Fighter help for an upcoming campaign

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Thanks guys for the ideas! Lots of suggestions for reach weapon. I do admit the prospect of a reach weapon tripping fighter intrigues me. Is it worth the drawback of not being able to attack adjacent enemies though? How often do you find opponents backing you into a wall or something to prevent moving back with a 5' to keep attacking?

You can always take a 5 foot step back and full-attack with a reach weapon, just have to think tactically and try not to get boxed in, use the terrain to YOUR advantage instead of letting the DM get the advantage on you. Another thing is to always have a backup weapon for those situations where you would be hemmed in or perhaps dealing with creatures who have DR to particular types of weapon damage (i.e. have a bludgeoning weapon that can bypass a skeleton's piercing DR).

I'd second the Furious Focus suggestion by [MENTION=6687585]Ramaster[/MENTION], though I still believe that the Vital Strike chain isn't worth going down especially if you are taking a reach weapon/tripping build. Vital Strike can't be combined with too much since it's an attack action (read: standard action) and it cannot be multiplied on a critical hit. It's best for the guy who rushes in and attacks to get max damage whenever he's trying to move/attack, otherwise most melee really do try to get their full attack round because of the increased damage and increased potential of critical threat and critical damage when that happens.

Another thought is to maybe pick up Dreadful Carnage and rework your stats a bit to get more Cha or pump in skill points to intimidate, this is a pretty nifty little feat to have especially if you already have Power Attack and Furious Focus, this is a free action to attempt a debuff to all enemies within 30 feet of you.

Another neat feat to consider is pretty close to Dreadful Carnage, but can be done every time you use Power Attack and that's Cornugon Smash. The only downside is that is affects only one opponent at a time so it's less of a "team" feat and weakens the opponent you are currently fighting.

 

[Ebony Dragon]

Is the race set in stone?

It's not. If not using a Elven Curveblade I would likely switch to Human, or maybe even something more exotic.

1) What is the rest of the party going to be?
2) What can you tell us about the campaign and setting?
3) Any play style preferences you have.

1- Not sure what the rest of the party will be yet.
2- I've heard we will be doing Kingmaker. The DM tends to tweak and add in lots of extra stuff when he runs modules though, so I suspect it won't be 100% by the book.
3- Well, our games don't tend to be very combat heavy (usually only 1-2 combats per session) so I want to have a character that has things to do when not fighting. I actually kind of like having the 13 or 14 starting INT not only for tripping but also to pick up a couple non-combat skills.

 

[blargney the second]

Next step is to figure out your order of priorities. I get the impression it's along these lines:
1) high AC
2) strong melee controlling ability
3) accuracy
4) skills
5) resilience
6) doing damage (with good crits)

Is that a fair assessment?

 

[Ebony Dragon]

Next step is to figure out your order of priorities. I get the impression it's along these lines:
1) high AC
2) strong melee controlling ability
3) accuracy
4) skills
5) resilience
6) doing damage (with good crits)

Is that a fair assessment?

I would probably rate it more like

1) melee controlling ability
2) accuracy
3) skills
4) damage
5) resilience (I'm guessing this means saving throws?)
6) AC

I figure full plate armor with armor training is enough for AC, don't really need to spend any more character resources on it than that.

I mainly like the crit theme not for the damage so much as the feats that let you stagger/stun and trip on crits. That seems like a nice trick for high level fighters to get into so they can contribute more to a fight than just DPS.

On another note, looking through the feats I came across Pin Down. Isn't that ridiculous when used with a reach weapon? Lets say the opponent charges my reach weapon fighter with his greatsword which provokes an AOO on the way in so we both trade blows. On the next round I take a 5' step and full attack him. On his turn he wants to 5' in and full attack me back, but since I still threaten him that 5' attempt provokes an AOO due to Pin Down, which if it hits stops him from taking that move this round. Am I reading something about this wrong or does this feat just wreck opponents who don't have reach themselves?

Though I suppose if said opponent also had the Pin Down feat he could stop my character from backing up again in the first place. Just seems like a fantastic feat all around.

 

[Dandu]

I would suggest Toughness. Having 13 con is not desirable, even if your base HD is a d10. Also, perhaps something for your Fort save.

 

[blargney the second]

I've got an idea that goes a bit far afield from your starting point, but will accomplish your design goals. Consider monk or a 2 level monk splash. Specifically, the maneuver master archetype. It meshes pretty well with the fighter lore warden archetype.

I'm typing on a phone right now. If the idea intrigues you, I can flesh it out more when I get on a computer.
-blarg

 

[milo]

Have you considered Half-Elf? You could put a 14 in str, dex, and con and have 5 points left over to put into int, wis, and cha. You could put your racial adjustment in strength and have Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 10.
At 4th level drop your point into Int(if I am not mistaken skill points are retroactive in pathfinder, if not swap dex and int) and put the rest of your points into strength.
Drop skill focus for Ancestral Arms to pick up the Elven Curve Blade. I agree with the other posters on the tripping not being optimal and that weapon specialization feats are a must for the fighter. Cleave is a pretty good option, I would go with Power attack instead of expertise at 1st level and Cleave instead of Trip at 2nd.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I'd have to disagree with Milo with cleave, unless you retrain it a bit later on. Cleave is great at low levels, but at higher levels it's really not very good. I do however agree that you should grab Power Attack at first level as it's your bread and butter as a fighter when it comes to damage output. Maybe [MENTION=35909]StreamOfTheSky[/MENTION] will come in and give some of his advice, he's pretty dang good with builds.

 

[Ramaster]

In my opinion, the difficult part of first level play is actually HITTING the enemies.

Once you manage to land the hit, then 2d4+4 is more than enough to put most monsters out of the fight. Consider the common goblin, or the orc. They both have 6 HP. Unless you roll double 1s, you knock them down on one hit! The ideal, of course, is to take an 18 STR and do +6 DMG, that way the benefit of regularly one-hitting the monsters extends to CR 1 Creatures (Average HP: 9).

Thus, on first level weapon focus is much more valuable than Power Attack. Consider this: You will eventually take both feats (Focus for Specialization and PA for damage). Since you need both, take them on the order that benefits your character the most.

 

[milo]

I'd have to disagree with Milo with cleave, unless you retrain it a bit later on. Cleave is great at low levels, but at higher levels it's really not very good.

I haven't played much higher than 10th-11th level(in Pathfinder). I have found Cleave and Great Cleave useful all the way up to those levels, much more so than it was in 3rd/3.5 edition. I have never found that your last attacks are successful enough to hit very often, especially with Power Attack.

The other option is to stick close to your original plan and switch weapons. Heavy flail is a martial weapon that has trip and disarm. It seems like the general response is that you want a weapon that has those on them if you are planning on using them.