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Straight up 1h talent fighter going dex secondary can use hide, and still do pretty well with sword (or Flail) and board.

@Alcestis: Sheesh, completely disregarded Slayer. After a quick look-through, turns out I've been stupidly believing that their abilities REQUIRED two-handed weapons! Hm. Now they seem much more palatable! And yeah, I could really give a crap about the [W] weapon damage when I'm pumping out static +Dex damage.

If I grab a +Str/Dex race, should I balance the stats (starting 18 in both and mediocre stats for the rest) to keep my offense and defense balanced, or focus more on strength? I thought the +Dex would make a balanced build more viable, but there may be something I am missing!

Oh, and how comparable will the character be to other strikers in higher tiers?

 @Ruins: What advantage would I have over other high-damage melee combatants? I'm a bit green here ^^; is the +1 to hit really that much of a buff? Because Slayers get that too, if I'm not mistaken, and they'll put the dex to better use. Like, are their feats tied with it that I'm not seeing or something?

I just assumed he was going to wear Scale, so there isn't really a hit vs AC trade-off.... though an Elven Chain Shirt would fix it at some point anyway if he went for Light armor. Though I wouldn't personally ever go for a 20 because it means I won't qualify for Superior Will ever, and an 18/18 won't qualify till Epic (and only then if I start with a 13 in Wis or Cha and I dislike odd stats). Superior Will is just to good mid-Paragon on. I also sort of question Improved Defenses at this point. Every build should make an effort to grab Sup. Will if at all possible and for most, it is. So that means Imp. Def is benefiting two defenses. Now Fort and Ref aren't that bad to be hit in, usually. Ref is just damage and Fort is usually movement+damage, but with a decent Leader and full complement of actions you can deal with that. The benefit on Superior Will is so strong you basically take it if at all possible. That means that Imp. Def is only improving two defenses with no other benefit, whereas another Superior feat is improving one defense slightly more and giving you a strong secondary benefit. Sup. Ref on a controller is just fantastic for instance (Sup Fortitude is fairly weak, depending on your DM, but the argument isn't Imp. Def vs all three Sup feats, it is Sup Will+Imp Def vs Sup Will+another Sup feat). At that point, Imp. Defenses isn't worth it imo. But it radically changed what I think are optimal stats for some classes. I'd go 18/16 for ES Wardens for instance (Str/Con) and bump my Wis enough to access Sup Will. Which is actually kind of nice in some cases, it opens up races that aren't dual-stat aligned, so long as they have my primary and either Cha or Wis.

Ruin's point was you get +1 to hit from 20 Str over where you would have been though. And Misses are zero damage. It doesn't matter that Slayer's get a +1 baked into their class features, you're still +1 ahead. But I still wouldn't do it. Well, caveat: If I knew I was playing a Heroic only character or I knew I'd be allowed to re-allocate stats (LFR), I wouldn't worry about Sup. Will.

You should be fine in all tiers, so long as you grab the full charge package.

A fair warning on the Slayer idea, they don't come with shield proficiencies.  Which might not be a problem for you if you got the feat or two to spare, but that's not all that common.

Maybe consider hybrids or somesuch that nabs you proficiencies?  I mean, not a whole lot to the Slayer in the long run, every turns just charge and charge and charge again if you manage to get things optimal.  To bad the Slayer itself can't hybrid, might find a way to have your cake and eat it too.

While notably lower in the DPR calcs from what I've seen, I might toss out a suggestion for Blackguard.  They're basically made for sword-and-board builds while still doing respectable damage, and being built from the Paladin chassis they're pretty much the definitive secondary defender.