[4e] Building a fighter with light armor

[Aerodynamik]

Well, the title of the post says it all really.

Is there a way to build a good fighter with a decent AC that uses light armor and no shield in Fourth Edition? Are there some kind of feats I can take or something?

[DSCrankshaw]

Tempest or blade fighter--Dex is secondary. If Dex is high enough, you'll get a higher AC without heavy armor.

[Sipex]

Yeah, that's a build in Martial Power, just so you know. If you have access to the character builder (or books online) you should be fine.

[Yakk]

Yep. Usually in this case, you go Tempest build, and use a pair of light weapons (usually light blades), in order to get double-dip goodness from your high dex.

In the "build me a character", I got someone to build me a hybrid Orc Ranger|Fighter who dual-wields hand-axes and never wears more than hide armor.

In any case, tempest fighter gives you two weapon defence and drops your best armor to chain, and has lots of powers that work well with high dex. So you build a str/dex based fighter, choose tempest technique. Possibly pick up a double weapon (like the double sword) which gives you a high-quality offhand defensive weapon for the extra AC bump.

Stats: 16+2 str, 11 con, 16 dex, 8 int, 13 wis, 10 cha
Tempest Technique
Level 1 feats: Weapon Proficiency (double sword)

Your AC is 18 at level 1, which is quite respectable.

If you are a half orc, your AC hits 19 at level 1.

If you are a human, you have another feat to burn.

[DSCrankshaw]

Alternatively, you multiclass with a primal class (probably barbarian or warden), take Hide Armor Expertise (from Primal Power), and add Con instead of Dex to your AC while wearing hide.

[illyrus]

If you go the multiclass primal route and if you wanted to two-hand I'd suggest the fighter type: battlerager (remember to check the errata on this as it was too powerful before) if you want a little bit extra tanking. You'd get your con bonus as temp hp every time you hit with normal powers, 2*con on a hit with an invig. power and con on a miss with an invig. power, which can give you a little bit of an hp buffer for when you do get hit. Also it adds a bit of damage if you're wearing light armor.

Then use a con. based weapon like an axe or mace so you really only have to worry about strength and constitution for your two stats.

[Tengu_temp]

Do you mean the fighter class, or a character who fights with weapons and serves as the party tank? Because in the second case you can just play a warden (and wield a two-handed weapon instead of a one-hander and a shield) or a swordmage. If you mean the fighter class, then a tempest fighter, as mentioned previously, is your best bet.

[erikun]

Any Fighter who focuses on DEX or INT - meaning starting with a decent amount, and increasing it every 4 levels - will be able to use light armor just fine. Spear fighters and scimitar fighters would be the most common. An INT fighter would be stranger, but it's not impossible to have a Fighter/Wizard or Fighter/Swordmage who uses close burst powers to mark multiple enemies.

Hide Armor Expertise is another option, for a Fighter focusing on STR/CON. You'll want to keep your CON up, much like DEX earlier.

The Tempest-Fighter build (Martial Power) encourages light armor or chain mail, along with high DEX values for damage.

[Mando Knight]

Of course, a 2H-weapon Fighter specializing in one of the Dex-based weapons (Flail, Heavy Blade, Spear) will also look into wearing Hide rather than Scale, especially if they want to maximize their mobility.

[Artanis]

Do you mean the fighter class, or a character who fights with weapons and serves as the party tank?

This.

It cannot be stated enough how important it is to remember that in 4e, class does not define concept the way it does in 3e. Instead, you define the concept, and choose the set of mechanics that best represents it. Everything else is fluff


For this particular case, Warden and Barbarian come to mind. Wardens are light-armor tanks, while Barbarians are...well, Barbarians.