Looking for opionions on my fighter

[Psifon]

Human Fighter, 18 STR, 16 DEX, 14 INT

1) FTR 1 Exotic Weapon: Bastard Sword, Power Attack, Cleave
2) FTR 2 Weapon Focus: Bastard Sword
3) FTR 3 Combat Reflexes
4) FTR 4 Weapon Specialization: Bastard Sword
5) FTR 5
6) FTR 6 Power Lunge, Expert Tactician
7) FTR 7
8) FTR 8 Improved Critical: Bastard Sword
9) FTR 9 Improved Initiative
10) ROG 1 (+1d6), all skill points in tumble skill
11) FTR 10 Shield Expert
12) RGR 1 Improved Two Weapon Fighting
13) ROG 2 (Evasion)
14) RNG 2
15) ROG 3 (+2d6), Greater Two Weapon Fighting
16) FTR 11
17) FTR 12 Expertise
18) FTR 13 Close Quarter Fighting
19) FTR 14 Power Critical (assuming a vorpal sword at this level)
20) FTR 15


OK, so here is the combat style: Start with Bastard Sword +Shield.

By 6th level, if he wins initiative, he can power lunge w/o an AoO and he gets a second attack due to Expert Tactitcian. In the highly likely event that he drops a foe he can cleave, giving him a potential 3 attacks at full BAB on a charge.

By 8th level, the improved crit has extra effect in a power lunge, so if he crits during a power lunge he gets: [2(STR)+2+1d10]x2. Of course a keen bastard sword will be purchased ASAP.

By 9th level he wins initiative 10% more often.

By 10h level get mithril Breastplate armor, and put all rogue ranks into the tumble skill as an answer to my lack of reach attacks. Note that the +1d6 further adds to his power lunge if he wins initiative.

By 12th level he is getting 5 attacks per round with his full shield bonus. This is espicially good with the extra 1d6 per attack on flanking attacks.

By 15th level, he gets an extra 2d6 with flanking attacks and when he wins initiative/power lunge, plus one extra attack.

I saved the defensive feats till level 15+ because I am greedy. Expertise is just a good strong feat, Close Quarter Fighting is feat insurance, since one weakness of the character is that grappling takes away a lot of hte power from his feats. Power Critical is realy only worth is if I get a sword that has a special critical ability (like vorpal).

So this is my basic, close and kill fighter. He only does one thing well, so what do you think. Is there anything he needs, or any better ways to accomplish the same thing? Does he have any glairing weaknesses?

I gots to know man, I gots to know.

 

[mikebr99]

hey...
I'm not totally convinced that the weapon focus/specialization combo is really worth it... 2 feats for +1,+2... not for me.

What about going through the dodge, mobility, spring attack tree instead of the above... and then you don't need the tumble from the rogue (and whatever you are getting from the Ranger either).

At 20th you'd be a 20th fighter... with a better BAB.

If you had your heart set on tumble, just buy it from the fighter and add skill focus feat

 

[Rashak Mani]

It might be two feats for +1/+2 but most fighters will be using that bonus twice or three times per Round... bad because its for one weapon only...

 

[Psifon]

Tumble is not the issue

Tumble is one of the things I want out of the rogue levels. I also want Evasion and the extra +2d6 sneek attack bonus. Once I get that level of ranger and the two weapon fighting that grants, I will be getting lots of extra d6s to my multiple attacks. Basically what I am seing here is power lunge into combat, hitting as hard as I can, then chop them up with multiple attacks, gaining flanking bonuses from other party members (this is especailly good because we have a conjurer and a druid in the party, so we are bound to have a small army to provide those flanking bonuses).

The tumble skill is just a part of the whole package.

 

[Gaiden]

I have two suggestions. The first is, do what you want. D&D is a roleplaying game, and the point is to ROLEPLAY and have fun.

Therefore, if you can come up with a really kickass backstory for this guy so that he is multiclassing rogue, fighter, ranger - props to you.

On the other hand, if you are going for powergaming and trying to get a character that can hold is salt against other characters of equal level, I would have to say that you are not making the most powerful character. The reason for this is that your character tries to be jack of all trades while costing him the ability to master in a few.

For example, if you are going to take an exotic weapon and get the combat reflexes/expert tact. route than you really ought to go with spiked chain, defitely not bastard sword. Spiked chain gives you reach while still allowing you to attack those close to you and gives you a host of other benefits. Furthermore, if you are going to go the cleave route, use a weapon two handed so that you can get 1.5xstr bonus on damage. This will be much more effective with a str bonus then the extra avg 1 dmg you will deal with the bastard sword. If you are that worried about your AC, get expertise early, or take dodge.

Next: GET GREAT CLEAVE. If you start a feat chain it is very much worth it to get to the highest powered feats in that chain.

Honestly, the levels of rogue are worthless. Your character is not geared towards winning combat early to maximize sneak attacks - you have maximized your critical potential which is irrelevant to SA since they can't be multiplied as well. If you are going to go the route of criticalling than go for increasing damage through +'s and not extra dmg dice. Also, the evasion is useless because your reflex save won't be high enough to matter. The extra +3 or so you will get from the rogue won't really help you make that DC 25 reflex save from the red wizard's fireball when you are both 15 or so level characters. Most likely you are just going to miss the save in the first place. And like someone said earlier. If you really want tumble, just get it crossclassed. The DC for tumbling is constant at 15 so you don't have to worry about having it be a class skill.

Finally, the two weapon fighting really doesn't make too much sense. I would assume you are doing this for the shield bash. The thing is, you can only shield bash and get the 2x modifier when you charge. And you can't do this every round (w/o magic that is). Therefore, it will only be helpful in the beginning of combat.

If you really want to do the bastard sword, I would recommend sticking with straight fighter and then multiclassing to the Master Samurai PrC from the S&F splat book. This class gives you a similar ability to powerlunge w/o the penalty or the need to charge. Also you get greater mobility, an excellent ability considering you don't need mobility first. Take four levels in that PrC and continue with fighter or go for Weapon Master so that you can do a whirlwind attack as a partial action rather than a full round action. Combining that with great cleave which you will have gotten from the Samurai, and supreme cleave will make you dangerous. Not to mention they will give you good ref saves which will be better than the rogue.

If you really want to go the shield charging route with powerlunge then do something with divine classes so you can get divine might and divine shield - maybe go straight paladin. That way you can also include smite and some divine spells in their. Otherwise the shield option really won't be as useful as some other feats that you could get.

 

[Ancalagon]

Greetings

You don't need a vorpal weapon to make power critical worthwile, just a weapon with a high crit multiplier and a good power attack.

Also, I don't understand how you can use power lunge without provoking attacks of opportunity at level 6...

Ancalagon

 

[Archer]

If you had a high cha, it would be worthwhile to take a level of paladin for the saves and turning ability plus you could then take divine shield feat and be bashing for a truckload of damage. With a 24 cha you'd have +7 enhancement bonus for attacks and AC with your shield and +7 to all saves. A cloak of charisma is +6 enhancement to cha, shield of command is +4 competence bonus to cha. You also want improved shield bash where you knockback someone 5 ft and they trigger AoO's from everyone except you. Knockdown is a good feat to have too. You could knock back, and knockdown so everyone got an AoO at +4 to hit. That's better than combat reflexes, tactician and powerlunge. Shield bash does double damage without having to check for a critical on every charge which is just better than power lunge.

4 levels of templar would give you 2 feats (less the one wasted on endurance and you need 8 skill pts in know (relig) the paladin level should help some with that), DR of 1/- which you could increase to 2/- with a feat. You also get an extra smite attempt to go with your paladin smite and a few spells. With a +10 cha bonus that's +10 to hit and +5 to dam 2x/day. Your saves get better and with absorbtion shield you become immune to level drain (from mettle and a +20 fort save). The enhanced shield bonus from divine shield increases the absorbtion ability to prevent ability score damage.

 

[Psifon]

Also, I don't understand how you can use power lunge without provoking attacks of opportunity at level 6...

By winning initiative. If your foe doesn't have Combat reflexes, he doesn't get an AoO if he is flat footed.

Hmm, some interesting suggestions. I like that samurai/weapon master combo, but I really wanted to build a sword and shield fighter. The idea behind this guy is to avoid the whole Whirlwind thing and instead concentrate of killing one opponent at a time.

I did not plan to use the shield for more than just an off-hand attack weapon and AC bonus. I considered the shield bash route, but I wanted to focus on the bastard sword as my primary weapon.

Imroved critical, power lunge, and improved initiative work together to give you 2X your STR added to each die of the critical hit without an AoO on the first round of combat. With a keen weapon, I can count on this happening about 25% of the time on round 1 of a combat (if I win initiative). Add a potion of blind sight and a darkness spell, and I can do this round after round with extra attacks for the expert tactician to boot.

The levels of rogue are to make the two weapon combo a viable thing, since the extra 2d6 added to each attack do add up when flanking. This also works well with my Kill one guy, move to the next approach, because I may be standing toe to toe with a primary foe for a few rounds, and it maximizes my iterative attacks.

Is great cleave really worth it? It seems to me that it wouldn't get much play at higher levels, when you start dropping foes with less fequency.