The best anti-wizard Fighter is a Barbarian. Go Human, use the Superstitious rage power line with the favored class bonus that boosts the Superstitious rage power.
The shadowdancer prestige class is supposed to be good for this too, but the shadowdancer is kinda bad.
Spellbreaker Inquisitor with the Spellkiller Inquisition also has some great weapons against casters
The brawler archetype for fighters (not to be confused with that advanced class) has a similar tactic to your pin down feat using their No Escape ability, which comes a couple levels earlier. So...saving a feat and early access.
Also note: you want the stand still feat as well. It basically allows you to use to use your AoO to do a maneuver that stops any movement that draws AoO's (well, in adjacent squares; it would be fairly scary if it worked with reach). With either the No Escape Ability or the Pin down feat, that means that opponents might never get away from you (and the Brawler gets a nice little scaling bonus of...half his level... to the stand still ability, which uses your CMB, which already scales with your BAB).
So your battles will go like this:
*Charge at caster and smack him in the head.
*Caster tries to use a spell, but you stop him by smacking him in the head
*Caster decides to try getting away from you so he can cast a spell; he uses a 'safe movement' (hah). You stick your arm out and tell him "Where do you think you are going?"
*Proceed to use a full attack to smack him in the head
*Wash, rinse, repeat until he doesn't have a head to smack.
Note: this tactic also works on just about all beasties. You are slightly less likely to make the CMB roll for stand still on a tarrasque...but hey, that is why I suggested brawler to get the nice scaling bonus to Stand Still. The point is: stand still with either of those "movements draw AoO's" options means you could pindown anyone. That could very well get you on the rest of the party's good side, since that means that those dire wolves are not going to be nibbling on the party wizard's and archer's squishy bits. This essentially allows you to effectively 'tank' in a way that most other classes simply can't. Overall, this 'stand still' approach gives you a solid option that can help everyone, and give you a lot of uses.
Also to add further to the discussion: Half elf might be a great choice for a fighter. They have an alternate racial trait that gives them +2 to will saves. Grab a trait for another +1, use all the room for feats to grab iron will for another +2, maybe grab that one racial feat for half elves that lets you reroll on a charm once a day, grab improved iron will that does basically the same thing for will saves in general. Also, you could ever so slightly dump CHA (just a couple points) to get a couple points into WIS, so you get another +1 to will.
And bam, your will is about as good as the wizard's (well, if he doesn't plan to make any similar investments), and you have enough rerolls so you are the one least likely to get dominated. That further adds to your ability to tank for the party.
Dwarves are also a great choice, since they get hardy and steel soul, which together add +4 to your saves against spells and SLAs before any of that trait and iron will save. But the fact that it says 'spells and SLA's' sounds...disheartening. Sure, those are the most common abilities used by monsters outside of straight attacks... but it leaves room for your GM to throw a 'supernatural' or 'extraordinary' ability at your squishier 'true' will save. I'd stick with half elf, since it just has a great will save overall (this approach does leave your reflex save more open though....)
Also, my understanding of the rules if very very poor, but LazarX said all I had to do was ready a power attack. If I did that wouldn't the monster just step back 5 and then cast their spell while out of range of my Power attack?
Pretty much yeah. Step up might help. As would step up and strike. That's a lot of feats to do something simple though, and if your playing a normal fighter your saves are going to be pretty pitiful so your likely to get toasted or dominated, while a barbarian can get crazy high saves and touch AC and do extra damage to casters from his rage powers. Superstitious type abilities are pretty crazy at doing the anti-caster job. Eater of Magic and Spell Sunder are also part of that line.
Are monsters that cast spells with cast times common? Does a caster have to do any of these checks if the spell is instant speed?
Define casting? A spell usually works the same for a monster as it would a caster class, unless noted otherwise. Supernatural abilities work differently though, and plenty of monsters have those.
In order, answers in bold.
1.how often do spells have cast times? Pretty much all of them have a cast time. Most have a standard action cast, some have a one or full round, and every now and then you'll see a swift.
2.How often do monsters even have spells?
A lot of the higher level ones do, including most demons, if not spells then supernatural abilities.
3.How often will monsters succeed with their casting spells defensively check even with the +4 needed from disruptive. Like is +4 allot?
Depends on your level. The chances of success go higher and higher as you level because casting stat and caster level go up faster than the DC.
4. Is this concept viable? allot of these feats are fairly high level, it would be very disappointing to get there and have it be a big nothing.
Eh... They can be pretty disappointing imo. Can vary with DM's playstyle and campaign.
Maybe I 'm just confused. I'm next to a wizard. He uses a spell with cast time of 1 standard action. Does disruptive or any of the feats that I originally mentioned do anything? or do they only work on spells with delayed abilities?
Disruptive only increases the DC of the concentration checks by foes who try to cast defensively and who are threatened by you. They do what they say they do. Don't know what you mean by delayed abilities.
Lunge only works until the end of your turn, and I don't know if an attack can be readied with Lunge.
One thing you can do, from first level, is simply to use a reach weapon in conjunction with a Spiked Gauntlet or Armor Spikes. Move to adjacent against casters and hit then with your spikes. They won't be out of reach if they step back, so they'll be forced to eat an attack of opportunity or spend a turn on Withdraw.
I'd actually rate the best anti-caster martials to be either a Tetori Monk (high saves, high Touch AC, shut them right down with grapple) or an archer of some kind. Archers don't need to get adjacent, which is huge. They can eventually (with Improved Snap Shot) threaten 15' around them, and Seeking bows ignore miss chances.
The major obstacle to archery will be Wind Wall. Carry Large arrows with you and a potion or two of Enlarge Person.
If you go early entry Eldritch Knight with a full casting base class, then take two levels of Arcane Archer, you can shut them right down with an Antimagic Arrow.
You could go Hawkeye fighter. Ready attacks to fire while casting so the caster loses spells, load up on alchemical arrows and items like thunderstones. When you're up close, grapple. Pay attention to see if the caster needs an item to cast and disarm it. Called shot the throat to get rid of verbal components.
Barbarian for the best anti-wizard, as mentioned for superstition rage power, but also for Spell Sunder rage power. If you are rage-cycling, you can use this multiple times an encounter and dispel magical effects with your weapon.
There are rage powers that allow you to use Disruptive and Spellbreaker feats while raging.
And the massive HP will help you stand up against high damage blasts, as well.
At the end of the day the best counter to a spellcaster is another spellcaster who is faster on the draw. Barbarians are OK but high saves on their own will not save you given the number of no save spells out there.
Oddly enough, at higher levels they do have a rage power that lets them nullify all effects of a spell, but the way its worded means it only works if you fail the save in the first place. Spell Sunder is also a good tool for smashing defenses and things in the way.
Sucks that there really isn't a way in class to deal with flying foes though. That's true of most of the martials though.
Yeah, I have to agree with andreww here, you are going to have lots of fun until one day you find yourself hopelessly outclassed by casters. The problem is that most of the fun martial anti caster stuff is too little too late. Step Up is good until level 8 when literally every full caster in the game can fly and your martial can't. You find yourself relying more and more on magic every level as skills and ground based fighting become trivial and defense against creatures that outweigh your character ten times over and magic are the only things keeping you alive. It can be fun but around level 8 casters start being more powerful and the gap never narrows only expands.
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It isnt just flight, it is also things like invisibility and mind blank. I am honestly not really sure what the average superstition barbarian does against a mid level greater invisible flying caster hitting him with enervation over and over again.Oddly enough, at higher levels they do have a rage power that lets them nullify all effects of a spell, but the way its worded means it only works if you fail the save in the first place. Spell Sunder is also a good tool for smashing defenses and things in the way.
Sucks that there really isn't a way in class to deal with flying foes though. That's true of most of the martials though.
One of the reasons I advocated magus.
Echolocation beats Mind Blank + Greater Invisibility.
It isnt just flight, it is also things like invisibility and mind blank. I am honestly not really sure what the average superstition barbarian does against a mid level greater invisible flying caster hitting him with enervation over and over again.
Flail wildly until someone else deals with the problem or he manages to kill it by luck, he pulls out a mundane item to solve the problem like an alchemical tool, or he dies horribly. I'd say he has better touch and save potential vs. the enervation itself than many other choices, but other classes can enjoy UMDing something to shut down the invisibility like glitterdust. I don't think that's not so much a merit of their class as one of the downsides to being a barbarian.
To be honest I'm not a big fan of the way martial vs. caster plays out.
It does although the 40' range is very limiting unless you stay indoors.Echolocation beats Mind Blank + Greater Invisibility.
Reminds me, diamond mind discipline from 3.5 had an ability to give 30 foot blindsight around the time 5th level spells showed up and a reroll for each of the saves. If you use 3.5 material there might be some extra things to look at.
I am not seeing how he is likely to have much of a touch AC.
I like ghost rager. I've got a DM who loves throwing touch attack casters and incorporeal at me, so I may be a bit biased there.
Were starting the group soon. I'm thinking of going brawler as levered suggested. I noticed that brawlers don't get the armor training that normal fighters get. Is this a big a deal or will it not really matter? Trying to hold monsters won't really work if I'm always passed out on the floor.
Well, depends on what you are fighting. You see, your menacing stance, which takes so big a chunk out of a mage's concentration, also debuffs enemy attack rolls. So, as long as you are facing things you can keep in 5' trap that is No Escape/Stand still, then it should be fine, since the scaling debuffs (-1 to -4) basically would give you the equivalent of heavy armor. You just need to watch out for archers or creatures that can slip out and use reach (so particularly big beasts with a lot of CMD).
But hey, shields are actually one of the weapons this archetype specializes in....Also, you can still grab a mithral breastplate without too much trouble (unless you are going for brawling armor for an unarmed build, since I am fairly sure you can't get that property on mithraled medium)
Fighters are awful against casters. (In fact, they are awfula against any threat that doesn't rely on targeting AC or Fort).
If you want a functional anti-caster martial character, be a Barbarian (Preferably, with the Invulnerable Rager archetype). Grab Beast Totem, Superstition, Ghost Rager and Spell Sunder. Eater of Magic and Clear Mind also help.
A Monk with the Zen Archer archetype also works, although there'll be times where the caster is able to invalidate arrows, so grab a couple melee tricks as well.
The best anti-wizard Fighter is a Barbarian. Go Human, use the Superstitious rage power line with the favored class bonus that boosts the Superstitious rage power.
The shadowdancer prestige class is supposed to be good for this too, but the shadowdancer is kinda bad.
a three-level dip gets you a rather tasty minion that still deals strength damage to those wimpy wizards. it also keeps your saves (if they're better) and has half your HP (which is great for fighters or barbs who have lots).
the feat investment isnt as much of an issue for a fighter too.
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You should sink skill points into Spellcraft to allow your fighter to know if a caster is casting and what is being cast. Some GMs will be hardcases on that front.
Also, less helpful vs sorcerers but *very* potent vs wizards and clerics are the sunder and disarm maneuvers. Sundering and/or disarming Spell Component Pouches and Holy Symbols can shut down casters fast.
Also, less helpful vs sorcerers but *very* potent vs wizards and clerics are the sunder and disarm maneuvers. Sundering and/or disarming Spell Component Pouches and Holy Symbols can shut down casters fast.
People don't carry 10 of those?
You mentioned in the original post that you were concerned that the ability to disrupt spellcasting might be too situational.
You are definitely right about that. Many encounters won't have a single spellcaster. Also, monsters tend not to use spells, they use spell like abilities. Technically, spell like abilities can be disrupted just like spells can, but they have no verbal, somatic, or material component, so some GM's may make annoying rulings like saying, "you didn't know he was using the ability to disrupt it", make sure to clarify with your GM beforehand.
Finally, because it's circumstantial, don't build your character around that concept (as in, don't invest too much into that one thing). If disrupting spellcasting is in your bag of tricks, great, but don't leave yourself out of tricks if there aren't any spellcasters to disrupt.
