
Finoan |
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Fighter for the increased crit chance.
Or Barbarian for the increased damage.
The question then becomes: what do you do with the rest of your character build power?
Fighter: You already have best in print attack bonus. You can't generally swipe the damage boosts of other classes very effectively. Your class feats give more options for how to fight, but doesn't increase your attack bonus or damage very much.
Barbarian: You already have the best in print damage boost. You can't generally increase your attack bonus. Your class feats can let you do additional things, but usually won't increase your weapon damage.

Ryangwy |
Given you want to frontload your damage here, Precision Ranger also comes to mind. Go all out with Gravity Weapon to stack your bonuses, and you're probably the best user of Skirmish Strike, given you won't want to use Twin Takedown.
United Assault also still exists and is a rare way for both Fighter and Ranger to get circumstance bonus to damage. Arguably better on the Precision Ranger than the Fighter.

Tridus |

Agile Grace Fighter with twin picks is extremely good at this. High chance to crit, reduced MAP on subsequent attacks, Double Slice to get two attacks with that full crit chance, and Fatal. I had one of these in Ruby Phoenix and he absolutely wrecked things. Bonus points if you pick up Ranger Dedication for Twin Takedown because you can third attack for two more attacks (they're at MAP -6 with Agile Grace, but four attacks with 2 at full attack and 2 at MAP -6 is nothing to sneeze at).
2h Fighter can also get big numbers and big crits. My son played a Kobold Fighter in Extinction Curse with a Greatsword and Vicious Swing (Power Attack back then) and he still raves about it years later. Critting for 14d12 plus bonuses plus runes and such never gets old.
Barbarian is also in the picture (Giant Barbarians get absolutely huge damage bonuses and the size is very useful), and there's several others as well. But I've had people ask me as their GM for a straightforward, hard hitting melee character, and literally none of them have been disappointed in Fighter. It runs in and smashes things and it's really good at it.
If your GM lets you take Exemplar Dedication, then that's the best level 2 feat you can take pretty much if your goal is damage. (I ban it outright for that reason, but if it's allowed then welcome to flavour country.)

shroudb |
The new Blackjacket dedication also has a feat that works similar to Hunt Prey to straight up add damage dices on your 1st hit, which pairs nicely with great weapons since they have higher damage dices.
I'd value reach higher than a dice size increase just for the extra opportunities to trigger reactive strikes as well.
Something like a d10 reach over a D12 nonreach.

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Magus with investigator MCD can allow you to know when to spellstrike with spell slot. Can make for some truly impressive crits. But you can only do it once every other turn until/unless you can get your DaS to be a free action
The "person of interest" feat helps with that, allows you to assign an enemy as the target of your investigation.

Captain Morgan |

Are polearms out of the question? Giant Barbarians get the highest static bonus damage in the game, but their lowered AC and increased reach means the best way to play them is by abusing Reactive Strike on anyone coming into melee range. Fighter multi class lets you get reactive strike early at the cost of a level 2 feat tax, but that frees you up to take Giant Stature at 6th and your build is basically complete. Otherwise, dragon instinct will have more staying power and only slightly lower damage.
But yeah, always hard to argue with the fighter. It feels worth noting that d12 weapons don't get a ton of feats to boost their damage because they are already at the apex of damage. Dueling and two weapon fighting needs feats to catch up. So your feats tend to go to things you said you're not interested in, like Sudden Charge or Brutish Shove. But those are also DPR enhancers in their own way: Sudden Charge lets you squeeze extra strikes into turns when the enemy is far away, and Brutish Shove making enemies flatfooted can help a third strike be worth making. But Exacting Strike is the closest level 1 straight damage enhancer.
Multiclassing into barbarian will get you some extra damage at the cost of AC. The dedication + instinct ability is what you are after. War blood mutagen from the alchemist dedication is an extra +1 to hit, but you probably don't want to juggle it at the start of combat so hold off until you can get a collar of the shifting spider.
If you just want straight damage blender, two weapon fighting might be more appealing. Dual weapon warrior gives you flensing strike which is hella good.

Deriven Firelion |

If I'm pretty sure I'm playing to level 20, I'm going with barbarian. Barbarian has far more interesting feats than the fighter and the barbarian's level 20 feats are good...or at least unstoppable juggernaut is good.
I'd probably do giant with an ogre hook for the deadly d10 plus the pick bonus damage.
Get Whirlwind attack and Reactive Strike with the giant growth feats for reach.
Go to town smashing things. Hit level 20, no one can stop you.

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A melee flurry ranger with the barbarian Archtype and Dragon Instinct feat (two feats required) striking with a falcata and light hammer whilst raging:
1 First action - Twin strike. d8 weapon (Fatal d12) +8 damage, plus d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -2. All damage is spirit or force.
2 Second action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
3 Third action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
It's not as much damage as a greatsword, etc. But the -2/-4/-4 MAP means you hit & crit a lot more than three swings at 0/-5/-10.

Riddlyn |
A melee flurry ranger with the barbarian Archtype and Dragon Instinct feat (two feats required) striking with a falcata and light hammer whilst raging:
1 First action - Twin strike. d8 weapon (Fatal d12) +8 damage, plus d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -2. All damage is spirit or force.
2 Second action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
3 Third action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
It's not as much damage as a greatsword, etc. But the -2/-4/-4 MAP means you hit & crit a lot more than three swings at 0/-5/-10.
The falcata is advanced and the light hammer is agile so you're reducing your rage damage by half with that strike

Falco271 |

A melee flurry ranger with the barbarian Archtype and Dragon Instinct feat (two feats required) striking with a falcata and light hammer whilst raging:
1 First action - Twin strike. d8 weapon (Fatal d12) +8 damage, plus d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -2. All damage is spirit or force.
2 Second action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
3 Third action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
It's not as much damage as a greatsword, etc. But the -2/-4/-4 MAP means you hit & crit a lot more than three swings at 0/-5/-10.
If you really want to optimize the melee flurry ranger, using advanced weapons, the Tamral Chakram is a very good option. d6, agile, deadly. Add damage runes as soon as possible, sneak attack from rogue which adds a lot of other good feats and if allowed, exemplar for Shadow sheath. If you go for str, dex, con, wis, you can even use them for throwing if needed.
Falcata is a good weapon, but when you reach L18 with impossible flurry it loses out due to having to make 3 attacks with higher MAP.
Flurry melee ranger is a very high damage dealer if you can commit all your actions for attacks. Even hasted actions. So quite boring in combat. Find an opponent, hunt prey, take it out with an all out attack.
To lower the "burden" of hunt prey at later level, double prey is very useful. And always try to hunt prey before combat, where possible.

shroudb |
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Karkol wrote:A melee flurry ranger with the barbarian Archtype and Dragon Instinct feat (two feats required) striking with a falcata and light hammer whilst raging:
1 First action - Twin strike. d8 weapon (Fatal d12) +8 damage, plus d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -2. All damage is spirit or force.
2 Second action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
3 Third action - d6 weapon +6 damage at MAP -4. Spirit/force damage.
It's not as much damage as a greatsword, etc. But the -2/-4/-4 MAP means you hit & crit a lot more than three swings at 0/-5/-10.
If you really want to optimize the melee flurry ranger, using advanced weapons, the Tamral Chakram is a very good option. d6, agile, deadly. Add damage runes as soon as possible, sneak attack from rogue which adds a lot of other good feats and if allowed, exemplar for Shadow sheath. If you go for str, dex, con, wis, you can even use them for throwing if needed.
Falcata is a good weapon, but when you reach L18 with impossible flurry it loses out due to having to make 3 attacks with higher MAP.
Flurry melee ranger is a very high damage dealer if you can commit all your actions for attacks. Even hasted actions. So quite boring in combat. Find an opponent, hunt prey, take it out with an all out attack.
To lower the "burden" of hunt prey at later level, double prey is very useful. And always try to hunt prey before combat, where possible.
While dual wielding is indeed strong for damage, the OP asked for a great weapon user though.

Tremaine |
Are polearms out of the question? Giant Barbarians get the highest static bonus damage in the game, but their lowered AC and increased reach means the best way to play them is by abusing Reactive Strike on anyone coming into melee range. Fighter multi class lets you get reactive strike early at the cost of a level 2 feat tax, but that frees you up to take Giant Stature at 6th and your build is basically complete. Otherwise, dragon instinct will have more staying power and only slightly lower damage.
But yeah, always hard to argue with the fighter. It feels worth noting that d12 weapons don't get a ton of feats to boost their damage because they are already at the apex of damage. Dueling and two weapon fighting needs feats to catch up. So your feats tend to go to things you said you're not interested in, like Sudden Charge or Brutish Shove. But those are also DPR enhancers in their own way: Sudden Charge lets you squeeze extra strikes into turns when the enemy is far away, and Brutish Shove making enemies flatfooted can help a third strike be worth making. But Exacting Strike is the closest level 1 straight damage enhancer.
Multiclassing into barbarian will get you some extra damage at the cost of AC. The dedication + instinct ability is what you are after. War blood mutagen from the alchemist dedication is an extra +1 to hit, but you probably don't want to juggle it at the start of combat so hold off until you can get a collar of the shifting spider.
If you just want straight damage blender, two weapon fighting might be more appealing. Dual weapon warrior gives you flensing strike which is hella good.
Polearms could work, but 2h smack down is the goal, plant feet, apply beatings until target acquires dead condition, I don't really enjoy that tactical aspects of pf2e combat (which is odd, I usually do like that kind of thing, just pf2e,s doesn't)
I am aware of the two weapon blenders, but another player likes them way more than I do, and having two in the party seems meh.

Finoan |

Polearms could work, but 2h smack down is the goal, plant feet, apply beatings until target acquires dead condition, I don't really enjoy that tactical aspects of pf2e combat (which is odd, I usually do like that kind of thing, just pf2e,s doesn't)
I think that would give Fighter a slight edge over Barbarian then. Both could do the job, but Barbarian (despite their higher HP count) is a bit more fragile and needs more support from healers when trying this tactic.
Precision Ranger would be a distant third choice. It only gets the damage boost on their first hit. Which nudges them towards a more skirmisher style of fighting than a stand-in-place-and-hit-repeatedly style.
Then there are other more bizarre builds you could go for, but I don't actually recommend:
Swashbuckler doesn't require 1-hand weapons. The Agile/Finesse 2-hand weapons still do lower damage than other 2-hand weapons, and they are all Uncommon. Requires gaining and regaining Panache to even attempt the massive spike damage though.
Inexorable Iron Magus can also murderize people with a 2-hand weapon. It isn't the most straightforward to do though. The biggest damage is with spell slot spellstrike, and you can't do that indefinitely.

Captain Morgan |

Tremaine wrote:Polearms could work, but 2h smack down is the goal, plant feet, apply beatings until target acquires dead condition, I don't really enjoy that tactical aspects of pf2e combat (which is odd, I usually do like that kind of thing, just pf2e,s doesn't)I think that would give Fighter a slight edge over Barbarian then. Both could do the job, but Barbarian (despite their higher HP count) is a bit more fragile and needs more support from healers when trying this tactic.
Outside of giant instinct, is this really true anymore? Barbarians no longer have the generic rage AC penalty and effectively get 25% more HP per level (not counting ancestries.) Fighters have an easier time getting heavy armor, but it is obtainable on barbarians too. Fighters are better with shields but that's not relevant to the OP's character.
Anyway, the most brain dead damage build is actually the flurry ranger. The decreased MAP penalty really incentives doing nothing but Striking. Precisons can spam strike too, but once once your edge has proc'ed there is probably something better to do with your remaining actions. Flurry never has to feel guilty. The problem is you CAN use flurry with a greatsword, but it doesn't feel like you're leveraging the class potential as much as you would with two weapons. And you're essentially playing catch-up to the accuracy advantage on a first strike a fighter has while also needing to spend actions hunting prey. You need more strikes but wind up making less.
That's the whole problem with two handers. If you already have the highest damage weapon there's only so much you can build for better damage. Even something like Vicious Swing actually lowers your damage compared to multiple strikes unless you have a fortune effect or need to punch through damage resistance or something.

Claxon |
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Be it fighter, barbarian, ranger or champion, how would you build a warrior purely focused on DPR with a great weapon?
No conditions, effects or movement, just I rend you into a spreading cloud of mist and shards with a great sword/axe/hammer.
To me the funny thing about your question is that all that stuff you're excluding is what 90% of builds are. There's very little in a build that gives you flat power/attack/damage increases. Almost all of is conditional. Many conditions are the things which let you deal damage more effectively, inflicting fear or prone.

Claxon |

olearms could work, but 2h smack down is the goal, plant feet, apply beatings until target acquires dead condition, I don't really enjoy that tactical aspects of pf2e combat (which is odd, I usually do like that kind of thing, just pf2e,s doesn't)
I am aware of the two weapon blenders, but another player likes them way more than I do, and having two in the party seems meh.
I will warn you that PF2 is unlikely to be the game for you then.
PF2 needs to be played tactically for your character to be very successful. You can probably get by if the rest of your party plays tactically, but they will succeed in spite of you, not because of you.
Unlike PF1, you cannot "win" at PF2 by having a great build before you enter combat. Always doing the same thing in PF2 is going to fail in probably about half of combat, when you could have another tactic that would work better. By not engaging with the conditional bonus and effects and looking to ignore inflecting conditions you're really hamstringing what you can do. Also, you're probably going to end up with those options anyways, because there simply aren't very many "simple non-conditional" class feats out there. So you'll either be ignoring a big part of your character or otherwise wasting your character's power budget if your try to play this way.

shroudb |
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For straight up just damage at high levels, a Fighter also has some tools if he just wants to swing:
Needle through the God's eyes will give you move+2 Strikes at full Fighter Map, followed by Certain Strike that does damage even on a miss followed by Desperate Finisher for a Brutal Finish.
This will give you, even without haste or anything:
1 30ft+ Leap
2 Strikes at full map
2 Strikes that do (some) damage even on a miss (and one of them extra damage on a hit)
Obviously, Reactive Strike is better than Desperate Finisher, but if you don't want to bother with positioning, reach, and all those to optimise for Reactive Strike, Desperate is just an extra attack.

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... PF2 needs to be played tactically for your character to be very successful. You can probably get by if the rest of your party plays tactically, but they will succeed in spite of you, not because of you...
Pure damage is not the way to go for all characters. In a five or six PC party, having one martial go for pure damage is probably okay... as the other four/five will help set you up. Four or less... no; you have to help set yourself up, and everybody else.
This is built right into the game, and the Game Authors tell you so in many places if you care to look.
Simple example: For two actions a Fighter with Greatsword can: make a d12 + Str attack, and another d12 + Str attack at -5 MAP.
or
Slam Down, 4th level Fighter feat. Slam Down takes two actions, so instead of the above, you get a d12 + Str attack, and then an Athletics check _without_ the -5 to knock your opponent prone. This helps all party members (including yourself) by making the opponent prone/off guard. It makes the opponent waste an action getting up, and it subjects him to a Reactive Strike from you when he rises.