Critique a Fighter 20 Build

[Enforcer]

So basically I'm going for the ultimate grandmaster of a single weapon, in this case the greatsword. Human Fighter 20, with the following feats:

1st: Weapon Focus (greatsword) (1st Level Feat)
1st: Combat Focus (Human Bonus Feat)
1st: Power Attack (Fighter Bonus)
2nd: __________ (Fighter Bonus)
3rd: Combat Stability (3rd Level Feat)
4th: Weapon Specialization (greatsword) (Fighter Bonus)
6th: __________ (6th Level Feat)
6th: Blind-Fight (Fighter Bonus)
8th: Improved Critical (greatsword) (Fighter Bonus)
9th: Melee Weapon Mastery (Slashing) (9th Level Feat)
10th: Combat Vigor (Fighter Bonus)
12th: Greater Weapon Focus (greatsword) (12th Level Feat)
12th: Greater Weapon Specialization (greatsword) (Fighter Bonus)
14th: Slashing Flurry (Fighter Bonus)
15th: Combat Strike (15th Level Feat)
16th: Combat Awareness (Fighter Bonus)
18th: Weapon Supremacy (greatsword) (18th Level Feat)
18th: _________ (Fighter Bonus)
20th: _________ (Fighter Bonus)

Fill in the blanks as you please. I'll be adding Close-Quarters Fighting as soon as I get home and look up the prereqs for it (so I can place it properly).

All feats listed are either from the PHB or PHBII, but I'll take suggestions from any WotC 3.5 source.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not particularly fond of the Weapon Focus route, because it quickly makes the character boring, but it's certainly a strong and effective build with that. It allows for not much interesting combat styles.

I recommend getting Blind Fight early - there are too many dangerous opponent that can seriously hurt you without this. Cleave will be useful even if you get it at a later time, but Blind Fight helps right now.


For the free feat slots:
Combat Expertise and Improved Trip are good choices. You can use your lower attacks to trip your opponents. Combat Expertise alone will probably not be that useful. If you can, try to get it a bit earlier and put the Focus/Mastery/Improved Critical feats at a later slot.

Since you will be dealing awesome amount of damages and have little uses for a weapon other than a greatsord, you might want to consider Improved Sunder - a single attack will probably devestate most enemy weapons.

Combat Reflexes is quite useful, but without Improved Trip you won't use it that often.
Improved Unarmed and Improved Grapple are also nice, since your greatsword is useless in grapples. Try to either escape a grapple if you still have only a small chance to succeed, or to pin your opponent when you get even (provided there are no Rogues around that sneak you while grappling an enemy). (If you are not set on a Greatsword, consider using a bludgeoning two handed weapon. This way, Melee Weapon Mastery will also help you with unarmed attacks. If you use Armor Spikes, a Piercing weapon might also work, though few monsters have a weakness against piercing damage)

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At what level will the character start? Are you certain you will always get a good magical greatsword (or whatever focus weapon you later choose)?

 

[thompgc]

Not that these feats help with your greatsword use
Iron Will - being good with a weapon isn't very helpful when you fail your will save
Heavy Armor Optimization (from Races of Stone) - that is if you are using heavy armor
If you can get someone to enlarge you/polymorph Awesome Blow could be nice

 

[Stalker0]

Improved buckler defense. For the price of a -1 to your attacks, you can have a +5 buckler for a nice +6 to AC.

 

[Enforcer]

I don't think I want Blind-Fight any earlier than 6th, as it throws off actual damage-dealing, but you make a good point about not moving it to much later.

Combat Expertise is definitely an option, as I'll be light on defense with a greatsword. I like Improved Trip as well. They're in the running.

I had forgotten about Improved Sunder...that would be nasty nasty.

And actually Weapon Supremacy allows me to use a greatsword in grapples (though I can't picture how that would work in my head), but yeah, that's 18th level minimum.

I'm not worried about Will saves as much, I'll have a 14 Wisdom to get Combat Focus, and Combat Focus gives another +2 to Will saves (and later a +4) after the first time I hit something in combat.

Heavy Armor Opimization I like though.

 

[Rackhir]

I think there is a feat that lets you use a larger weapon in a grapple. Book or name eludes me, but sounds like it would be a good idea if you are that focused on a single weapon. I might just be thinking of the Sunblade though.

 

[jeffman]

Mad

I'd just like to point out the high number of necessary prereq ability scores if he keeps his current feats and adds combat expertise/improved trip.

need a 13 dex for dodge, 13 wis for combat focus, and 13 int for combat expertise.

odd numbers = no affect to your ability modifier, meaning you may want to add additional points to make them 14s

all these increased ability scores mean there are less points to put into strength and constitution (or charisma, if you like being pretty).

i'm not saying that the spread of needed ability scores is a bad thing, just pointing it out. it may not even be much of an issue depending on the method used to generate the ability scores

 

[Enforcer]

I'd just like to point out the high number of necessary prereq ability scores if he keeps his current feats and adds combat expertise/improved trip.

need a 13 dex for dodge, 13 wis for combat focus, and 13 int for combat expertise.

odd numbers = no affect to your ability modifier, meaning you may want to add additional points to make them 14s

all these increased ability scores mean there are less points to put into strength and constitution (or charisma, if you like being pretty).

i'm not saying that the spread of needed ability scores is a bad thing, just pointing it out. it may not even be much of an issue depending on the method used to generate the ability scores

Yeah, I think I'm on a path to create the first Fighter with Multiple Attribute Dependency (MAD). As for the scores themselves, I think I'll increase Wisdom to 14, but keep Dexterity at 13 because I'll likely wear Full Plate. We'll see, as this character is only an intellectual exercise until I get accepted into the play-by-post game I plan to use him for.

 

[szilard]

Is Dodge a prerequisite for something else? If so, is that something else really worth it?

Other ideas:

Combat Reflexes. Robilar's Gambit.

You can make devastating attacks, but more of them are always good.

You might want to look at some Tactical Feats (mostly in Complete Warrior and PHBII). A lot of them add flavor in interesting ways while giving some really nice bonuses.

-Stuart

 

[Cedric]

Consider Sense Weakness from Draconomicon...requires Weapon Focus and Combat Expertise. With Sense Weakness you get to ignore 5 points of DR when using a weapon that you have Weapon Focus with.

Since there are sooo many DRs now, it's nice.