Would you like to help my Fighter? ^^

[Dr_Sage]

Good afternoon fellows!

Finally getting to level 7, and with the errata, I would like some advice from more experienced players.

My character is a classic archetype: he is a Lawful Good Dwarf Fighter, with a noble soul, a strong body, and a huge heart.

He is a a fierce opponent, and someone you can count on your side in a fight. A loyal friend, and an enemy you would not like to have against you.

So far the stats are:

S - 17
C - 19
D - 10 (was 12, but I will ask the DM to change this).
I - 10
W -14 (was 12).
C - 10

I use an Adamantine Craghammer, a Razor Heavy Shield and a Boots of adept Charging.

1w - Crushing Surge - my bread and butter, literaly.
1w - Cleave -have not been using in a looong time, because usually survival is priority number 1, followed by protecting my buddies.
I am considering getting rid of cleave.. suggestions?

1e - Shield Bash - am very fond of this power, and is my only attack vs Reflex, but as level progresses its becomming more difficult to hit: no magic weapon bonus, no weapon focus etc. Its not invigorating either.
There is a high probability of retrainning this to Bell Ringer.

1d - Comeback Strike -Saved my butt many times... even not being invigorating.
Considering switching to Knee Breaker...not shure.

2d - Boundless Endurance - Feels right to have this one. ^^

3e - Sweeping Blow -as soom as I get this I never got more tham 1 or 2 opponents on me at the same time... no invigorating....
Considering getting Blinding Smash here.

5d - Rain of Steel -Rock and roll! Damage for everyone!

6e - Unbreakable -I just love this one.

7e - Come and Get it or Savage Parry, I just cant decide. Both are very situational and I have been having trouble figuring out what to get here. I can imagine some "Table Arguing" when I use Come and Get It on enemy artilhery/casters....

As for the Feats:

1 - Dwarven Weapon Training (my only offensive feat, from my training as Dwarven Light Infantry);
2 - Toughness (what else?);
4 - Dwarf Stoneblood (see item above);
6 - Shield the Fallen (I love the sense of security I can grant my conrades with this one, but its highly situational... never actually used);
8 - Weapon Expertise;

On the list:

- Martial Freedom (situational indeed...);
- Plate Mail;
- Hammer Hythim (I just HATE when I miss);
- Dwarven Durability (Its a waste of extra healing surges per day but the increased surge value seems good and feets the character' s theme).
- Marked Scourge maybe or Devoted Defender?
- Paragon Defenses or maybe Combat Antecipation?



I would love to hear from players that actually have used those or other powers and other tips from the pros. As you can see my character is not optimized at all, mixing stuff from multiple builds, but I like to keep him at least efficient.

I will keep being a Battle Rager even with the nerf, becuse I want this character "to be as tough as a bedrock." I feel that I will need more invigorating powers to be able to keep tough, but not shure.

Stance powers like Rain of Steel does not stop me from using Crushing Surge on the same round so even not being invigorating they are ok I think.

As paragon Path I will probably choose between Firstborn of Moradin and Dreadnought. Both seems solid choices and fits the theme.

Again I would love to hear suggestions from you fellows.

 

[Victim]

You really want Come and Get It. Being able to rearrange enemies within the Burst 3 is pretty useful - especially if you're tough enough to take having your allies' Area Burst 1 attacks dropped on your head. It marks everyone. It's pretty easy to catch 3 or more enemies in it. Making 3 attacks makes it much more likely that you'll hit at least once and get your battlerager temp HP. It also makes any other Close Burst powers you have more valuable, since you can suck foes into your reach, then AP out another burst to swing at everyone again.

 

[Juris]

Devoted Challenge(MP) is another great feat, especially for Dw fighters because of their high Wisdom. Add in Potent Challenge(PH), and your Combat Challenge attacks become insane. This makes powers like Sweeping Blow lethal, since a fighter can mark multiple foes a round so long as he makes an attack against them. A good Sweeping Blow that marks several foes at once can really lock down the opposition, which is the role of the fighter.

BTW, why not dump Int to 8 and put the extra points into Wis?

 

[Flipguarder]

Id go with a different ability point set up

18 str
18 con
12 dex
8 int
13 wis
10 cha

 

[Elric]

Devoted Challenge(MP) is another great feat, especially for Dw fighters because of their high Wisdom.

Devoted Challenge has a prereq of Dwarf fighter. No one else need apply

Add in Potent Challenge(PH) and your Combat Challenge attacks become insane.

Potent Challenge only works with two-handed weapons. So since this character uses a shield it won't work for him.

BTW, why not dump Int to 8 and put the extra points into Wis?

In general, a +2 to Dex is much less important than the attribute points you've spent on Str/Con/Wis, so you're not losing that much mechanically by not dropping Int by 2 (from 10) to increase Dex by 2 (from 10).

From a character effectiveness standpoint, I'd recommend that you drop Cleave for Brash Strike, which lets you do really high damage and gives you an at-will to use when you already have a bunch of temp HP. Brash Strike is on the boundary of acceptable at-will power, though, so some of the other party members may be rather envious of the amount of damage you dish out. On the other hand, they might appreciate the damage, plus the extra attacks dishing out that much damage (and granting some extra combat advantage) draws your way.

 

[Flipguarder]

In general, a +2 to Dex is much less important than the attribute points you've spent on Str/Con/Wis, so you're not losing that much mechanically by not dropping Int by 2 (from 10) to increase Dex by 2 (from 10).

Except of course for the lack of benefit a 10 gives you a +1 to reflex defense, and probably a bonus to ac. Losing a little is still losing.

 

[Elric]

Except of course for the lack of benefit a 10 gives you a +1 to reflex defense, and probably a bonus to ac. Losing a little is still losing.

No bonus to AC, since he's surely wearing heavy armor. If he didn't dump stat Int or Cha before, he probably has a preference for not doing so, and he's not giving up that much mechanically by not decreasing Int by 2 to increase Dex by 2.

 

[Flipguarder]

he could either get:

no bonus to reflex
+0 bonus to int checks
+0 bonus to dex checks

or:

+1 bonus to reflex
-1 to int checks
+1 to dex checks


From the way he described his character, it seems he's going to be very physical. Acrobatics is going to come in play during certain situations. On the other hand, it doesn't sound like he's going to be asked to think much. Also the fact that he is going to have a rather large armor check penalty means that trying to offset that with a bonus to the checks that have such a penalty will also be a good idea. Everyone at some point falls and has to make an acrobatics check not to get too hurt.

i think it works better both for his character and mechanically. If he didn't want advice on how to fix it and/or wasn't open to changing things he wouldn't be here(not to mention its a little rude to pose your own fixes to his build then shoot someone else's down citing "he probably has a preference...").

Also: Losing a little is still losing a little.

 

[UltimaGabe]

1w - Crushing Surge - my bread and butter, literaly.

I'm afraid I stopped reading right there. Unless you describe your Crushing Surge attack as whipping out a knife, flicking a pat of butter onto the enemy's face, and whacking them with a loaf of bread (meanwhile taking a bite, granting yourself bonus Temp HPs), then this is NOT your bread and butter, literally. You have completely missed the definition of the word "literally". You used it to stress the importance of the figure of speech you had just said, but such usage is incorrect.

I'm sorry, but misuse of the word "literally" is one of my biggest pet peeves. (I just hate when people say things without knowing why they're saying them. When a word or saying loses its meaning, English as a language has failed.)

 

[Eridanis]

I'm as picky a grammarian as anyone, but calm down, please. Back to the topic.