Great Weapon Fighter Build

[Beard Master Flex]

What’s the best way to play a 2H weapon wielder on this server?

I know that sword and board is the optimal way to play - but 2h has the cool factor I want.

What’s the best I can do without sucking?

Thanks!

[Kenji]

I made spreadsheets for most weapons types, all crit threat and what not accounted for, doubled checked my values with Dirac.

Weapon Master:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

Regular fighter:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing

TL;DR:
Scythe is no longer a meme weapon, it's better than greatsword if invested into basic improved crit and keen property.
Tridents are most likely the best one, as well, seeing that players can get +4 tridents from drops, and craft Cyclone which turns out to be the best 2H weapon available (Even if 1d8 Cold is resisted). On top of that, Tridents are also martial weapons, not exotic, thus saves a feat.

Halberds are the worst in that regard, even heavy flails do better. Your best bet is Trident from the looks of it, the +4 enhancement bonus means 23 Fighters can get the +1AB on top of it for +5 enhancement bonus, thus bypassing any DR, all the while not investing into exotic feats.

Peasants shall rise!

[The1Kobra]

The alternative to going fighter/WM would be to go barbarian. Barbarian gets you more HP and DR, and you survive based purely on your ability to soak up damage and deal it out quickly rather than getting a high AC. When they rage they get a boost of temporary HP as well.

The builds are however, extremely feat tight in the epic levels. You'll have to spend your feats wisely. You'll likely be tight on stats too, given the stat requirements for Epic Damage Reduction (Which you really want for this build), Thundering Rage, and Mighty rage. You probably won't be able to get them all.

Still, built well, a barbarian can be a force to be reckoned with.

A more offensive build would be 17/7/6 Barbarian/WM/Fighter, very feat tight and not great defenses, but oodles of damage.

Or you could make a more 'classic' 24/3/3 Barbarian/Fighter/Rogue OR Bard, which gets you a nice number of bonus feats in epic levels and UMD. You could go for 23/4/3 as well, though I'm not sure you can fit in all of the needed feats this way.

[Opustus]

One possibility is to play a complete glass cannon with Fighter11/Rogue3/WM16. You lose two AC for two AB and possibly change the IE for Improved disarm, which yields a further +4 AB against small weapons. You'd be heavily party reliant. The silliest way to build it is as Fighter11/WM19, but then you'd hate yourself for not making the character when Kensai was still a thing.

[Beard Master Flex]

Thanks for the replies!

Nice find on the trident - that’s good to keep in mind.

I really just wish Kensai was still around, not sure why but I’d really just love to play a straight fighter with those bonus’ and feats.

[StrykerMontgomery]

I wish they would do something like bring kensai back but make them unable to use shields. But apparently even two hander kensais were a bit ridiculous powerful when built right.

[BegoneThoth]

I wish they would do something like bring kensai back but make them unable to use shields. But apparently even two hander kensais were a bit ridiculous powerful when built right.

Indeed.

Also note the fighter bg/paly rogue is very potent, you get a +5 weapon out of a +4 naturally, and have loads of feats. 23/4/3 I think is the spread you go.

Use it on an elf, halfling, orog, dwarf, or something with an inherent +4 weapon.

[garrbear758]

If you go 2h, make sure to take improved disarm. There will be no ab penalty against people using a medium weapon, and you will actually get a +4 higher ab than a normal attack against small weapons. The disarm penalty/bonus affects your actual ab not just your disarm DC.