Archetype to supplement the Aldori Swordlord archetype.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I'm building a level 1 character for a friend who is really, really new to Pathfinder (and d20 systems in general), she asked me for a fighter and expressed interest in the Swordlord archetype (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo---fighter-archetypes/swordlord), which I houserule to grant EWP: dueling sword, but it doesn't give anything at level 1 and I don't want her to get bored. Is there any archetype that might serve to spice up this character? For the record I already have a Myrmidon (PoW archetype) swordlord ready, but she tends to dislike complex system so I want to have another build just in case she finds the myrmidon too intimidating.

[Vhaidara]

The Dirty Fighting feat from Dirty Tactics Toolbox is amazing for low level fighters.

If you have it, and are flanking, you can forego the flanking bonus to attempt a combat maneuver without provoking. This applies to every combat maneuver.

If you have the Improved feat for the maneuver you are using, flanking gives you +4 instead of +2.

Finally, and most important of all, Dirty Fighting acts as Improves Unarmed Strike and Combat Expertise for the purposes of feat prereqs. AND it counts as Dex 13 and Int 13 for the purposes of feats that require IUS or CE.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Is it already on the PFSRD? I can't seem to find it, and while yes the feat looks amazing it isn't what I'm looking for (I'll probably use it anyway).

[Vhaidara]

It should be up soon. Dirty tactics is a fairly recent release. I have you the full feat though. No prereqs or anything. It's wonderful.

[9mm]

from the optimisation archive: Secrets of the Swordlords (https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=15XhwLBdzgG12Zrs-whbe04lIUE4ktp_DsjZ_ZUn47Yc).

this is very old but the advice overall is still good.

[NightbringerGGZ]

If your core concern is giving your player things to do at level 1 then an archetype won't help out much. Unfortunately the Fighter just doesn't have much baseline that's of benefit there.

I'd suggest you bring in some of the rules from Pathfinder Unchained. Bring in Stamina & Combat Tricks (Free for Fighters), Background Skills and consider a Variant Multiclass.

Combat Stamina will net you extra things to do with your combat feats, making some of the weaker feats more effective and just giving you extra things to do with a Fighter. Background Skills give everybody 2 extra skill ranks per level, but they can only be spent on skills that are considered "background skills". The are mostly the more institutional skills, but some are still useful and the Fighter could benefit from extra skills per level. Finally a VMC into Bard or Magus can provide a ton of fun and useful options.

Btw, here is the Dirty Fighting feat for your reference:


You can take advantage of a distracted foe.

Benefit: When you attempt a combat maneuver check against a foe you are flanking, you can forgo the +2 bonus on your attack roll for f lanking to instead have the combat maneuver not provoke an attack of opportunity. If you have a feat or ability that allows you to attempt the combat maneuver without provoking an attack of opportunity, you can instead increase the bonus on your attack roll for flanking to +4 for the combat maneuver check.

Special: This feat counts as having Dex 13, Int 13, Combat Expertise, and Improved Unarmed Strike for the purposes of meeting the prerequisites of the various improved combat maneuver feats, as well as feats that require those improved combat maneuver feats as prerequisites.

This feat is a must-have for an Aldori Swordlord build as it will allow you to fast-track most of the options you'll want to have via feats.