Post/Author/DateTime	Post
zOgre 09-17-05, 12:04 PM	Greetings. I'm a long-time lurker and am often pleased by the great build ideas that the regulars on this board come up with. One of my friends has presented me with a build idea that I'm having trouble optimizing to my taste, and I was hoping you nice folks could help me out with it. Here are the boundaries I'm working with: Stats are a 28-point buy. His character starts at 8th level, and he wants to be at least Justicar 1 at the start of play. He wants to be a Human, though he's open to other ideas he prefers to play as humans. He wants the character to be a weapon-and-shield combatant, most of his builds have included Improved Shield bash and a few levels of Fighter, for the feats. He wants to focus on the bounty-hunting aspect of the "Bring em back alive" Justicar. To this end, he wants to have both the Track and Urban Tracking feats, so he can follow his intended quarry through any jungle he finds, be it urban or otherwise. -- He's pretty enthusiastic about the "Hog-Tie" ability of the Justicar, and has flirted with trip and grapple focused builds to try to take advantage of it. The build I seem to like most for him is Ranger1/Rogue2/Fighter4/Justicar1, as it gives him Evasion, Sneak Attack to stack with the Justicar's subdual strikes, and enough skill points to be both good at Track and Gather information (Urban Tracking uses Gather Information to track in cities). I know this is pretty vague as I don't know what fighter feats would be best for him to take, or if even Ranger1/Rogue2/Fighter4 is the best way for him to get into Justicar. Any help you all can give would be greatly appreciated. He has access to most of the core books, as well as Forgotten Realms materials, all 3.5 materials - his GM is not allowing any pure-3.0 stuff. -- zOgre
Phaxi 09-17-05, 12:21 PM	Quick draw+improved hog-tie, death blow+coup de grace. :D
zOgre 09-17-05, 12:38 PM	Thanks for your quick reply, and the quick-draw/death blow combo is a great finishing move for him once he gets improved hog-tie, for sure. However, what I was hoping for was build ideas for his first 7 levels. Any ideas? Thanks!
PhaedrusXY 09-17-05, 01:18 PM	How about swapping two levels of Fighter for Barbarian, and taking the Wolf Berzerker feat from the Unapproachable East book? It gives you a +4 to trip and lets you take Improved Trip without the normal prereqs. Personally... I'd drop the shield stuff. You're going to be majorly crunched for feats as it is, I think. Use a heavy flail. You can trip with it, it is a pretty good weapon otherwise, and if you get counter-tripped you can just drop it. Later on you might pick up EWP: Spiked Chain and go into Exotic Weapon Master.