Making a Tiefling fighter for an upcoming campaign. My stats are 17, 16,15,15,10, and 11.
I will be the only melee character in the group. I am torn between getting the Con bump from Devil-Spawn heritage or the Str bump from the Demon-Spawn heritage. I worry about either being too squishy or lagging behind in melee damage.
What do you folks suggest?
Demon-Spawn = +2 Str, +2 Cha, -2 Int; Disable Device and Perception; Shatter SLA.
Devil-Spawn = +2 Con, +2 Wis, -2 Cha; Diplomacy and Sense Motive; Pyrotechnics SLA.
FYI, Oni-Spawn = +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Cha; Disguise and Intimidate; Alter Self SLA.
And, Qlippoth-Spawn = +2 Str, +2 Wis, -2 Int; Escape Artist and Survival; Blur SLA.
Perception is the best bonus to a skill. Either Cha or Int are typical dump stats. Bonus to Wis helps with Will Saves.
I'd favor Strength if it were me. You can get a good enough Con to survive at 14-16. I'd focus on damage.
Either Oni-Spawn or Demon-Spawn would give the ability to do a bit more with Intimidate if you wanted to go that route (Oni because of the skill bonus and Demon because of the Cha boost).
If you went Oni-Spawn, your abilities could look like:
Str - 19 (17+2)
Dex - 15
Con - 16
Int - 10
Wis - 13 (11+2)
Cha - 13 (15-2), then with another +2 to Intimidate.
You'd still have a +1 to Will this way, too.
I'm going to go against the grain here and suggest you go with Devil. Since you're going to be the only person in melee range, that means you're going to be the only target and you're going to want to be tough enough to take all the full attacks that are going to come your way.
By 4th-level as a Devil-Spawn you can still wind up with an 18 strength and an 18 con, which is exactly where I'd want to be as the only person in melee range, giving you the stats to both take and receive significant melee damage.
All +2 strength gets you is an extra +1 to hit and damage, but that extra con will get you an additional hp every level. Plus, an 18 strength isn't exactly peanuts.