My group has been playing WFRP for a while now, and we've gotten about 22 experience points so far. I will admit that I've played more D&D in my past than WFRP, so I'm lost as to how to "level up" in the sense of becoming a more powerful fighter.

Right now my character has got a 5 strength and 5 toughness, so I'm pretty bad-arse, I guess, but still, on a typical combat round I'm doing 5 STR + 5 sword + maybe 2 from a good roll on a melee attack action. Once every 4 turns I could throw down a Reckless Cleave for an extra STR to bring that up to 17 which is quite respectable. But still I'm only doing 12 damage per round for the most part.

Um, what now? How do fighter type characters increase the combat abilities and become truly awesome? Older WFRP had multiple attacks per round (haven't played that in like 15 years) but I don't see that in FFG WFRP. I didn't even see any other big-hit attack action cards now that double-strike got nerfed.

All help appreciated!

Setting aside whether I'm min-maxing, which I don't think I am - not using a flail or whatnot - I'm trying to look objectively at the rules for what makes a high-level fighter type character (with eventually 40 xp or whatnot) be substantially better in combat than a 20xp, and a new 0xp character.

Thanks :-)

Progression in Warhammer (to me, and everyone's mileage may vary) has tended to be plateu-ish for martial characters (through all editions) when it comes to damage output and bristling with pointy ends. What tends to shape them beyond that point is how they focus their damage output and bristling point ends.

In previous editions you could end up as a mercenary captain, a knight errant, an assassin, or any other shade of grey. It really comes down to the character's personality. If he's an honourable sort, but not too bright then you can send him down the Knight path (Ser Duncan the Tall, The Hedge Knight ). If he's a dirty fighting thug then maybe going into Veteran and then dipping into Thief or thug for some thematic grit (Carter, Get Carter ). If he is very calculating or cerebral you could get him into a scholarly type career and pick up some more smarts (Doc Holiday, Tombstone ). If he is a sharp sort, but more interested in looking out for his companions and thinking battle tactics then you could go the soldier, seargent, captain route. AND, in 3rd Edition if you just want to jump through more damage abilities then you could pick any ST/T career and drain the action deck of offensive options.

At some point in a Warhammer character progression it comes down to thinking about the character concept, rather than continually ramping up damage to 9000/round (not that you were on some quest to do so, I am merely using an obtuse number). If your character is able to dish out the dirt, and 17 for a hit is respectable then maybe add some more tools to his repertoire. That might even come down to specialising in a new realm of combat (take some careers with ballistic options for example).

I came across the same problem with my Dwarven warrior/belligerent son of Grimnir.

There I was with my big shinny axe merrily settling a grudge by reckless cleaving into, and through a Gor and then reaching for my next action card to … … wait a second!! … … I haven’t got anymore action cards.

So, back to the action cards decks I went, looking for more action cards that would allow me to swing my previously big shinny axe at my latest Grudge with more, well more … Grudgyness.

After some rummaging, reading and a bit of soul searching (trying not to be a massive beard) the action cards I found, before Omens of War, all allowed an extra attack when something happened or as with reckless cleave provided extra damage of some sort with a good attack roll.

Anyway, here is a short list of Action cards to check out;
Riposte; extra attack when they miss
Counter blow; extra attack when they miss
Who’s next?: extra attack when you kill your current foe (personal favourite).
Bezerker Rage: extra Damage every attack for each level in reckless stance.
Thunderous Blow; lots of crits and extra damage with a comet.

If you serious about being a warrior, taking the extra rank in your preferred weapon skill is a must. The extra chance of getting a comet is great, as they can always be an extra critical, activate those action card effects or just get that one hit you need to get the hit.

In the end its really comes down to your character and what you would like to do with them. A combat monster can still be a fun and challenging RPG character because of the stuff not covered in the rules.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Excellent ideas! I shall indeed raid the action card stack, and keep an eye out for Omens as well :-)

Yeah, your character needs Omens of War. The various style and enhancement action cards (not to mention Veteran, Office and Knight careers) are what you're looking for!