Help sorting out my Dwarven Fighter's build order, please?

[RecklessPrudenc]

Hi again. So this is still my first character in any D&D-derived system more modern than a heavily customised version of AD&D. It's also my first character that is not at least a secondary caster, or a hacker in that one sci-fi game we played. I'm pretty sure I've picked all the feats I want, I would just like help ordering them, please. I have a tentative build order, but it lease a lot of stuff very late that I'd prefer to have earlier, so any help shuffling stuff around so the more useful stuff goes as early as possible, given prereqs, would be greatly appreciated.

The character is a Dwarven Fighter with stats of:
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 8

the Traits:
Defender of the Society(Combat)
Glory of Old(Regional)

and the alternate Racial Benefits:
Fey Thoughts(Fly, Acrobatics)
Craftsman
Rock Stepper

Tentative Build Order EDITED WITH ADVICE GIVEN ELSEWHERE:
Lvl1: Power attack, Combat Reflexes.
Lvl2: Weapon Focus (Dwarven Longaxe)
Lvl3: Furious Focus
Lvl4: Barroom Brawler, Str +1
Lvl5: Additional Traits(Militant Merchant, Eldritch Smith), Weapon Training: Axes
Lvl6: FAWT: Warrior Spirit
Lvl7: Cunning, AAT: Master Armourer
Lvl8: FAAT: Armoured Juggernaut, Str +1
Lvl9: Steel soul, AWT: Abundant Tactics
Lvl10: Greater Weapon Focus
Lvl11: FAWT: Armed Bravery, AAT: Armour Specialisation(Full Plate)
Lvl12: Cut From the Air, Int +1
Lvl13: Improved Critical, AWT: Weapon Specialist(Axes)
Lvl14: Weapon Specialization
Lvl15: Greater Weapon Specialization, AAT: Armour Master(Secured Armor)
Lvl16: Smash From the Air, Int +1
Lvl17: ???, AWT: Defensive Weapon Training
Lvl18: ???
Lvl19: ???
Lvl20: ???, Cha +1

EDIT NOTES: Changing to AATs instead of Armour Training, and ditching the Initiative-boosting stuff, freed up four Feats, so I put all of those at the end. If you see something that could go later, and fit a missing important feat earlier, please shout out!

The main problem with the build order, as I see it, is leaving so much good stuff 'til after Lv11. I'd really like to pick up stuff like Furious Focus and Improved Critical sooner. His main weapon is a Dwarven Longaxe, but he will be picking up at least one backup axe, which is why Weapon Specialist will be useful - plus, I'm planning on getting my Longaxe enchanted with Transformative Greater to be able to turn it into a Greataxe for close-in work, a Pickaxe if something has S-based DR but no P-based, and a Dwarven Waraxe if I only have one hand free. With Weapon Specialist, all the weapon-specific Feats, like Weapon Specialisation and Greater and Improved Critical, will work on all of those.

EDIT, I've had it pointed out to me, as I should've noticed, that I've got one too many weapon-specific feats to have them all work with the omniweapon. Should I make my peace that one of them will only work with the Dwarven Longaxe form of it, or should I ditch it, to bring it down to the 4 that can be used with it? If ditch, which, Greater Weapon Specialisation, or Improved Critical?

Thanks for the help!

[Florian]

Sorry to break it to you, but there´s not much need to rearrange your feat progression. You should rather go back to the drawing board and come up with a more coherent strategy in the first place.

[Psyren]

A bit less curtly, but I agree with Florian - what is your fighter trying to do? I get that you want to be a dwarf with an axe, but beyond that there's a bit of a mishmash going on here. For example, you should never plan to just have one hand free - either you're fighting that way or you're not, nobody is going to just randomly restrain one of your hands. Nor is DR enough of a concern to waste build resources on a weapon that can shapeshift and feats that do nothing but help you use the weapon's other forms better. If you're that worried about DR, take Weapon Versatility and use the magic capacity freed up on your weapon for a better enhancement.

Also, if you're a Dwarf Fighter, you should definitely plan to take Shatterspell + Abundant Tactics.

[RecklessPrudenc]

Well, by "one hand free," I was thinking of when grappled or swallowed, as the Waraxe would do more than a Spiked Gauntlet or similar. For the shapeshifting, the main use of that was not the Pickaxe, but rather the Greataxe - someone's under my Reach, and for whatever reason I can't move so they're back in my threatened area, say a word, got a Greataxe.

As for magic capacity, like I said this is my first character in anything like this system, but - the Transformative Greater enhancement doesn't use any of the limited +number capacity - I want Called(+1) and Impact(+2) for that, and I'm still deciding on what else to put there. Is there a limit apart from the +10 total, of which a max of +5 can be normal Enhancement Bonuses, one? I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that stuff like Transformative Greater and Glamered and things, which don't list a +number, could be stacked pretty much without limit, all you had to do was find a sufficiently skilled caster and the resources?

[Psyren]

My bad, you're correct that g-transformative doesn't use up enhancement capacity on the weapon, but that's still 15k gp that you could put somewhere else. I would personallyjust pack an adamantine dagger if you get swallowed, but it's not a big deal either way.

You still haven't answered the fundamental question though - what is the character's concept? Is it just "have axe, will travel?" It's not a bad fighter by any means (though I still suggest some means of disabling free-standing spells and buffs) - just kinda bland.

[RecklessPrudenc]

Basically. Have Axe, Will Travel, with a sideline in crafting. Mostly just Masterwork stuff, but Master Armourer will let me do some Armour, too. Barroom Brawler and Warrior Spirit allows for some flexibility, without locking me into anything. I admit, it's a simple concept, but I've recently come out of a very twisty Mage: The Awakening campaign that turned toxic, and I need to rest my brain and find the fun in roleplaying again. If I get tired of just hitting things with a sharp stick, I might retire this character, but for now I'm looking to build a relatively simple character focused around being good at dealing damage in melee.

[Florian]

Basically. Have Axe, Will Travel, with a sideline in crafting

Hm... ok. See, PF is a bit (overly) focused on building up feat chains and combos. That´s what we´ve been wanting to talk about when asking for a "basic concept".

For example: A reach weapon by itself is nothing all too great on a Fighter, even with Combat Reflexes. Now add feats like Stand Still and Improved Trip to the mix and you´ve got a very potent form of martial area denial going, actually "tanking". Second part then is identifying and patching "holes" in a build, in case of a dwarf Fighter, it´s your lack to tackle anything that can fly or move around you in circles. You´ve made a lot of choices that concern your weapons, but you actually don´t have anything that helps you do stuff with your weapons beyond hitting stuff, and that all too good.

To get to learn PF, consider picking your "schtick", maybe a solid block of feats centered on either trip or bull rush/overrun, identify what weapon you´ll actually going to need for this, mix that with some basic ranged combat feats and round out with the aforementioned Steel Soul, Cut from the Air chain, Shatterspell + Abundant Tactics and, because it´s quite fun to cater to the stereotype, mix in the Dwarven Hatred Style feat chain into the mix early on.

[RecklessPrudenc]

Ahhh... Okay...

Hm. This'll sound stupid, considering it's the only example you gave, and it'll seem like I'm just jumping on the one idea someone gave me, but I actually like the sound of the martial area denial with Hatred. "Hold the line" is a very Dwarven thing. I have a propensity for trying to build jacks-of-all-trades, to the point that I end up with an utterly useless character by the mid-to-late game, because I'm so very mediocre at everything. Either that, or - much more rarely - specialising in something to the exclusion of so many things that I end up useless in a different way, that anything outside of my niche my character can't contribute. Looks like I did the second one, here. I try to work around it, but I've almost always ended up doing one of the two. The one time I didn't was pretty much my favourite character ever, and I only managed it because I had very strict limits in some ways, while having complete freedom in others - it just clicked, in a way it never has before or since.

I ditched Hatred for Acrobatics and Fly, but if I undo that...

I had Difficult Swings picked to get, when I thought it was my threatened area that became difficult terrain, rather than my adjacent squares, and was thinking about building a "shall-not-pass" to begin with. How would I go about building an area denial dwarf, beyond what you've suggested already - and, more importantly, because I have trouble removing things I want from my build, what would you ditch? While I was researching, I kept seeing people saying things like "Bull rush/Trip/other Combat Maneuver/Cleave/whatever are good at lower levels, but become complete garbage once you get a little higher", so I was trying to avoid them - did I screw up?

What would you suggest instead of the Longaxe, since it doesn't have Brace or Trip?

Consider me a complete noob. Not just to the system, but to the basics of character optimisation with limited resources - I'm not, but I'm (poorly) self-taught, and very bad at it.

[Florian]

Using combat maneuvers is a bit of hot topic. Problem is that people tend to only compare it against high-level monsters and forget that 1) enemies with class levels make up around 50% of encounter and 2) We´re talking about Fighters, so simply going for raw weapon damage is also a solution. This _is_ a weapon-based class after all.

Tell you what, it´s late and I´m not too well versed in stuff concerning dwarves. Got to do some reading and I´ll try to post a build stub tomorrow.

Edit: Basics - Dwarf Fighter (Lore Warden). Weapon Training - 1) Axes 2) Bows. Recommendations - Start with 2 levels of Barbarian (Armored Hulk and Superstitious archetypes) and the Superstition rage power, then fully switch to Fighter. This is not included in the build stub.

Feats: 1 - Power Attack, Steel Soul. 3 - Improved Trip. 4 - Combat Reflexes. 5 - Cut From The Air. 6 - Combat Expertise, Felling Smash. 7 - Disruptive. 8 - Spellbreaker. 9 - Smash From The Air. 10 - Shatterspell. 11 - Point-Blank Shot. 12 - Rapid Shot. 13 - Deadly Aim. 14 - Spellcut. 15 - Abundant Tactics (Shatterspell).
(To avoid confusion: Lore Warden gives Combat Expertise as a virtual feat at 2nd and as an actual bonus feat at 6th, ignoring prerequisites)

Lore Warden Sword Secrets: 3 - Maneuver Training. 7 - Know Thy Enemy. 11 - Hair´s Breath. 15 - Swift Assessment.

Skills: Perception (1/1), Acrobatics (1/2), campaign dependent: Profession (Soldier) (1/2) or Profession (Sailor) (1/2), Knowledge (Dungeoneering, Planes, Religion, Arcane) each (1/2)

Edit: The archery feats can also be seen as a stub. You could readily replace them with mounted combat, Dwarven Hatred Style/Blinded Blade Style or item creation, as you deem necessary and depending on the type of campaign you´re in.

Edit 2 - Basic Equipment: Outfitting a PF Fighter is an art by itself. Take your time and (re)read the magic items section on DR, especially on which raw (+) beats lower-tiered DR-types, then look at your group and see if you can get Greater Magic Weapon as a buff, or whether you need to go for a straight +5 weapon. Independent of that, your first goal should alway be getting a Belt of Physical Perfection.

[RecklessPrudenc]

Okay, I think I've got my masterlist of stuff I want, and a prospective order for up to Level 10. I've decided I want to go for Dirty Tricks as my Combat Maneuver, for both mechanical and RP reasons. I've also decided that, despite the weakness inherent in having no real ranged option, I think I'll deliberately sacrifice any serious ranged capability for ALL THE MELEE! I'll still have a Compound Longbow, but no feats to make it better. To that end, I'd like to post the masterlist and the <=Lvl10 build, and hopefully get some help in organising the up to level 10 stuff better, and maybe even start organising Lvl11+.

Stats
---
Str 16
Dex 14
Con 15
Int 12
Wis 12
Cha 8

Favoured Class Bonus
Skill Points

Alternate Racial Benefits
Craftsman
Rock Stepper

Traits
---
Defender of the Society(Combat)
Glory of Old(Regional)

Advanced Weapon Training - 4
Warrior Spirit
Abundant Tactics
Armed Bravery
Defensive Weapon Training/Fighter's Reflexes

Advanced Armour Training - 3
Armoured Juggernaught
Armour Specialisation
Armored Master(Secured Armour)

General - 3
Steel Soul
Additional Traits(Family Trade[Acrobatic], Seeker)
Cunning

Combat Feats - 17
Power Attack
Combat Reflexes
Dwarven Hatred Style
Dwarven Seething
Dwarven Fury
Weapon Focus (Dwarven Longaxe)
Barroom Brawler
Cut From the Air
Smash From the Air
Greater Weapon Focus (Dwarven Longaxe)
Dirty Fighting
Dirty Trick, Improved
Dirty Trick, Greater
Dirty Trick, Quick
Weapon Versatility
Qucikdraw
Phalanx Formation

Lvl1: Power attack, Combat Reflexes.
Lvl2: Weapon Focus (Dwarven Longaxe)
Lvl3: Additional Traits(Family Trade[Acrobatic], Seeker), Armour Training
Lvl4: Barroom Brawler, Str +1
Lvl5: Cunning, Weapon Training: Axes
Lvl6: FAWT: Warrior Spirit
Lvl7: Dirty Fighting, AAT: Armoured Juggernaut
Lvl8: Improved Dirty Trick, Str +1
Lvl9: Steel soul, FAWT: Armed Bravery
Lvl10: Greater Weapon Focus (Dwarven Longaxe)

Thanks for the help!

[Florian]

Hm. Swap WF and PA, think about really needing the additional traits and replace it with Blind Fight.