Starting new campaign, help my fighter please!

[Tarlek Flamehai]

I am joining a new campaign starting at level 2. They have asked for a front line fighter and after much struggling I have settled on a concept of a spinning polearm double weapon build. I really don't have any experience with melee types though. What can I do to with the following to increase combat effectiveness, survivablity, and utility (in that the order)?

Thanks in Advance!

Party makeup is Human Life Oracle, Elf Sorcerer, Ratling Rogue, Dwarf Fighter (Sword&Board)

Stat buy is weird: 20 attribute points assigned to stats as desired, stats start at 10, no stat over 20 after racial bonuses

All published (including 3rd party) Pathfinder material. No D&D or home brew material.

ST 18 DX 20 CN 14 IN 10 WS 10 CH 10

Human Fighter (Two-Weapon Warrior) 1
MAJOR DRAWBACK: Fear of Falling
FEATS: Weapon Focus (Nodachi), Weapon Finesse, Two Weapon Fighting, Spear Dancing Style
MINOR DRAWBACK: Pride
TRAITS: Reactionary, Finding Haldeen, Veteran Jungle Guide
Fighter 2
Spear Dancing Spiral
Fighter 3
Combat Reflexes
Fighter 4
Weapon Specialization (Nodachi), +1 DEX
Fighter 6
Spear Dancing Reach, Improved Two-weapon Fighting
Fighter 8
Improved Critical (Nodachi), +2 DEX
Fighter 9
Greater Weapon Focus (Nodachi)
Fighter 10
Disruptive
Fighter 12
Greater Weapon Specialization (Nodaci)
Fighter 14
Crippling Critical
Fighter 15
Blinding Critical
Fighter 16
Critical Mastery
Fighter 18
Stunning Critical
Fighter 20
Blind Fight

[Geddy2112]

I am unsure why they need a second frontliner if they have the dwarf sword&board, but fighter is decent. A 2 handed weapon has a lot of damage potential, although going two weapon fighting is feat intensive and not as effective for raw damage. You get a lot of attacks though, which is nice. Two-weapon warrior does not come really online until you get the bonuses to two weapon fighting, which start at level 9 so I would question going vanilla fighter

With your strength being so high, I question the need for spear dancing spiral. It nets you a +1 to attack, and you honestly don't want to be increasing your dex much more than you currently have it at. You don't get armor training as a 2 weapon warrior, so why not make dex 18(to qualify for the TWF tree) and then strength 20? The spear dancing reach is also pretty meh, just take lunge if you want to get your reach weapon back. Keep pumping your strength over dexterity.

Dropping weapon finesse and the other 2 style feats you don't need gives you 3 feats to play with, or 2 if you take lunge. You can get greater two weapon fighting in your build now. Instead of weapon finesse, you can take power attack off the bat-even two weapon fighting, you still want it to boost your damage and put the hurt on enemies. Maybe throw in spellbreaker as another feat.

The nodachi is good for the 4x critical but arguably that is not worth investing over. A normal glaive gets you there all the same, or a halberd or something with a slightly bigger damage dice. The damage dice in the long run is not where damage comes from though, so if you are sold on nodachi then by all means stick with it.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

They want a 2nd front liner because they are very old school, and not very optimized. I picked this concept for the cool factor of spinning a polearm like a quarterstaff. The concept is feat intensive....which is why I finally went straight fighter.

You are probably right about swapping Lunge in for Dancing Spiral and Dancing Reach.

I only took Weapon Finesse for Dancing Reach, so that does put Lunge and Greater Two-weapon Fighting on the table. Not sure if Power Attack or Spellbreaker is the better third choice....

Nodachi is 1d10 damage, 18-20 x2 crit.

What does everyone else think, Power Attack or Spellbreaker? Any other improvements?

[Epic Legand]

I might recommend a different take. First decide if your a Dex fighter or a Str fighter. If you go 2 hands on a pole arm, you get 1.5X dam from strength, for zero feats invested. Get combat reflex's sooner, and get tons of attacks of opportunity, each one with that higher Str mod. That can easily amount to more attacks then you get with 2 weapon fighting, which also needs a full attack to pull off.
Or stick to the Dex path, bail on Strength and bump Int. You can Int to AC a few different ways. Harbinger archetype offers it (Edgelord). That means your ok to pump your Dex and not worry about your armor. Same 3ed party offers a feat for Dex to damage. Now you have a boost to skill points due to Int, A better skill list and more points. That's part of your OP,
Take it one step further. Lv 1 Harbinger ( Edgelord), Lv2 Take Stalker( Viglanti)Then stick with Stalker, You get Int added to initiative, Ref Saves, Uncanny dodge, 6 skill points per lv and lots of Maneuvers. I would also consider other polearms, but the 4x is nice. You also have 2 classes worth of maneuvers, BUT you have a BAB of zero at 2ed level. But lots of versatility and damage. If your worried about someone getting in your inner circle, get unarmed combat and superior unarmed, your doing a D10 by 10th level. Just pick the model you think will be the most fun.

[Elricaltovilla]

Given that you've got access to any and all 3rd party material, I'm tempted to suggest selecting a different class that would better fit your concept, however looking at your party (and without more detailed information on their builds) I'm reluctant to suggest picking up a PoW class unless you know that your party fighter and rogue are using maneuvers as well.

Instead, what I think you ought to do is rejigger your stats a bit and poach a few key feats from PoW and PoW:E.

First, you'll want to look at the combination of polearm dancer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/polearm-dancer-combat/) and deadly agility (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/deadly-agility-combat/) (which has recently been errata'd to provide 1.5x DEX to damage for 2 handed weapons), and Haft Strike (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/haft-strike-combat/). This combination will allow you to focus on DEX over STR, giving you higher overall attack rolls, AC, saves, and more useful skills, while also saving you some feats over the spear dancing style line of feats. Of course, you'd need to swap some stats around, but I think that it'd be worth it overall. I'd consider a spread like this: STR 14 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10.

I'd also recommend combining the above with the Lore Warden (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo-fighter-archetypes/lore-warden-adventurers-guide/) archetype for the fighter. The INT based bonuses are a nice benefit, especially when you add the additional skills and extra skill points. I find it's important to be able to do something during those times when you're unable to hit things with your polearm.

I can't recommend using the Edgelord Harbinger to get INT to AC, especially for multiclassing purposes as its INT to AC class feature precludes the use of armor.

[Tarlek Flamehai]

Harbinger archetype offers it (Edgelord)..

My Google-Fu failed me on Edgelord, would you please throw me a link?

[Tarlek Flamehai]

.....
polearm dancer (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/polearm-dancer-combat/) and deadly agility (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/deadly-agility-combat/) (which has recently been errata'd to provide 1.5x DEX to damage for 2 handed weapons)...... I'd consider a spread like this: STR 14 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 14 WIS 12 CHA 10.

I'd also recommend combining the above with the Lore Warden (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/core-classes/fighter/archetypes/paizo-fighter-archetypes/lore-warden-adventurers-guide/) archetype for the fighter.

This sounds pretty good, Nodachi is not a reach weapon by itself...so no Haft Strike required. Is there a reason I shouldn't just set my stats as such:

STR 10 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 18 WIS 10 CHA 10?

[Zsaber0]

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/

Pro-tip: Be the Edgelordiest.

Take a gander at Piercing Thunder, which with your feat choices works pretty well with Thrashing Dragon.

[Elricaltovilla]

This sounds pretty good, Nodachi is not a reach weapon by itself...so no Haft Strike required. Is there a reason I shouldn't just set my stats as such:

STR 10 DEX 20 CON 14 INT 18 WIS 10 CHA 10?

Weight requirements are the big one. A few extra points of strength go a long way to making sure you can actually carry all your heavy equipment.

EDIT: You also want to bump your WIS to shore up your low WILL Save. Mind Control is bad, mmkay?

[Pugwampy]

I would recommend against weapon specializing feats . Your party will find lots of magic weapons of all shapes and sizes.

Kinda of a waste for that nice frostburn greatsword or + 8 katana of golem slaying if you Burnt your feats on a spear .
Before nerds point out that katana is an exotic weapon , you can hold one handed exotic weapons in two hands as a martial weapon.

We also have monsters that can resist a certain weapon damage type and you should be able to swop appropriate weapons for certain situations.

[Kurald Galain]

The main problem with the build is that Spear Dancing is just not very good. If you want a polearm, use a polearm. If you want to dual-wield, carry two weapons (or a double weapon). There's no sense in investing four feats in dual-wielding with a polearm.

Also, if you're going dex-based, dump strength. You won't need it, and a 10 is perfectly fine. Equipment is much lighter than people think, particularly once you put masterwork backpacks and bags of holding into the equation. Con is a much higher priority. I'm not entirely sure why you put 18 in int, having skill points is good but I'd suggest 18 con and 14 int. Note there's a few figther archetypes that give you more and better skills, notably Lore Warden.

Oh, and take Blindfight much earlier. You'll probably have to fight invisible creatures in the darkness at several points.

[Psyren]

The main problem with the build is that Spear Dancing is just not very good. If you want a polearm, use a polearm. If you want to dual-wield, carry two weapons (or a double weapon). There's no sense in investing four feats in dual-wielding with a polearm.

I can see some use in it. SDS lets you do four things that are difficult to do without it:

1) Dual-wield reach weapons
2) Finesse a polearm or longspear
3) (With QM) 1H a polearm or longspear
3) Qualify for Weapon Spec without being a Fighter

I don't know that those things are worth 4 feats myself, but they're reasons nonetheless.

You can of course just use an Elven Branched Spear if you want to finesse a spear, but a Fauchard at least has a much bigger crit range.