[3.5] Adapting the Dervish [Guild Wars: Nightfall]

[Tyrael]

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1364/gwndervishfemale1.jpg

Hey, folks. I've recently begun playing Guil dWars: Nightfall, and I think the Dervish is an absolute blast to play! :smallamused: Naturally, that got me into wondering: How could it really be translated into DnD?

My first thought is perhaps a Cleric with Cleave and a scythe, but a lot of the Dervish's powers are AoE, and the Dervish's default attacks still hit multiple opponents. However, in DnD, there's not a lot of ways to emulate that except maybe Great/Cleave and Whirlwind Attack. In 3.5, a scythe is a two-handed martial weapon, so Exotic Weapon Master is out....

Anyone have any ideas? I'd like to try to keep this homebrew-free, if possible. The main reason I've stuck with 3.5 instead of jumping ship to 4.0 is because there's so much insane customizations and options in 3.5 that practically ANY character concept can be reasonably emulated.:smallcool:

[AslanCross]

If Tome of Battle is on the table, an Iron Heart warblade has easy access to Steel Wind (Lv 1), Mithral Tornado (Lv 7) and Adamantine Hurricane (Lv 15).

[Tyrael]

Personally I'm not a fan of ToB, mainly because I find it to be as complicated as making a spellcaster. If I wanted to pore through a million lists to select my abilities, I'd be playing a spellcaster in the first place. :smallsigh:

But that's just my opinion. I really don't know ToB all that well, but from what I hear about it, it could probably emulate Dervish pretty well.

Are there any non-ToB ways to do it, out of curiosity? :smallconfused:

[RaginChangeling]

Binder/Knight of the Sacred Seal with the Patron Visage Paimon could work. Gives you free Whirlwind attack and the ability to use Dance of Death 1/4 or 3 rounds which lets you move and hit everyone you move past.

Beyond that though, Warblade is definitely going to be better and easier. TOB is not nearly as difficult a subsystem to learn as binding, and Iron Heart+ Tiger Claw are basically perfect for what you want to do.

[Amnestic]

Jarian made an attempt on the homebrew forum which you can find here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=191066). I trust her skills at homebrewing things, but I have no experience with the Guild Wars class myself so how faithful it is is beyond me. It's definitely worth taking a look at though. She's got some other Guild Wars classes done which you can find in her Homebrewers Signature too.

Edit: Of course, homebrew free. Blech, reading not my strong suit, focused on other things. Still worth taking a look at though ;p

[AslanCross]

Personally I'm not a fan of ToB, mainly because I find it to be as complicated as making a spellcaster. If I wanted to pore through a million lists to select my abilities, I'd be playing a spellcaster in the first place. :smallsigh:

But that's just my opinion. I really don't know ToB all that well, but from what I hear about it, it could probably emulate Dervish pretty well.


Well, the Warblade's the simplest to play of the Martial Adepts, and it also gets the smallest set of maneuvers known/maneuvers readied. It's pretty easy to set up (and almost impossible to screw up).

[Tyrael]

I'll definitely look into Warblade, thanks.

However, some DMs (mine included) don't like ToB all that much. What kind of interesting/fun stuff can be done with a scythe in terms of builds outside ToB?

[Thrice Dead Cat]

I'll definitely look into Warblade, thanks.

However, some DMs (mine included) don't like ToB all that much. What kind of interesting/fun stuff can be done with a scythe in terms of builds outside ToB?

Honestly, with a scythe you'd probably be looking at your standard charger build with Power Attack and Shock Trooper so you can leap into the fray and drop a guy dead with one charge. White Raven is good for that.

After that, you'd want to focus on whichever discipline the listed maneuvers suggested are to properly emulate the Guild War's Dervish. I understand you and your DM may not like Tome of Battle, but the easiest thing to do with it on a Warblade is to basically treat the bloke as a fighter with a few more tricks (rather than feats :smallsigh:) up his sleeve. Even when looking at the full list of disciplines (assuming no homebrew is allowed, of course :smalltongue:), you've only got 9 sets to deal with, tops! So it's not anywhere near as bad as an actual spellcaster, considering how few maneuvers per level per discipline there are.


That said, if your DM has problems with Tome of Battle for whatever reason, send him our way! We may be able to convince him otherwise!:smallwink:

[RaginChangeling]

Outside of TOB you have any standard Barbarian or Fighter build, Scythes can trip or Charge almost as well as any other weapon. Binder, like I said above, can get you a bunch of mobility and other misc. benefits.

[Thrice Dead Cat]

Outside of TOB you have any standard Barbarian or Fighter build, Scythes can trip or Charge almost as well as any other weapon. Binder, like I said above, can get you a bunch of mobility and other misc. benefits.

Tome of Battle works well from roughly day (level) one. That said, if your DM is adamant about not using it, and I and Veyr and whoever else that's pro-ToB that I can't think of offhand can't convince him otherwise, Binder is a solid choice. It does mean, however, binding Paimon (I think), constantly, for his whirlwind attack, which is a bit of a shame.