Dragonborn Fighter Advice

[Hagorath]

Hi there everyone, I have just finished building my first D&D character and would love it if I could have some feedback and ways to improve the character, especially the AC :)

Level 1
STR 20 AC 17 HP 31
CON 16 FORT 17 Bloodied 15
DEX 16 REF 13
INT 17 WILL 12
WIS 15
CHA 15

Speed 5

Trained skills- Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Feat- +2 damage when bloodied

Scale Armor +7 AC
Falchion 2d4 heavy blade

Any feedback would be much appreciated :)

[Kurald Galain]

I don't see anything wrong with having 17 AC at first level.

[Hagorath]

I just thought it was a low score for a fighter class?

[obryn]

Hi there everyone, I have just finished building my first D&D character and would love it if I could have some feedback and ways to improve the character, especially the AC :)

Level 1
STR 20 AC 17 HP 31
CON 16 FORT 17 Bloodied 15
DEX 16 REF 13
INT 17 WILL 12
WIS 15
CHA 15

Speed 5

Trained skills- Athletics, Endurance, Intimidate
Feat- +2 damage when bloodied

Scale Armor +7 AC
Falchion 2d4 heavy blade

Any feedback would be much appreciated :)
Um, what stat generation method is this, exactly?

If you use a Large Shield, you will have a 19 AC, which is a more typical Defender AC at Level 1. If you're using a 2-hander, 17 is pretty much what you will have.

[Nod_Hero]

Are those rolled stats?
Quite good. Can you move them around any?
Also, what sources are you allowed to use?

[Hagorath]

Yeah they are rolled stats and I could move them around if there is a better layout. Sorry I'm a bit new to D&D what are sources?
If this is the best AC fair enough I'm just not too sure what is normal haha

[Nod_Hero]

What books are you allowed to use during character generation?

[Hagorath]

I've got the standard players handbook

[Vulf]

If you haven't decided on a weapon talent, I would take Battlerage Vigor. I think it may be in Martial Power though.

The Battlerage Vigor Fighter generates temporary hitpoints whenever you make attacks (you need training in Endurance for it to work). If you hit with an Invigorating Power, you gain 2x your con Mod in Temporary hitpoints. If you miss with an invigorating Power, you still gain your con mod in temps. If you hit with a non-invigorating power, you gain your con mod in temps.

These temps don't stack, you just take the new value if it is higher. If you already have 4 temps, and hit with an invigorating power to gain 6 temps, you now have 6 temps.

Battle Axe/War Hammer and Shield are great options for a Battlerage Vigor build. I would move that 17 int into Constitution, and put the 16 into Wisdom.

For your at-wills I would always take Crushing Surge (the only invigorating at-will), for the 6 temps each hit, and either Tide of Iron, Cleave, or Weapon Master's Strike.

Good starting Feats: Some may be from Martial Power and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms.

Axe Expertise - let's you reroll one of your die that lands on 1 as well as +1 to attack rolls per tier.

Superior Weapon Proficiency - War Axe, Crag Hammer, Bastard Sword, Triple-Headed Flail are good weapons to start your career with.

Hunting Wolf Style - Lets you use Crushing surge for charge attacks.

Deft Hurler Style - Turns Cleave into a double attack, letting you throw heavy thrown weapons at other enemies as free actions without provoking after you hit with cleave. You may need Quickdraw to make it work unless the weapon you are holding is a Dwarven Thrower.

Toughness - 5 extra hitpoints and a slight boost to your surge value because of it. Never discount extra hp.

Good level 1 encounter - Hack and Hew, two attacks against enemies next to you, and an invigorating power.

You can also choose 1 background Benefit:

Backgrounds - Last of the Breed - Lets you take training in Perception as one of your 3 starting skills, and gives you +1 to perception and endurance. A fighter usually ends up walking in the front of a group, because everyone else is a coward. Having a way to get training in Perception without spending a feat is good, and perception is more useful than intimidate.

I think this is a scales of War one.

Backgrounds - Born under a Bad Sign - Lets you use your Strength Score to determine starting Hitpoints. 3-4 extra hitpoints at first level, when combined with toughness will make you pretty durable.

For a first time Fighter, keep in mind, you are melee and in heavy armor, the DM is going to make a lot of monsters focus on you, and shields are VERY important.

Don't forget that Combat Challenge is an immediate Action, and is not effected by Combat Superiority, which only effects Opportunity attacks. Being a Battlerage Vigor Fighter in Heavy Armor with a shield will make you hard to hit and durable. Dragonborn also have higher healing surges than most, so with your high hitpoints, heals help you out more than they help out lesser allies, so don't be afraid to get up in the enemy's face.

Since you are a fighter, ALL of your attacks mark, including Dragon Breath.

If you really don't want to use a shield, use a two-handed polearm like a Halberd. It's a d10 Reach Polearm Axe. You can take the feat Hafted Defense to get +1 AC. That or a superior weapon: Dwarven Urgrosh, it's a two-handed double weapon, one end is defensive spear for d6 and +1 AC, other end is a d12 axe. Two-weapon fighting and Two-Weapon defense feats will give you +1 damage and +1 AC. And you can focus on attacks that need two weapons, and even Paragon Multiclass (gasp!) into Ranger at 11, to pick up twin Strike and Hunter's Quarry.

[Hagorath]

Thanks so much for the in depth reply :D
Some really good suggestions that I didn't think of, I will have another look over my character and make some changes.
I've never heard of background benefits before so its great to have some new information thanks a lot :D

[Hagorath]

Although I can't find background benefits in the players handbook, are they in another book?

[Vulf]

I think they may be in campaign settings or player guides. Forgotten Realms campaign setting (or player's guide) 4th edition has a few. You could try downloading it in a huge torrent batch of DnD material.

Scales of War Adventurer's Path has a lot of good ones that add +1 to two different skills and let you use those skills as class skills when picking your 3 starting skills.

Scales of War Adventurer's Path are featured in Dragon Magazine Articles. Born Under a Bad Sign was from Dragon Magazine 366. I believe there's a Best of Dragon Magazine book in one of the torrent batches too.

Another good option is to take a multiclass feat for a class that has training in a skill you want. Warrior of the Wild will give you training in perception and Hunter's Quarry once per encounter (letting you get the bonus d6 damage two turns in a row before it ends). Maybe not at level one, but sometime before 11.

Just beware the Martial Power book is a little out of date, Battlerage Vigor was errata'ed to the way I said above. the book may still have the old version where you gain temporary hitpoints when you get hit.

[Hagorath]

Great yeah I will download the files now :) Thanks for the great advice :D

[Vulf]

Dragon Magazine Annual is the book that collects a bunch of the Dragon Magazine article Feats and stuff.

Heroes of the Fallen Lands and Heroes of the Forgotten Kingdoms have the newer Expertise feats.

Heroes of the Feywild has the very fun Fey Beast Tamer theme. Themes are another extra option you can have at level 1 to get extra features.

Neverwinter Campaign setting has the Spellscarred Harbringer Theme, lets you choose among a few neat options if your dm is letting you play with a Spellscar.

Martial Power has the level 11 feat Draconic Arrogance, it's what makes Dragonborn fighters do decent damage.

Oh and I'm quite the munchkin, follow too much of my advice and the DM may get upset/throw pizza at you.