Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nistra Aug 04, 2011 11:08:46	Guys, Me and a bunch of friends will be starting a "Crusader campaign" and our GM wants us to make strong characters. He says they need to be highly optimized or certain doom awaits them . I am not good with the fighter type classes, so can you help me build a very powerful knight (not that retarded defender class, something that deals a good amount of damage).  All books (including some things from BoED), no arcane magic and divine metamagic. Another question. How do the stances from ToB work? You choose one of them and it's permanently active until you change it as a swift action? Or you need to activate it at the beginning of the encounter? Thanks in advance.
#2 Nezkrul Aug 04, 2011 12:31:32	Stances take a swift action to "turn on" but once you turn it on it stays on, even outside of combat, unless it has a condition described in it its text that turns it off.  You can switch stances with a swift action. A campaign that is highly optimized, but you can't use any magic at all?  Seems like Druid 20 would be my call as long as you can use wildshape.  But if you want a martial character, Tome of Battle is a good place to look for ideas, but then again, a Fighter 20 build can be pretty good at controlling the battlefield.  Aelrynth's lockdown build is a good example. Then theres Fighter 2 / Barbarian 8 (lion totem) / Frenzied Berserker 10 leap charging supreme power attacking shock trooper with valorous berserker weapon for the win.
#3 Tempest_Stormwind Aug 04, 2011 13:08:19	Guys, Me and a bunch of friends will be starting a "Crusader campaign" and our GM wants us to make strong characters. He says they need to be highly optimized or certain doom awaits them . I am not good with the fighter type classes, so can you help me build a very powerful knight (not that retarded defender class, something that deals a good amount of damage).  All books (including some things from BoED), no arcane magic and divine metamagic. Starting level? House rules? Ability scores? Number of other players, and what characters they're playing?  And, most importantly, what do you want to do (i.e. what does "strong" mean for you, and what are your goals at the table?) We can try to help but in a vacuum the best we can do is point you to existing power builds. Another question. How do the stances from ToB work? You choose one of them and it's permanently active until you change it as a swift action? Or you need to activate it at the beginning of the encounter? The first one. Stances can even be active outside of encounters (and you can use maneuvers outside of encounters too, but they have a one-minute cooldown, IIRC). A stance ends when it says it ends (i.e. moving during Roots of the Mountain), if you end it with a swift action, if you activate a different stance, or (I think) if you become immobilized. I would start with the Tome of Battle and talking with your teammates. For instance, if everyone dives in with a damage dealer, there may be no one alive to endure incoming attacks if you don't win on your alpha strike.