help me with a fighter

[atomn]

Never mind, found the Fist of Hextor.

Hey Joker, what book is that in? Thanks!

 

[Dracorat]

I find that monk fist size damage progression tends to be small beans compared to what you can do with improved strength bonuses.

On the other hand, you are going to have to get a bunch of gauntlets made of special materials in order to defeat damage reduction.

 

[atomn]

On the other hand, you are going to have to get a bunch of gauntlets made of special materials in order to defeat damage reduction.

There is a feat in Races of Stone, Earth Fist, that lets you count unarmed attacks as Cold Iron for DR purposes. And it needs Earth Sense as a prereq. and you have to be a Dwarf, Gnome or Goliath.

 

[Dracorat]

I don't allow such sources in my games and a lot of other people won't either. My suggestion is a RAW way of going about it, so use whichever works for your game. =)

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I don't allow such sources in my games and a lot of other people won't either. My suggestion is a RAW way of going about it, so use whichever works for your game. =)

According to the poster, the Races book are an option, so it's fine in this case.

Still, Cold Iron isn't much. I'd suggest looking into PHB II and the Watersplitting Stone feat (or how it is called) - essentially let's you ignore 4 points of DR, which should be enough most the time.

A thing that occurred to me: With the PHB II "Weapon Mastery" feats it becomes more interesting to use weapons that use the same damage type as unarmed (or nearly unarmed damage, as with armor spikes or spiked gauntles), since you can use the benefits of this feat even if you can't use the original weapon in grapple.

Weapon Specialisaiton, Superior Weapon Specialisation and Melee Weapon mastery should do a lot to make Unarmed Attacks useful. The hardest part in my eyes is to get a good magical attack with unarmed strikes, but Armor Spikes or Spiked Gauntles alone wouldn't cause much problems.

I'd suggest trying to quailfy for Two-Weapon Fighting and/or Improved Trip/Disarm (aside from the obvious Improved Grapple and Weapon Focus feats) - unarmed strikes should gain a lot with it..

 

[Angerland]

some feats i found that I liked were of course Improved unarmed strike...mainly because it is a pre req. I imagine most of his damage would come from grappling and strikes with the armor spikes though...that d3 of unarmed damage is kind of low,,,
then: Improved grapple, imporved trip, Exotic WP spiked chain, wf for grapple and unarmed strike, dodge and combat expertise, defensive throw, that is about as far as I got. of course this fighter would then need a good dex and Int, both at least 13 ...and strength too. If I did go Reaping mauler I would need clever wrestling too. It looks like I will need to get my friends copy of the PHBII to look at. I think we also have a Sandstorm, Frostburn and Stormwrack floating around in the gropup if there are more ideas from there. I want to try to stay away from the book of nine swords if I can, but you know what, never mind that, lets go for it!

now then, can I see some sample feat trees from folks so I can see the progression some of you have in mind please?

 

[Joker]

Hey Joker, what book is that in? Thanks!

Sword and the Fist but it's not really something to write home about. But you may see it differently.

 

[Feldspar]

FR stuff wasn't in your list, but I felt it should be noted that the 5 level Shou Disciple PRC in Unapproachable East gives 2d6 unarmed damage (with a full BAB and other stuff to boot).

 

[Zaruthustran]

Go with your original idea: armor spikes. They're d6 damage (not bad), they're light, they add damage in a grapple, they can be made from special materials (wear cold iron spikes as a default), and you can enchant them (flaming armor spikes would be terrifying).

Wear silver spiked gauntlets as your backup weapon for things that need silver. Carry an adamantine morningstar for things that need adamantine (you won't want to try grappling them).

Feats: WF, WS, the TWF tree, and the tree needed for defensive throw. Start with monk: the skills, base US damage, and free feats are too good to pass up. Consider the Swashbuckler (free Weapon Finesse, int to dam when using light weapon) class for your next 3 levels. Then go fighter.

 

[Blightersbane]

Alignment not an issue? Wear demons armor if evil, VERY NICE! Grow your feat chains based on the armor as your main weapon, poison your spikes

other suggestions (random)
imp unarmed strike, grapple feat chain including earths embrace, wep focus-unarmed attack, wep spec-unarmed attack, Monks Belt = 1d8 w/ unarmed strikes & +1 AC, be a large race such as 1/2 giant or 1/2 Ogre or stonechild large size gives a +4 vs medium size, boots of springing or speed, Alter self into a race w/ claws & natural spikes, feint feat,

ran out of time

some of these should help
Blightersbane