Need help deciding on a good fighter build.

[Hinzomatic]

I'm looking for some good, post-APG fighter builds. I've spent hours and hours going through the forums and I've gotten a lot of good ideas. The problem I'm having is that there are so many options as far as feats go, that I'm having a hard time deciding on a fun, effective build.

To those of you who've played PF Fighters, what has been fun for all of you? The campaign I'll be playing in allows the Core Rulebook, and the APG. No 3.5 sources.

I know this kind of question has been asked before, but nothing I've read is as comprehensive as I'm looking for.

[Sylvanite]

I love archers. You don't even need to go with the special archetype. Just a base class archer will be really good with all the feats around for it.

I also love "tank style" builds that use shield bashes. They're pretty fun.

A two-handed falchion build is always popular.

A reach build with combat patrol is also something I enjoy.

What are you looking for? Just saying a Fighter build tells us nothing. What do you want to do? Are you starting at level 1? What is party composition?

[Turgan]

A simple advice for almost every fighter build: Take Iron Will.
Might be a boring choice, but if if you're out of combat because you did not make your save that's even more boring.
I'm not very fond of Dwarves, but if you want to be a real defensive tank they are good. There's one feat in the APG that doubles their racial bonus vs. spells, spell-like abilities and poison, so you get a +4 to the most saves. Get a cheap cloak of resistance.

In actual game play I have to make a lot saving throws, so it's very important. At least in my experience.

I think Falcata and Shield would be a good option for that dwarf. Normally everyone would then consider two-weapon fighting with shield to enhance damage output (which it does), but it's not that important I think. Without it you always hit with PA. Get Dodge and Shield Focus and good Armour and Shield and never get hit. Laugh at Save DCs (but don't roll 1s!). Excellent CMD vs. trip.

As Sylvanite mentioned the archer is a superb option. Your opponent is flying? Never mind. Full Attack all the time. But for an archer I would rather recommend the zen archer. The Damage output might be slightly smaller, but he gets such a lot of extra goodies, superb Touch AC, CMD, Saves, even a good AC...

[Kamelguru]

Depends entirely on the casters in your party.

Have an arcane caster that is gonna go for Haste? 2 handed weapons are your friends.

Have a buffer that gets your attack and damage bonuses up by 5? Then builds with many attacks is the way to go.

Got a caster willing to take Craft Magic Arms & Armor? Shield bash is suddenly one of the best options, as it is cheaper to enchant, and as soon as you hit 11, you will have a +5 weapon for half the price.

Got blasters(eww...)? Might benefit from builds that focus on hitting many people, or archery to stay clear of the fireworks.

And yeah, getting your will save up is usually a good idea. I am all about passive bonuses that help you often.

[MendedWall12]

You want some specifics? I have a member of one of my groups that has built a fighter that is absolutely owning in every combat situation he's been put in.

Relevant material: This character is currently level 5.
Half-orc put your starting (+2) and level 4 ability bonuses into strength.
Use the two-handed fighter archetype from the APG.
Weapon = Greatsword (hopefully you can pick up a magical one at some point)
At level five here are the feats: Iron Will, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Cleave, Weapon Focus Greatsword, Weapon Specialization Greatsword.
Take Heavy Blades with Weapon Training.
Armor Training 1 gets replaced with Overhand Chop, wherein you get double your strength bonus to damage on a single attack, or at the end of a charge.

Here's how he owns in combat. Power attack (at current level takes a -2 to hit but gets a +6 bonus to damage because he's attacking with a two-handed weapon) in conjunction with Overhand Chop (now you add double your strength bonus to damage (even if you point buy, if you put the relevant ability bonuses in strength at character creation, and at level 4 you should be able to get a strength of 18 (or above) which means you're doing minimum 2d6 +14 damage if you hit)). When this guy crits on a Power Attack/Overhand Chop, it's light's out.

Edit: I forgot to add in the +2 from weapon specialization, and the +1 from weapon training (heavy blades) which means in the above scenario it's actually 2d6 +17 damage. Like I said, when he crits it's lights out.

[blaznee]

I don't have his specific build with me here, but I have a character in my party that has 6 levels of fighter and 2 levels of Barbarian, and he's a dwarf.

WHen he power attacks he has something like +36 on his damage.. It's pretty insane.. When he's hasted and gets 3 attacks, he can down a BBEG i one round, and his crits are *3, so do the math :S

I've even had to device my tactics around him now. Rarely attacking him as he has the best AC in the group, he has the most hitpoints by far, he's the most likely to hit me and he does the most damage by FAR.
He's pretty imbalanced it seems, but I haven't found any faults in his build.

To make it interesting for the rest, I attack them instead and the tension comes from whether or not the Dwarf can down the monsters fast enough for everyone to survive.

[STR Ranger]

Me? Two Weapon Warrior archetype (either dual weapons or Wpn/shield)
is pretty awesome. You need following step and combat reflexes. Since it can TWF as a standard action or AOO, you should build it around getting sticky and AOO'S.

[Jiggy]

I'm actually playing my very first Fighter, and I'm going for a combat maneuver specialist of sorts. Currently first level, he's got Dodge, Combat Expertise, and Improved Disarm. I'll probably take Improved Trip at level 2. Using a Flail (and a shield), I have a +9 vs CMD to disarm. At level 2, I'll have a +10 to disarm, and a +8 to Trip. Those particular combat maneuvers can replace melee attacks, which means I can disarm/trip on an AoO, and better yet (down the road a few levels) during a Whirlwind Attack.

I haven't played enough to know if this is optimal min-maxing, but it can sure be fun in the right circumstances. It helps with diplomacy if you can disarm the misguided souls who attack you but need to be your friends.