Fighter's shouldn't have to suck

[The Blow Leprechaun]

A 6th level fighter with a big two handed weapon and power attack and cleave and decent armor should be mopping the floor with foes far more often than your spellcasters.

Yeah, I just got done an adventure at level 7 where, without the barbarian, we'd all have died about a zillion times over. Most fights pretty much involved the three of us keeping one monster busy while she killed the other one, and us hoping to stay alive long enough for her to get done and come save us.

Course we didn't have an arcane caster, but you do what you do.

Polymorph is a 4th level spell. If your Illusionist is 6th level, s/he shouldn't be able to cast it. Also, I don't know if this is RAW, but I believe when you polymorph/wild shape/whatever into a creature with natural attacks, you should be considered non-proficient with those attacks (the monster is proficient with them presumably from having them their whole life).

What kind of dinosaur is your Druid becoming? Druids can't wildshape into a Large creature til 8th level and Huge not til 15th. I don't think an enlarge person buff can change this (as magical size changes do not stack with each other). Most dinosaurs have pretty crappy AC, too. The druid does not get benefits from their armor (or any of their equipment, including stuff that gives bonuses) while wildshaped. Futhermore, the druid must be familiar with a creature to wild shape into it and it's pretty sketchy to assume someone's familiar with dinosaurs.

I don't know. It sounds more to me like your DM isn't reading up on these abilities and is just letting his spellcasters run wild on you.

 

[Diggus Rex]

Fighters dont 'suck' IMHO, but I do notice a certain lackluster quality to them.

I've seen homebrewed Fighter variants that grant them Talent trees a la D20 Modern with enhanced damage, strength, or defensive branches to give them extra umph. I use one of these in my own campaign.

It's difficult for me to advise certain builds without knowing the type of encounters your DM favors. As your a high Str Dwarf, good with carrying weight, I'd say keep the shield and waraxe and get a greataxe too. Use different styles per challenge where they work best. Shield and axe for big high attack mod enemies and greataxe for multiple weaker ones.

My fighter/warblade has a bastard sword, shield, greatsword, warhammer, shortsword, and shortbow to cover multiple eventualites.

 

[Felix]

Re: Dodge, Toughness, Endurance

Going for Dwarven Defender, maybe? If that's the case then you have reigned in your effectiveness for the lower levels (A 6th level fighter without Cleave?) so you can have a cool schtick later on.



Re: 6th level casters

I don't think casters get equal until around 9th to 10th. That's 5th level spells. Until then they simply have too few spells to make a consistent contribution. At that point they can put a hurt on with their big spells and clean up using their now-utility lower level spells. Until then the fighters have been killing most every enemy on the grid, with the casters lending a hand. A fighter's job is to keep them alive until that point, when it's their turn to keep you buffed so you can kill more things.

 

[Bagpuss]

I personally wouldn't go for Dwarven Defender and ask your DM if you can retrain those feats. Dwarven Defender looks good on paper until you realise most of the time the enemy can just walk round you to avoid your best class abilities.

If you are going with a shield you have to make better use of it than just an +3 AC bonus, hence my suggestion of ditching the feat I mentioned and going for ones that exploit the choice of a shield. The alternative is ditch the shield and use those feats to exploit a 2-handed weapon choice, or even two weapon fighting (although generally suits guys that need more attacks to do more sneak attack damage).

 

[mikebr99]

Ahh...

DWARVEN DEFENDER
Hit Die: d12.
Requirements
To qualify to become a defender, a character must fulfill all the following criteria.
Race: Dwarf.
Alignment: Any lawful.
Base Attack Bonus: +7.
Feats: Dodge, Endurance, Toughness.

Is this where you're headed?

Mike

 

[Felix]

I personally wouldn't go for Dwarven Defender and ask your DM if you can retrain those feats. Dwarven Defender looks good on paper until you realise most of the time the enemy can just walk round you to avoid your best class abilities.

Correct. The Dwarven Defender is a tunnel-fighter where the enemies can't walk around you. Makes sense for Dwarves, eh?

 

[mikebr99]

I personally wouldn't go for Dwarven Defender and ask your DM if you can retrain those feats. Dwarven Defender looks good on paper until you realise most of the time the enemy can just walk round you to avoid your best class abilities.

Or maybe add 3rd level Knight and Reach to the mix...

Mike

 

[Caliban]

Dodge, Toughness, and Endurance are needed if you plan on going Dwarven Defender prestige class, which is a pretty strong class at higher levels. If you don't plan on taking that class (or another class with those feats as prerequsites), you probably want something else.

Iron Will - while +2 to Will saves doesn't suck, you would probably be better served by taking a feat that directly enhances your combat abilities.

Swap it out for something like Mobility, Combat Expertise (if you have a 13 Int), or Power Attack.

And don't be afraid to drop the shield and 2-hand your axe when damage output is more important than defense (such as when facing a spellcaster or other low-AC opponent who isn't likely to miss you). Don't forget you can loosen the shield as you move up to an opponent, drop it as a free action, and still take your attack.

I played a dwarvent tank up to 18th level, with 10 levels of Dwarven Defender. From low to mid levels he was a mediocre fighter, but above level 12 or so they really start to shine, and when they can take 5' steps in their stance they can be pretty damn good.

 

[Rhun]

Judging from the original post, it looks like the druid and illusionist mentioned are both 8th level...which would make sense why they are better than your 6th level fighter (you mention the mage doing 8d6 damage and the druid wildshaping into a large dinosaur). 8th - 10th is also about the time that spell casting classes really start to come into their own, being fairly weak until then.

Of course, your fighter can do his thing all day long. The others will run out of magic fairly quick. If you are only facing one or two encounters per day, you are going to continue to feel underpowered. If you have six or seven per day, your fighter is going to be doing lots of work in the latter ones.

 

[Bagpuss]

Exactly unfortunately D&D isn't always tunnels and dungeons. In some adventures it will work, in others it a huge investment of feats, to get an ability that is a complete waste of time.