General Discussion

[Armando]

Re: General Discussion

Jarre, you can have 6 feats right now. 3 of them are specifically Fighter feats so they need to come from the Combat Feats list specifically. The other 3 can be any kind of feat. The thing you need to know is that the whole game revolves around throwing a 20-sided die, so adding +1 to your die roll is the same as having +5% chance of success.

The list of feats is huge so here's some good ones to get you started. I suggest you Ctrl+F them in the Feat Tree page to see what other feats they unlock:
Combat Reflexes
Power Attack (You definitely want this one, and you should use it in almost every situation)
Shield of Swings
Combat Expertise
Cleave/Great Cleave
Toughness
Improved Trip/Disarm/Sunder/Grapple/Drag/Feint/Bull Rush/Overrun

Once you hit level 6 you'll probably want to take a look at Vital Strike and Lunge too.

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

Great Cleave isn't that useful since it relies on you essentially one-shotting stuff multiple times to go off a lot.

Also Dodge is an extreme Mundane but very nice feat nonetheless. If you give me a bit of time I'll highlight some really nice feats later on.

Power Attack is a bit of a feat tax though but it is nice to have due to what it unlocks.

[Armando]

Re: General Discussion

Great Cleave isn't that useful since it relies on you essentially one-shotting stuff multiple times to go off a lot.

You're thinking of Cleaving Finish and Improved Cleaving Finish. Great Cleave only requires you to land your attack to continue the chain. Didn't mention Dodge because it just unlocks way too much shit and isn't as useful in the short term, but it definitely is worth taking a look at.

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

Nah I was thinking of the 3.5 Cleave/Great Cleave, it actually looks very useful in pathfinder now

[Armando]

Re: General Discussion

Oh, ok. Didn't know it changed. Yeah, Improved Cleaving Finish looks pretty useless unless you know the DM loves throwing hordes of 1 HP minions at you.

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

Okay Since Jarre said he would like to build a tank, I have a nice little feat combo below. Basically tanking in 3rd Edition D&D is about mobility and punishing enemies that move away from you.

Feats marked with a * should be classed as essential to this build.

1st Level: Power Attack*
Human Bonus: Combat Reflexes*
Fighter Bonus: Stand Still (Not essential but VERY nice for a tank)
2nd Level Bonus Combat Feat: Dodge*
3rd Level Feat: Combat Expertise (This is mostly a Free Slot really so Toughness or Weapon Focus (Greatsword) is nice too)
4th Level Bonus Feat Mobility*

At 5th Level take Combat Patrol. This boosts the area that you threaten by 5ft to 10ft plus an extra 5ft for every 5 points of your Base Attack Bonus (In your case your BAB is the same as your Fighter Level). So you will be able to move to AoO ANYTHING within 15ft by 5th level if they provoke an Attack of Opportunity. Using this you can lock down an area and punish enemies that don't move specifically for you. Combine this with the control that Armando, Mezlo and my character has and you will be abel to tank decently.

Other feats you would want to take later:

Tanking
Bodyguard
In Harm's Way (Requires BG but is very nice)
Pin Down (I don't care what else you want to get, TAKE THIS AT 11th LEVEL. Combined with Stand Still and Combat Patrol you basically lock down an entire area around you and make it impossible for an enemy to move through. Enemies can still 5-Foot step to escape you without this feat. With it it means that they can ONLY use Acrobatics or Teleport to get away from you.
Cleave and Great Cleave (Nice for Damage)
Pushing Assault - Forced movement is ALWAYS nice for Control.
Stunning Assault - Stunning is always nice. You also have 2 Rogues in the party. Do the maths...

Damage Feats
Furious Combat - Holy shit this is overpowered to have on a Fighter. Basically your first attack of any Full Attack does not suffer any attack penalties from Power Attack. And since your first attack is always your most accurate attack...
Dreadful Carnage - Required Furious Combat but it has awesome applications and roleplay opportunities. Basically if you make a killing blow you can make an intimidate check to demoralise every enemy in a 30ft radius.
Weapon Focus/Specialisation and Greater Weapon Focus/Specilisation - Focus ones both give a +1 to hit that stacks so that is a +10% bonus with your chosen weapon. Weapon Specialisation give +2 to damage so both feats will add +4 to all damage rolls
Cleave/Great Cleave - More attacks is always nice for when something has to die.

Other, less vital feats
Shield of Swings - This is really nice for if you need the extra AC but it becomes less useful later on as Cleric Buffs do the same thing but better
Improved Trip - Problem with this is that while a +2 (+10% Acc) to Trip attempts is nice, you basically get the same effect by tripping a flat footed enemy and fighters are accurate enough to not need the extra +2.
Improved Sunder Sunder is better than Disarm since it destroys the enemy's weapon. If they are disarmed they can still get it back.

[cidbahamut]

Re: General Discussion

Improved Sunder Sunder is better than Disarm since it destroys the enemy's weapon. If they are disarmed they can still get it back.

But then we can't retrieve it and sell it later...

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

We have a Cleric that can fix things. Why do you think I never run out of arrows?

[cidbahamut]

Re: General Discussion

I assumed you just hadn't fired all 20 of them yet.

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

I haven't yet because at every chance I gather them up and have Armando fix any broken ones. It's just we haven't had the chance to gather them in the last couple of fights due to the rush and me mixing it up between ranged and melee anyway.

[Armando]

Re: General Discussion

Improved Sunder Sunder is better than Disarm since it destroys the enemy's weapon. If they are disarmed they can still get it back.

Breaking metal weapons is hard as balls though. All blades and weapons with metal handles have a hardness of 10, and get 2 more for each +1 bonus on the weapon. Plus, if the weapon is large, its HP is doubled. With a Disarm you get the job done in one turn, and while they can pick it back up, it'll cost them their move action AND provoking AoO from everyone (similar to getting up from a trip.) I think Sunder makes more sense for breaking armor, which not only halves its AC, it also doubles the armor check penalty (helps prevent Acrobatics.)

Improved Trip - Problem with this is that while a +2 (+10% Acc) to Trip attempts is nice, you basically get the same effect by tripping a flat footed enemy and fighters are accurate enough to not need the extra +2.

Bear in mind that Improved Trip can be used as a ghetto Stand Still if the enemy can be tripped at all. The extra +2 would help against multi-legged creatures.

[Firewind]

Re: General Discussion

Improved Trip also needs you to be right next to the target while Stand Still doesn't require it due to Combat Patrol (free out of turn move) and it also allows a free out of turn attack.

I'm not calling the "Improved CM" line bad, I'm just not 100% sure if they are worth the investment when compared to other feats.

[Armando]

Re: General Discussion

Improved Trip also needs you to be right next to the target while Stand Still doesn't require it due to Combat Patrol (free out of turn move) and it also allows a free out of turn attack.

You can use trip as an AoO during Combat Patrol. Stand Still lets you choose between stopping them or damaging them, but works on any type of creature. With trip there's some of them you can't stop, but you AND everyone else around gets free AoO on the ones you can. Both are valid options IMO, just depends on what you value more.

If he's gonna go that far out of the way to control the enemy's position though, seems a bit of a waste not to use a reach weapon. It'd extend his Combat Patrol further and let him do no-AoO trips without Improved Trip. Then he can trip the things he can and Stand Still the ones that he can't. Have your cake, eat it too!

[Mezlo]

Re: General Discussion

I can't wait to blow more shit up this weekend... I have my character build planned out and it is epic.

[Yygdrasil]

Re: General Discussion

@TM: You're welcome to sit in on the sessions.

@Jarre: You had no idea what you were getting yourself into... did you?

@Mezlo: Sleep with 1 eye open.

@Cid: Fire has fired 16 arrows so far. of those 16, 12 of have been recovered. Of the 12 recovered, 8 have been repaired.

@Fire: It's not pre-assumed that your arrows are recovered at the end of every fight. Nor is it pre-assumed that Armando fixes them. The 8 you have recovered/fixed, combined with the 4 you have yet to fire makes a total of 12 remaining.

@Armando: Your character was played the way you would have played him this weekend. That being said... he did a lot of missing, a lot of negotiating and he yelled "DAMN IT" a lot. The only thing missing was the helicopter... and let me tell you... the respite we had from it... however brief... was welcome. (fix that shit)