Building a fighter with options. Ideas?

[TheCorsairMalac]

This is not a thread discussing the relative power level of classes, nor of multiclassing. Please do not suggest alternative classes or criticize my desire to play a fighter. D&D version is 3.5

Just for fun, I'm playing a single class fighter. In my experience, a fighter usually specializes with a single weapon and tries to land as many full-round-attacks as he can. While this is a good tactic, I find it boring. Rather than focusing on sheer combat ability, I'm trying to give this character a variety of fun options both in combat and out of combat.

What sorts of things can you do as a fighter besides the boring 5ft step/full-attack? The only requirement is that is needs to be rules-legal for a fighter. Bring in ideas, feats, items, skills, alternate-class-features etc. from any book you please.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Two things, my friend:

Tactical feats

Martial study/stance

You can get a whole variety of options out of a selection of tactical feats and up to 3 maneuvers with martial study, nevermind the tactical feats in ToB.

[Blackhawk748]

Well theres Guerrilla Warrior and Guerrilla Scout which are kinda fun as they let you sort of have Listen, SPot, Hide and Move Silently as skills. Also i've always been a fan of doing throwing builds, which can be kinda fun.

[Extra Anchovies]

Dungeoncrasher can be a lot of fun if you get your positioning right. It gets better if you have another party member capable of creating on-demand walls for those times that your fights happen in open fields.

[danielxcutter]

Hmmm, while I am certainly not an experienced player at all, here's some advice that might help.

First of all, have you considered prestige classes? Nothing special, just maybe taking one or two levels of Exotic Weapon Master or something like that.

Also, the Thug variant might be interesting, as it gives you a completely different skill list(mostly from the Rogue list), 4+Int modifier skillpoints, and Sneak Attack damage instead of fighter bonus feats. You are only limited to light armor at the best, but you retain full BAB, d10 HD, and martial weapon proficiency. If a Rogue is a stealthy assailant and infiltrator, and a vanilla Fighter is a heavy-armored powerhouse, a Thug variant Fighter is a SWAT officer.

[stanprollyright]

Be a human with at least 13 Int and take Nymph's Kiss and maybe Able Learner at first level, or Martial Study for the free class skill. Zhentarim Soldier gives you class skills and demoralize stuff. Now you have ~6 skills/lvl and can be the party face if you want. Also, if you go more dex-based with lighter armor you will be better at a whole bunch of skills, as well as being able to pick up a bow once in a while.

For combat style I'd suggest grabbing a glaive or similar and getting Combat Reflexes and Improved trip/bullrush/disarm so you can be a demoralizing lockdown AoO controller.

[Fizban]

Instead of piling everything on to one weapon and feat line, take multiple feat lines. With a Swordbow and a Variable shield you can switch between ranged, two handed melee, and sword and board melee every round. A fighter can take Power Attack, Combat Expertise and Point Blank Shot+Rapid Shot, letting you switch between full damage, full AC, and ranged threat at will.

There's always the brute force tactics of "get magic." Dragonmarks or Fey/Fiendish heritage will get you spells for options.

[Vizzerdrix]

Shapesand. The only limit is what you can think up. You will have any and every mundane item you need.

[Mutazoia]

I've always wanted to play around with a charge/trip build. Bull Rush in, trip your target, and then watch him suck AoO's as he tries to stand back up. When he get's up, trip him again. Your target sucks AC and attack penalties while he's down, and proc's an AO when standing up (no 5' step out of this one).

Weapons wise, this would probably work best with something like a spiked chain and/or a polearm (Sweep the legs Daniel-san!), although a good shield-bash could be fun as well.

You could also combine this with the Net Master feat (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Net_Master_(3.5e_Feat)) and go for a build based on keeping your opponant either prone or snared, and sucking as many penalties as possible...imagine a target snared in a net and knocked prone.

For good measure add the Whip Grapple/Trip feat (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Whip_Grapple/Trip_(3.5e_Feat)) along with Improved Whip Proficiency (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Improved_Whip_Proficiency_(3.5e_Feat)) (plus other whip feats) and a Whip Sword (https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Whip_Sword_(3.5e_Equipment)) (even though with the Improved whip profiency, a standard whip will deal lethal damage) and you can switch up from whiping and tripping targets to normal hack-and-slash at will.

I suppose a spiked buckler, a net, a whip sword and a 15'-20' bull whip would be standard equipment for this concept...

Hmm....combine all the whip feats with the whip sword and cleave/great cleave and you can turn your fighter into a (demi)human weed-whacker, and carve out a 15' radius swath of death centered on you.

[TheCorsairMalac]

All good ideas!

Any particular Martial Maneuvers that stand out as being worth a feat for? Stances?

I really like the thought of multiple weapon styles. And tool-weapons like whips could be super fun!

What sorts of things could shapesand be used for? It's so open-ended I don't know where to begin!

[Blackhawk748]

All good ideas!

Any particular Martial Maneuvers that stand out as being worth a feat for? Stances?

I really like the thought of multiple weapon styles. And tool-weapons like whips could be super fun!

What sorts of things could shapesand be used for? It's so open-ended I don't know where to begin!

Most of them frankly. Personally im a fan of Martial Spirit for stances and Crusader's Strike as well as Mountain Hammer for Maneuvers..

Making really cheap barding for a mount, making a ladder, making a siege shield etc.

[barakaka]

I'm going to boast again for alchemical items. You can do obscene and disgusting things with aboleth mucus or pure elemental water. Torchbug paste reveals invisible stuff (or if you're cheap, just use flour), delver slime gets you through stone walls. But wait, there's more! Tempo bloodspike gives you an extra action! With spiderblood drow wine, you can recreate the scene from the Princess Bride! Storm tears makes you a status healer! There's even the blood elixer which lets you polymorph. Yes, polymorph.

Using theses items for every situation can get expensive. But if you have the patience to use them for the best situations, then they can create some of the most fun moments as everyone looks at the fighter with wide eyes.

The second part of my sig has a bunch of stuff for if you're just looking for some cool, flashy and situational alchemical items. Even the overpowered ones should be used sparingly because they make for very binary and boring fights; but all of them cost money that could go into long term items.


Anybody who is anybody uses one of these babies:
310gp alchemy blade (Magic of Eberron p138)
+300gp masterwork
+2500gp gold (Magic of Faerun p179)
+450gp triple capsule (Complete Adventurer p120)
+100gp <3 quick elements, 1 alchemist's frost> (Complete Adventurer p122)
+100gp wand chamber (Dungeonscape p30)
= 3760

[Klara Meison]

I once asked that question in a conversation with a very experienced player/GM. Here is what she answered. (http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rxtz&page=29?-Ask-Ashiel-Anything#1441)

[Nostrodamus]

I would do the whole skirmisher build with dodge, mobility and spring attack, and bounding assault as well. This is the first thing I thought of in response to the 5ft step full attack norm.
Use a two handed reach weapon like a glaive with cleave and anything else to increase your damage and it can really be fun in the right situation. 💪

[Eldariel]

For a slightly multiclassed Fighter, I had a small stub around:

Human

ECL1: Ranger 1 - Education [PGtF], Jotunbrud [PGtF], Power Attack (Flaw), Improved Bull Rush (Flaw)
ECL2: Barbarian 1 - Pounce [Spirit Lion Totem from Complete Champion]
ECL3: Barbarian 2 - Improved Trip (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wolfTotemClassFeatures ), Knowledge Devotion [Complete Champion]
ECL4: Fighter 1 - Thug (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighterVariantThug)
ECL5: Fighter 2 - Dungeoncrasher [Dungeonscape]
ECL6: Fighter 3 - Shock Trooper [Complete Warrior], Skill Focus: Intimidate [Zhentarim Fighter from Champions of Valor Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a)]
ECL7: Fighter 4 - Combat Reflexes
ECL8: Ranger 2 - Rapid Shot
ECL9: Fighter 5 - Martial Study: Foehammer [Tome of Battle], Extended Intimidation [Zhentarim Fighter]
ECL10: Fighter 6 - Improved Dungeon Crasher [Dungeonscape]
ECL11: Fighter 7 -
ECL12: Fighter 8 - Martial Stance: Thicket of Blades [Tome of Battle], Imperious Command [Drow of the Underdark]
ECL13: Fighter 9 - Swift Demoralize [Zhentarim Fighter]
ECL14: Fighter 10 - Mage Slayer [Complete Arcane]


Basically, it's a Fighter-build that requires very good stats (15 Cha, enough Dex and Str to be a competent Archer & make do with light armor, and enough Con to not die, preferably enough Int to get some skillpoints). The end result is that he's a competent AOE controller with a reach weapon (any movement and spellcasting as well as the usual provokes AoO) with both, an excellent competence for crashing through walls/doors/whatever and crashing people into walls/doors/each other for extreme amounts of pain, ability to crash people into each other for making them tumble over in a hilarious pile, decent capability for charging into combat with scary alpha damage, reasonable archery competence and a very scary intimidator (indeed, he's capable of intimidating most things that can feel fear into submission by just being that scary, and he can do that while going about his normal business as a warrior). He's also a Knowledge buff thus able to tell you about whatever you might be facing and pick the appropriate strategy accordingly.

And of course, his intimidation and knowledge prowess extends beyond mere combat; he knows about people, society, nature, magic, religion, the planes and the undergrounds. He's also very good at cowing people into doing his bidding and he leaves a lasting impression.


Yeah, uses some non-Fighter levels but fundamentally still certainly a Fighter overall. You could leave out the Barbarian and the Ranger but then you'll miss out on Rapid Shot (unless you get another feat for Point Blank Shot) and Improved Trip (unless you get another feat for Combat Expertise), some skill points, Whirling Frenzy and Pounce. Thus, a worse archer, a worse charger and in general, less versatile. Also would need even better stats (13 Int added to the mix).

But yeah, that's the natural combation; wallcrasher/doorcrasher/enemycrasher + area controller + intimidator. Archer if you can get Rapid Shot somehow. Having lots of high Knowledges is pretty awesome, and Knowledge Devotion makes Archery pretty decent especially if you have a Splitting Bow.