That's a major part of it. The Fighter Class is very boring, so it's filled with feats to contend with other classes when it comes to fun and uniqueness

But on top of that, there are few ways to increase survivability without stat buffs.

Ah. Or you could just max your fighting stat and CON

True, but that's still your choice.

I could, as a warlock, choose to max out eldritch blast and grab spell sniper, and get the invocations. It'd be strong, but boring. But that'd be my choice.

OR I can grab Actor and Disguise Self as a cantrip, and basically be a changeling all game.

What feats would you recommend for a dex based fighter without shields?

Mobile is really good.

It basically gives you the entire swashbuckler archetype with a single feat.

Looks good. Perhaps Alert? Blade Mastery? Sentinel might be good.

Both are good.

MI?

For Booming blade and the like.

Nah. Booming Blade grants you a SINGLE attack that whole round.

Unless you use your action surge.

No bonus action attack. No extra ttacks.

Oh, ok.

The attack is embedded in Booming Blade, not a part of a string of attacks.

So you're spending your action for a spell, not spending your action for an attack string.

Any combat cantrips that would work with it?

Meaning that dual wield can't activate, and your extra attacks don't come into play.

Blade Ward or Lightning Lure

That's about it.

Darn.

Unless you're comfortable with RP or support cantrips.

Both of those cantrips I mentioned are good.

Blade Ward makes you indestructible for a turn.

True... may do it, may not.

Defensive Duelist?

And Lightning Lure is good for something just out of reach, or in case you can't move and need to trap something.

Combine Lightning Lure with Sentinel, and someone's gonna get REAL mad.

Defensive Duelist is alright.

jots that down

Keep in mind, that combo will just make things really want to hit you.

I'd also probably have to get War Caster, since I'm dual wielding.

Not necessarily. Sentinel covers the need for keeping enemies within reach.

Lightning Lure is to get them INTO reach.

To cast spells with somatic elements.

Not necessarily. You already have dual wielding.

Depending on your DM, they'll let you sheath your off hand the same turn you drew it.

Ah.

RAW, it lets you draw two weapons, but I definitely wouldn't think of it as being game breaking to allow them to sheathe their weapon to cast a spell.

Would Savage Attacker be good?

Not really. Your build is focused around many attacks.

And many dice.

Got it.

It'd be better if you had a heavy weapon, that does 1d12 or something.

More like barbarians?

Yep. Depends on the barbarian, though.

Tough would be good, right?

Always.

Got it.

I know it sounds dumb, but that's probably better for the squishier fighters.

Like Eldritch Knights, who have MAD problems.

Since their Con is lower, the flat health boost from Tough gives a more dramatic difference.

Makes sense, but if I have Sentinel...

Very true.

I really like Sentinel, but it runs into the same pitfall that the Spirit barbarian runs into. If enemies can't hurt your friends, they'll hurt you instead.

The spirit barbarian is probably my favorite and most powerful subclass in the game, IMO. But you need a supportive team.

Makes your whole team indestructible. Except you. You get no defensive buffs from the subclass. The only defense you get is from standard barbarian bonuses, like Rage.

As soon as I can, I'm going for studded leather or some type of medium armor. I don't care for the ones with stealth disadvantage, so I might go breastplate.

And most team's long term contingency plans revolve around spreading the damage.

If you're the tank, you could look into Medium Armor Master.

Perhaps.

Chain Shirt would get me 17 AC, including the dual wielding

If I took Medium Armor master

I can kinda see a stealthy tank work out.

I just don't want to be the one that fails the stealth check and ruins the mission

Hide near the entrance, allies lure enemies to them. As melee enemies engage allies, enemies meander past you and you hit the archers.

What's gonna happen if you fail? You get surrounded?

That's exactly where the fighter wants to be.

And then your buddies surround those guys.

Gotcha

The worst part about scouts is once they're caught, they're dead.

The thing with you is that you're ALSO the tank.

So the mage whips his dick out and hits you with a fireball because he panics. Which happens to be a dex save.

In fact, most severe spells are dex saves.

They can't kill you if they're not alive

Also, DEX based fighter

Probably more of the "Assassin" style.

Exactly.

If any of y'all follow Order of the Stick, today's update is really good

You can afford to spread away from the group, since getting caught by a small patrol isn't death.

What race are you, human?

You know what would be really fun? Ranks like in PF. Also, yes, variant, that's how I got dual wielder

Like skill ranks?

Yeah.

I can see that. I'm kinda 50/50 on that one.

Why's that?

Proficiency made it so we don't have to look at our character sheets, you just have to know your 6 modifiers and what skills you are proficient in.

That's like, 10 things. You can memorize that.

My dex is +4. I'm proficient in stealth. +6 to roll. No character sheet needed.

Freaking easy.

But it does lead away from some customization

Got it.

One of my favorite things to do in PF is to just max out Linguistics. I will know every language.

What do you mean?

Put a rank into Linguistics every level, get a new language every level

Have a high starting INT, get more languages, get more ranks

Couldn't you just grab Tongues or something?

Don't want to waste a daily use.

Sure.

A combination worth looking into:

I'm pretty sure my level 2 alchemist knows at least 6 languages

Vengeance Paladin, Sentinel, Tunnel Fighter (unearthed arcana)

Oh, Polearm Master

What does that combo do?

It effectively allows you to have unlimited attacks of opportunity, move when you make one, stop an enemy when you make one, you're allowed to make one when someone moves toward you, away from you, or attacks someone else is adjacent to you.

Oh man

So an enemy moves within range. You poke them and they stop, you move 10 feet, and you let someone else get within range and repeat.

Got it

And that's not even on your turn.

Ah

But the Deep Stalker ranger, that was supposed to get the Tunnel Fighter fighting style was too strong, so they remade it into the Gloom Stalker.

Which is both worse and better in combat.

Can blind enemies that use darkvision and can ignore magical darkness. I haven't DM'd for one yet, but I don't look forward to it.

*Sorry, not blind. It makes you invisible when in darkness.

Which is not much better.

Makes sense

Looking into it, Magic Initiate into Druid might work in your favor.

I think I'm good on feats for now

Lol, alright.

I have 5 written down to maybe take already

It might be worthwhile later to dip into Warlock for a single level.

The level 1 hexblade bonuses are very useful, and it gives you access to Hex.

Which grants extra damage per hit.

Perhaps

I'd probably do it after level 5, when you get extra attack.

Definitely

What if I went into rogue for just one level?

Sneak attack is a single 1d6 without investing into it, and only if you're adjacent to an enemy.

Which I would be, I'm a fighter

Sorry, only if an ally is adjacent to the target. Unless you had advantage or something.

Which, again, I probably would be.

Hex does 1d6 per hit, lasts an hour, you can place it on a new creature if the original dies, and the only drawback is it's concentration, which won't be a problem considering your high Con and lack of other concentration spells.

I could do that, or get a bunch of temp HP from Fiend

Fiend only grants temporary hit points on a kill

Yeah

Hexblade grants normal hit points with the same formula, but also crits on a 19, and proficiency as a bonus to all hits against the target

You don't need to land the finishing blow with hexblade, but you do with Fiend.

Oh wait temp HP doesn't stack

Correct

Yeah, will probably go Hexblade

However, Fiend is permanent, where Hexblade is a single target, cursed for a minute, per each short rest

Yeah...

So Hexblade is MUCH MUCH better, but will only really benefit against bosses.

I would still say Hexblade is in your favor.

I suppose

It'd be rather flavorful, too. At level 5, you might have gained interest from the Hexblade patron for being so good at murdering people.

Lol yeah

Maybe dip into Cleric?

At level 6, that bumps your standard damage to 3d8+9+3d6+9

3d4*

Which is 2 standard attacks +1 bonus action attack + Modifier to damage + 3 activations for Hex + 3 hexblade bonuses.

Oh, and +3d4 from brute

What's the 3d6?

Hex. Basically Hunter's Mark, but for Warlocks.

Gotcha

Deals 1d6 necrotic damage for every hit on the cursed target, lasts an hour, uses concentration, costs a bonus action to activate but not to maintain, if the target dies, you can target a new person using a bonus action, and the curse penalizes ability checks of your choice.

Fighter 5/Hexlock 1/Forge or Death Cleric 1 ?

Don't bother with Cleric, dipping too hard into other classes.

Plus, the right invocations are super broken.

I'd get Super Darkvision 120 feet as a level 2 warlock if you're not planning on going back to fighter.

What would you recommend?

See through magical darkness, plus 120 feet? Really damn good.

In fact, it's one of two ways to see through magical darkness.

The other is a whole ranger subclass.

Well yeah, I mean others.

Guessing I'm not going for EB?

Burning Hex?

Chilling?

Eh, I'd probably grab an RP option at that point.

The Disguise Self is the best one, IMO.

All the others aren't beneficial to you.

Then just one more level into Warlock and grab Darkness (a level 2 spell) and your DM won't know what to do with you.

Sorry, bud, gotta go. Good talking to yah.

See ya! Grasp of Hadar + Sentinel would be good...

@Anaphory I feel like "nearly 10,000 games" doesn't even come close to describing the scope and breadth of the RPG landscape. (Probably at least a third of them are minor d20 System variants and OSR tools, meaning they're all still fundamentally D&D-esque.)

The scope of RPGs is found in stuff that's GMless, diceless, simulating story types entirely unlike D&D, challenging the definition of success, messing with agency, toying with diegetics. Microscope and Dread, InSpectres and Lovecraftesque, A Penny For My Thoughts and Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple.

(One of those games uses dice; three barely use randomization at all; four have no GM; one uses the game manual as an in-game object; four have mechanics for other players to gain control of "your" character; two are completely unheroic in any traditional sense...)

Like, if you take someone who's only played over-the-shoulder shoot-em-up video games and tell them there's more than ten thousand other games, it wouldn't help them understand that you're talking about Myst and Zork and Firewatch and Crypt of the Necrodancer and Hatoful Boyfriend.

@Pixie Rust monsters. Giant vermin. Small dinosaurs.

Does this make sense by chance?

Take Brute archetype at level 3 Fighter, Sentinel feat at level 4, and War Caster feat at level 6.