Feats for a shield fighter

Maybe my Google foo is not very good or there isnt that many good threads with "Shield Fighter". I found some, even one about Captain Andoran but no real good info.

Anyone suggest some feats? Im looking to make a dwarven shield fighter that bullrushes and just smashes face with his shield. Its not optimal so i need all the advantages I can get.

I would say Take the shield fighter archetype and the unarmed strike and crane style feats** and the missile shield feat. Use the shield with two hands to benefit more from power attack.

Your Ac will be very high and you will evade one melee hit and one ranged hit per turn. Your offsenive wiuld not be low due to use the shield with two hands.

** A level dip into master of many styles would help a lot with the feat.

Thought of that, but with the shield I should already have a solid AC. I think the Crane Style would be overboard on the defense and I need to be able to do some damage.

Even if you have a great argument for that, not really the concept im going with. More brute smash face w/ bull rush.

well, if you just want to smah the weapon focus, weapons specialization, power attack, furious focus (if you use the shield with both hands),shield slam, improved bull rush,shield focus, missile shield, disruptive, ray shield, improved critical, lunge, improved initiative, and shield master are all good choises.

And if you are a dwarf steel soul is a very good non combat feat.

Thanks for the Advice! Yea most of those I have thought of. Not really sure on Disruptive, Ray shield, or improved crit. Just trying to keep his combat reliant.

I've discussed this elsewhere, but can't quite recall where, but my favourite build is centered around wielding a heavy spiked shield in two hands, and using armor spikes to make "off-hand" attacks via the two-weapon fighting feat.

Be a fighter and take the Brawler archetype; this gives you a +1 to hit and +3 to damage at level 3 with weapons from the "close" group, which includes both spiked shields, and armor spikes.

Two really key feats are Shield Slam and Spiked Destroyer. Shield Slam lets you get a free bull-rush when you hit with your shield, and Spiked Destroyer gives you a free shot with your armor spikes when you successfully bull rush someone.

You'll also need Improved Shield Bash, of course, and Weapon Specialization, Power Attack, Improved/Greater Bull Rush, and the rest of the TWF feats are all a big help. With these you'll do heaps of damage without sacrificing your AC, while shoving enemies around the battlefield and granting your allies free AoOs.

Depending on interpretation, a bashing heavy spiked shield deals either 1d8 or 2d6 damage. Talk to your GM about this; RAW seems to lean towards 2d6 to me, but I've heard that it's intended to just be 1d8. Take advantage of potentially having a free hand: consider wearing a cestus on your spare hand in case you need a light weapon for some reason, and carry a thrown weapon that you can either drop or chuck before engaging in melee.

As crhis says the brawler is a very good choise. and about disruptive note that it stack with menacing stance. Even optimized full spellcaster would have a hard time casting defensively.

two weapon fighting. You two sheilds. I seen some awesome builds doing that. Enchant them with bashing.

Wow Chris, thats impressive.

I have to admit that looks very dangerous. Just not where I wanted to go with him roleplay wise.....

Well the more I look at it, yea I can spin it that way. They get Bonus to bull rushes. Thats just what im lookin for. Now i have to rework everything.

Thanks I really Appreciated the different view point. Never really read the archtype in detail.

I forgot to mention the relentless alternate racial trait for dwarves, which gives you a bonus on bullrush checks!

I'm glad you like the build, though I'm sorry it sounds like it will require some concept reworking. I hope it works out. ^__^ Happy face-bashing!

Two-handing a Heavy Shield is an option.

Do this, and go Brawler Fighter.

Why it sounds always wrong to wear a shield two handed and still get an AC bonus...

Why it sounds always wrong to wear a shield two handed and still get an AC bonus...

If anything, wielding it with two hands provide greater control.

In fact, the idea of grasping a shield with two hands and charging forward is plausible, and iconic.

I would say Take the shield fighter archetype and the unarmed strike and crane style feats** and the missile shield feat. Use the shield with two hands to benefit more from power attack.

Your Ac will be very high and you will evade one melee hit and one ranged hit per turn. Your offsenive wiuld not be low due to use the shield with two hands.

** A level dip into master of many styles would help a lot with the feat.

That's neat work, but there's no way I'd allow it to be played in my games... probably worth running it past the GM first.

Nicos wrote:

I would say Take the shield fighter archetype and the unarmed strike and crane style feats** and the missile shield feat. Use the shield with two hands to benefit more from power attack.

Your Ac will be very high and you will evade one melee hit and one ranged hit per turn. Your offsenive wiuld not be low due to use the shield with two hands.

** A level dip into master of many styles would help a lot with the feat.

That's neat work, but there's no way I'd allow it to be played in my games... probably worth running it past the GM first.

well, eveyone knows what isgood or bad for their games.

going the shield master route, and TWF, if you can get your hands on a sunblade you can use the shield as your primary and get d10 damage die on your off-hand weapon, and still have it treated as light for proficienciy's sake

it also means you only take -2 an the attack roll instead of -4

combine it with Power Attack and Double Slice and you will actually net more damage on average than a THW fighter, and you will have better AC

the shield specializations boost that AC even more

prior to getting your sunblade, take the weapon focus and specializations on short sword, because they still apply to the sunblade

i always assume fighter builds are gonna be human, but forgive me if im wrong:
1) Power Attack, Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Shield Bash
2) Double Slice
3) Weapon Focus- Short Sword
4) Weapon Specialization- Short Sword
5) Shield Specialization
6) Shield Slam
7) Weapon Focus- Shield Slam
8) Greater Weapon Focus- Short Sword
9) Greater Shield Specialization
10) Greater Weapon Focus- Shield Slam
11) Shield Master
12) Greater Weapon Specialization- Short Sword
13) Weapon Specialization- Shield Slam
14) Greater Weapon Specialization- Shield Slam

Naturally you want to invest in a decent shield, but don't bother enchanting it like a weapon unless you want additional dice damage off it, get it to +5 as soon as possible and make it bashing

this build is for adding static damage to your attacks, and for maxing out average damage, obviously if you value crit ranges and probability falls in your favor a lot, you can skip the specializations and foci on the shield and do something with a little more flavor

THE MATH:
a THW user is most likely gonna be throwing a greatsword around (considering it has the highest damage die) so i will do the math assuming our purposed fighter has dumped his feats into that
(assuming that he has Furious Focus to make up for the lack of penalty on shield master, and Dodge, Mobility, and Toughness to make up for the lack of AC)

we have:
2D6 (greatsword) + 1.5 STR + 1.5 Power Attack+ 4 (Weapon Specialization) + additional dice (assuming d6)
avg damage output: 32.5 per hit

for one hit with no penalties, and some nice attack bonuses, its alright, most people tell you to go this route because it isnt very feat intensive and you can get really good damage output and you can still do other things with the character

not lets look at our shield master:

1D8 (shield) + 1d10 (sunblade) + 2 STR + 1.5 Power Attack + 8 (Weapon Specialization) + 2 additional dice (assuming 2d6)
average damage output: 44

there is a clear winner, and note that this is only the primary attacks granted by your BAB, going into imp. TWF and greater TWF will only make you do more and more dpr
the only downside is having to make 2 attack rolls, meaning your character can't go running around charging people, so depending on how much your group needs you, you might be at a tactical disadvantage

just realized i did the shield's weapon foci feats in the wrong order
I'm aware, but assume they would be taken in the right order

here's my idea, it was more for a human sacred shield but w/e, pick up shield focus, and imp shield bash, so you gain +1 ac from your shield, and don't lose your ac when you hit, pick up combat reflexs at 3, you'll see later.

5th level, pick up Two weapon fighting, if you can do this earier cool i just didn't have the dex for it till here.

7th level pick up shield slam free bullrush that doesn't provoke AoO, cool. 9th level pick up Stand still, now AoO can be made to force attackers not to be able to move thought your threatened space. 11th level pick up shield master. Now you can hit with your main hand weapon, and your shield at no reduction, and your magic enhancement on your shield adds to your damage and to hit! oh bashing and spikes on shields turns a lowly d4 heavy steel shield to a 2d6

i dont think bashing stacks with the spikes, im pretty sure they are seen as 2 separate weapons, so you could either bash for a d8 or 'poke' for a d6

unrealated, i am currently playing what will eventually be a shield master paladin, and i plan on doing basically what i said to do up above, minus the fighter exclusive feats and plus some crafting feats to make my own sunblade

Ive built 2 shield bearing characters in the past ill toss the both up for u to look at and modify as u see feat if u wish.

Human
Fighter (Weapon Master Scimitar)

-Stats-
STR 14 (+4 Leveling)(+6 Magic item)
DEX 17 (+2 Racial)(+1 Leveling)
CON 11
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 07

-Feats-
01 Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Shield Bash, Weapon Focus Scimitar
02 Combat Expertise
03 Power Attack
04 Weapon Specialization Scimitar
05 Improved Sunder
06 Greater Sunder
07 Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
08 Improved Critical
09 Critical Focus
10 Shield Slam
11 Shield Master
12 Bashing Finish
13 Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
14 Sundering Strike
15 Tiring Critical
16 Exhausting Critical
17 Sickening Critical
18 Critical Mastery
19 Greater Weapon Focus Scimitar
20 Greater Weapon Specialization Scimitar

-Method-
Use a Heavy Spiked Shield enchanted with +4 for defense and enchanted with Bashing, Holy, and Speed for offense so when u are shield bashing ur shield counts as a +5 holy weapon that does 1d10+str that also does not take the two-weapon fighting penalty and keeping shield bonus to AC. When ever u score a crit with ur Scimitar, on a 15-20 dice roll, u get a free shield bash and sunder while also giving the target the Exhausted and Sickened condition. Scimitar should also be enchanted with Speed to give u 5 attempts to get a free shield bash on those crits. If ur lucky u can get 14 attacks in a single round.

Race-
Human

-Classes-
Fighter (Lore Warden) 14/ Monk (Monk of the Four Winds / Monk of the Sacred Mountain) 2/ Ranger (Weapon and Shield) 2/ Rogue 2

-Stats-
STR 14 (+6 magic item) = 20
DEX 16 (+4 leveling)(+6 magic item) = 26
CON 15 (+2 racial)(+1 leveling) = 18
INT 14
WIS 10
CHA 08

-Saves-
fort 22
ref 22
will 13

ac 47 (+5 combat expertise)(+3 fighting defensively) = 55
touch 24 (+5 combat expertise)(+3 fighting defensively) = 32
flat-footed 29

to hit with unarmed attacks with weapon finesse 26 (-4 combat expertise)(-1 fighting defensively) = 21

-Traits-
Threatening Defender

-Feat / Level Progression-
Ra01) Combat Reflexes, Stand Still
Ra02) Shield Focus
M 03) Elemental Fist, Dodge, Crane Style
M 04) Toughness, Deflect Arrows
F 05) Weapon Focus Unarmed Strike, Missile Shield
F 06) Combat Expertise, Weapon Finesse
F 07) Crane Wing
F 08) Saving Shield
F 09) Bodyguard
F 10) Crane Riposte
F 11) Draconic Defender
F 12) Greater Shield Focus
F 13) Disruptive
F 14) Spellbreaker
F 15) Pin Down
F 16) Ray Shield
F 17) Mobility
F 18) Spring Attack
Ro19) Whirlwind Attack
Ro20) Talent - Combat Trick (Weapon Specialization Unarmed Strike)

-Magic Gear-
Bracers of Armor(+8)
Mithril Heavy Shield (+5 Arrow Catching, Arrow Deflection)
Ring of Protection (+5)
Ring of Regeneration
Amulet of Natural Armor(+5)
Belt of Physical Might (+6 str / +6 dex)
Cloak of Resistance (+5)

-Tanking Method-
Fight with caster standing behind u since any thing that enters ur threaten area will not be able to exit ur threaten are via Stand Still and Pin Down as well all incoming missile attacks would veer towards u via Arrow Catching. When making an attack action fight defensively and use combat expertise to up personal ac and grant 1 adjacent party member a natural armor bonus equal to the dodge bonus from combat expertise and fighting defensively via Draconic Defender. Use AoO to grant aid another ac to an adjacent party member via Bodyguard and an immediate action grant shield bonus via Saving Shield. Negate 1 melee attack, 1 ranged spell attack, and 3 ranged missile attacks a round via Crane Wing, Ray Shield, Deflect Arrows, Missile Shield, and Arrow Deflection.

never been a fan of sundering because you destroy your own loot

I enjoy sundering because u can chose to reduce it to 1 and still give it the broken condition. U can always repair the item later especially if u have a wizard at hand that can cast make whole.