Dwarven Fighter Build

[DetectiveKatana]

So, a friend of mine is DMing for the first time and I'm trying to work on a fighter build that is an effective tank with some good battlefield control without being that special breed of jerk that brings something min/maxed and broken to a someone's first time as a DM.

She has set up a general rule of no archetypes or 3rd party material, just to keep things simple and is running Carrion Hill. She gave us 20 point buy and we're level 5 characters, so here's the general outline of my build.

Dwarf FIghter 5

STR 16 (with +1 at lv 4)
DEX 14
CON 14 (With racial)
INT 12
WIS 14 (With racial)
CHA 10 (With Racial)

Feats: Cosmopolitan (for flavor purposes), Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Pushing Assault, Combat Reflexes.

The skills for Cosmopolitan were going to be Sense Motive and Knowledge: Local (Since Fighter skill selection is kind'a wretched).

The idea for my character combat-wise is that he uses a reach weapon (Looking at Lucerne Hammer, because ya know, big hammer) to hold the line and then uses pushing assault to knock people around. Without spoiling Carrion Hill does this look like a build that can (with a minimum of tweaking) accomplish the following goals:

Be effective in its role as a party tank by protecting the rest of the crowd.
Be able to effectively contribute to combat.
Not be overly complicated for the DM.

I'd really appreciate any advice with regard to this, as well as any advice regarding future build options for this character. Thanks.

[Imbicatus]

You have Combat Reflexes listed twice. If you have access to the Advanced Race Guide, wear a boulder helmet so you threaten adjacent as well as reach. I would also recommend taking quickdraw and carrying some throwing axes. It will give you a ranged attack, and allow you to overcome slashing DR (Zombies).

[Democratus]

It's a well-rounded fighter. Definitely not too optimized or spiky.

You could look into the Dwarven Longhammer if you want to be thematic. But the Lucerne Hammer is also a good choice.

The Pushing Assault is good for crowd control. Good choice of feat for Combat Reflexes. You will hopefully be able to set up AOOs with your reach.

"Tanking" really isn't a thing easily done in Pathfinder as there aren't many ways for a fighter to force enemies to attack him instead of other characters. I believe there are some Paladin spells that accomplish this. So if getting "aggro" is important then the Paladin may be better suited to your task.

Other than that...looks like a bog-standard Dwarven fighting man. I'd be more than happy to have him in my party!

[TGMaxMaxer]

Take Breadth of Experience instead of Cosmopolitan. Just because being able to roll anything knowledge/profession with a +2 is very dwarven.

"Aye, I seem t' recall this here problem 'afore, what you do is"

"That there's a (insert monster here) I dinna know where they come from, but you have to hit them with a -whatever- weapon or they just heal right up on you".

[Mister Fluffykins]

You seem to be short on feats - you ought to have 6 total (2 at L1, then one every level after that); since you listed Combat Reflexes twice, you really only have four.

But, everything seems pretty all right so far. I'd recommend either picking up Dodge/Toughness at L4, or Weapon Focus. Either one is a good pick.

For level 5, I'd recommend either Weapon Specialization (if you went with Weapon Focus), Weapon Focus (if you didn't go with it), or Steel Soul (increases your dwarven bonuses vs. Spells + SLA's to a total of +4). Fighters're pretty easy to pin down with magic, but a +4 vs. all magical effects counters that pretty hard - which, without spoiling any specifics, will come in very handy with Carrion Crown.

EDIT: Two feats you might want to look into taking for future levels are Bodyguard and In Harm's Way. They're a little finnicky (since you need to be adjacent to people to use them) but fit well with the whole "tanky/bodyguard" theme.

[storyengine]

Double Combat Reflexes, oh my. My advice would be to go for combat expertise and improved trip with a halberd. Reach is a smart move for a move 20 race, but you will get more out of tripping than pushing and the new GM will gain valuable experience from learning this common mechanic.

You can trip without the feat or trip weapon of course, because provoking an attack of opportunity is meaningless when the target is 10' away.

So try maybe: power attack, cleave, combat expertise, imp trip

This way you can smack guy 1, cleave to guy 2, then trip at plus 2 with the trip reach weapon, plus 2 from imp trip and, eventually, plus 2 from greater trip.

The rest of the progression from here is greater trip, combat reflexes, felling smash, shield of swings, lunge, quick draw, cleaving finish, combat patrol. You wod need and INT of 13 for this.

Also, strongly advise the bladed belt item paired with a quickdraw shield so you can change your reach weapon to one handed battle axe and shield for better AC when the baddies get past your reach threat zone. Also, it enchants like a weapon but becomes any piercing slashing weapon so it is economical. With the keen property you will not have to get all the improved critical feats.

This build is smart and exandable and not so much optimized as built around the stalwart rooted nature of dwarves who look at peoples knees a lot. You will control the enemy's move and generate attacks of opp with greater trip when they fall, and again when they stand, not to mention the prone penalties.

[DetectiveKatana]

Thanks for all the quick reaction! I like a lot of the ideas. I'm between classes but some quick clarification...

I'm taking the hammer mostly for theme, plus the Bash/Pierce property. In that way I think the boulder helmet might be a more appropriate choice than the quick draw shield and battleaxe though I'll look into that. As for ranged attack, quick draw and throwing axes is good though I also plan on carrying a bow in case of things like Dragons. I definitely like quick draw because even though this is a pretty stalwart dwarf archetype he's also pretty quick with a 14 Dex.

As for the choice of push over trip, it was partially because of the versatility of the ability and partially because I wanted to favor STR and DEX over INT. I may change this up though, depending.

When I say Tank I don't mean in the MMO sense. I mean does he seem like he could protect the party. In this case I guess that means hold the line, and be annoying enough that he's a viable target in spite of his relatively low damage output and high armor class.

Again, thanks a bajillion for of the input.

[zauriel56]

You might want to consider taking saving shield, it allows you to grant a shield bonus of +2 to AC to an adjacent ally as an immediate action as long as you wield a shield.

[Deylinarr]

Dwarven dorn dergar with the darting viper feat is also very thematic and gives you reach and still threaten adjacent.

[bfobar]

I always recommend taking steel soul and glory of old for the large boosts to many saving throws. Also, your character is well rounded, but getting the strength higher will make a difference. If you can get it to 17, the +1 at fourth level gets you a bunch of real bonuses to hit and damage.

I have a dwarf ranger in my campaign that uses a dwarven longaxe and pushing assault. It's a pretty fun combo thematically since you can bonk enemies around the battlefield. a longhammer or lucerne hammer would work fine. I think the longhammer is a little better.

[XMorsX]

Steel Soul + Glory of Old will give you awesome saves vs spells and SLAs. I think that you should definately incorporate them in your build.

[Gherrick]

Steel Soul is a definite high-priority pick. Combat Reflexes when you have a 14 Dex is not terribly useful. IMO, Opportunity Attacks are very rare in the best of circumstances.

Also, I second the Dwarven Dorn Derger as a very flavorful and effective weapon. With Darting Viper, you can switch between reach and non-reach as a swift action. Weapon Focus/Weapon Training(flails) should give you some awesome accuracy.

More Feats to consider are Cleave and Cleaving Finish. The latter gives a free attack to a creature in reach if you land the killing/KO blow on a foe. With the DDD and Darting Viper, you could change between reach/non-reach before resolving CF.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

Dang XmorsX beat me to the Trait + feat advice for Dwarf but he forgot to add poisons to that list.

Steel Soul + Glory of Old makes your hardy Racial trait ridiculous. Glory of Old is a trait. You can also take another trait to give you the skill you wanted to get with Cosmopolitan and maybe save you a Feat slot.

Feats: Cosmopolitan (for flavor purposes), Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Pushing Assault, Combat Reflexes.

I recommend only taking Combat reflexes 1 time.

I'm not a fan of Pushing Assault as I like the Bull Rush line of feats. Provoking when you use greater bull rush as well as pushing them into something nasty like a cliff or Spell effect. Even shoving them back onto a grease spot makes them roll a reflex to avoid being knocked down. But to each player his own thing.

I'm also fairly convinced a Fighter has to take weapon focus and weapon specialization. Like they are Core feats or something. I even like Weapon focus over Furious Focus.

I'm also a fan of Stand still and Body Guard feats since your going with combat reflexes.

Someone mentioned Combat expertise but the Feat and its Line of Feats are honestly a trap and waste of Lead from my pencil to write on my character sheets. Not all players feel that way but Trip becomes highly useless and fighting defensively does not make you a threat to anyone....Only pure damage will make someone mad enough to come after you. That is about the only aggro button a fighter gets. So lay on the hurt as much as you can. The only Combat maneuvers that age well in Pathfinder tend to Be bull rush and Grapple. The rest get negated by other means. Can't trip a flyer or something with 4+ legs, Can't disarm natural attacks of monsters, Can't sunder the gear you need to collect after the fight or creatures without armor or weapons.

[Sindalla]

Can be situational most of the time, but I'll take a wild guess you've taken a look at the Stalwart Defender? Bulwark + Halting Blow will almost guarantee that enemies will go for you and only you. With reach, you can basically stand in front of your casters/ranged and smash things in the face a couple of times before they can close in. Also, the often over-looked brace property is a lot of fun. Readying for a charge deals double damage. That extra damage output should make you a more annoying target.

[CWheezy]

Stalwart defender requires 7 bab.

Anyway, I also highly, highly recommend breadth of experience and steel soul, getting a pseudo bardic experience is nice and better saves against the most common thing you save against is also very nice

[Sir Thugsalot]

If you're going to have spend points to get your CHA up to 10 -- you might as well make it work for you:

(15,14,12,12,12,12 20pt array)
STR:15
DEX:12
CON+16
INT:12
WIS+14
CHA-10

traits: militant merchant, berserker of the society (if PFS)
01 barb1 [move+10], Raging Vitality
02 cleric1 [Kurgess:Community/Travel][move+10]
03 fight1 Steel Soul, Power Attack or Extra Rage
04 fight2 Pushing Assault or WF:dwarven longhammer
05 fight3 or barb2 [Reckless Abandon]...etc

Cleric gives you some worthy class social skills, divine item use, Longstrider, and a few Channels per day for emergency downed-ally stabilization. You have a move of up to 50 in full plate; and the Community domain freebie lets you eliminate your fatigue.

Rather than a gloomy drunk who never gets any dates, you're comparatively pleasant. With a single rank in Diplomacy, you're +7 over the CHA:5 dwarf who doesn't take a rank.