[3.5] Help With Fighter Build

[Thurbane]

Hey all,

Need some suggestions for a Fighter 8 build.

Yes, yes - fighters are awful, ToB classes are superior in every way yadda yadda yadda.

So, given the character must be Fighter 8, and given the guidelines below, what kind of build would you make?

> All core races allowed, including MM variants, and UA environmental variants (but not elemental variants).

> Other Races allowed: Aasimar, Catfolk, Changeling, Drow, Duergar, Feytouched, Goblin, Goliath, Half-Ogre, Hellbred, Hobgoblin, Illumian, Jaebrin, Karsite, Killoren, Lizardfolk (Poison Dusk), Mongrelfolk, Neanderthal, Orc, Sharakim, Spellscale, Tiefling, Underfolk. Level Adjustment Buyoff is allowed.

> Fighters are houseruled to have 4 skill points/level, from the the following skill list: Balance (Dex), Bluff (Cha), Climb (Str), Craft (Int), Gather Information (Cha), Handle Animal (Cha), Intimidate (Cha), Jump (Str), Knowledge (architecture and engineering/history/local/nobility and royalty) (Int), Listen (Wis), Perform (weapon drill) (Cha), Profession (Wis), Ride (Dex), Sense Motive (Wis), Spot (Wis) and Swim (Str).

> Stats will be elite array, or 4d6b3 (1 single die may be re-rolled).

> Pretty much everything else is open except psionics and incarnum. ToB feats etc. are fine.

Looking for innovative ideas, really.

Again, specifically needs to be Fighter 8. ACFs and sub levels are fine. PrCing after 8th is also fine.

Cheers - T

[Xerlith]

Build 1:

Catfolk Hit-And-Run Sneak Attack Fighter.

Dex>Con>Str>Int>Wis>Cha

Feats:
1st: Weapon Finesse
3rd: Martial Study: Sapphire Nightmare Blade
6th: Craven

At 9th level the obligatory Swordsage level for Assassin's Stance and qualifying for Shadow Blade. Somehow retrain Martial Study for something useful before that, so you can take the maneuver from Swordsage level.

One of few builds where I'd think about Catfolk Pounce.

After the 9th, well. I'd go Swordsage +1 and finish up with Warblade, because Warblade. :smallwink:

Build 2:

Catfolk again (that +4 to dex is too good to pass on)

Targeteer Fighter.

Feats:
1st: Vital Aim, Point-Blank Shot
2rd: Precise Shot
3rd: Weapon Focus (Longbow)
4th: Rapid Shot
6th: Weapon Specialization (+2 damage is +2 damage) Longbow, Woodland Archer
8th: Eh, Greater Weapon Focus?

Boring. But it should be able to be at least useful. Saves money on the composite, too (yeah, kind of forced advantage).


Build 3:

Goliath Dungeoncrasher Fighter 8. Basics for the Flaming Homer.

Feats:
1st: Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush
2nd: Dungeon Crasher 1
3rd: Knockback
4th: Eh, take what you want here.
6th: Dungeon Crasher 2, Martial Study: Mountain Hammer. To deal with the pesky DR.
8th: Shock Trooper

At 9th level take an Abrupt Jaunt Martial Wizard (Conjurer) level. Learn Blockade. Smash things into other things by positioning yourself and walls all around the battlefield.

[Darrin]

Three Mountain Dragonstar

Race: Dragonborn Orc
1) Fighter 1. Feat: Power Attack. Bonus: WF Morningstar. Bonus: Exotic Shield Proficiency -> Dragon Tail (Dragonborn of Bahamut).
2) Fighter 2. Bonus: Cleave.
3) Fighter 3. Feat: Prehensile Tail.
4) Fighter 4. Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
5) Fighter 5.
6) Fighter 6. Feat: Three Mountains Style. Bonus: MWF.
7) Fighter 7.
8) Fighter 8. Bonus: Oversized TWF.

Finish off with WS Morningstar, Melee Weapon Mastery (x1... effing errata!), Weapon Supremacy, and garnish with Travel Devotion (x3).


Brawlonius Monk

1) Fighter 1. Feat: Improved Unarmed Strike. Bonus: WF Unarmed Strike. Human: Improved Grapple.
2) Fighter 2. Bonus: Scorpion's Grasp (Sandstorm).
3) Fighter 3. Feat: Superior Unarmed Strike (ToB).
4) Fighter 4. Bonus: Choke Hold (OA).
5) Fighter 5.
6) Fighter 6. Feat: Snap Kick (ToB). Bonus: Earth's Embrace (OA).
7) Fighter 7.
8) Fighter 8. Bonus: Stunning Fist.


Caveman Lawyer

Race: Neanderthal
1) Fighter 1. Feat: Criminal Background (City of Stormreach). Bonus: Combat Expertise.
2) Fighter 2. Bonus: Dodge.
3) Fighter 3. Feat: Skill Focus: Profession (Law).
4) Fighter 4. Bonus: Melee Evasion (PHBII).
5) Fighter 5.
6) Fighter 6. Feat: Master Manipulator (PHBII). Bonus: Improved Combat Expertise (Complete Warrior).
7) Fighter 7.
8) Fighter 8. Bonus: Combat Cloak Expert (PHBII).

[Soranar]

I would go for a thrower build

Use the Drow Fighter ACF (+2 to ini and DEX to damage within 30 ft vs flat footed foes will be usefu

Race : must be Aerenal Elf (for Aereni focus)

1 Aereni Focus (Iaijutsu focus) , Point Blank Shot
2 Rapid Shot
3 Quick Draw
4 Weapon focus (dagger)
6 Weapon specialization (dagger)
8 Ranged Weapon mastery

Possible PrC , I'd suggest master thrower

Logic behind this

vs a flat footed opponent, you deal +DEX + Iaijutsu focus damage. There is quite a few ways to make something flat footed and Iaijutsu focus works vs anything (including undead) so it's far superior than sneak attack

If you're stuck in melee, most of your feats still apply (and so does Iaijutsu focus)


Other idea would be to make a shield soldier

use a shield as a weapon, two handed, and just go the normal charger route except for the following

improved shield bash (to keep your AC bonus)
shield charge + shield slam (for daze)

daze + tripping and opponent isn't so bad, you basically take out 1 opponent per turn even if you don't kill him outright

[Flickerdart]

Don't forget the Eberron boomerang stuff you have access to as a drow. Gift of the Spider Queen gives some cool utility.

[OldTrees1]

Build 1: Zone of Control
Dragonborn Goliath
Fighter 8 (Dungeon Crasher) / Barbarian 2 (Goliath Barbarian, Spirit Lion Totem, Wolf Totem)

Dex>Int>Str>Con>Cha>Wis

Feats:
1) Combat Reflexes
1) Power Attack
2) Dungeoncrasher 1
3) Improved Bullrush
4) Knockback
6) Cleave
6) Dungeoncrasher II
8) Weapon Focus(Morning Star)
9) Extra Rage
10) Improved Trip

Feats left to get: Three Mountains Style, TWF, ITWF(Gloves of the Balanced Hand), Double Hit, Knockdown

Build 2: Flurry of misses
Dragonborn(4th) Orc Fighter(Kensai, Zhentarim Soldier) 8 / Barbarian 1 (Whirling Frenzy, Spirit Lion Totem)

Str>Dex>Int>Con>Cha>Wis

1) Aberrant Blood
1) +1 Attack/Damage
2) Combat Reflexes
3) Inhuman Reach
3) Skill Focus Intimidate -> Dragon Tail(4th)
4) Rain of Blows
5) +2 Attack/Damage
6) Two Weapon Fighting (buy Gloves of the Balanced Hand for IWTF)
6) Storm of Blows
8) Double Hit
9) Extra Rage

Attack routine(less any actual bonuses like BAB/Str/Kensai): -10/-10/-10/-10/-15/-10/-15/-10
Accuracy of 6*-10 < Accuracy of 1*+0 if and only if +0 needs a roll of 10-14.

[Warrnan]

With any fighter build I highly recommend picking up Barbarian 2 asap with Spiritial lion totem ACF (CC), wolf totem ACF and whirling frenzy (both UA). Tribe totem poles usually more than one animal anyway and this works by RAW.

This grants you pounce for full attacking on a charge, improved trip, and an extra attack while raging.

Pick up the Knock-down feat (SRD) and extra rage and you are now getting free trip attempts with no worry of being tripped yourself or dropping your weapon. Also you can now trip with any weapon you like as you are basically playing baseball with their bodies.

Get a permanent item of enlarge person so you'll be doing extra damage and tripping more often. Should cost about 4k gold.

Power attack>leap attack>shock trooper comboed with this means a build with tons of damage and a side helping of Crowd Control. Karmic strike is one of my favorites also. If you lose initiative, hit and trip them in response to a charge with Combat reflexes.

Make sure to secure a source of flight in the late game or you'll be in trouble.
Also mage slayer is a very important feat.

I know this isn't a specific build but some great tips I've used as a lover of all things melee.

[Essence_of_War]

Hey all,

Need some suggestions for a Fighter 8 build.

So, given the character must be Fighter 8, and given the guidelines below, what kind of build would you make?

Again, specifically needs to be Fighter 8. ACFs and sub levels are fine. PrCing after 8th is also fine.

Cheers - T

Are they going to stay at 8 for a while? Karmic Strike comes on-line at lvl 9, and Robilar's Gambit comes on-line at 12. You could build the usual Jack B. Quick TWF AoO build. It's boring, but it's quite effective. It's sort of ordinary until 9, but it gets brutal at its little game plan by 9 or 12.

1. TWF, Dodge, WF (Longsword)
2. Combat Expertise
3. Improved Trip
4. WF (Handaxe)
5.
6. Improved TWF, High Sword Low Axe
7.
8. Combat Reflexes

Later:
9 - Karmic Strike
10 - Double Hit
12 - Robilar's Gambit + Mobility (pre-req for Elusive Target at 14)

Alternatively, you can do a dungeon-crasher in 8 levels:

Fighter 1. Feats = Power Attack (1st), Improved Bull Rush (Fighter 1).
Fighter 2. Dungeon Crasher ACF
Fighter 3. Knockback (3rd).
Fighter 4. Combat Reflexes (Fighter 4).
Fighter 5.
Fighter 6. Dungeon Crasher ACF; Shock Trooper (6th).
Fighter 7:
Fighter 8: Improved Sunder (pre-req for Combat Brute)

Later you can add Combat Brute, EWP:Spiked Chain (not sure if you need it), Leap Attack, whatever.

Both of these are reasonably good at what they do, but they are also pretty 1-dimensional.

[Troacctid]

You should be taking 9 levels of Fighter to get Swift Intimidation from the 9th level Zhentarim Soldier substitution level. Take all three of the Zhentarim substitutions because they're great. Make sure you have 15 Charisma (or 13 Charisma with a +2 enhancement item), max out your ranks in Intimidate, and take Imperious Command as your 9th level feat because it's insane action economy--spend a swift action to take away your opponent's entire turn!

Aside from that, I recommend going with a Dungeoncrasher build, since that's one of the big unique things you can get as a Fighter, but not as any other class. Your key feats are Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Knockback, and Shock Trooper. Knockback requires large size or powerful build, so you'll need to either be a Goliath (which is a great choice with LA buyoff) or get a permanent Enlarge Person (which is also great, but you'll need to watch out for Dispel Magic) or a continuous custom item of Enlarge Person (which is probably the best of all, but it's a custom item, so ask your DM; for a price reference, buying a casting of Enlarge Person + Permanency would cost around 3000 gp, so the suggested price of 4000 gp for a continuous item of a spell with a duration measured in minutes should be fair). Shock Trooper is best known for enabling massive damage on charge attacks, but is also very good with bull rushing. Once you have Knockback, you'll also probably want Combat Reflexes and a reach weapon, because you can use Knockback on attacks of opportunity. So make sure you have at least 12 Dex. Once you have Shock Trooper, Leap Attack becomes a no-brainer for the charge synergy.

That locks in all but one of your feat slots, so the build looks like this:
Fighter 1: Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush
Fighter 2: Dungeoncrasher
Zhentarim Soldier 3: Knockback, Skill Focus (Intimidate)
Fighter 4: Combat Reflexes
Zhentarim Soldier 5: Extended Intimidation
Fighter 6: Shock Trooper
Fighter 8: Leap Attack
Zhentarim Soldier 9: Imperious Command, Swift Intimidation

After this, a level or two of Barbarian would be good, to pick up Pounce and Improved Trip. If you're allowed to combine substitution levels with other ACFs, the Goliath Barbarian substitution is quite good. Someone else suggested a dip in Wizard--it's not a terrible idea, but it requires you to put points in Int, it takes up your swift action, you have to deal with arcane spell failure, and you lose BAB, so I'm not a fan. Instead, I'd just ask one of the casters in your party to cast a Wall of Ice (or whatever) for you, because teamwork.

As a Goliath, your elite array would be:
15+4 Str
12+2 Con
14-2 Dex
8 Int
10 Wis
13 Cha

If you roll for stats, put your highest score in Strength, your next-highest in Con, and make sure you have at least 12 Dex and 13 Cha after racial mods. For skill points, you'll want Intimidate, Jump, and some points in Balance.

And don't forget to buy Armbands of Might!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Desert Half-Orc, use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 to count as a Human instead of an Orc when qualifying for things like feats. You'll also have the Human Heritage feat, which will make you always have the Humanoid creature type regardless of templates or other circumstances.

Go Half-Dragon (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030912a) 1/ Fighter 3 (buy off the +1 LA)/ Half-Dragon +1/ Fighter 3 (buy off the +1 LA)/ Half-Dragon +1/ Fighter+, after you gain three more class levels you can buy off your remaining +1 LA. Starting out, you have the full Half-Dragon template for a +1 LA and -9,000 xp. The minimum xp for an 8th level character is 28k, if you have an Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) you would have gained an extra 2,500 xp from Invest Life Energy, so you'll begin play with at least 21,500 xp, enough to still be ECL 7 (Fighter 6/ LA +1). The dragon variety is entirely up to personal preference.

Say you hired an NPC spellcaster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/equipment/goodsAndServices.htm#spell) for Enlarge Person (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/enlargePerson.htm) + Permanency (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/permanency.htm) at a caster level of 20th (with a Ring of Enduring Arcana for a Dispel DC of 35) for 3,700 gp. You'll be large size, so Half-Dragon 3 will give you wings, which you won't lose due to reductions to your size. Half-Dragon 3 doesn't give you the Dragon creature type due to your Human Heritage feat.

Fighter 7, Zhentarim Soldier (archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a) substitution levels, Dungeoncrasher ACF, Dead Levels (archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a) features, and trade Ride for Tumble as a class skill (archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a).

Two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm): Bravado and No Time For Book Learning (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30). Flaws must be taken "when creating a character," which it presumes is at 1st level, but since you're creating the character higher than 1st level you should be able to use these flaws to gain feats at any of your current character levels, not just 1st level feats.

Gain Menacing Demeanor from the Otyugh Hole in Complete Scoundrel. You get Skill Focus: Intimidate as a bonus feat from Zhentarim Soldier 3.

Three Fighter feats (1, 4, 8) and five general feats (1, 3, 6, two flaws): Human Heritage, Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Knock-Back, Item Familiar, Improved Flight, Imperious Command (DotU), and EWP: Spiked Chain. Plan to get Combat Reflexes, Dragon Breath (RotD), Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Knock-Down, and possibly Entangling Exhalation.

You'll probably be wearing a Mithral Breastplate for your entire career, so get a decent Dex score. You'll need at least Int 13 and Cha 15 for the feats you should be taking in the future. Everything else should be fairly obvious.

Put at least 5 ranks in each of Balance, Jump, and Tumble, max ranks in Intimidate, and everything else in Spot, Listen, Sense Motive, and Tumble. Get the Never Outnumbered skill trick, and any Balance or Tumble skill tricks that look appealing. Don't forget that you have a +4 Size bonus to Intimidate. Invest all of your 4th+ level skill points into the Item Familiar for the greatest return possible, and put as much of that toward Intimidate as you can.

Equipment should include a +1 Fearsome (DotU, more recent than MIC) Large Mithral Breastplate, preferably with a Least Crystal of Adaptation, a +1 Animated large heavy shield with a Least Crystal of Arrow Deflection, Armbands of Might, Healing Belt, Anklet of Translocation, and a +1 Large Spiked Chain. Be aware of the Necessary Magic Items (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) for what you should plan on picking up in the future. Be sure to get an upgrade from MIC p234 over a standalone item that provides one of those benefits. The Shadow Cloak (DotU) is also extremely useful, since it gives you an ability identical to Abrupt Jaunt 3/day that can automatically avoid an attack if it gets you out of reach.

You should already have a pretty good idea of what this build can do. Fear effects (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809) are a superb way for mundane characters to have crowd control at their disposal, you'll have something like a +25 to Intimidate, you can demoralize as a move action with the Fearsome armor (and as a swift action at 9th level), and once per encounter your Intimidate check demoralizes every opponent within 10 ft. of you instead of a single target. Anyone you demoralize is affected by Imperious Command, which means you'll escalate their fear condition on subsequent rounds if you keep targeting them with it. You can fly above opponents and use Knock-Back to Dungeoncrash them against the ground. Your breath attack will be extremely effective against grouped opponents, and even later on you'll be able to use it as a debuff with Entangling Exhalation.