Epic Level! Fighter? Yeah right... Help!

[Impeesa]

Well first you take epic leadership and legendary commander, you make your cohort a cleric with epic spellcasting and have all your followers be adepts...

For some reason, the first thing that comes to mind is Barb/Frenzied Berserker. Just enough room to max out berserker and still pick up greater rage.

Or, if your DM allows the dragon disciple to get the stat bonuses from size increase, you've got just enough room for DD 15 (Huge size). Start with an orc or something for an extra 4 points of strength, you could be looking at +28 just from race/class increases. Hover combined with Boots of Swiftness would make you mobile enough to keep up with flying foes and such.

Just some thoughts.

--Impeesa--

 

[ruleslawyer]

Human Ftr4/Bbn11/Frenzied Berserker 10 is a good build. You'll get a +14 total rage bonus to Strength, supreme cleave, and the insanity that is Improved Power Attack. You're a serious liability to your own party if the fodder runs out, but the party's likely to be able to run away from you pretty easily at these levels. You can pour your levels from this point into barbarian, to get greater rage and more DR, or FB, to get epic bonus feats (5 frenzies per day is really as many as you could need, IMHO). (If you want to, you can forgo the fighter levels and go straight barbarian, but the bonus feats and Weapon Specialization are damn useful.)

Another reasonably powerful build, if you have access to OA, is Ftr6/Pal1/Singh Rager 18. Maybe an even deadlier build might be Sam1/Pal1/Ftr4/Iaijutsu Master 10/Singh Rager 9. (One more level nets you Singh Rager 10 and "no longer winded after fury.")

Either way, you need two items: one that confers polymorph self and one that confers anti-magic field. (For the first, the party wizard can polymorph you, but the second must be your own.) Stay polymorphed into something nice and large, like a stone giant. Strength + reach + supreme cleave + rage + frenzy (for the FB) or Str + reach + lion's pounce + swiftness of the lioness + iaijutsu focus + fury (singh rager) are a potent combo.

In general, though, just stay within an anti-magic field and you'll be very happy, since those spellcasters won't be putting the insta-kill smackdowns on you before you run into their midst and mow them down.

Other good options for a melee fighter involve ECL races. Troll and ogre are nice options, if you can afford the ECL blow, but my favorite might be half-celestial, because you get WINGS, which are very important when dealing with flying spellcasters. Also, the SLAs at this level are pretty good. If you're using the DMG ECLs, half-dragon ogre (ECL 9) Bbn 6/ FB 10 might be a good choice, since you'll have reach and be able to fly non-magically.

 

[Thresher]

Fighters are absolutely essential at epic levels, they keep doing damage and keep the nasty's away from the casters. They also keep doing that damage long after the cleric, the sorcerer and the wiz is out of their big spells.
Some fights will suit the casters better, others the fighter so its handy to keep them around for those 'all occassions' encounters.

Nah, dont worry about the fighter at epic levels, they more than easily look after themselves if you kit them out with the right feats and equipment.

 

[hammymchamham]

Go druid and get some wild shapping going on. Not sure if you could get Dragon shape in time for 25th level, but if you could, you'd have 2 dragons in your party and access to druid spells.

 

[Jeremy]

I was looking at the singh rager, it would allow a fighter to bring his primary weapon (a full attack action) to bear more often against 3 dimensionally mobile targets.

That's a good suggestion.

I want to stay away from the frenzied berserker route as I would want to play a frenzied berserker as frenzied, unthinking, and barbaric. If he were too clouded to tell friend from foe, I don't know how he'd deal with epic level stimuli like present spell effects, illusions, flying foes, etc.

Edit: Nice avatar Hammy! Good idea on the druid, but I really want to play a straight swordsman type to contrast with the other spellcasters. But as sword & fist was the first splatbook released and thus something of a guinea pig, there is a great drought of good fighter prestige classes and abilities out there. Even the epic level melee feats are remarkably stale and ineffective with only a few exceptions.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Epic

I like alot of the epic level feats, but I don't have any experience with epic levels yet.

But the best advice I have for you is to take the fast healing feat at least once. That way you won't need the cleric to run up to you and cast heal on you at the end of every battle. You can just take a break for a few minutes and heal back to maximum (10 minutes of rest with fast healing of 3 is 300 HP healed).

Iajitsu master is a good PRC. If you have spring attack you can do the 1 strike 2 cuts ability very effectively. And being able to add your Intelegnce to AC can make your AC versus touch attacks very high.

 

[Jeremy]

Neither do I, this ought to be interesting.

Anyone think of any ways to get my damage per swing up on my sword? He still doesn't feel very epic. Just a fighter with more hit points and better base attack then normal...

I've got deep impact to help me hit AC's and allow power attack if fighting mainly things with low touch AC, I've got a mind feeder and psychofeedback to boost my strength mod if I get a crit in there... Anything else I can do?

 

[Taluron]

If you're looking for a good 'fighter' prestige try the Planar Champion from MotP. I've looked at quite alot of Ftr PrC's for much the same reason (although I'm growing an Epic Ftr from 1st - at 12th now). The Planar Champion is the best 'fighter' PrC I've been able to find. It's also been expanded to Epic levels in the WoTC Epic Web Enhancement.

 

[The Fifth Elephant]

Jeremy:

Play a 15 lvl Ranger, x lvl Shifter(from MotW). Epic lvls, you can easily have Improved Whirlwind, which as a shifter is EVIL. You can find some very, very powerful races to shift into with the Shifter class, and as a ranger you will be a good fighter.

 

[Schmoe]

If you're building an Epic Fighter, some of the feats that are crucial are:

Power Critical (automatic threat 1/day)
Dire Charge (full attack on a charge)
Power Attack (get the most for your attack bonus)
Epic Prowess (boost that attack bonus)
*Penetrate Damage Reduction (crucial. Epic DR's get tough fast, and +7 or +8 weapons are expensive)

Combat Reflexes and Hold the Line (from Sword and Fist) are also very nice, allowing you an Attack of Opportunity if an opponent charges you. I would also take Quickdraw, which makes it more likely for you to get a full attack.

As far as damage goes, you should be able to reliably do about 100 damage/round or more.

If you stick with a straight fighter, you can have plenty of feats to throw around, allowing things like Expertise and Improved Trip.

Also, don't overlook Blind-Fighting. True Seeing doesn't penetrate all types of concealment, especially concealment from weather, fog, and similar circumstances.

Also, make sure that your weapon is a Ghost Touch weapon. You want to eliminate as many possible defenses as you can, and Incorporeality is a big one.

I made a 30th level Epic Fighter for a one-shot campaign. He fought with a +5 Ghost Touch Keen Icy Burst scythe, had a strength of about 38. For feats he had:

Penetrate DRx2
Epic Prowess x3
Power Critical
Dire Charge
and various others, too numerous to list.

His attack was roughly +50/+45/+40/+35 with a critical of 18-20/x4, damage was around 2d4+30+1d6 (avg 38), or on a critical 8d4+120+1d6+3d10 (avg 160). Those bonuses ignore any morale, luck, insight or other bonuses you might get from other places.

He could ignore DR of up to x/+9, had Blind-Fight, and had the ability to fly.

A helmet providing Mind Blank 1/day protected him from charms.

I didn't get a chance to play him more than 1 session, but I certainly think he would have been able to hold his own. Anyway, hopefully this has given you some ideas.