Buffing up a fighter

[WarKitty]

Ok so I'm the DM for this game. I'm giving out pseudo-custom classes. I have one PC that is essentially a fighter. The player doesn't particularly like to optimize or really have to think through options; he's quite happy with "I full attack the monster" every round.

My issue: this particular PC is rather falling behind the group. Are there any good buffs/feats that I could give him/he could take that would make him better at hitting things without requiring a lot of effort? The PC's just hit level 10.

[SurlySeraph]

When in doubt, Shock Trooper + a means of full attacking on a charge + Power Attack is always a great way to boost damage.

[dgnslyr]

IIRC, the Lion Totem Barbarian ACF from Complete Champions gives Pounce instead of Fast Movement at level 1. Rage is just icing on the cake. Shock Trooper, Power Attack, Pounce, and Haste makes anything on the ground within 30' go splat. Ask a friendly wizard to help you splatter things outside of your 30' radius.

[dextercorvia]

Ditto to what was said. Also, by 10th he should have Leap Attack and a reliable means of making the jump check.

[Endarire]

The Warblade or Crusader classes (Tome of Battle) make melee interesting and more newbie-friendly.

Saying, "I whack it till it dies" works at low levels, but "I alter reality and summon pets to whack it till it dies" does more. Alternatively, Hood (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872838/Little_Red_Raiding_Hood_A_Tale_of_38_Guide_to_the_ 35_Dragoon)

[WarKitty]

The Warblade or Crusader classes (Tome of Battle) make melee interesting and more newbie-friendly.

Saying, "I whack it till it dies" works at low levels, but "I alter reality and summon pets to whack it till it dies" does more. Alternatively, Hood (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872838/Little_Red_Raiding_Hood_A_Tale_of_38_Guide_to_the_ 35_Dragoon)

Unfortunately I'm not going to get anything past "I whack it till it dies" out of this particular player. He's not interested enough in combat otherwise. (FYI his girlfriend plays and is really into the game, I think that's his main interest here.)

[Telonius]

What are we looking at for his current feat choices?

If he's really only interested in hack and slash, you might want to focus on the weapon rather than the warrior. Stat out a custom weapon that will give special bonuses as he increases in Fighter levels. There are ancestral weapons rules somewhere (CWar, I think - I'm afb at the moment) that could help you. Set it up as a special quest, centered on him. The Ancient Master of the Blade has been watching him and wants to see if he's worthy of bearing it, or something like that.

[WarKitty]

What are we looking at for his current feat choices?

If he's really only interested in hack and slash, you might want to focus on the weapon rather than the warrior. Stat out a custom weapon that will give special bonuses as he increases in Fighter levels. There are ancestral weapons rules somewhere (CWar, I think - I'm afb at the moment) that could help you. Set it up as a special quest, centered on him. The Ancient Master of the Blade has been watching him and wants to see if he's worthy of bearing it, or something like that.

Like 10 different selections of toughness, as I recall. I'm thinking of making him our damage taker with a few to-hit buffs, and giving our other fighter-type the ability to split his movement.

[Ormagoden]

Unfortunately I'm not going to get anything past "I whack it till it dies" out of this particular player. He's not interested enough in combat otherwise. (FYI his girlfriend plays and is really into the game, I think that's his main interest here.)

I think that is a great reason to play!
If he is coming along but doesn't really like dnd then try and make it fun for him.

Try asking him what else he thinks his character might be good at.
Tell him the cool stuff a warblade can do with their manuvers.
(Don't throw mechanics at him use description!)

Worst case scenario just upgrade his weapons and maybe get him some more attacks.

Belt of battle comes into mind...

[Yorrin]

I have a player a lot like this. She understands the game- she knows that Wizards are better than Fighters. She gets mid-level tactics, and is capable of playing pretty well. But she likes Fighters. And Monks. And stuff like that. And ToB was too complicated for her- it took away the "I hit it" factor.

Players who go for the simple "I hit it" tactics can be lured in better by stuff that makes them look cooler while they "hit it." In my case, showing her Lion Totem Barbarian from CC with Power Attack, Leap Attack, and a Valorous weapon got her really excited, because it added lots of damage to her "I hit" every time she charged. In another campaign I arranged a way for her to gain the Half-Dragon template through roleplaying. She really got into the flight and breath weapon, and the Str boost didn't hurt either.

Little stuff like that works well on this type of player. In the case of Half-Dragon it also got her to roleplayer better, which is never a bad thing.

Best of luck to you, though.

[Dairun Cates]

I know some people may call me crazy, but have you ever considered just handing out a decently nice magic item like a sword that's slightly better than what the player should have at their level? Most groups actually aren't so greedy that they'll insist on everyone paying party shares and will generally understand if the GM gives a player a minor boost when they're tailing behind.

And if they are greedy... Well, make it an average level sword but give it some of the nicer modifiers like wounding.

Honestly though, it's not about being more or less powerful than other players, it's about making a contribution to the party. As long as the fighter is actually contributing in fights, it's usually pretty fine if the player likes playing that class. If the fighter ISN'T contributing, then maybe you need to adjust your encounters a bit.

EDIT:

When in doubt, Shock Trooper + a means of full attacking on a charge + Power Attack is always a great way to boost damage.

Isn't the shock trooper build pretty much universally banned from most tables for a reason?

DOUBLE EDIT:

Like 10 different selections of toughness, as I recall. I'm thinking of making him our damage taker with a few to-hit buffs, and giving our other fighter-type the ability to split his movement.

Silly, but if you're allowing the improved version of toughness (1 hp a level), it's not the WORST choice. If he wants to be made of meat, let him. Throw a few stupid damaging monsters out here and there and let him soak the damage so he feels useful.

[lsfreak]

Isn't the shock trooper build pretty much universally banned from most tables for a reason?

As far as I know, it's more universally encouraged. At least by people who know their game balance.

One level of barbarian gets him pounce and either rage or whirling frenzy (then pick up the Extra Rage feat).
One level of cleric gets him Law Devotion + another devotion. Death, Air, Animal, or Travel, depending on what he needs the most help with.
Steer him in the direction of the Weapon Mastery chain if you haven't already (PHB2).

EDIT: Missed the Toughness part. Ouch. Have him retrain those into something else. If you want him defensive, look into Law Devotion, Protection Devotion, Air Devotion; if he's got a shield with him too, look up Person Man's guide to shields for stuff that's passive and he doesn't have to activate (like the auto-trip/stun on a charge). If you're just thinking about adding things, look up The Demented One's Warlord for passive defensive auras, and look up some of the Crusader's auras for other passive stuff he could use defensively (Aura of Triumph comes to mind).

[herrhauptmann]

You're the DM, which means you can allow 3.0 feats.
It's in either masters of the wild, or sword and fist, but there are variations on toughness which grant you +10, +20, +40 hitpoints, it's just based on your base fort save.

Alternatively, various magic items. A sword with 'smoking' on it, (lords of darkness or unapproachable east), grants him a miss chance, and would allow you to do a few more very awesome battle descriptions. X-Bane weapons.
You could (with his permission), start working him towards an ikea tarrasque build. Magic+plot grants half troll template. More plot grants some feat retraining. Maybe he's just bored with his race.

If he's bored/boring with 'i full attack' ask him if he'd rather make a new character to play. Then either just sub out the new for the old, or make a nice story for him to swap characters. In either case, make sure the new one is equal level to the old rather than one level lower like is usually suggested. If he's bored/boring now, imagine how bad it'll get when he's now also a level behind.

[Lycanthromancer]

Would he like to throw tantrums and cause devastation by throwing things?

Maybe you could retire and/or rebuild his character into a goliath barbarian/dungeoncrasher/war hulk/hulking hurler and watch as he suddenly becomes
HULK SMASH!

[Hurlbut]

As far as I know, it's more universally encouraged. At least by people who know their game balance.

One level of barbarian gets him pounce and either rage or whirling frenzy (then pick up the Extra Rage feat).
One level of cleric gets him Law Devotion + another devotion. Death, Air, Animal, or Travel, depending on what he needs the most help with.
Steer him in the direction of the Weapon Mastery chain if you haven't already (PHB2).

EDIT: Missed the Toughness part. Ouch. Have him retrain those into something else. If you want him defensive, look into Law Devotion, Protection Devotion, Air Devotion; if he's got a shield with him too, look up Person Man's guide to shields for stuff that's passive and he doesn't have to activate (like the auto-trip/stun on a charge). If you're just thinking about adding things, look up The Demented One's Warlord for passive defensive auras, and look up some of the Crusader's auras for other passive stuff he could use defensively (Aura of Triumph comes to mind).Whoa whoa, you mean get 1 level of barbrian and 1 level of cleric on same character? Picking up *Law* Devotion?

[dgnslyr]

Whoa whoa, you mean get 1 level of barbrian and 1 level of cleric on same character? Picking up *Law* Devotion?

An ex-barbarian loses no class features, merely the ability to gain barbarian levels. Small loss, considering the point of the barbarian dip is to get pounce and rage. IIRC, Lawful bards and barbarians and chaotic monks only lose the ability to gain levels in aforementioned class.

Quote from d20srd (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/classes/barbarian.htm):

Ex-Barbarians
A barbarian who becomes lawful loses the ability to rage and cannot gain more levels as a barbarian. He retains all the other benefits of the class (damage reduction, fast movement, trap sense, and uncanny dodge).

Edit: My roll for Knowledge: PHB appears to be too low. Ex-barbarians can't rage. You keep class features like pounce, though.
The excert (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20070504a&page=2) from CChamp says that there's no prerequisite, so I don't see a problem. If there is one that's not there, then you can just play as a neutral character one step from your presumably lawful deity. I don't have CChamp ATM, so I'm just going by what's on the website.

[Runestar]

Whoa whoa, you mean get 1 level of barbrian and 1 level of cleric on same character? Picking up *Law* Devotion?

Yeah, is something wrong? If you have problems reconciling a "lawful" themed feat with a chaotic barb, you can refluff it as a pact domain feat (using the table on page53 of CC). Alternatively, travel devotion for the ability to move as a swift action (you need cleric's turn undead attempts to fuel extra uses).:smallsmile:


Isn't the shock trooper build pretty much universally banned from most tables for a reason?

Only for those who don't understand math.

At higher lvs, a wizard can move, cast a quickened spell as a swift action, cast another damage spell (say a maximized orb of acid) as a standard action, and still have room for an immediate action (say activating abrupt jaunt when he would be attacked).

This is why ToB is so highly regarded as "the" fighter fix. A warblade can move, initiative a boost (swift), strike maneuver (standard) and still have room for a counter (immediate), helping him bridge the gap between melee and casters in terms of versatility and action economy.

Conversely, a fighter who moves is usually limited to a single attack, at a paltry 2d6+1.5str mod+misc modifiers before dr. No other options available. So you at least need pounce and shock trooper to keep up. :smallsmile:

[Dr.Epic]

This is why complete warrior was written.

[lsfreak]

Whoa whoa, you mean get 1 level of barbrian and 1 level of cleric on same character? Picking up *Law* Devotion?

Yes. Alignment restrictions are, overall, very, very stupid, and the law/chaos ones are the worst.