Noob looking for advice [PATHFINDER]

[RiccardoVacca]

Ok so basically I'm playing atm a 12 year old fighter and since I'm kinda new to the game (second campaign so far) I kinda messed it up. But let's start properly: he's a kid who was kidnapped by orcs for 2-3 years to use him as a slave in a gas mine(since human kids are so small) since he was kawaii af the queen of the orcs took him as a personal slave and he learned the way of the orcs, their language and everything, he realized how the fault was in the humans( cause they are the one who taught slavery to the orcs). He was then freed by a group of heroes and once reached the closest city he joined a party (druid, thief, magus) to help them to deal with the orcs. Since I left the papers in our playing room and I can't get them now I will just write down what I remember and will change it later on:
LVL 4 (almost lvl 5)
STR: +0
INT: +1
DEX:+4
CON: +2
WISDOM: +2
FEATS(that I remember)
Armor Training
Improved Grapple
Improved Trip
Agile Maneuvers
Weapon Focus (his own weapon: a d10)
ITEMS:
looking for trouble +1 (it's his own weapon, deals 1d10)
brawler's bracelet (+1 at grappling throws)
chainmail
a whistle ring( makes you whistle by blowing on it, useless but hilarious)

So basically his gameplay his based on making enemies fall or grapple them adding dex on his throws. I decided to build him like to be coherent with his background. The thing is that he's utterly useless: - Having a malus on strength means bad throws and bad dmg - Having a small size means infinite malus when he's grappling or trying to prone them - Our team is composed by a thief, a magus and a druid So basically what I would like is to "fix" my pg by moving onto a different style of fighting that does not revolve around grappling or trying to prone or by improving that sector. Any help? Keep in mind that I'm new to the game so be nice :D

[erikun]

You aren't going to be doing much with grappling with this character. The STR bonus is just too low for damage or attempting to toss them around. You could try going the route of pinning and/or tying up enemies, if you are interested in that maneuver. That can leave opponents mostly helpless (or at least not attacking anymore) and allow your other party members to deal with them. You might consider getting something to use as gags, to prevent commanders and wizards for shouting stuff out.

Other than that, most dex-based characters tend to go rogue for sneak attack or archery for better use of their range damage. Note that pinned removes an opponent's dex bonus, which is enough to apply sneak attack damage if you want to go that route.

[The Glyphstone]

Can you retrain your feats? if you can get a Rapier or other Light weapon, Weapon Finesse would let you add your Dex to attack rolls, and Pirahna Strike would let you use Power Attack. With a Light slashing weapon, you could also get Slashing Grace that'll add Dex to damage.

[RiccardoVacca]

Can you retrain your feats? if you can get a Rapier or other Light weapon, Weapon Finesse would let you add your Dex to attack rolls, and Pirahna Strike would let you use Power Attack. With a Light slashing weapon, you could also get Slashing Grace that'll add Dex to damage.

Yes I can :D

[Jornophelanthas]

Those feats can't work.
Improved Trip and Improved Grapple both have prerequisite feats that you don't appear to have.
Improved Trip requires Combat Expertise.
Improved Grapple requires Improved Unarmed Combat.

Also, what kind of weapon is a "looking for trouble" anyway? Is that some kind of home-made weapon? Is it a simple, martial or exotic weapon? Is it light, one-handed or two-handed? Melee or ranged? Does it deal bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage? What are its critical threat range and critical damage multiplier?
The answers to this question determine whether the weapon matches the playstyle and feats you have or not.

If "looking for trouble" is just your name for your favorite longsword, greataxe or club, then you are not using Weapon Focus correctly. In that case, you should have Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Focus (greataxe) or Weapon Focus (club).

[trikkydik]

Tell your DM to read my post:

A DM who is not willing to oblige his player's requests (and let them reroll the EFFING STRENGTH STAT) is A TERRIBLE, ROTTEN DM.

Petition the players to override your horrendous DM and let you re-roll your terrible stats.

Nobody wants to play a game where they cant even perform tasks they could in real life.

Your strength stat is contradictory to your story behind the character. A character with your background of physical endurance and strength training for his entire life cannot have a 0 strength modifier, you would have been fed to the dogs. (the only way your character could logically have a strength of 0 is if he had a disease.) In which if that's the case kill your character and make a brand new one until you have the stats you want and are happy with your second session of the awesome game D&D.

Your characters stats should look like this: (especially since you're new to the game.)

STR: 18
DEX: 16
CON: 18
WIS: 10 (A child's wisdom)
INT: 12 (A dumb fighters intelligence)
CHA: 14 (why not)

I hope you show your DM my post.

Good luck buddy

[RiccardoVacca]

Those feats can't work.
Improved Trip and Improved Grapple both have prerequisite feats that you don't appear to have.
Improved Trip requires Combat Expertise.
Improved Grapple requires Improved Unarmed Combat.

Also, what kind of weapon is a "looking for trouble" anyway? Is that some kind of home-made weapon? Is it a simple, martial or exotic weapon? Is it light, one-handed or two-handed? Melee or ranged? Does it deal bludgeoning, piercing or slashing damage? What are its critical threat range and critical damage multiplier?
The answers to this question determine whether the weapon matches the playstyle and feats you have or not.

If "looking for trouble" is just your name for your favorite longsword, greataxe or club, then you are not using Weapon Focus correctly. In that case, you should have Weapon Focus (longsword), Weapon Focus (greataxe) or Weapon Focus (club).

I should have those feats and the prerequisites feats that you mentioned as well ( I don't really remember sorry)
Aye sorry I forgot to write that "looking for trouble" is a handmade battleaxe made for my size. It's a 1d10 20x3 slashing damage.

[RiccardoVacca]

Tell your DM to read my post:

A DM who is not willing to oblige his player's requests (and let them reroll the EFFING STRENGTH STAT) is A TERRIBLE, ROTTEN DM.

Petition the players to override your horrendous DM and let you re-roll your terrible stats.

Nobody wants to play a game where they cant even perform tasks they could in real life.

Your strength stat is contradictory to your story behind the character. A character with your background of physical endurance and strength training for his entire life cannot have a 0 strength modifier, you would have been fed to the dogs. (the only way your character could logically have a strength of 0 is if he had a disease.) In which if that's the case kill your character and make a brand new one until you have the stats you want and are happy with your second session of the awesome game D&D.

Your characters stats should look like this: (especially since you're new to the game.)

STR: 18
DEX: 16
CON: 18
WIS: 10 (A child's wisdom)
INT: 12 (A dumb fighters intelligence)
CHA: 14 (why not)

I hope you show your DM my post.

Good luck buddy

I rolled really bad dice when we made my char, he made me re-roll but I had no luck whatsoever and my char has a malus on STR being a kid and of small-size, that's why we decided to base him on DEX, but ye he's kinda ****

[Jornophelanthas]

I rolled really bad dice when we made my char, he made me re-roll but I had no luck whatsoever and my char has a malus on STR being a kid and of small-size, that's why we decided to base him on DEX, but ye he's kinda ****


I should have those feats and the prerequisites feats that you mentioned as well ( I don't really remember sorry)
Aye sorry I forgot to write that "looking for trouble" is a handmade battleaxe made for my size. It's a 1d10 20x3 slashing damage.

There are three major issues with this character.

1. Fighters rely on strength, and you have very little strength. Dexterity can serve as a backup plan, but only with the Weapon Finesse feat in combination with using daggers, rapiers, short swords or similar weapons. Even then, you should still not expect to deal a whole lot of damage, but you can become hard to hit.
You would have been better of playing a rogue from the start.

2. Your feat choice is terrible. Combat maneuvers also rely on strength, although Agile Maneuvers replaces that with dexterity. Still, being of small size gives a penalty on all combat maneuver checks. Additionally, if you wish to grapple, opponents will usually try to grapple you back to escape, and your low strength is still a penalty there. To be a successful grappler, you need strength and charisma.


3. Your weapon choice plays to your weaknesses.
First, your Weapon Focus feat does not work the way you think. At the very least, you need to get it changed to Weapon Focus (Battleaxe). You have weapon focus in a specific type of weapon, not in an individual weapon. It reflects extra training you took to use one kind of weapon well.
More importantly, an axe is not a weapon that will do much for you if you have little strength and a lot more dexterity. It does not rely on your dexterity, which is much better than your strength.

Here is my advice:

(0. Reroll your strength score. I'm assuming this is not a possibility, though.)

1. Retrain your feats. I'm assuming your actual feat list is:
Improved Unarmed Combat
Improved Grapple
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Agile Maneuvers
Weapon Focus
(This actually matches the number of feats you should have as a level 4 human fighter)

Combat Expertise is actually quite good for you, while Agile Maneuvers and Improved Trip can be useful if you want to go that direction.
You don't need Improved Grapple or Improved Unarmed Combat, so retrain those.
For the first retrain, absolutely get Weapon Finesse instead (but it only works for light or one-handed piercing weapons).
For your second retrain, if your axe is a one-handed weapon (not a two-handed one), and if your DM allows the Slashing Grace feat (from Advanced Class Guide), pick that and you can keep using your axe. Otherwise, get a new weapon that is usable with Weapon Finesse and pick Weapon Specialization in that weapon, to help with dealing more damage.
Finally, retrain Weapon Focus to the weapon you will actually be using.

2. Change your equipment.
A. If your axe is one-handed and you can get Slashing Grace, keep it. Otherwise, switch to a light weapon or rapier so you can use Weapon Finesse.
B. Ditch the chainmail and get a masterwork (or magical) breastplate, because your chainmail won't let you use all your dexterity bonus on AC. If you can't afford a breastplate, downgrade to chain shirt until you can. Never use a shield (unless it has an armor check penalty of 0 (like a masterwork buckler)), because it interferes with Weapon Finesse.
C. Sell or trade the item that gives a grapple bonus, because that is of very little use to you.

(Your armor training and bravery class features are not feats, and these can not be retrained like feats. So you will always keep those.)

This should make you a hard to hit combatant, who can deal decent (but never great) damage, with the ability to occasionally trip opponents who are not very strong, extremely agile, or very big.

P.S. I don't know what rules sources your DM allows, but everything except the Slashing Grace feat is from the core rulebook.

[RiccardoVacca]

There are three major issues with this character.

1. Fighters rely on strength, and you have very little strength. Dexterity can serve as a backup plan, but only with the Weapon Finesse feat in combination with using daggers, rapiers, short swords or similar weapons. Even then, you should still not expect to deal a whole lot of damage, but you can become hard to hit.
You would have been better of playing a rogue from the start.

2. Your feat choice is terrible. Combat maneuvers also rely on strength, although Agile Maneuvers replaces that with dexterity. Still, being of small size gives a penalty on all combat maneuver checks. Additionally, if you wish to grapple, opponents will usually try to grapple you back to escape, and your low strength is still a penalty there. To be a successful grappler, you need strength and charisma.


3. Your weapon choice plays to your weaknesses.
First, your Weapon Focus feat does not work the way you think. At the very least, you need to get it changed to Weapon Focus (Battleaxe). You have weapon focus in a specific type of weapon, not in an individual weapon. It reflects extra training you took to use one kind of weapon well.
More importantly, an axe is not a weapon that will do much for you if you have little strength and a lot more dexterity. It does not rely on your dexterity, which is much better than your strength.

Here is my advice:

(0. Reroll your strength score. I'm assuming this is not a possibility, though.)

1. Retrain your feats. I'm assuming your actual feat list is:
Improved Unarmed Combat
Improved Grapple
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Agile Maneuvers
Weapon Focus
(This actually matches the number of feats you should have as a level 4 human fighter)

Combat Expertise is actually quite good for you, while Agile Maneuvers and Improved Trip can be useful if you want to go that direction.
You don't need Improved Grapple or Improved Unarmed Combat, so retrain those.
For the first retrain, absolutely get Weapon Finesse instead (but it only works for light or one-handed piercing weapons).
For your second retrain, if your axe is a one-handed weapon (not a two-handed one), and if your DM allows the Slashing Grace feat (from Advanced Class Guide), pick that and you can keep using your axe. Otherwise, get a new weapon that is usable with Weapon Finesse and pick Weapon Specialization in that weapon, to help with dealing more damage.
Finally, retrain Weapon Focus to the weapon you will actually be using.

2. Change your equipment.
A. If your axe is one-handed and you can get Slashing Grace, keep it. Otherwise, switch to a light weapon or rapier so you can use Weapon Finesse.
B. Ditch the chainmail and get a masterwork (or magical) breastplate, because your chainmail won't let you use all your dexterity bonus on AC. If you can't afford a breastplate, downgrade to chain shirt until you can. Never use a shield (unless it has an armor check penalty of 0 (like a masterwork buckler)), because it interferes with Weapon Finesse.
C. Sell or trade the item that gives a grapple bonus, because that is of very little use to you.

(Your armor training and bravery class features are not feats, and these can not be retrained like feats. So you will always keep those.)

This should make you a hard to hit combatant, who can deal decent (but never great) damage, with the ability to occasionally trip opponents who are not very strong, extremely agile, or very big.

P.S. I don't know what rules sources your DM allows, but everything except the Slashing Grace feat is from the core rulebook.

First of all: thanks a lot :D Second: yes we can use slashing grace.
Ok so to sum it up my feats should look like:
Combat Expertise
Agile Maneuvers
Improved Trip
Weapon focus ( i should be able to keep my weapon as a light weapon)
Weapon Finesse
Slashing Grace
And on the next level should I take Pirahna Strike? It's like a Power Attack but for DEX.
I should have enough money for the armor, what should I search for? A magical breastplate that does what?

[TheIronGolem]

the only way your character could logically have a strength of 0 is if he had a disease

WIS: 10 (A child's wisdom)

INT: 12 (A dumb fighters intelligence)


Come again? The OP's character has a strength modifier of zero, not a score of zero. A modifier of zero means their STR score is 10 or 11, which is the level of an average human adult. The same applies for all ability scores, so that WIS 10 is certainly not a child, nor is 12 a "dumb fighter's intelligence". Such characters would have scores in the 5-9 range.

That said, I don't disagree that the OP deserves a reroll (or better yet, to be allowed to use an array or point-buy). At the very least he should be able to rearrange his existing scores so that they better fit his concept and desired build.

[Jornophelanthas]

First of all: thanks a lot :D Second: yes we can use slashing grace.
Ok so to sum it up my feats should look like:
Combat Expertise
Agile Maneuvers
Improved Trip
Weapon focus ( i should be able to keep my weapon as a light weapon)
Weapon Finesse
Slashing Grace
And on the next level should I take Pirahna Strike? It's like a Power Attack but for DEX.
I should have enough money for the armor, what should I search for? A magical breastplate that does what?

About your weapon:
That would be the feat list I would be going for. However, it will only work if your custom weapon is a light weapon, and if it deals slashing damage, due to very specific (and confusing) wordings on the feats involved.
If it does not deal slashing damage, you cannot use it for Slashing Grace. However, axes typically deal slashing damage.
If it is a two-handed weapon, you also cannot use it for Slashing Grace, nor for Weapon Finesse. And I should add that 1d10 weapons are usually two-handed.
If it is a one-handed weapon, Slashing Grace will work for it, but Weapon Finesse will not.
Should your custom weapon not meet these requirements, you should seriously consider trading it in for a short sword, because that will certainly allow both Weapon Finesse and Slashing Grace to work. Alternatively, you could start using a rapier, and pick Fending Grace (from Ultimate Intrigue) instead of Slashing Grace. Fencing Grace does exactly the same thing as Slashing Grace, except specifically only for the rapier.
Finally, you have one other weapon option that will work with both Slashing Grace and Weapon Finesse, and that is the elven curveblade. However, this is an exotic weapon, and you are not proficient with it as a human. This means you cannot choose Weapon Focus for it, unless you pick Exotic Weapon Proficiency (elven curveblade) first.
I hope this does not make it too complicated.

About Piranha Strike:
I don't know this feat, and I am not well acquainted with 3rd party material. However, if it does work the same as Power Attack, you should be aware that it would be a bad idea to use both Power Attack/Piranha Strike and Combat Expertise at the same time, because that reduces your attack bonus too much. In any given combat round, use one or neither, but not both.

About armor:
The reason chainmail is a bad armor choice for you, is that it has a very low score for "maximum dexterity". Normally, your dexterity bonus is added to your AC, but no higher than this score, depending on the armor you wear. A breastplate is a better armor than chainmail, because it has a higher AC on its own, as well as a higher "maximum dexterity" score. And a breastplate weighs less than chainmail too. Therefore, it is always better to have a breastplate than to have chainmail, especially if you have high dexterity.
I have no particular suggestions about what kind of magic enhance to put on your armor. A basic +1 is just about the only thing you should be able to afford at your level, at best. I suggested masterwork, because that means that you can get it enchanted later. (Regular weapons and armor are not good enough to get enchanted. It has to be masterwork.)

In the future (i.e. when you get to the level 6-10 range), you could look into finding suitable armor (e.g. breastplate or even full plate) made of mithral. This will raise the "maximum dexterity" value of the armor, which is useful if your dexterity score gets any higher. Also note that every time you gain more Armor Training (i.e. level 7, 11 and 15), the "maximum dexterity" for armor you use also goes up further.

[RiccardoVacca]

About your weapon:
That would be the feat list I would be going for. However, it will only work if your custom weapon is a light weapon, and if it deals slashing damage, due to very specific (and confusing) wordings on the feats involved.
If it does not deal slashing damage, you cannot use it for Slashing Grace. However, axes typically deal slashing damage.
If it is a two-handed weapon, you also cannot use it for Slashing Grace, nor for Weapon Finesse. And I should add that 1d10 weapons are usually two-handed.
If it is a one-handed weapon, Slashing Grace will work for it, but Weapon Finesse will not.
Should your custom weapon not meet these requirements, you should seriously consider trading it in for a short sword, because that will certainly allow both Weapon Finesse and Slashing Grace to work. Alternatively, you could start using a rapier, and pick Fending Grace (from Ultimate Intrigue) instead of Slashing Grace. Fencing Grace does exactly the same thing as Slashing Grace, except specifically only for the rapier.
Finally, you have one other weapon option that will work with both Slashing Grace and Weapon Finesse, and that is the elven curveblade. However, this is an exotic weapon, and you are not proficient with it as a human. This means you cannot choose Weapon Focus for it, unless you pick Exotic Weapon Proficiency (elven curveblade) first.
I hope this does not make it too complicated.

About Piranha Strike:
I don't know this feat, and I am not well acquainted with 3rd party material. However, if it does work the same as Power Attack, you should be aware that it would be a bad idea to use both Power Attack/Piranha Strike and Combat Expertise at the same time, because that reduces your attack bonus too much. In any given combat round, use one or neither, but not both.

About armor:
The reason chainmail is a bad armor choice for you, is that it has a very low score for "maximum dexterity". Normally, your dexterity bonus is added to your AC, but no higher than this score, depending on the armor you wear. A breastplate is a better armor than chainmail, because it has a higher AC on its own, as well as a higher "maximum dexterity" score. And a breastplate weighs less than chainmail too. Therefore, it is always better to have a breastplate than to have chainmail, especially if you have high dexterity.
I have no particular suggestions about what kind of magic enhance to put on your armor. A basic +1 is just about the only thing you should be able to afford at your level, at best. I suggested masterwork, because that means that you can get it enchanted later. (Regular weapons and armor are not good enough to get enchanted. It has to be masterwork.)

In the future (i.e. when you get to the level 6-10 range), you could look into finding suitable armor (e.g. breastplate or even full plate) made of mithral. This will raise the "maximum dexterity" value of the armor, which is useful if your dexterity score gets any higher. Also note that every time you gain more Armor Training (i.e. level 7, 11 and 15), the "maximum dexterity" for armor you use also goes up further.

Ok thanks mate. And onwards after I've my items, what kind of feats would u suggest?

[Jornophelanthas]

Ok thanks mate. And onwards after I've my items, what kind of feats would u suggest?

I don't want to run your character for you. It is and should be up to you.

Some obvious feat suggestions would be those that continue your current selection:
- Greater Trip (because you already have Improved Trip);
- Weapon Specialization, Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Specialization could be options for you (although they are slightly boring).

In general, I would suggest combat feats that give you more options, while still playing to your good scores (i.e. not your strength score).

For example, your fighter could become quite good at ranged weapons, because attacking at range relies on dexterity. And to be a decent ranged attacker, you need the Precise Shot feat (which requires you to also take Point Blank Shot), with the option of taking more ranged feats later (like Deadly Aim).
(But don't count on becoming a specialist in ranged attacking, unless you retrain almost all your feats to ranged attack feats, and spend all your money on a good ranged weapon.)

Or you could focus on more combat maneuvers, like disarm, dirty trick or reposition (those last two are in the Advanced Player's Guide), but to do so you would need the Improved Disarm, Improved Dirty Trick or Improved Reposition feats (as well as the Greater versions along the way).

Or a combination of these, or an entirely different route.
Only try to avoid things that have to do with the intimidate skill (like the Dazzling Display feat) or with grappling, because your character's small size and low strength could give you penalties on that, or at least prevent you from gaining bonuses that you will be missing out on.