Optimization Help Needed for pathfinder Pc

[Nosta]

SO starting next game session I will Begin playing my first character to ever Be ECL 20 so I'd Like some tips on if my Build

My race is Human (Half celestial Template was Gain For Free so No LA)
My class is The fighter Archetype that gains martial maneuvers
My weapon Of choice is an Import from 3.5 (The Great spear) (I am a fan of the weapon)

My Stats Are As follows STR 23, Dex 18 Con 20 INT 15 wis 20 Cha 14

My Class Ability That I can choose and that are not static are as Follows

Armor Training 7th level Advance armor Training :Armor Specialization:
Armor Training 11th level Advanced Armor Training: Armored Juggernaut
Armor Training 15th level Advanced Armor Training: Secured Armor

weapon Training (Spear Group)
Advance weapon Training level 9 Advanced Weapon Training: Trained Initiative
Advance weapon Training level 13 Advanced Weapon Training: Armed Bravery
Advance weapon Training level 17 Advance weapon training: weapon Mastery (Taking spell Cut)

I am Focusing on Trip Due to the fact that most my foes will Have two legs


Here are my feats from Before I leveled up


1st level Feat: Exotic Weapon Prof - Great Spear
Human Feat: Power Attack
Fighter Feat: Mobility
Bonus Feat for taking flaw: combat expertise
Bonus Feat for taking Flaw: improved Initiative
3rd level Feat: improved trip
4th level Fighter feat: knock Down
5th level Feat Great Trip
7th level Feat Cut From The Air
8th level fighter Feat Half strike
9th level Feat smash from the air
11th Level Feat combat Reflexes
13th level Feat combat patrol
14th level fighter Feat: Defensive sweep
15th level Feat Intense Blows
16th level fighter feat Knocking Blows
17th level feat: Fury's Fall
17th Advance weapon Training- Taking Weapon Mastery Bonus Feat: SpellCut
18th level fighter Feat Advance study: Deadly Thunder Lancer's Stance
19th level Feat Advance study Triumphant Lion’s Leadership:
20th level fighter Feat: Advance study Heavenly Blade of the Scarlet Throne and lord of the pridelands


Maneuvers taken

Maneuver known
1 6th level Golden lion Maneuver: Harry the Prey
2 6th level Goldenl lion Maneuver: Lion’s Feast
3 6th level Scarlet throne maneuver: Final Blow
4 6th level piercing thunder maneuver: Lightning Rush
5 5th level Golden lion Maneuve: Discipline of the Pride
6 5th level Scarlet throne maneuver: Sanguine Perfection
7 5th level Scarlet throne maneuver: Ruby Zenith Strike
8 5th level piercing thunder maneuverThrowing Comet
9 4th level Scarlet throne maneuver Sanguine Perseverance
10 4th level Scarlet throne maneuver Red Zephyr’s Dance
11 4th level piercing thunder maneuverTwisting Lance
12 3rd level Golden lion Maneuver Circling the Prey:
13 3rd level Scarlet throne maneuver Scarlet Eye’s Perception
14 3rd level Scarlet throne maneuver Dazing Attack
15 3th level piercing thunder maneuver:Piercing Thunder Hammer

Maneuver Known (Granted From The Feat Advance study)
1: 9th level Golden Lion Maneuver: Lord of the pridelands
2: 9th level scarlet throne maneuver: heavenly Blade of the Scarlet Throne

Stances
1 Diving Thunderbolt Stance
2 Stance of the Thunderbrand
3 Golden General’s Attitude
4 Scarlet Duelist Attitude
5 Unfettered Movement

Stances Gained From The Feat Advance study
1:Triumphant Lion’s Leadership
2: Deadly Thunder Lancer’s Stance

weapon used +3 Great spear (will Replaced with stronger one when I can get a chance )

[Elricaltovilla]

Lucerne Hammers are martial polearms with 1d12 base damage and reach. You could easily use one of those instead of using a feat to get a fauchard. Other good options include the Glaive-guisarme, Guisarme, Horsechopper, or really any reach weapon you want to use (your base weapon damage makes little difference unless you plan on stacking size out the wazoo).

Scarlet Throne and Piercing Thunder do well for spear or polearm wielders. If you want to stick to mundane disciplines, Golden Lion offers a nice mix of powerful leadership abilities and charge attacks, and Primal Fury arguably tops the DPR charts (so use with caution). If you don't mind some feat investment and a little bit of supernaturalness, Mithral Current also plays well with polearms, though as with weapons pretty much any melee discipline can work with any melee weapon.

Instead of focusing on Trip maneuvers, I'd recommend taking a look at Dirty Trick and its associated feats. It doesn't trigger AoO shenanigans quite like trip does, but Dirty Trick can apply a larger variety of debuffs and can be tailored to the fight you're in as you go. For this you'll want to pick up the feat Seize the Opportunity so that you can make Dirty Trick attempts as AoOs.

As you level, you can still pick up maneuvers higher than 6th by taking Advanced Study feats or looking for an initiating prestige class that appeals to you. If you want native access to 9ths though, you might want to look closely at the Warder with the Zweihander Sentinel archetype.

[Nosta]

Lucerne Hammers are martial polearms with 1d12 base damage and reach. You could easily use one of those instead of using a feat to get a fauchard. Other good options include the Glaive-guisarme, Guisarme, Horsechopper, or really any reach weapon you want to use (your base weapon damage makes little difference unless you plan on stacking size out the wazoo).

Scarlet Throne and Piercing Thunder do well for spear or polearm wielders. If you want to stick to mundane disciplines, Golden Lion offers a nice mix of powerful leadership abilities and charge attacks, and Primal Fury arguably tops the DPR charts (so use with caution). If you don't mind some feat investment and a little bit of supernaturalness, Mithral Current also plays well with polearms, though as with weapons pretty much any melee discipline can work with any melee weapon.

Instead of focusing on Trip maneuvers, I'd recommend taking a look at Dirty Trick and its associated feats. It doesn't trigger AoO shenanigans quite like trip does, but Dirty Trick can apply a larger variety of debuffs and can be tailored to the fight you're in as you go. For this you'll want to pick up the feat Seize the Opportunity so that you can make Dirty Trick attempts as AoOs.

As you level, you can still pick up maneuvers higher than 6th by taking Advanced Study feats or looking for an initiating prestige class that appeals to you. If you want native access to 9ths though, you might want to look closely at the Warder with the Zweihander Sentinel archetype.

so besides the feats you mention, what would be some good feats for a dirty trick using Polearm user

[Elricaltovilla]

so besides the feats you mention, what would be some good feats for a dirty trick using Polearm user

If you want DEX focus (not a bad idea for combat reflexes), you'll want Polearm Dancer and Deadly Agility.
Other feats would be Improved and Greater Dirty Trick, Dirty Trick Master, Quick Dirty Trick, and Superior Dirty Trick.

There's another feat you can take instead of Combat Expertise as well: Martial Power. It requires CON 13 instead of INT 13, allowing you to be a little more focused with your stats, and grants temporary HP instead of extra AC (which can be better a lot of the time). It counts as having Combat Expertise for purposes of meeting prerequisites.

[upho]

First off I must apologize For making so many threads lately, Its a bad habit of mind and I am trying to stop it. So this is my last and main threat for my current pathfinder character.:smallamused: Nope, it won't be (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515886-My-Fighter-Just-Gain-four-levels-and-the-Half-Celestial-Templates)! Could it be you're looking for advice for the same game/character as you also do in this previous thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515645-Need-Help-choosing-a-weapon-(Rethinking-my-choice-)), which you started after abandoning this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515583-Stance-of-the-Thunderbrand-Combat-patrol), this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515485-Improving-My-Fighter-(pathfinder)) and this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515316-My-math-is-Bad-need-help-figuring-what-squares-are-in-my-threat-range), along with a bunch of other threads before that? If so, then yeah, I agree you have a bad (and curiously odd) habit which you might need to work on.

Pro tip: You'll get much better advice if you simply keep asking questions in one thread instead of creating new ones for every single question and aspect of your character, as those trying to help you will get the whole picture without having to search for your previous threads. And you won't have to post more or less the same background info, build outline and answers to the same questions again and again. And last but not least, there won't be much risk of your questions/threads being ignored simply because you're (mis)taken for being yet another Large humanoid (giant) who has found a broadband access point somewhere on page 268 of the PF Bestiary...

Speaking of, did you see my post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=21718541&postcount=5) in one of your other threads (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?515583-Stance-of-the-Thunderbrand-Combat-patrol)?


I Known how Magic is always Better than Melee but I have a soft spot for Melee combat.Just wanted to say that while many may agree with this, it also largely depends on what you mean by "always better". In terms of pure combat effectiveness, in many games melee combatants often surpass casters during the earliest levels, especially those with DSP material (like PoW). (And actually, with DSP material a very highly optimized melee focused character might very well be "better" in most combat situations than any full caster also during the very last levels, possibly being able to easily take out several monsters of the very highest CR (28+) published each round. Definitely not something I recommend trying in a real game though.)

Most importantly, whatever you have a soft spot for really is "always better"!


What I what to do. I Am actually a rather Big fan of spears with large blades and polearms. I want to Be A Melee Expert in the field of fighting with a spear or polearm. Right now I planning on doing a build built around, tripping and attacks of opportunity.Are you still starting at 16th? If so, I wouldn't recommend focusing on trip in most games, since a large portion of enemies are likely to be flat out immune, usually due to having flight or being too big.


The class I Am Thinking about playing is a fighter Myrmidon But I am not sure if this would Be a good idea for what I want to do
I do want Martial maneuvers and For that I am highly considering a Mix of scarlet throne and piercing thunderThose are good with polearms, at least if you don't intend to get Pikeman's Training to also carry a shield. At least if you don't intend to remain a myrmidon (in which case the increased crit of the fauchard might very well be worth an Opalescent White Pyramid), I agree with Elric's advice.


and lastly I am thinking my race should be human for that bonus feat but if some one has a better idea i'd love to hear itI suggest you take a look at the half-giant, which is great for an AoO build.


There's another feat you can take instead of Combat Expertise as well: Martial Power. It requires CON 13 instead of INT 13, allowing you to be a little more focused with your stats... /snip/How I wish this was true, but unfortunately I've never seen a build for which it was, and I probably never will. Because while Martial Power counts as Combat Expertise and more characters will probably even find it occasionally useful on its own, it doesn't allow you to bypass the Int 13 prerequisite of virtually every single feat which has Combat Expertise as a prerequisite. So Martial Power typically doesn't help focusing your stats at all, since you still need that darn Int 13 in order to get the feats you actually want (such as related combat maneuver feats), and typically as early as possible.

Instead, I highly recommend Dirty Fighting (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/feats/combat-feats/dirty-fighting-combat/), even if Int is your initiator stat and far higher than 13. This not only has no prereqs whatsoever, but will also actually be beneficial in most fights for a large majority of combat maneuver using builds, making you better at all combat maneuvers when flanking. And perhaps most importantly, it "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."

[Stealth Marmot]

1st Level Feat: Extoic weapon Pro Fauchard ( Iam thinking of scraping this feat and choosing a non-exotic weapon but I am not sure what one
Racial Feat: Improved Initative


First, if you want a reach weapon to trip with, use a guisarme. Reach weapon, does 2d4 damage, x3 crit, can trip with it, Martial weapon, no feat needed.

Second, Improved Initiative is not a great feat, especially since you probably will be waiting for people to walk through one of your circles of threat so you can attack of opportunity trip them, so going first is not entirely necessary so long as you are in the font of the party so all attacks go through you.

Get potions of enlarge person if you can, they will extend your reach and circle of threat IMMENSELY so anyone trying to get close to your party gets tripped, and if you have Greater trip, attacked while they are at it. You also get a CMD bonus for size.

I hope to do this exact thing with my 3.5 Factotum, though my version is significantly cheesier because size bonuses and improved trip are a lot more powerful in 3.5 (Improved trip in 3.5 combines Improved Trip and Greater trip in 1 feat without a BAB requirement)

The keys are: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip, Greater Trip, Combat Reflexes, Potions of Enlarge Person. Anything after that is just you being a normal beatstick fighter.

[Elricaltovilla]

Dirty fighting is the better choice feat wise. The way that Pathfinder handles prerequisites really makes things annoying to write for sometimes.

[Nosta]

Improved my Build
Realized I was cheating myself out of some Maneuvers

Can I Get some people to look it over


I understand Dirty fighting may be better for some reason But in the game I am in A vast majority of my foes will be humanoid so I want to use Trip cause its the image I have for my pc

[upho]

I think you're confusing the feat Dirty Fighting (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/feats/combat-feats/dirty-fighting-combat/), which you do want instead of Combat Expertise, with the combat maneuver dirty trick (https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/gamemastering/combat#TOC-Dirty-Trick).

[Nosta]

I'm not sure there's much I want to change, I just want to smoothed it out a little
For one I Like some Input on the path of war maneuvers I Took