Factblade

[marcielle]

Starting a new game soon. Gonna roll a Warblade with a bit of Factotum thrown in(havent decided 2 or 4 lvls yet). Shootin for a General style character who can fight as well as think. Dm is generally nice but we get no flaws because someone tried to sneak Chicken infested in. For race, it's a toss up between Lesser Fire genasi(for Int and flaming hair), Human and Warforged. Stats by Elite array. First feat wil likelyl be Stand still. Most likely weapon is Glaive.

Would prefer to avoid burning a feat on spiked chain(If I'm warforged I get a slam attack anyway so a glaive will do fine) since he likes monstrous monsters who would likely have multiple legs, large size and a tail, making tripping as effective as spitting. Also, Knowledge: Religion is banned

If you have any other class combos that would lead to a General type character I'd be happy to hear them.:smallbiggrin:

Other party members are Artic elf Swordsage(THF), Gnome Sorc, dragonborn dragonfire adept and a Lesser Drow Bard.

p.s. Tier 1 is mostly banned cos we have a munckin and 2 new players in the same group. In fact, most anything subject to munchkinry will be met with "Pelor makes the Sun fall on you"

[hex0]

Kensai Variant fighter could specialize in Spiked Chain and get it for free.

Factotum 3 (or 8) is generally the 'sweet spot' of the class.

You could also dip into Knight 3 as well for more battlefield control.

[marcielle]

Tripping really won't be much of an option but dragonsplits and TWF might go nice with 2 levels of Exotic Weapons Master to get full power attack bonus and reduced TWF penalty to -1, -1. That'll be a LOTTA levels invested to it though.

[ThiefInTheNight]

Factotum 8/Warblade 1 is probably how I'd start. You're looking at Cunning Surge (hell yes!), plus you're starting with 3rd-level maneuvers (and stance if your DM isn't derping). You lose 2 BAB and 4 IL, but overall that's probably OK considering the power of Cunning Surge. Your feats are probably best spent on Font of Inspiration (...as usual) or Martial Study (to make sure you meet prereqs on those 3rd-level maneuvers and to give you more to work with).

[marcielle]

Hmm, tempting but my DM will probably go with the 1 Cunning Surge a round houserule. Maybe 3 levels of Factotum, 1 something else, then Warblade all the way or until I want more Factotum.

Forgot to mention we have no multiclass penalties because he hates excessive math.

Now, on one hand the extra Int from Fire Genasi will add to so many things, but on the other, being Human means I can grab Power Attack at lvl 1.

[Person_Man]

What ECL are you playing at and going to? Because what mix of each you use is highly dependent on your overall ECL.

For example, at ECL 6, I would suggest Factotum 3/Warblade 2/Master of Masks 1, which is your basic Haberdash (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5266526) build.

At ECL 9-10, I would suggest Factotum 8/Warblade 1-2, for Cunning Surge + a few cool Standard Action maneuvers to throw around.

At ECL 11, I would suggest Factotum 3/Warblade 2/Chameleon 5/Warblade 3+, which gives you 4th level maneuvers, 4th level spells (from any list, which is amazingly useful if you know what to do with it), and 2 or 3 "floating" feats (Warblade can retrain Exotic Weapon Prof every morning, Chameleon gives you one, and Heroics spell from Spell Comp gives you a third).

At ECL 15 or higher, I would actually just suggest strait Warblade or strait Factotum, for access to the highest level (and coolest) maneuvers, battle skill, and battle mastery, or high level magic + Cunning Surge + Cunning Brilliance.

[marcielle]

We have multiple new players, we are starting at ECL 1 but will be rush leveled (given tons of xp) till 6.

Now, I'm not sure if I should start as a Warblade so I can fight off the bat or Factotum for the extra skill points.

[marcielle]

Actually, given how many good level 1 and 2 maneuvers there are, Factotum3/Warblade17 is still pretty good.

[ThiefInTheNight]

Hmm, tempting but my DM will probably go with the 1 Cunning Surge a round houserule. Maybe 3 levels of Factotum, 1 something else, then Warblade all the way or until I want more Factotum.
Cunning Surge is still excellent under that rule. Easily worth the BAB and IL loss. Just saying.

Yes, Factotum 3/something 1/Warblade is the other option. Generally speaking, it's probably best to go full IL after you take your first level, though it's not crucial. Eternal Blade may be quite excellent if you take a decent Elf subrace (+Int, at least, try to avoid -Con).

[marcielle]

Elves make better TWF since the non Con hitting elves all give Dex. Leaning towards Fire Genasi Factotum3/Warblade17 with Stand Still as first feat, wielding a Glaive. Not sure if I want to go down the Shocktrooper paht seeing as how a 'smart' fighter wouldn't blow all his AC AND position himself right next to the enemy, at least no until he has miss chance. Speaking of which, any ideas for weapon enchantments? Don't really need anything more than a +1 since I will have maneuvers but suggestions welcome.

[Dusk Eclipse]

I suggest you to keep a even number of non-warblade levels to avoid loosing unnecessary IL. Factotum 4/Warblade 16 is pretty good.

Also you should consider Knowledge Devotion as since you have all the knowledge skills as class skills you can make extremely good use of it.

Also a question, why is K. Religion banned?

[marcielle]

Knowledge Devotion would actually be perfect:smallsmile:
Because my DM found out about Pazuzu. Blatant munchkin does it purely for the lols which would be ok if it was our old group but we have 2 brand new players to ease in.

Also, the thing is that loss of intiator level doesn't actually hurt the build since there are so many good counters at levels 1 and 2. This guy isn't the type to rush into battle completely berserk.

Featwise I'm thinking
1|Stand Still
3|Knowledge devotion
6|Power Attack
9|Improved Bullrush
12|Shocktrooper(since by then, I can get a Crown of White Ravens for Thicket of Blades)
15|Leap Attack

Also, I really don't know what to take for the Warblade bonus feats.

[hex0]

If you are going to go TWF, by taking Dwarven Fighter racial substitution (d12 hit die btw), isn't a bad deal because WF with all axes offsets the penalties a bit. Spice with some Exotic Weapon Master. Just putting it out there... :smallwink:

But you are playing a Fire Genasi? Aren't you starting at level 1? Or do you have free LA?

Focus on tripping for sure though. Brains over Brawn is there for a reason.

[marcielle]

Lesser Planetouched Variant
Noone ever takes 'normal' genasi.:smallbiggrin:
Nah, not going TWF. Nor tripping. You'd be surprised how unhelpful that gets when most things have a +12(4 legs and Large/Huge) on you without counting strength. Not to mention aerial combat.
Might substitute Stand still for a Font and see if I can get an item giving me a 2nd Font.

[house.au]

Chicken infested...

Okay... I'm curious... what is this Chicken infested you speak of?

[ThiefInTheNight]

It was some Dragon Commoner-only joke Flaw, that allowed you to have a 50% chance of pulling out a chicken instead of whatever item you were trying to take out of a bag or something. Of course, with Quick Draw this means you can create infinite chickens as a Free Action (well, as a series of Free Actions), and infinite anything can be turned into power.

[marcielle]

The man actually tried to do an infinite chicken Hadouken. Forcing his enemies back under an endless onslaught of poultry.

[marcielle]

Revised factbalde
Air genasi
Elite Array
Factotum8/Warblade
1|Font of Inspiration(maybe Nymph's Kiss if my DM will allow)
3|Knowledge Devotion
6|Font of Inspiration
9|Power Attack
12|Improved Bullrush
15|Shock trooper
18|Leap Attack

Now, I'll be keeping concentration and jump maxed, Knowledge Arcana and Nature(religion was banned), spot, hide and move silently. That leaves 2 more skills(3 with Nymph). DM allows me to autosucceed on UMD with arcan dillatente. We have 2 party faces. Any suggestion what to take for the last 2-3 skills? Tumble probably won't be needed as much since by the time I'm full meelee, I can afford good armor but there doesn't seem like any other skills are really useful. Iaijutsu Focus is out of the question for my DM( and is a tad silly with a glaive).
Oh yeah, roles are backup meelee/flank buddy, utility and smart guy