Bonus Exp! Defenders: Fighter

Bonus Exp! Defenders: The Fighter

Originally this was one article, but it got long so now I’m splitting it (and thus the other articles that will follow in this type) into single target articles.

For this installment, and possibly several continuing installments, I’m going to be avoiding specifically detailing more of Otep in the hopes of allowing other DM’s a chance to expand the world in their own vision. Instead this column is going to be discussing mechanical advantages and disadvantages of two of the 4^th edition classes, the Paladin and Fighter. I’ll also be exploring multi-classing options with these two classes and opportunities for other classes to “Splash” or “Dip” into the defender Archetype.

Also only 6 weeks till Gencon, I’m looking forward to seeing many of you there.

Defenders

Dungeons and Dragons has always had class specific roles (and some people will tell you that part of DnD has always been breaking those roles… Zach.) Wizards stood behind fighters, rogues and scouts took the front, clerics in the middle. Marching Orders during any campaign are an indication of the job a character might have in the party. Now in 4^th edition Wizards has finally “assigned” class roles, a move that has been met with some mild anger and feelings of rail roading. I feel this is an unfair accusation, since these class roles have always been there… it was just never spoken of aloud.

Perhaps it was due to the unspoken nature of the class role system that certain classes always seemed to falter. What did you do with a Monk? Should the Druid use his animal companion to scout… or scout himself? Can the Barbarian be the meat wall with such a low AC? What is the Paladin doing here? Obviously we need a healer… but cant this wand of Cure Light Wounds do the same job if I have enough Use Magic Device?

Now that it’s clear what you’re supposed to be doing with each class the question remains “Well… how do I do that? And what are the best choices?” And that gentle readers is what I’m going to attempt to explain. Starting with our meat shields the Fighter and Paladin. Meat Shield, now called Defender, has a long glorious history of “get up there and let it hit you.” Except now your DM actually has a reason for making the monsters fight the heavily armored creature that wasn’t hitting it nearly as hard as the nimble midget with the knife or that pretty elf in the back row throwing fire.

And that ladies and gentleman is a good thing.

Fighter

The fighter is kind of a bad ass. He’s kind of a big deal. I’m just going to throw that out there before we get any further. Gone are the days of splashing two levels of fighter for some extra feats, nowadays when someone plays a fighter they get the full bang for their buck. And that buck is the undisputed master of melee combat. Rogues may hit harder, Rangers may hit faster, but nobody wants to go toe to toe with the fighter… and that says a lot.

Before building a fighter it’s important to decide whether you want to be a heavy hitter or a walking tank. Most of this is going to be decided in your choice of weapon and powers, because no matter how you build it, no fighter is going to be a fragile flower. You can build for both as long as you’re willing to toe the line between “Ultimate Swordsman” and “Unkillable Behemoth.”

Races

So what Race is “best” for the fighter? None of them, though some are more optimal than others. Generally speaking you probably want to avoid Small races for damaging fighters because it limits weapon choices. Additionally Intelligence and Charisma are dead stats for Fighters, so races that give bonus’s to those two are less “optimal” than others. At this point your probably thinking “Well obviously I should just go for the biggest strength.” That’s a perfectly valid strategy… but my answer for best Fighter race might surprise you.

Top 3 Races for Fighter

1) Elf- Yes that’s right, the former nancy boys make the best fighters. Why? Elves don’t get a bonus to strength or constitution after all! What elves do get however makes up for both of these things. Fighters make more attacks of opportunity than any other class and they add their wisdom bonus to attack of opportunity accuracy, a racial bonus Elves get for free. Additional in the Paragon Tier you can substitute an at will power for your attack of opportunity, a feat that requires both Dexterity and Wisdom… the two stats that Elves favor. Defenses are important for the Fighter since not all attacks come at your AC. Your reflex defense is based on int or dexterity, Int is a dead stat but dexterity is favored by Elves. Same with Will defense and wisdom/charisma. The Racial encounter power of the elves allows you to land important hits and daily powers, especially if you don’t have the reliable ability for that blow. Finally Elves can shift in difficult terrain, an invaluable ability for the Fighter who spends much of his time positioning the enemies for his party (and its unrestricted by armor). Oh and even with the -1 speed penalty from Full plate your going to be moving just as fast as everyone else because elves have a 7 speed.

2) Dwarf- Dwarves are tough as hell and make excellent defensive fighters. Like elves they get a wisdom bonus, which helps with their attacks of Opportunity and Will defense. Dwarves are only 25% likely to fail a save vs. poison and they don’t get pushed around, an ability seen much more often than in previous editions. The biggest problem a fighter might face is enemies at a range where he cant mark them or enemies that can push him away while they attack his friends. Dwarven stability makes that second option less likely to be a problem, though your party might have to help you with the first due to your reduced speed. The Dwarves best ability is their Minor Action second wind, a huge boost to defenses and health when combined with any leader class. All of this is good for defense fighters… but many of these abilities also help a berserker dwarf build that doesn’t want their opponents getting away or pushing them off. The Racial Feat “Dwarven Weapon Proficiency” grants bonuses to hammer and axe damage, some of the heaviest hitters in the game.

3) Human- The 4^th place contenders were Dragonborn and Orc, but Orc gets no skill bonus’s and Dragonborn get a dead stat bonus. Human lets you have a high strength, but due to its inherent flexibility can also give you bonus’s to other stats of your choice. The extra skill lets you complete the Fighter Skill list, the Extra Feat lets you customize your build quicker, the global defense bonus keeps you on your feet longer… but the real winner is that extra at will power. Fighters have 3 excellent at will powers and its fantastic having access to all of them.

Strength: How Important is it?

Short answer: Important.

Long answer: … not as important as you probably think. Every fighter power is based off of strength that attack against AC. There are a few powers that attack Reflex but they are few and far between. Since Str is going to be your primary means of hitting you would think that it needs to be your highest stat to the exclusion of all others… but that’s 3.5 thinking. The main bonus you’re going to be receiving to your hits is the generic half level bonus and your weapon enhancement/proficiency bonus. Additionally a majority of your damage no longer comes from strength, it comes from rolling multiple weapon damage dice. So yes, Strength should be your most important stat, but it doesn’t have to be your exclusive stat. Having a high wisdom and constitution is important as well, your most important “Stat” is the weapon you’re using.

Weapon Type Builds

Sword and Board- Or Sword and Shield as its more commonly known. The Sword and Board technique is for the defensive fighter and offers more control than the brute strength of other builds. You’ll also have access to specific shield abilities (more useful than they were in 3.5) and a higher reflex save (Shields add to that now). Several Fighter powers require a shield and allow you to use knockback abilities with them, abilities that can keep creatures off of your squishy friends in the party. With the expenditure of a feat to get Bastard Sword proficiency you’ll be doing almost equivalent damage to a Great Sword. Sword and Board isn’t limited to swords of course, swords just happen to be the most accurate weapons and Bastard Sword is the best sword in the game. It should be noted that Sword and Board build will do only slightly less damage with a bastard sword than a two hander build does, and significantly increases durability.

Two Hander- Two handed weapon should really be called “I want to roll 3d12 at level 1.” Because what we’re talking about here is the Great Axe. Other options include great sword (down to a d10 but with an additional +1 to hit), the spiked chain (with a feat, and not as obnoxious as it was before) the maul (For your 2d6 needs) and the longspear/glaive (if you like reach). With a two hander you’re going to be rolling more damaging dice, an advantage when it comes to using encounter abilities and dailies. Rolling a d10 or a d6 in 3.5 matter much less than how much power attack you could put in, now your rolling multiple d10’s and it makes a much more significant difference. Recommended two handers are the Great Axe for maximum damage or the Maul for its statistically higher damage (Rolling 6d6 will usually bring you more than 3d12… but its less exciting).

Specialty Weapon- Some fighter powers work better if you’re using a specific weapon. There’s one called “Slice and Dice” that does more damage with an axe, and several that use polearms to apply status-effects. If your planning on making use of these weapons you should build your character appropriately and check the table on page 77, these will tell you what score will be used for these special abilities. Swords allow mobility and accuracy and use dexterity, hammers and axes increase damage while using Con. Despite what the table says none of the Polearm attacks use wisdom, increase your dexterity instead.

Weakness: The fighter has 3 significant weaknesses that you should be aware of. The first is his lack of Ranged Potential. The Fighter has no ranged abilities and all his abilities are either Melee Weapon Attacks or Close Bursts. Fast enemies who keep you at bay, such as rangers or warlocks, will infuriate you and undermine your potential as a defender. The second weakness is the Fighter Skill list. Although all of the skills are valuable for a fighter, very few of them will come to play in any social skill encounter… and intimidate is often a poor choice when dealing with NPC’s you will have multiple interactions with. The final weakness is the large number of attacks that are reliant on hitting Armor Class. Armor Class is the fastest scaling and usually highest defense on most monsters/NPC’s. A fighter, unless he rolls very well on a regular basis, will probably miss more often than any other class. To make up for this many of your powers have “miss” effects or are Reliable. Also your marking ability works even when you miss, very important to keep in mind.

Picking Powers

At Will: These two powers are very important and will be your standard attacks in most instances. Cleave allows you to kill minions while focusing on the primary target. Sure Strike is probably the weakest of them as you sacrifice your strength bonus to gain a +2 to hit… an ability that doesn’t scale as well at higher levels. Tide of Iron requires a shield and gives at will battlefield control, an ability I think is priceless against everything but dwarves. Finally Reaping Strike rewards fighters with damage even when you miss, and can be impressively used with a Maul or Great Axe. Unless your dead set against using a shield I highly recommend getting Tide of Iron and Cleave. Humans (or determined Two Hander Fighters) should pick up Reaping Strike as well . If you are notoriously unlucky go with Sure Strike and pile on those bonus’s.

Encounter Powers: If you have the option to grab status effect powers they should be your primary choice, a stunned enemy does no damage and a prone one is easy pickings for your allies. If you don’t have cleave make certain that you have at least one multiple target power, either a close burst or a multiple target attack. If you’re a two handed weapon fighter make certain you choose powers that offer the most dice to roll, otherwise your not taking advantage of your weapon.

Here’s a list of “Must have” powers from the first ten levels. I’m going to list powers for a character that is either a hybrid of defense and damage, or is more defensive. Those people who want to play fighters that only care about damage have much easier choices to make (Just choose the powers with the most x(W) or that have bonus’s to damage based on your weapon). Just because a power didn’t make my initial list doesn’t mean its bad, it just means its more situational or specific.

Passing Attack- Lets you swing at two enemies, marking them both and shifting out of flanking positions. Really good for controlling the battlefield and has the potential to do more damage than the 2(W) attacks…although it also has the capability to do much less.

Sweeping Blow- This is the “Minion Killer” power, and one of your few close bursts. Remember that every enemy this attacks is an enemy that will either die (minion if you hit), take damage or be marked (if you miss). Any of those 3 options are good choices. This ability gets amazing when your using one of the 4 weapon types that it supports since it increases the accuracy.

Griffons Wrath- Attacks that give a blanket penalty to AC are a good thing and this one lasts until the end of your Next turn, which means you can open a fight with this number and then follow up with one of your heavy hitting daily powers. Or if your really interested in killing your opponent you can hit them with this bad boy, spend an action point to immediately hit them with a damage power while they have the penalty… and then hit them with another daily on your next turn.

Daily Powers: Reliable powers are unique to the fighter, make sure you have at least one. You can only be in once stance at a time and you are limited in the number of daily powers you have, so limit yourself to one stance from the Daily power list. Remember that your daily powers are the big guns, they are heavy hitters and you will probably use them as the first abilities in an encounter… so abilities that give bonus’s or status effects are a major plus while straight damage powers are only ok.

Villains Menace- Damage and Healing are nice, but opening the fight with this attack against the biggest enemy will give you a sustained damage and accuracy bonus, whether it hits or not.

Dizzying Blow- A reliable heavy hit with the additional bonus of immobilizing a target. Immobilized enemies are easy pickings for your friends and you can leave dizzy enemy to go fight others while your ranged allies pick him apart. Obviously this power works best on enemies that don’t have ranged attacks of their own, or who’s melee strikes are more efficient. An excellent tool for keeping an accurate heavy hitter away from your friends when he refuses to fight you (yes this can happen).

Thicket of Blades- 3(W) in a close burst w/ slow and its reliable? Wow. This is a must have fighter power for the end of the Heroic Tier.

Utilities: You are usually going to be the center of combat, most attacks will come at you and include you. The leader will help keep you up, but its your job as a defender to maintain your own health until his turn. Abilities that grant temporary hit points, automatically grant you a saving throw, heal you or otherwise keep you from falling down are the first utility powers you should pick up. Grab battlefield control after you have a solid foundation of powers that make sure you wont die. Utilities that can be used each encounter will generally be less “impressive” than daily utilities, but I find I would rather have a constant “good” ability than a flashy once per day.

Boundless Endurance- Unstoppable is nice for a low level ability, but 2d6+con doesn’t scale well. Regeneration while bloodied (which can be a good chunk of a fight when you’re the one being hit) is fantastic, especially because it will start at 4 or 5 (most likely) and only go up from there.

Unbreakable- Damage reduction is fantastic, damage reduction you can use every encounter is even better.

Into the Fray- This might be your first utility that gives battlefield control, and it’s a winner. 3 extra movement is the difference between using a basic attack at the end of a charge or being able to take a move action and use an encounter or daily ability. The fact that this is 3 extra movement per encounter is just icing.

Marks: The Ability to Mark opponents is theoretically the core ability, and most important power available, to the Defender archetype. The Generic Mark inflicts a -2 to hit penalty on any attacks that don’t include the Marker in their targets and one mark will always override a previous mark making it impossible to stack them. Marked creatures are aware of all penalties and consequences of the mark. In a fluff fashion Marking can be anything from a spoken Challenge, an invisible burden, an insulting tag (like Zorro) or any other number of options. Both the Fighter and Paladin rely on Marking enemies for battlefield control.

The Fighters Mark:

- Pros: A fighter Marks every target he attacks, whether he hits them or not. Fighter marks provoke attacks in addition to their other penalties, allowing the fighter to deal significant damage. Fighter marks also limit mobility since any target that attempts to leave a fighters reach also provokes an attack, and their ability to halt movement forces an enemy to take an entire turn running from them in addition to the damage they have taken.

- Cons: If you can’t hit your enemy the additional attacks are useless. Probability states that there will be occasions that your enemy ignores you to attack a friend and you miss the attack. Enemies that are not within your reach suffer less repercussions from your mark, the reduction in accuracy is irritating but not impossible to overcome for a trained Sniper. Additionally powerful NPC’s (such as Dragons, Epic Villains, etc.) often have area attacks that allow them to bypass the Mark by attacking the Fighter and his friends at once.

- Situations and Tips: Fighter marks rely on an attack, but not a melee attack. Firing a bow, even if you have a low dexterity, will still mark the enemy you attacked. Using close combat bursts allow you to mark multiple enemies at once, but abilities like Cleave that deal automatic damage do not. The fighter excels in situations with lots of enemies because all of them suffer penalties.

Prestige Path Rankings:

Iron Vanguard: Sold Class, very defensive. The action point bonus is huge, +4 to all save defenses in the same turn as you take an extra action and probably get some serious hate… yes please. Obviously you need a high con to take advantage of this, the passive healing and damage are nice if you build to take advantage of it. Its perfect for the battlefield control Fighter who likes status effects, knockdowns and pushes… not so much for the guy who just likes to chop people up.

Kensei: Kinda crappy to be honest. The Bonus’s to accuracy and damage are ok, but not game breaking. Your inability to do weapon swapping takes away some of the advantages fighter build have. The best ability is spending the action point to reroll but that’s not guaranteed to work. The damage reduction and encounter ability are both adequate, but kind of underwhelming. The level 20 attack is strong since you don’t need to connect to continue attacking and it gets more accurate as it goes. Not sure its worth the rest of this underwhelming path though.

Pit Fighter: AC bonus is good, the extra damage is pretty awesome (It starts out at an extra 5 damage a hit and your almost guaranteed to be making two attacks). This path really starts to shine at 16 when you get a constant damage bonus equal to your wisdom modifier (which should already be high since it helps your attack of opportunity and mark attacks). Any power where you punch the person in the face as part of it is made of win and the inverse mark utility is pretty nasty during a big boss fight. Lion of Battle is a kill move with battle field control. Pit Fighter is basically the perfect Fighter Path for fighters who want to focus on doing damage exclusively.

Swordmaster: This is the class you should take. The defense bonus is sweet and the ability to use an at will as part of a charge is a lovely trick at level 11. Steel Blitz is one of those abilities that will make you smile every time it triggers. Precision Cut is possibly the best mid level encounter power in the game, Fantastic Flourish is a decent utility that will get used every encounter. Crescendo Sword is essentially an at-Will disguised as a daily, except you can sacrifice it for other abilities too. The only reason not to take Swordmaster as an offensive or defensive fighter is because you don’t like swords or had a specific build in mind. It really is that good.

Multi Classing

To be perfectly clear Multi-Classing gives you the following benefits

a) You get to substitute one of your at wills for an at will from another class. This is huge for many builds because those “at will” powers are your bread and butter attacks for a reason.

b) You get to select your new powers from other classes as you level up as opposed to “Swapping” them in. This means you get a total of two utility powers from another class, two daily powers, and two encounter powers (these are including the feat swaps).Thus you get to take half of your dailies and half your encounters from two separate lists. That is huge. Additionally the two best utility powers of another class are now yours. Also huge.

c) Additionally the “Multi-Class Feats” are incredibly adaptable and can be changed each level to match new higher level powers (without using your Retraining). Many feats now scale, but none of the feats scale as well as the Acolyte, Neophyte and Adept powers.

Fighters have the broadest base of any class from which to multi-class into. This is because the most important statistic they have is Strength, which is also the top statistic for 4 other classes. Their second most important statistic is Constitution, which is important to a 5^th. That being said Rogue and Wizard make much less optimal builds for Multi-Class fighters than any of the other classes. The Rogue is completely reliant on Dexterity and gains no benefit from having a high strength. To make matters worse with the rogue a majority of their powers rely on a “Light Blade” which is mechanically inferior to the weapons available to the fighter. Similarly the Wizard is completely dedicated to Intelligence, one of the dead stats for the fighter, and uses an implement rather than a weapon to channel its powers. Unlike Paladins who can use a holy avenger to channel both, or warlocks who can use a pact blade, there is no Weapon Implement available to the Wizard (except through the use of a specific prestige path) making cross classing the two even more frustrating.

In my opinion the best multi-classes for fighters are the following.

-Warlock (Specifically the Fiendish Pact). Multi-Classing to fiendish warlock gives you constitution based damage (a score that’s already high) that lets you hit from a range and against defenses instead of AC’s. Hellish Rebuke is a nasty combo for Fighters that marks enemies with a damned if you do, damned if you don’t fire blast. Fiery Bolt is a nasty way to mark an enemy from afar and irritate his friends, Shroud of Black Steel is a great defensive power once your entrenched, and Iron Spike of Dis is a dramatic way to make sure your opponent doesn’t bother your friends. Don’t ignore the Star Pact con based abilities, and pick up some of the Fey Utilities like Fey Switch.

-Cleric. Cleric’s have a variety of strength based attacks that give a fighter some varied damage types (Thunder, Radiance), more control options, and some healing/buffing options. They also have Wisdom based attacks that a fighter can take advantage of. Priest’s Shield is a nice defensive at will to grab, Split the Sky is a nasty encounter control power, Divine Vigor is fantastic for long fights and makes dwarves super happy, and Blade Barrier is a surprise for an opponent who expected a dumb brute. The minor action healing surge you get once per day will help you stay up longer and abilities like Strengthen the Faithful will make you and your friends happy, while Divine Power will keep you up for an entire encounter.

-Ranger. If you want to be a duel wielder, but didn’t want to be in light armor, Fighter/Ranger is an excellent melee build that can do some significant damage. Fighter/Ranger requires a different kind of mindset, rather than being the shield in front of your party you instead function as a snare keeping the enemy frustrated and chasing their own tail. Combining ranger slows and immobilizes with a fighters innate pushback and opportunity attacks provides both excellent damage and battlefield control. Specifically keep an eye out for Hit and Run, Thundertusk Boar Strike, Frenzied Skirmish, Weave through the Fray, and Sweeping Whirlwind. If you are planning on doing a Fighter/Ranger build don’t ignore your Dexterity score, pick up some ranged attacks as well.

Ok folks, thats it for Bonus Exp! This week. Coming soon.... the Paladin article. And if defenders aren't your style were moving on to Leader Classes next.