All fighters have some weaknesses. They have bad saves, too few skills and no out of combat abilities. The unbreakable is no exception.
I would suggest he sticks with the fighter till level 4 to get weapon specialization and then bails out to take levels a stronger, more versatile class.
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Umbranus, what's not versatile about a feat every level? Especially for something as feat-intensive as a sword & board build? There's a lot of shield feats to get.
The Unbreakable is most often used as a dip, but it's a perfectly good archetype. Certainly if there's going to be a lot of saves to be made, it's a strong choice. Stalwart in particular is a nice ability - much more useful than the Reflex save equivalent.
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For the fighter to use what makes him viable (things like weapon spec) means to specialize in certain weapons which is the opposite to versatile.
But what I really meant was versatility in different areas of gaming. fighters can (who would guess) fight. And they are fairly ok with that. But they can not do anything apart from fighting. At least not in a meaningful grade.
Ultimately his char will be harder to kill than the other melees. If he sticks with it hell get rerolls of his saves or in somecases get to ignore stuff while its killing him.
Ultumately he's still a fighter he has feats.and sword and board is feat intensive. Given the nature of carrion crown I think its a goodn archetype. Additionally, sword and board has a good chunk of control in it.
If you ever run I to stuff that does ming controll or a lot of other things he's probably far more likely ro make his save than the other martials.
fighters can dabble fairly painlessly in other areas (a bit more skill-focused via tactician and lore warden, mounted combat from dragoon, pretend barbarian with viking, pretend monk with unarmed and brawler), but yeah, fighting never leaves the forefront of their abilities.
unbreakable trades out all of its weapon and armor trainings for two bonus feats (heroic defiance/recovery) and a scaling bonus to will saves (the other abilities come in very late), as well as a speed increase on recovering from fatigue. that's a lot to lose, and one of the main reasons folks will usually dip 2 or so and go into something like barbarian or ranger.
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No, you don't trade out all your armor training. You still keep your first two bits of armor training. Those are the ones that get the speed boosts for med and heavy armor.
I played one in a homebrew game as a method of prestiging into Stalwart Defender. I never got Heroic Defiance, which is sad, because that is an excellent ability. My character was very, very, VERY hard for the DM to kill, (and my DM aims to kill sometimes.) He finally died after taking two consecutive critical hits from a Zen Archer Giant that managed to ignore his light fortification armor each time.
I went for a reach-trip build. Fun times while it lasted. My AC was high. I failed Fort saves only on a 1. I took Iron Will so I wouldn't kill my own party (even with the mind-control save boost, you want Iron Will.)
You trade out your extra weapon bonuses in exchange for resiliency. You start out with effectively twice the hit points you normally do, even if it's risky.
You WILL do less damage that a straight up fighter and some of the more forceful archetypes, but you WILL be hard to take down. It's not too hard to have decent damage even if all you have going for you is full BAB and a high STR. Fighter feats are still available, of course, so Weapon Spec and the like can still boost your damage output.
Sword and Board is probably better for the archetype than what I used.
i could see that, unbreakable sword and board fighter (esp. with a defiant weapon) would be all kinds of annoying to put down.
especially a dwarf one (because dat con bonus and steel soul + glory of old trait)
The unbreakable archetypes is great for Gishes since low HP can end with the Gish unluckily in negative HP if a good hit comes in. Being able to quickened Vanish or Quickened dimension door is invaluable for not dying and being able to spend next round casting Devils Blood from a wand or drinking a potion.
At low levels the unbreakable Archetype is a decent way to be the front line two-handed fighter who just doesn't die, but this steadily loses its luster when iterative attacks come into play. Having a free extra 18hp where you can act is nothing to be scoffed at when you power-attack for 11-23 damage with that big two-handed great-axe.
Samurai does it alot better from resolve.(rerolls and ignoring conditions)
Challenge is more burst damage but selectable for priority targets.
Gets more skills, a full animal companion, Katana and Wazaksashi.
Just a better, John Mclain.
I can second that. The ability to negate the critical part of a critical hit (by spending a point of resolve) at ninth level is also pretty awesome.
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The Unbreakable Fighter is...interesting. It gives what people say gives the Fighter an edge (higher single target damage output than many classes) for a set of abilities that basically make you indestructible.
Dammit, I was just talking to someone about some Feat or Feats you can take that can make a pretty badass "Unstoppable Warrior" type of guy, but I can't for the life of me think of what they are.
Oh! Tenacious Survivor, that's what it was.
Orc/Half-Orc, requires Endurance and Die Hard (which they get at 1st level for free). Basically lets you die, but still be healed by magic for a number of rounds equal to your Con mod.
So say you have 16 Con and get knocked to -16, somebody can slap a Cure Moderate on you and you're right as rain (with a negative level, but it's better than being dead and having to make a new guy or shell out for Raise Dead and the like).
Combine that with the Deathless line of Feats (can fight unhindered and even GAIN BONUSES below 0 HP) and you've got a pretty badass guy. Go full Orc and you can grab the Favored Class Bonus that lets you get +2 to your effective Con score to determine when you die, and you can have a guy that can keep on trucking for -20+Con and gain bonuses while below 0 HP, and can be healed even when he hits that point by regular healing spells.
Admittedly, this is all possible with the regular Fighter, at higher combat effectiveness (once you get the 2 Feat prereq out of the way), but they don't get Stalwart and better Will saves (Unflinching is infinitely better than Bravery), so it's a trade-off.
Samurai does it a lot better from resolve.(rerolls and ignoring conditions)
Challenge is more burst damage but selectable for priority targets.
Gets more skills, a full animal companion, Katana and Wazaksashi.Just a better, John Mclain.
Multiclass the two. S'all good.
I have an unbreakable fighter in my game. The heroic recovery/defiance turned out to be very powerful abilities where he can reroll or push back a debilitating effect more than once per day.
He takes a licking and keeps on ticking.
I think tha paladin and the barbarian( if he takes sup. That is) is gonna be at leaset as had to take Down as the figther. The figther gives up the thing that gives Fighters better DPR than warriors and gives him somthing that is cool but IMOP a not so good deal. In a friendly game i dont think it have to be an issue. But i think te paladin and the barbarian does the unstoppable thing better, and for free.
Side question: How the heck is your party not steam-rolling through that AP when you have 7 players... Are you just adding more enemies?
I one real issue with "Tank" characters in Table Top. They usually have no way to MAKE enemies hit them. They are super hard to hit/kill and usually hit for less damage... so most of the time enemies just ignore them and go for the DPS. Of course if your the DM you can fix that by actually attacking him. It was the only thing I liked about 4th ed. Tanks where viable because they had Taunt Mechanics.
The Unbreakable Fighter is...interesting. It gives what people say gives the Fighter an edge (higher single target damage output than many classes) for a set of abilities that basically make you indestructible.
Dammit, I was just talking to someone about some Feat or Feats you can take that can make a pretty badass "Unstoppable Warrior" type of guy, but I can't for the life of me think of what they are.
Oh! Tenacious Survivor, that's what it was.
Orc/Half-Orc, requires Endurance and Die Hard (which they get at 1st level for free). Basically lets you die, but still be healed by magic for a number of rounds equal to your Con mod.
So say you have 16 Con and get knocked to -16, somebody can slap a Cure Moderate on you and you're right as rain (with a negative level, but it's better than being dead and having to make a new guy or shell out for Raise Dead and the like).
Combine that with the Deathless line of Feats (can fight unhindered and even GAIN BONUSES below 0 HP) and you've got a pretty badass guy. Go full Orc and you can grab the Favored Class Bonus that lets you get +2 to your effective Con score to determine when you die, and you can have a guy that can keep on trucking for -20+Con and gain bonuses while below 0 HP, and can be healed even when he hits that point by regular healing spells.
Admittedly, this is all possible with the regular Fighter, at higher combat effectiveness (once you get the 2 Feat prereq out of the way), but they don't get Stalwart and better Will saves (Unflinching is infinitely better than Bravery), so it's a trade-off.
Multiclass the two. S'all good.Samurai does it a lot better from resolve.(rerolls and ignoring conditions)
Challenge is more burst damage but selectable for priority targets.
Gets more skills, a full animal companion, Katana and Wazaksashi.Just a better, John Mclain.
to add more ideas to your 'impossible to kill' unbreakable fighter: the combat expertise, stalwart, and improved stalwart feats would be helpful, as would iron will, and a defiant weapon.