Combat flavor Orc

[Wik]

Mountain Orc, eh? Why not just focus on barbarian or fighter (I think fighter would work better; keep your AC high. It's something our goliath fighter learned the hard way)? Take the "trophy" feat from PHB 2, that lets you take pieces of fallen foes and use them as trophies to boost your combat stats. It's not really any different than "I attack", but it helps give your character, well, CHARACTER.

Monk could be a lot of fun, too - it keeps your AC low, and I find that monks have plenty of options in a fight. Mind you, I hate monks, so we don't see them in play too often...

 

[Nightfall]

Come on...

If he's going monk I'd say go Warblade or Swordsage man!

 

[Wik]

Come on...

If he's going monk I'd say go Warblade or Swordsage man!

Don't own that book, so there's no way I'm gonna recommend it. Besides, since I know absolutely nothing about it, I think it's fair to say that it's the most munchkinized book in the world, and no sane DM would allow it in his game.

 

[Nightfall]

I allow it and my games aren't over powered. Course I banned a lot of magic items so...take it for what its worth. Scarred Lands rules!

 

[Endur]

More than roll to hit, light armor,

Str 21 | Dex 14 | Con 14 | Int 10 | Wis 8 | Cha 10

Here is my suggestion:

Pure Barbarian. The extra hit points, DR, and extra use of rage will be useful in a light or no armor environment.

Power Attack -- enemies will also lack armor, so pushing all of your BAB into power attack will be useful. Cleave/Great Cleave for mooks.

A weapon that can be swung in one or two hands. Two hands for maximum power attack. One hand for swinging on a rope or chandalier while fighting. Recommend a longsword, battle axe, or, for flavor, cutlass.

SKILLS, SKILLS, SKILLS ... barbarians get more skill points than Fighters. Use them. Swim and Climb (for climbing up the rigging of the ship) are class skills. Balance and Tumble are useful cross class skills. In combat, use your skills to do Errol Flynn like maneuvers. Stand on tables, fight on the bar, etc.

Feats:
1: Power Attack
3: Cleave
6: Great Cleave
9+: not sure

 

[Vanye]

Ranger, archery path.
That way you can use your feats for things like Power Attack, etc, without having to sacrifice armor...
Use your animal companion for a mount (or food, if the going gets rough :-D )
Lots of skills
Minor magical powers.

 

[Nightfall]

Now Ranger I can go with. But I would say if you go Archery path, your Dex needs to be higher.

But honestly,

Don't ever use pure fighter if you don't like rolling d20s a lot.

 

[Brimshack]

I like to alternate Fighter with Barbarian or Ranger. This gives you a couple extra combat feats in the early levels especially and it gets you some of the core abilities with the Barbarian or Ranger class. You don't sacrifice BAB and you get a little extra on Fortitude Saves because of the second start-up. By the time you make say 2/2 Barbarian/Fighter, you have 2 extra feats (Power Attack & Cleave, giving you 2 more to round the character a bit) as well as Rage and Uncanny Dodge. You don't get much in the way of extra skill points (an average of 1 more per leve), but you do get a broader range of skills than fighter. So, you just choose the options you like best, either giving yourself 1 extra maxed skill or distributing mediocre ranks among several skills. All in all, I think the approach gives you a nice combination of extra combat feats and special class skills.

 

[Nightfall]

If you really want to alternate fighter with something, it's rogues man. Ffarhd and Grey Mouser proved that in spades. Ignore barbarian and ranger, rogues are truly a fighters best friend. Good amount of skill points, pretty decent class abilties, adequate HD, increase ability to make fort and reflex saves. Yep, if it's up to me to take levels of fighter, I'm going fighter rogue. Ranger works much better with Paladins anyway.

 

[Brimshack]

Fighter Rogue works too, though the trade offs are more extreme. The fighter class does weigh down the skill set and the Rogue does take a little off BAB and HP. Still, if you set up a good combination of feats to take advantage of the tactical options for Rogue, you can get something pretty cool. The character won't be the type to just step up and swing, but he will be interesting when you maneuver him into the right circumstances.

If you have a recurring enemy in a given campaign, a Ranger Rogue is cool. When you get to flank a favored enemy, it's ...fun.

Anyway, I figured the OP was just after a Fighter, so I suggested combinations useful toward that role. I certainly agree that Rogue Fighter can be a pretty good combination.