Resistant melee build advice

[chaotician375]

I'm working on a melee build for an upcoming 3.5 game (level 6) and would like some advice.

Currently its 2 Swordsage (Wis bonus to AC), 2 Paladin (Cha bonus to saves) and then favored soul 2 (for divine spells and high saves across the board).

With a suit of Mithrial breastplate AC is 23 Fort save 11, Reflex save 14, and will save 14.

BAB is 4

Current ability spread is:

Str-16
Dex-18
Con-12
Int-14
Wis-18
Cha-18

Any ideas, classes that would do it better, feats, spells or manuvers that i should take.

[Tr011]

Tactical Teleportation, Tactical Movement, some immunities are always nice to have, take some energy resistances (my personal favorites are Energy Immunity shield enhancement from MiC and Energy Aegis, from PHB2, it can be put into an eternal wand and used via Quick Draw or Wand Chamber from DS). Quick Recovery and Slippery Mind are cool abilities to reroll saves, Mettle and Evasion can make use of high saves. Oh and don't forget to get enough heal items to heal three times your HP.

[MesiDoomstalker]

I built something like this. It had Evasion, Mettle, Cha to Saves, among other things. It was Crusader based. I think I lost it though. There is some PrC that gives you Mettle at first level but I can't remember what its called. Someone who remembers please chime in. Evasion would be nice and you can pick it up with more Swordsage or Rogue or Monk dip or a few PrCs. Taking a dip in Conjurer for the first level replacment ability could be useful as well as giving you access to wizard items. Crusader dip would be useful simply because Crusaders are ridicoulously reslient. 13 levels will give you mettle but thats pretty late and pretty expensive level wise. Strategic Cleric dip with the right domains can give you plenty of flexibility and access to things like Divine Power wands as well as healing wands and scrolls.

[Eldariel]

I built something like this. It had Evasion, Mettle, Cha to Saves, among other things. It was Crusader based. I think I lost it though. There is some PrC that gives you Mettle at first level but I can't remember what its called. Someone who remembers please chime in.

Pious Templar, Complete Divine.

[Kaje]

What you've got there is a bit MAD. When you have to split your bonuses between cha and wis, you don't get as much from either. At that point you may as well just pump your cha and put on some heavy armor. Favored soul similarly has split casting stats.

There's a feat from Dragon called Serenity. It switches all your paladin abilities from charisma to wisdom. Alternately, there's the feat that changes a monk's AC bonus from wisdom to charisma. either way would probably be more beneficial.

Ooh, or there's the Battle Dancer, a base class from Dragon/Dragon Compendium. It gets cha to ac at first level, just like the monk's wis to ac feature. You could do worse than Battle Dancer 1/Paladin of Freedom 2.

[Mithril Leaf]

Here's another build that I like to consider for later game resistance.

There's a different way make a stronger melee combatant, although with worse saves, if you don't mind being unarmored and doing some PrC juggling. Also nice, it all works if you include the multiclassing rules. Note that flaws have to be allowed for the build I am about to post to work.
Jungle Dwarf variant for your race.
Ability spread using your points:
Str-18
Dex-12
Con-18 (+2 dwarven)
Int-16
Wis-18
Cha-14 (-2 dwarven)

Needs 2 flaws for PrC qualification, I would take shaky and meager fortitude because you can take that hit to fort saves.

Feat selection:
Power Attack (level one)
Great Fortitude (shaky)
Improved Unarmed Strike (meager fortitude)
Extra Rage (level three) alt: Improved Bull rush
Leap Attack (level six) alt: Shock Trooper

Levels:
Ranger 2 (Specialize in TWF, doesn't really matter though)
Spirit Lion Barbarian 1
Ranger 3
Fist Of The Forest 2
(The next progression is what follows)
Fist Of The Forest 3
Deepwarden 2
(Your choice, I would suggest something like Ur-Priest for casting and decent BAB)

It doesn't look so hot at level 6, with only saves: Fort-12 Ref-7 Will-6
AC of 16, Unarmored, although it is all touch AC
You truly get the magic once you hit level 9, as you get
Fort-15 Ref-7 Will-9
Unarmored touch AC- Equal to your Con
You can save money on buying armor to boost your Con, which gives nice return. A monk belt or amulet of natural armor would also be handy.

Things to remember: You have pretty decent skill points and a lot of options. Your reflex saves will always suck, although everything else is pretty good. You've got 3 rages a day, make use of them. Its full BAB. You can still dip other stuff for better saves and combine it with your original build if you want to, although some stuff would need to be shifted.

[Eldariel]

What you've got there is a bit MAD. When you have to split your bonuses between cha and wis, you don't get as much from either. At that point you may as well just pump your cha and put on some heavy armor. Favored soul similarly has split casting stats.

There's a feat from Dragon called Serenity. It switches all your paladin abilities from charisma to wisdom. Alternately, there's the feat that changes a monk's AC bonus from wisdom to charisma. either way would probably be more beneficial.

Ooh, or there's the Battle Dancer, a base class from Dragon/Dragon Compendium. It gets cha to ac at first level, just like the monk's wis to ac feature. You could do worse than Battle Dancer 1/Paladin of Freedom 2.

Did you check his stats? MAD is not an issue. Getting as many stats to every defensive value as possible is definitely the way to go here.

[Kaje]

Oh, I didn't see that. Never mind.

[Flickerdart]

23 is pretty average AC at your level (Core CR6 monsters tend to have an AB of +12, with some deviations, so you'll be hit about half the time). By the looks of it, you intend your build to be largely defensive, so I would suggest keeping in mind that your AC is only average.

[Eldariel]

23 is pretty average AC at your level (Core CR6 monsters tend to have an AB of +12, with some deviations, so you'll be hit about half the time). By the looks of it, you intend your build to be largely defensive, so I would suggest keeping in mind that your AC is only average.

Also, 12 Con + d8 HD is very definitely on the low side for hitpoints.

[Flickerdart]

With a high Dexterity and Strength, and this being low level, I would recommend that you keep a nice composite bow around. That way you'll be able to deal at least some damage while staying out of dangerous areas, thereby avoiding undue harm to your low HP and middling AC.

[chaotician375]

There's a feat from Dragon called Serenity. It switches all your paladin abilities from charisma to wisdom. Alternately, there's the feat that changes a monk's AC bonus from wisdom to charisma. either way would probably be more beneficial.


Thanks for pointing me to Dragon Compendium, serenity really helps this out.

Ability spread is now
Str-16
Dex-18
Con-18
Int-14
Wis-18
Cha-12