I’m working on my second PFS character – A human mobile fighter who, thematically, has a paladin-like zeal to the goddess Shelyn (beauty, love, goodness, etc) who views the “dance of battle” a form of beauty and perfection.
Mechanically, I want this character to a mobile switch-hitter/generalist. That is, a fighter that can do anything in combat, but, do it on the move.
I understand that the true switch hitter is a ranger that emphasizes standing still and getting plenty of attacks per round. However, that is not what I am after here (personally, I find that dull when at the table).
I am looking for advice or tips on this character to make it do decent amounts of damage and have plenty of options without making it perfectly optimized. Basically, I just want to know if I am on the right track with this or if there is anything I am overlooking.
Human Mobile Fighter 1
Strength - 16
Dexterity - 14
Constitution - 14
Intelligence - 12
Wisdom - 12
Charisma – 10
Feats – Deadly Aim, Point Blank Shot, Power Attack
Traits – Indomitable Faith, Deft Dodger
Faction – Silver Crusade
2nd level – Quick Draw
Other Feats:
Dodge -> Mobility -> Shot on the Run, Spring Attack – Essenial. Gives plenty of combat/movement options
Improved Overrun -> Greater Overrrun – for getting around a little easier while avoiding Acrobatics in Full Plate
Vital Strike -> Improved Vital Strike – Essential. Allows good damage without full attacks
Improved Initiative – Because going before your opponent matters.
Step Up, Step Up and Strike, Following Step – is following an enemy necessary with a mobile build? Especially when I would be focusing on Overrun?
Cleave, Rapid Shot – These are fundamental feats for a switch hitter, but, what about a mobile switch hitter? It seems contradictory to me. Am I right
Also, which skills? Skills and the fighter have always been confusing for me. They don’t get a lot of points…this character will have 4 per level. Which skills are “best” for the fighter? Are there any skills –other than Perception - which are not on the skill list that would be extremely useful to a fighter in PFS?
Thanks,
Regarding the question of feats, I would not worry about combat maneuvers unless you plan to specialize in one of them, and Overrun is really only good for bypassing enemies. Personally, I would go with something like Grapple, something that generally works on everybody, and has great debilitating factors, and works very well with your current feat selections. You'll need Improved Unarmed Strike to specialize in it, but it's a combat feat, and this opens the door for Style feats, and the base Dragon Style is probably going to be one of your best benefits to have, being able to ignore difficult terrain, as well as having +2 to Saves V.S. multiple conditions, such as Sleep and Paralysis.
Vital Strike is really only good if you only expect to ever get a single hit. It synergizes much better with a high damage dice Natural Weapon (such as 2D6 or higher), and single attacks. If you're going to use Greater Grapple (to maintain the grapple as a Movement Action), you only get a Standard Action left, meaning you can Vital Strike away for some pretty good damage, as well as do the activities listed upon maintaining a grapple.
As far as the Step Up feat chain, it's only very helpful against casters in the lower levels, and synergizes with the Disruptor/Spellbreaker feats (which aren't all that good). The best thing about it is that the final feat of the feat chain allows you to make an attack of opportunity against the target who makes a 5-foot step away from you and they are adjacent; great against reach monsters/NPCs, meaning you're going to be getting that extra attack in and deal that extra bit of damage, but it's feat-heavy. I would also recommend you select something like Combat Reflexes as a feat should you decide to use such a tactic to your advantage (and still want to constantly threaten with whatever weapon you're using).
Cleave will probably not be apparent when you get access to Haste and/or extra attacks, since your extra attacks (through melee or ranged) can be divided up between those multiple groups of mooks and stuff. Cleave is only good if you select Great Cleave, and/or Cleaving Finish (and its Improved version); the Finish part works just like the 3.X version of Cleave, so if you're going to be slaughtering a lot of creatures in quick succession a good portion of the time, it's not a bad idea to take Cleave for it to open up. Rapid Shot is still very worthwhile in that it allows you extra shots (though at slight penalties) with your bow, and it makes you very effective with attacking. With special arrows and/or bow, you're going to most likely off-set those penalties incurred, and still inflict a major amount of damage with them. Speaking of Bows, I also recommend you get the Precise Shot feat, should you have other front-line combatants in your party, negating that nasty -4 to shoot in melee.
Remember that any Bonus feats you obtain can be retrained at specific level intervals, so if that Cleave or Rapid Shot is not doing you much justice, then you can change one of those two out for something more helpful, like Furious Focus (if you use two-handed melee weapons), etc.
For your skills, Perception is going to be your #1, followed by Acrobatics (if you're wearing Heavy, you won't be able to use it until 7th, but the extra skill points are going to help out considerably), which you can utilize while you move to avoid attacks of opportunity (working well with your primary class feature), and you'll have a couple extra points per level you can use to Skill Dip into other helpful things, like Swim, Climb, Survival or whatever; you can just put a point into each one of those skills every specific level interval to overcome obstacles (that your magic items can't cover for you), or to aid the party member who specializes in that skill, and with that extra 1 point left over, you can specialize in something else that's useful for the party, like Appraise, a Knowledge/Profession, or something like Diplomacy, Sense Motive (great against Feint maneuvers, I would recommend it), etc.
If there is a method for you to obtain Acrobatics as a Class Skill, such as a Trait, then get it as soon as you can utilize it, since it will give you a significant bonus to it. If you can't start out with it, then get the Additional Traits feat, which may allow you to have Acrobatics become a Class Skill, should there be such a trait.
Everything else seems to be fine. Personally, I would probably dump Charisma and put some more points into Wisdom if you can (unless you're going to be putting points into Intimidation and using that to your advantage), but if you don't want any negatives, then that's fair enough also (my Mobile Fighter doesn't have negatives also).
I hope this helps!