Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 felgoroth Sep 10, 2009 12:31:03	I'm not sure if this is the area I'd post this in but, please help anyway.  I'm DMing a 3.5 game set in a renaissance homebrewed world with homebrewed races so, I can't use any racial classes.  Right now the party is only 3rd level and consists of a Beguiler, a Scout that's going to go into Ranger that's melee focused, a Swordsage that specializes in throwing daggers and really anything else he can get his hands on (he has throw anything, point blank shot, far shot, and quickdraw), a communist Cleric dual wielding a hammer and sickle, a Fighter using a musket and flintlock pistols, and a Sorcerer trying to become a Blood Magus.   So, the party recently pissed off a group of people that were part of The Axe Gang, which, if you haven't seen kung fu hustle is a gang that uses a bunch of axes.  Unlike kung fu hustle The Axe Gang in my game uses more than hand axes and throwing axes although there are people in the game like that.  I was wondering if anyone had builds for characters centraling around axes, the leader of the gang, who the party won't see for quite some time, is a Scout to Master Thrower and I'm working on the build.  Really a lot of the gang right now is just going to be some random level 1 characters with hand axes, throwing axes, or battle axes and the occasional big guy holding a greataxe but, I want some higher level people for down the road.  One of the races in my game is large and has a +8 to str, so I was thinking about giving it Monkey Grip so it could use a huge great axe (4d6+str and a half damage) and then giving it the axespike feat.  Any ideas would help thanks.   Here are some Ideas I had for builds:   1: Fighter: Monkey Grip (1st Level Feat, Complete Warrior), Weapon Focus: Great Axe (Fighter Feat, PHB)   2: Fighter: Weapon Focus: Armor Spikes (Fighter Feat, PHB)   3: Fighter: Axe Spike (3rd Level Feat, Races of Stone)   Remember this is a Large character so it'd be using a Greataxe that does 4d6+str and a half, he'd also be wearing full plate with armor spikes.  Then this next one would also be kind cool   1: Fighter: Monkey Grip (1st Level Feat, Complete Warrior), Weapon Focus: Great Axe (Fighter Feat, PHB), Dodge (Flaw 1, PHB), Mobility (Flaw 2, PHB)   2: Fighter: Combat Reflexes (Fighter Feat, PHB)   3: Fighter: Combat Expertise (3rd Level Feat, PHB)   4: Fighter: Spring Attack (Fighter Feat, PHB)   5: Fighter: ---   6: Fighter: Weapon Specialization: Greataxe (6th Level Feat, PHB) Whirlwind Attack (Fighter Feat, PHB)   7: Weapon Master (Oriental Adventures): Weapon of Choice: Great Axe (special abilities from Weapon Master only apply to Greataxes), Ki Damage 1/day/level (1/day/level character can decide to not roll damage and instead deal the weapons maximum damage [not critical] this cannot be used if you score a critical hit)   8: Weapon Master: Increased Multiplier 1/day (1/day character can add 1 to it's critical multiplier)   This would be the same race as the other so it would be a huge greataxe.  And now another lower level build that I thought would be kind of fun.   1: Scout: Skirmish +1d6, Trap Finding, Point Blank Shot (1st Level Feat), Far Shot (Human Feat), Two Weapon Fighting (Flaw)   2: Scout: Battle Fortitude +1, Uncanny Dodge   3: Scout: Fast Movement +10ft, Skirmish +1d6 +1 AC, Trackless Step, Precise Shot (3rd Level Feat)   4: Scout: Quick Draw (Scout Feat)
#2 Maat_Mons Sep 12, 2009 22:16:52	Your Ideas: Monkey grip is adding 3.5 damage on average for a -2 to attack. Power attack would add +4 and would also affect the armor spikes (both the penalty and the bonus). I would suggest avoiding spring attack. Everyone can either charge you or ready an attack for when you come by. Since your players probably only have one attack, this does not hinder them. It seems your last build can't benefit from skirmish and multiple attacks at the same time. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to go with fighter and squeeze in improved rapid shot (Complete Warrior) instead. Brutal throw (Complete Adventurer) could also help.   Additional Ideas: There is a variant of rage (whirling frenzy) in Unearthed Arcana and the 3.5 SRD that gives an extra attack (all attacks at -2), +4 strength, and +2 AC. There is an alternate class feature (lion totem) in Complete Champion that gives barbarians pounce. If you use a human, you could use two feats to give the NPC punishing stance from Tome of Battle (+1d6 damage, -2 AC). The net effect of that would be a first level NPC that deals 1d12+1d6+1.5*str (average 16) on each of two attacks. You could fit four such enemies into an EL 3 encounter. They may hit less than half the time, but that should be sufficient to be threatening to the party, especially with a surprise round. Note that it is possible to charge as a partial action in a surprise round and this does get the benefit of pounce. For your large sized race, you might try two levels of fighter for the dungeon crasher variant from Dungeonscape and the knockback feat from Races of Stone. You will have enough feats to take knockback by 3rd level, so maybe round it out with that same barbarian level from above. The net effect of that would be 14d6+7*str (average 105) damage per round if he succeeds on his two attack rolls and two bull rushes and has a convenient wall. This derives from bonus damage for bull rushing someone into a wall, free bull rushes after successful melee attacks, and two attacks per round. An NPC can have a triple weapon capsule retainer loaded with quickflame, quickfrost, and quickspark capsules (all from Complete Adventurer). These add 3d6 damage for one round. An NPC may even carry multiple such weapons to use in multiple rounds. Obviously, you can tone these down as necessary to suit your group.