, you can double the benefits of Weapon Focus. Short swords or kukri are common choices.

So I should just take a fighter to level 20 and get whatever he gets as he goes. Sounds simple, but (again sorry for all the questions) how do traits work? Apparently I'm starting with dirty fighter and toughness (from a premade) can I change them / how?

Skill-wise, it's probably a good idea to use a trait to get Perception as a class skill. That requires another book, though, so don't feel too tied to that plan.

Intimidate lets you contribute to social situations.

Climb and Swim can be important in lower-level scenarios.

If you're still 1st level, you can rebuild your character completely! Good news, huh?

Yea, thank goodness :D, I just feel overwhelmed as I'm never sure what I get to start with or what I get each level

You get two traits. The basic ones are found on the PRD here; let's stick with those for the moment.

Indomitable Faith is a good one, as it improves your Will save. You dont want to fail those.

Reactionary is popular to the point of being a joke, albeit for good reason.

If you're modeled off of Valeros, consider worshiping Cayden Cailean and taking the Fortified Drinker trait - a different form of Will save boost. Birthmark will accomplish something similar.

Thank you so much kalindlara, I feel like I atleast know what's going on now ^^

As a human fighter, you'll get three feats - regular, human bonus, and fighter bonus. Let's see...

-Fighter: This one has to be a combat feat, so let's go with Two-Weapon Fighting.

-Human bonus: If you want, you can pick a weapon to focus on right from the start. Let's save that, though, and pick up the aforementioned Double Slice.

Regular: Consider either Dodge or Two-Weapon Defense. This makes sure that your AC keeps climbing. Between that, your Dexterity, and the wide variety of AC-boosting items, we can save you a few charges on your healing wand along the way. ^_^

So far -

Level 1 fighter
Traits : indomitable will, reactionary
Feats : Two weapon fighting, double slice, dodge

Look ok for now? :) - I'll go do stats soon too

In addition to my earlier comments about skills and traits, there are some more unique choices that will make you stand out.

World Traveler adds Diplomacy to your class skills. If your Charisma is double-digit, you have a shot at actually talking to people.

Dangerously Curious lets you (try to) use wands and other magic items, via the Use Magic Device skill. You can use a wand of shield to boost your AC, use the party's healing wands, and generally do some castery things.

The traits and feats look OK. Once you've done your stats, we'll see how many skill points you have to throw around - my previous post has some info on more exotic uses for those.

I'll definitely look into the more unique feats / traits between now and level 2, but thank you so very much for pointing me in the correct direction :)

I'm thinking

Str - 17
Dec - 16
Con - 13
Int - 8
Wis - 12
Cha - 10

Any suggestions? :)

Looks pretty good. At 4th level, you can up that Str to 18, and at 8th, you can up Dex to qualify for Improved Two-Weapon Fighting.

Should I drop cha/ int to 7? For more con / dex?

You'll have three skill points if you put your favored class bonus into skills (it's that or a hit point).

Perception might be good, class skill or not. Intimidate, definitely. Survival can be good too. Climb and Swim are occasionally important.

If you're dropping a score, make it Int - for you, 7 & 8 Int are functionally identical. You could use that and drop Con to 12 to get your Str to 18 out of the gate.

ok, I'm gonna go with Str 18 then ^^

And probably Perception, Intimidation and Swim (I know this DM likes his aqua adventures) as skills

You'll want to have an UMD bonus of +19 eventually. This'll mean that you won't fail on a 1(rolling 1 AND failing UMD shuts down your wand for the day). Maybe consider Skill Focus? At level 10 SF's bonus to UMD rises to +6, so you'll be hitting DC 20 even without an investment in Charisma.

I run a bard that gets tons of mileage out of UMD. It might actually be her most used skill. Just make sure the GM is on the up on up if you use wands judiciously. I've had players whacking their wands the second an area description starts. "Guys, guys, there's no present threat, your characters have been traveling this unchanging environment for miles and miles now!" Also, the ubiquitous "Door equals 3 wand charges" thing where you spent tons of wand shots only to find an empty storage room or a non-hostile being. It can get confusing fast.

About stats, dropping stats to 7 on character creation is mostly an internet thing. I've dropped a stat to 7 once(Wisdom as Dwarf Paladin) and it didn't amount to much. These days I don't do dump stats anymore. There's really no need. PFS isn't a character build stress test where every little bit counts, it's just the board culture talking, is all. No offense meant though. It's your call!

Excellent! Let me know (here/PM) if you need anything else. ^_^

My personal character build advice is to never make a melee character with a Constitution lower than 14 without a darn good reason.

Per Muser's point, it might be best to consider whether you can reach a certain threshold of success. Skill Focus is an option, though...

So basically, a warrior but can use a lot of the trinkets and stuff he picks up along the way, sounds fun and I might consider it thank you Muser, but for now I think I'll stick to as basic as possible ^^

My personal character build advice is to never make a melee character with a Constitution lower than 14 without a darn good reason.

This is very valid. I'm hoping 12 plus a good AC will help you get by, but...

17 Str/14 Con is another option, and not a bad one. In this case, see my earlier post to see how to improve your scores at 4th/8th level.

I'll take the 18 str route, should my character die, I'll learn from my folly ^^ I'll be a risk-taker I guess :p, and this way I should get improve two-weapon fighting sooner by investing in dex?

Indeed! ^_^

There's always the ioun stones, little floating wondrous items that can up your abilities by 2 or more. A Dexterity ioun stone is 8,000, which can seem like a ton of money but isn't in the long run. That's what I'm going to go with eventually.

ok,thank you everyone for helping!(though, especially Kalindlara!)I think I should be ok for my next event ^^

There's always the ioun stones, little floating wondrous items that can up your abilities by 2 or more. A Dexterity ioun stone is 8,000, which can seem like a ton of money but isn't in the long run. That's what I'm going to go with eventually.

I'll pick up a Constitution stone as soon as I gather the gold then! :D

There's always the ioun stones, little floating wondrous items that can up your abilities by 2 or more. A Dexterity ioun stone is 8,000, which can seem like a ton of money but isn't in the long run. That's what I'm going to go with eventually.

By the same token, an Intelligence-boosting headband or ioun stone can get you automatic full ranks in Use Magic Device later. The Additional Traits feat will let you pick up Dangerously Curious at that point. ^_^

I just feel the need to give you a word of caution about this build. Two weapon fighting relies heavily on full attacks, which are hardly a guarantee. PFS can be crawling with melee, which means a lot of people running around the map killing anything thats moderately wounded. It makes for very mobile fights that aren't always conducive to two weapon fighting.

PFS kind of tops out at level 11, so if you see cool stuff beyond there, its kind of hard to get to.

If you have your heart set on it because its cool, go for it.

btw, Feats are gained at 4/8/12/16/20? (similar to DnD ?)

No. Feats are gained at every odd-numbered level. In addition, your class gives you many bonus feats.

btw, Feats are gained at 4/8/12/16/20? (similar to DnD ?)

Human 1 3 5 7 9

And class stuff.

I just feel the need to give you a word of caution about this build. Two weapon fighting relies heavily on full attacks, which are hardly a guarantee. PFS can be crawling with melee, which means a lot of people running around the map killing anything thats moderately wounded. It makes for very mobile fights that aren't always conducive to two weapon fighting.

PFS kind of tops out at level 11, so if you see cool stuff beyond there, its kind of hard to get to.

If you have your heart set on it because its cool, go for it.

Thank you for the caution, I have heard this about needing full attacks a lot, I guess I'll just see what it's like in practice and well, if the character isn't fun I'll just go to another ;)

ok, I see so i'll gain a feat at 1,3,5,7,9,11 but at 4,8 I get to switch them (say two-weapon fighting for improves two-weapon and then improved for great two-weapon fighting) if I'm reading this all correct?

Yes... but I wouldn't worry about the trading part yet. For example, ITWF and GTWF build on TWF, but don't replace it.

I'd use that to replace an earlier feat that's not part of a chain (Dodge for Weapon Specialization at the same time as Weapon Focus, for example) and only if you want to.

well, thank you for all the help then :) I guess I'll figure it out as I go, but thank you for showing me the basics ^^

I've never had problems getting full attacks. YMMV as always.

ok, I see so i'll gain a feat at 1,3,5,7,9,11 but at 4,8 I get to switch them (say two-weapon fighting for improves two-weapon and then improved for great two-weapon fighting) if I'm reading this all correct?

A human fighter would have

human Two weapon fighting
1 Weapon focus (one handed or light weapon here)
2nd level fighter
3 Power attack?
4th level fighter
5
6th level fighter Improved two weapon fighting
7
8th level fighter
9
10th level fighter
11 Greater two weapon fighting

But the Ranger does this absurdly better. Not needing the dex requirement is amazing. PFS is skill heavier than most campaigns and the 6 skill points per level and good class skills let you branch out beyond "beat thing" so you have something to do for the talky/exploration/investigative portion of the adventures.

Valeros Rivenblade wrote:

ok, I see so i'll gain a feat at 1,3,5,7,9,11 but at 4,8 I get to switch them (say two-weapon fighting for improves two-weapon and then improved for great two-weapon fighting) if I'm reading this all correct?

A human fighter would have

human Two weapon fighting
1 Weapon focus (one handed or light weapon here)
2nd level fighter
3 Power attack?
4th level fighter
5
6th level fighter Improved two weapon fighting
7
8th level fighter
9
10th level fighter
11 Greater two weapon fighting

But the Ranger does this absurdly better. Not needing the dex requirement is amazing. PFS is skill heavier than most campaigns and the 6 skill points per level and good class skills let you branch out beyond "beat thing" so you have something to do for the talky/exploration/investigative portion of the adventures.

I'm gonna take dodge for level 1, and weapon focus at 3 ^^
Besides that, yea, Ranger looks like it's so much better than Fighter, but I'm much better at RP'ing a battle-harden warrior than an elf with some twigs (Jk, Rangers are cool) - so really I'm only a fighter due to RP'ing purposes :)

While either (or slayer) can fulfill a wide variety of character concepts... I'd definitely start with fighter and look at ranger another time.