| Post/Author/DateTime | Post |
|---|---|
| cirathorn07-30-06, 11:28 AM | I know this has been hammered all to pieces but I need to run to work ATM so I don't have time to search the forums for it. I am starting a campaign tomorrow night and my wife wants to play a fighter.All of the party members are starting at level 8, and the races are open to all the D20 books. I am trying to run per 3.5 rules, but allot of races haven't been updated yet per them that I have access to, so if you post a race not in the the SRD please give me the stats for it as well. This is a Planes jumping campaign so like I said anything is open. (eberron, Forgotten realms, Oriental adventures, greyhawk, Iron Kingdoms, etc.. honestly everything) thanks for your time and sorry for not searching |
| Xeraph07-30-06, 11:39 AM | What do you mean by fighter? The class or the type? Wheres the info here? We need something to work with to create wonders. Everythings open? I have a few very powerful tanks in my signature. They are not so cheesy, just overall good. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 12:16 PM | Hello everyone, this is Cirathorn's wife posting for him. Well more for me since this will be my character. I want to play a Warrior, or at least a "Tank "Class. In the party we have a Halfling- Ranger (she is following the Bow route for feats), and a Vanara Monk from Oriental Adventures. No one has taken a prestige class yet, and I don't know if they will. I don't mind doing it, but we don't have the books yet for prestige classes yet in Version 3.5 rules. We do have the 3.0 rules though for all the Core Classes. My initial thought was taking a Half-drow as wth full drow you have a Level adjustment and that looked to hinder my feat progression on the fighter tree, and I really want to maximise that. I like the Samurai class, and have played a Dragon Samurai before, I am not to happy with Barbarians, so I'm not sure what other route to go. I dont' want to play a Monk or a Ranger or Paladin, since in our last few campaigns I have played these. Samurai are fun, but I also don't want to be to heavy with Oriental adventures classes or races. With us playing across the Planes and it being wide open I almost thought of playing a genasi or a warforged, but I can't make up my mind. Does this help at all? |
| Xeraph07-30-06, 12:34 PM | First of, Welcome to the CO Boards. Second, it sure did. What Samurai are you talking about? The OA one or the one from Complete Warrior? The OA Samurao is a great choice, and they open up for nice prestige classes from the OA book. The Complete Warrior Samurai sucks... yeah I know, a Samurai should never suck, bit it does. Rather just make a Fighter then. Halfdrow is a strong race, is is slightly more powerful than the normal elf, and has no LA. Great bargain. But the Warforged is much stronger, with one feat you can get immunity to critical hits and sneak attack damage, what more do we need eh? Do you want a mobile tank? A damage tank? Crowd control tank? Defensive tank? |
| Taeldrin Laesrash07-30-06, 12:52 PM | Humans are one the best races for fighters for the bonus feat. A close second would be Warforged, although the former is better for a tactical fighter and the latter for a tank. A tank should really consider feats like the Spring Attack and Power Attack tree, and you'll want a nice Constitution and Strength score (A quick level in Barbarian doesn't hurt). Alteratively, Psychic Warriors make good tanks, due to healing powers like Body Adjustment and offensive powers like Psionic Lion's Charge (Full attack on a charge-Nasty, it is). A great feat to take is Improved Toughness, as it gives you bonus HP that increases with level. The most common tactical fighters are humans fighters, specializing in the spiked chain (Or other reach weapons) and taking Attack of Opportunity feats like Karmic Strike and Robilar's Gambit (Caelic's Jack B. Quick is a brilliant example of what I mean). These builds are usually feat-intensive, and you'll want to stay in Fighter (This is usually why they're humans). Two-weapon fighters (The Dervish from Complete Warrior is a must) are often surrogate tactical fighters, and tend to be Dexterity-based. Tleilaxu Ghola has a thread on Dexterity-based warriors, read it well. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 01:01 PM | The Samurai I was going off of was the Oriental Adventures and the Rokugan book. What bonuses do the Half Drow get? I can't seem to find them in the SRD we are using. I was imagining that they would be off of the Half Elf race just looking more like a Drow then a normal Half-Elf. Here is what I have so far: L1 Dodge W1 Feat Mobility W2 Quick Draw L3 Improved Initiative W4 Combat Reflexes L6 Spring Attack W6 Two Weapon fighting W8 Improved Two Weapon fighting I have feats listed out until level 20 but I made them based off of the 3.0 Players Handbook we have and not the 3.5 SRD he downloaded. So I have to update them. The Warforged sound interesting and I was thinking of getting the Eberron books, but I don't see us using them really over the Iron Kingdoms books we currently have. If the races and feats in them add allot though then I would defintiely pick them up. With how our party is set up I was thinkng of going the Crowd control Tank route or Defensive tanking. Is it possible to do both? The Monk in our party is going the Mobile Monk route and the Ranger is definitely taking the Ranged approach to combat. We have a fourth member but no one is really sure what he is going to do. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 01:17 PM | I probably should have posted this, but cirathorn and I have a 3 year old son who runs around while we play. Since he is the DM, I get and chase our son around when he needs it, so I need a build that is pretty easy to just hand off to him or one of the other players while I get our son. I like the Psychic Warrior but it requires allot of attention it looks like and I don't want to detract from others choosing their next actions while I herd the kiddo. |
| Seerow07-30-06, 01:27 PM | I probably should have posted this, but cirathorn and I have a 3 year old son who runs around while we play. Since he is the DM, I get and chase our son around when he needs it, so I need a build that is pretty easy to just hand off to him or one of the other players while I get our son. I like the Psychic Warrior but it requires allot of attention it looks like and I don't want to detract from others choosing their next actions while I herd the kiddo. I'm sorry, I couldn't help but laugh at the fact that your wording made it seem like your 3 year old son was the DM. |
| Tavi07-30-06, 01:41 PM | if u want a tank build i would suggest the dwarven defender .... a very easy build would be the fighter 8/dwarven defender x. it's quite easy to play and almost never get's in trouble....(you'll find the dwarven defender in dmg) |
| Surreal07-30-06, 01:41 PM | Make a fighter harpoon thrower that reels his targets in. That way every time your son runs off and you yell "Get back here..." it applies in game as well :D |
| Taeldrin Laesrash07-30-06, 02:01 PM | A tank/battlefield control hybrid? Easy enough. Human Fighter 8 1. Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Spiked Chain) H. Combat Expertise F. Improved Toughness F. Improved Trip 3. Dodge F. Karmic Strike 6. Evasive Reflexes (Check here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060706a&o=)) F. Mobility F. Spring Attack This guy is relatively simple in that you can Spring Attack into the fray and start tripping people. Just remember to activate Karmic Strike each round, and you'll be pretty tough. Also, this build needs a minimum Intellegence of 13, and you'll want a high Constitution. |
| Xeraph07-30-06, 02:09 PM | TWF is commonly seen as a poor career choice since it relies on damage sources from other places than strength. So, unless you smack a level of Shiba Protector (See OA) on the guy, or some simular second source, the route won't be optimal. Problem with Warforged is that they can't be healed, well not with "healing" spells that is. Instead we need "repair" spells. So take this inot acount when you make you Warforged. Feat rogue is always a good start, but with a Warforged setup its even better, this way you can get some use magic device and try your luck with items that get you access to "repai" spells. Level/ Class/ Feat 1 Feat Rogue* 1 Adamantine Body**, Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Jovar***) 2 Feat Rogue 2 Dodge 3 Fighter 1 Mobility, Endurance 4 Fighter 2 Weapon Focus (Jovar) 5 Fighter 3 6 Fighter 4 Steadfast Determination****, Weapon Specialisation 7 Fighter 5 8 Fighter 6 Standstill***** ---future--- 9 Fighter 7 Improved Fortification** 10 Fighter 8 Improved Toughness****** 11 Fighter 9 12 Fighter 10 Elusive Target****** * Feat Rogue is a variant Rogue that gets Fighter bonus feats instead of sneak attack, its from Unearthed Arcana. ** Feats from Eberron Campaign Setting. *** Jovar is one of the most powerful blades ever made, its found in the Manual of the Planes. **** Feats from Players Handbook 2. ***** Feat from Expanded Psionics Handbook. ****** Feats from Complete Warrior. EDIT: Ooops, forgot Power Attack, switch that with Standstill mayhaps. |
| Warlock3307-30-06, 02:09 PM | By "wide open" i assume you mean "wide open spaces" Which means Druid/ranger/Animal lord1/Cavalier(or halfling outrider, or wildplains outrider) would be MEAN. Basically, anthing mounted, using a lance and power attack looks very attractive. Even a fighter with a mundane mount with all the mounted feats can be amazing. There are other paladins besides the lawful good ones in Unearthed Arcana that get special mounts as well. But for 3.0, you might just want to buy some sort of exotic mount (AE&G) or even in the monster manual, and just go straight fighter. Easy, and devastating on a charge. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 02:18 PM | With Wide open he meant, all the available source books that are in print. As far as the camapign goes, we are doing a sort of StarGate theme style game where we will be exploring different Planes and Primes for things to bring back to our own Prime world/ guild for them to Sell/ Exploit. Cira told me the Terrain and encounters we will be dealing with will be across the board. we might be able to use mounts one minute, but then we might immediately be in a a Dungeon or underground setting the next. @ Xeraph and Taeldrin Thank you for the builds I am researching them right now while my son naps. |
| Warlock3307-30-06, 02:18 PM | Human Druid3, Ranger2, Fighter2, Animal Lord1, Wild Plains outrider2, Cavalier10. 2nd level druid spells to heal if you ever really need it, but most importantly the animal companion. Ranger for full BAB and adding one to your animal companion level. Fighter 2 for BAB, HP and 2 bonus feats Animal lord for an effective +4 to your animal companion level. Wild Outrider for full BAB and +2 to animal companion. Cavalier for massive charge damage, better to hit bonus while mounted, Hp, BAB. take the feat natural bond for a +3 to your animal companion level. Total level 13 to your animal companion. Or you could do a halfling outrider to fully level your animal companion. (above 20!) ::: Natural bond, animal lord, wildplains outrider are in the complete adventurer. Cavalier is in the complete warrior ::: I just recently played an animal lord (bear lord) that had all the mounted feats, a REDICULOUSLY strong bear mount, and claws (granted by the prestige class) that was fairly rediculous. He used a halberd and was a blast to play. The bear was stronger than me for awhile :) |
| Warlock3307-30-06, 02:19 PM | One last thing. If you play a halfing mounted character, you can take your mount with you anywhere as it can be a medium creature :) |
| PhaedrusXY07-30-06, 02:20 PM | The "Dwarven Answerer" in my sig is both defensive and crowd control based, but also can dish out some decent damage. I'd also suggest that you look at the "Tar baby Knight (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=656414)" thread. I think the Knight class in the Player's Handbook 2 sounds like it has the potential to be the coolest defensive/area control melee class ever. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 02:22 PM | Thank you for the posts Warlock, ut thats a little much to play. Sticking with a straight combat character, means I can hand off quite easily to another player my character while I get my son out of trouble. What book is Karmic Strike in? Its not in the SRD. |
| kolemsai07-30-06, 03:02 PM | What book is Karmic Strike in? Its not in the SRD. Complete Warrior I believe. You have to have Dodge and Combat Expertise. Basically what it does is anyone that hits you in melee you get an attack of opportunity against them. Combine this with combat reflexes, high dex, weapon finesse, a spiked chain and you got a bunch of extra attacks!! |
| Midnight_v07-30-06, 03:46 PM | Taking the spiked chain feats as presented above. But try to do it as a warforged: knight3(PHB2) fighter 2 warforged Juggernaugt 3 Use a guisarme as Warfoged have a natural slam attack so you don't need to take exotic weapon spiked chain Take 1 Knight 1 Adamantine body 2 Knight 2 3 Kinght 3 powerattack 4 fighter1 Improved bullrush 5 fig. 2 Combat reflexes 6. Warforged Juggernaugt1 7. WaJ 2 8. Knight.(Well actually anyclass except warforged juggernaught because at 3rd level of that class you lose the ability to be healed magically. Which by the way warforged can be healed by cure or repair spells. They just dont' heal that one point of hp perday Cause they don't sleep) I suggest this because well if you're going planes hopping warforges have many built in immunities that make them benificial to the party. If you don't want to be a "juggernaugt" I think you might find a knight/Fighter or even just a Full class KNIGHT 8 to be to your liking. It's as tough as the barbarian (maybe tougher) but without all the "HULK SMASHHH!iconic dumbness built in. |
| aelryinth07-30-06, 04:07 PM | A classic easy to play tank build is somewhat defined by gear availability. You probably don't want to get fancy with feats that require a lot of decision making and strategy. I'd suggest a shield based build for some decent AC. level 1 - Barbarian. Skill points, d12 HD, a rage use, and +10 to move. Fighter from then on, unless you want to dip a ranger level or two so you can use a Cure Wand and pick up a Favored enemy...and possibly the combat feats. In which case, plan on Ranger/2. Works good with Shield bash. 1- Improved Shield Bash -AC for shield still counts if TWF. 1- Shield Specialist (fighter) +1 Shield AC 2- Weapon Focus - Beater of your choice. LOngswords are the classic, but if you want to swing a Waraxe or a bastard sword, do so. 3 - level feat. Improved Init is good. So is Precise Shot...you don't HAVE to use a sword, you know. 4- Weapon Spec, your beater. 6 Level - Shield Ward. Shield counts for Touch AC. 6 Fighter - Either Improved Trip, Sunder, or Grappler. I'd lean towards the last...lots of creatures bigger then you love to Grapple. 8 Fighter - Combat Reflexes. 9- level Either Iron WIll or Close Quarters fighting (punish the grapplers) 10 Fighter - melee Weapon mastery. +2/+2! 11+ Frm here, you need to decide on what you want to do...improve defenses, pursue Weapon Supremacy with the Greater Weapon Focus/Spec tree, or try out the new Combat Focus feats (which require more thinking). At level 12, Robilar's Gambit would be an 'option' that would take advantage of your Combat Reflexes, and especially punish all the Improved Grab monsters. The key here is to have minimal choice effects, and constant things. If 'tailoring' is needed, get your friends to buff you. Go for Mithral Full Plate to keep your Barbarian movement, don't ignore the fact that you can use a bow just fine for ranged combat, or heft a spear to set for a charge. Get a Spiked shield so if you want to shield bash you can do very nice damage (and the spikes can be enchanted as, say, Defender to up your AC). Get a weapon with Keen and focus on the + bonus instead of dice effects so you have less to think about ( a sword +5 is easier to figure out then a flaming shocking burst Holy +1 weapon). try to get your Dex to 16, grab a bow with strength so you can contibute to ranged combat, and keep the armor and shield fairly simple with enhancements first and other stuff later. Go for numbers instead of special effects that you have to remember. But DO make the effort of fighting style, having the right weapon for the occasion, and the like. You may be 'plainer' then the others, but that doesn't mean you can't plainly be the smartest player there! While you may get buffed by others, that's more stuff to be remembered...so focus on being the best all around without uber buffing, focus on one weapon, and play intelligently. ==Aelryinth |
| Midnight_v07-30-06, 04:46 PM | but 2 points 1.She kinda already expressed his distaste with playing the barbarian class so inxnay that on. So you know thats why I suggested the knight at first mostly because it fits the role of "Tank" better as the knights are allowed heavy armor and they lose nothing. But what they do gain is "Bulwark of defense" which makes anyone treatend by you have to take a move action instead of a 5-foot step to get away, With a reach weapon you'll be able to force people into very bad situations. Especially if you have mage slayer which disallows mages to use the "cast defensively option." 2. With adamantine Body as a warforged that eliminates (at 1st level anyway gear availibility) as Adamantine starts you off with a +8 ac and Dr2/- . Not to mention that you can enchant yourself as armor later if you like. You could very well not take the warforged juggernaugt class and take fighter4 knight 4 and I doubt you'll be disatisfied but.... I think as far as this goes... Fighter2 Knight3 and the warforged as your race is minimum goodness and simplicity. The other levels can be a mix of fighter and knight or any prestige class you would like to take. Using a reach weapon (especially one with trip will allow you to perfom the funtion as crowd control effectively) Oh and by the way Half-drow have dark-vision and really I believe thats the major boon that they recieve. |
| cirathorn07-30-06, 05:35 PM | Hola Everyone, Cirathorn here, the wife is running to the store. Just wanted to say thank you to everyone for helping her out. I think she is really going to grab the level of Barbarian and then go pure Fighter. Now she just needs to choose armor and weapons and we are all set. As far as race goes I think she is sticking to Half Drow still. |
| Tweedledope07-30-06, 05:38 PM | Best fighter build, eh? Fighter 2/Anything Else XX That's pretty much consensus around these parts...otherwise, you might go for Fighter 4 for Weapon Specialization (crap if you ask me). -=TD=- |
| Iron Klaw Merc07-30-06, 06:30 PM | I like the fighter class myself, and enjoy playing it, I have a pretty good build for a dwarf fighter, uses the racial substitution levels, but other than that it sticks to fighter straight to level 20. No it may not be the ultra powerful characters some people prefer but its a fun, and easy to play. |
| Taeldrin Laesrash07-30-06, 07:12 PM | By the way, since many of the best fighter feats (And everything Warforged) is non-core, you'll want a handy online database like Crystal Keep to find these things. You can find most anything up to May '06 releases. However, the upcoming Tome of Battle has the potential to revolutionize fighters, so you might want to wait a bit. As for the combination, I take it that your wife's build will be something along the lines of a speedy, Dexterity based combatant; as most of the Barbarian's class features require light or no armor (Except for the d12 Hit Dice, that's always good). Half-Drow is a decent choice, but lacks some of the nicer features of some races like ability bonuses or bonus feats. Still, it's your character, not mine. (Actually, if you're taking a Barbarian level, you might want to invest in Masters of the Wild's Exotic Weapon Master. 5 levels leave you proficient with every exotic weapon, and bonuses to their hit and damage.) |
| aelryinth07-30-06, 08:45 PM | IF she's following my post, she's grbbing Barbarian at level one for Hit points, extra skill points, the extra movement and the 1/day Rage "rabbit in the hat" which she will likely ignore except in absolute emergencies. Then she'll be heading for fighter and mithral full plate goodness. The key point of her request for a build was simplicity and flexibility. With a good AC from mithral, decent movement, a single 'nova' option, and otherwise constant buffs, she can be the tank, but still has utility if she can focus her full attention on the game. ===Aelryinth |