Help me tweak my first character (Human Fighter level 9)

[mrorangesoda]

As chronicled here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/genera...13-advice-new-player-bored-his-character.html

I'm trying to make combat a little less monotonous (stab, repeat), have a bigger role to play in the party in non-combat situations, and contribute more to the group in combat- most other people are dropping foot soldiers in one turn consistently with their basic/enhanced melee's. I've got to roll really well to make that happen. the casters are at the point where they're doing pretty big stuff). I'm not looking to be the most powerful character ever, and would like to stick to my "greek-ish" theme.
My DM is cool with multi-classing going forward (not backward, but I didn't really press it) and seems to be alright with some mods to feats in theory, so I'm looking for stuff to bring back to him next game session. We're only using the core books and I need to be able to work changes into my/our story (so one big caveat is that being in hostile territory underground for the long foreseeable future, changes in gear and the ability to get a cohort with the leadership feat that people had mentioned seems kind of dodgy).



Here are my stats:
Phesseus human fighter level 9 39,900 XP
Hp 100 AC 26 BAB +9/+4 Speed- 30ft
Str 18
Dex 13 Fort 9
Con 16 Ref 6
Int 10 Will 5
Wis 11
Cha 11

skills/feats
Climb- 12
Jump- 12 (+5)
Swim- 8

Weapon Focus-Short Sword
Weapon Spec-Short Sword
Lightning Reflexes
Endurance
Quick Draw
Power Attack
Cleave
Iron Will
Dodge
Improved Crit- Short Sword

Gear:
Magic +2 Short Sword (crit 17-20)
Masterworked Javelin (there's a stock of these for me in the magic house we use for storage)
Magic +3 dagger
Magic +1 Breast Plate
Lion's Shield (Magic +2, bite attack 2d6- 3/day)
Boots of Striding and Springing (+10ft to speed, +5 to jump)
Amulet of Natural Armor (+2)
Ring of Protection (+#)

Additionally, when we went back to the surface for a bit, we spent a lot of our giant stack o' gold on magic stuff that's being sent our way. I've got a better breast plate, dex gloves, str belt, and a magic returning javelin on it's way to be delivered to our underdark staging area in 5 game time weeks.


Thanks for any help or ideas.

 

[Dandu]

You can't trip, grapple or bull rush.

Don't have any social skills, or really any skills at all for that matter.

It's going to be really hard to make combat interesting for you, or to make you useful in non-combat situations. Basically, fighters were only ever designed to be good at fighting and your mechanical options to do otherwise are severely limited.

 

[DumbPaladin]

A lot of your outside-of-combat decisions are tied primarily to decisions you made to focus ON combat, and where to put your stats.

With both Intelligence and Charisma modifiers of +0, you're gaining no more than 3 skill points per level as a human, and Fighter has one of the worst class selections, with Craft, Handle Animal, and Intimidate (at times) being the only skills on your list that have ANY use outside of combat ... and you have zero ranks in any of them!

Climb, 12 ranks? Why?? When the party magic user should be able to cast fly on you for minutes at a time, who needs to climb? Jump has other uses, but again ... if you spent some of those skill points elsewhere, you could learn something else.

Out of curiosity ... why did you pick Endurance? Usually people don't pick this feat unless they're going for Diehard or for a Prestige Class that has it as a requirement ... it's a feat that you could pick to give you something else useful.

If you've got a "giant stack o' gold", why spend feats on boosting your Will and Reflex saves when a cloak (or vest) of resistance +2 would accomplish the same task, for only 4,000 gp? There's two feats right there. Spending 4,000 gold versus TWO feats is a huge, huge difference! Add those two feats to the Endurance feat, and you've got 3 feats you can spend elsewhere ... if you made them your level 3, level 6, and level 9 feats, you could pick ANY three feats from the entire list you wanted.

How about three luck feats? How about three feats connected to a different method of doing damage in combat? I'm sure there are quite a few people better suited than I on this board to point out some awesome things you could do with 3 feats.

As for your poor skill selection ... will your DM let you change your character so that you could have taken Able Learner at level 1? It's a feat from Races of Destiny that adds EVERY class skill to your list. If the entire list is open to you, even with only 3 skill points per level, you could pick up some non-combat skills to give your Greek some flavor.

Didn't quite mean to write so much, but I've only shared some of my thoughts. There's a great, great deal you can do to make your character more enjoyable, in terms of feats and skills. As Dandu pointed out, there are some things in combat your character isn't well-equipped to handle that would give him more options.

And none of these things mentioned has anything to do with Phesseus's character, which is 100% under your control. Any well-played character can and DOES add to the game as a whole.

(Edited: remembered another reason people take Endurance. But I still think it's a waste of a feat.)

 

[Dandu]

He's restricted to core, which makes things worse.

Tripping, Disarming, and Bull Rushing are about the most interesting things you can do, but it does not seem as if he can rebuild his character to include them.

 

[DumbPaladin]

He's restricted to core, which makes things worse.

Wow. I missed that. Sorry!

The core feats for players are pretty much not tied to social skills at all, unfortunately ... so they're not going to help with that.

Whirlwind Attack, with the right feats leading up to it, could be a more interesting combat option.

What about Exotic Weapon Proficiency, and a more interesting weapon? I know this may go against your Greek background flavor ... but it could also make things more interesting.

But, I gotta be honest ... if you can ONLY choose PHB feats ... you're probably getting tired of being a one-note fighter because fighters are essentially made to be one-note: they attack with a weapon and do damage.

Try multiclassing.

 

[Dandu]

But, I gotta be honest ... if you can ONLY choose PHB feats ... you're probably getting tired of being a one-note fighter because fighters are essentially made to be one-note: they attack with a weapon and do damage.

"Hey, so instead of the ability to tell the laws of physics to sit down and shut up, alter the fabric of spacetime, or make reality your bitch, we're going to give you +1 to attack rolls with a specific weapon. Sound good? Good."

 

[mrorangesoda]

And none of these things mentioned has anything to do with Phesseus's character, which is 100% under your control. Any well-played character can and DOES add to the game as a whole.

(Edited: remembered another reason people take Endurance. But I still think it's a waste of a feat.)

In direct answer to your question about endurance, it was taken to sleep in armor. The party is attacked pretty much every time we make camp.
As to a lot of your why?? questions- the answer is cause I don't know what I'm doing. I started my first table top rpg joining some friends mid-campaign and had a level 6 character to make my first session.
I've gotten some great advice in the other thread about improving character stuff. I split this thread off because this seemed to be where discussions about builds go and I didn't want to post things in the wrong forum.

thanks for the feedback.

 

[DumbPaladin]

In direct answer to your question about endurance, it was taken to sleep in armor. The party is attacked pretty much every time we make camp.

Now that I know you can't really take or do things outside of the PHB feats ... all the things that would solve that are out the window. So it's probably an OK feat choice in that circumstance.

As to a lot of your why?? questions- the answer is cause I don't know what I'm doing.

Don't be too hard on yourself, it's tough to build a character. It takes practice. But in reality, I asked why because ... well, there could have been a reason (in character or out of character) for you doing it.

Personally, I will admit a bias: I think Fighters are dreadfully boring. I am not sure I could ever be convinced to play one. And if using only core books, then the Fighter really has very limited options.

Have you ever thought about what other classes you might like to play? Maybe now is your chance. A lot of them can dovetail quite nicely with Fighters.

 

[Dandu]

Warblade. Barbarian. Ranger.

 

[Thanael]

Well I'd say change the way you play: go for extremely cool, dangerous, reckless, daring stunts in (and out of) combat. Read the different combat options that are available and use them. Be creative, be heroic and if you're overmatched run away. Use those skills you have and jump (use those Boots of Striding and Springing!) and climb and swim, kick ass and call them names. If you succeed you're the hero, if not you can roll up a new cool PC. ;-)

Take as an example Robilar, who was a Fighter character in an earlier edition where being a fighter meant not having cool class options all the more. Still Rob Kuntz did amazing things with him, just read the article.

As for retraining in core, I'd suggest getting Mobility and Spring Attack. Loose Lightning Reflexes, Endurance, Quick Draw, or Iron Will. This would aid in Mobility on the battlefield and maybe give you a few more interesting options as above.

I didn't find where you say that you're limited to Core. If you weren't you could pick up some interesting feats or a prestige class to be better at being reckless/daring/heroic. Complete Warrior and PHB II are strong candidates here. Though Unearthed Arcana could also help and it's in the SRD, so available online. What does your GM think about psionics?

In core you might want to multiclass into Barbarian (if you're non-lawful) or perhaps your DM let's you adapt the Dwarven Defender (If you're lawful. You already have two of the feats that you would need and you could either retrain a feat or if the DM were kind he'd waive the Toughness prerequisite.) Another option would be dipping in Horizon Walker for Underground adaption, though you'd somehow need to get Knowledge (geography) 8 ranks to qualify. Of these none add great versatility though.

(at that point it consisted of a human Cleric who wasn't doing much, elf Rogue, half elf Ranger, human Sorcerer, and half orc fighter). I decided to be a human fighter (with a classical Greek hero kind of theme)

What are the other characters now? And what do they do?