Underwhelming Aldori Swordlord

[dpbrown777]

My second play through, and I wanted to pick a prestige class. So I started with an Aldori Defender, for about 8 or 8 levels until I could choose Aldori Swordlord. I'm about 4 levels into that class atm. I have a +3 dueling sword with a buckler and heavy armor.
Per the title, I'm underwhelmed by the offensive performance. I've taken all of the dazzling display feats up through mythic. Depending on the enemy, it's maybe a 50/50 chance of dazzling.
I have the difficulty setting on custom. I started out with normal and turned off things like death's door, and letting death be temporary until after the fight, etc. Conditions expire or turn off after combat.

What feats should I equip her with to make it better?

[MjKorz]

Aldori Swordlord is not an offensive class, it's a tactical fighter that is supposed to fight defensively while using combat expertise as well as the entirety of the crane style line of feats and is supposed to rely heavily on proper application of combat maneuvers and shine against heavily buffed boss enemies by denying them morale and competence bonuses without requiring any dispels.

You will never get good offensive performance on a Swordlord, best you can do is play a Demon and use the synergy between Pounce (acquired either through a Skald or being a Kitsune), Aspect of Kalavakus, Disarming Strike (which you actually get from Aldori Defender, not Swordlord) and Shatter Confidence + Confounding Duelist. You simply charge and enjoy your many bonus attacks procced by disarm attempts which also deny the target morale and competence bonuses, but you will still inflict inferior damage compared to many other pouncer builds.

[hilburnashua]

Aldori Swordlord isn't really about offense, it's mostly a defensive class. Imagine those old movies with a pair of fencers fighting for minutes while hopping all over the room, neither one getting hit. I think that is the inspiration for this class.
If your looking to beef up your intimidating ability:
Skill focus - Persuasion

If you have a high Strength - Intimidating Prowess

Power Attack+ Cornugan Smash

Take a level of Rogue with Thug Archetype. It will make it so if you roll well enough on an intimidate check the opponents will be feared for 1 round instead of shaken.

Any items that boost your Persuasion/Intimidation checks including Charisma headband

One big problem with Intimidate is that quite a few things are immune to it late game. Anything that says it is immune to mind effecting is immune to intimidate. Although I did intimidate Deskari itself.

Defensive boost
Combat Expertise to make maximum use of Adaptive Tactics

Dodge and Crane Style (although you will have to loose the buckler)

Maxing out your Perception and taking skills to increase it will help makes sure you get the bonus to hit from Adaptive Tactics.

If you are building for Charisma to maximize your intimidate ability seriously think about taking a 1 level dip into Monk archtype Scaled Fist. So long as you aren't wearing armor or a shield/buckler you get to add your charisma bonus to AC. You can then wear some of the monk robes which will give you additional bonuses.

Taking a 2 level dip into Paladin is also very popular since you get the ability to Smite Evil once per day (and can get items/Mythic Feats that boost that number) which will help with both defense against very strong opponents and a bit on offense. But more importantly you get to add your Charisma bonus to all your saves.

Dipping (yes, another dip) into Sorcerer at this point will let you pick up the shield and mage armor spells. Shield is very nice for a +4 to your AC you cannot get anywhere else. If you cast Mage Armor on yourself you can also take the Archmage Armor mythic feat which will add your mythic level to your AC as part of Mage Armor.

Kitsune that get + to Dex and Charisma and taking Master Shapeshifter would make a very good Aldori Swordlord. Since Aldori Swordlord uses Dexterity for damage you don't need Str. And the Master Shapeshifter makes it so if you stay in human form you get a +4 to all your physical stats. That is big bonus to hit and damage and you get a nice increase in HP. Also helps your carrying capacity