Post/Author/DateTime	Post
rockondon 12-25-06, 05:09 AM	I feel like playing a dwarf just because I like to roleplay them, aside from that I'd like an optimized warrior of some sort. I'd rather have a high AC than the extra damage of wielding two weapons. And I hate getting AOOs on me by creatures with reach. It'd be nice if he had some reach weapon to use on the way in before he takes that 5ft step closer and whips out the waraxe. If TWF builds are clearly better I can handle goin that route. I like animal companions. But if beastmaster (or similar) isn't all that effective at higher levels then so be it. thx for any input. --Don
LGMoses 12-25-06, 10:31 AM	do what i do to make characters. Start with 15-10 as your stats. Now, put them in the stats you want as priority. Probably like this: STR: 15 DEX: 13 CON:14 +2 Racial INT: 11 WIS: 10 CHA: 12 -2 racial Then tweak em out. As for feats.... your fighter feat should be power attack. You choose the other. You may wish something from the Power att tree such as CLEAVE. If you really want to pwn creatures with reach you may wish for dodge. Then you can get mobility and get that +4 dodge to ac against ao's. That would be great if you fight a ton of giants as ur AC would go up by 8. I'm not touching skill points, you're on ur own. Just htink about how u wanna spend ur feats tho. As for weapons. Good old dwarven waraxe hasn't done wrong by me. Get urself either a heavy crossbow or some throwing hammers :D
UMiskatonic 12-25-06, 10:36 AM	The usual high AC build runs directly to dwarven defender. Take a look at it. One way to counter reach is to have reach yourself. Try it, you might like it. TWF is not ideal. Strong characters are mathematically better with a large weapon and power attack. You may want ranger levels to get an animal companion. Gets you endurance as well, which helps with dwarven defender. If you change weapons a lot, get quick draw. Mobility helps with enemy AO's. So does tumble, but that's a VERY different build. Another way is just to have enough hit points/AC that one AO isn't a big deal, and go in and kill them anyway.
ranagrande 12-25-06, 12:23 PM	A Ranger 1/Fighter 1/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/Deepwarden 2/Dwarven Defender X could probably do everything that you're looking for. It loses one point of base attack bonus compared to a pure fighter-type, but in exchange you get the ability to cast second level divine spells (most notably for this build, bear's endurance) and an effective druid level of 7 for your animal companion. If you max out your constitution, you can easily get an AC in the 30s without wearing any armor or magic items. Of course, the high con will also give you a lot of hp, which is also good. As was mentioned previously, the best way to combat reach is to use a reach weapon yourself. I recommend the glaive, but any reach weapon will do. If you do use a reach weapon, make sure to wear a spiked gauntlet so that you threaten things closer to you too.
Genghis Cohen 12-25-06, 03:15 PM	I feel like playing a dwarf just because I like to roleplay them, aside from that I'd like an optimized warrior of some sort. I'd rather have a high AC than the extra damage of wielding two weapons. And I hate getting AOOs on me by creatures with reach. It'd be nice if he had some reach weapon to use on the way in before he takes that 5ft step closer and whips out the waraxe. If TWF builds are clearly better I can handle goin that route. I like animal companions. But if beastmaster (or similar) isn't all that effective at higher levels then so be it. thx for any input. --DonDwarven builds favor using the Dwarven Waraxe, combined with Exotic Weapon Master, because Dwarves are already proficient with that exotic weapon. Two weapon builds are not as effective, especially when you begin to add the cost up of doubling weapons to overcome DR (two adamantine, two silver w/ ghost touch, etc.) or resign yourself to being noticably less effective against a lot of monsters. Animal companions are really only effective for Druids. They get to keep them close to their APL and they can buff them. You're going to take AoOs, and your AC will only be so good. You need a lot of hitpoints. Your AC doesn't matter when you're playing APL10 and the DM rolls a 2 and says, "does a 43 hit?" The idea is to kill the bad guy before he kills you. Your weapons should be a golfbag full of magical dwarven waraxes, and a +1 (+4) composite longbow. Also, everyone should bu cold iron and silver arrows after their first mod (along with potions of CLW and tanglefoot bags) When you can afford it, Mithral Full Plate is a nice compromise between combat abilities and having some kind of AC. Then you make it +1, and then you enchant it with Death Ward. if you get access to an animated shield, get it. Especially if its a large mithral one. Then add fortification. Here's a strong build that you can a lot of fun with. Remember that a 6 charisma means that your character gets to drink lots of beer and belch in front of nobles. Fun, fun, fun! S 16 D 14 C 16 I 10 W 12 Ch 6 1 Barbarian - Power Attack 2 Fighter - Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe) 3 Fighter - Extra Rage, Improved Initiative 4 Fighter - 5 Fighter - Close Quarters Combat 6 Occult Slayer - Reckless Rage 7 EWM - Uncanny Blow 8 Occult Slayer 9 Occult Slayer - Several good feats work here. 10 Occult Slayer 11 Occult Slayer - NO MIND CONTROL!!! WOO HOO!!! You can build out the rest in two years when your character gets there.
Mommy was an Orc 12-25-06, 05:15 PM	You're going to take AoOs, and your AC will only be so good. You need a lot of hitpoints. Your AC doesn't matter when you're playing APL10 and the DM rolls a 2 and says, "does a 43 hit?" Sure it does. Because some days, you'll get the DM not softballing the combat, uses Power Attack like they ought to do, and delivers another 30-60(or more) hp of damage in a round to your reckless rager. There's no way the DM in a mod rolls a 2, ends up with a 43, and isn't ignoring Power Attack at APL 10. As an example, a Storm Giant at APL 10 should expect to do 69 hp of damage per round to someone with AC 30. They should expect to do 119 to someone with AC 20 via putting 6 points into Power Attack. Or 140 to the AC 20 character who just dropped his AC to 16 via Reckless Raging with 8 points. The reason the Reckless Rager builds ought to need a lot of hit points is because they should be taking twice the amount of damage...
LGMoses 12-25-06, 05:48 PM	A Ranger 1/Fighter 1/Druid 3/Beastmaster 1/Deepwarden 2/Dwarven Defender X could probably do everything that you're looking for. It loses one point of base attack bonus compared to a pure fighter-type, but in exchange you get the ability to cast second level divine spells (most notably for this build, bear's endurance) and an effective druid level of 7 for your animal companion. If you max out your constitution, you can easily get an AC in the 30s without wearing any armor or magic items. Of course, the high con will also give you a lot of hp, which is also good. As was mentioned previously, the best way to combat reach is to use a reach weapon yourself. I recommend the glaive, but any reach weapon will do. If you do use a reach weapon, make sure to wear a spiked gauntlet so that you threaten things closer to you too. Even though the gauntlet has spikes don't you still not threaten any squares with it unless you have improved unarmed strike? I'm just not sure at all. Even so, you would still technically not threaten any square because your are weilding a two handed weapon so your gauntlet isn't free. It doesn't make any sense to me man. I wouldn't allow it at my table. Just my opinion.
Japangirl 12-25-06, 07:17 PM	Spiked gauntlets are a weapon, you do not need improved unarmed strike to threaten with them. You don't have to be a monk to hurt someone with brass knuckles that have little knives sticking out of them, to put it in slightly more real world terms. As to when wielding a 2h weapon reach weapon, I'm not sure. The best use I've seen for spiked gauntlets is clerics, so they threaten and can use a heavy shield and cast spells all at the same time.
KShaver 12-26-06, 09:28 AM	I like animal companions. But if beastmaster (or similar) isn't all that effective at higher levels then so be it. I'm using a melee based, high AC, animal companion build on my gnome, and all the feats work for a dwarf as well: 1. Barbarian - Dodge 2. Ranger - Track(b) 3. Fighter - Titan Fighting + Skill Focus Handle Animal 4. Barbarian 5. Fighter - Mobility 6. Beastlord - Elusive Target 7+ Wolf Lord I just hit 3rd with this character and not having heavy armor proficiency until 3rd only hurt for one game, full plate after all can't be afforded untill halfway through 2nd at best anyways. Until then I had 14 dex, a chain shirt, a heavy wooden shield, and dodge for a 19/20 AC for those two levels (a dwarf would be at 18/19, no size mod). Titan Fighting (Races of Stone, Gnome/Dwarf only) and Elusive Target both turn dodge into something to be reckoned with. Admittedly Titan Fighting is more effective on a gnome because nearly every opponent will be larger than you. We've fought 2 ogres since I hit 3rd and both were laughable because they couldn't hit 30ac without a natural 20, and giant was my favored enemy so my little teeny axe (the disadvantage of being a gnome) actualy did some damage. A variation is to just go beastlord from 6+, which takes out the need for the ranger level. That means you could go Barbarian 1/Fighter 4 then into beastlord, but then you have to either delay weapon spec or your dodge feats for a little longer. For a dwarf starting attributes would look something like this: 16 str 14 dex 18 con 2 pts left for your mental attribute of choice, int for skill points, wis for tracking/spot/listen/saves, or cha for better handle animal (gnome took charisma to also have the gnome racial spell like abilities). Equipment is pretty simple, dwarven waraxe, heavy wooden shield, a chain shirt, and some javelins for ranged...but whats that you say, you can spend less on scale mail and still not be slowed down by it? Nah, get the chain shirt, the armor check is less and you can sleep in it. Once you upgrade to full plate you can keep the shirt to still sleep in, which you can't do with the scale unless you take endurance.
clannagh 01-02-07, 09:46 PM	The traditional dwarven build you see all over the place would start something like: Ranger4/Barbarian1/deep warden2/pious templar4 a variant i have looked at: barbarian1/ranger1/druid3/beastmaster1/deepwarden2/bear warrior Generally speaking though its more fun to just to have a general idea where you want the build to go. Locking yourself into a set build will often mean you get bored with the character before it even gets a couple of levels.