BluePikachu's page

The chain mail/armored kilt is just the best armor within your current budget. Once you have the money get full plate, no question. This is independent of anything else you're doing.

Which feats you get depends on what you're doing.
e.g.1** spoiler omitted **
That's going down the cleave and mobile bulwark feat lines mainly, with a tower shield and an axe.
e.g.2** spoiler omitted **
That's doing TWF with some specialized shield feats. There's not a lot of crossover with the first, just the advanced armor/weapon training options I chose there.

Those aren't the only options by a long shot, but I'm just saying there are a lot of feat chains out there and saying there is a best is a mistake in itself.

If you go down the mobile bulwark feat line then you stick with the tower shield forever. If you want you can start with the dwarven warshields. Switching between the two might be possible somehow but it'd be tricky as hell.

So would, iron will, dodge, and toughness, not be worth taking (they were brought up earlier and acknowledged to be good ideas)? I can take unstoppable to replace hardy to get toughness. Dodge is only 1 ac. My character that died did have a ring of reflection, so if my party gives that to me that could replace dodge. Is Iron Will better to take later?

If I know I'm going to be facing Goblins, is it better to change a bit to go into PA, and Cleave, Goblin Cleaver (and get the double waraxe for the +1 to cleave) so I can be far more useful in fights? Then just do armor specialization for the extra AC, get bane from weapon specialization.

Then at what point would it be beneficial to switch to a warshield or heavy shield?

Same thing with a full plate and drop the chain mail and armored kilt.

TM, I'm gonna look through everything and try to map out what i like best and put it in which level i think is good then post it to see how it looks to you guys. Cause I see each different reasoning and think it sounds good and try changing everything

Did you check out the avenger vigilante? It has a lot of what you want.

*Shield of Fury gives you shield bash and 6th level two weapon fighting with eased prerequisites.
*Signature Weapon gives you weapon focus and specialization
*Heavy Training to pick up heavy armor
*Mockery gives you a beefed up antagonize feat
*Combat skill gives you a bonus combat feat, where you can count half your levels as fighter levels.

You can just ignore the secret identity stuff if you want.

Thats actually a really cool role, but I don't know if it fits what I wanted to do. But this seems really cool. I might rework my back story some to fit, because I could easily make that work. This role seems a lot more fun all around as with my low int and cha, I was useless out of combat.

It will depend on who dies in the next session vs the boss who killed my character, as I was the closest to a tank, and we really need one. I had the most health and highest ac, with 18 ac and 36 health.

Are there traits after friendly switch to make it so I can take hits as they're attacking, or boost allies ac?

My GM is new to GMing. Doesnt have a ton of exp playing either. So I dont think we did character traits.

I'd like to add I really appreciate all the help and apologize if im asking too many questions or anything thats seems really simple. I think I get too stuck on a cool concept rather than what would actually work best.

No apologies needed. We all have to start somewhere.

In that regards. I'd like my character do be similar to Braum in League of Legends. Tanky, agile to jump and protect allies, decent cc to help get kills. Where his dmg is minor

Besides Mobile Bulwark, fortress, and stronghold. Is there any other feats that would be really good for the tower shield and war-ax?

Is the double axe worth it to try and work in power attack and cleave with goblin cleaver? Since we know most of the campaign will be against goblins.

I was also confused on where was best to put my stats.
14, 15, 17, 11, 11, 10
Since it was said to move them after I said my DM said I could use the mountain dwarf with +2 to Str and Con and a -2 to Cha.

If I go into a better dex, is there a build to utilize the dwarven ram hammer, since it can be thrown?

What about a 2nd shield as a dwarven war shield as that would fit the backstory i wrote the best. If i understand shields correctly I dont get any extra ac for a 2nd shield.
(id imagine mutagen fighter with 3 tower shields, full plate would be broken)

I'd like to add I really appreciate all the help and apologize if im asking too many questions or anything thats seems really simple. I think I get too stuck on a cool concept rather than what would actually work best.

That makes sense

So the style would replace defensive fighting? and allow me to eventually do damage while having a side that is fully braced? Does the "total cover" stop all not magical attacks from that side?

Because eventually being able to move and not take negatives to fighting seems good. Where would fighting defensively play into your idea? Or is the neg not worth the addition to AC

What do you mean by "mitigate". What am I mitigated. I think that's where I'm confused.

Fighting Defensively as a Standard Action
You can choose to fight defensively when attacking. If you do so, you take a –4 penalty on all attacks in a round to gain a +2 to AC until the start of your next turn.

Axe-Gauntlet, Dwarven Heavy
Cost 21 gp Weight 5 lbs.
Damage 1d6 (small), 1d8 (medium) Critical x3 Type slashing
Category one-handed Proficiency exotic
Weapon Groups axes, close
Special blocking, disarm

Blocking: When you use this weapon to fight defensively, you gain a +1 shield bonus to AC.

That's what I found, so what part of this is needed for a hand to be free?

Because to me it seems like I could use a tower shield and fight defensively with the gaunlet.

Im thinking about tower shields again

Is a dwarven axe gauntlet worth the exrtra one ac for the 1d8 damage vs the 1d10 of a war axe?

I'm starting with 570 GP if that helps to pick starting gear.

I'm definitely liking vanilla fighter the best the more I look at it.

upon further research, tower shield specialist may have the defense I want but not anything for offense

Would Tower Shield Specialist be better?

I guess I really like the Shielded Fighter idea, so what could best optimize that?

How does fighting with two shields work as well as calculated ac for my two shields? If I use two dwarven warshields, as a shielded fighter while fighting with a shield it says I get +1 dodge for a shield. Do I get and additional +1 for the 2nd shield? Do I get +2 ac, one for each?

Is shielded fighter good? Using two spiked shields sounds fun.

Also to add, my DM let me do a mountain dwarf with +2 to Con and Str with a -2 to Cha. (If that were to change where I should put my stats)

If there is a build to increase my tanking ability and reduce damage thats fine. I was planning on possibly being a wall for our half elf ranger who could just shoot over my head.

My two handed fighter got crit and died. So I need to make a new character.
The character I decided on was a tank, since our party did not really have one to start with. I want to annoy my DM as much as possible with how tanky and unkillable my character will be. I'm already set on being a dwarf since its based off of my backstory as my original characters sibling as they are triplets.

My stats I rolled were 14, 15, 17, 11, 11, 10

I'd prefer to be a shielded fighter of some sort, tower shield user or something along those lines. I'm still really new to the game as the character who was killed was my first one and only made it to level 3.

So my top things I want to have in the build,

1) To have a really high AC
2) To have a really high health
3) To be able to aggro or take hits for the team
4) lastly if at all possible deal a helpful amount of damage.

Should I take a feat in sunder? or do I not need too? If I understand it correctly without Improved Sunder, I will invoke a AoO

Also can someone explain Overhand Chop? I tried looking it up and there seemed to be arguments on it. I assumed that I added my Strength mod to damage twice instead of 1.5 for a two handed weapon. There were arguments that to double my strength mod (+3 -> +6) then apply the 1.5x making it +9 instead of just +6.

In addition, to overhand chop, if I make multiple swings on one enemy or use Cleave. Do I no longer get that damage on any attack after the first? Then with backswing, I can add the extra damage on all attacks or just after the first and lose overhand chop bonus?

BluePikachu wrote:

I still like Vital Strike for damaging the enemies we are going to face that might not be goblins.

Vital Strike is available when you get BAB +6, which is also the exact moment when you get your additional attack at a -5 penalty when using the Full-Attack action (see how it says BAB +6/+1 in the class progression). And you can't make a Full-Attack while using Vital Strike either.

If you are in a position to full-attack an enemy, that will deal more damage than using Vital Strike unless the enemy's AC is making it hard for you to hit with your first attack (if you miss on a 14).
And it can't be used on a charge either, so the only time it should be used is in situations where you could just have chosen to Cleave instead. And if you were already forced to move the least you could do is to make sure you can Cleave.

Then if a friendly spellcaster has cast Haste on you it's never worth considering using Vital strike in place of a Full-Attack, since you're then weighing three attacks (+Hurtful) against just your Vital Strike (+Hurtful).
And as you level up the Vital Strike portion of your damage becomes smaller and smaller, especially if you use weapon properties such as Holy or Bane which wouldn't be multiplied with Vital Strike.

BluePikachu wrote:

How do I actually enlarge myself?

'

1) Friendly Spellcaster
2) Friendly Spellcaster with a Wand of Enlarge Person
3) Potions of Enlarge Person
4) Placing one level in a class with Enlarge Person so that you can use Wands without needing the Use Magic Device skill
5) Placing one level in a class with swift action enlargement

How do I get bane for goblins?

Is Cleaving Finish something to consider? Or Orc hewer

BluePikachu wrote:

Apparently I have not figured out quoting correctly...

You start a quote with either "[Q­UOTE­]" or "[Q­UOTE­=Name]", and you end a quote with "[/QU­OTE]". Lower case works as well. Everything between the two parts gets quoted. You can make quotes within quotes, i.e. [QU­OTE=Person 1][QU­­OTE=Person 2]Text 2[/QU­OTE]Text 1[/QU­OTE]*. The "/" always denotes ending the code part (in this case the quote, but the same principle stands for using bold [b­][/b­], italics [i­][/i­], and so on). Your mistake was putting the / containing part in the front as well.

Note: Just don't copy from this post, as I've broken up the code for showcase purposes.

*) Result:

Person 1 wrote:

Person 2 wrote:

Text 2

Text 1

Ohhhh

Apparently I have not figured out quoting correctly...

Vital Strike is a poor choice since you can't Cleave and use it at the same time, which should be your main strategy if not full-attacking.

I still like Vital Strike for damaging the enemies we are going to face that might not be goblins.

Since you really want to enlarge yourself for Goblin Cleaver (and more damage), which lowers your dexterity further, you could just wait with Combat Reflexes as you mentioned earlier.

How do I actually enlarge myself?

Proposed feats:

Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes Additional Traits (Glory of Old, Bruising Intellect), Goblin Cleaver

Thats actually a good idea, my dex really isn't gonna go up and I like the idea of intimidation.

4th Great Cleave, 5th Hurtful, 6th Cornugon Smash

Great Cleave is needed if you want to attack more than two opponents with Goblin Cleaver, which you definitely want if you find yourself in hordes of them.

Now that I reread and understand Great Cleave, ty btw, Thats definitely a better path.

Cornugon Smash lets you Intimidate someone as a free action (a non-action) when you attack them, and Hurtful would then give you a Swift action attack on that enemy. So at lv 6 if you Full-Attacked someone you would get to attack them thrice (if you manage your Intimidate check). And it can also be used during your Cleave to attack one enemy twice.

The two traits (Glory of Old and Bruising Intellect) would both help your saves and allow you to use Intelligence instead of Charisma for Intimidate. With your stats that's worth a +4 bonus.

I agree

How does;

Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Goblin Cleaver

Sound?

Then taking Steel Soul at 4th, Furious Focus at 5th, Vital Strike at 6th, Weapon Focus at 7th?, Weapon Specialization at 8th, Critical Focus at 9th, either Greater Weapon Focus or Hammer the Gap at 10th, and Cleave through at 11th.

Honorable mentions I considered, Fight on, and Press to the Wall. I easily could be mission things along The Vital Strike path, which could replace the weapon focus?

I was thinking Great Cleave was not needed if I have Goblin Cleaver

AoO isn't main objective. I was hoping to focus on high single target damage, and being able to easily land hits. Second would be able to hit as many enemies as possible. Third would be AoO. Lastly being AC or defensive. Although not smart, I more or less want a Glass Cannon sort of build.

If this character dies I already have my next character made. Which will be solely focused on being a tank and keeping my allies alive.

*Since my DM knows I made 3 characters he has wanted to kill me since before we started. It could be likely that I die early in this campaign.*

So, if I can use the shield, since I just reached level 3, what must have feats should I have?

Power Attack - I'm Keeping, Every non-AoO I've taken has been a power swing.

Cleave? - I like the idea for Goblin Swarming in the future, but have yet to see a formidable group of them.

Weapon Focus? - My only current weapon is my hammer, and with the main enemy going to be Goblins, I think I'll be fine without another weapon, unless there's a fairly cheap one I could easily carry.

Shield Brace? - With the constant damage I take any AC would help.

Goblin Cleaver? - Facing multiple enemies will be a given, and as goblins are going to be my main enemy, this eventually will be essential. But for right now I could see waiting on it.

Combat Reflexes? - My dex is only 13, So 1 extra AoO is great, but is it worth it for now? or should I wait till I can raise it once for a +2 mod?

Lastly, at level 4 I can take weapon specialization, which would be good for extra damage on all attacks with my hammer. Which to me sounds good.

I appreciate your help, since the wording seemed unclear, my GM decided while we are still low level a light shield would make sense that both the shield and weapon handle could be held in hand. He saw it as the shields weight is braced onto the arm, while the handle is only to keep it anchored. So, it could be feasible to hold something else as well. As my character advances, we assumed his skill and strength would too and eventually allow me to use a medium shield.

BluePikachu wrote:

My DM, said all things under the Core Rules in "The Trove" are fair game.

That looks like every 1st party book, so everyone's advice should be relevant.

So I wanted to take Dwarven Hatred Fighting style, I found other fighting styles in the trove core rules section, but not Dwarven Hatred style specifically, is not there or did I miss it?

My DM, said all things under the Core Rules in "The Trove" are fair game.

I'm currently discussing the shield brace with my DM, overall all tho, I wrote my character as a go big or go home big swinging idiot. He doesn't hold back and doesn't even attempt finesse or stealth. Which is admittedly dumb but a lot of fun. I could work in a reason why he decided to pick up a shield, but if it overall lowers my power it might not fit his character.

I had considered Mutagen fighter, but it seemed a bit confusing to me. This is my first campaign so I wanted something fairly simple.

Also, not sure how important it is to build your character alongside with fitting the backstory, but I made him the eldest of triplets, he was the front line that knocked and beat enemies away, the 3rd was a TWF that used axes to cut down the remaining enemies, and the 2nd child used dual shields to protect their blind spots and was just a meat shield for them.

So AoO, cleave, and power swings were what I thought best fit his description, and just decided goblins were a main enemy since they are going to be the main enemy of the campaign.

For the Dwarven Hatred style vs Goblin Cleaver, my DM said the main enemy would be Goblins. I figured picking up Goblin Cleaver would be good if I notice cleave going well for me as well as good groupings where it would work well.

Also to clarify reach weapons, for AoO, anything that would step from 10' to 5' I can attack because my threatened range is only 10' and not 5'?

Shield Brace definitely is a good idea to add.

How exactly do I get Glory of Old, is it different than Hardy if it is, how so? Does it replace other traits?

If it helps the traits I picked were

Defensive training

Hardy

Stability

Craftsman - I thought it be fun to try and craft stuff

Stone-cunning

Hatred

Thank you everyone for all the advice!

I'm going to try and answer as I go back through and see questions I can answer easily.

As per my stats that's just how I unfortunately rolled.

We can choose health via roll + con mod or half plus one.

I was looking for a choice for another feat because i had just leveled, I have been considering Dwarven hatred style, for the +2 attack rolls and dmg vs goblins then getting goblin cleaver or is goblin cleaver better?

Since we can change up our characters I put hardy back.

I know nothing about upgrading armor or shields, my armor is a +6 ac right now with a +1 for dex. I did not think I could use a shield if im using two handed fighter archtype.

Will it be manageable to do AoO, Cleave, and power swings and be able to do all 3? I was looking into things like vital strike, but if cleave will be better for goblins then that could work too.

I'm new to pathfinder and made a Dwarf Two-Handed fighter.
I'm looking for a guide on what feats to take to maximize damage and overall what to take on each level. My DM stated that we will mostly be fighting goblins. I am using a Dwarven long hammer as my weapon. I already have the toughness feat from Unstoppable as a trait. From how I made the character he uses brute force as much as possible, so single target damage is ideal. Currently I am level 3 and have Power Attack, Cleave, and Weapon Focus. My abilities scores are
Str 17
Dex 13
Con 17
Int 13
Wis 13
Cha 4 (I had a really bad roll)

Also I am currently the teams only source of good damage and the "tank".

Any advice would be appreciated, I am new to the forums too so I apologize if I missed something I should have seen or added

Also I just leveled up to level 3 and my DM is allowing us to switch up anything we want till level 4 since we are all new.

The trait and weapon are also PF1 things. Ability scores are generated differently. Is there a rolled ability score method for PF2?

I would ask the DM to confirm this is for PF2, and if it is to confirm that ability scores will not use the base generation method in the CRB. If yes to both, you should start here, with the PF2 character creation rules, and ignore the parts about ability boosts from ancestry, background, and class.

He did finally reply and it is 1E so my apologies for putting this in the wrong forum

This looks like you're playing Pathfinder 1st edition, from the feats listed? You accidentally posted this in the 2E forum.

But for 1E, you can find a nice pile of class guides at the location below, which should help you.

http://zenithgames.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-comprehensive-pathfinder-guides .html?m=1

I'm pretty sure I'm playing 2E, which means I likely took the wrong feats by accident.

I'm new to pathfinder and made a Dwarf Two-Handed fighter.
I'm looking for a guide on what feats to take to maximize damage and overall what to take on each level. My DM stated that we will mostly be fighting goblins. I am using a Dwarven long hammer as my weapon. I already have the toughness feat from Unstoppable as a trait. From how I made the character he uses brute force as much as possible, so single target damage is ideal. Currently I am level 3 and have Power Attack, Cleave, and Weapon Focus. I am My abilities are
Str 17
Dex 13
Con 17
Int 13
Wis 13
Cha 4 (I had a really bad roll)

Also I am currently the teams only source of good damage and the "tank".

Any advice would be appreciated, I am new to the forums too so I apologize if I missed something I should have seen or added.