Seeking Half-Orc Brawler advice

[morroch]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting Rise of the Runelords soon and while I've played plenty of D&D (including 3.5) I've never played Pathfinder (aside from a one shot convention game). I've decided to play a Half-Orc Brawler with a background of arena fighting. I like the idea of making frequent use of improvised weapons but I'm not sure if that's a viable option.

I'm not looking to optimise the character, I'd just like some advice on how to not suck.

I'm asking for two things:
First, any potential pitfalls to avoid or shortcomings to be aware of?

Second, any must have feats, traits, equipment etc?

Thanks in advance.

[avr]

The feats you take for the widest range of martial flexibility options (assuming you're taking the base brawler or an archetype which keeps that) are: power attack, combat reflexes, combat expertise, dirty fighting, weapon focus and improved unarmed strike. You get that last for free and you certainly don't don't need all of those, but at least one more makes sense IMO.

Next you need to work out what feats you're going to flex. At least 3-4 options I think. You can work these out when you level up but don't forget to do so - working that out on the spot is asking for option paralysis.

Dex based rather than Str based for a brawler Is possible but unless you're in a really low op game don't do it, it's a trap.

Improvised weapons are possible but not especially good for a brawler. They can do unarmed or a couple of light weapons easily.

[Syries]

Catch Off-Guard is the feat needed for melee improvised weapons, and Throw Anything is the feat needed for improvised ranged attacks.
Catch Off-Guard is nice for rogues/slayers with Improved Disarm: Forego their first attack with a disarm, and because of Catch Off-Guard opponents without weapons at the ready are flat-footed for the rest of your attacks.

Brawlers are really good martial class. As usual with most martials, you need to shore up those poor will saves.

Something to keep in mind: Picking up Dirty Fighting is typically a better feat than Combat Expertise if you're looking into the combat maneuver feats. While it doesn't cover everything needed (it only counts as Combat Expertise for the Combat Maneuver feats, not all other feats), it actually has a benefit you'll use.

Brawlers have the luxury of picking up the more situational feats, just when the situation rises. Not all characters will bother picking up Blind-Fight, but when there's an invisible creature around, you'll be able to just have it.

As a Half-Orc brawler, you can go for an intimidation build. You start out with a +2 racial bonus and it's not hard to bump it up from there. Intimidating Prowess, Enforcer, Hurtful. Not a bad build.

[PhD. Okkam]

Take a fighting fan. It will be fun.

[RumpinRufus]

Great build advice above! For backstory advice, maybe your character had been captured by giants and forced to fight in a fighting pit for their entertainment? Then you escaped somehow?