Help me build this fighter

[stewstew5]

Str: 8 tumble 5 ranks
Dex:18 weapon finesse feat
Con: 14 agile athlete feat
Int: 8 dodge feat
Wis: 10 improved initiative feat
Cha: 8

Here's what I have planned so far:
Level 3- fighter
Feat- mobility
level 4- fighter
Bonus feat- spring attack
ASI- wisdom
Level 5- swordsage
- setting sun weapon focus
- Stance
Flames blessing
- maneuvers (initiator level 3)
Burning blade
Mighty throw
Shadow blade technique
Sudden leap
Shadow jaunt
Distracting Ember
Level 6- swordsage (initiator level 4)
Feat- n/a
Stance- leaping dragon stance
Maneuver- cloak of deception

As you can probably tell, anything official is pretty much fair game, but strictly no homebrew.
The character in question has a distinct Chinese legend flavor, and as you can also probably tell I'm building him to be a quick amd jumpy fighter whose good with pretty much any (non strength) weapon, in almost any situation.
Other contenders for feats include unarmed strike improvements, combat expertise & other dodge improvements, or mobility improvements, but nothing is set in stone

[rrwoods]

Despite their names, Dodge and Mobility are not all that great for dodgy mobile characters (mostly because they’re kind of garbage feats period). You might consider Expeditious Dodge in place of Dodge; you won’t get any use out of it right away, but once you have more mobility maneuvers from your Swordsage levels it will be on a lot of the time.

At IL 3 you can take second level maneuvers. I see you have one (shadow jaunt) but you might want to look harder at some of the others; first level maneuvers fall off really quickly, with the exception of really good utility maneuvers like distracting ember (which you have) and moment of perfect mind (which you don’t). Mountain hammer for example is invaluable.

Your feat at level 6 is Adaptive Style for sure. You’re at mid levels, which is where combat is probably the longest, but have few maneuvers readied — the maneuver refresh from AS is probably more important on this character than any other.

Overall I have a bias toward this character concept generally so I like where this is going :) I think feats are the weakest part of this execution right now, and with fighter giving you so many in the first four levels it’s going to be really important to make good choices (it’s the only thing fighter is getting you). Steady Concentration is another one you might want to consider for pre-swordsage — failing will saves is one of the easiest ways to end up dead, and Steady + moment of perfect mind goes a long way to preventing that from happening.

[stewstew5]

Despite their names, Dodge and Mobility are not all that great for dodgy mobile characters (mostly because they’re kind of garbage feats period). You might consider Expeditious Dodge in place of Dodge; you won’t get any use out of it right away, but once you have more mobility maneuvers from your Swordsage levels it will be on a lot of the time.

At IL 3 you can take second level maneuvers. I see you have one (shadow jaunt) but you might want to look harder at some of the others; first level maneuvers fall off really quickly, with the exception of really good utility maneuvers like distracting ember (which you have) and moment of perfect mind (which you don’t). Mountain hammer for example is invaluable.

Your feat at level 6 is Adaptive Style for sure. You’re at mid levels, which is where combat is probably the longest, but have few maneuvers readied — the maneuver refresh from AS is probably more important on this character than any other.

Overall I have a bias toward this character concept generally so I like where this is going :) I think feats are the weakest part of this execution right now, and with fighter giving you so many in the first four levels it’s going to be really important to make good choices (it’s the only thing fighter is getting you). Steady Concentration is another one you might want to consider for pre-swordsage — failing will saves is one of the easiest ways to end up dead, and Steady + moment of perfect mind goes a long way to preventing that from happening.
,
Dodge is already kinda locked in place (although I could probably swap it out without much trouble from my dm- hes not too intense on bookeeping our characters ;p) and spring attack is really, really tasty looking for this character.

In terms of maneuvers I'm also fairly sold on them as-is, the short-range voomphs and leaps are so much fun for who he is, mighty throw is one i could probably live without (though it is also much more flavourful for him than say, mountain hammer) My DM also isn't very familiar with the item health/breaking and is more of a you can't cut a rock with a sword unless you roll a 25 type so mountain hammer isn't-oh sh*t does that damage people?? okay yea ill admit that's great

As for moment of perfect mind, I don't get why that one's so great. Like, swordsage has solid will saves and is a pump-wisdom class, on top of one that doesn't use concentration all that often, so you'd be maxing it basically exclusively for this once/battle ability. I guess I can see it as a pretty good contingency except you can't use it if you've already rolled it as a will save. On a more personal note, my DM is more wave of mooks less save or suck, so it's not a huge concern for me

Adaptive style is a definite yes you're right, those free refreshes are fan-flipin' tastic

I'm not really building for absolute optimization with this character more of fun, flippy, dodgy, flavor that can hold his own in just about any fight. Speaking of, i'm definitely taking mountain hammer. that's dang op

[theboss]

Despite people here saying dodge and mobility are garbage feats, they might be true but those feats aren’t worth taking alone. They are necessary for strong feats like Elusive Target which grants special maneuvers, among them immunity to power attack from one target.
There’s also shadow blade feat from ToB which grants dexterity to damage while in a stance of shadow sun school.
Two weapon pounce is also a feat to consider.
Best of luck

[RNightstalker]

,
Dodge is already kinda locked in place (although I could probably swap it out without much trouble from my dm- hes not too intense on bookeeping our characters ;p) and spring attack is really, really tasty looking for this character.


As for moment of perfect mind, I don't get why that one's so great. Like, swordsage has solid will saves and is a pump-wisdom class, on top of one that doesn't use concentration all that often, so you'd be maxing it basically exclusively for this once/battle ability. I guess I can see it as a pretty good contingency except you can't use it if you've already rolled it as a will save. On a more personal note, my DM is more wave of mooks less save or suck, so it's not a huge concern for me




Dodge and Mobility are essentially feats that are taken because you want what comes after them.

The Diamond Mind maneuvers are excellent because sometimes you know what's coming and you don't want to fail a save. When it becomes a concentration check and you can't fail on a nat 1, that's priceless. It also helps to max out concentration as a Swordsage because of the strike maneuvers that let you make concentration checks in place of damage...at later levels 2x, 4x your concentration check. And there are plenty of ways to bump your skill checks.

Overall I like where you're going with this out of the box build.

[ShurikVch]

How about the Hit-and-Run Tactics ACF? (Despite being from the Drow of the Underdark, it doesn't required to be a Drow)

Fierce weapon enhancement (+2; Arms and Equipment Guide) allow to "relocate" your Dex bonus from AC to damage