|
Firstly, welcome to PF!
As far as DR goes, you'll have it easier now than before: straight enhancement bonuses to weapons apply against DR, so a +5 bonus will allow you to negate DR/Alignment, Silver, Cold Iron, or Adamantine.
Lots of people will tell you that EWP: Bastard Sword, Spring Attack, and Vital Strike lines are trap feats, but I disagree somewhat. If you were going for straight Damage Per Round (DPR) output, the Archer Fighter is the way to go, but the route you've chosen is more "fun" in my opinion.
Greater Vital Strike (eventually) allows you to triple your weapon's base damage, and if you get Enlarged (very reasonable assumption), that 1d10 goes to base 2d8, then 4d8, then 6d8. Combined with Power Attack, Weapon Spec, Weapon Training, etc, you're looking at some serious one-hit power. Plus, who says the Cleric gets to horde all the d8's, right?
Spring Attack, for a highly mobile melee type, is nice, but you're absolutely correct that Whirlwind is super-fun, especially if you plan on being surrounded by mooks.
At high levels, the Critical Feats (Stunning Critical in particular) is quite nice, especially with the Reliable Strike and Critical Specialist abilities.
All that being said, the Normal Fighter gets to move at full speed in Full-Plate (by 7th? 9th level), will have a higher AC (again, due to Armor Training), and less of a reliance on a single weapon (which may or may not "drop" in the campaign. If your DM is good about tailoring treasure to match PC's, ignore that last part.)
Finally, if you're looking for an area denial / battlefield control type of fighter (Whirlwind Strike just screams that, to me),
Lunge + Whirlwind Strike + Reach Weapon + Enlarge Person = 50' Circle of Doom vs. mooks. Kind of reminds me of Sauron smacking whole swaths of dudes around in the opening to the Fellowship of the Ring.
The only issue you may have is the full-speed in armor bit. Not looking at the APG at the moment but I think most of the archetypes wind up removing the full movement ability in armor.
Not totally positive, though. Could be wrong.
Thank you very much for the insights.
1) EWP Bastard Sword probably is suboptimal for a Two-handed Weapon Fighter. I think Greatsword is strictly better. Slightly higher DPR and saves a feat.2) Spring Attack could be trap for a character that plans to spend their career using full attacks, but it is a prereq for Whirlwind.
3) The standard Fighter gets Armor Training, something that the Weapon Master variant never gets. I haven't played heavily armored characters before, but it seems that investing in Mithral Full-Plate obviates the need for Armor Training (except that last Armor Training which grants DR)and my Char Op rule of thumb is never waste a feat or Class Feature on a feature I can obtain with gear.
As a final question... Vital Strike and the succeeding feat tree says specifically that precision damage, Str bonus and weapon bonus are NOT multiplied. What about damage additions from feats like Weapon Spec?
Ex: +1 Bastard Sword with 18 Str. As I understand it, Vital Strike would lokk like this: 1d10+1+4+1d10. If I have Weapon Spec, would it be 1d10+1+4+2+1d10 or 1d10+1+4+2+1d10+2?
As for Vital Strike the only damage denied is precision damage. Anything else is in the base attack is multiplied, and then the vital strike damage is added to it, but the feat is not worth taking.
I would also drop whirlwind attack.I would drop combat expertise unless you plan on taking the combat maneuvers that go with it.
Furious Focus is a good feat to take if you are using power attack. I would not worry about penetrating strike either.
PS:These are just mechanical evaluations, but if it fits the concept go for whatever you think will work. I don't like Whirlwind because it basically requires you to be surrounded. If I surround you as a DM I will have the mooks do aid another and the biggest melee threat power attack, but the power attack will be offset by the aid another, or I will have some of them(mooks) aiding the attack roll while the rest aid his defense.
If you're going to be a 2h weapon fighter, why take EWP Bastard Sword? Wht you are is an OPTIONAL 2hW fighter...when it comes time to do the damage, stow the shield and hack away. But in the meantime, keep it and keep your AC as high as you can.
If you aren't going to use a shield, go polearm fighter or two handed weapon fighter.
As noted, you can cycle out the Damage reduction feats at high level, they are wasting space for the most part. You want the +5 weapon anyways, right? THe only DR they don't punch is x/- and x/dmg type (slash/blud/pierce), which means you get to hit elementals and high-level barbarians for full damage, I guess...
==Aelryinth
I was curious about Vital Strike myself. Wouldn't it be beneficial to have it if you had to do a move action and then attack? Seeing how you can't full attack when you move more than 5'.
That would be the one time, it would seem, that it would come in handy.
Or is an "attack action" equal to a full attack action and I'm just reading it wrong?
An attack action is a standard action...move and strike. Vital strike is thus moving and hitting somethign without charging them. It's a good feat for mobile fighters, but the feat cost is too high. Like TWF, it should be one feat, not three of them.
==Aelryinth
So the main issue is the "upgrades" at the higher levels that must be taken if you want to keep up with your iterative attacks?
Yes...because the "upgrade" is basically +Wpn Dmg. That's +2-12 dmg, or +4-24 dmg (using a Greatsword), which somehow is supposed to compensate for not getting a full attack. Sure, it looks nice...but realize that a full attack at 16+ is supposed to do approximate 250% of your base dmg over time, possibly higher if Power Attack comes into play.
With Vital Strike, you'll never reach even double damage, at level SIXTEEN, because feats, etc are not added into the dmg.
+14 to damage, the best you can do, just doesn't sit well. That's half the fixed dmg a fighter typically does at that level.
Sure, it's better then NOTHING...but that doesn't mean it fixes the problem.
==Aelryinth
It's a style consideration, more then anything. Mechanically, absolutely right...the +1 avg dmg is NOT worth a feat. Better off with longswords.
1E made it useful because of size L damage. Longswords were 1-8/1-12 against size L creatures. Bastard swords were longswords, but two-handed were 2-8/2-16. Greatswords were 1-10/3-18.
Kirsten's House Rules added teh Size L damage back in. So, Bastard swords with exotic prof do 1-10, 2-16 to size L, Greatswords do 2-12, 3-18 to size L. Longswords with exotic do 1-12 to size L.
Good flavor and actually makes the EWP for martial weapons worth something.
==Aerlyinth
Vital Strike is a bad investment....unless...you are a mounted lancer and you have a whole bunch of feats that you don't know what to do with (happens infrequently).
Whirlwind Attack is not a bad investment....but it isn't a good one either. It takes too many feats to get into it, and it is a pain to set up to be really effective. There are much better feats that you can snag that will benefit you more.
Cleave is not a bad investment...but train out of it later. As soon as you can launch three attacks per round, you won't use Cleave..like ever. And, Great Cleave is even less fantastic. Not to mention the fact that if your GM allows the NPCs to have half a brain, they are all going to be trying to flank you, and in order for cleave to work, they need to be standing in a connected formation for you. For these reasons, and more, I see Cleave as a feat for levels 1-4 and get out of it after that.
Weapon Master Variant - I personally don't like it. It takes away too many good perks from the fighter and replaces them with...not so great perks. Now, if your intent is to only take 4 levels of fighter...Weapon Master is the bomb. If you are planning on riding the fighter all the way to level 20, the core fighter comes out stronger.