PF2 Fighter Feats

Introduction

With no subclass to choose, feats are the primary way in which you can customize your Fighter. The Fighter’s feats are numerous, diverse, and cater to a broad variety of playstyles. Any type of weapon can be supported by the Fighter’s feat options, allowing you to truly master whatever way your character prefers to fight.

At the same time, in some ways the Fighter is locked into the feats designed for their preferred tactics. A fighter built for archery is going to take largely the same feats as every other archer. This isn’t a bad thing, of course. If you’re going to build an archer, you’re going to build an archer, and the feats to support that are mostly obvious.

When considering feats, remember the Fighter’s level 9 Combat Flexibility and level 14 Improved Combat Flexibility features. These give you two additional Class Feats of 8th level and 1th level which you can change on a daily basis. You can’t change them to prepare for every encounter, but if you’re expecting a change in terrain like going from open fields to narrow dungeon corridors, or if you’re facing a known enemy, you can use these slots to pick up situationally useful feats which will better prepare you for what’s to come.

Table of Contents

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks.

  • Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
  • Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
  • Green: Good options. Useful often.
  • Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

Fighter Class Feats

1st-Level Fighter Feats

  • Combat Assessment (PC1): This would be a great feat on a class that did more with knowledge skills, but there’s nothing else on the Fighter which encourages the use of Recall Knowledge or the associated skills, so a typical Fighter is woefully ill-equipped to use this. For classes looking to multiclass into Fighter it’s great.
  • Double Slice (PC1): Essential for two-weapon users. Rangers and Rogues get arguably better two-weapon fighting feats, but Double Slice does better against foes with damage resistance.
  • Exacting Strike (PC1): You can’t use this as the first attack on your turn because it has the Press trait, and it’s only useful if you’re going to make a Strike as part of your third Action. That’s an extremely specific situation, and if you hit, this is exactly the same as making a regular Strike. So this is situational, only useful for single-weapon melee builds, and it only matters if you miss on your second Attack in a turn where you’re planning to attack three times, which is rarely the right tactical decision.
  • Point Blank Stance (PC1): Excellent for archers. The attack penalty for Volley weapons like the Longbow is a huge problem, and the +2 damage bonus for non-Volley weapons can have a huge impact.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat was called “Point Blank Shot”, and it had the Open trait, which required you to use it as the first Action on your turn. The new name is clearer, and removing the Open trait makes it much easier to use the Stance.

  • Reactive Shield (PC1): Raising a shield costs an Action, which is a difficult commitment when an extra attack seems more useful, or when you need to Stride and also hit some stuff. This is a good fallback, but if you’re committed to using a shield, you’re probably counting on using the Shield Block Reaction, which will conflict with this until you get Quick Shield Block. If you’re not actively using Shield Block and still want the AC bonus, use Farabellus Flip if it’s available to you.
  • Snagging Strike (PC1): This is a great first attack every round. Making the target Off-Guard reduces their AC, which not only makes your own follow-up attacks more reliable, but makes things a little easier for all of your allies because the effect remains until the start of your next turn or until the target moves away.
  • Sudden Charge (PC1): Great action economy, and you still have another Action to draw a weapon or raise a shield. For melee characters, this is a great way to close to melee range without giving up the ability to attack on your first turn.
  • Vicious Swing (PC1): This is only effective with a weapon that uses d12 damage dice, and even then it’s not great. Your best use cases are on turns where you have three Actions and nothing better to do except make attacks, or when you’re facing an enemy with damage resistances. While those turns happen, they’re not every turn, sometimes you’ll need an Action to Step or something like that so the Action cost to make Power Attack more effective then other options doesn’t always make sense.

    At low levels, the additional damage die can be more impactful than the additional damage from a second Strike due to the Multiple Attack Penalty, but weirdly the math on Power Attack actually improves at around 10th level. The math here is complicated, and how good Power Attack looks depends heavily on when Runes of Striking become available, the availability of other damage boosts like Property Runes, the prevalence of damage resistances, and what baseline AC you use to calculate the likelihood of hitting with your Strikes.

    Because the math is so complex here, it’s hard to definitively recommend taking or not taking Power Attack. My advice: if your GM is going to let you retrain it, give it a try and see if it works out for you. If there’s a risk that it won’t work out and you’ll be stuck with it forever, look elsewhere.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat was called “Power Attack”.

2nd-Level Fighter Feats

  • Aggressive Block (PC1): If you’re using your shield to block an attack, pushing an enemy 5 feet away probably puts them out of reach, thereby denying them the ability to make another attack. Instead, the attacker will be forced to use their Action to Step or Stride to get back into reach. If they choose to become Off-Guard instead, you won’t benefit, but your allies likely will unless the initiative order puts your attacker’s turn immediately before yours.
  • Assisting Shot (PC1): Good for ranged builds, though not essential. This has the Press trait, so you can’t use this with your first attack for the turn, making this less likely to hit or crit, and thereby diminishing the benefits of the feat. Still, it’s better than a regular Strike.
  • Blade Brake (PC1): Only situationally useful. Most enemies have no ability to forcibly move you beyond the Shove action.
  • Brutish Shove (PC1): Shoving a creature isn’t always useful, but it can help you force them into a space where you want them like off a cliff or into a wall of fire. However, this action has the Press trait so you can only use it after you’ve already made a Strike, so you’re making this attack with MAP.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat still made the target Off-Guard until the end of your current turn if you rolled a Failure.

  • Combat Grab (PC1): Grabbed prevents the target from moving and makes them Off-Guard, making them more vulnerable to attacks from you and your allies. However, this action has the Press trait so you can only use it after you’ve already made a Strike, so you’re making this attack with MAP. The condition also ends at the end of your next turn, so you’ll need to Grab them or use Combat Grab again on your next turn to persist the effect.
  • Dueling Parry (PC1): This is essentially the same as the Raise a Shield action, at least in terms of the AC bonus, reducing much of the strategic cost to use a single weapon in one hand. This also removes the need for the Parry trait on your weapons, letting you focus on weapons that are more powerful offensively.
  • Intimidating Strike (PC1): Frightened is a great debuff, and this doesn’t have an immunity cooldown like Demoralize does. While the Action cost is steep compared to making two Strikes, keeping an enemy Frightened can have a huge impact on a fight, especially against single opponents.

    If you plan to pick up Fearsome Brute later, this becomes much more important, but you may want to take something more interesting at this level then retrain a feat later when you pick up Fearsome Brute.

  • Lightning Swap (PC1): Only situationally useful. If you’re somewhere dangerous, you should have your weapons in your hands. Switching weapons in the middle of combat is rarely a good idea, and as you gain levels, the cost to maintain multiple weapons becomes prohibitive. The best use case here is to switch between melee and ranged weapons, and if you’re worried about that you can use a weapon suited to throwing.
  • Lunge (PC1): Hitting enemies from outside of their reach forces them to spend Actions to get closer to you in order to attack you. Of course, leaving them outside of your reach might let them move past you without triggering a Reactive Strike, so you may not want to use this constantly.
  • Rebounding Toss (PC1): For a thrown weapon build this can be very good. Obviously the 10-foot distance between the two targets is limiting, but this is a situation which will come up frequently, so you’ll definitely get use out of this feat. The biggest problem is that you must hit with the first Strike to get a chance as the second, so aim for the target with the lowest AC first.
  • Sleek Reposition (PC1): Forcibly repositioning enemies within your reach could put them somewhere to be flanked, could move them so that they’re not flanking you, or could move them into a dangerous position.

4th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Barrelling Charge (PC1): Situational. You won’t need this in most combats, and you can often solve this problem with other means that are less expensive than a Class Feat.
  • Double Shot (PC1): Normally making two attacks would take two actions and one would be at a -5 penalty. Two attacks, both made at -2, is a slight improvement.
  • Dual-Handed Assault (PC1): There aren’t many weapons with the two-handed trait which justify this feat, but the Dwarven Waraxe goes from d8 to d12, which is tempting. Unfortunately, this is a Flourish so you can only do this once per turn, but you can follow this with a Press Action which requires a free hand, such as Combat Grab or Sleek Reposition.
  • Parting Shot (PC1): If you are fighting at range, enemies will try to get into melee with you. The natural response is to Step away, then shoot them. This allows you to do that while also making them Off-Guard to your Strike when you do so. Not essential by any means, but still a good option.
  • Powerful Shove (PC1): If you took feats to shove enemies, it’s really disappointing to run into things too big to shove. The damage effect is nice, but won’t happen frequently.
  • Quick Reversal (PC1): Situational, but really good when the situation arises. Unfortunately it’s a Flourish so you can only use it once per turn. A Sweep weapon is especially effective here.
  • Shielded Stride (PC1): Situational, but definitely better than taking a Step if you’re already going to use Raise a Shield in the same turn.
  • Slam Down (PC1): Knocking the target prone makes them Off-Guard. They’ll likely spend an Action on their turn to stand up, which both wastes one of their actions and gives you a Reactive Strike, easily replacing the cost of the second Action.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat was called “Knockdown”.

  • Swipe (PC1): Sweep weapons like axes are well suited to handling crowds of enemies, and Swipe builds on that capacity. The attack bonus from Sweep adds to both Swipe attacks, so I recommend using Swipe before making other Strikes. Unfortunately, the targets need to be adjacent to each other, which can be difficult when enemies are typically trying to circle around and flank you.
  • Twin Parry (PC1): Basically the same as Dueling Parry, but for two-weapon fighters. Because TWF actions typically involve making more than one Strike, you’ll accumulate multiple attack penalties almost immediately, making your second and third actions difficult to attack with.

6th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Advanced Weapon Training (PC1): Some Advanced weapons can add a lot to a build, and this brings them on par with your other weapons so you’ll get another +2 to attacks and extra damage from Weapon Specialization. However, you can often use an Ancestry feat to reduce the type of proficiency for a handful of Advanced Weapons from Advanced to Martial, which is usually a better deal since Class Feats are typically more important than Ancestry Feats.
  • Advantageous Assault (PC1): If you’re regularly using something like Combat Grab or Slam Down, you might use this on alternating turns, or you might use this as your third Action in a turn. I think this is intended for use as a third Strike in a turn because the failure effect offers some guaranteed damage for when your full MAP makes it difficult to hit.
  • Dazing Blow (PC1): If you have a creature Grabbed, this instantly becomes your best option. You deal bludgeoning damage even if your weapon normally deals a different damage type (like striking an enemy with the pommel of a dagger), but otherwise you make your Strike as you normally would. The target then gets a Fortitude save, but even on a Success they’re Stunned 1, which robs them of an Action on their turn. If you can use this more than once, Stunned won’t stack (you take the larger of the two values), but they might roll worse on the save and lose even more Actions. Note that this has the Press trait, so you need to use it after making an Attack. Conveniently, the Grapple action has the Attack trait.

    This feat also has the Incapacitation trait, making it difficult to use against high-level enemies. But, again, the target is still Stunned 1 on a Success. Spending one of your Actions to deal damage and remove just 1 Action from your target is an easy trade in any encounter where your party outnumbers your enemies, which is nearly always the case if you’re facing enemies of a higher level than you.

  • Disarming Stance (PC1): Too situational and the bonus is too small.
  • Furious Focus (PC1): This makes following Vicious Swing with another Attack much more reliable, but by this level Vicious Swing is mathematically obsolete.
  • Guardian’s Deflection (PC1): Situational. If you spend a lot of time adjacent to your allies in melee, this can be really impactful. However, bunching up in melee isn’t always a great option, so you may spend a lot of time totally unable to use this feat.

    Your best bet is to use a one-handed weapon with reach, such as a whip or a gnome flickmace. Extending your reach mitigates some of the risks of crowding your party together while still making Guardian’s Deflection usable.

  • Reflexive Shield (PC1): Reflex saves are the Fighters low save, and dropping AOE damage is an easy way to wear down a character with a huge pool of hit points like a fighter.
  • Revealing Stab (PC1): Invisible creatures are a serious problem, but your party should be using magic or Blind-Fight to address them. As you gain levels, putting runes onto a semi-disposable piercing weapon will become prohibitively expensive.
  • Ricochet Stance (PC1): A Returning rune is a level 3 item worth 55gp. If you’re built to throw things, you almost certainly have one by this level. Even if you dont, this is an awful feat.
  • Shatter Defenses (PC1): A decent follow-up to Intimidating Strike or Demoralize, but borderline useless on its own. If you take this, be certain that you can reliably make enemies Frightened. If you can manage that, Frightened 1 and Off-Guard will make your target extremely vulnerable.

    The last sentence of the feat is worded strangely. “it can’t reduce its frightened value below 1 until the start of your next turn.” This does not mean that they stop being Frightened 1 when your turn starts; it means that they can’t do anything to reduce Frightened to 0. No spells, special abilities, whatever. If you don’t hit them with Shatter Defenses again on your next turn, they’ll reduce their Frightened condition as normal on their next turn.

  • Shield Warden (PC1): Great for protecting your allies, but in combat they typically shouldnt be adjacent to you because it makes your whole party vulnerable to area damage.
  • Triple Shot (PC1): Three shots for two actions is good, and the -4 penalty doesn’t make that significantly worse. Mathematically, -4/-4/-4 is better than +0/-5/-10, especially since your attack bonus with a bow will already be higher than most characters.

8th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Blind-Fight (PC1): Your best best for tackling Invisible creatures.
  • Disorienting Opening (PC1): A nice boost to your Reactive Strike, but you gain no direct benefit from this since the effect expires at the start of your next turn. It may be helpful to your allies, but I would only take this if you’re reliably triggering Reactive Strikes.
  • Dueling Riposte (PC1): Dueling Parry is a great choice, especially compared to a third attack. This makes that even better. The Fighter is a Defender, which means that they’re typically standing between their allies and their enemies and drawing the bulk of their enemies’ attacks. The Fighter also has the second-best armor proficiency in the game (behind only the Champion), which means that your AC should be high enough to keep you alive. Together, that means that you have ample opportunities to trigger this and you’re more likely to trigger the Reaction any time you’re attacked.
  • Felling Strike (PC1): With no built-in magic options, flying enemies are a serious problem for the Fighter. This doesnt require any specific type of Strike, so you can do something as simple as throwing a rock. You wont need this all the time since not all enemies fly, but an easy, reliable counter to an extremely common problem is a great tool.

    That said, you don’t need a feat to do this. Any weapon with the Ranged Trip trait, such as a Bola, can knock a flying enemy prone, forcing them to fall and causing falling damage when they do so.

  • Incredible Aim (PC1): Situational. Usually using Double Shot or Triple Shot will work out better on average, plus you have the possibility to hit more than once.
  • Mobile Shot Stance (PC1): The ability to make Reactive Strikes with a bow is worth the feat.
  • Positioning Assault (PC1): Forcibly repositioning enemies within your reach could put them somewhere to be flanked, could move them so that they’re not flanking you, or could move them into a dangerous position.
  • Quick Shield Block (PC1): If you use a shield, you absolutely need this.
  • Resounding Bravery (PC1): The effect is really tempting. Unfortunately, it requires that you make a Will save and critically succeed on that save to enjoy the benefits. So even in the rare cases where you’re targeted with an appropriate effect, you have a very small chance to critically succeed on the save and therefore a tiny chance of getting the benefits of the feat.

    The Fighter’s 3rd-level Bravery feature promotes your Successes on Will saves against fear effects to Critical Successes, which does improve your odds here, but this is still only situationally useful.

  • Sudden Leap (PC1): If you’re facing a flying enemy, switch to a weapon with Ranged Trip and knock them out of the sky. If you insist on using this, be sure to invest Skill Increases in Athletics to improve your jumps.

10th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Agile Grace (PC1): Essential for TWF users and many finesse fighters.
  • Certain Strike (PC1): You’re guaranteed your Strength bonus bonus to damage and similar bonuses, but that’s not much. It’s better than a plain Strike, but it’s still not great. You’ll probably only use this as a third attack in a turn. Two-handed weapon users should plan to upgrade to Brutal Finish at level 12.
  • Crashing Slam (PC1): Skipping the Athletics check to trip the target can make Slam Down more reliable, and it means that you’re not strictly required to put Skill Increases into Athletics. But remember that Crashing Slam says that you can forgo the Athletics check. If you rolled a regular Success and if you know that your target has a poor Fortitude DC, you might choose to make the Athletics check anyway.

    The critical success effect on a trip deals 1d6 damage, and improving that to a d12 isn’t a huge improvement, so don’t stress about not using a two-handed weapon.

  • Cut from the Air (PC1): Too situational. Enemies which rely on physical ranged strikes are a tiny minority. The bonus is excellent, and using it as a Reaction is great, but there simply aren’t enough enemy archers at this level to justify the feat. If you are facing enemy archers, you can use Improved Combat Flexibility to pick this up temporarily.
  • Debilitating Shot (PC1): Against big single foes, this may be more useful than dealing a pile of damage with Triple Shot. You’ll need to rely on your allies to capitalize on the enemy’s reduced Actions, so hopefully you’re not the only one in the party dealing big piles of damage.
  • Disarming Twist (PC1): Situational because not every enemy uses a weapon.
  • Disruptive Stance (PC1): Activate to murder spellcasters. They may still be able to Step out of your reach, so consider using a reach weapon or Grab to keep them in your reach if spellcasters are a frequent opponent.
  • Fearsome Brute (PC1): Potentially excellent if you have Intimidating Strike, or if your party has other options to frighten enemies, but if you can’t keep enemies frightened for long periods of time you likely won’t benefit from this enough to justify the feat cost.
  • Flinging Charge (PC1): Sudden Charge should solve this problem better for most characters and it’s a much lower level.
  • Mirror Shield (PC1): Too situational, and as soon as you use it once the enemy will switch to targeting your allies or casting AOE spells.
  • Overpowering Charge (PC1): Turn Barreling Charge into a damaging line effect. Neat, but unless enemies are tightly packed in small quarters you’ll do more total damage by swinging a weapon. Barreling Charge is too situational to justify taking this for the rare occasions when Barreling Charge is worthwhile.
  • Tactical Reflexes (PC1): If your GM lets enemies trigger Reactive Strikes frequently, this is absolutely worth a feat. If your GM makes creatures run up to you and stand still, this won’t get much use. Even if you don’t use Reactive Strike consistently, it may be worthwhile to have a dedicated Reaction or it in order to leave your normal Reaction free for things like Shield Block.

    If you can reliably knock enemies prone, such as with Slam Down, this may be especially effective because you get a Reactive Strike when they stand up.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat was called “Combat Reflexes”.

  • Twin Riposte (PC1): Great for all the same reasons that Dueling Riposte is great.

12th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Brutal Finish (PC1): Useful in the exact same circumstance as Certain Strike: your third attack in a turn. If you’re using a d12 damage weapon, this can deal some serious damage, and the failure effect is a decent consolation prize, especially once you hit level 18.
  • Dashing Strike (PC1): This requires that you start adjacent to one enemy, and since Dashing Strike has the Press trait, you must make an attack before using it. So you spend at least one Action to attack the first target, then use Dashing Strike to move to a second target and make another Strike. If the first creature can make a Reactive Strike, Dashing Strike does nothing to prevent it.

    Prior to the remaster, this feat was called “Spring Attack”.

  • Dueling Dance (PC1): If you’re built for a single weapon and a free hand, this is basically required. One action gets you +2 to AC for the rest of a fight.
  • Flinging Shove (PC1): Increasing the range on a success is fun, but the biggest appeal is that you still Shove the target 5 feet on a failure and you no longer leave the choice of movement or Off-Guard to your target when using Aggressive Block. 5 feet is usually enough to force an enemy far enough away that they can’t reach you with additional attacks.
  • Improved Dueling Riposte (PC1): You may be able to riposte twice in a single round. Remember that MAP only applies during your own turn.
  • Incredible Ricochet (PC1): Tempting, especially in cases where Incredible Aim applies, but those situations are infrequent and you’re making this attack at the usual Multiple Attack Penalty and without Incredible Aim’s +2 attack bonus.
  • Lunging Stance (PC1): Absolutely spectacular. If you’re not already using a Stance feat regularly, this is a great option. If you combine this with a reach weapon, you can effectively control a 15-foot radius sphere. If you have Tactical Reflexes, you may be able to make multiple Reactive Strikes against the same target as it moves through your reach.
  • Paragon’s Guard (PC1): If you’re using a shield, this is an absolute must. Spending the action every turn to Raise a Shield cuts into time you should be spending doing other stuff.

14th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Desperate Finisher (PC1): Nearly every fighter has a good Press feat available. If you’re unlikely to use your Reaction in the next round (maybe you fight at range or something), or if you have an extra Reaction from something like Combat Reflexes, spending your Reaction to do more on your own turn is a great idea.

    Press feats will typically be more interesting than a basic Strike granted by a Reactive Strike, but keep in mind that you still suffer the normal Multiple Attack Penalty, which is likely -10 at this point in your turn. Agile Grace may make this much more appealing.

  • Determination (PC1): A great way to get out of effects that target your weak saves, but it is only once per day.

    The remastered version of the feat has been updated to also apply to magical effects which don’t come from spells, and it also no longer works on effects from sources of 20th level or higher, which will make it gradually less useful at high levels.

  • Guiding Finish (PC1): For one-handed weapon users, this can entirely replace Sleek Reposition. It removes the need to make an Athletics check, and you still get to Reposition your target on a Failure. Polearm users will still need to use Sleek Reposition.
  • Guiding Riposte (PC1): A great addition to Dueling Riposte with no additional cost or effort.
  • Improved Twin Riposte (PC1): More possible free Strikes. Remember that MAP only applies on your own turn.
  • Opening Stance (PC1): By this level you have access to numerous Stance feats; there is at least one for every possible configuration of weapons which you might consider. Activating a Stance normally only costs one Action at the start of every encounter. This removes that persistent tax.
  • Two-Weapon Flurry (PC1): Absolutely essential for fighting with two weapons, but it’s both a Press and a Flourish, so you can only use it once per round, and you can only use it after you’ve already attacked. It works with Desperate Finisher, but you can still only use it once per turn.
  • Whirlwind Strike (PC1): Great with a reach weapon, but I would not use this otherwise. Three Actions means that you need to be in position the turn before, which can be hard to accomplish unless you’re in a fight with numerous enemies. You get to make every attack before applying a Multiple Attack Penalty, which is really satisfying if you can make a whole bunch of attacks.

16th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Graceful Poise (PC1): A tempting offensive option for two-weapon fighting builds, but it’s only useful if you’re spending at least 3 Actions to attack. You could use Double Slice, then Two-Weapon Flurry to make a total of 4 Strikes in one turn. Your first two will be at no MAP, then your third at one step and your fourth at full MAP. If you have Desperate Finisher you could fit another Strike in there somewhere, making as many as 5 Strikes in one turn. Of course, all of this means that you’re probably not moving or doing anything except hitting stuff, and that’s not going to happen often. Agile Grace already minimizes MAP for Agile weapons, so the benefits here are both small and inconsistent.

    This also competes for space with Twinned Defense at the same level, and Twinned Defense paired with Twin Riposte is much more effective.

  • Improved Reflexive Shield (PC1): Potentially excellent, but technically situational. Your job is to keep dangerous stuff away from your frail allies. If your frail allies are adjacent to you, they’re too close to dangerous stuff.
  • Master of Many Styles (PC1): Only situationally useful. Most Fighters will have one Stance which works for their tactics, and will stay in that Stance through every fight for their whole career.

    There are exceptions, of course. Mulitshot Stance ends if you move, but there’s nothing stopping you from starting the Stance again. Start Multishot Stance as a Free Action, use Double Shot, move and end the Stance, then repeat on your next turn.

  • Multishot Stance (PC1): Archers typically don’t need to move once they’re well-positioned anyway, and the attack penalty reduction is significant when applied to three attacks.
  • Overwhelming Blow (PC1): High risk, high reward. If you hit, you’ll deal an absolutely massive amount of damage. If you miss, you’re in trouble. Either way, you’re done with your turn and you lose an Action on your next turn. If you do use this, look for ways to get bonuses to your attack roll like Aid or Guidance, and consider using a Hero Point.

    Your choice of weapon matters significantly here. You get Deadly d12 from the feat if you roll a crit, so Deadly is less valuable. Instead, consider Fatal weapons like the Warpick. You’ll also give up the benefits of traits like Agile, Forceful, and Sweep, so go all in on damage boosts.

  • Twinned Defense (PC1): Absolutely essential for two-weapon fighters.

18th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Impossible Volley (PC1): If you’re using a longbow or a similar weapon, this is basically Whirlwind Attack at range. Whirlwind Attack is fantastic, but since it costs three actions it’s difficult to position yourself for it to be useful. Since this works anywhere outside your Volley range (30 ft. for a longbow) and out to your maximum range (600 ft. for a Longbow), you can target groups of enemies at extremely long range. You still suffer range penalties, you take a -2 penalty to each of the attacks, and Multishot Stance doesn’t apply, but if you can get more than three Strikes this is almost certainly going to deal more damage on average than Triple Shot.
  • Savage Critical (PC1): More critical hits are always great, and you’ve been Legendary with simple/martial weapons in one weapon group since 13th level. You still need to hit on a d20 roll of 19, but if a high-level Fighter can’t hit on a 19, your problem isn’t the enemy’s AC. Anything like concealment or a miss chance of some sort can still prevent this just like it would prevent hitting on a natural 20. This notably makes weapons with the Deadly/Fatal traits much more effective, but at level 18 you may be attached to whatever you’ve been swinging about for 17 levels, so unless you’re already using a Deadly/Fatal weapon I don’t expect you to suddenly develop a fondness for picks.
  • Smash from the Air (PC1): Expands Cut From the Air to work against spell attacks. Conceptually neat, but most spellcasters will just switch to spells which don’t require attack rolls and then your 18th-level feat is worthless. You might consider this with Ultimate Flexibility if you’re facing enemy spellcasters, but I would never commit a permanent feat to this.

20th-Level Fighter Feats

  • Boundless Reprisals (PC1): Fighters can do a lot with Reactions, and there are several wonderful Fighter Class Feats that offer you a single additional Reaction which you can use for a specific type of Reaction. This adds an additional Reaction not once per round, but once for each enemy turn. That means that you can make an Attack of Opportunity or any other Reaction at least once on each enemy’s turn, allowing you to make Attacks of Opportunity nearly whenever you want, Shield Block nearly every attack, Riposte nearly every critical miss, or any number of other wonderful things. If you picked up Desperate Finisher, you’re much more free to spend your normal Reaction to get more out of your turn, confident in the knowledge that you’ll get at least one Reaction on each enemy’s turn.
  • Ultimate Flexibility (PC1): Spending an hour to retrain three feats isn’t likely to happen between every encounter, but the ability to change a chunk of your build a few times per day is a massive advantage. All of the Fighter Class Feats with weird, situational use cases suddenly become a part of your massive toolbox, allowing you to adjust your fighter to be the perfect response to any combat scenario that you can foresee. The biggest problem with this feat is anticipating what you’re going to face on any given day, so forewarned is forearmed. Get very comfortable with your party’s Scout and with anyone who can cast Divination spells. Even a hint at what you’ll be facing will dramatically improve this feat’s effectiveness.
  • Weapon Supremacy (PC1): An extra action is always great, but you can only use it to make a Strike, which isn’t very exciting and will frequently be made at your maximum Multiple Attack Penalty. This does buy you more flexibility to spend your Actions on other things (Step, Demoralize, Raise a Shield, etc.), but it’s up to you to make sure that you can capitalize on your expanded action economy.

Legacy Fighter Class Feats

These feats have not been reprinted in the Remastered rules. As such, they are available for you to use as they are currently written. However, you may need to adapt things to match the updated rules.

1st-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

  • Agile Shield Grip (KoL) (Uncommon): Almost certainly not worth the feat. It’s much easier to use an Agile weapon and a regular Shield Boss.
  • Everstand Stance (LO:CG) (Uncommon): An interesting way to lean into using shields, but as you gain levels you may prefer to switch to Paragon’s Guard. Everstand Strike makes this much more appealing.

2nd-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

  • Devoted Guardian (KoL) (Uncommon): Not worth the Action to use this. If your ally wants a bonus to AC from standing next to you, they should stand behind you to get cover.
  • United Assault (KoL) (Uncommon): Only situationally useful because you’ll rarely get a significant damage bonus from this.

4th-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

  • Everstand Strike (LO:CG) (Uncommon): If you’re using Everstand Stance, you’re almost certainly going to use this every turn in combat, removing the tax to Raise a Shield long before Paragon’s Guard becomes available.
  • Farabellus Flip (PFS) (Uncommon): Similar in function to Reactive Shield, but you don’t need to be holding a shield, and you get to Step if you’re hit.
  • Knock Sense (KoL) (Uncommon): Extremely situational.

6th-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

  • Shield Wall (KoL) (Uncommon): Too situational. The setup, the feat cost, and the Action cost don’t justify a +2 Circumstance bonus to Reflex saves.

8th-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

10th-Level Legacy Fighter Feats

  • Dazzling Display (FB): Great against a crowd of enemies, but it may be more effective to Demoralize them one at a time as your party focuses on them, rather than giving them immunity to Demoralize and then letting the penalty wear off almost immediately.