| Hoplite308 |
I've noticed a few boards and class guides, but I never quite found one that appreciated my particular style of Pure Fighter, so I thought I'd throw it up here to see what people think. The idea is to have a character that can walk into the middle of battle, laugh at the puny mortals attempting to hurt him, and then become a mighty engine of destruction.
First, the build. I'm assuming no magic or masterwork items, and HP is done max at 1st and average (rounded up) every level afterwards, and I'll only be showing the build after every fifth level instead of level by level. Also, I'm not making any assumptions about what GMs allow, except what I have to in order to showcase the build. I assume they allow two Traits (pretty standard), alternate Racial Traits, and are okay with a modest dump of a stat (personally I don't like dumping stats more than that anyway, but that's just me). I'm also assuming most books are allowed, and that this character hast be the Tank with some DPS vs groups, not full DPS vs one enemy. In addition, due to (in my experience) Pathfinder being a very AC-favoring system, I'll be assuming that the player puts their extra points in skills (Acrobatics, Perception, and Intimidate). I'm building a "God of War" (God of War needs to know how to move, see, and be scary), not a "God of Screw That One Particular Guy".
Race: Half-Orc
Traits: Auspicious Tattoo (Race), Fate's Favored (Faith)
Racial Traits: Intimidating, Sacred Tattoo, Fey Thoughts (Acrobatics, Perception), Smog Sight, Orc Blood
Class: Fighter (OG)
Abilities (20-point buy): 16(18), 14, 14, 10, 12, 8
Level 1: Feats: Dodge, Power Attack*
Damage: +5:2d6+6 | +4:2d6+9 (Greatsword, 19-20)
Defense: 6/4/4, HP 12, AC 19 (Breastplate)
Level 4 +1 Strength
Level 5: Weapon Training: Heavy Blades
Feats: Dodge, Power Attack*, Cleave*, Ironhide, Weapon
Focus (Greatsword)*, Great Cleave
Damage: +10:2d6+6 | +8:2d6+12 (Greatsword, 19-20)
Defense: 8/5/5, HP 44, AC 23 (Full Plate)
Level 7: Advanced Armor Training (Armor Specialization: Full Plate)
Level 8: +1 Strength
Level 9: Advanced Weapon Training (Armed Bravery)
Level 10: Feats: Dodge, Power Attack*, Cleave*, Ironhide, Weapon
Focus (Falchion)*, Great Cleave, Weapon
Specialization (Falchion)*, Improved Critical
(Falchion), Greater Weapon Focus (Falchion)*,
Critical Focus, Cleaving Finish*
Damage: +19/+14:2d4+10 | +16/+11:2d4+19 (Falchion, 15-20)
Defense: 11/7/10, HP 84, AC 25 (Full Plate)
Level 11: Armor Training
Level 12: +1 Strength
Level 13: Advanced Weapon Training (Defensive Weapon Training)
Level 15: Armor Training
Feats: Dodge, Power Attack, Cleave, Ironhide, Weapon
Focus (Falchion), Great Cleave, Weapon
Specialization (Falchion), Improved Critical
(Falchion), Greater Weapon Focus (Falchion),
Critical Focus, Cleaving Finish, Bleeding Critical,
Greater Weapon Specialization (Falchion),
Improved Cleaving Finish, Furious Focus, Dreadful
Carnage
Damage: +25/+20/+15:2d4+14 | +25/+16/+11:2d4+26 (Falchion,
15-20 + 2d6 Bleed)
Defense: 13/9/12, HP 124, AC 27 (Full Plate)
Level 16: +1 Strength
Level 17: Advanced Weapon Training (Fighter's Reflexes)
Level 19: Armor Mastery (DR 5/-)
Level 20: +1 Strength
Weapon Mastery (Falchion)
I'm not going to list the feats again. At this point, I
have so many good feat paths to go down that it's hard to
pick one. However, AC (WITHOUT magic) should be ~30-32,
and things around you should just be dying quickly in
large numbers.
.
Justifications (aka the part where I stave off comments)
"Why not take the Two-Handed Fighter archetype?"
Armor training. Armor training. Armor Training. Yes, I assumed no magic (or special materials) when showcasing my build, but there's a particular item that this build likes to take advantage of: Belt of Physical Perfection +6. That's a +6 Strength, +6 Constitution, AND +6 Dexterity. AKA, +3 armor, if you have the max dex bonus for it. This build is meant to have a chance against spells, and with a base +6 max Reflex save, 14 Dex, Sacred Tattoo/Faith's Favored, and that item, you're rolling with a +13 before magic at level 20. +18 or more with magic (magic tattoos for additional types of bonuses are a thing). That's scary for wizards to realize that the full-plate Fighter has a half-decent chance against their spells, and I think the Will save is even higher. Also, I'm not the DPS, I'm the Tank. DPS does massive damage, Tank draws fire with damage on the side.
"But you're wearing full plate and only have two Armor Trainings. How does that work?"
Glad you asked. Because I'm wearing Mithril Full Plate, but couldn't assume that I'd find it in the build showcase. There's not a single Dex point left unaccounted for (2 Dex, 3 BoPP | 1 Armor Max, +2 Mithril, +2 Armor Training). To ballpark my final AC, it's about 10 base + 19 Armor + 4 Shield + 1 Dodge + 5 Deflect + 6 Natural + 5 Dex = 51. AKA: MC Hammer in Full Plate.
"Why not take Toughness early? Why not have more Con/HP?"
Pathfinder is so damage/AC focused that taking Toughness doesn't do much. With no magic at level 15, my damage potential is 102 if I full-round. Note that the AC of a d10 class with some Con is reasonably only slightly higher than that. My average damage (excluding crits) is 93/round. If I was facing someone with 180 HP, it'd still be a two-round fight. At level 15 using my assumptions, a Barbarian with 16 Con gets ~155 HP. Raging, he'll make it up to a 3-round fight, but not a 4-rounder. That's assuming I'm the only one fighting the Barbarian.
"Why are you keeping Cleave? I thought it sucked after Level 5."
Very big misconception. It only sucks after level 5 *if you're going for single-target DPS*. Cleave leads into Great Cleave, which translates to "about 8 attacks a round while surrounded", and more if Cleaving Finish and Improved Cleaving Finish go off. Wait... what's my motivation, again? Right, run into the middle of a huge group of enemies and start swinging, because I'm the "God of War". Draws attention away from the squishies? Check. Also... Dreadful Carnage kicks off in this situation. A lot.
"But what if I need to go ham on one guy?"
Re-check the build. I had to do so little to get that defense that I was able to keep massive offense as well. You're hitting often and hard, so don't worry, things will die. Fast. Faster if there's a Rogue (or other DPS class) in the general neighborhood.