a friend of mine knows that i love to theorycraft pathfinder characters, and posed a challenge to me that i honestly am having difficulty with. He wants me to find a way to make a viable dagger-wielding dexterity based fighter that runs into fights headfirst and doesnt die, basically what he wants is a Rogue that can toe-to-toe enemies, rather than rely completely on allies and sneak attack to function. my initial thoughts were a heavily armored pointblank, precise shot, improved snap shot, combat reflexes fighter that went in round 1 and threw half a dozen daggers with Hammer the Gap, pulled aggro on the whole room, snapshotted everything that moved into range to hit him, then turtled up and let his friends pick off anything still living, but he says he wants it to be a pure melee dps style build, so no throwing daggers.
i have a few more ideas, but id like to see if theres anything that ive not thought of that you all can come up with to make this viable, so im asking here before i send him any more ideas. you basically have a clean slate, but try and keep builds under level 12, and it HAS to be a pure fighter using dexterity wielding some from of finesse weapon, preferable daggers/kurki/wakaizashi
a friend of mine knows that i love to theorycraft pathfinder characters, and posed a challenge to me that i honestly am having difficulty with. He wants me to find a way to make a viable dagger-wielding dexterity based fighter that runs into fights headfirst and doesnt die, basically what he wants is a Rogue that can toe-to-toe enemies, rather than rely completely on allies and sneak attack to function. my initial thoughts were a heavily armored pointblank, precise shot, improved snap shot, combat reflexes fighter that went in round 1 and threw half a dozen daggers with Hammer the Gap, pulled aggro on the whole room, snapshotted everything that moved into range to hit him, then turtled up and let his friends pick off anything still living, but he says he wants it to be a pure melee dps style build, so no throwing daggers.
i have a few more ideas, but id like to see if theres anything that ive not thought of that you all can come up with to make this viable, so im asking here before i send him any more ideas. you basically have a clean slate, but try and keep builds under level 12, and it HAS to be a pure fighter using dexterity wielding some from of finesse weapon, preferable daggers/kurki/wakaizashi
1) Does he have to be human?
2) Does he have to wield daggers, or can use close weapons and/or unarmed attacks instead?
3) How much can gear play a role in the character build?
I've got a couple of pretty great options for you, depending on the answers to these questions.
no, yes, one of the three (daggers/kukri/wakaizashi), as much as it needs to, or as little.
no, yes, one of the three (daggers/kukri/wakaizashi), as much as it needs to, or as little.
Let me point you towards the Battlesnake build that someone in our group put together. Since this original posting its been significantly tweaked and improved upon, and also adapted for a goblin character for whom it was particularly well suited. While I think the build works better as an unarmed character, you can use punching daggers instead which really makes for a cool image/concept.
Glance at it and see what you think. If you like some of the core concepts, I'd be happy to try and rebuild it to your specifications. The character is really, really great and a lot of fun to play and as an unarmed fighter is truly devastating.
EDIT:
Shooting from the hip, this is what the character might look like (threw it together at work, so bare with me):
Human 2nd level Monk (Master of Many Styles) / 10th level Fighter (Brawler)
Attributes: (20 point buy)
STR - 12
DEX - 16 (+2 racial modifier, +1 at 4th, 8th, 12th)
CON - 16
INT - 12
WIS - 8
CHA - 8
Traits:
River Rat (+1 damage with daggers)
Well Hidden (+1 Will saves)
Feats:
1st - Weapon Finesse
1st - Two-Weapon Fighting
1st - Weapon Focus: Punching Dagger
2nd - Improved Unarmed Strike
2nd - Stunning Fist
2nd - Snake Style
3rd - Snake Fang
3rd - Combat Reflexes
4th - Dodge
5th - Crane Style
6th - Crane Wing
7th - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
8th - Piranha Strike
9th - Crane Riposte
10th - Greater Weapon Focus: Punching Dagger
11th - Stand Still
12th - Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
Again, the character is almost impossible to hit and gains a lot of additional attacks because of it. Using weapons he doesn't gain the benefits of Brawling armor (which is nice) and can't use a shield... and its going to cost a bit for him to get two weapons with the Agile trait, but when he does, look out. Keen is another preferred enhancement (punch dagger x3 crit). The Monk levels come at 2nd and 3rd and bring with them a lot of benefits including improved saves and evasion. The character is a nightmare when he gets within melee range of an enemy spellcaster.
With lower Charisma and Wisdom, I'd run him as a vicious fighter who tends to look before he leaps and doesn't mind in the slightest making those around him uncomfortable. He's tough as nails and isn't afraid of anyone or anything.
after some deliberation it seems that he only wants to play a Dagger wielding fighter, but thank yall for the ideas, hes going to go with something similar to the first build posted, a str-based twf with daggers.