Building a Dagger Fighter

[Felon]

You can carry a lot, you can hide them more easily, better threat range (important for Telling Blow and all the critical feats), scarcely less damage compared to all the damage bonuses you're mentioning.

These are pretty good reasons.

Btw: Handaxes 3.0? Handaxes 3.5 have no range increment. Throwing axes have a worse threat range. And daggers have Piercing AND Slashing damage.

Yes, throwing axes would be what I meant.

 

[Felon]

But really, no matter how you look at it, Invisible Blade is what you're looking for.

Honestly, I don't see it. The IB gets a form of sneak that, at best, is on par with what I'd get from taking rogue and (with the Daring Outlaw feat) swashbuckler levels. Unfettered Defense is poo, and the other abilities just don't make it seem worthwhile to stick it out. I like the master thrower a lot better.

Take Daring Outlaw - you end up with +19 BAB and +9d6 (dagger) sneak attack, good hit dice from Swashbuckler. One problem with this build is your hide and move silently end up pretty low, depending on what order you level it in (I'd go something like 1 Rogue, 1 Swashbuckler, 4 Fighter, 5 Invisible Blade, then lots more rogue/swashbuckler (take Daring Outlaw at 12)).

That late? I'm thinking Daring Outlaw will come in handy much earlier.

You could also put levels in Tempest, but I'm not sure how useful that would be.

It's not bad, but I'd probably just take to Two-Weapon Pounce to get the benefit of moving and nailing a guy with two daggers.

 

[Felon]

That's a pretty sweet stack of feats, SadisticFishing! Can Daring Rogue get in a little sooner somehow?

Not that huge a fan of Telling Blow myself, at least not unless the crit range can get boosted through Improved Crit. My opinion is that I'd rather find sure-fire ways to get sneak attack damage than cross my fingers and play "scratch-n'-win" lotto.

A much better feat IMO is Deadly Defense. It's Power Attack for light-weapon builds.

 

[Doug McCrae]

If you go rogue/wizard or sorcerer how about the Daggerspell Mage PrC? Spells: Daggerspell Stance (+2 to hit and damage with daggers), Improved Invisibility, Wraithstrike and the feat Arcane Strike.

 

[Felon]

Your feats are something like:

1: Weapon Focus (Dagger)
S1: Weapon Finesse
F1: Point Blank Shot
3: Far Shot
F2: Precise Shot
6: Improved Initiative
F4: Weapon Specialization (Dagger)
9: Melee Weapon Mastery (Slashing)
12: Daring Outlaw
15: Iron Will
18: No idea.

My wish list of feats is pretty long (and needs some stripping down).

Acrobatic Strike
Combat Expertise
Daring Outlaw
Deadly Defense
Far Shot
Improved Initiative
Point Blank Shot
Precise Shot
Shadow Striker
Two-Weapon Fighting
Two-Weapon Pounce
Improved 2WF
Weapon Focus

 

[Felon]

*blam*
That's the sound of one foot getting shot in the.

(... or however that works grammatically. )

No no, I'm building a dagger fighter, not a gunfighter.

 

[Meeki]

One of the campaigns I just finished Dm'ing had a dagger thrower in it. He was mainly fighter for all the fighter feats and some levels of rogue for sneak attack and evasion. Most of his damage came from his weapon spec and his high strength along with his specialized weapons. Basically he had +1 returning wounding daggers, one for each attack. He had a magic item that was a bandoleer of infinite daggers and paid 4x the standard amount to make them +1 wounding daggers. Once the daggers are thrown they disappear upon impact and only two daggers can be drawn from the bandoleer at once. Quick draw is a must for dagger fighters that plan on throwing daggers.

 

[Angerland]

If you can, try and get Flick of the Wrist. Requires Quick Draw, Sleight of Hand 5 ranks, and Dex 17; once per combat per opponent, you can quick-draw and make a melee attack with a light weapon, catching your opponent automatically flat-footed.

there is a skill trick in Complete Scoundrel that mimicks this feat almost exactly , and at the cost of skill points rather than a feat.

 

[Quartz]

How about fighter / monk? Or fighter / ranger? You want levels in Fighter for the feats and Specialisation, but you could pick dagger-like monk weapon, going Monk for the Flurry ability or Ranger for the TWF tree.

 

[Darklone]

there is a skill trick in Complete Scoundrel that mimicks this feat almost exactly , and at the cost of skill points rather than a feat.

Actually, there are two skill tricks doing similar stuff or was that the stand up trick?

Telling Blow is a must have, Imp Crit can be bought by keen daggers, but that's expensive if you have 10 of them...

No Daring Warrior in there? Too bad, Weapon Spec and upgrade in combination with Melee Weapon Mastery and all that stuff is fun. Check out some of the Alternative Swashbuckler Class abilities instead of Grace and Dodge or get the half-official Living Greyhawk Swashbuckler (lots better, bonus to AC!).

Forget Combat Expertise. Not worth it for that high hitpoints build. But get all Weapon Focus and Spec and Mastery feats for extra to hit and damage (plus the TWF fun). Rapid Shot is nice but what you really want is Point Blank Shot. Far Shot isn't that necessary if you hit so good.