Tips/Tricks/Feats for the Mobile Fighter

[reveal]

Also take a look at the Swashbuckler (from CW, as well, I think.) You'd loose most of the ability to use armor (maybe all, I'm not sure) but in trade, you get to add your int bonus to AC, and also get access to neat things like the ability to charge across a cluttered room, over chair and under tables, and so on. If movement and mobility is key, the armor isn't going to hinder you that much.

You're thinking of the Duelist from the DMG. Swashbucklers don't add their INT to AC and can wear light armor. At 3rd they can add their INT mod to their damage. Duelist can't wear armor and add their INT mod, up to their Duelist levels, to AC. But charging over tables is something they definitely can do.

If you're going to be a two-weapon fighter, I would highly recommend looking at the Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting in Complete Adventurer. It allows you to wield a one-handed weapon in your off hand and treat it like a light weapon. You only need a STR of 13 and TWF.

In my last session as a player, I was a Swashbuckler with two Elven Thinblades. Kick much butt.

 

[Philip]

You can employ other methods to gain the additional movement besides the 5 foot step. Use Sidestep from the Miniatures Handbook, for example, which allows you to take an additonal 5 ft. step upon taking an AoO, which together with your regular 5 ft. step could net you the required 10 ft.

You can use Giantbane from Complete Warrior as a method to get 10 ft. or more movement and still keep your full attack by using the Duck Underneath maneuver.

I don't really see light fighters as the charging type, but if you really want to, you could use a combination of Shock Trooper (Complete Warrior) and Knockback (Races of Stone) possibly in combination with the Leap Attack as mentioned by a previous poster, to charge your enemy, put your full BAB into Power Attack, use Shock Trooper to transfer some or as a penalty to AC, assuring that you hit with your charge, and then inflict massive damage on your opponent, bull rushing him several squares backward without you having to move with him (thanks to Knockback), and the preventing him from gaining a full attack on you, if he's still alive.

I recently made a Gnome Scout3/Swashbuckler3/Blade Bravo10 for a one shot game who was deadly as a mobile fighter, and just devastated any opponent of size Large or up.

 

[Mistwell]

I would suggest you look into Arcana Unearthed's feat "speed burst". It's their replacement for spring attack, and lets you take a single extra move action a certain number of times a day (tied to your level I think). You can burst to a target, and still get a full attack action (though not every combat, since it IS limited to number of uses a day).

 

[Legildur]

The Fleet of Foot feat from Complete Warrior allows a single direction change of up to 90 degrees when running or charging (minimum 10ft after turn to maintain charge). It has prerequisites of Dex 15 and the Run feat.

Also, I've seen a few builds on these boards for mobile fighters (like Dervish) that rely on a 2-handed weapon in order to maximise damage from only one attack, particularly if using the Spring Attack feat chain.

 

[Darthjaye]

Speaking of Arcana Unearthed that's where I got my Unfettered 6/ Dervish 4 character I'm currently using. No armor but an extremely high unarmored touch AC. Plus a dice of sneak attack and some other cool things. Now I just gotta find a way to get Uncanny Dodge so I'm not caught flat footed and I'll be all better for the ambushes.

 

[Vrecknidj]

There are loads of options (evidenced by all the posts above). But, the two that I see most often in campaigns are: Spring Attack (mostly for rogue/fighters who can afford all the feats) and maxing out Tumble.

Either of these gives you great flexibility on the battle field (and, of course, having them both is better than having one or the other).

There's a 16th level monk in a campaign I'm running, and he has some ungodly Tumble check. His speed is so high that he can Tumble through enemy squares at the same speed that others can just move. As a result, he's wonderful for setting up flanks for others in the group, and for other tactical maneuvering. And, because his unarmed attacks do so much damage, even one attack is worthwhile.

Dave

 

[Someone]

Don´t know it it´s possible for you to do now, but you could get 1 level of psiwarrior and then go Elocater. It´s difficult to get more mobile than that.

 

[Deset Gled]

Unless your character has a very high speed, (I don't know if the Scout gets any speed bonuses or not) I find that characters using Spring Attack are sometimes left with the problem that they can get to the enemy, but can't back off entirely. To deal with this, I'm a fan of having the SAer use a reach weapon, and pick up Combat Reflexes.

The benefits of doing this are many. It can put you in very strategic places, which can aid other charaters greatly (flanking for the rogue, drawing attention away from the caster). You can couple it with feats like Improved Trip and Improved Bull Rush and have great control over the battlefield.

There are also downsides, though. It makes the character much more of a frontline fighter (which could be good or bad). That means high HP and AC are important, as you need them to survive. This can make the character very stat dependent (Dex for AoOs and AC, Con for HP, Str for damage, power attack, trip, etc, and you still need Wis if you eventually want some of that ranger spellcasting).

I recently designed a Sorc1/BarbX/DragonDiscipleX that used this type of build (an exercise purely to test the DD concept) which looks pretty darn powerful on paper. I don't know how well the conept will transfer to a Ranger/Scout, though.