Help me build a trippin' shield-bashing dwarf fighter

[Feldspar]

Or you could just trip with your body; it won't provoke an AoO when you have improved trip. And being a dwarf, it's hard to trip you back, so that's less of an advantage.

But I want to be able to offer some decent damage. A flail ain't great, but it's better than a kick. I will remember that if I ever get disarmed, though. Thanks!

I don't understand your response here MH. While wielding, for example, a Dwarven Waraxe and a Heavy Shield, you can still make unarmed trip attacks. Were you thinking that you needed a free hand to make an unarmed trip attack?

With a Waraxe you'll do more damage, but with the trade offs of not being able to drop it if the trip goes bad and with (probably) not as high an attack bonus on the initial touch attack part of the trip. My argument is that the case for the flail is much weaker if the character is a dwarf with Shield Ward.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Oh, yeah. I get you now. Very good idea. Trip with my foot, wait for them to fall and whack'em with a high-damage weapon. And yeah, Shield Ward helps a bunch too. Good thinking.
I guess I was focusing on using a Trip weapon because it gives you a +2 in your opposed check. That being said, isn't an extra +2 important to have?

 

[Elethiomel]

Oh, yeah. I get you now. Very good idea. Trip with my foot, wait for them to fall and whack'em with a high-damage weapon. And yeah, Shield Ward helps a bunch too. Good thinking.
I guess I was focusing on using a Trip weapon because it gives you a +2 in your opposed check. That being said, isn't an extra +2 important to have?

It doesn't.

Well, unless you take a level of Exotic Weapon Master, as pointed out, and the weapon you trip with is an exotic tripping weapon like the Spiked Chain. *Then* it gives a +2 to the opposed check, if you choose that weapon trick or wossname.

 

[Mighty Halfling]

I'm sorry, Ethiomel, which "it" are you referring to?

If "it" means flail, then what am I missing ...?

Flail or Heavy Flail

With a flail, you get a +2 bonus on opposed attack rolls made to disarm an enemy (including the roll to avoid being disarmed if such an attempt fails).

You can also use this weapon to make trip attacks. If you are tripped during your own trip attempt, you can drop the flail to avoid being tripped.

Sorry I'm being so dense, guys!

 

[Elethiomel]

If you look at the flail text you quoted one more time, you'll see that the +2 applies to Disarm checks, and not to Trip checks.

 

[Legildur]

I'm still struggling with the concept of a front line dwarf fighter with only a 12 Con AFTER racial adjustments. Not much point putting effort into character design if he won't last long

 

[Mighty Halfling]

If you look at the flail text you quoted one more time, you'll see that the +2 applies to Disarm checks, and not to Trip checks.

:doh:

 

[Mighty Halfling]

Me being an idiot
All right, I'm back after having to run out for a bit. Anyway, I feel totally idiotic for reading that Flail entry wrong -- and the entry for every other tripping weapon too.
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Weapon Choice
So, without being limited to the light flail, this opens up things a bit! Dwarven Waraxe looks pretty good now.

Also, Weapon Mastery (Piercing) is actually very interesting to me because when I initially imagined this character, I was thinking of a Pick-and-Shield fighter. That's when I saw picks couldn't be used for Trips, so I gave up that idea. Sure, picks are even worse for damage, but that's what I was originally longing to make.

That being said, where does the Weapon Mastery feat live? Complete Warrior?
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Feat selection & ability scores
Now, can anyone clarify Agile Shield fighter for me?

Question: Agile Shield Fighter (PHII) essentially gives you the 2-W Fighting feat. Is the benefit here that you can use a large shield, rather than a small shield? The feat doesn't specify a shield size. Is there any errata?

See, I don't think the intent of the feat is to do this. I think the intent is to allow shield-bearers to skip the Dex requirement of 2-W Fighting.

If I can indeed use a large steel shield, I would definitely go this route rather than 2-W Fighting. If I can't I figure I might as well stick with the 2-W tree since I like the 2-W Rend.

That change would likely allow me to switch out my high Dexterity to boost up my Constitution, since I wouldn't need the Dex to qualify for 2-W Fighting.
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Optional feats
Dropping 2-W Fighting, I would probably get Shield Charge (CWar?) and Powerful Charge (MinH) to amp up that stuff.
As I mentioned above, If I went with a heavy pick, I would also consider Weapon Mastery (Piercing).

 

[Legildur]

(Melee and Ranged) Weapon Mastery is from the PHBII.

 

[Feldspar]

<pedant_mode>Shields are classified as light or heavy. I'm assuming you mean heavy instead of large. A large shield would indicate an ogre sized shield of some kind.</pedant_mode>

I absolutely think you should be able to use the Agile Shield Fighter feat with a Heavy Steel Shield.

<edit1> To elaborate - in a game where someone can be protected by their animated shield while they layeth the smackdown with their two-handed sword, I don't think its unfair if the poor schmuck who's spent three feats just so they can offhand improved shield bash once a round does it using a heavy shield. </edit1>