Level 4 Fighter a little too squishy

[Cleanincubus]

I started a new fighter a couple days ago (my 2nd), and it's just a little too squishy for me. My other fighter has done fine, when it comes to taking damage, from level 1. I even have better equipment with this toon. Here are the details:

Dwarf - Level 4
19 STR (with +1 item)
15 DEX (with +1 item)
15 CON
11 INT
8 WIS
11 CHR

99 HP: (Rugged belt, Heroic Durability feat, Toughness feat, Racial Toughness I, Fighter Toughness I)
AC: 25 Blocking Bonus: +2

+3 Mithral Full Plate & Engraved Ring (+1 Protection), & Dodge feat. I also do THF, so no shield.

Did I do something wrong setting up this character? Is there something I can change to take less damage (other than using a shield)? I'm not really looking to be a Tank, but it'd be nice to be able to fight longer without having to run away to quickly chug pots, or just die. Any help is greatly appreciated. Yes I realize this is a very noob question, but I figured I might get a better answer from asking. I have already searched, and used that info to build this toon, but apparently I screwed up along the way.

[BDog77]

This character doesn't look at all squishy to me. I suppose you could have dumped 1 int point to add 1 to your con, unless you are trying to get Combat Expertise, which it doesn't look like you care about anyway Actually, the only odd thing I see about your build is the 11 Cha. Not sure why you would do this, I would have left Cha at 6 and gotten Con up to 18, but that is really a moot point, since you seem more than good enough for level 4 quests (unless you are doing Proof is in the PITA, or Freshen). My dwarf fighter at 4 had 35 AC, but he uses a shield and defensive fighting (no CE yet, I forgot at creation and will need the +2 at level 7 to get it), and that does not seem to be what you are going for here.

I guess the best I can suggest is maybe a change to your playing style, try to move around the enemies and avoid getting surrounded. Since you are THF, you should be killing single enemies pretty fast, so if you can get 1 on 1, you should have no trouble.

Good Luck!

[LordPiglet]

put away the 2 axes

Get power attack, pick up a great axe, smash

Once you get ITWF, then whip out the twf.

At low levels, with that strength, having power attack and a nice two hander will fly much faster then twf. You'll be 2 hitting everything on normal, and 3-4 hitting stuff on hard.

I ran my rangers s&b until 4-6 and then started twf. However, now that I've been running around playing with a thf barb and paly who both have power attack, well it's fun walking into delera's pt 1 and 2 shotting the ghostly skeletons at lvl 4.

Sometimes the solution isn't taking less damage, sometimes it's killing faster.

Of course, you can always make sure to grab the axe bane/spear bane from korthos, and what ever dr you can get.

[BDog77]

put away the 2 axes

Get power attack, pick up a great axe, smash

Once you get ITWF, then whip out the twf.

Wait....what?


I also do THF

You might wanna rethink your answer, Lordpiglet....nowhere does OP say he uses TWF.

[sirdanile]

Wait....what?



You might wanna rethink your answer, Lordpiglet....nowhere does OP say he uses TWF.

The 15 dex probably threw him off a bit.

[Impaqt]

There is nothing wrong with backing out and drinking a potion.

there is nothing wrong with flanking a mob to get a better attack.

The character seems.... a Bit unusual... but certainly not "Squishy" imo.

Are you soloing? Hiring Cleric? PC Clerics? What kind of quests are you taking on?

[LordPiglet]

Wait....what?



You might wanna rethink your answer, Lordpiglet....nowhere does OP say he uses TWF.


The 15 dex probably threw him off a bit.

Yeah, misread his shield comment and the 15 dex threw me off. This is what happens when I post from work at the end of the day :D.

To me, the dex and the mithral would indicate a twf lean in the build. Mithral would be trying to take advantage of the extra dex in the build to achieve a higher AC.

Yes, the higher AC is good for a THF build, but personally a little DR goes a long way at those levels. My characters tend to take more damage from spells then weapons at those levels. (Except trolls, 'cause they hit hard).

However with that strength he should have, and be using power attack and 2 hitting pretty much everything at normal, 3-4 hits on hard.

Kiting backwards is effective, so is pulling around a corner so you can take advantage of certain parts of the attack animation sequence but getting enemies grouped up.

[Postumus]

I started a new fighter a couple days ago (my 2nd), and it's just a little too squishy for me. My other fighter has done fine, when it comes to taking damage, from level 1. I even have better equipment with this toon. Here are the details:




At level 3/1, my Dwarf Ftr/Clr was similar to yours except I squeezed more points into STR and CON. I had more HPs (I think 120?), but I didn't even bother trying to take advantage of dex. I'm not sure what you are going for with the 15 DEX.

I just went full plate w/ battle axe and swung for the hills.

Another nice thing about Dwarves is they can use the dwarven axe in one hand, so if you need to turtle up a bit, you can go axe & heavy shield, but the battle axe with power attack mows 'em down so fast, I didn't get hit much at that level.

But since this is your second ftr, you probably know most of this stuff.

[Cleanincubus]

I played some more yesterday with this toon, to try and figure out things a little more. It's not so much that I'm getting hit a lot, it's that when I do get hit I'm taking a lot more damage. I'd say about half the time I'm getting hit for 2-5 damage (not a big deal), but the other half of the time I'm getting hit for 10+ damage. I don't know, maybe the game's getting lucky with a lot of critical hits.

With the 15 DEX thing, that may also be an issue. Before making this one, I tried to look at some builds online, and stole some ideas from them. I didn't realize that a build for TWF verse THF would effect it all that much, and most of the builds I looked at were TWF builds. And the higher CHR was for more points in Intimidation. I guess I was kind of fooling myself into thinking that I could do a little bit of "tanking" when I really needed to. Obviously with me taking the damage like I am (or at least feel I am), it was a bad idea in the long run.

I've been soloing each quest, without even a hireling. So far I've done all of the lvl 1-2 quests all the way on Elite, and just started the lvl 3 quests on Hard (ginding XP until I have to level up). I'm definitely doing damage like I should; 1-2 hits on Normal and 3-5 on Hard/Elite. I don't have Power Attack yet (think I chose slashing specialization instead), but I have the other boost enhancements (I know not they're same).

****. Maybe I'll just keep playing and see how things turn out. Worse comes to worse and I'll just re-roll. Thanks everyone for the help and the insight, I really appreciate it.

[cebridges]

I don't know, maybe the game's getting lucky with a lot of critical hits.

are you familiar with the combat log? if it's important to you, go back and read to see what's happening.

[CSFurious]

first, instead of dodge, take toughness

second, if you are fighting thf-style, i do not understand why your dex is 15 which is the norm for twf-style

third, re-roll & start with 17 str, 18 is too much on what appears to be a 28-point build

[Aranticus]

op check out the builds in ddowiki in the template for new players page

[justiceface]

Are you sure its melee npcs that are hitting that hard? I'm on first character right now a level 3 warrior with 10 dex, a +1full plate and two hand axe and I find that on hard the only significant damage I take is from casters. Melee damage only starts to ratchet up on elite.

[MogeeMaleeg]

I think that this character lacks focus. It seems as if your fighter doesn't know exactly wants to be when he grows up. Are you more interested in swinging a two handed weapon or a weapon in each hand? That will be crucial to figure out before you roll your stats. ITWF requires a 17 dex, if you go that route. Con for a fighter is a lot more important than Cha because it effects saves and HP. Strength obviously is important because you need that to hit and damage, (unless you go a dex route). I would suggest deciding what direction you want to go with him/her and then reading up on those builds on here. I probably would do that and then reroll to get your stats set up for your playing style preference since you are at such a low level rather than wasting more time with this character.