Advice for Fighter please

[Andras]

My group switched over to the Pathfinder system entirely for the current group.

I decided to play a fighter just to see how it would work in Pathfinder, sword & board no less.

Human Fighter 9
S22 Dx20 Cn16 Int15 Wis16 Cha12
AC 29
Fort 11 ref 10 will8
CMB15 CMD30

Power attack
cleave
weapon focus (Long sword)
Combat expertise (retrained from dodge @ 8)
shield focus
wpn spec (long sword)
missile shield
Outflank (teamwork)
Improved Init
Impr Crit (long sword)
9) Grtr Wpn Focus?
10?
11?
12)GrtrWpn Spec (planned)
12) retrain?

I was thinking about taking Grtr Wpn Focus at 9th, between the BAB, weapon training and GWF @9th it improves my attack bonus by 3 this level, offsetting the Combat expertise penalty.

With the +2 long sword I'm doing +22(20wPA)/d8+18 w PA, a couple times recently I've dropped the shield and used the LS w 2 hands doing d8+24. Improved critical really showed it's worth last session, I got multiple crits on rolls of 17 & 18.

So far it's been enough to drop our opponents in one or two rounds especially when hasted (I have boots of speed, and there is a caster w it also).

I'm not that familiar with PATH's feat chains yet, so Im looking for some advice for feats from 9-11.

Thanks

 

[Samurai]

Now that you've got Imp Crit, look at some of the Critical feats. They cause an effect when you crit, such as Stun, Blindness, 2d6 Bleeding, etc. Lots of very good ones...

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I think what you really need to think about is what you want your fighter to do. If you want sword/board more I'd probably try to go down the shield bashing line and two weapon fighting so that you can use your shield as a weapon, then you don't need to be dropping the shield to pull out your 2H to do a little more damage.

A couple of things you might want to look into:
Dropping Cleave - It gets worse as you level, maybe retraining into one of the following things I list here.
Furious Focus - To remove the penalty for the first PA swing, which scales with your level.
Dreadful Carnage - Very nice way to help control the battlefield w/ a free action intimidate check.
Two-weapon Fighting - Feat for being able to get your Bashing Finish and use your shield as a weapon.
Improved Shield Bash - Get rid of penalties to your AC for using the bash.
Shield Slam - Free Bull Rush when you hit with your shield
Shield Master - No penalties when using your shield to attack.
Bashing Finish - Free Action Shield Bash when you crit w/ your sword.

The nice thing about fighters is how many feats they get so you could probably play with your build quite a bit and do a few different things with it.

 

[Andras]

Now that you've got Imp Crit, look at some of the Critical feats. They cause an effect when you crit, such as Stun, Blindness, 2d6 Bleeding, etc. Lots of very good ones...

I'm thinking of taking Cleaving finish next level as I could have used that to great effect this last combat session and Impr Clv Finish @ 11.

retrain missile shield for Vital strike and take grtr wpn specialization @ 12th,
then improved Vital Strike @ 13th

Critical Focus @ 14th, Staggering Crit @ 15th, Bleeding Crit @ 16th plus r/t shield focus to critical mastery; Stunning Crit @ 17th

I'm going to ask the DM if I can redo the character as a Weapon Master to fit the theme

 

[Andras]

Forum freezes on me when I try to edit the last post (twice) so I'm going to add it here:

Edit to the feat progression above, I think I'll drop the GWF @ 9th, and get Cleaving Finish. Then get Vital Strike and VStrikr,Grtr @ 10th and 11th.

12th is GrtrWpnSpec, then Critical Focus, Bleeding Critical, Staggering Critical, and Stunning Critical, pplus Critical Mastery by retraining an earlier feat @ 16th. Vital Strike Grtr is pencilled in at 17th.

I have a open slot for retraining at 12th. If the DM allows the Weapon Master Do-over I may trade out Combat Expertise but I don't know what I'll put in yet, maybe GWF.

 

[Fooly_Cooly]

Well it seems that you like cleave a lot. Traveon is right..it doesnt lvl well. you should replace at stop going down that tree. if your a sword and board go for the bashing tree and get a spiked shield of bashing. 2D6 damage? why thank you very much.Hah

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Well it seems that you like cleave a lot Traveon..it doesnt lvl well. you should replace at stop going down that tree. if your a sword and board go for the bashing tree and get a spiked shield of bashing. 2D6 damage? why thank you very much.Hah

Yeah, not me that likes the cleave line fooly. I told him the same thing and go down the shield bashing line if he wants sword and board, but obviously he's not taking our advice on the matter

Again to [MENTION=40015]Andras[/MENTION] , you are doing yourself a disservice with the feats you've picked for a sword and board fighter. Not sure why you are asking for advice on the sword and board build and then completely disregarding it for a build that is more suited to the 2h, but hey it's your character.

If you want to go down the route that you are outlining, you'd be better off going with a 2h weapon instead of the sword and board. A longsword with the feats you are looking at just won't cut it for good damage output. That's why you want to do the suggestions that I gave you above and listen to what Fooly said about the spiked shield of bashing.

If you are more about damage, then you need to consider going with a weapon like the falchion. When you attack you are going to want to use PA with this bigger weapon and do the full 1.5x damage, which scales really well as you level and your strength increases. The Falchion (with your WF, GWF, WS, & GWS feats for added damage) has a natural threat range of 18-20/x2 and then with keen or Improved Critical you get to double your crit range w/ that weapon to 15-20.

 

[Andras]

Or your advice didn't fit my play style.

I looked at the Critical feats suggested by another poster and plan to adopt some of them.

 

[Fooly_Cooly]

Sorry. Meant that I agreed with you Traveon. Skipped some words there in my typing. My bad. Andras The crit line is certainly fun to do. To bad you didnt start with 1 of the 1 handed weps that has a lower starting crit range. Would make the build much more consistent. But as long is it fits what you want for your char then thats good. Sounds like your are making a more aggressive weapon based sowrd and board fighter.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Or your advice didn't fit my play style.

I looked at the Critical feats suggested by another poster and plan to adopt some of them.

Fair enough, but you did ask for advice on your current build with the sword and board fighter. I gave you advice on the way to be able to optimize that kind of build. I also gave you my insight on how to optimize your fighter if you go down the crit line which entails using the 2h weapon w/ a higher crit threat range and being able to dish out more DPR.

I've also done many builds that weren't completely optimized as I went more for flavor so I can definitely understand your point in play style. As long as you have fun that's all that really matters in the end!