Did I screw up? (fighter feat selction)

[Kae'Yoss]

Isn't a feat like this in the ELH?

It's probably an epic feat, tho. Improved Rapid Shot should also be an epic feat, that would be ok!

Bye
Thanee

Perfect TWF from ELH only lets you have 4 attacks with the off-hand. The usual penalties for fighting with two weapons still apply.

There's also the Epic Prowess feat that gives you +1 to all attack rolls. It can be taken several times. It's something of a BAB supplyment.

But I don't think that the penalties for additional attaks (be it from fighting with two weapons, using rapid shot, flurry of blows or the bladesinger's song of fury) should be removable in any way, except perhaps in a PrC (and the tempest in MotW is a poor example for this, since he has nothing else of real interest, and even that's not the best thing, either). So the people still have to chose whether to use it (and sometimes these -2 make a difference).

 

[Kyramus]

hmm definitely power attack.
when you get to level 12, go with power critical, increases multiplier by 1.
also if you want to do more damage, take trip attacks, take the aoo since you soak up the damage most of the time and get the advantage of a prone enemy, OR disarm or Sunder, again take the aoo.

 

[Arnix]

Couple of points:
1) Your feats seem fine
2) Next feat should probably be improved crit (dwa)
3) I would suggest getting a suit of mith plate (dwarven platemail, 10k gp, Ac+8, medium armor, can sleep in it, armor penalty -3) at your first opportunity
4) Barring getting the armor, I would suggest a couple of levels of rogue and drop down to a chainshirt

 

[Shard O'Glase]

Actually I'd go with mithral chain shirt on the expectation I'd end up with a dex buff item eventualy. A +4 armor ac and +6 dex=10 ac total while the +8+3 of mithral full plate=+11 total, but the chain shirt being light armor vs medium helps the short and stunties already messed up movement.

 

[Taren Seeker]

To go back to the original point - Yes, you're going to do less damage.

Two weapon fighting really hoses you on damage potential if you go straight fighter. You hit less often, do less damage with each hit (compared to two-handing), and have to spend lots of extra feats.

Honestly, what you need to do it take 1-3 levels of rogue. I know, it's odd, but that gives you +1d6 or +2d6 damage when you flank. With two weapon fighting, you have to have large enough bonuses to your damage that the extra attack does more than a single two handed attack would. And start using your attacks to sunder, trip, disarm, etc - that's another benefit. If you're getting magicked, try for greater magic weapons or bull's strength. And try to get flaming or the like on your weapons.

Check out this page for a huge breakdown of how to make twf effective:
http://homepage.mac.com/guyf/DnD/AttackingWithTwoWeapons.html

That link is good, but overly simplistic. You don't have to have sneak attack or energy weapons to do good damage while dual wielding.

One thing often ignored in these discussions are crits. If you have a good crit range combined with your str, magic and power attack, you'll do impressive damage once you hit higher levels.

Unfortunately, one of the things required for maximizing your TWF is two good magical weapons (or GMW x2), and I think your problem in that area has been well documented. You're also going to take a hit because you're not using two identical weapons. However, the shield bash combo can also be really effective from a survivability standpoint so you're doing fine.

Make sure you take power attack. At higher levels, go for Imp Crit, ITWF and Greater Two Weapon if it's allowed. I would keep working on your shield with feats and abandon the Handaxe. They do the same damage and the AC bump is really nice. When you hit higher levels, use the shield as primary, but when you need to deal a buttload of damage, break out a second Dwarven War Axe. You'll have to be careful on when to do this however, since you'll be taking larger penalties.

Your DM allowing Imp Rapid was a big mistake. To balance things out again, that imp ambi feat sounds good. Be advised though that you're both going far off the "balance" track with those feats.

 

[Shard O'Glase]

I keep seeing power attack mentioned in this thread. It has been my impression form the various math magicians on this board that power attack is a sub par feat, and that the extra damage you do does not compenate for the increased number of misses. It has ben my impression that the entire purpose of poer attack was to give you the pre-req for cleave which is a good feat. So waht am I missing fro so many people to be saying take power attack.

 

[Petrosian]

I would not get all hung up on all these "gipped on magic items" nonsense. The main "gp value" dif between the two characters is the magical studded leather.

His armor bonus is +5. Yours is better with normal banded. I don't recall your dex but if you took the studded would your Ac improve? if not, then you did not LOSE anything by him getting the armor.

I think there are three elements at work...

First, TWf is fairly weak in DND3e, not really giving you much for the multiple feats spent. While it is not a BAD choice for a fighter, its not a good one.

Second, archery is very efficient in DND 3e. With cheap rapid fire feat and stacking of things like focus/spec and point blank as well as the bow+arrow enhancements stack (exception dr) which makes later on GMW VERY VERY VERY overpowered (12th level means +4 arrows AND +4 bow daily) etc, etc the archer gets really much more potent than the meleer. Sure, bows can be sundered but so can axes. The 5' step makes archery easy vs one meleer.

Third, I believe the last time i looked at the monte haul ranger it was more than a wee bit overpowered for a PrC, much less a core class, IMO.

Adding in other uber-archery feats will only make it worse.

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

I keep seeing power attack mentioned in this thread. It has been my impression form the various math magicians on this board that power attack is a sub par feat, and that the extra damage you do does not compenate for the increased number of misses. It has ben my impression that the entire purpose of poer attack was to give you the pre-req for cleave which is a good feat. So waht am I missing fro so many people to be saying take power attack.

A fair question.

Your impression is roughly correct when you are talking about two well-armored tanks standing toe-to-toe unloading their full iterative attacks into each other -- the few point extra damage rarely compensates for missing more often.

But combat doesn't always work that way. If you are up against a 'soft' AC, Power Attack is your friend. If you are charging or get a single attack (e.g. an AoO), PA is your friend. If you are using Spring Attack or Cleave, PA is your friend.

In a nutshell, it is rarely worth using PA when you get a full iterative attack, but it usually is worthwhile to toss in a few extra points damage when you are making a single attack. There are exceptions.

 

[Number47]

Everyone here has posted really good suggestions on how to make the character work as you have it now. However, I have to state very strongly that two weapon fighting is a very bad choice to take UNLESS you have at least one level of Ranger. Yes, it's true that you are limited in AC by using the ranger TWF, but that frees up a lot more feats that can also be used to help out your defense when needed. So you get all that, plus a favored enemy and better skills!

Never, ever consider TWF without taking your first level as a Ranger.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

hmm definitely power attack.
when you get to level 12, go with power critical, increases multiplier by 1.

??? Power Critical doesn't increase the multiplier by 1, but gives one attack per day a crit range of 2-20 (the attack automatically threatens a crit - all you have to do is hit normally and you can go on to roll the crit confirmation).

Not even overwhelming critical from ELH increases your multiplier (although many have house ruled it that way), but only give you crappy bonus d6 (which don't really matter on a crit, especially for a strong warrior).