How are you for resources?
Enchanting your armor and shield are both pretty cheap options starting at 1000 gp each.
Rings of Protection and Amulets of Natural armor are the goto for basic enhancement to your armor class for magical items, and they start at 2000 gp for a +1 bonus.
I'd start there.
As of right now I have 3,016 gold. I'm using a dwarven war axe with an attack bonus of +10 crits are x3 and I'm doing 1 d10 +6 damage. My feats include weapon focus, and weapon specialization. Also used weapon training for axes.
Biggest bonus, assuming you're currently using masterwork armor and in a city where you can find someone to enchant your armor (Or even not assuming that, really), is to spend 2000 gp to get a +1 enchantment on your armor and shield for a net +2 AC.
MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.
Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
Who else is in your group? If you are tanking and keeping everyone else safe via your AC, then get the Druid to spend a spell slot casting Barkskin on you before a "known combat situation" (such as entering any kind of dungeon or scenario where you expect to be attacks or do the attacking).
If someone casts Haste your AC goes up by 1. Reduce Person increases your AC, though you'll lose a tiny bit of damage.
Don't forget about the 4,000k Ioun Stone that gives a +1 insight bonus to AC when you have money for it down the line.
As was already suggested, the feat Ironhide is great. Once you have that, you can take the feat "Improved Natural Armor" from the Bestiary as many times as you want, which might be a decent amount considering all your fighter bonus feats.
If you want to get super-cheesy you can also eventually get Armor Spikes and give them the Defending enchantment (this is probably not something feasible till level 9 or so at least, due to wealth and putting money other places for more effect).
Dodge and Mobility are nice. At some point you'll fight creatures with long enough reach to take Attacks of Opportunity as you try to move into position. The +4 AC from Mobility is nice to have in those moments. The +1 AC from Dodge is always nice as well.
Getting spells on you that give you miss chance is just as good and sometimes much better than a high AC. At some point a cloak of displacement or something like that might be a great investment even if you have jacked AC.
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Note that Full Plate has a Maximum Dexterity Bonus cap of +1. You can get that to +2 with the fighter's armor training, but you lose that final +1 from your Dex until you take Fighter 7 and get Armor Training 2.
And as others have noted, don't worry too much about jacking AC way high or monsters will just ignore you.
I disagree that monsters will ignore you. High Int monsters might ignore you AFTER a few attempts at hitting you, but most monsters will just swing harder.
Any monster that doesn't really think highly of its combat ability (read: monsters that don't like melee usually ANYWAYS) might not bother with you at all seeing your full plate, but the majority of melee oriented bad guys aren't usually in the habit of soaking AoOs to get by someone or ignoring someone doing decent damage just because they have heavy armor on.
This, in the end as all things do, comes down to your DM. If he is ignoring you outright much of the time because of your AC, stop jacking your AC up and work on your damage or battlefield control instead.
and a rouge
When did a color become a class?
Rogue is the one I think you are looking for. ;D
I'm playing with a ranger, Druid, bard, sorcerer, and a rouge
You should ask the Rouge not to play as a cosmetic item. A Rogue might be more useful :p (totally ninja'd by Abe)
The druid could be dropping Barkskin on you. The Bard could drop some Heroisms (when he gets the spell) on melee'rs whenever he can. (We have a bard in our group that just puts Heroism on everyone....it's a huge buff, especially when he sings as well, though admittedly this is at slightly higher levels). The Sorcerer will be able to cast Haste at 6th level.
Now, I'm NOT advocating that you should tell other people how to build and play their characters. I'm just pointing out what people COULD do. If your role in the group is to jump up front and soak up attacks, then it's totally reasonable that you ask the other characters for some buffs. It's probably in their best interest for you to be as awesome as possible at your job.
PS - Barkskin stacks with any natural armor you have, but not with Amulet of Natural armor (the amulet gives an enhancement bonus to NA, which is the same thing that Barkskin gives). If the Druid is going to be dropping Barkskin on ya, it might be wise to spend money on a Ring of Protection or armor and shield enhancements before on an amulet of natural armor.
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If a monster has two targets--one that's hitting it for good damage and another that's doing less but is harder to hit--it will go after the more threatening target. Now, I'm not saying ignore AC entirely, but if you spend all your resources on AC then your damage output will suffer, and that makes you a target worth ignoring. A turtle is hard to kill, but not nearly as threatening as a bobcat...make yourself an alligator snapping turtle and that's a whole different story.
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Note that Full Plate has a Maximum Dexterity Bonus cap of +1. You can get that to +2 with the fighter's armor training, but you lose that final +1 from your Dex until you take Fighter 7 and get Armor Training 2.
And as others have noted, don't worry too much about jacking AC way high or monsters will just ignore you.
Alternatively, get some Mithral Fullplate. That gets the max Dex 2 higher than base.
If a monster has two targets--one that's hitting it for good damage and another that's doing less but is harder to hit--it will go after the more threatening target. Now, I'm not saying ignore AC entirely, but if you spend all your resources on AC then your damage output will suffer, and that makes you a target worth ignoring. A turtle is hard to kill, but not nearly as threatening as a bobcat...make yourself an alligator snapping turtle and that's a whole different story.
You're correct on that. If you have other people who get into melee at the same time and with the same target as you, and they are doing better damage than your character, then yeah you'll get ignored.
If your the party's only real front-liner, it's a much safer bet to focus on your AC. As your proximity alone will make you the target a majority of the time.
That's a good point, Sueda.
You know I've always believed Duelists made the best tanks, get yourself an absurdly high AC and the highest attack bonus possible and monsters can't even hit your party members if they try, let alone you. Sure 4-5 monsters with three attacks each will avoid your parry, but they'll probably miss on those last attacks anyway. (yeah I know this is something you have to build toward early and doesn't really work until 8th level but still)
You know I've always believed Duelists made the best tanks, get yourself an absurdly high AC and the highest attack bonus possible and monsters can't even hit your party members if they try, let alone you. Sure 4-5 monsters with three attacks each will avoid your parry, but they'll probably miss on those last attacks anyway. (yeah I know this is something you have to build toward early and doesn't really work until 8th level but still)
How viable would using the parry for your allies really be?
Figure that the kinds of things that are worth using it probably have an attack roll that's pretty on par with the duellist's, toss in the -4 for using it for an ally, and often one or more additional -4's for going up against something bigger... and keeping in mind that you're using the same bonus as the attack you gave up, i.e. your later parries are lower...
It's a neat ability but relative to the value of attacking it feels a little marginal in most situations. On the other hand, it seems pretty awesome vs. monsters with only one very scary attack like a T-Rex or dread wraith.
Well the nice thing is you only have to parry what actually hits so any attack that will miss is one that you don't have to worry about.
Well the nice thing is you only have to parry what actually hits so any attack that will miss is one that you don't have to worry about.
Correct, and if you pump to-hit to the exclusion of silly things like damage you can make up the -4, yes larger creatures are more of a pain but its still more effective then just about any other style of tanking.
Well the nice thing is you only have to parry what actually hits so any attack that will miss is one that you don't have to worry about.Correct, and if you pump to-hit to the exclusion of silly things like damage you can make up the -4, yes larger creatures are more of a pain but its still more effective then just about any other style of tanking.
Well you could go for the combat patrol in harm's way masochistic paladin route... but I'm not sure that's much better.
Also parry isn't single weapon exclusive like a lot of other duelist abilities so you could two weapon fight with it to get more attacks to parry with. Another option on this front would be to play a monk to 8th level and then go into duelist and parry with a flurry of blows.
The nice thing about parry is at higher levels it actually becomes a means of dealing damage too with the riposte ability.
Well you could go for the combat patrol in harm's way masochistic paladin route... but I'm not sure that's much better.
Also parry isn't single weapon exclusive like a lot of other duelist abilities so you could two weapon fight with it to get more attacks to parry with. Another option on this front would be to play a monk to 8th level and then go into duelist and parry with a flurry of blows.
The nice thing about parry is at higher levels it actually becomes a means of dealing damage too with the riposte ability.
See this guy gets it! My current one went TWF he's only 9th level though. Monk flurry would be nice but it is hurting your attack bonus (3/4 BAB) more then going a full BAB class.
Mix riposte with a bleeding weapon/bleeding critical and you actually start contributing to damage. I have wanted to do the in harms way thing though... never sure how well it would work.
In addition to the feats, there's a trait which can help:
Defender of the Society (Fighter, Pathfinder Society)
Your time spent fighting and studying the greatest warriors of the Society has taught you new defensive skills while wearing armor.
Benefit: You gain a +1 trait bonus to Armor Class when wearing medium or heavy armor.
Of course this assumes both that you use traits and can obtain Pathfinder Society membership.
However it is a cheap piece of AC.
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MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
there are various ways to get a huge bonus to crit confirmation.
But i always forget about crit confirmations, my groups never use them. if you hit them, and its a crit you deal crit damage.
MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
there are various ways to get a huge bonus to crit confirmation.
But i always forget about crit confirmations, my groups never use them. if you hit them, and its a crit you deal crit damage.
My group used to do that until we realized it didnt make any sense that if a commoner hurt a dragon it was always with their most powerful strike.
MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
I generally rely on a high AC to protect me from crits. I generally don't have it fail. It did once though, spectacularly back in 3.5.
My tank fighter was taking on a stone giant wielding a warhammer. Being a dwarf using expertise I figured I was set AC wise. I was already down to 50 HP, but I figured I could weather the storm out on the front line.
Of course the Giant then critted me and confirmed it, doing well over 100 damage. Splat. The giant needed a 20 to crit and a 19+ to confirm.
MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
there are various ways to get a huge bonus to crit confirmation.
But i always forget about crit confirmations, my groups never use them. if you hit them, and its a crit you deal crit damage.
Does everyone use Falchions, Falcatas, Kukri, Scimitars, Rapiers, and Elven Curve Blades?
I'd hate to have BBEGs with Keen Falcatas comin' at me under those rules.
Also is there a way to increase to critical range with a weapon, like the falcion I believe crits on an 18?
Keen weapon enchantment or improved critical feat
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MAke sure to get a form of fortification on your armor as soon as possible. High AC is a trap unless you have fortification to negate crits.Call me crazy, but high AC does negate crits.
Rolling a natural 20 to hit you does a monster no good if they can only confirm on a 20 anyways, unless your GM is phenominally lucky.
there are various ways to get a huge bonus to crit confirmation.
But i always forget about crit confirmations, my groups never use them. if you hit them, and its a crit you deal crit damage.
Does everyone use Falchions, Falcatas, Kukri, Scimitars, Rapiers, and Elven Curve Blades?
I'd hate to have BBEGs with Keen Falcatas comin' at me under those rules.
we havent played pathfinder in about a year.
scimitars got used more often. no one ever bothered with the others. they'd rather use great swords or scythes