Ultimate charger? Foot or mount

[danzibr]

So in another thread I made, the topic of loads of damage while charging came up. Here's the brief version:

Warblade 20, Lead the Charge + Leap Attack + Shock Trooper + Pouncing Charge.

Can anyone think of anything to add to the damage? Of course a powerfully enchanted weapon (2-hander, of course). What enchantments?

Also, how about doing this on a mount?

[HappyBlanket]

Combat Brute provides another bonus to Power Attack if you charged the last turn. I don't have the exact description with me though.

It has an icky prerequisite though, much like Storm Trooper.

[Angry Bob]

Valorous enchantment gives x2 to charge damage.

I've always thought that massive damage on a charge was best accomplished via Fighter 2/Barb 1/Warblade whatever for automatic pounce via barbarian. Also, charging is feat-intensive enough to deviate from warblade into fighter for the feats. And with two valorous weapons, you could really improve your damage output.

A more esoteric route has you get Abyss-Bound soul of Baphomet for another x2 damage on charges(we're up to x3 now), but that requires three feats, so it's only something to do if you have no other good feats left. Fun fact: all three of them are vile, so if you aren't averse to swearing yourself to a elder evil, you can pick them up virtually for free.

If we're not restricted to a single charge, we could discuss Battle Jump abuse.

[herrhauptmann]

My preferred method, and one that gets debated frequently, is a tauric build.
By my reasoning, a human riding on a horse can't make use of leap attack AND his mounted feats at the same time.
But if he's tauric shaped, he can make use of his 4 feet for his mounted combat feats (Centaur in Races of Faerun, and Inevitable in MM1), and also leap attack because it's him doing the charging. Not him on a creature.

At that point, it's a matter of choosing a creature or tauric mishmash which gives you the size you want, stat boosts, and a minimum of racial hit die and LA.
For that matter, I like the Bariaur (not BoED version). Though I've also heard the elf/deer tauric template works well too.

[Mushroom Ninja]

Personally I'm a fan of mounted small-sized chargers. Since you're riding a medium sized creature, you can still keep manuevrability in the dungeon (especially if you're a halfling outrider). Although you are probably loosing a little bit of strength, the x3 damage from using a lance on a spirited charge makes up for it and more.

[dgnslyr]

The trick with chargers is that the two big damage shticks, Spirited Charge w/ lance and Leap Attack, are incompatible. The only way to get both on the same character would be, as mentioned before, to be a centaur-like race, so you're always considered mounted. Now, what's the lowest LA/RHD class that gets that property?

Feat-wise, you'd need
Power Attack + Bull Rush -> Shock Trooper
Leap Attack
Mounted Combat + Ride-By Attack -> Spirited Charge

And you'd want a Valorous Lance as your weapon of choice. It's quite a few feats, so some flaws or even a fighter dip may be in order to get all those. Mix in Warblade for the charge-related White Raven maneuvers, and you've got quite an impressive set-up.

Too bad it makes you a bit of a one-trick pony, no pun intended. You're probably better off playing Warblade 20 instead of mucking around with centaurs, and Shock Trooper and Leap Attack is already plenty for insta-gibbing most things. Still, it's pretty interesting as a thought exercise.

[Zaq]

In a nutshell, mounted charging is easier, but charging on foot has a higher optimization ceiling.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

Both. See my BG build compendiu

[JaronK]

Actually, IIRC the optimization ceiling is higher for mounted characters, mostly because Lance + Riding Boots + Spirited Charge is a X4 damage multiplier right there, and you can only get that mounted. Add in Headlong Rush (Orc only feat that doubles charge damage but you provoke AoOs so be careful with it), Valorous (enchantment that doubles damage), and Dragonborn Wings (allows a diving charge, where you have to be going down towards your opponent but you get double damage with piercing weapons) and you've got X7 charge damage.

As such, a Dragonborn Water Orc riding... something or other is going to have the highest damage. Note this requires being on a large mount, which won't work everywhere, unless you have a way of shrinking down a size category (Permanent Reduce Person? Ring of Reduce Person?) so you can ride a medium flying mount.

Also, might as well dip Barbarian for always on pounce, instead of the maneuver that requires reloading it.

JaronK