Two handed fighter build help.

[Black Mage]

Hi i'm a bit of a noob when it comes to attribute allocation so can someone give me a good build for a dps fighter?

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Which difficulty mode? And "good" for what exactly?

Notice the game's PDF manual.

Spend the most time on the character creation screen and read all the descriptions there. Particularly the descriptions of the attributes. Each attribute governs multiple values, such as defenses, damage, received healing, action speed, attack accuracy, duration and range of abilities, and and and.

The game is extremely balanced, so stomach decisions during character creation work well.

The attributes can only shift a character's role a bit, they don't do wonders and don't turn a character into a god either. For example, increased Might (MIG) increases damage, but if you want to wield a 2H weapon, which does increased damage already, perhaps you don't feel like increasing MIG and spend attribute points elsewhere. Yet MIG also affects Fortitude defense and healing, so if you fear attacks versus your Fortitude defense, you may want to increase MIG and Constitution (CON) (and there are talents to increase defenses, too).
Perception (PER) increases Accuracy, and there is only one fighting style that grants an extra +12 Accuracy bonus: using a single one-handed weapon. On the harder difficulty modes, you want good Accuracy, since enemies' defenses are improved. With a 2H weapon, investing some points into PER (for Accuracy) and DEX (for action speed) is a good idea, since then you depend less on potions and support spells. What other attributes to raise or lower depends on your role within the party. Fighter class is a tank class due to its class traits. Yet going below CON 8 bears risks. If you want beneficial effects on the duration of abilities you use, you likely want to increase Intellect (INT), but fighters cannot learn many active abilities. If you want to invest into the primary Deflection defense versus most melee/ranged attacks, you may want to raise Resolve (RES).

Additionally, there are also conversation based checks of attributes (and other traits, such as class/race/abilities/background), and with a focus on combat your character might have insufficient attribute values to pass some checks. Like high RES, which is used for peaceful resolution - whereas high MIG is the path to threatening/intimidation. You need to decide what your main interest is, conversation and role-playing choices, or combat.

[Emmental]

This works for me on normal difficulty. There's probably some extreme min maxing builds for harder difficulties, but that just ruins the fun and rpg elements so I'm not a fan.

Strength 10. Surprisingly unimportant for melee, especially as you can get huge damage bonuses from gear, skills and food etc.

Constitution 14. Don't want to be too squishy on the frontline.

Dexterity 10. Not that important and can take a -20% recovery penalty from armoured grace later if you want it.

Perception 14. Accuracy is everything. More hits and more crits (+50% damage)

Intelligence 10. Not that important for a fighter, but I don't see a point in making it lower because of constant recovery.

Resolve 18. Although accuracy is king you need the deflection and concentration in melee.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Originally posted by Brother Dave:

Resolve 18. Although accuracy is king you need the deflection and concentration in melee.

On normal? Overhead. On PotD mode, even Eder can survive well without using a shield. His base attributes are 16,16,11,12,10,13.

[Veolfen]

EDITED the whole post. It's POE1 not 2, so no multiclass, i'm dumb'.

Just aim at increasing your accuracy as high as possible and at getting crit passives.

High perception is the way to go, put what else you got anywhere you like.

Pick between 2h swords, poleaxes & morningstars.

[D'amarr from Darshiva]

Critical hits are an interesting choice indeed.

For crits (and reliable hits) and related bonuses/effects, wielding a single one-handed weapon is the preferred choice due to the extra +12 Accuracy bonus. Even more so on the lower difficulties. With PER 18, it would lead to a whopping +20 Accuracy before support from spells/potions/food/abilities. It is very noticeable.

Fighter, Monk and Rogue are the three classes with "very high" base Accuracy and a primary choice if aiming at crits. An extremely well-working weapon class then is Ruffian (sabre, club, ...). Sabres do increase damage compared with other 1H weapons. Club is an option to switch to Crush damage, if facing high Slash DR, but there's also a soulbound club and various interesting weapons in that class.

https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Weapons
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Unique_weapons
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_soulbound_items