Building a Know-It-All Fighter

[deathbymanga]

So, this build in my head focuses around the Knowledge Devotion Feat and other similar powers that focus on using Intelligence instead of Brute force for kill an enemy.

So, I'm thinking either Strength and Intelligence or Dexterity and Intelligence, one could also go Zen Archery and go Wisdom and Intelligence, but whichever way we go, Intelligence is going to be the highest or tied highest stat in the build.

I'm thinking then of going either Psion(Seer) or Archivist:
For Psion, grab the Precognition Power to get a +2 on any Knowledge check you make. Then use the Precognition, Offense and Prescience, Offense to further increase your accuracy and damage dealt. Because of your low HP and no armor, Ranged combat seems apt.

For Archivist, I'd go Melee here. You get Medium Armor, half decent HP, and are an Intelligence based caster. Also, ignoring your spells for now, Archivists can also gives buffs to allies as well to increase their attacks. For Archivist I'd go melee combat instead since you have better HP and Armor.

You can ignore BAB in this build since Knowledge Devotion alone makes it likely that your attacks will recieve a bonus equal or higher than a Fighter with no bonuses.

what suggestions would you go for this build?

[Troacctid]

Well, you could consider Kineticist instead of Seer. Control Body gives you Int to attack, damage, and AC.

[deathbymanga]

Well, you could consider Kineticist instead of Seer. Control Body gives you Int to attack, damage, and AC.

pretty sure Knowledge Domain only applies to MY attacks not a puppet's

[Troacctid]

pretty sure Knowledge Domain only applies to MY attacks not a puppet's

Oh yes. You just have to control your own body. Which, if I'm reading the power correctly, you can totally do.

[deathbymanga]

Oh yes. You just have to control your own body. Which, if I'm reading the power correctly, you can totally do.

that's actually REALLY clever. the power only requires line of sight, so put your hand in front of your face and you're good :P

Heck, this would allow for a great Ranged combat character, as you can add your intelligence modifier to your damage :squee:. An Intelligence Only character here we go. Now what else can we add onto this character?

[Rebel7284]

In my opinion, Archivist is the best fit flavor wise as it uses knowledge checks in its class features. Also that poorly written online article spell that gives +20 to a skill check is a cleric 2 spell.

Also, you may want to consider Factotum. They add their Int modifier to pretty much everything, and 1/day/skill can add their Factotum level to a skill check.

[ShurikVch]

Please, check this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=19354786&postcount=3), maybe you will find something useful

[Grod_The_Giant]

x 2/Soulknife 2/Soulbow with Zen Archery uses Wis for attack and damage. Add on a dip in Shiba Protector to get it twice. Take Ancestral Knowledge and use it for Knowledge checks. Should be nicely brutal and SAD, especially if you grab heavy armor somewhere. Not technically Knowledge-based, but Ancestral Knowledge makes you a pretty good know-it-all even so.

For Int... Factotum, obviously, at least for three levels. Swashbuckler 3 to get it as a bonus to damage. Faerie Mysteries Initiate gets it to HP, a Monk dip with Kung-Fu Genius gets it to AC, and a dip in Iaijutsu Master should double that, as the abilities are both untyped but have different names. If Pathfinder is on the table, taking Extra Trait (Student of Philosophy and Bruising Intellect) gets you Int instead of Cha for most Diplomacy, Bluff, and Intimidate checks.

[Zaq]

I'm thinking then of going either Psion(Seer) or Archivist:
For Psion, grab the Precognition Power to get a +2 on any Knowledge check you make. Then use the Precognition, Offense and Prescience, Offense to further increase your accuracy and damage dealt. Because of your low HP and no armor, Ranged combat seems apt.

Those three powers you mentioned all take standard actions (unless you augment them for 6 extra PP, but still, it'll take you two or three rounds to turn them all on no matter whether they're swift or standard), which doesn't seem like an efficient way to go about fighting. Since you can augment them up to be swift, you can still spend a swift each round turning them on one at a time and start attacking with your standard or full-round actions before you've got them all up, but that'll eat a lot of PP, and it's still definitely a consideration.


You can ignore BAB in this build since Knowledge Devotion alone makes it likely that your attacks will recieve a bonus equal or higher than a Fighter with no bonuses.

Don't ignore BAB entirely. Knowledge Devotion only gets a max of +5 (and hitting that +5 without burning extra actions on buffs to your Knowledge checks takes a lot of work). Since Psion and Archivist have half BAB, that +5 will put your to-hit equal to an equal-level Fighter at level 10 (going down from there). Even if you can match what a Fighter gets through BAB alone, though, that's still not really great unless you're just making touch attacks. A Fighter's BAB isn't enough alone to actually make them accurate. I'm sure you're planning on having bonuses from other sources, but the point is to make sure that you don't ignore those bonuses from other sources, because you really are starting at a disadvantage, and Knowledge Devotion mostly just makes up the gap without actually putting you ahead.

Anyway, as far as the actual build composition goes, I think the key question to ask is how often you want to be casting spells/manifesting powers as your primary contribution to the turn. The obvious methods of applying mental stats to combat without active magic have already been mentioned (Swashbuckler/Factotum for INT, Zen Archery/Soulbow for WIS; not the only methods by a long shot, but definitely the most obvious). If you're comfortable with magic fueling most of your ability to bring the mental stat of your choice to bear, you should look into weaponlike spells that key off the user's casting stat for attack rolls. Control Body, as has been mentioned, is an option, but I view it as kind of a trap; you're using your INT as your combat stat, but that's all you're doing, since it requires concentration (and therefore precludes using your other powers, i.e., your main class features, since it's not like Psions are good at weapon-based combat no matter what stat they're using).

I think the most elegant method would be an Archivist Zen Archer (Soulbow isn't necessary; the loss of 3 caster levels is too painful). Archivists naturally use both WIS and INT for their spells, they have class features based on Knowledge checks, and they get access to some really bonkers archery-boosting spells (both the Cleric list and the Ranger list have great archery-related spells, and the Archivist gets both). The only downside is that you need to spend a lot of feats—Zen Archery takes a feat, Knowledge Devotion takes a feat, and even if you don't go for the whole archery line, you need a minimum of Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot, so that's two more feats. If you don't have flaws or racial bonus feats, that locks up all your feats through level 9, and that's before branching out into any character-specific feats you may want. Doable, but a little painful. Still, I think it's probably your best option.

[Talionis]

Race Drow -- 1 Hit and Run Fighter (or 3 Swashbuckler)/Warblade 7(or 9)/10 Eternal Blade -- Would grant full BaB, lots of Intelligence to DMG. It would be easy to not want full BaB and doe something like: Race Drow -- 1 Hit and Run Fighter /3 Swashbuckler/3 Factotem/7 Warblade/6 Eternal Blade -- Being in a spot where you can get Intelligence to attacks 5 times for Damage. You might also want to sprinkle something in there like 3 levels of Master Thrower (Master Thrower is full BAB) and the Insightful Reflexes Feat from Complete Adventurer so that you have Evasion and Use the Throwing Tricks (Palm Throw and Two with One Shot, to greatly increase the number you can target and number of attacks you put out in a round. Also don't forget that level 2 of Eternal Blade allows you to counteract damage reduction, which is nice in a Master Thrower build where you are throwing a lot of attacks and trying to buff each as much as you can. Which will give you a build with melee damage and distance damage.

[Hiro Quester]

Changing tack slightly, a great intelligence-based fighter can be built as an elven Warblade 7 or 9/Crusader3 or 1/Eternal Blade 10.

Warblade gets you int-based damage, saves, maneuvers, etc (esp Diamond Mind). Eternal Blade doubles down on those, and brings so much else with it.

Knowledge Devotion is one of the must-have feats for such a build.

Grey Elf Swashbuckler 3 / Warblade 4 / Crusader 3 / Eternal Blade 10 gets +2 int, free weapon finesse, and int to damage from swashbuckler, before you start with Warblade and Eternal blade maneuver shenanigans.

Edit: Swordsaged