Help me pimp my Brawling Fighter

[Stumblewyk]

I've been tasked with coming up with the second defender for our groups upcoming attempt to resume the Scales of War AP. We wiped on the fight with Sarshan in our last run through the AP, and we're picking up with a second party sent out to figure out what happened to our old PCs and pick up their quest.

Recently, the group fell in love with having two defenders. I've decided to be one of them. We've got one guy playing a Dwarf Battlerager Fighter. I figured I'd compliment him by going with a Brawler build.

My take on him is that he's a masher - he punches, smashes, grabs, and pins. He's not a pretty, graceful guy in a fight...to watch him is to constantly be flinching and going "Oooooh, owwwwww, ohhhhhhh," as he bashes bad guys to death with his iron-clad fists.

He's dual-wielding spiked gauntlets, so he qualifies for dual-wielding powers while still having two hands free to grab opponents.

Here's what I've got so far...I'm looking for some pointers on improving my defenses that I might be missing, fun tricks/interactions between powers and grabs and what-not, and generally, advice on how best to play this guy in a fight. We start at level 12.

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Marcus, Human Fighter/Shock Trooper 12
Defenses
AC: 31
Fort: 34
Ref: 26
Will: 23

Ability Scores
STR: 22 | +6
CON: 14 | +2
DEX: 17 | +3
INT: 10 | +0
WIS: 11 | +0
CHA: 12 | +1

Trained Skills
Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate, Streetwise

Feats
Brutal Brawler, Master at Arms, Brawler Guard, Inescapable Hold, Toughness, Improved Defenses, Superior Fortitude, Armor Specialization (Scale), Thug Specialist

Gear
Predatory Spiked Gauntlets +3, Vicious Spiked Gauntlets +2, Amulet of Protection +3, Dwarven Wyvernscale Armor +3, Belt of Vim, Acrobat Boots, Distance Handaxe +2, Heavy Shield, Restful Bedroll, Potion of Vitality

At-Will Powers
Dual Strike, Grappling Strike, Combat Agility

Encounter Powers
Bash and Pinion, Slamming Rush, Bludgeoning Vise, Shocking Twister, Heroic Effort, Forceful Drag, Makeshift Shield, Body Shield

Daily Powers
Seize and Stab, Bedeviling Assault, Opportunistic Shove, Assault Footwork
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I feel like he's got serious offensive capability (d10s for unarmed) for a more controlling-oriented fighter. I'm not expecting enemies to be escaping his grabs often with the focus on Fortitude. Also, if I need to buckle down and protect myself a little bit, I pull the shield off my back and boost my AC and Reflex. But I'm sure there's some combo or trick to this guy that I'm not seeing.

Any tips or advice?

 

[Aulirophile]

Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible

Best Brawler (and variants) in existence.

 

[renau1g]

^^

What he said.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I looked that handbook over, and from what I can tell, I've got higher defenses on my guy at level 12 and higher damage output, at the expense of a bit of stickiness. Which I'm cool with, since I'm one of two defenders. Even so, with my Fort at 34, and the Inescapable Hold feat, my grabs are going to be neigh-on impossible to escape from for most common variety baddies.

 

[Aulirophile]

I looked that handbook over, and from what I can tell, I've got higher defenses on my guy at level 12 and higher damage output, at the expense of a bit of stickiness. Which I'm cool with, since I'm one of two defenders. Even so, with my Fort at 34, and the Inescapable Hold feat, my grabs are going to be neigh-on impossible to escape from for most common variety baddies.

No, actually. In order to beat Kensei you need to go up to 4[W] powers to compare in terms of damage. For every attack you make. So he does more damage then your build. So you do less damage and are less sticky.

Your defenses seem weird. Unless you're actually wearing that Heavy Shield that you have in your inventory, your Ref and AC shouldn't be that high. And your Fort is 2 higher, one from taking Superior Fort. I assume the other +1 is from a magic item.

The thing is Beowulf's Fort used to be even higher. But after some very dedicated research on monsters and play testing, it didn't work out mathematically: the Fort doesn't need to be as high as it was and the trade-off resulted in lower defenses overall, which is bad for a Defender. Which is why Improved Defenses is being used over Superior Fort.

Again, Beowulf is, far and away, the most optimized Brawler Fighter available. LDB took more then a month to work out the original build (with some help from dozens of people in 4eCO IRC), and has faithfully kept it up to date as newer, better options appeared for it.

 

[Stumblewyk]

I don't doubt that the Beowulf build is more optimal...but I'm not trying to CharOp this guy into the ground. I've gone for a theme (nasty street brawler).

And you're right on the defenses...I just did the math and I'm coming up 1 short. I think we've found a bug with the Online CB. >_>

 

[jbear]

My Brawler Fighter would swap out Dual Strike for Cleave.

Then take Deft Hurler Feat. You can now draw a Javelin (minor) and Cleave; forgo Cleave extra dmg and hurl your Javelin at a second target anywhere within 10 of you and this attack doesn't provoke Opp. Attacks. Plus it's a ranged basic attack, that enemy, that could be quite far away and hence in great difficulty to get to you, is marked as well. Plus Cleave adds STR mod to dmg, as does the ranged basic attack. It's Dual Strike on steroids!

With QuickDraw this becomes even more effective. You can now draw the Javelin as part of the Cleave. If the Javelin is magical and returns to your hand you can stow it as a minor action leaving your grappling hand free to defend or grab again in the blink of an eye. Plus a nice boost to initiative.

Something well worth chewing on.

As a second defender and hence not needing to be quite so sticky as the Brawler linked above this ability to double mark two enemies widely spread on the battle field is a pretty neat option.

My Brawler was a Mul, originally Yuka from Dark Sun Encounters series that my DM allowed me to retune. He was hitting us really hard and only 4 in our group so I opted heavily for survival powers. But Cleave + Deft Hurler made having a hand free so much cooler. "I keep this hand free to deflect swords, grab punks, or chuck the axes tucked into my belt!" Here's a look at the build, it may give you some ideas, it may not NB: just added the inherent bonus and didn't want to deal with Magic items (besides they were very scarce anyway and no way were you able to pick and choose what you wanted, so I don't know how this compares defensively. But funwise/effectivewise I think it's right up there!

Yuka, level 11
Mul, Fighter, Pit Fighter
Fighter: Combat Superiority
Fighter Talents: Brawler Style
Born of Two Races: Born of Two Races (Dwarf)
Background: Brother in Battle (Brother in Battle Benefit)

FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 21, Con 19, Dex 15, Int 9, Wis 14, Cha 11.

STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 16, Con 14, Dex 14, Int 8, Wis 13, Cha 10.


AC: 25 Fort: 24 Reflex: 19 Will: 19
HP: 94 Surges: 14 Surge Value: 23

TRAINED SKILLS
Intimidate +10, Endurance +19, Athletics +15

UNTRAINED SKILLS
Acrobatics +7, Arcana +4, Bluff +5, Diplomacy +5, Dungeoneering +7, Heal +7, History +4, Insight +7, Nature +7, Perception +7, Religion +4, Stealth +7, Streetwise +7, Thievery +7

FEATS
Level 1: Brawler Guard
Level 2: Deft Hurler Style
Level 4: Quick Draw
Level 6: Dwarven Weapon Training
Level 8: Axe Expertise (Hand Axe and War Axe get brutal 1)
Level 10: Untamed Berserker Style (a good one to change if your campaign isnt as brutal as the one I was in)
Level 11: Heavy Blade Opportunity (With khopesh in hand you can Cleave on an OAtk, meaning you can pull at your Hand Axe (Quick Draw) and hurl it at someone as well)

POWERS
Fighter at-will 1: Cleave
Fighter at-will 1: Grappling Strike
Fighter encounter 1: Steel Serpent Strike
Fighter daily 1: Comeback Strike
Fighter utility 2: Boundless Endurance
Fighter encounter 3: Bull Charge
Fighter daily 5: Rain of Steel
Fighter utility 6: Unbreakable
Fighter encounter 7: Come and Get It (I like this power followed by Action Point and then Thicket of Blades, with Quick Draw you can pull out your Execution Axe for this combo and at the end of it Minor Action put it away. The Guantlet Axe keeps up your Brawler defense bonus when your hands are free, and Quick Draw lets you pull out the desired weapon in case of OAtk)
Fighter daily 9: Thicket of Blades
Fighter utility 10: Fighter's Grit

ITEMS
Scale Armor, Khopesh, Waraxe, Halberd, Handaxe, Execution axe, Gauntlet Axe