Warrior

[Irotras]

Hi there, I'm totally new of d&d and I choose to be a human warrior, but I have no idea of how can I play and build it in the right way. Which feats and abilities should I pick to play my role in the best way?
Thank you for any advice

[NOhara24]

Hi there, I'm totally new of d&d and I choose to be a human warrior, but I have no idea of how can I play and build it in the right way. Which feats and abilities should I pick to play my role in the best way?
Thank you for any advice

By "Warrior" I assume you mean Fighter or Barbarian...in 3.5 "Warrior" is an NPC class.

Here's the a Barbarian Handbook...
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?105525-3-5e-Being-Bane-Eldariel-s-Guide-to-Barbarians

Here's the fighter handbook...
http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Fighters%27_Handbook_By_Dictum_Mortuum_(3.5e_Optim ized_Character_Build)

Happy Trails

[Irotras]

Thank you, yes by warrior I mean fighter

[AnimeTheCat]

Hi there, I'm totally new of d&d and I choose to be a human warrior, but I have no idea of how can I play and build it in the right way. Which feats and abilities should I pick to play my role in the best way?
Thank you for any advice

Warrior is typically used as an NPC class. If you mean warrior as an archetype then, if you're using just the core options you have the Fighter, Barbarian, Paladin, and Ranger available to you. Each class is viable, regardless of what anyone may say, but they do have their limitations.

Barbarian: A fast, lightweight fighter with high hit points capable of entering a murderous rage where offensive capabilities are enhanced at the detriment of defensive capabilities. Has moderate skills/skill points which makes it slightly useful outside of combat, but is otherwise only useful for fighting.

Fighter: Highly trained, customizable front line combatant with good hit points. Capable of being built for a variety of different combat styles. The difficulty of the fighter lies in it's lack of skills, and vast number of options that are not useful. Difficult class to bulid, fairly easy to play.

Paladin: Quintessential warrior of good. This class comes with the capability of seeking out and fighting evil more than the other three classes. In early levels you gain an at will spell-like ability and a small amount of healing per day. In later levels, you gain the ability to cast a small number of spells and a special mount that can be used to great effectiveness. As with the fighter, this class lacks skill points, but does have skills that can make it useful outside of combat. Also, to note, Paladins are bound by a code of conduct. I reccomend not playing this for your first character, but if you choose to, make sure you talk to the DM about how to best play this code within the party to help reduce intra party conflict.

Ranger: The warrior of the Wild. Of the four "Warrior" archetypes in core this class gets the most skill points and has the most class skills. Additionally, they eventually gain the service of an animal companion and limited spell casting ability. The class offers an option for two distinct combat styles, however you are in no way required to follow them. I would suggest this class if you're looking to dabble in nearly every aspect of the base game and get an understanding of all abilites and systems in the game.

With those descriptions, which one fits your mental image of "Warrior" the best? That will help the playground better assist in educating you on the options available to you.

EDIT:
Since I was Ninja'd and you were talking about fighter, the next thing everyone will want to know is what sources are open to you?

[Irotras]

Well I think that the fighter fits the best for my mental image of "warrior"

[AnimeTheCat]

Well I think that the fighter fits the best for my mental image of "warrior"

Right, sorry about that. I was typing the previous post when you were answering the question that @NOhara24 asked. What books/sources are you allowed to use?

[johnbragg]

OK. A Fighter is mechanically defined by Feats, special (or often not-so-special) things he can do (usually) in combat.

What cool things do you want your Fighter to be able to do?

And what level are you starting at?

[Irotras]

We start at level 1 and generally we use basic books, but if you have some cool stuff from other books I can try to use it.
Probably I want to have an aggressive style like two-hand sword or double weapon

[ExLibrisMortis]

What kind of archetype are you looking to play? Do you want to be more of a controlling, defensive fighter, or an aggressive, lethal fighter? Or maybe something special, like a crossbow specialist or a dueller?

Keep in mind that fighters aren't miracle workers, so don't try to be good at everything. Pick a strategy and stick to it.

[AnimeTheCat]

At level 1 you can play a Fighter that can do a lot of different things. For example:

Tripping:
Requirements: Int 13, Str 15
Feats: Human Bonus Feat - Combat Expertise, 1st Level - Improved Trip, Fighter Bonus Feat 1 - Power Attack

I reccomend seeing if your DM will allow you to use content from D20srd.org as all of the content there is free and legal. The Feat "Knock Down" would be the next feat you would pick up. Use a great sword or other 2 handed weapon to deal plenty of damage and trip enemies when you deal 10+ damage. This will get you an additional attack and a chance to deal more damage. It's a very simple and effective build.

Two Weapon/Double Weapon Fighting:
Requirements: Dex 15
Feats: Human Bonus Feat - Two Weapon Fighting, 1st Level - Improved Unarmed Strike, Fighter Bonus Feat - Power Attack

The above lets you two weapon fight using a two handed weapon and unarmed strikes. This allows you to deal 2d6 (greatsword damage) + 1.5x your strength modifier and 1d3+1/2 yor strength modifier.


OR

Feats: Human Bonus Feat - Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Whatever double weapon you like), 1st Level - Two Weapon Fighting, Fighter Bonus Feat 1 - Weaopon Focus (Whatever exotic weapon proficiency you took)

The above lets you fight with your double weapon at effectively ony a -1 penalty for each attack.


OR

Feats: Human Bonus Feat - Improved Shield Bash, 1st Level - Two Weapon Fighting, Fighter Bonus Feat 1 - Weapon Finesse

Fight using a light shield in your off-hand and a rapier in your main hand. This lets your attacks key off of dexterity rather than strength. This makes your damage sub-par.

The biggest problem with two weaopn fighting is that in order for you to deal the most of your damage, you'll need to full attack which is a full round action. You can't move and full attack in a single round meaning that you'll have a partially wasted round every time you need to close in on an enemy. Additionally, since you need a high dexterity, you'll likely have a lower strength and you'll most likely be dealing low damage.

Those would be my suggestions, leaning heavily on the very first power attack/2h weapons/trip style build or the shield+rapier two weapon fighting build. They are easy to play and are fairly survivable.

[Grod_The_Giant]

We start at level 1 and generally we use basic books, but if you have some cool stuff from other books I can try to use it.
Probably I want to have an aggressive style like two-hand sword or double weapon
Two-handed weapons are a good choice, yeah.

The Power Attack feat is your key offensive weapon-- your attack bonus will often outstrip your enemy's armor class, and the feat lets you take a penalty to-hit to get a bonus to damage. With a two-handed weapon like a greatsword, the damage bonus is double the penalty, a quite favorable rate of exchange. There are more feats in later books that improve the trade-off (Leap Attack from Complete Adventurer, for example, lets you get a 3:1 return when you charge), mitigate the penalty (Shock Trooper from Complete Warrior lets you take the penalty to AC instead), and so on.
Improved Trip is another excellent combat feat, though you might want something like a glaive or spiked chain that has reach and special trip-based bonuses. It lets you knock people down, then get a free attack when they do, and possibly another when they try to stand up. It's a good offensive strategy, and a great control option if you combine a reach weapon with Combat Reflexes to make more attacks of opportunity. It requires you to take a less-good feat (Combat Expertise), though.
Cleave is an okay feat; it gives you a free attack when you kill something. It'll happen occasionally; the follow-up Greater Cleave probably isn't worth it.

Beyond that, there's not many feats worth taking in the PHB. Weapon Specialization is an acceptable fallback, as are things like Iron Will, Skill Focus, and Diehard.

If you can pull a bit from other books...

Deities and Demigods has the Knock-Down feat, which gives you a free trip attempt anytime you deal 10 damage to a target. It's online (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/divineAbilitiesFeats.htm#knockDown), and makes for excellent combos-- you can hit the target with your first attack, knock them down, and get a second attack at a bonus (because you're attacking a prone target) all off a single standard action or charge attack.
Unearthed Arcana has a "Thug Fighter" alternate class feature that trades a bonus feat and heavier armor proficiency for an expanded skill list and more skill points, which is great if your games involve more than just killing things. It's also online (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#fighterVariantThug).
The Champions of Valor Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a)has a set of "Zhentrim Fighter Substitution Levels." By default they're associated with a nasty faction from the Forgotten Realms, but it's worth asking if you can strip the flavor off, because they're not actually a trade-off-- instead, you simply get a bonus of special abilities related to Intimidate.
Dungeonscape has a "Dungeoncrasher" alternate class feature, that trades two bonus feats for the ability to deal damage when you bull rush an enemy into a wall, and a sizable bonus on checks to break things. It's fun, and fits your "aggressive fighter" archetype well. You'll want to take the Improved Bull Rush feat if you go this route.


--------

One resource worth looking at is the famous Horizon Tripper (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?80415-The-Horizon-Tripper-(Core-Melee-Build))build. The build involves taking a couple levels of Barbarian, Fighter, and Ranger, then going into the Horizon Walker prestige class, with the general idea of always having something to do, in or out of combat. It's quite lovely-- the flavor works fine for a "wandering swordsman" type.

[johnbragg]

We start at level 1 and generally we use basic books, but if you have some cool stuff from other books I can try to use it.
Probably I want to have an aggressive style like two-hand sword or double weapon

The way the math works, wielding a two-handed weapon and Power Attacking ("swinging for the fences") is the best Fighter strategy.

You get one Feat at 1st level, and a bonus Feat for being a 1st level Fighter. (If you choose Human, you'll get another Bonus Feat). So take Power Attack as one of your feats. With a one-handed weapon, you trade +1 to hit for +1 to damage. With a two-handed weapon, you trade +1 to hit for +2 to damage.

Point-blank Shot (+1 to hit and damage within 30') is required for pretty much any other ranged-combat Feats.

Precise Shot is pretty important if you're going to use ranged weapons. Without the feat, you take a -4 penalty for firing into melee. (You have to hold back to avoid hitting your allies.)

If you go with Human Fighter, I'd start you with Power Attack, Point-Blank Shot, Precise Shot.

You get another Bonus Feat at second-level if you stay with Fighter, so by then you'll have poked around the SRD http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm (http://www.d20srd.org/index.htm) yourself, and have a better handle on what you want to do.

[johnbragg]

Guys, it sounds like his instinct is to be the fighter swinging a big honking weapon to do lots of damage. Which is just about the one combat style that the math supports. Let's not swamp him in tons of complications and combinations and details when (I'm guessing) he's working on mastering how saving throws work.

[Irotras]

Guys, it sounds like his instinct is to be the fighter swinging a big honking weapon to do lots of damage. Which is just about the one combat style that the math supports. Let's not swamp him in tons of complications and combinations and details when (I'm guessing) he's working on mastering how saving throws work.

Thank you, that's exactly my situation and I'm not really understanding most of the advices. I prefer to use the base handbook so that I can learn how to play first and after that I will be able to use the other books

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok, here are the basics. Strength is good. You want your stats to be Str>Con>Dex>Wis>int/cha. This means strength should be your highest score, followed by constitution (more HP), dexterity (more defense), then wisdom. Intelligence and Charisma can be nice, but should be your last priorities. Strength both makes you hit harder (more damage) and hit more accurately (bonuses to hit). Two handed weapons are a really good idea.

First, they deal more damage per hit. 1d12 or 2d6 for a great sword or great ax. This is nice, but not a big deal. Most of your damage is going to come from what is called "static bonuses". These are flat adds to damage like your strength bonus. 1d12 damage is worth about +6 to damage. 2d6 is worth about +7. Increasing the size of a die by 2 is roughly worth +1 to damage. 1d4 averages 2.5. 1d6 averages 3.5. Two handed weapons also have better better static bonuses. You get 50% MORE damage from your strength score.

Second, two handed weapons make Power Attack twice as good. You are going to want to stack up strength bonuses. You are also going to get things that add to your accuracy (masterwork or magic weapons). The side effect is you are rapidly going to run into a situation where you are WAY overshooting the AC of the thing you are swinging at. It won't be everything, but you can tell ahead of time that the big golem likely has less AC than normal and react. Power attack lets you trade (if you are wielding a two handed weapon) a -1 penalty to hit for a +2 penalty to damage. This means you can trade away bonuses like the +2 you get from charging for a +4 to damage on top of the +2 it normally grants.

So stack on the strength. Take power attack. Try to use things that grant to hit bonuses (like flanking) that you can turn into damage bonuses with power attack.

If you have a good Int score, you can consider tripping. If you want to go that way, consider a spiked chain as your weapons and feats like

1 - Power attack
human - Combat expertise
ff1 - Exotic weapon prof (spiked chain)
ff2 - Improved Trip

This will let you tip your target and hit them when they are down. Prone targets grant a large bonus to hit them in melee. Turn that bonus into damage with power attack.

[Eldariel]

We start at level 1 and generally we use basic books, but if you have some cool stuff from other books I can try to use it.
Probably I want to have an aggressive style like two-hand sword or double weapon

Do you only have access to the Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide and Monster Manual? In such a case, your best bet is to be an Orc (Monster Manual 1), place 13 in Intelligence and start either 2 levels of Ranger (lots of 1st level skill points, skilled Fighter, take Rapid Shot so your bow does good job in addition to your two-handed sword) or Barbarian. After that multiclass. Ultimately you'll want to be Ranger/Fighter/Barbarian with most of your levels in Barbarian. If you want more strength, you can also take 2 Sorcerer-levels (learn True Strike, Enlarge Person and whatever) and enter Dragon Disciple for massive Strength-bonuses in exchange for lower Base Attack Bonus.

If you want to avoid excess multiclassing, just Barbarian 20 or Barbarian 18/Fighter 2 is nice. Fighter gives you Heavy Armor Proficiency and a couple of feats which you can make use of, worth taking two levels in, but the subsequent Fighter-levels give you very little compared to Barbarian-levels (more Rage-uses, higher Rage bonuses, random minor bonuses). Far as feats you want in Core, the strongest combat feats in the PHB are:
- Power Attack. Must-have. You can get a lot of To Hit bonuses (charging, tripping, various buff spells, etc.) and with high strength and full BAB, you can often afford to Power Attack for a lot while still hitting reliably. Larger, clumsy enemies are generally more susceptible to it, particularly if they don't wear heavy armor.
- Spirited Charge. This has a lot of prerequisites, but getting tripled damage on Charge is the best way to close in on the enemy. Even so much so it's worth learning to ride and getting a mount and a Lance and then switching to another weapon once the battle is joined. Note, you can Ride-By Attack (prerequisite) allowing you to place yourself in range for another Charge.
- Combat Expertise > Improved Trip. Requires 13 Int. Amazing for strong people (you can use a reach weapon like Spiked Chain or Guisarme to trip people further away; a tripped character gets -4 to AC so you can use Power Attack freely and do hefty damage - and tripped people can't move without getting up which provokes an attack of opportunity)
- Combat Reflexes. If you have high intelligence and a reach weapon, you can get a lot of extra attacks from people having to move through your threatened area or getting up/casting spells in your threatened area. The 1st level spell "Enlarge Person" doubles your size and reach allowing you to cover a lot of squares. Polymorph (Any Object) can later get you even bigger physical stat bonuses and sizes.

Other than that, feel free to pick up Leadership if your DM doesn't mind the feat. It's a very powerful feat; a Cleric underling to buff you and lots of followers (whatever you want them to do, make money). But yeah, that's where Fighter-levels come in: good to take some feats (particularly Mounted Combat ones) early to advance the trees fast. Too many of them and you run out of useful feats to take though (Weapon Specialization is too many levels for too little benefit).


Strength and Con are important stats. Dex is also useful. Intelligence is for skill points and a 13 for Combat Expertise.

[johnbragg]

"GITP, multiplying fractions is hard. Can you help."
"Yes. This is how you factor a quadratic equation."

[Fouredged Sword]

Ok. Be fighter. Take power attack. Use two handed weapon of choice. Make strenght high.

[Lvl 2 Expert]

Ok. Be fighter. Take power attack. Use two handed weapon of choice. Make strenght high.

And further on if you ever want more options consider multiclassing into barbarian for a few levels. The main difference is that the fighter gets a bonus feat you can spend completely free every two levels, while in the first two levels of barbarian you get three things that might as well be feats, and they go together well with a two handed fighting style.

But that's a somewhere down the road thing.

[DEMON]

Start it simple with a 2-handed weapon, Guisarme is a good option as it also gives you reach and tripping capability.
Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Expertise and Improved Trip (combat expertise is meh, but required for Improved Trip) and Combat Reflexes might be the feats to look at.

If you ever find yourself looking for more options, check out Player's Handbook 2, Complete Warrior and Complete Adventurer and maybe Complete Scoundrel and Races of Stone (if you go with a Dwarf Fighter). Also Dungeonscape. These books have a bunch of nice, but not crazy powerful (mostly) options.

Also, you don't have to and shouldn't stay in the class for 20 levels. Once you understand the basics of the game, look for potential multiclass or prestige class options (the aforementioned sourcebooks would be a good place to look at for this as well).

[Darrin]

If you're just getting started:

As a Fighter, your job is to hit things with sharp objects. It's not a very glamorous job, but it's still an important role. Once you've got your ability scores (rolled or point-buy), rank them in order: STR > CON > DEX > INT > WIS > CHA.

Buy a two-handed weapon. Greatsword is preferred, as it has the best average damage of the two-handed martial weapons. Don't worry about the exotic stuff, most of those weapons aren't worth it. For ranged weapons, I actually prefer javelins, but consider picking up a sling or longbow for emergencies (flying opponents suck).

Get some armor. Ideally, you have a positive Dex modifier, so compare that to the "Max Dex Bonus" on the armor table to find the best possible Armor Class. If your Dex bonus is +2 or +3, the best armor is probably going to be chainmail or a breastplate. If your Dex bonus is +1, then the best armor is full plate, but you probably can't afford that yet, so banded probably works best. At 1st level, you're trying to get an Armor Class in the range of 17-18ish. Don't bother with a shield, the extra damage you get from a two-handed weapon is worth more than the AC bonus from the shield.

Feats: As a human fighter, you start with three bonus feats. I'm assuming this is a Core game (only the online SRD or the three basic books: PHB, DMG, and MM), so I'm only going to worry about those feats listed in the PHB. If you have more sourcebooks available, then go ahead and list them and we can talk about other options if you're interested. In the PHB, I would recommend:

Power Attack: This is one of the best feats in the game for melee-based characters. The way it works is you reduce your attack bonus in order to get a damage bonus. Since you're a fighter with a high Strength, you're already pretty good at hitting things, so in most cases an attack penalty doesn't hurt you too much. When you use a two-handed weapon, each -1 attack penalty converts into a +2 damage bonus. The tricky part is having to decide how much of a penalty you can take and still hit reliably... but at 1st level this isn't a difficult decision. At 2nd level or higher, you can increase the penalty for more damage, but then you're more likely to miss attacks. My general rule of thumb for Power Attack is: when in doubt, take a -2 attack penalty.

Cleave: When your attack drops a creature below 0 HP, you get a free attack on another creature that (hopefully) is standing near you. We don't really need to go into it in depth here, but as you play the game you may hear about the term "action economy". Melee characters don't get to do a whole lot of interesting things other than move and attack, so their "action economy" tends to be pretty boring. However, FREE ATTACKS are always cool. You want FREE ATTACKS. Everybody wants FREE ATTACKS. They are awesomesauce on toast.

Weapon Focus: Gives you a +1 attack bonus when attacking with a greatsword (or whatever your preferred weapon would be). If you're Power Attacking for -1, then this counteracts that penalty. However, you should be aware that this is not a very good feat. A really great feat would "scale up" and improve as you gain levels. But even at level 20, this feat still only provides a +1 attack bonus. The only thing it's good for is it's a prerequisite for some other feats, like Weapon Specializtion... which is also not a really good feat, but since we're only addressing the Core PHB feats here, they are at least decent in that limited selection. This at least introduces you to "feat chains", where you have to take a series of feats in a particular order once you qualify for them. Having lots of feats so they can take advantage of feat chains is sort of the signature "class feature" of the Fighter... it's not a particularly good feature from a game design standpoint, which we don't really need to get into the specifics here, but you're a Fighter and you might as well enjoy it for what it's worth.

Actually, I'd prefer to take Quickdraw before I take Weapon Focus, but to explain why we'd have to get a lot deeper into how to make the most of your actions and how to use different kinds of alchemical/splash/weapon-like objects to interfere or hamper your opponents' actions, but that's a much larger discussion about tactics and all that action economy stuff.

Skill Points: A fighter gets 2 skill points, and humans get an extra +1 skill point every level. You get more skill points for a higher Intelligence score, but I'm assuming you have an Intelligence score of 10-11, and thus don't have an Intelligence modifier. At first level, it's assumed you have some basic life experience already under your belt and thus your skill points are multiplied by four. 3 x 4 = 12 skill points at 1st level. Fighters do not get a lot of skills to choose from, so I'll explain which ones are worth putting skill points into:

Climb: This is somewhat useful at lower levels, but at later levels there will be magic items and spells that allow you to fly, change into different kinds of creatures with a variety of movement modes, or just teleport to the top of whatever you might want to climb. However, since you're probably wearing medium or heavy armor with a large Armor Check Penalty, the odds are not much in your favor even if you do put skill points here.

Craft: This can be useful in certain situations, and might save you some money every once in a while, but crafting anything more complicated than a quarterstaff or club tends to take a lot of time. Most PC parties or DMs prefer not to put the plot/action on hold while you go off for several weeks to make something. However, not all PCs are born in a vacuum. If you've got something in your character backstory that you used to be an apprentice blacksmith or your father was a famous brewmeister, then you may want to put a couple skill points here for "flavor".

Handle Animal: This is actually one of your most powerful skills, so consider putting 4 points here. Why? Mules are cheap: 8 GP each. In addition to carrying your equipment/loot, mules are large creatures with 22 HP. You can train them to attack (hoof does 1d4+3 damage) or just use them as 10x10 blocks of muleflesh to provide cover, block corridors, or surround opponents. Horses and dogs can also be capable opponents at lower levels. But you want to know why you want ranks in Handle Animal? You can use it to TRAIN DINOSAURS! The DC to rear a wild animal as a domesticated animal is 15 + the animal's HD, and you get up to three animals for a successful check. So even a moderate investment can have a huge payoff in combat capability.

Intimidate: This is your only "social engineering" skill (talky-talky stuff) but I don't think it's worth putting any skill points into it. Intimidate is generally just a waste of a standard action. Anything you can intimidate easily is easy to kill, so you're just wasting an action on what could be an attack. It's generally just easier to drop the other side's HP to zero, at which point you have an infinitely higher bargaining position.

Jump: Put maximum skill ranks here, and continue to keep this maxxed out as you level up. As a fighter, you're going to be doing a lot of charging. However, one of the things that prevents you from charging is obstacles and difficult terrain. You can use the Jump skill to leap over obstacles and difficult terrain, which allows you to complete the charge. Also, one of your jobs as a fighter is to put your body in the best spot to make attacks, soak up damage, and discourage the enemy from getting close to your squishier companions. Jump can help you get into and out of those key chokepoint spots. You can also use a Jump check to reduce falling damage if you intentionally jump down from a higher elevation.

Ride: While there are some definite advantages to mounted combat, the actual rules for attacking while mounted are a bit of a klunky mess. Even so, at 1st level, attacking from a mount helps counter the movement penalty of wearing heavy armor. Also, at 1st level a horse with 3 hit dice represents a significant chunk of HPs, so it might be worth it to put some skill points here. The problem with mounts is the larger ones don't fit very well down narrow dungeon corridors, so you may have to leave your mount outside, at which point all those skill points spent on Ride are wasted. Also, if you're the only PC that's mounted, then mounted combat tends to take your *away* from your companions, which is the opposite of where you usually need to be. In most cases, mounts aren't worth all the fuss and bother of keeping track of them.

Swim: You can put 1 or 2 points here, but it takes so long to suffocate/drown in D&D (you can hold your breath a number of rounds equal to twice your Constitution score) that if you find yourself in a water hazard, you can generally just sink to the bottom and walk your way out. Well, ok, yes, if you get down into the weeds with the swimming rules, you can only hold your breath half-as-long if you're doing any strenuous activity, but even then most D&D combats don't last long enough for you to run out of breath. Also note that you're probably wearing medium/heavy armor, which incurs double the normal Armor Check Penalty, so if you're trying to put skill points here then be aware that there's a strong element of "why bother?"

Cross-Class Skills: Spending skill points on these non-Fighter skills is going to cost double the normal amount of skill points, and you also have a lower maximum skill rank (2 ranks at 1st level instead of 4). However, some of them may be worth it.

Balance: You want to get 5 skill ranks in Balance ASAP so that you're not considered flat-footed when balancing on a slippery/precarious surface. Being flat-footed means rogues can sneak attack you, among other things. Put 4 skill points here for 2 cross-class ranks.

Listen: In general, the majority of "Perception" checks called for by the DM are going to be Spot checks. However, in general. the DCs for Listen are going to be lower than Spot checks, particularly for invisible opponents. Pinpointing an invisible creature's square in combat is a DC 20 Listen check, while the Spot check DC to pinpoint may be 10 to 20 points higher. You don't have a lot of skill points to invest in Spot/Listen, so when in doubt, put ranks into Listen. Every time your DM calls for Spot checks, make sure you ask if you can make a Listen check instead.

Tumble: I *love*love*love* maxxing out this skill on melee builds, but sadly it's cross-class for fighters. If you have access to sources outside of Core, ask your DM if you can use the Skilled City-Dweller Alternate Class Feature from the Cityscape Web Enhancement (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a) to switch your Ride class skill to Tumble. A successful Tumble check lets you move past opponents without provoking attacks of opportunity or lets you move through an opponent's square. You can also use Tumble to reduce falling damage (including unintentional falls), and if you have at least 5 ranks then you get a +2 synergy bonus on Balance and Jump checks.

So... assuming this is a Core 1st level fighter with 12 skill points, I'd recommend:

Balance 2 (4cc), Handle Animal 4, Jump 4

Buy a mule (8 GP). You can tell the DM that you've already trained it six tricks: Attack, Attack non-humanoids, Defend, Down, Heel, Stay.

Come up with a name and a simple backstory. Then go out there and hit things.

[Goaty14]

Ok. Be fighter. Take power attack. Use two handed weapon of choice. Make strength high.

Take Leadership as your 6th level character feat, and then snatch a cleric from your cohort to personally buff you.

[Eldariel]

If you really want to be a Human, I recommend Human Barbarian. So level 1:
Barbarian 1 (4+Int skills, fast movement are both nice)

For skills, learn Ride & Handle Animal & Listen and whatever.

For feats, pick Mounted Combat and Ride-By Attack. Charge things off a horse or without. Alternatively, Combat Expertise and Improved Trip and wield a Guisarme. Work from there. Utilize the skills

[Grod_The_Giant]

Take Leadership as your 6th level character feat, and then snatch a cleric from your cohort to personally buff you.
Do not take Leadership, because it doubles (or more) the amount of stuff you have to keep track of. Especially do not take Leadership for a caster cohort; that gives you all the complexity of a spellcaster while not even getting the full (potential) power because it's several levels behind.

[johnbragg]

Do not take Leadership, because it doubles (or more) the amount of stuff you have to keep track of. Especially do not take Leadership for a caster cohort; that gives you all the complexity of a spellcaster while not even getting the full (potential) power because it's several levels behind.

Don't worry at all about what feat you're going to take at level 6. Worry about making sure you add all the bonuses to your attacks you have coming to you.

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0034.html

[Vaern]

Don't forget about the spell list.

Reduce Person
Components: S, F
Target: One creature
Range: Touch
Channeling your arcane might into a greatsword or battle axe, you slash horizontally at your foe's midsection.
Make an attack roll against the target as normal. If your attack deals enough slashing damage to kill the target, it is also reduced to half of its original height.
Focus: Any slashing weapon.

Enlarge Person
Components: S, F
Target: One creature
Range: Touch
Raising your mace or hammer high above your head, you infuse the weapon with disruptive energy before bringing it down upon your foe.
Make an attack roll against the target as normal. If your attack falls enough bludgeoning damage to kill the target, its remains occupy a space one size category larger than its original size.
Focus: Any bludgeoning weapon.

They can use either of these spells at will, along with a few others. There's a thread somewhere with a full barbarian spell list, but I no longer have the bookmark saved. I'm sure a fighter can gain access to these spells as well, if you build it properly.