Storm Raven
First Post
reapersaurus said:
In the original example, the rogue was given a pair of +5 weapons and assumed to be able to take a number of feats that required Dex 15+. It actually isn't that hard for a fighter to be able to consistently outdamage a rogue in combat, the fighter just has to be reasonably intelligent.
Oh, by the way, a rogue has to be within 5', or use missile weapons to get multiple sneak attacks in a round, and he can't flank with a missile weapon, so using missile weapons is likely to be a short lived tactic in any given combat.
If you want a dangerous fighter it isn't that hard to deal massive amounts of damage on a regular basis. Make an archer from a 16th level fighter for example. Give him a +5 Mighty (18 Strength) Composite Longbow and a sheaf of +5 arrows (the rogue had two +5 weapons in the previous example, the best way to get magical arrows is to have a friendly wizard or cleric cast Greater Magic Weapon on a sheaf of 50 normal arrows). Give him Bracers of Archery (a comparatively cheap item).
For feats take Point Blank Shot, Rapid Shot, Weapon Focus: Composite Longbow, Weapon Specialization: Composite Longbow. Load him up on other feats too, probably Improved Critical: Composite Longbow as well, but I won't go in to that right now.
Within 30 feet, with no Dexterity bonus to his attack rolls, he attacks at +27/+27/+22/+17/+12 and deals 1d8+18 points of damage per hit. Against AC 25, without considering critical hits, he does on average 86 points of damage per round. Every round. If he has a Dexterity bonus, those figures go up. If he inflicts a critical hit (which he will do every third round on average), he does 3d8+54 points of damage with a single arrow.
And this bow specialist doesn't have any kind of dexterity bonus. Just giving him access to an 18 Dexterity (from Gloves of Dexterity, or Cat's Grace, or just a high roll) raises his attacks rolls to +31/+31/+26/+21/+16, increasing his damage dealing output even more.
Compare that to the damage output of a similarly equipped 16th level rogue against AC 25. And remember, in order to sneak attack, the rogue needs to set up special circumstances, and his bonus damage does not apply to undead, constructs, or anything else immune to criticals. The fighter deals 86 points of damage against these opponents, the rogue does not. The fighter deals massive damage any time he can bring his bow to bear, the rogue only deals lots of damage if he can get his opponent flat footed, flanked, or otherwise denied their Dexterity bonus.
And I didn't even consider the possibility of a Fighter8/OoBI8 with Superior Weapon Focus (raising the high Dexterity version's attack rolls to +32/+32/+27/+22/+17), Superior Weapon Specialization (raising the damage per arrow output to 1d8+20), the Close Combat Shot ability (eliminating the need to use any other weapon), the Free Attack (providing the possibility of yet another attack at +32), and the stackable Zen Archery ability (possibly raising the archer's attack bonus even higher).
I chose an archer, because I currently play one (not that high of a level, or that well equipped), but one could come up with any number of other fighter variants easily capable of dealing out similar or greater amounts of damage on a regular basis.
