No love for the smart fighter?

[Aus_Snow]

I always liked AD&D2nd for encouraging smart fighters with bonus proficiency slots.

Cool, but isn't that pretty much the same as having extra skill points. . . like Int will give you in 3e?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

If you can achieve a Strength Score of 15 or higher, you should still be able to play a good Fighter. (with 25 point buy, a score of 15 is usually the highest you'd afford for Strength)

The Fighters main weakness is that his class skills aren't that many and not very "exciting".
A good idea might be to put cross class ranks in Int based skill, especially in Knowledge skills (Arcana, Dungeoneering, Local, Nobility, Religion, The Planes) and Spellcraft. Your total modifier will be not great, and a dedicated "loremaster" will easily surpass you, but if the group lacks one, you can at least try to get some basic information with them.

A high INT Fighter might also make a good mounted warrior, since you can improve not only the Fighter core skills (Climb, Intimidate, Jump, Swim) but also Handle Animal and Ride, giving you a lot of flexibility.

You might also want to consider choosing a race with an Int penalty, (Half-Orc or Orc), but that is only a viable idea if you got the high INT by "accident".

The Combat Expertise Feat chain offers a lot of good feats to a high INT Fighter, though an INT of 13 would be sufficient for that.

 

[Gargoyle]

Much more love for the smart fighter than the strong wizard methinks. I think it would be interesting though if you could get bonus feats for having a higher Int. If it could be balanced correctly, that would be something.

 

[Darmanicus]

As several people have already mentioned, Ranger all the way.

Couldn't advise you on which combat style to take because I don't know what you want or the composition of your party. However you do not need to meet the prereqs of the feats so especially for 2WF you don't have to worry about the ridiculously high Dex reqs.

Also to overcome the loss of AC thru having a sub standard Dex, pick yourself up a nice big shield and the Improved shield bash feat. Once you have enough money to buy yourself a heavy mithril shield you can then use that nice heavy main weapon and count your big mithril shield as a light weapon.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

As several people have already mentioned, Ranger all the way.

Couldn't advise you on which combat style to take because I don't know what you want or the composition of your party. However you do not need to meet the prereqs of the feats so especially for 2WF you don't have to worry about the ridiculously high Dex reqs.

Also to overcome the loss of AC thru having a sub standard Dex, pick yourself up a nice big shield and the Improved shield bash feat. Once you have enough money to buy yourself a heavy mithril shield you can then use that nice heavy main weapon and count your big mithril shield as a light weapon.

Keep in mind though that you still want a high Dex with any kind of Ranger - light armor and a low Dex is not a good combination.

 

[satori01]

Akashic, Champion of Knowledge, and Unfettered from Arcana Evolved all would make good choices.

Akashic while not getting full BAB, does get full armor and weapons and 8 skill points a level with all skills as class skills. I think you could make a very interesting Scholarly Knight from the class. Many Askashic powers can give you bonus feats and combat boosts.

Champion of Knowledge will at 5th level let you add your INT modifier to damage. You get 4 skill points per level, and d10 HP and full BAB. Very cool class, with lots of flavor, and some good abilities.

Unfettered is THE class for a swashbuckler character. The Unfettered is a better swashbuckler than the WOTC Swashbuckler class. I would recomend Expertise as a feat, (and improved disarm for flavor), With the Parry ability from the class and you high Int, and good light armor with bonus AC the class gets, you can jack your AC pretty high.

 

[rgard]

Thank you.
So in response to my initial post, you would possibly rephrase your comment to suggest I consider playing a swashbuckler class (and not multiclass at all, which is something I don't want).
That's worth some thought. Just doesn't seem to be nearly enough flexibility when compared with the fighter's feats, though.

I know you wrote that you don't want to mult-class, but the swashbuckler/martial rogue (from UA) is a fantastic combination. Throw in Able Learner and you are good to go. You could take only 2 levels of the martial rogue and you have lots of skill points to use and 2 fighter bonus feats.

Thanks,
Rich

 

[eyebeams]

Cool, but isn't that pretty much the same as having extra skill points. . . like Int will give you in 3e?

Not in 2nd because you could blows those slots on weapon profs.

 

[Nyeshet]

Cool, but isn't that pretty much the same as having extra skill points. . . like Int will give you in 3e?

Not really, since most non-Str skills are cross-class for fighters.

So an Int 18 Fighter has 6 skill points per level. He can place 4 of them into Bluff and Tumble - gaining 1 rank in each per level, but he can't even max the ranks in them as, being cross-class, he is also limited in how many ranks he can put in those skills. At 20th level the best he can hope for is 11 ranks in each - at the cost of 22 skill points in each! A rogue, ranger, scout, swashbuckler, etc could have 23 ranks in each for about the same cost (or 22 ranks in each for the exact cost) - and their additional skill points means they could do the same to two more skills (or more) as well.

So the smart Fighter is not a practicle build in d20 D&D - not without multiclassing or choosing a non-Fighter class, anyway. The way the skill system is set up makes it impracticle.

 

[rgard]

Not really, since most non-Str skills are cross-class for fighters.

So an Int 18 Fighter has 6 skill points per level. He can place 4 of them into Bluff and Tumble - gaining 1 rank in each per level, but he can't even max the ranks in them as, being cross-class, he is also limited in how many ranks he can put in those skills. At 20th level the best he can hope for is 11 ranks in each - at the cost of 22 skill points in each! A rogue, ranger, scout, swashbuckler, etc could have 23 ranks in each for about the same cost (or 22 ranks in each for the exact cost) - and their additional skill points means they could do the same to two more skills (or more) as well.

So the smart Fighter is not a practicle build in d20 D&D - not without multiclassing or choosing a non-Fighter class, anyway. The way the skill system is set up makes it impracticle.

Take Able Learner and the cross class ranks only cost 1 not 2 per point spent. The Able Learner feat also is in keeping with the 'smart' schick the op wanted to make.

Thanks,
Rich