Weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization and power attack. Those are the feats open to a fighter to try and hit well and deal lots of damage.
I'd say weapon focus to help out the penalties from two weapon fighting and improved initiative (along with the obvious twould weapon fighting feat) for first level.
Also if you want pure damage, I suggest going with a single two handed weapon rather than two weapons. Also Barbarian will beat you out in damage, unless thematically you just want to be a fighter.
Barbs beat fighter's early, and then depending on which magic items are available changes things.
barbs get +2 attack and +3 damage with a THW at lv1.
Then, unless you pick up reckless abandon to tank your AC you have no attack increases until lv11 when you get +1 attack and damge from greater rage. Putting you at +3/ +4
Now they have furious magic weapon property, which if obtained puts them at a +1 over others because they get a +2 bonus for the price of +1.
So at lv11 we're at +4attack +5 damage for being a barb
And at lv20 we get to +5 attack and +7 damage.
A fighter starts off at +0 from class. At lv4 they get +2 to damage from weapon specialization. At lv5 they get weapon training for +1 to attack and damage. at 8 is greater WF, 12 is greater WS and their WT bonuses scale up. They have the magic item, gloves of the duelist, that increases their WT by 2.
So for them at lv11 they have +3 attack and +4 damage, same as the barb. But if you have the gloves then you're at +5 attack and +6 damage. As you reach level 20 you're at +5 attack and +8 damage without gloves, and +7 /+10 with the gloves
A human fighter? Easy. But big thing you need to ask your DM about. Weapon Master's Handbook + Armour Master's Handbook y/n? If yes, congratulations, fighters are wonderfully diverse and potent martials with some huge defensive powers most martials other than a Paladin or Monk can't possibly match. Just don't archetype. That's a bad move unless you have something very specific you want from archetypes, and often that's something you'll learn with experience.
If no, then just go Biggest Stick and tell your fellow party members you're very sorry that one day you'll probably die/eat their face as all that damage gets used against the party. It's going to happen. You might think I'm embellishing here but it happens more often than you would like. From what I understand and what I played RotR is particularly deadly (the two sessions of part-way into the first book ended in a near TPK, with my character escaping simply because they had a climb speed. It was from a failed Will save, fyi), so I imagine this to be an even bigger concern.
Take a greatsword or guisarme as your weapon of choice. You don't need anything else, though with your 15 Dex you actually do really well with ranged weapons if you wanted to use them if you can't currently close into melee with your target. Investing into Point-Blank Shot+Precise Shot when you have free feat slots can make you pretty good at switch-hitting, but this is not something you should do while you still have other feats to take and definitely don't diversify too much from hitting things hard with your melee weapon. Trying to do too much at once can make you pretty useless.
First level feat choices should be: Power Attack, Weapon Focus (Greatsword/Guisarme), Feat of choice from; Toughness (General), Iron Will (General), Dodge (Combat), Combat Reflexes (Combat).
Dodge is a pretty important prerequisite for the Step Up line that makes getting way from you a nightmare, while Combat Reflexes allows reach users to really control the area around them and get lots of extra attacks. Iron Will will keep you from murdering your friends (hopefully), and Toughness will keep you alive. By the way, murdering your friends? That's a big problem for any martial that gets dominated. You should definitely pester your party caster for a Protection against Evil at every opportunity. It's not for your sake necessarily. It's for theirs. :3 Also pester them for Remove Fear, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Remove Curse and Break Enchantment. If they don't provide these things, you can't keep the big monsters from ripping their heads off after you've already been disembowelled. Or maybe you'll do it. Because mind-control. Seriously, have I stated how bad mind-control is for you? I don't think I've emphasised this enough.
The first two feats are basically all you need to be capable of putting out hefty amounts of damage. Two-handed builds tend to be very liberal about feats, and Power Attack is the main feat keeping it afloat. Typically a reach weapon is taken over a non-reach weapon simply because getting means of circumventing it's range limitations is dead simple. Get armour spikes. These ensure you threaten within 5ft AND 10ft.
Eventually, pick up: Any feats you didn't take at first, but be sure to get Weapon Specialization at 4th. You could also get some non-combat feats as well if necessary. If your DM allows Advanced Weapon Training (it's stuff from a companion book but it is the saving grave of fighters), get Armed Bravery to add Bravery to all Will saves at 5th through the Advanced Weapon Training feat. At 8th, you should get Greater Weapon Focus and at 9th Critical Focus. Then, Improved Critical (greatsword/guisarme) at 10th because at this point you pretty much have everything? At 12th, the next major feat is Greater Weapon Specialization. That's really it. Feats at any other levels are pretty much completely up to you. Some special mentions are; Cut from the Air/Smash from the Air, Furious Focus, Cornugon Smash, Shatter Defenses, Step Up/Following Step/Step Up and Strike, Lunge, Endurance/Diehard.
Also, don't bother with extra weapon groups outside of the groups that fit your chosen weapon. Trade them for Advanced Weapon Training and get those sweet bonuses. You have a lot of choice here, but personally my favourites are Warrior Spirit for on-the-fly enhancements when you need them, and Versatile Training for some skills (Diplomacy + Sense Motive with polearms? Yes please!)
This build emphasises one thing. Hitting. Things. Hard. Do that, and you're golden.
Archer is for you! With a 15 Dex I'm assuming your floating +2 got assigned to Strength? Either way, that's still perfectly functional. Archers are really accurate just from feats alone. And they also use Strength for damage.
First level feat choices should be: Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot, either Rapid Shot or Deadly Shot. There is no debate about this feat order. In fact, I'll outline your feat progression right now in the most optimal way right now.
1st - Point-blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
2nd - Deadly Aim
3rd - Weapon Focus (Longbow)
4th - Weapon Specialization
5th - Advanced Weapon Training (Armed Bravery)
6th - Clustered Shot
7th - Many Shot
8th - Greater Weapon Focus
9th - Hammer the Gap [ADT: Versatile Training (bows, you get PERCEPTION!!!)]
10th - Far Shot
11th - Improved Precise Shot
12th - Greater Weapon Specialization
You used to get Snap Shot and stuff but they recently got nerfed so I think they are garbage. Point Blank Master could be more useful than Far Shot but it's debatable. You might want Iron Will at 9th and Hammer the Gap at 10th instead. Doesn't really matter too much.
This build is pure damage. You shoot a LOT of arrows, you do lots of damage, you hit things super reliably, you feel good about it. Not much more to it. But ranged builds take up a good amount of feats to function so say good-bye to any diversity. A good use of archers is to prevent spellcasters from casting through readied actions to shoot casters as they cast a spell, forcing a concentration check or else lose their spell. Look out for opportunities to do this where you can.
Both of these are the most basic fighters and also the highest damage dealers.
|
It sounds like he's considering the Two-Handed Fighter Archetype, which helps even things out a little with Barbarian. Overhand Chop give 2x STR on a single att starting at 3rd level. Backswing grants it on a full-attack starting at 7th level. That can be as much as an extra +2 (18 STR) to +4 (24 STR). A Two-Handed Fighter gets Greater Power Attack (15th) to do 2x Power Attack damage instead of 1 1/2x when using two hands. For a simple class, it's good damage that's always active.
Fighters also now have Advanced Weapon Training options that can really help. Warrior Spirit can essentially allow a Fighter to get Bane in a similar way to Inquisitors for a standard action, and you can use it for Ghost Touch or other things when you need them.
EDIT: I was confusing Greater Rage and Greater Bane. Greater Rage is at 11th level, so not so close to Greater Power Attack at 15th.
You can also use Warrior Spirit to grab Training for feats you don't currently have or are too niche to take normally (but this gets into a fairly complicated amount of system knowledge to exploit, and if you do have this then usually you're better served playing a Brawler, or doing Abundant Tactics/Barroom Brawler shenanigans, which get even more complex with Combat Stamina).
Warrior Spirit is highly versatile largely because you gain a floating bonus amount of enhancement to buy special qualities with and not a list to choose from like paladins and magi have. Bane is, in my opinion, the most potent effect out of them all.
Take that Inquisitors! :U
You could do something like Cythraul Dig.
You could do something like Cythraul Dig.
That's....a lot of AC.
|
Im am new to table top game play, I have known of games like this and D&D. My Friend and Ii have started playing "Rise of the rune lords" and the GM is also not completely familiar with the different combinations of feats that i can choose from for a general build that I could take into other campaigns if my character survives, or just for future reference.
I chose a human fighter based on what I found online as a good starting character. I am a huge gamer, and i prefer to deal massive damage, which is why Fighter. My question is how do I build my character to be able to deal high damage as well as make sure I'm going to hit. I am looking at the Two-Handed Fighter build and archetype, and we started with rolled stats:
STR 17
DEX 15
CON 15
INT 11
WIS 13
CHA 10
Unless there is a better build than this for a human fighter, what bonus feats should I take at each level?
if you have not yet assigned your race bonus of +2, I would suggest putting it in Int. That opens up a large group of feats and gives you another skill point per level.
Starting 3 feats for 2 handed Fighter build: Weapon Focus, Power attack, Furious Focus.
At level 2: Lunge
at level 3: Dodge
@lvl 4: Weapon Specializstion
At level 5 Mobility.
@ lvl 6: Vital Strike.
Lunge requires BAB of 6 to take.
Personally I'm not a fan of Furious Focus, after a few levels your first attack is likely to hit without the bonus, and it does nothing for the attacks that aren't as likely to hit.
furious focus
for a fighter lv1 str 18 you have bab+str+weapon focus+masterwork = +7 to hit +6 with power attack. AC of enemies is likely 12.
at lv4 a fighter has +10 to hit and +8 for power attack against AC 17. This is probably the time you'd get the most from furious focus.
at lv8 a fighter has 8+str+belt of str+weapon focus+ GWF+weapon training 1+magic weapon +2 = +18, +15 for power. Against AC 21. Yeah, a +3 is pretty good, making you need a 3 instead of a 6 to hit. But I prefer feats that help all attacks, or help things your bad at, like iron will.
The advice above is plenty to get you started.
One word of caution, these games are most fun if the players all have relatively equal characters. There is absolutely nothing wrong with going to these boards for advice on character building, but if that results in you have a pretty well put together character and the other players (who are also new) don't have nearly as well constructed characters, that can ruin people's enjoyment and end a campaign.
|
|
Lunge requires BAB of 6 to take.
Personally I'm not a fan of Furious Focus, after a few levels your first attack is likely to hit without the bonus, and it does nothing for the attacks that aren't as likely to hit.
I had forgotten that about Lunge.
So instead, at 2nd level take one of the improved Maneuver feats your weapon works with.| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Im am new to table top game play, I have known of games like this and D&D. My Friend and Ii have started playing "Rise of the rune lords" and the GM is also not completely familiar with the different combinations of feats that i can choose from for a general build that I could take into other campaigns if my character survives, or just for future reference.
I chose a human fighter based on what I found online as a good starting character. I am a huge gamer, and i prefer to deal massive damage, which is why Fighter. My question is how do I build my character to be able to deal high damage as well as make sure I'm going to hit. I am looking at the Two-Handed Fighter build and archetype, and we started with rolled stats:
STR 17
DEX 15
CON 15
INT 11
WIS 13
CHA 10
Unless there is a better build than this for a human fighter, what bonus feats should I take at each level?
Your Stats are fine.
Go Mutagen Fighter or Just the Vanilla Fighter.
You want Armored Bravery in your build and you do not want to lose weapon training or Bravery. Anything that gives those 2 things up is now basically worthless and a strict downgrade of the Fighter class.
Feat wise:
1: Weapon Focus
Human- Power Attack
2: Iron Will
3: Combat Reflexes
4: Weapon Specialization
5: Greater Iron Will or Toughness (Become Hard to kill or stop) or you can take Dirty Fighting if someone is flanking with you on a regular and you want toys to play with.
6: Cut from the Air
7: Lunge
8: Greater Weapon Focus
9: Improved Critical
10: Critical Focus (A Pre-Req)
11: Critical Versatility (Human Only)
12: Greater Weapon Specialization
You may love 2 handed weapon like Falchion, which is fine, But I recommend using a Scimitar and swinging it 2 handed. Because when your Grabbed or Grappled you can still swing your weapon. The difference in damage between a Falchion and Scimitar is 1.5 damage on average BUT the difference in a grab situation is Damage verses 0.
If your DM allows Advanced Weapon Training (it's stuff from a companion book but it is the saving grave of fighters), get Armed Bravery to add Bravery to all Will saves at 5th through the Advanced Weapon Training feat.
You can't replace Weapon Training 1 with Advanced Weapon Training, it only becomes available at lvl 9 to replace Weapon Training 2.
|
|
If your DM allows Advanced Weapon Training (it's stuff from a companion book but it is the saving grave of fighters), get Armed Bravery to add Bravery to all Will saves at 5th through the Advanced Weapon Training feat.You can't replace Weapon Training 1 with Advanced Weapon Training, it only becomes available at lvl 9 to replace Weapon Training 2.
Or you can take the Advanced Weapon Training feat at 5th level to unlock an AWT without replacing AWT 2 for the cost of a feat.
If your DM allows Advanced Weapon Training (it's stuff from a companion book but it is the saving grave of fighters), get Armed Bravery to add Bravery to all Will saves at 5th through the Advanced Weapon Training feat.You can't replace Weapon Training 1 with Advanced Weapon Training, it only becomes available at lvl 9 to replace Weapon Training 2.
True, but you can take Advanced Weapon Training (the feat) at 5th. This is because obviously you need a weapon group for Advanced Weapon Training to apply to first X3
Thanks this was really helpful, I also found other info on power gaming, what feats achieve that. From what I found there is not a lot to me that this happens...I'm curious if anyone knows how to do this. I'm mostly interested in the concept of it. I know my gm has allowed me in the even that I can figure it out, but it appears like paizo did a good job nerfing this possibility.
Power gaming describes player motivations not the resulting character.
If you are playing the game to be powerful and that guides all your actions, then you are power gaming.
I like this build for fighters. You wield a shield while still swinging two-handed. Feat like Exta Advanced Training have been abbreviated out of the description.
1. Shield Brace, Shield Focus, Combat Reflexes
2. Blind-Fight
3. Armor training, Master Armorer
4. Power Attack
5. Weapon Training (Polearms), Versatile Training (Diplomacy, Sense Motive)
6. Cut from the Air
7. Adaptable Training (Knowledge Engineering), Guarded Charge
8. Armor Specialization
9. Smash From the Air, Versatile Training (Bluff, Intimidate)
10. Armed Bravery
11. Armored Juggernaut, Dazzling Assault
12. Pin Down
13. Warrior Spirit, Adaptable Training (Acrobatics)
14. Adaptable Training (Climb)
15. Adaptable Training (Disguise), Fighter’s Reflexes
16. Improved Initiative
17.Trained Initiative, Sprightly Armor
18. Armored Sacrifice
19. Armor Mastery, Devastating Assault
20. Weapon Mastery, Weapon Sacrifice
Smash from the Air works against rocks. You could always switch Guarded Charge for Lunge in order to maintain your distance from an opponent. In addition, since Giants have a good Fortitude save, probably switch out Dazzling Assault for Stand Still so you can keep giants from moving into melee with you if you can find a way to get larger (like Enlarge, for example).
Weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization and power attack. Those are the feats open to a fighter to try and hit well and deal lots of damage.
Furious Focus as well, if using a two-handed weapon.
Weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization and power attack. Those are the feats open to a fighter to try and hit well and deal lots of damage.Furious Focus as well, if using a two-handed weapon.
I strongly disagree. Furious focus to me is a trap feat.
Say you're level 9, enemy target AC is 23. You have 9bab, +2 WT, +2 gloves of dueling, +2 WF and GWF, +5 str, +2 magic sword -3 power attack for a total of +19 to hit. Pull out any tricks, like being a mutation warrior and buying a Cracked Pale Green Prism, now you're at +22 to hit again when power attacking. Oh look, against =CR enemies you hit on a 2 for your first attack and against cr+2 you need a 3 to hit.
That's why I feel furious focus isn't a good feat, I feel my first attacks are VERY likely to hit, so the bonus accuracy to them is pretty wasted.
Weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization and power attack. Those are the feats open to a fighter to try and hit well and deal lots of damage.Furious Focus as well, if using a two-handed weapon.I strongly disagree. Furious focus to me is a trap feat.
Say you're level 9, enemy target AC is 23. You have 9bab, +2 WT, +2 gloves of dueling, +2 WF and GWF, +5 str, +2 magic sword -3 power attack for a total of +19 to hit. Pull out any tricks, like being a mutation warrior and buying a Cracked Pale Green Prism, now you're at +22 to hit again when power attacking. Oh look, against =CR enemies you hit on a 2 for your first attack and against cr+2 you need a 3 to hit.
That's why I feel furious focus isn't a good feat, I feel my first attacks are VERY likely to hit, so the bonus accuracy to them is pretty wasted.
I feel the same about the feat Chess. The only time I think it is worth it is in a single attack build. Lancers and Vital Strike style build where you're only making 1 attack without Iterative.
I also think it's passable on 3/4th bab classes that don't have lots of to hit bonuses. Like a Rogue really wants his first attack to hit to apply his debeff lv4+, most clerics and oracles don't have long term buffs that can be up so their attack bonuses aren't always the best.
But for full bab classes and lots of 3/4 bab classes, your accuracy gets so good that it ends up a useless feat.
Weapon focus, weapon specialization, greater weapon focus and greater weapon specialization and power attack. Those are the feats open to a fighter to try and hit well and deal lots of damage.Furious Focus as well, if using a two-handed weapon.I strongly disagree. Furious focus to me is a trap feat.
Say you're level 9, enemy target AC is 23. You have 9bab, +2 WT, +2 gloves of dueling, +2 WF and GWF, +5 str, +2 magic sword -3 power attack for a total of +19 to hit. Pull out any tricks, like being a mutation warrior and buying a Cracked Pale Green Prism, now you're at +22 to hit again when power attacking. Oh look, against =CR enemies you hit on a 2 for your first attack and against cr+2 you need a 3 to hit.
That's why I feel furious focus isn't a good feat, I feel my first attacks are VERY likely to hit, so the bonus accuracy to them is pretty wasted.
At lower level Furious Focus provides a bonus equal to or better than Focus.
At 1st level a human fighter can start with Focus, Furious Focus and Power Attack, taking Furious Focus as his fighter bonus feat.
At higher level, Furious Focus can be swapped out for free.