So this is my first ever character and I joined the campaign at lvl 6 as a dwarven two handed fighter.
I spent a good amount of time reading about fighters and decided to take a dip in brawler as my last level up. I am now lvl 8 (7 Fighter 1 Brawler)
My character uses a Dwarven Longhammer +1 and got a belt of strength +2.
I am our only melee character and simultaneosly our hardest hitting character.
I would love to be even better at dealing damage while adding some versatility.
1) My characters stats are:
STR - 22
DEX - 14
CON - 16
INT - 12
WIS - 12
CHA - 8
2) My Traits are:
Defender of Society
Reactionary
3) My Feats are:
Power Attack
Intimidating Prowess
Weaponfocus
Furios Focus
Advanced Weapon Training (Warrior Spirit)
Combat Reflexes
Armor Focus (-1 Skill Penalty on Armor, +1 Dex Bonus)
Armorspecialization (3rd Party - +2 on AC, may sleep in heavy armor)
For Martial Flexibility, my GM ruled that he wants to limit the amount of feats I can take at will, but he will provide me with an Item that will allow me to do it as a swift action a number of times a day. I am allowed to pick 5 feats to use with martial flexibility and will gain a feat every 2 levels and after learning a feat during the campaign.
My Question is:
1) How would you continue building this character?
I was thinking about doing an intimidate build, but I also kinda want to make use of sunder and piledriver/tripping.
This is my plan so far:
Lvl 9: Cornugon Smash, Hurtful
Lvl 10: Advanced Weapon Training - Versatile Training
lvl 11: Dreadful Carnage; Signature Skill (Intimidate)
lvl 12: Swap Armor Specialization for Greater Weapon Focus
2) What martial flexibility feats would you pick for this character?
My picks so far are:
Dedicated Adversary
Stunning Irruption
Cut from the Air
Disruptive
that cap on the martial flexibility... if it was me i would ask the gm if he also cap the spells available to clerics and druids to 5 per spell level.
anyway, see if he allow you to set among them 5 feats dedicated adversary without naming the creature type before hand -so you can tailor them to the creatures you meet.
it's power is not only in the +2 to hit and damage but also to things like sense motive and perception that help against feints\enemy going into hiding or invisible and tracking them. Also and being able to do untrained knowledge checks with +2 on any enemy you meet is nothing to laugh at! -see favored enemy. The number of times gm asked 'anyone has knowledge 'V' ? no? only 'y','x' or 'z' well, that's no help.. you don't know what that thing is...")
Will talk about the GM about the 5 limit its half my character lvl + Wis modifier actually. And we want to include ways to learn new feats y Traiing with martial experts or witnessing them in a fight (with a certain check). But 5 at my level seems really low.
What are your must have feats for martial flexibility? I need to make a list for myself (and the GM ;) )
I am currently thinking about these possible routes to continue the build (in no particular order):
1) Vital Strike
Big Hammer go Boom :)
2) Intimidation
Some utility and could combo with piledriver (cor upon smash + hurtful)
3) Trip
Again, combos with piledriver and may even allow a great combo with cornugon smash.
4) Sunder
I get all these bonuses... smashing style allows a free trip at my sunder bonus, cool :D
5) A mixed bag anybody may recommend ;)
I recently played through a long campaign (1st to 18th level) with a ranger/fighter who was built to dish out massive hits with an earth breaker. He took Vital Strike and its sequels as soon as he qualified for each one, and got his weapon enchanted with the impact quality as soon as he could afford it. He mostly relied on use Cleaving Finish and Combat Reflexes to occasionally hurt someone besides that target a round. Once in a great while--and more often towards the end of the campaign--he would actually switch back to using all his iterative attacks, when applying his sizable static damage to more than one target was more efficient than the single avalanche of d6's.
Most of his versatility came from his ranger levels, which had the guide and skirmisher archetypes.
His tactics for casters mostly boiled down to get close ASAP and pound 'em until they stop moving. :) If they try to fly out of reach, have a potion of fly (or eventually, winged boots) to chase 'em down--or just let the zen archer PC perforate them.
LUNGE is great for reach-weapon users. If they come to you then you don't need it, but if you go to them then they can just 5-foot-step and full-attack you. Lunge lets you attack from further away, meaning they can't do the 5-foot-step dance. This costs them a move action so the can't full-attack, and also grants you an extra AoO as they move in. It's win-win ... well for you it is.
CLEAVING FINISH adds a free attack at your full BAB reasonably often against groups of enemies. As far as I can tell this extra attack would benefit from Backswing, but maybe someone will correct me on that. It reauires Cleave, but 2 feats for a fairly common bonus attack (that stacks with Haste) isn't bad. Also it works well with Lunge since that feat increases your threatened area for the duration of your turn.
One thing I'll say though is that you may not need more offensive feats. You'll already be doing a ton of damage and presumably controling the battlefield with your reach weapon, so adding defence or utility might serve you better. I don't have any specific suggestions, but it's something to think about.
1) I think I will take cornugon smash, hurtful and signature Skill (intimidation) for my next feats.
I will trade armor specialization now with cornugon smash, GM will probably allow me to swap it out since we didn't do much after level up.
Lvl 9 will be hurtful and signature Skill.
Lvl 10 I will get Advanced weapon Training- versatile training to keep intimidate always maxed out and to get more skill points.
Next feats will probably be Steel Soul, Iron will.
Sounds good?
2) GM agreed to limit martial flexibility feats to bab + wisdom (so 9 currently).
I was thinking about taking these for now:
Blind Fight
Bludgeoner
Cut from the Air
Dedicated Adversary
Pin Down
Rat Catcher
Stunning Irruption
Lunge
Any other must haves?
I will also he able to learn new skills by RP in the future.
3) Regarding weapons:
Should I also get an earth breaker for close combat? Or should I just use my armor spikes?
Should I put cruel on my weapon or should I focus on increasing the weapon enhancement since I can use warrior spirit to make my weapon cruel?
Fighter has so many feats that I am really overwhelmed. If sb. Could give me a Complete build solution I would be so grateful. (Even thought about letting my character die to pick sth. more simple by now...)
Edit: I will also be allowed to put the training enchantment on my armor spikes :)
That Brawler dip is a curiosity for a new player - the benefit it gives is best realized in the hands of a very, very experienced player with a good knowledge of the in-and-outs of the dizzying breadth of available feats. That's not to say new players shouldn't play it - it's just complex is all, almost like a wizard martial. I wonder if the GM's decision to limit your options to 5 was in response to the analysis paralysis you just admitted to having. Still, I think that is a severe under-cutting of the ability. If you have an issue slowing down the game at the table, (which isn't uncommon for new players, don't worry), then the best advice is probably: just don't, it's a game, calm down.
Make the analysis paralysis worse!:
Want to be even more overwhelmed at your options? Read on.
A common feat for Brawlers is Combat Expertise. One could use Martial Flexibility to pick up the combat maneuver feats: Improved Trip, Disarm, Dirty Trick, Reposition, Steal, and, while technically not a combat maneuver, Feint. It is also a frustrating feat tax to a lot of very situational feats and combat styles that are typically ignored in-part because it stands in the way at the 13 Int prerequisite. But not for you - You dipped Brawler. Mirror Move is one such flavorful, usually very weak feat.
Since you should have Improved Unarmed Strike as a Brawler, you could have temporary access to a lot of combat style feats that way. Jabbing Style comes to mind for damage if you ever find yourself unarmed.
Though this last part may be too late to implement in your current build, it centers around a suggestion similar to Melechor's: The Ascetic Style (Unarmed Strike) and Weapon Adept (Versatile) combination. Use feats that benefit your unarmed strikes for any monk weapon (like, Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike), Weapon Specialization (Unarmed Strike), Stunning Fist, Jabbing Style, etc.), and turn any weapon you hold into a 'monk' weapon (including your 2-handed sword) for the cost of a modification. You could even modify your back-up longbow to be a "monk" weapon to use any unarmed-strike related feat for ranged attacks. That's flexible, cheeky, and lets you use all of those situational unarmed strike feats with any weapon you have paid to be modified.
Easy on the Intimidate:
Intimidation is a good mechanic with a lot of good feats to boost it. The trick is to recognize that it's a secondary ability to killing things. It works well for a slew of enemies, especially at the level you're playing at, but it probably won't work when you really really really really need to pull all the stops (Case example: Undead are outright immune to it, and they can be a fairly common and powerful enemy.) Keep a couple good feats if you like the mechanic but don't get carried away. Cornugon Smash and Hurtful are probably plenty, even when Signature Skill and Dreadful Carnage are great. In the end, it's your build! New players always make fun mistakes - and going too overboard on Intimidate isn't the worst mistake to do by any means.
What about out-of-combat? What about the party?:
The advantage of having intimidate in the back pocket is you're a lot more sociable than most Fighters out there. Still, carving out an out-of-combat role beyond making a barkeeper spill one too many beans might be a higher priority for the party than doing more damage or improving in-combat intimidation. What challenges does your party have, and where do you think weak spots are in its composition?
Here is a good old post about party roles and the bases that a group in the game are expected to at least half-way fill. It might give you an idea on what to prioritize. If you're the only melee damage dealer, then more strongly consider Greater Weapon Specialization and being a better slaughterer. If you're the only tanky feller with good armor and hitpoints, then helping (will) saves and other defenses might be better. If there isn't a clear mechanical shortcoming that the party has, then be more liberal with the fun stuff that is catching your attention, like in-combat Intimidation.
