Need help with gear on new fighter

[gearsofclocks]

I am making a fighter in the new campaign i am playing in. He is lv 1 the max lv is 10. I have 10k to spend and i would like advice on gear and feats. My race is human, and i plan on being the "tank" of my group. I want him to be a pure fighter no multi-classing. Stats: Str:17 Con:16 Dex:14 Wis:12 Int:14 Chr:15

[Lord Il Palazzo]

Wow. 10k GP is a lot for a level 1 character. What sources do you have available? I'll assume you've got at least the core books (or SRD) available. You should probably invest in a magic melee weapon of whatever sort you're looking to use. A spiked chain could be fun for tripping and lockdown if you're trying to play it defensively beyond just soaking up damage and you should have the feats to pull it off. Since you get three feats at level 1, you could go with Exotic Weapon Proficiency, Combat Expertise and Improved Trip. Your DEX is pretty good so you could add Combat Experties at level 2 to be able to trip two more guys with attacks of opportunity.

As for other equipment, you usually can't go too wrong with relevant ability boosting so look into Gauntlets of Ogre Power (4000 GP for a +2 bonus to strength). If you want to buff your AC up, put down the money to make your armor magic first (+1 armor costs 1000 GP for +1 to AC) then look at Ring of Protection and Amulet of Natural Armor which each give you +1 AC for 1 2000 GP. (Get the ring first since it works against touch attacks.)

Outside of core, consider the Healing Belt from MIC pg. 110. For the very low price of 750 GP you get three charges per day. You can use 1 charge to heal 2d8, 2 to heal 3d8 or 3 to heal 4d8 as a standard action on yourself or another with a range of touch. At low levels, this should really help your survivability.

[Slipperychicken]

You generally want a tank to have high AC. Grab a +1 Fullplate (or perhaps one of the "superheavy" +10 AC armors like Mechanus Plate or Mountain Plate, if they're allowed). That alone will make you really hard to hit early-game. If you don't feel like two-handing a weapon for some reason, a Tower Shields' total cover use (which makes you more or less untargetable) can really save your bacon, in addition to its AC bonus.

Most of the time, items of +AC (other than actual armors, of course) will be a waste; attack rolls scale way faster than AC, and the costs to increase AC escalate to the point where it's not even worth it. The armor (and maybe a shield) will be sufficient until around level 5-7ish, when AC in general starts getting useless.

For damage, two-hand a +1 Greatsword or Spiked Chain. 1.5xStr to damage is excellent for your high Strength, and the increased Power Attack returns make two-handing one of the best options in the game. Spiked Chain gives you reach while still threatening adjacent squares, which is godly at low levels, and well worth the feat on Exotic Weapon Proficiency for any level, and is very nice for tripper builds. Greatsword is better if you don't want to spend the feat on EWP: Spiked Chain.

+2 Con item, +2 Str item. Health and damage are your bread and butter as a Fighter, and these are perhaps your two most important stats. Take these, especially if your DM lets you "upgrade" them to higher bonuses by paying the price difference.

Cloaks of Resistance are something to spend any remaining cash on, so you can make those saves once in a while.

[BowStreetRunner]

I would go with a Spiked Chain build. These are the feats on which I would focus.


exotic weapon proficiency: spike chain /PHB 94/ (proficient) [BAB+1]


...to maximize attack and damage bonuses:


weapon focus: spike chain /PHB 102/ (+1 attack) [proficient, BAB+1]
weapon specialization: spike chain /PHB 102/ (+2 damage) [weapon focus, fighter 4]
greater weapon focus: spike chain /PHB 95/ (+1 attack) [weapon focus, fighter 8]
melee weapon mastery: piercing /PH2 81/ (+2 attack, +2 damage) [weapon focus, weapon spec, BAB +8]
knowledge devotion /CC 60/ (+X attack, +X damage) [knowledge (any) 5]
deft opportunist /CAdv 106/ (+4 att on AoO) [DEX 15, Combat Reflexes]
power attack /PHB 98/ (trade attack for damage) [STR 13]


...to maximize number of attacks & create attacks of opporunity:


combat reflexes /PHB 92/ (additional AoO, AoO while flat-footed)
cleave /PHB 92/ (extra attack for dropping target) [STR 13, power attack]
close-quarters fighting /CW97/ (always get AoO vs enemy attempting grapple; add dmg to grapple check) [BAB+3]
mage slayer /CArc 81/ (+1 WILL, spellcasters you threaten may not cast defensively, you have -4 caster level) [Spellcraft 2, BAB+3]


...to maximize control and take down ability:


improved disarm /PHB 95/ (+4 disarm, no AoO) [combat expertise]
improved trip /PHB 96/ (+4 trip, no AoO) [combat expertise]
stand still /XPH 51/ (when movement provokes AoO, you may instead use 10+dmg vs REF to halt movement) [STR 13]


...only used as a prerequisite to other feats:


combat expertise /PHB 92/ (trade attack for AC) [INT 13]

[gearsofclocks]

Yah i know, its the same for everyone else, and this is the one and only chance in the campaign to buy gear, other than that we have to find it throughout the campaign. Also this is more of a survival wasteland-ish type campaign. I like the chain whip idea, but that not the weapon i want to use. I am going for a tower shield/One-handed weapon build.

[Chilingsworth]

Yah i know, its the same for everyone else, and this is the one and only chance in the campaign to buy gear, other than that we have to find it throughout the campaign. Have the party artificer (or wizard) craft it for us.

Fixed that for you. :smalltongue:

[gearsofclocks]

Fixed that for you. :smalltongue:

Haha. We don't have a wizard... or an Articifer for that matter. :p
We Have 4 people including me, A cleric, rouge, Fighter(me), Ranger. And we might be getting a 5th person some time down the road

[Chilingsworth]

Haha. We don't have a wizard... or an Articifer for that matter. :p
We Have 4 people including me, A cleric, rouge, Fighter(me), Ranger. And we might be getting a 5th person some time down the road

Then have the cleric take crafting feats and convince your fifth person to play a wizard. Also, isn't your party abit vulnerable without an arcane caster?

[gearsofclocks]

Then have the cleric take crafting feats and convince your fifth person to play a wizard. Also, isn't your party abit vulnerable without an arcane caster?

true, i don't know we have some time before it starts. So.... we will figure something out.

[Slipperychicken]

true, i don't know we have some time before it starts. So.... we will figure something out.

If you do wish to include an Artificer or other crafter in the game, be sure to a) check with your DM to see if it's appropriate to the campaign, and b) try to have someone with a lot of system mastery (and who is willing to do a lot of bookkeeping) play the Artificer/crafter. Artificers thrive on an intricate knowledge of the crafting and magic item rules.

A Bag of Holding or Handy Haversack could be very useful to your group, especially with an Artificer who can create a Dedicated Wright (from one of the Eberron books) to do his crafting inside the Bag and save the Artificer time. See if you can get the whole party to chip in for this "magic factory".

[Lord Il Palazzo]

+2 Con item, +2 Str item. Health and damage are your bread and butter as a Fighter, and these are perhaps your two most important stats. Take these, especially if your DM lets you "upgrade" them to higher bonuses by paying the price difference.I would recommend against the +2 CON item, actually. 4000 GP is a significant chunk of the OP's 10K GP budget to spend on +1 HP and +1 Fort saves at level 1. It's more HP as he gains levels but for now there are better investments. The healing belt I mentioned gives far more HP per day for less than a quarter of the price and all you have to do is remember to use a charge after a big fight. (Also, the party's cleric will love you since he won't have to spend as many healing spells on you and will be able to do more fun and interesting things with his spell slots.)

On that note, see if you can convince the party to pool some of their money to buy a few wands of cure light wounds or lesser vigor for the cleric. (Each wand is only 750 GP so it shouldn't overtax the party budget.) That way, you won't have to worry about him running out of healing at a bad time and he'll have more spell slots free to help the party in other ways which is especially important as he's your only spell caster until the ranger starts getting a (very) small number of spells per day at level 4.

A +1 magic weapon will run you a little over 2300 GP and +1 full plate would cost 2650 GP. That's half of your budget right there. A non-magical tower shield would only cost you 30 GP. You could make it magical, but that would leave you without enough for Gauntlets of Ogre Might, which you really should have. Getting the gauntlets would leave you with about 1050, enough for a Healing Belt and 300 for odds and ends (torches and that kind of thing.) A spare, non-magical weapon with a different damage type wouldn't be a bad idea, though this doesn't need to cost you anything; clubs are free. Any leftovers should go to to the cleric's wand fund.