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25 Point Buy: Str 17(19), Dex 14, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 10
Feats Cleave, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (greatsword)
Skills Intimidate, Acrobatics, Perception, ...
Equipment Scale Armor, Greatsword
At first level, the character will be able to attack to adjacent enemies with +5 (2d6+9). His AC might suffer a little, but he has a good chance of defeating two CR 1 opponents in one round.
2: Improved Sunder
3: Great Cleave
4: Weapon Specialization (greatsword)
5: Dodge
6: Vital Strike
So, at 6th level he will have the following attack options:
As a full round action
Melee +12/+7 (2d6+16) (Full Attack)
and as standard actions
Melee +12 (4d6+16) against one opponent (Vital Strike)
Melee +12 (2d6+16) against a group of adjacent enemies, until he misses one (Great Cleave)
He'll also have a good chance to damage an opponents equipment, should he chose to use sunder.
Overhand chop was nice, but it was better for low level barbarians than for fighters.
Two-handed fighers are still good. Two weapon users might deal more damage while full attacking, but two-handed fighters are superior when they can only take standard actions, making them a lot less vulnerable to the slowed and staggered conditions.
Sword and shield, two weapons, two handed weapons, duelist, each style has its own advantages and disadvantages. If built and played right, they might all be enjoyable.
The only build I'd advise against is the 'total defensive fighter'.
Devestating Blow was to powerful, especially when combined with Scythes. Use Deadly Stroke instead, it's not that difficult to make a opponent shaken and is nearly as good as Devestating Blow.
And Overhand Chop was probably to good for low level barbarians, granting a +3 bonus to damage without any further cost.
But what about the two-handed fighters? What happened to Overhand Chop, Backswing, and Devestating Blow? Those were great THF feats, and worked extremly well. Now with the critical feats, you are better off TWF with keen scimitars!
Did someone change the scimitar so now you can use 2? (Check the rules... )
No, whew. Please don't do that to me.
Two handed Keen Kukri fighting is to be all the rage now. Then you double the benefits of all those weapon feats.
As was mentioned above, 2 handed fighting really did fine under 3.5 and didn't need a lot of help.
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Did someone change the scimitar so now you can use 2? (Check the rules... )
No, whew. Please don't do that to me.
Two handed Keen Kukri fighting is to be all the rage now. Then you double the benefits of all those weapon feats.
You certainly can. As you were able to in 3.5. You just take an additional -2 on attack rolls with both hands. But as you wrote, it's not worth it since the kukri is a much better choice. You are now able to make Power Attacks with light weapons, so a high level fighter whould be able to deal lots of damage with both weapons.
Even a fighter6 with a strength of 14 would deal 1d4+9 with his on-hand and 1d4+6 with his off-hand.The main problems with TWF fighters are the increased cost of enchanting two weapons and weak standard attacks. In 3.5, they also had the problem of damage reduction, but penetrating strike and greater penetrating strike minimize that problem at higher levels.
And why not take Improved Critical (kukri) as a feat, those magic kukris are already expensive enough.
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But what about the two-handed fighters?
Not to be offensive, but what about them?
Two-handed was plenty fine in 3.5, often mentioned as the only real melee option. I've seen damage on an unoptimized barbarian get to 76 on one hit. The fighting style didn't really need any extra feats thanks to Power Attack giving more damage for it.
I'm not sure it needed to be hit with the nerf bat, but extra goodies weren't necessary as they were with sword and board and two weapon fighting.
2: Improved Sunder
3: Great Cleave
4: Weapon Specialization (greatsword)
5: Dodge
6: Vital Strike
There are always feat options that can go in nice directions but there are a tone of feats based off the Two-weapon fighting ability and a few for the sword and board gang. How many are there for players who want to specialize in two-handers?
Also most of the players will be wanting two-handers will be barbarians who won't have access to the juicy fighter-only feats. Besides, Weapon specialization has always been the most powerful when used with two weapon fighters. Matched short swords are my favorite.
Devastating Blow was goofy because it made farming tools better weapons than, well, weapons.
Overhand Chop and Backswing were awesome, though. I'm keeping them for sure.
Devastating Blow was goofy because it made farming tools better weapons than, well, weapons.
Overhand Chop and Backswing were awesome, though. I'm keeping them for sure.
I thought those were great, too. I'm guessing Paizo decided they were a little too "must-have" for the two-handed fighters. There was some talk about that being a problem.
Now, though, it looks like lunge would be a must-have, so I dunno. I'm still looking at the feats and how they work and interact now.Overall, though, there are lots of choices that can work well for the big-weapon folks, so all is not lost. Nothing says "hello" like a power-attacking greataxe in your face! =)
I'm interested to see what kinds of builds the fighter-folks will be coming up with. I still don't have it all absorbed, yet.
Hilariously, I just got off a board where the PF haters were dismissing TWF as a "feat-waster".
Which made me stare. I mean, I've never had a fighter build, TWF, THF, or shield, that I couldn't wrap up in 14 levels. what are these people doing with their feats, eating them?
Basically, the feat for two-handed weapons is Power Attack.
Any tactic which grants extra attacks (including Cleave and Whirlwind) also continues to favor two-handed weapons.