I'm playing a fighter in one campaign, I eventually decided to play him as a straight 2 handed fighter, because we weren't going to be able to retain.
I was thinking of giving him a shot as a sword and board fighter, but using a bastard sword and tower shield, and building similar to a two handed fighter. Relying on power attack and trying to savage the enemy with big swings.
Would this work, or would dropping from 1.5 strength bonus to 1 be to big a drop to overcome without shield bash?
I'm playing a fighter in one campaign, I eventually decided to play him as a straight 2 handed fighter, because we weren't going to be able to retain.
I was thinking of giving him a shot as a sword and board fighter, but using a bastard sword and tower shield, and building similar to a two handed fighter. Relying on power attack and trying to savage the enemy with big swings.
Would this work, or would dropping from 1.5 strength bonus to 1 be to big a drop to overcome without shield bash?
Since you can't retrain, this means Ranger is off the table, they'd do switch-hitting much easier, since they can ignore pre-requisites, and get feats earlier than normal.
If you use a Tower Shield, that's a -2 to attack rolls straight off the gate. That's the equivalent of proper TWF penalties, so there's that. Not including the grisly -10 ACP, and the factor that it weighs a literal crapton and needs to be put away whenever you need to climb somewhere.
Bastard Sword has good damage dice, but requires a feat for proficiency (otherwise you must use it two-handed), and isn't that great of a weapon in general unless you get free proficiency with it.
As far as damage is concerned, you're basically shifting gears. Building more defensive means you'll be doing less damage. Of course, the inverse is also true, building more offensive means you'll have less AC and such, so enemies can more-easily hit you.
Unfortunately, you kind of screwed your character's potential build path with this, since you can't utilize your Shield as your weapon while maintaining full use of your class features. Shields can be wielded with two hands, but aren't two-handed weapons in and of themselves, which is required for a lot of your features as a Two-handed Fighter.
My suggestion is very basic and simple: Drop the Shield. The Two-handed Fighter archetype is specifically designed to destroy the living crap out of enemies before they get a chance to destroy you, and trying to use a Shield with your Two-handed Weapon is feasibly impossible.
Pick up an 18-20/X2 weapon (or another weapon with a similar or better multiplier, such as a X4 or 19-20/X3), maximize Strength, get maybe minimal Dexterity (12 is good), decent Constitution and Wisdom (13-14), and then dump the rest. Good weapons include Nodachi (Falchion works, but Nodachi is marginally better), Scythe, Hooked Lance, Naginata, or Large-sized Falcata. I personally prefer the ability to critical on a 15-20/X2, meaning Nodachi/Falchion works best IMO, as maximizing your static damage output (i.e. Strength) is the best way to get your damage up there.
Point buy, presuming 20, and Human race, should look like this:
Strength 20 (18 + 2)
Dexterity 12
Constitution 14 (12 + 2)
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 14
Charisma 7
Should be able to put all points into Strength to max it out.
You'll be starting out with 2 feats and 1 skill point/level (probably spend on Perception). My suggestions are Power Attack and Furious Focus (which you can retrain later when you get iterative attacks). This means you can Power Attack at 1st level for 1D10+10.
Even if you roll a 1, that's 11 damage. Most Martial creatures, unless they're a D10 with 14 Constitution, or a Barbarian, will be disabled or dropped. On an average roll (15.5), unless you have a Raging Barbarian with 16 Constitution base, or a 2 HD creature, it's dropped. There's also no penalty to hit, meaning you'll have +6 to-hit on an average AC of 15 (or +5 for AoOs).
You'll probably be wearing Four Mirror Armor to start off (only 45 gold, but weighs 45 pounds. Good thing you have 20 Strength), leaving you with 17 AC, which is pretty good considering you're more of an offensive guy. Other AC-intensive guys will be hard to hit since you only have +6 to hit, but that's because they have high Dexterity, have a Shield, etc., which you can outscale with the proper optimization.
I didn't get my thoughts across well.
I'm sticking with 2 handed fighter for my current character. I chose it because I knew the build would work, because I wouldn't be able to retrain if my other idea didn't. I also forgot about the archetype called two handed fighter, my fighter is core.
I was just asking for advice on whether the tower shield build I suggested would work with a blank slate fighter. To see if the idea I abandoned would have been feasible.
Why are you using a core Fighter, and not a Mutagenic Warrior, Eldritch Guardian or the Two Handed Fighter?
Why are you using a core Fighter, and not a Mutagenic Warrior, Eldritch Guardian or the Two Handed Fighter?
Even if he could use those archetypes, it's too late as there is no retraining allowed.
If he's using just plain core Fighter, then Weapon Master's Handbook and Advanced Weapon Training is his best friend right now, as well as just grabbing a Heavy Shield and two-handing it.
From there, it's a trade off. Would you rather have 2 more AC, with having -2 to attack rolls, and only getting 1x Strength and -1/+2 Power Attack, or having your normal to-hit, have 2 less AC, and still maintain the 1.5x Strength and -1/+3 Power Attack?