I'm probably making a dumb newbie mistake, but I was looking for a current free-to-play first life Fighter build that focused on the Vanguard tree with sword & board. I like the idea of using the shield as another weapon. I've stumbled across a few builds in the repository and elsewhere that are sort of in the direction I was thinking, but they're more focused on the two-handed or two-weapon fighting styles instead of sword and shield. Either that or they're heavily multi-classed while I'm looking for something a little simpler. Also I think one or two of the builds I came across are a little outdated with some of the recommendations.

I was thinking human with a bastard sword for the preferred weapon (because of the glancing blow) along with the shield. I don't mind switching to THF or TWF when needed, but I don't want to focus on that. It wouldn't even be a bad idea to add a bow or some other ranged capability for occasional use. It's nice to be able to get in a hit before closing to melee range or to be able to hit back with a ranged opponent that you can't immediately close with. But I don't want to pull too far away from the basic concept, either with skills & feats or by a lot of multiclassing.

One variation that I thought of would be making it a dragonborn (I picked up the $10 Starter Bundle). The breath weapon would be fun, but I read a post somewhere that it's kind of useless without a couple of wizard (or other caster?) levels to boost it. I probably wouldn't mind that even at the cost of the fighter capstone later on.

Can someone point me to any builds like what I'm describing or can I not find one because it's just not feasible? Or should I ask in the Custom Character Builds thread to see if someone would like to take a stab at this?

Thanks!