Low magic campaign help

[gibbo88]

I want to make a bit of a special forces soldier, how would you do this in 3.5? I plan on using a heavy repeating crossbow as the main weapon, though I know it isn't the best. We can use pretty much every book and I think 'low magic' will mean limited magic items.

[Cog]

I think 'low magic' will mean limited magic items.
It almost always does.

That means you'll probably want to make sure you can bring your own magic. A Mystic Ranger with Sword of the Arcane Order gets the skills, better spells, and the ability to prep a small number of Wizard spells; you have to learn them the hard way, though, so you're relying on finding/buying scrolls or having a friendly Wizard in the party. Even without SotAO's arcane access, the ranger spell-list is splat-friendly.

Another option is to PrC into Chameleon. Being able to prep spells off any divine list without fuss (balanced by limited spell level access) gives you the adaptability such a character would likely desire.

Other possibilities are Factotum or Totemist. The latter wouldn't want to wield a crossbow, but the Manticore Belt's attacks would do just fine in place of that.

[Fouredged Sword]

I could see a great Rogue / Chameleon / Dread Comando build, or for the more martialy minded a Sneak attack fighter 1-3/ Rogue 1-3/ Chameleon / Dread Comando.

Or less mad Factotum / Chameleon / Dread Comando

Sneaking in full plate is very special forcesy.

[Greenish]

Stuff that may be of use:
Targeteer fighter variant (Dr 310) gets proficiencies in four ranged exotic weapons by default, and can trade fighter bonus feats for various abilities such as Dex to damage with ranged weapons, or bonus attacks.
Hit and Run Tactics fighter ACF (DotU) trades heavy armour and shields for Dex to damage vs. flat footed enemies (within 30') and an initiative boost.
Deepwood Sniper (Masters of the Wild, 3.0) is excellent sniper PrC with full BAB, good skills and a few SLAs.
Dead Eye feat (Dragon Magazine Compendium) allows adding Dex to damage with ranged weapons within 30'. Note that errata dropped the BAB prerequisite to 1.
Crossbow Sniper feat (PHBII) allows adding 1/2 Dex to damage with crossbows and increases precision damage range to 60'.

Also check the Archery handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=642.0) and the swift hunter handbook (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=103.0). Swift hunter mystic ranger is pretty neat.

[Daftendirekt]

Dread Comando

Sneaking in full plate is very special forcesy.

Yes. We did a no-casters or (Su) one-shot once, and I did a Water Orc barbarian/rogue?/dread commando. Charged in mithril full plate, snuck at no penalty, had sneak attack. Was great fun.

TL;DR = dread commando is one of the best classes for low/no magic melee.