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| #1korik1Mar 16, 2009 14:54:07 | Hello everyone. In an upcoming d20 Modern game I want to make a Lawful Good Human Martial Artist specializing in high mobility and striking, like parkour with fighting. However, as part of my character's backstory, he used to be a military medic and so he has Doctor as his starting occupation with Knowledge (Earth & Life Sciences) and Treat Injuy as his focuses. However, I only really want Treat Injury. One of the most important things for me is full BAB through all levels. However, it's not a typical Modern game, it's more of a low fantasy setting (if you know Avatar: The Last Airbender, it's that setting during the time period when Aang is frozen). I can probably use any Modern book and likely D&D books too, so long as I can rationalize what I use within the setting's limits. Obviously though, I have to start as a d20 Modern base class. My fellow party members will all be a homebrewed spell casting class that has to choose either fire, water, earth, or air as their element of influence. We will be starting at level 1 and I would estimate will reach level 10, though I want a complete build up to level 20 in case we do end up going further. Here's what I got: Strong Hero 1 str 16 dex 15 con 14 int 14 wis 11 cha 10 Even though my character is going to be a medic I'm fine with not having a wis modifier because he's supposed to not have any natural knack for medicine. I'll be putting my first stat point into dex, the next two into str and the last one into wis, but I'd be willing to rearrange the order. What I'm thinking for the full build is Strong 3/Martial Artist 5/Helix Warrior 1/Martial Arts Master 5 (from the Modern Player's Companion 2)/Martial Artist 5/Strong 1, but I'd be willing to rearrange the order. The Feats I have figured out look like this: Combat Expertise (Human) Defensive Martial Arts (1) Combat Martial Arts (strong 2) Armour Proficiency Light (3) Combat Reflexes (Martial Artist 3) Endurance (6) Almost all the feats I've picked are requirements for one of the advanced or prestige classes. I really don't know what else to take. Talents are Melee Smash, and Ignore Hardness. Also Martial Arts Master gets to pick two techniques at levels 2 and 4, and the two I'm going with are one that allows me to ALWAYS make AoO against grapples and add the damage dealt to my grapple check, and either Improvised Weapon Proficiency or a technique that allows me to make attacks while prone without penalty and a successful attack allows me to stand up for free. I'd be really thankful for any suggestions regarding feat selection, and possible advanced classes. The last character I played was almost useless in combat and so now I want to make a combat monster. |
| #2carnivoreMar 16, 2009 16:08:17 | personally i would suggest this: Strong 1/ Fast 3/ Martial Artist 8/ Soldier 2/ Helix warrior 7 Fast will give a much bigger Def boost take the feats: FAST PLUS Advancements in science coupled with your drive to excel enable you to progress faster toward becoming a truly dexterous hero. Benefit: You gain two talents from the Fast hero’s talent trees. The talents must be selected from the following list, you cannot select more than one talent from a single talent tree, and you must meet all the prerequisites of a talent to select it. Uncanny Dodge 1, Uncanny Dodge 2, Defensive Roll, Opportunist, Improved Increased Speed, Advanced Increased Speed. Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select this feat, you must choose a different pair of talents. STRONG PLUS Advancements in science coupled with your drive to excel enable you to progress faster toward becoming a truly strong hero. Benefit: You gain two talents from the Strong hero’s talent trees. The talents must be selected from the following list, you cannot select more than one talent from a single talent tree, and you must meet all the prerequisites of a talent to select it. Improved Extreme Effort, Advanced Extreme Effort, Improved Ignore Hardness, Advanced Ignore Hardness, Improved Melee Smash, Advanced Melee Smash. Special: You may select this feat multiple times. Each time you select this feat, you must choose a different pair of talents. :D |
| #3korik1Mar 17, 2009 7:12:32 | I did consider having a dip into fast and soldier originally when my character concept used a naginata, but since I've decided to stick with unarmed combat it would be unlikely that I could convince my GM to let me take levels of Soldier without Archaic Weapon Proficiency. Additionally, I REALLY want full BAB which was a large deciding factor on the classes I chose. I'm not that concerned about my defense bonus Obviously, won't need Fast Plus if I don't take any levels in fast, but the strong plus sounds like a good idea. |
| #4true_shinkenMar 17, 2009 12:38:34 | In d20 Modern, not having a level of Fast Hero is ALWAYS a mistake. |
| #5carnivoreMar 17, 2009 15:24:01 | I did consider having a dip into fast and soldier originally when my character concept used a naginata, but since I've decided to stick with unarmed combat it would be unlikely that I could convince my GM to let me take levels of Soldier without Archaic Weapon Proficiency. why?.... notice these class features of the Soldier: "Weapon Focus At 1st level, a Soldier gains the Weapon Focus class feature, providing the benefit of the feat with the same name. The Soldier chooses a specific weapon. The soldier can choose unarmed strike or grapple as the weapon. The soldier must be proficient with the chosen weapon. The soldier adds +1 to all attack rolls made using the selected weapon. Weapon Specialization At 2nd level, a Soldier gains weapon specialization with a specific melee or ranged weapon that he or she also has applied the Weapon Focus feat or class feature to. The soldier gets a +2 bonus on damage rolls with the chosen weapon. " also they get good skills and great saves Additionally, I REALLY want full BAB which was a large deciding factor on the classes I chose. I'm not that concerned about my defense bonus Fast also can boost your speed .... if you did this: Human Fast 2/ Strong 2 Feats: Fast Plus(Human) Defensive Martial Arts (1) Combat Expertise(Fast 2) Strong Plus(3) Combat Martial Arts (strong 2) Talents: Evasion(Fast) Increased Speed(Fast) Improved Increased Speed(Fast) Melee smash(Strong) Ignore Hardness(Strong) Improved Ignore Hardness(Strong) you will have 3 Talents for Both Fast and Strong and can go right into Martial Artist basicly more skills, feats, talents, better saves, better defense, faster.... and all you lose is 1 BAB just something to think about :D |
| #6true_shinkenMar 17, 2009 15:36:18 | Where are this Plus feats from? |
| #7carnivoreMar 17, 2009 15:50:07 | D20 Modern SRD ...under Future... Occupations Skills Feats (73k RTF) :D |
| #8korik1Mar 18, 2009 13:07:32 | Carnivore, you've made a mistake as to how the Plus feats work. First, the talents taken have to be from two DIFFERENT skill trees. Second, you cannot take root talents (i.e. melee smash, increased speed, ignore hardness) with the feats, they aren't on the list. Lastly, you have to meet the prerequisites for the talents you are taking. Thus taking a plus feat at level one is very pointless because you would only get ONE of the talents you could get, and it would have to be from the same talent tree as the talent you picked at level one. The reason I would be hard pressed to convince my GM to allow me to take levels in soldier without Archaic Weapon Proficiency isn't because Weapon Focus and Specialization can't apply to unarmed attacks (since they can) but because one of the normal prereqs is Personal Firearms Proficiency. This is to represent a professionally trained soldier who would use guns in a modern setting or an archaic weapon in a fantasy setting. In the setting we're playing in there are no soldiers who use martial arts instead of a spear/bow/etc. so I couldn't argue that Combat Martial arts could replace a proficiency feat, and even if I could the question begs "why not just take more levels in Martial Artist?" I was considering changing my build to strong 3/ Martial Artist 10/martial arts master 4/fast 3 so that I could take full advantage of the strong plus and fast plus feats, though I'm not sure in what order I'd want to take the classes (aside from the first 4 levels being 3 strong and 1 martial artist). So suggestions in that regard are welcome. |
| #9carnivoreMar 18, 2009 15:18:06 | Carnivore, you've made a mistake as to how the Plus feats work. First, the talents taken have to be from two DIFFERENT skill trees. Second, you cannot take root talents (i.e. melee smash, increased speed, ignore hardness) with the feats, they aren't on the list. Lastly, you have to meet the prerequisites for the talents you are taking. Thus taking a plus feat at level one is very pointless because you would only get ONE of the talents you could get, and it would have to be from the same talent tree as the talent you picked at level one. opps you are partly correct(i neglected to replace Evasion with Advanced Increased Speed... and Ignore Hardness and Improved Ignore Hardness with Improved Melee Smash, Advanced Melee Smash) notice: it should be like this: 1st lvl: Fast 1 Feats:Fast Plus(Human),Defensive Martial Arts: Talents:Increased Speed, Improved Increased Speed, Advanced Increased Speed 2nd lvl: Strong 1 Feats: Talents:Melee smash 3rd lvl: Fast 2 Feats:Combat Expertise(Fast 2), Strong Plus Talents:Improved Melee Smash, Advanced Melee Smash Strong 2 Feats:Combat Martial Arts (strong 2) Talents: Melee Smash actually helps with Hardness... but it also helps with everything else as well this gives you a Character who is "specializing in high mobility and striking"... unfortunately it is not Full BAB The reason I would be hard pressed to convince my GM to allow me to take levels in soldier without Archaic Weapon Proficiency isn't because Weapon Focus and Specialization can't apply to unarmed attacks (since they can) but because one of the normal prereqs is Personal Firearms Proficiency. This is to represent a professionally trained soldier who would use guns in a modern setting or an archaic weapon in a fantasy setting. In the setting we're playing in there are no soldiers who use martial arts instead of a spear/bow/etc. so I couldn't argue that Combat Martial arts could replace a proficiency feat, and even if I could the question begs "why not just take more levels in Martial Artist?" you do realize that Modern Soldiers get a WHOLE LOT of training in Unarmed Combat.... still that is fine... just go with Martial Artist.... i didnt read your original post clearly enough... it is a "low fantasy setting" I was considering changing my build to strong 3/ Martial Artist 10/martial arts master 4/fast 3 so that I could take full advantage of the strong plus and fast plus feats, though I'm not sure in what order I'd want to take the classes (aside from the first 4 levels being 3 strong and 1 martial artist). So suggestions in that regard are welcome. i dont have access to Martial Arts Master.. so i dont know what it does... but, if it were me... id suggest this: Fast 2/ Strong 2/ Martial Artist 8/ Shadow Slayer 8 (feats as previously noted above) BAB+19 this would give the best of Martial Artist and also +4 Enhancement to Unarmed Strikes and Fast Healing 4.... awesome saves, skills,Talents :D |
| #10sofawallMar 18, 2009 15:29:02 | Damnit, all these same avatars! |
| #11korik1Mar 18, 2009 20:33:38 | FAST PLUS So, you can't take both Improved Increased Speed AND Advanced Increased Speed. So it doesn't work. I had a look at the Shadow Slayer class, and there's a lot of stuff in it that I'll never use because the setting we'll be in doesn't have a lot of monsters and most of them are dire or hybridized animals (i.e. platypus bear, giant flying bison). So that suggestion is out because I don't really want to take 8 levels of a class for only two abilities. The Martial Arts Master has full BAB, pretty good saves and Defense, and has two abilities that alternate each level. Odd levels get Focus Ki which allows the character to meditate for 1 round and spend an action point. Then they either get +1d6 to their next to hit roll, +1d6 to next melee damage roll, +1d6 HP, healing touch for 1d6, +1d6 to next saving throw, or +1d6 to Defense for 1 turn. This increases to 1d8 at level 3, and 1d10 at level 5. Levels 2 and 4 allow you to pick a special technique from a list. The two I'm going with are one that allows me to ALWAYS make AoO against grapples and add the damage dealt to my grapple check, and either Improvised Weapon Proficiency or a technique that allows me to make attacks while prone without penalty and a successful attack allows me to stand up for free. |
| #12carnivoreMar 19, 2009 4:34:26 | So, you can't take both Improved Increased Speed AND Advanced Increased Speed. So it doesn't work. you are quite correct... my apologies... i didnt read it thouroughly enough :D |
| #13korik1Mar 21, 2009 15:49:46 | Alright. This is the build I'm looking at now. strong1 Defensive Martial Arts (1), Combat Throw (H) Strong Hero2 Combat Martial Arts (Strong 2) strong3 combat reflexes (3) Martial Artist1 MA2 Fast Hero1 Strong Plus (6) Fast2 Combat expertise (Fast2) Fast3 MA3 Fast Plus (9), Improved Combat Throw (MA3) Martial Arts Master1 MAM2 MA4 Heroic Surge (12) MA5 MAM3 MAM4 Run (15) MA6 Elusive Target (MA6) MA7 MA8 Improved Combat Martial Arts (18) MA9 Advanced Combat Martial Arts (MA9) MA10 Thoughts about my feat selection are mostly what I'm looking for. The class order and selection I am now happy with. |
| #14sofawallMar 21, 2009 16:40:02 | ******* it, when I look in this thread, I think Carnivore is like quintuple posting and talking to himself! Stupid same avatars... |