a campaign i play in is about to wrap up, and were going to take the same cast in the same world and continue the story (after some player changes) in 3.5 world. this game was a test for our DM to try out 4e, and after a year and 10 levels, he's not liking it. we still have 2 games running in 4e, so he wants to go back to where he DMs best in 3.5.
im really rusty on 3.5 so i could use some help convering my toon to 3.5. he's a lvl 10 avenger githzeri, censure of persuit, in combat im the very typical striker, picking the biggest meany on the field and hitting it with my hammer till it dies. i optomized the hell out of my athletics check, so we did some house ruling to add falling damage to my hits, and its become a central point to the characters combat style and character style. some very poorly placed natural 1's have made for some VERY hilarious moments in falling and jump attempts, so keeping that style is an absolout MUST. im a little lost on what class would be best, and could use some tips on maximizing my jump check.
all official D&D 3.5 material is available to use, but no d20 or pathfinder books.
so i guess the bullet points of what im looking for is,
-something compatable with the githzeri race, preferably exploiting the +6 to dex.
-ability to wield a massive hammer and have the ability to go toe to toe with a BBEG while the party cleans up the trash and rocks support
-alignment must be good, and preferably lawful.
-would prefer to not be clad in armor, self preservation is a little low on the characters priorities, especially below the ability to rack up massive altitude.
-some magic. would prefer divine magical abilities, possibly arcane that i can re-skin to fit
-most important of all, a MASSIVE jump check. everything else i can fluff if need be, but i have to be able to do falling attacks, its very central to his RP fluff 
thanks in advance for the tips!
The leap attack feat (Complete Adventurer, p110) allows jumping while attacking to help out your damage. The leap of the heavens feat (Player's Handbook II, p80) removes the penalties for not getting a running start. Jumping is normally based on strength, but the agile athlete feat (Races of the Wild, p148) can change that to dexterity.
The shock trooper feat (Complete Warrior, p112) can reflect your character's recklessness. The heedless charge maneuver lets you apply the penalty from power attack to AC instead of your attack roll. This allows you to increase offense at the cost of defense. It pairs wonderfully with leap attack, which doubles your power attack damage when you jump 10 feet at an enemy.
A warmace (Complete Warrior, p154) is the largest bludgeoning weapon around. It shouldn't be hard to convince the DM to let you use the same statistics, but for a giant hammer instead of a giant mace. Also, if you can get access to the greater mighty wallop spell (Races of the Dragon, p115), you can give your hammer a nice boost.
If all you really want is jumping, the blade dancer prestige class (Oriental Adventures, p37) does it better than anyone. By the time you finish it, it gives you a +30 bonus to balance, jump, and tumble (which is untyped and therefore stacks with any other bonuses you find) and a speed of 90 feet (which provides a +24 bonus on jump checks, as per the normal rules of that skill).
Normally, being a githzerai consumes 2 levels that would otherwise have gone into classes. I'd try to talk the DM into knocking off the level adjustment in exchange for also knocking off some of the perks. The githzerai racial class (Complete Psionic, p147) shows what the designers felt had to be taken away to make them effectively +0 LA.
awesome! thats a great list! ill check those out and see what i can come up with!
It's a bit harder to work with since it's a regional feat, but the falling damage bit is included in the style for Battle Jump (Unapproachable East).
The Pounce ability is hard to get if you're insisting on Lawful (it's easiest to grab with a Barbarian dip using Complete Champion), but if you can snag it, get it. This allows you to swing multiple times off of a single jump. (I first used this years ago with lances, and described it as pogo-sticking.) This, plus multipliers like Battle Jump or pseudo-multipliers like Leap Attack, will mean you're the heaviest hitter around, and if Shock Trooper's in the picture (it really should be), you'll almost always hit on your charges.
There's also the Tome of Battle, which is a lot closer to 4e but is still decidedly 3.5. The Tiger Claw school has a series of standard-action strikes which involve powerful jumps; these maneuvers often catch the target flat-footed as well (allowing for assorted types of bonus damage to kick in, and at the very least letting you Power Attack for a greater value). Tiger Claw also has the Sudden Leap maneuver (swift action to make a jump check and move the indicated distance), which is a godsend in many melee builds, particularly considering how early it's available. Finally, Tiger Claw has the Leaping Dragon Stance, which is a little unusual - it reads like it should add +10 to Jump checks, but what it actually does is add 10 feet to whatever distance your jump actually moves you; it also treats all jumps as running. (This means that if you roll a 1 on a standing high jump and only clear about 5 feet or so, you'll actually rise up 15 feet.)
Finally, githzerai in 3.5 are naturally psionic; even if you don't actually use the overly expensive race yourself, you can tap into psionics a bit for your movement. There's the Speed of Thought, Mental Leap, and Up the Walls feats in the Expanded Psionics Handbook (the same source as the githzerai; they're mirrored here) which dramatically improve your overall movement. You can run up walls, leap an incredible distance from them, fall on your enemy, and thanks to Battle Jump, have all of this treated as a charge attack (triggering Shock Trooper, Leap Attack, Pounce, and so on, plus dealing double damage from Battle Jump).
In terms of Dex and jumping, there's also the Boots of Agile Leaping (MIC), which add Dexterity to your Jump checks on top of Strength. They also allow swift-action standing from prone if you've got a bit of training in Balance. Surprisingly good item for the cost.
I'm passably familiar with 4e, but only the initial release; if you could provide a bit of information on Censure of Pursuit, and/or the powers/feats you chose, that'd be helpful in finding more analogues.
I assume you aren't starting at first level? A gith Barbarian 1/Fighter 2/Paladin X would fit your theme pretty well. Your origin could be that of a barbarian who wandered around, and then was shown the way to civilization and loved the order.
Feat - Extra Rage, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Whatever.
Stats - Str, Dex, Con, whatever
the characters will be starting at lvl 11. im bouncing back and forth between the blade dancer and a book of 9 swords character. im about halfway done with the two, so maybe ill finish them and have a battle between them and see who wins XD
tempest, the persuit thingy basically lets me choos a specific opponent, and as long as im the only adjacent ally, i get 2 d20's for attack, and if he tries to move away from me, i get bonus to move speed, damage, etc for one round if i catch up to him. bassically punishes my oath for not paying attention to me, or going after my allies.
another thing im having trouble finding an anologue is my magical enhancements to my weapon. im having trouble finding a great maul. id like it to be bludgeoning, two handed, and would prefer something i dont have to burn a feat on, so martial. id also prefer something with 2dX instead of 1dX. i like the reliability of 2d weapons.
the magical effects im having trouble replicating is a Daily ability that lets me immobilize my target until i am no longer adjacent to it. the effect is called Pinning Avalanche, the idea being a torrent of boulders and ice flow out of the hammer and bury my target, securing him in his place.
I thought the Minotaur's Greathammer was the biggest of the blud weapons?
==Aelryinth
aelryinth wrote:
The only problem with the greathorn minotaur's greathammer is that it doesn't have a listed price. It's otherwise mechanically identical to the goliath greathammer, except for its critical range (the goliath version has x4, while the greathorn version has 19-20/x4). The only time I've used one, the DM just charged double the base price for the goliath greathammer (the bigger factors at the time were having it be adamantine, with an 8-handed grip).
IIRC the 19-20X4 was a misprint.
If you look at the minotaurs stats, he gets X4.
Krusk wrote:
One of the very last 3.5 things wotc posted, was to use an Epic Destiny (sounds familiar now) on a 3.5 build. Put the 4e level 21 abilities on the 3.5 level 12 feat slot, the level 24 ability on the level 15 feat slot, the level 26 ability on the level 18 feat slot, level 30 ability as a level 20 capstone, and "finangle" (technical term) the descriptive of having achieved the end of the ED into the level 21 feat slot.
Believe it or not, it's actual rules for a few ED's not totally in 4e. One of them was even called DemiGod doing almost the exact same as the one you know. So while this is "houserules", it's houserules that extremely closely mimic real rules.
edit for a link ---> http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=4570.0
awaken_D_M_golem wrote:
Yep, I'm not sure, that sentence needed either a Comma ... or a Coma.
Can get a Major Bloodline (@d20srd) so the feat stack looks very 4e-ish.