Help making a Dancer Combat PC

[MunsterJujus]

So a few people I know want to start a new campaign (D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder mash-up) and I have a specific character in mind but my book-fu is weak. I need some help with her creation.

The back story is basically the character grew up rich and was a relatively impressive dancer at a young age. Her parents ran into money troubles and she was sold into slavery to pay their debts. She broke out and developed deep hatred for slavery (no surprise there). She grew up to be a mercenary who specialize in freeing people, getting especially violent/emotional if kids are involved.

I want the PC to be a combat-centric character. She has decent persuasion skills and capable of holding her own in combat but she has to dodge and avoid stuff do to low health/armor. Basically, I like the fluff in the Duelist prestige class but the PC will fight "dirtier" (PF Cad Fighter fluff) and more dance-like combat/feats.

Oh, great book-fu masters help me please.

[Curious]

The Dervish from Complete Warrior seems to fit your character perfectly.

[Drelua]

Look at the Darksong Knight Fighter substitution levels from Champions of Valour, compatible with the Dungeon Crasher from Dungeonscape, for a 2 level dip to use your Perform (Dance) modifier in place of bluff when feinting, maybe combine that with invisible blade (CWar) for the feinting, and note that the ranged feats were errata'd out of the requirements, and I second the Dervish PrC. Also, look at the Dervish Dancer Bard Archetype from Ultimate Combat for enhanced mobility, if you aren't opposed to some spell-casting.

[Crossblade]

Bard can use the feat Snowflake WarDance from Frostburn. Adds Cha to Hit at the cost of 1 bardic performance.

[Cespenar]

Scout/Ranger/Dervish or plain Swordsage.

[Major]

Battle Dancer... No seriously, the whole fluff behind the class was slaves who rebelled and used dance lessons to teach people to fight and raise up.

[etrpgb]

I am also for battle dancer (dragon magazine compendium pag. 29). Maybe consider 2 levels dip as Chaos Monk for a little more AC (on Wisdom) and Evasion.

Use the feat `Battle Jumper' and try to become a charger with high and elegant leaps (at le:t gvel 11 you obtain pounce).

If you like it I can think more details.

Edit:
Otherwise if material from dragon magazine is a problem you can try all-charisma fighter.

This what I can think in half minute
Sorcerer Precious Apprentice
Monk
Monk Ascetic Mage
Monk
Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Fighter
Fighter
Blade Dancer
Blade Dancer
... until level 20

Again take battle jump and charge away. If you do not take 10 Blade Dancer probably you want 7. With the 3 free levels you can take another paladin level for a second smite and 2 monk for speed.


Edit 2:
Otherwise what about the good old bard? Put it together with battle howler (DR 311) and be sure to take the Snowflake Wardance feat, slippers of battledancing item from DMG2 and the battle dancer flavor is there!

Edit 3, two possible builds from the previous idea:

Full cheesy, be sure to have Remove Fear (or another abjuration) in the Bard list.
Just out for curiosity both the Complete Champion Lion Barbarian and the Abjurant Champion are banned in my games...
1 Lion Barbarian Power Attack
2 Bard
3 Bard Cleave
4 Bard
5 Bard
6 Battle Howler of Gruumsh Snowflake Wardance
7 Battle Howler of Gruumsh
8 Battle Howler of Gruumsh
9 Battle Howler of Gruumsh Battle Jump
10 Eldritch knight Combat Casting
11 Sublime Chord
12 Sublime Chord
13 Abjurant Champion
14 Abjurant Champion
15 Abjurant Champion
16 Abjurant Champion
17 Abjurant Champion
18 Eldritch knight
19 Eldritch knight
20 Eldritch knight
Bard 8, Sublime Chord 10, Pounce, Rage twice a day, various powers from Abjurant Champion including Arcane boost...

Normal
1 Bard Snowflake Wardance
2 Bard
3 Bard Iron Will
4 Bard
5 Bard
6 Bard Dodge
7 Bard
8 Bard
9 Dragonslayer Battle Jumper
10 Eldritch knight
11 Sublime Chord
12 Sublime Chord
13 Eldritch knight
14 Eldritch knight
15 Eldritch knight
16 Eldritch knight
17 Eldritch knight
18 Eldritch knight
19 Eldritch knight
20 Eldritch knight

[MunsterJujus]

The Dervish from Complete Warrior seems to fit your character perfectly.


Otherwise what about the good old bard?

Etrpgb, my ideas was between either bard and rogue and I think bard is the best choice (I've been dying to play one and now I have an excuse to). So I read up on the Dervish Bard and it looks right, like Curious says. I think I'm going to go for the "normal" build you gave and maybe adapt it depending on where the campaign leads.

As for the battle dancer, I will have to file that bit of knowledge away for later. It looks awesome and I will definitely try it out in the near future. The idea of having the character bard based is just too cool to passup.

I love the quick responses thanks guys.

[Greenish]

Pretty much all the stuff published legally in the net can be found listed here (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1109.0). Of course, googling could find most every book, but giving links to stuff that violates OGL is against the forum rules.

[etrpgb]

Thinking about the build probably the Dragonslayer is not worth. It makes you immune to fear, but it costs two not-so-good feats. You would lose a Bard caster level, but you can consider simply a level as Fighter or Barbarian.

[Amphetryon]

Here's my effort (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11437904&postcount=110). Others in that thread worked toward a generally similar goal.

[Urpriest]

Here's my effort (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=11437904&postcount=110). Others in that thread worked toward a generally similar goal.

As another example, the winning entry from that thread is in my sig.

[etrpgb]

...giving links to stuff that violates OGL is against the forum rules.

I hate being picky, but many of the links behind the ``A guide to free D&D'' are NOT under the OGL.
For example the Warblade. The free in ``A guide to free D&D'' is as beer, not as a speech.

[Greenish]

I hate being picky, but many of the links behind the ``A guide to free D&D'' are NOT under the OGL.So?

I specified "links that violate OGL". Wizards of the Coast publishing their own material on their own site is not a violation of OGL. :smallamused:

[Person_Man]

My suggestions:

Swordsage 20 with a heavy emphasis on Desert Tempest and White Raven Tactics, which involve a ton of movement, which could easily be refluffed as dancing. Also has the benefit of being really easy to play without messing up - pick fun maneuvers, use one each turn.

Bard 1/Paladin of Freedom 4/Warchanter 10. You can basically ignore the words "chanter" as Bards can take any form of Perform that they want to use their "music" effects. This basically gives you a strong starting defense (Cha to Saves, Immunity to Compulsion, full armor), 14/15 BAB, and two fairly useful resources - Turn Undead (Travel Devotion, Earth Devotion, Divine Shield, etc) and Bardic Music (Inspire Courage, Snowflake Wardance, Doomspeech, Warchanter effects).

Binder 20: A bit weirder, but hear me out. You could easily make it part of your fluff that you were able to escape slavery by making a bargain with a Vestige. Several vestiges have fairly potent mobile melee options, with Paimon (Dance of Death, Whirlwind Attack, Dex bonus) kicking in as soon as level 3, Tenebrous (Immediate Action movement, Turn/ Rebuke Undead, 20% concealment) at level 5, and Haures (Incorporeal Movement, Major Image, Mind Blank) at level 10.

Totemist 20: Even odder, but again, the cool stuff is in the details. The Totemist gets a metric ton of mobility related abilities, which you could easily refluff as being dancing. Large boosts to base movement speed, Move Action Dimension Door, flight, pounce, ethereal movement, etc.

I could go into a long list of potential Feat combos and tactics and magic items, but you really need to settle on a class build before such advice would be useful.

[Garagos]

I agree with both the Swordsage and Dervish suggestions. If Forgotten Realms material is allowed, there is a drow goddess named Eilistraee that has a prestige class that fits what you're looking for (Dancing Combat). I'm at work right now so I don't have the books on me, but I'd guess the class is in Faiths and Pantheons or perhaps the FR Underdark book.

Edit: Found it, called The Sword Dancer and its in Faiths and Pantheons page 205-206. Its a 3/4 BAB class with full spellcasting at each level so meant for more of a fighter/cleric I suppose, not sure if that fits what you're looking for or not after all.

[Retech]

Oh god, just take a look at the performance combat rules on Pathfinder. They have great feats related to that which would definitely enhance your character, and they're balanced, so you could probably get them approved.

All info on the: d20pfsrd.com

[Cerlis]

I actually disagree with the Dervish suggestion, as i think its being suggested mostly cus of its dance flavor. Its essentially a PrC that focuses on movement and many attacks and happens to use Perform Dance.

I think most of the dancing flavor is in how you describe your attacks, but there are feats that would help. I believe a nonpsionic talent in XPH is CLoak dance, that gives you concealment as a move action, further if you used Rogue/swashbuckler as a base (sneak attack, goes with classic dirty fighting pluse sneaky dance assassin trope) you can use the Daring outlaw feat to gain some bonuses. If you go with bard instead i'd remind you in the Complete Scoundrel/adventure (forget which one) there is a feat that allows you to disguise your spellcasting in a performance. this would allow many instances of you being able to perform in public and beguile a mark unwittingly, getting him to follow you to a place where you assassinate him.

[Greenish]

You can mask your spellcasting with a simple sleight of hand use, as per RC, no need to waste a feat (or even skill trick).