Need Advice on Party Fighter

[Kichwas]

Ick.

Random stats and only the core books.

Well the random stats is common enough for many people.

As for the core books... oh well.

If anyone else is following this thread and trying to get ideas may I suggest going out and getting Mongoose's new Quintessential Fighter book.

It's everything the Sword half of Sword and Fist should have been.

As for this specific case I have no valuable advice as yet.

 

[Troll]

Consider:

Dwarf Fighter 1
Str: 15
Dex: 15
Con: 14
Int: 10
Wis: 10
Cha: 9

This gives you a character who can take some damage, and is solid in both melee or ranged combat.

For feats, I would take Combat Reflexes and Dodge or improved initiative.

Gear: you'll want a longbow, a trident and large shield, with a dagger and club or hammer for back up. The trident is the only reach weapon that can be wielded in one hand, allowing you to use a large shield. You should be able to afford all that plus scale mail, which would give you an AC 18 (19 vs. specified opponent).

from experience, that set up is tough to bring down at the early levels, where an attack of opportunity could take out an opponent before he can even attack you.

Troll.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I will join the chorus and say Human or Dwarf Fighter, weapon & shield style.

Don't worry about movement too much. You have to wear the heaviest armor you can afford or you will probably die. If you need to run away it will probably be time to roll a new character...

 

[Jack Haggerty]

While true I'm a little puzzled what benefit a buckler gives. If you have exotic weapon prof you can use the Dwarven Waraxe or Bastard Sword with one hand and use a large shield. With two handed weapons like the longbow and longspear the buckler will give no AC benefit, nor will it when you use the hand and a half weapons two handed. So basically, the buckler will only help in situations where a large shield would be of more benefit.

The buckler gives you a +1 bonus to AC, like the small shield. The down side is that you cannot use it for a bash attack (which is not necessarily a big deal). The up side is that if you forego the shield's armor bonus, you can use a two-handed weapon (including bows and crossbows) without penalty, or you can use an off-hand weapon with an extra -1 penalty to attack with that off-hand weapon (due to the extra weight of the buckler hanging on your arm).

If you want a fighter who always uses the same weapon the same way... ie Longsword and shield, axe and sheild, bastard sword and shield, any one-handed weapon and shield... then use a large shield.

I was designing a more flexible fighter, though. One that would have melee attacks, ranged attacks and reach attacks all accessible at any time. I wanted him to be able to quickly switch between attack modes, so that he can quickly deal with unexpected problems on the battlefield.

With this in mind, there are three reasons I picked a buckler over a regular shield...

1. Unreadying a shield and slinging it over your back to carry with you wastes a move-equivalent action and potentially invokes an AoO.
2. Readying a shield that has been slung over your shoulder wastes a move-equivalent action.
3. Dropping a shield is a free action. But, picking it back up in the midst of battle both wastes a move-equivalent action and potentially invokes an AoO.

With a buckler, you can go from a two-handed spear (for reach) to one-handed bastard sword and buckler (for a little more defense) to two-handed bastard sword (for a little more damage) to bow and arrow (for ranged) and back without the buckler ever leaving your arm.

And remember, a buckler can be enchanted just as easily as any other shield.

 

[Jack Haggerty]

[BGear: you'll want a longbow, a trident and large shield, with a dagger and club or hammer for back up. The trident is the only reach weapon that can be wielded in one hand, allowing you to use a large shield.[/B]

This is wrong. Tridents do not have reach.

They are medium weapons with a damage of 1d8 x2, and can be thrown as a ranged weapon with a range increment of 10 ft.