I am making a foehammer for rise of the ruin lords camp that is coming up and I was hoping to find some advice here.
My search-fu seemed weak and I figured posted was the best way to get help.
I am heavily considering hammer and shield for the build to take advantage of the free bullrush and trip attempts, but any build ideas would be helpful.
Bullrushing into battle is very good for being, a bully. Not to mention there are feats that allow one to later on, knock foes down as well as bullrush with their first attack in an attack action. You could go shield or no shield but sticking strictly with a hammer this is what I'd get:
Feats to get:
1st lvl: Power Attack and Improved Bullrush
2nd lvl: Shield of Swings
3rd lvl:Weapon Focus: Hammer
4th lvl:Improved Overrun
5thlvl: Charge Through
6th lvl: Greater BullRush
7th lvl: Quick Bullrush
8th lvl: Greater Overrun
(Note: Charge Through and Shield of Swings is from the Advanced Player's Handbook, Quick Bullrush is from Ultimate Combat and the rest are from the Core Book.)
If you are a non-human Fighter, this should carry you through to Level 8, Feat wise. I personally don't know much about the Rise of the Rune Lords (assuming its an adventure module) other than it has something to do about some guys called Rune Lords and their "rising".
If you are human, than I suggest getting Combat Reflexes for your feat. It will help with all the Opp attacks you'll get when knocking folks down. Alternatively you could go the shield/hammer route. In which case you can swich the following:
2nd lvl: Improved Shield Bash
3rd lvl: Two-weapon Fighting
7thl lvl: Shield Slam
I hope this was of some help.
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Foehammer is specifically for dwarven fighters.
Your input is appreciated.
My rough idea was this list of feats
Power attack TWF
expertise
improved bullrush
improved shield bash
improved trip
greater trip
Shield slam
improved twf
Combat reflexes
greater bullrush
shield master
hammer the gap (uc)
disruptive
spellbreaker
shatterspell (AR)
shield spec
missle shield
ray shield (apg)
tripping strike
bashing finish
Ah, am I correct in assuming Foehammer is from the Advance Races Guide? I unfortunately do not own this book due to a bought of unemployment, else I would have purchased a copy as soon as I saw it on the shelf (at local comic /gaming shop).
So all I had to go off of was the name Foehammer. I personally invisioned dwarf fighter with a hammer who just barrells into combat smashing into and through enemies like an angry football player/rail road worker. Though I am not aware of any hammers that have tripping qualities, I suppose if there is a race that is not going to be tripped back, it is the dwarf.
I like your build though. Shields over all are pretty baller with some of the feats that are ubtainable.
Foehammer gets a great ability to get a trip attempt every time you succeed at a bullrush, and the best way to get a free bullrush is with a shield. I just don't think this build will do enough damage to be really threatening.
My memory may not be the best anymore, but isn't "foe hammer" the translation of Gandalf's sword "Glamdring?" And Thorin's sword was "Orcrist" which translated to "goblin cleaver".
Or is my memory all whacked out?
I believe you are correct. However I would like some info comparing 2-h foehammer to hammer and shield or maybe a way to increase my dpt on the above build.
I have heavily considered doing this with my feats instead.
levels
1 Power attack TWF
2 expertise
3 improved bullrush
4 improved shield bash
5 improved trip
6 greater trip
7 Shield slam
8 improved twf
9 Combat reflexes
10 greater bullrush
11 shield master
12 hammer the gap (uc)
13 greater twf
14 tw rend
15 step up
16 weapon focus
17 weapon spec
18 greater focus
19 greater spec
20 bashing finish
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You might also enjoy the Thunder and Fang feat.
It has been confirmed that this effectively lets you wield an earth-breaker one-handed and make another attack with the Klar (as though your bottom hand on the earth-breaker has the klar and you follow-through in some way to attack with that as well).
If you're going twf with a hammer then 2d6/1d6 damage and retaining shield bonus to AC is pretty cool.
My memory may not be the best anymore, but isn't "foe hammer" the translation of Gandalf's sword "Glamdring?" And Thorin's sword was "Orcrist" which translated to "goblin cleaver".
Or is my memory all whacked out?
Quite right, and that was what I thought of when I saw this thread. Glad I'm not the only one.
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Goblin Cleaver is the name of a dwarf-only feat as well.
Why not combine a Dwarven Longhammer and Dwarven Boulder Helmet?
You will have reach, and still threaten at 5ft.
Also, very thematic.
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Yeah, Runelords is really heavy on giants(heh) and has some goblins in it too. The foehammer is therefore a natural fit. So what do you do? Go all the way(Note: the following is an opinion and in no way answers to your request about more dpt)!
Dwarf Foehammer
Stat spread before racial mods(assuming 20 pb): 16 14 12 13 10 10
After racial mods: 16 14 14 13 12 8
Racial Traits: Darkvision, Defensive Training, Giant Hunter, Hardy, Lorekeeper, Relentless, Stonecunning(or Rock Stepper), Weapon Familiarity
Traits: Really up to you, but Militant Merchant is always a good way to get Perception as a class skill.
Feats:
1. Power Attack, Cleave
2. BF: Goblin Cleaver
3. Wpn F(dwarven longhammer)
4. Wpn Specialization
5. Combat Expertise
6. Orc Hewer
7. Imp. Bullrush
8. Imp. Trip
9. Greater Bullrush
10. Greater Trip
11. Strike Back
12. Giant Killer
13. Cleaving Finish
14. Penetrating Strike
The rest of the feats are up to you. Runelords goes up to ele...level 16 and you'll get hit by many save or sucks, so Steel Soul might be pretty cool. Alternatively, a couple of ranger levels with one of the usual high-end favored enemy picks(evil outsider, undead, etc) could be a good fit.
Anyhow, from 7th level onwards the campaign starts to become giant and ogre country and this kind of character build will really deliver some pain to those humongous foes. Putting Combat Reflexes somewhere there would be a good addition to any longhammer build, but the reach of many of the foes you'll face kind of defeats the purpose.
Considering the longhammer, make sure befohand that your GM allows either long crafting times or trips to faraway climes. Otherwise, you'll be using a +2(maximum item prize of Magnimar, the closest city, is only 8000 gp) longhammer at best. When we played RotRL, there was a long, long pause between the last two scenarios, in campaign world terms, when part of the adventurers left for Absalom via teleport while some immersed themselves in magical crafting. Magnimar was just too small for our tastes and the group's Shoanti berserker really wanted a mithril fullplate of speed. :P Alternatively, just hold on picking weapon-specific feats until you find something good.
Hope you'll get to finish the campaign. It's a hell of a ride.
Thank for the ideas.
I like thunder and fang, but I don't think it would generate the free bullrushs like a regular shield would. Otherwise that would be awesome. I am definitely remembering that for other builds.
Miser I also like this idea. I was worried about dr screwing up my dpt and taking the fighter feats that ignore dr is easy thing I missed. Thank you.
