Why Dragonborn fighters should have low Con

[Ginnel]

I don't think anyones mentioned the minor action joy that is Dragonbreath, thats a minor action people, even if you're in a solo fight your gonna want to fire off that breath, and as Asda says every little helps!

Con's great, maybe not excellent if you have high strength, but dammit I want a tough&strong fighter

 

[tafkamhokie]

Also note it is really easy to compensate for a low Con with feats.

With Con only boosting your 1st level hp, the toughness feat effectively eliminates the difference between a 10 Con and a 15 Con.

The durable feat gives you 2 extra healing surges...again effectively negating the difference between a 10 Con and a 15 Con.

Given that you cannot compensate for a low attack bonus with feats, you can make a good case for ditching Con in favor of Str (or whatever your primary attack attribute is) for a defender or striker.

Player in my game wanted to run a glass cannon and created an 8 Con elven ranger. With the free Toughness feat and sinking one other feat into Durable, you can't really tell the character has an 8 Con.

 

[Stalker0]

Your argument is based on how effective the breath weapon is vs. minions?

By that logic, Wizards should have a low Int, because the damage it adds to their powers is wasted on minions...

The argument isn't flawed because minions are a common part of the game. There are many powers that are designed mainly around minions (look at cleave for example).

 

[Tuft]

By that logic, Wizards should have a low Int, because the damage it adds to their powers is wasted on minions...

The argument isn't flawed because minions are a common part of the game. There are many powers that are designed mainly around minions (look at cleave for example).

Exactly. Wizards are there mainly to kill minions, and minions are there so that Wizards have something to kill.


As for Con, Starfox above is correct: Lower Con means More Rests means More Uses of Dailies.

 

[Mirtek]

Fighter = Defender. Defender + Low Con? Does not compute.

For a heavy blade defender, who has Str/Wis/Dex as his three most important stats I can't see how you will end with anything other but low Con.

Strength 16 (9 points)
Constitution 13 (3 points)
Dexterity 14 (5 points, to eventually get it to 17 for heavy blade mastery)
Intelligence 10 (0 points)
Wisdom 14 (5 points)
Charisma 8 (0 point, started at 8)

Now it all depends a little bit on your race, however as a human I would be stuck with 13 Con (the +2 racial being applied to boost Str to 18). Even as a dragonborn it would stay at 13 Con for first level

 

[Puggins]

If you're the fighter, doing damage is someone else's job. I'd look at survivabilty first, then damage - which means getting a decent Con score. Especially for Dragonborn, with their extra benefits. And especially for Fighters, with all those Reliable Daily powers.

This is a bit of a fallacy. Fighters actually do fine damage- on par with rogues, in fact. What they don't get is the debilitating nastiness that rogues also get with those strikes. But a fighter's job most certainly includes dealing damage. If there is a ranger in the party then the fighter will be a secondary damage dealer. Otherwise, he'll be at the forefront of dealing raw hp damage.

 

[Danceofmasks]

I have to agree with this.
If you can't deal damage, you're not a threat.
If you're not a threat, your foes will just walk around you and munch on the squishies.

A fighter with maxed out str (as in 20 at level 1), blade opportunity, some wisdom, combat reflexes, and a bastard sword (with shield), inflicts some horrendous fear in the hearts of his foes.
(as well as inflicting potentially fatal OAs on anyone trying to get by)
That's why they try to kill you first.
Successful mission.