Hi All.
I've been working on a reach weapon fighter build. It's for a PbP living world, in which I'll be starting at level 1, so I'm only really concerned with the first 5 or so levels (since it'll take me ~a year to get that high). I'm mainly wondering about the order of feats - I am leaning towards Weapon Focus over Power Attack at level 1, since I'd prefer to be hitting as often as possible. Having never played this sort of build, I'm wondering just how much use I'll get out of Combat Reflexes out of the gate (my guess is a lot, but I could see switching it and Power Attack). Also, I'm a bit wishy-washy on the third level feat - should I take Toughness over Dodge? Cleave? Something else? Thoughts on this and anything else are welcome. Also, I'm pretty set on the stats - I'm not tanking Int and Cha beyond what I've listed.
Half-elf
Fighter (Weapon Specialist (Fauchard))
20-point buy
str: 19 (13) +2 racial
dex: 14 (5)
con: 14 (5)
int: 8 (-2)
wis: 10 (0)
cha: 9 (-1)
Racial Traits:
- Ancestral Arms: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fauchard)
Feats:
- Weapon Focus (Fauchard) (lvl 1)
- Combat Reflexes (fighter bonus - lvl 1)
- Power Attack (fighter lvl 2)
- Dodge (lvl 3)
- Weapon Specialization (fighter lvl 4)
- Iron Will (lvl 5)
Traits:
- Indomitable Faith (+1 Will Save)
- Undecided (Failed Apprentice, Anatomist, or possibly adopted to get me Militant Merchant)
If you're going reach fighter, why not focus on tripping? You'd have to tweak your point buy, but you could have Combat Expertise and Improved Trip at 1st level.
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One of the best things you could do with this build is making it a Polearm master with Trip. We've got a guy in our group doing a blast with it.
Your goal isn't to go and hit a lot, but to wait for the enemies to come and get you so that you can make things ugly for them. It's a bit hard to build though, since tripping a lot means sacrificing damage at lower levels, but it makes for great battlefield control since you can also trip on your attacks of oppurtnity and readied attacks - which both gain special attack bonuses, in addition to your normal level 5 bonuses when whielding a lance. Our level 11 fighter got something like +27 to hit on a trip, +30 on an attack of opportunity. So he trips the guys coming (they provoke from us by moving AND falling), and power attacks the hell out of them when they get up (and also provoke from us again) since he got 4 attacks of opportunity per round.
With shield of swings, he can also gain +4 AC without penalty when he uses a full-round attack with only trip attempts. Combat patrol is awesome too, but you need to find quickly a way to get a better base speed to make use of it. Too bad the prererequisites are harsh... fortunately, with Heirloom weapon, you can get Greater Trip later and get Power attack sooner without suffering toomuch from it.
Beware, this is a bit of a one-trick pony, even if it can deal honorable damage easily (Keen fauchard = 15-20x2, so you have 1/4 chance to auto-hit with a trip or an attack).
Half-elf
Fighter (Polearm Master)
20-point buy
str: 18 (+4) +2 racial
dex: 14 (+2)
con: 12 (+1)
int: 13 (+1)
wis: 12 (+1)
cha: 8 (-1)
Racial Traits:
- Ancestral Arms: Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Fauchard)
Feats:
- Combat Reflexes (lvl 1)
- Combat Expertise (fighter bonus - lvl 1)
- Improved Trip (fighter lvl 2)
- Power Attack (lvl 3)
- Dodge (fighter lvl 4)
- Mobility (lvl 5)
....
- Combat Patrol (fighter lvl 6)
- Greater Trip or Weapon Focus (lvl 7) (Basically, focusing a bit on ALL attacks or heavily on trips only. Remember a prone creature has -4 to AC... including when they get up.)
Traits:
- Heirloom Weapon (+2 to trip with your weapon/+1 to hit with it on an opportunity)
- (Failed Apprentice, Anatomist, or possibly adopted to get me Militant Merchant)
I have considered focusing on trip. My main concerns were the ones mentioned by you guys: it means bumping intelligence, which wonks my stats a bit, and it peaks a bit later than a pure damage approach, which is kind of important in this case, since, given the nature of PbP, it's going to be a while before I see lvl 7+. Both your comments have made me rethink this direction, however.
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I have considered focusing on trip. My main concerns were the ones mentioned by you guys: it means bumping intelligence, which wonks my stats a bit, and it peaks a bit later than a pure damage approach, which is kind of important in this case, since, given the nature of PbP, it's going to be a while before I see lvl 7+. Both your comments have made me rethink this direction, however.
You can always consider going Two-handed fighter, and use a reach weapon if damage/reach is just what you need.
So would you rate the Two-Handed archetype over Weapon Master? In looking at it, the increased versatility of not having to rely on a single weapon is nice; I was mainly looking at Weapon Master for the early Weapon Training.
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So would you rate the Two-Handed archetype over Weapon Master? In looking at it, the increased versatility of not having to rely on a single weapon is nice; I was mainly looking at Weapon Master for the early Weapon Training.
Not really, but if you wish to deal a lot of damage, then Two-handed, even if less versatile, seems a better way to go.
Let's say you go with :20
12
15
8
12
8
Then at 4th level, you are doing with a +1 guisarme, on a single attack with PA and Weapon Specialization : 1d10+ (1+10+6+2) = 1d10+19 damage, 18-20x2.
It all depends on what you wish to do with your weapon, but damage wise, it's the best you can get without any buff or barbarian level.
(Keen fauchard = 15-20x2, so you have 1/4 chance to auto-hit with a trip or an attack).
I'm pretty sure that you don't auto-hit except on a 20, even if you have an extended threat range.