100 character concpets

[Jodah]

As a DM (and often as a player) the most common complaint I hear is not being able to come up with a character idea. Many times people decide they are going to make a specific character from a specific show and then are disappointed if they can't do what that character does. I want to be able to help them (and myself, and everyone else) by having a ton of archetypes in one area - then they won't have to worry about not being able to mimic Dante in DMC, rather they can play a generic demon slayer and have ideas on how to get some of the abilities they want and thus make a character that they can truly own.

My problem is I am by no means creative enough to come with more than say 5-6 at a time without running out of steam, so I ask that you join me in my endeavor. Post any concepts, preferably archetypes so they can transfer between classes and worlds. It doesn't matter about balance completeness as much about there being enough to get the juices flowing for other who look at it.

General "rules"

Each post should include an archetype
Archetype is more specific than "a lone warrior" and less specific than "Joran the one eyed ranger who was raised by beasts in the forest and fights for justice now that he has moved to the city" - aim for a happy medium.
Try to name the archetype, provide a brief description, and possible build ideas and alternatives, and links to any homebrew you mention.
Try not to repeat ideas, but if it happen - it happens.


Thanks.

Update: we currently have 36/100 (if my title is to be believed).

[Jodah]

To start us off

Archetype: Blind fortune-teller

Brief Description: He is a holy man who was cursed with blindness but blessed with another sight. The gods guide his hand and lead him to prepare the way for some future event.

Possible build ideas:

blindness, obviously (possibly fixed with blindfold of true darkness)
Divination emphasis (specialize if wizard, destiny or something if cleric, etc – pick divination spells in general)
Menta Cyclops makes an interesting race
Sacred Vow → Vow of non-violence → vow of peace (if he is not allowed to directly interfere)
Certain symbionts if you want to go the non-magical route for blind sight


At lower levels (and even higher ones) the blindness can count as a flaw (if you lose the item or if the symbiont dies you are blind again, conversly you may not have had enough time or money to fix the off set the blindness yet)

[kestrel404]

Archetype: The Barbarian of Questionable Sanity
Description: Heavily muscled, wearing as little armor (and possibly as little clothing) as possible, and often covered in (psychotropic, addictive or otherwise non-kosher) warpaint.
Build Ideas:
Your alignment is CN and wisdom is your dump stat. While you don't have to take any mental falws, feel free to play up your complete lack of total sense and/or restraint.
All of the classic Barbarian races are good choices for you, but so are severl decidedly un-barbarian-like races (such as pixie). The key here is that you pick fights whenever someone accuses you of being either abnormal, or typical of your race. No, that's not a contradiction, it just means you're going to get into a lot of bar fights.
Pouncebarian is obviously a good choice, as is Frenzied Berserker. But considder also the merits of dips in esoteric classes/PRCs like Binder, Totemist, Bear Warrior and Witch Hunter for odd abilities that make other people nervous.
The final key to this archetype is choose a few key pieces of information to be completely wrong about. For example, keep a hamster in your pocket and call him your miniature giant space hamster. And claim that he is your Animal Companion through Ranger class levels that you do not have. Or "cast spells" like "Magic Missile" (thrown a knife), "Calm Emotions" (bash someone's head in) or "Glitterdust" (throw a handful of shiny rock dust in the air). Call out the names of these "spells" loudly as you "cast" them and carefully study a picture book (you're illiterate, after all) for an hour every morning so everyone is aware that you're a wizzard.

[gallagher]

Archtype: Lucky Little Guy
Description: high dexterity, somehow avoids getting effected by anything, main niche is as a distraction and tends to be a secondary fighter or skill class, but hey he is fun as heck
Build Ideas: needs high saves, luck feats and items with luck bonuses, lots of skill points, and things like mettle and evasion. rogue/paladin mix with the feat that stacks their levels would probably be the easiest method, could do well with a monk/paladin mix with high wisdom, charisma and dexterity, or a swordsage/crusader build (which would also be pretty darn awesome). see if you can homebrew a feat that lets you stack the two classes similar to Daring Outlaw, but for SS and Crusader. this will probably end up being a halfling.

[Afool]

Archetype: Glass Cannon

Brief Description: The caster who spent too much time in the dark depths of the library looking for spells from another age (or similar cliche).

Possible Build Ideas: A blaster caster with a feat (home brew or other wise) that drains con for boosted spellcasting ability. Land of the Barbarian Kings (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=11807243#post11807243) has some blood magic ideas that might work. Appropriate meta magics. Wizard into Archemage would be a decent progression.

[limejuicepowder]

Archetype: witch doctor
Class : spirit shaman would be my first choice, but virtually any nature-themed caster or character with strange powers could be used.
Traits: Play up the oddball in you. Talk to things other people don't see, adhere to taboos that don't make sense, and "consult the bones" about everything. Do things that are disgusting and/or pointless by "normal" people's standards. Make cryptic warnings about people's futures. Really, the stranger you act the more witch doctor-y you'll be.

Archetype : Demon of chaos
Class: warlock, though others are workable. Changeling race also works very well.
Traits: Fluff the warlock's powers as truly demonic. The goal of this character is chaos; they love to cause problems for everyone around them, either directly or indirectly. Lie, cheat, bluff, disguise, and intimidate your way through everything - if people even know who or what you really are, something is going wrong. Sadism and/or Masochism from BoVD can fit well, for a more combat themed character. Note this archetype doesn't have to be completely evil - they can cause chaos as an ideal, or just for fun.

Archetype : Unlucky
Class: Hexblade, Paladin of Slaughter/Tyranny, other debuffers
Traits: This character never gets anything right. Born under a bad star perhaps, things just never work out. When he goes out, it rains. When he buys apples, there's a worm in the middle. Misunderstandings and awful coincidences define this character's interactions with other people. Pretty much whenever this character is awake, bad things are happening. However over time, the character has learned to "direct" the bad luck: select unfortunates get to share in this character's rotten luck.

[Roguenewb]

This is my personal fave, I play it on a regular basis:

Archetype: Aristocratic Duelist

Description: A wealthy man (or woman) who has spent years dedicated to the mastery of a weapon and fighting style allowing them to fight quickly, lightly, and while incurring as little hurt as possible. Out of combat, the character can be spoiled, or turned away from nobility, or for the classic: just a noble person (in both senses of Noble) out to do good and help.

Traits: This character can be built a million different ways. The classic Robin-hoody type would be like Rogue 4/Swash 3/Actual Duelist Whatever. But, the same flavor and mechanics and be built in all kinds of ways, my current fave: Battle Sorcerer 5/Swordsage 1/Jade Phoenix Mage X. The archetype should have solid AC, with some sort of ability to reliably hand punishing single hits while occupying the foe.

Favorites include: Daring Outlaw plus Improved Feint getting rogue SA is *very* dashing swordsman-y. Manuevers/arcane strike for the other character presented work very well. It can be done with like Ftr 4/Swash 3/Other stuff, but the best build is probably the daring outlaw one.

[Soranar]

Archetype: Mad Gnome
Brief Description: Though small this particular gnome is dangerous to have anywhere near you. Ally or not, he doesn't seem to grasp the intricacies of relationships and alliances. Unfortunately brilliant, many adventurers will find themselves bringing him along, hoping his destructive tendencies will be aimed in the direction.

Possible build ideas:
Factotum, Combat Trapsmith, master illusionist, shadowcraft mage

[Toy Killer]

'Wronged' Prince/Princess

Arch-type
A horse! A horse! Your Kingdom for a Horse!

Description
While you were half-way through at a Wizardry college, your funding was cut-off. Humiliated, expelled, and expected to make it on your own. All because your foolish father couldn't maintain a stupid Trade route to during war time. Doesn't he know YOUR needs?

Build suggestions
A few choices here. Wizard or specialist seems to be the most glaring, but also bard with maxed out knowledge (nobility) and perform (oratory). If you don't want to be angsty about it, you could make him a dark manipulator type. first level Marshal (after all, as a noble in your kingdom, you should be expected to hold leadership positions) and go diplomamancer, sowing dissent and eventually usurping every little town you come upon. If for no reason other then showing you can.

---

Unnatural Expunger

Arch-type
Druid with a chip in his shoulder against society

Description
What makes cities so valuable? They make the rivers inhabitable and leave troves of woodlands nothing but stumps. Forget the needs of 'civil' folk, The very plane itself suffers at their hand.

Build Suggestions
CN Druid is the natural choice, and it's hard to argue that a druid is not a useful part of the party, despite trying to destroy every town in his wake. The druid features play very nicely with the idea, naturally but you can take it a step further by only accepting hand made goods as your portion for the party (Currency is useless to someone that doesn't recognize established society). Further more, you can do things like collect sea water and sprinkle it over the farmlands. this isn't intended to kill anyone through starvation, but merely have them revert back to the 'old ways'.

[Darth Stabber]

Archetype: Capricious Warrior
Brief Description: You are a warrior through and through, though you can't seem to settle on any school of combat. When you start one, you are completely devoted. Then you get bored and wander off. You've completed the beginning lessons at every major warrior school, and even tried all sorts of self taught things, but you just keep moving on. That next school will be the one for sure

Possible build ideas:
Only take one or two levels in anything.

[Lateral]

Archetype: Bears McGrizzlington

Bears upon bears upon bears. Could be a character who summons bears, is some kind of bear, turns into bears, has a pet bear, or often several of the above. Sometimes it's dinosaurs instead, but for some reason it's usually bears.

Build ideas:
Druid's the obvious one, as is Barbarian/Bear Warrior.

[Jodah]

Name: Anti-Suave Bard

Description: Unlike your profession's general reputation of being smooth and charming, you are instead the reject. Sure you can cast your spells, lie through your teeth, and play beautiful music...but whenever you try to say the right thing at the right time, it comes out all wrong. Rather than a slick retort or a smooth pick-up line it ends up that the jokes on you.

Build: Bard...obviously. Other options are the jester class in the dragon compendium (or the prestige of the same name in one of the magazines). Picking something that should give you a chance at making quips (Master of mockery?) is great especially if it rarely works. The best option for this one is probably just to put yourself in situations that allow for these things and just botch it - intentionally.

[Jack Zander]

Archetype: "I have an app for that!"

Brief Description: While most people favor magical items that boost their stats or compliment their abilities, you only like magical items that give you additional abilities, no matter how situational they may be. You know, just in case.

Possible build ideas:

Artificer works best as you can just craft all your magic items yourself.
Any class with UMD but without a lot of class features works well. Perfect for someone who wants to be a skillmonkey and have tricks during combat. Remember, you're trying to make your magical gear your class features, Legend of Zelda style.
A full caster with Craft Wonderous Item will work, but why are you spending your standard actions activating magical trinkets when you could be casting spells?


This build probably doesn't work well at low levels. You need a bit of capital before its useful. Some interesting items to grab: Feather tokens, a glove of storing AND a gauntlet of rust, any headgear that gives you a gaze attack, a magical instrument with daily uses, necklace of fireballs, etc. Remember to actively avoid things that do nothing but boost stats. Every nick-knack should have an activation use to some effect. The main goal is to have an answer for EVERYTHING you might ever come across.

[Empedocles]

The Surprising Badass

Brief Description: This is the little puny guy who gets stopped by some orcs who try to mug him. He pulls out a greatsword and kills them all, then goes home to memorize the dictionary. You wouldn't guess it, but he'll totally kick your ass.

Possible Build Ideas: Factotum might be the best, and if you want spellcasting you can use a battle sorcerer. Armored fighters won't really surprise you, although a fun thing to do is hide your epic greatsword in a bag of holding...Binders also work (the orcs think that little gnome is almost cute until Marchosias appears behind him and gives him a death attack) and of course the cleric is a good choice.

[Empedocles]

The Surprising Badass

Brief Description: This is the little puny guy who gets stopped by some orcs who try to mug him. He pulls out a greatsword and kills them all, then goes home to memorize the dictionary. You wouldn't guess it, but he'll totally kick your ass.

Possible Build Ideas: Factotum might be the best, and if you want spellcasting you can use a battle sorcerer. Armored fighters won't really surprise you, although a fun thing to do is hide your epic greatsword in a bag of holding...Binders also work (the orcs think that little gnome is almost cute until Marchosias appears behind him and gives him a death attack) and of course the cleric is a good choice.

[Fyermind]

Archetype: The battlefield controller

Description: Manipulative, controlling, arrogant, you always feel you know what everyone else should be doing. You of course, actually do because you read about ideas for hours on the internet, so it makes sense that you should be positioning everyone on the battlefield. Use bullrush, evocations that work like bullrush, teleportation, attacks of opportunity, trips, or anything else interesting to lock your foes right where you want them.

Build Ideas:
Fighter Dungeoncrasher variant from Dungeonscape. Push your foes around and into things. Works great in forests too.

Evoker. So the DM says you max your characters too hard? Play an evoker who just evokes. Damage is secondary as always though, so push things around until you like how it looks. There are a lot of spells that do this. Make smily faces with the miniatures. Why not? You are a wizard aren't you?

AoO boss. There are a lot of ways of doing this mechanically. Look them up on your own. Google is a pretty powerful tool here. They are some of the most powerful builds for reactive/passive characters which is good if you are worried about hogging the spotlight.



Archetype: The Hulking Coward

Description: You are big, strong, and not very agile or tough. Everyone picks on you. So you learned how to throw things. Really really hard. Remember that you are generally scared of combat and just want it all to stop, so don't hold back once it starts. You don't want them coming after you again with friends.

Build Ideas:
Brutal throw is a must for this build. Master thrower and Hulking Hurler are both potential targets to work towards.


Archetype: The hustler

Description: "Can I interest you in _____?"
You are always looking for an angle, trying to sell something or other, or buy something else. Maybe you are just trying to make friends with everyone you meet, but you are always starting conversations and it always leads to business.

Build Ideas:
Diplomacy or bluff are good ideas for this. Being approachable could be part of it, but hey, why not play an Umber Hulk whose life ambition is to sell a billion chickens to dwarves. Halflings and gnomes make a lot of sense as merchant types. Half orcs could be great pushers.
As for classes, this can be placed over just about any class. Bards have good synergy though.

Archetype: The Walking Flamethrower

Description: You breath fire. Well, more precisely napalm. You are the best of a debuffer and an AoE boss. You do one thing and you do it well. It makes you proud to be a soldier. You jelly? Petroleum Jelly!

Build ideas:
Dragonborn Warforged
Dragonfire Adept
Entangling Exhalation
Look them up kids. Look them up and weep.

Archetype: The wet blanket
"I'm not sure this is a good idea..."

Description: You go along with whatever the party says, but everything seems like a bad idea to you. You are always trailing behind and rarely rush into things. Maybe you aren't as strong as the other characters, or maybe you are just more aware of your shortcomings. Either way you are one scaredy cat when it comes to risk taking.

Build ideas: Like the hustler this is pretty open for what class you take, but shy away from rage, and charging builds. This works very well for the fluff behind a bookworm wizard, artificer, or healer/medic cleric. Hexblades and other curse oriented characters might also fit the role nicely.

[MukkTB]

Archetype: Field Engineer for the XXXXX's Army

Brief Description: An (ex?) Officer of a 'normal' army. This is a pretty normal guy compared to the wizards and magic and chosen ones running around. He had a knack for the technical work required to construct siege engines, fortifications, bridges and whatever else the army needed that magic did not provide. This kind of technical expertise lead to him becoming a low ranking officer. Hes seen a great deal of combat although not on the front line and puts on the air of an 18th century military man: Formal, polite, confident.

Build Ideas: Human. Moderate although not excessive intelligence (14 works). Rogue or Ranger and use the high skill points of either class to be competent in the required areas. Knowledge Geography, Knowledge Engineering, Survival, Profession Soldier. Carries a sabre but mostly uses a crossbow in combat. Bonus points if your DM lets you have a rifle or musket. If the choice is Ranger favored enemy is whatever race his country has been at war with most often.

I am the very model of a modern major general. I've information animal and vegetable and mineral...


Archetype: (Anime) College Student

Brief Description: Spends his time equally worrying about class/paying for class, drinking/socializing, and thinking about girls. Lets not make him a fraternity dude. More of the kind of guy you always see as the protagonist in an anime. He's unsure, somewhat awkward, and doesn't really know how he fits into the world. Remember as a student he isn't going to be a bloodthirsty murder machine.

Build Ideas: Human probably. The key thing here is that he isn't very powerful. He can be any class the school might be found to train, but he can't start out as a bad ass. Reign in the urge to optimize. Don't buy 18s in any particular stats. The first level or so he is more of a blank slate. Start gaining power as the it makes sense in the story.

His poor(ish) combat ability and lack of desire to wade into mayhem forces the DM to either kill him or spend more time on the story and character development. Can make for a fun change of pace.


Archetype: Negative Energy Wizard

Brief Description: A divine spellcaster who 'believes' in negative energy. However he has the mindset of a wizard. Maybe the word I'm looking for is methodology. When faced with a problem requiring magic he is going to go to negative energy first and foremost. He insists that his power comes from negative energy and he may restrict himself from casting spells where this insistence doesn't work. There are some very clear parallels to the force.
(Positive energy also works for this concept.)

Build Ideas: Cleric or Inquisitor. Needs to take the feat to allow healing from negative energy. Beyond that this is mostly an excuse for being a divine spellcaster and not following the dickish whims of a random god.

[Golden Ladybug]

Archtype: The Redeemer

Description: Something happened to this guy a while ago, and he's been trying to make up for it ever since. Maybe he was a Sergeant in the middle of a war, and had to watch his squad get torn apart because he couldn't save them. Maybe he was responsible for the death of a loved one, accidental or not. Maybe he took the last bag of flour and a nice old lady couldn't make them a birthday cake for her grandson.

Now, with his tragic past dragging him down, he does what he can to try and redeem himself in his own eyes and the eyes of others. He wants to protect people, so that he can make up for the failure to protect his squad. He wants to save lives, because he couldn't save the one he really cared about. He wants to make up for all his mistakes and more.

He made a mistake, and now he can't stop beating himself up about. But damn if he's gonna let that stop him from trying to fix it!

Build Ideas: I find this to be a great way to play a Paladin; there has to be a reason they're so Lawful Good all the time :smallconfused:

Martial Classes fit this idea better than the more magical ones, although it can fit quite well on a Bard, as an explanation for why they are travelling around doing stuff. Full Casters tend to be odd choices for this idea, but you can still pull it off (That demon you summoned which ate your girlfriend? Yeah...). Overall, this character concept is very universal, but it becomes more grounded the more gritty the character and their abilities.

[danzibr]

Archetype: Nature-loving, soul-knowing person

Brief Description: This being abandons society to be in touch with mother nature, but rather than walk the druid's path, they're in tune with their soul and the souls of all those around them.

Possible build ideas:


Preferably a Warforged ('cuz some people can say they don't even have a soul), maybe pick up Vow of Poverty, then Totemist all the way, or maybe for an even less civilized person, Barb/Totemist/Totem Rager.

[Andorax]

I tend to work these backwards...to come up with an interesting mechanical progression and work a theme around it. As a result, my character sketches may tend to be railroaded to a particular prestige class or set of abilities, but hopefully that's still acceptable for your purposes here.


Air/Lightning Themed Sorcerer Monk
Sorcerer abilities are focused on extra movement, levitation, flight, and lightning-based attacks, especially ones (such as Shocking Grasp) that can combine with unarmed strikes.

Heighten the connection right off the start by picking up the Air Bloodline feat (Dragon 311), granting an additional air-related spell known at each level.

Multiple prestige classes exist to allow Monk abilities and Arcane progression. One such progression might include:

Sorceror 4/Monk1 to qualify for Arcane Fist (CA). 5 levels of Arcane Fist to qualify for Master of the East Wind (Dragon 314). Many of the abilities of a 16th level monk and 18/20 casting progression, with strong spell theming provided by both the Air Bloodline (as mentioned above) and the eventual access to the Air Domain (From Master of the East Wind).


Pure, Exalted Mental Power
Yet another Vow of Poverty (BoED) build, but one that not only has no need for material goods, but eventually has no need of physical form.

Psion build aimed at the Psion Uncarnate prestige class. No particular emphasis in power selection, other than it should be appropriate to an exalted character, and with an eye to eventual incorporeality (by 15th). Intuitive Attack might not be a bad feat choice, particularly if physical stats are dumped to cover a certain amount of MAD with Exalted feats.

Build could be finished out with more Psion, with Master of the Unseen Hand (CW), or perhaps a DM-tweaked variation on the Exalted Arcanist (BoED). Wonderworker, while another option, probably isn't viable since by the time it comes up, you're likely running out of Exalted feats to choose from.


A True Master of Alchemy
Cross-wiring prestige classes from two different settings to get a genuine master of the flask.

To hit all the requirements, the build requires human, as ties to the Eberron setting House Cannith is one of the requirements.

Straight-up Wizard 5 can readily cover all of the pre-requisites, along with a recommended "bonus" feat, if your DM will bend a bit and let you take an item-creation related feat (though not with the actual item-creation descriptor) as a bonus feat at Wiz 5: Magical Artisan (potions) from the Player's Guide to Faerun.

This will qualify you for the Alchemist Savant prestige class (Magic of Eberron). Key features here include the ability to put hurlable "target" spells into potions, and eventually to make 'generic' flasks you can dump spells into as needed.

Only two levels in Alchemist Savant are needed to qualify you for the other prestige class, the Master Alchemist (Magic of Faerun). Also featuring full casting progression, the key benefit of the Alchemist Savant is to repeatedly raise the cap on what level of spell you can put into a potion.

Before everything is said and done, you can be handing out spellvials of energy drain to the party members to use as grenade-like weapons.


Clockwork Dragonkin
While self-healing characters aren't a new concept by any means, I'd like to think this has a certain amount of style to it. Start off with a Mechanatrix (planetouched race from the Fiend Folio, +1 LA). There's some leeway in how they're described, so I can definately see metallic-looking brass dragon scales as a physical feature being very fitting.

The key benefit is the ability to heal yourself to the tune of 1/3 of any electrical damage you take.

Go all-out into the Dragonfire Adept class (Dragon Magic). By 2nd level, you'll have unlimited use of an electrical breath weapon to heal yourself up during any downtime, and you can focus your invocations into very dragon-like abilities.


A Cold, Cruel Spellcaster
Drawing primarially on Frostburn and the Planar Handbook, a sorcerer steeped in dark magics of the Uttercold could have some interesting abilities.

As it's feat intensive, a flawed human is a recommended entry. Drawing on Dragon 327, the flaws of Haunted and Phantom Sparks work well for this concept...-4 to listen, move silently, hide and spot...potentially manifested as a visible aura of darkness and cold around the caster.

The various Snowcasting/Frozen Magic/Cold Spell Specialization feats work well here, alongside Energy Substitution (Cold) and the Lord of the Uttercold metamagic feats. The Sorcerer Planar Subsitution (PlHB) level at 5th also turns half your energy spells' damage into force...which poses an interesting question. If half your cold spells' damage is negative energy, and half your cold spells' damage is force, is there any cold damage left?

Combine Icy Calling with the Stalwart Planar Ally creates some potentially potent summoned allies. Rather than spend a bunch of spells known on Summon Monster spells, take the Sorcerer Planar Substituion level at 13th and opt for fiendish creatures, then pay a visit to the Mausoleum of Icy Fear in the Abyss. You can even pick up Fiendish Summoning Specialist later on to add more options back into your list.


Born To Do Necromancy
Generally, when you think of necromancers, you don't often look at Sorcerer...but there's some definately viable options here. One fun potential, if your DM will bend a bit, is to get permission to take two different bloodline feats...they're both very complimentary.

From Arcane Ancestry (Dragon magazine 325) comes both the Necromantic bloodline and the Penumbra bloodline. Both of these are well suited to a Necro-Sorcerer, and provide a lot of spells known with just a pair of feats.

It wouldn't be a bad way to get into the Pale Master (LM) prestige class either.


Dark Bard
Why should bards always be the cheerful, happy sort? There's plenty of material to support a darker shade or bard, one focused on "debuffing" foes instead of bolstering allies.

The Harbinger is an outright variant bard from Dragon 337, with alternate bardic music abilities such as Instill Fear, Encourage Failure, Dishearten, and so forth.

If you dare delve into the madness of the Far Realm (and the Dark Utterances feat tree from Dragon 336), you have another means of installing fear, or even panic, and of sickening, nauseating, or even paralyzing foes.

If Undead is your thing, an obvious prestige class approach would be the Dirgesinger (Libris Mortis), with its songs of sorrow, grief, horror, and even awakening (animation).

However, if you stick with bard through 12th, the Planar Bard subsitution level lets you precipitate a minor planar breach using your bardic music. It's a terrifying thought: What would happen if you started precipitating a minor breach, handed it over to a Harmonizing weapon (+1 bonus, Magic Item Compendium), then started up a second one and turned it over to a second Harmonizing weapon? Major breach pending (Neg Material Plane? Far Realm?), and the bard is still free to act.


Hard as a Rock
Dwarven fighters are commonly seen as stone-born, and stone-tough...but this can be taken to an extreme. Also, apparently, can substitution levels that replace fighter feats. Consider for example:

A Dwarf Fighter with a modest investment (1 rank) in Knowledge (Planes) can take decent ACFs at:

1st: Dwarf (weapon focus: All axes)
2nd: Dungeoncrasher (bull rush things into walls for damage)
4th: Planar (bonus damage against extraplanar threats)
6th: Dungeoncrasher (bull rush things into walls for MORE damage)
8th: Dwarf (Another +1 to AC in heavy armor)
12th: Planar (Dimensional anchor on self and anyone he grapples)

With a bit of an interesting adventuring career, it wouldn't be hard for a 7th level dwarf warrior to pay a visit to the Elemental Plane of Earth. That, plus some effort to learn on his part (Kno: Planes 5 ranks) qualifies him to the Elemental Warrior (Earth) from the Planar Handbook.

Aside from some nifty acid-related abilities, there's also the ability to deal a touch attack that can hurl a foe 10' and deal them 10d6 damage. Combined with the Dungeoncrasher ability?


Hammer Toss
Dragon 304 (article on D&Ding Asheron's Call II) had a set of interesting feats in it. I particularly noted the combination of Windup (Power Attack for thrown weapons), Heft (1 1/2x Str bonus for thrown weapons), Rout (Free bull rush with thrown weapons) and Bowl Over (Free trip with thrown weapons if you deal at least 10 damage).

A Goliath (RoS) armed with a Large Goliath Greathammer (+1 Returning), the Throw Anything (CW) Feat, and the above feat tree should be able to chuck a massive hammer at foes and reguarly knock them back, and over. A refreshing alternative to the deformed rubber-limbed chain trippers out there.

Could also be a fun addition to a Bloodstorm Blade (Bo9S) build.


Wizardly Love of Nature
Who says that the scholarly wizard can't have a soft spot for natural settings? A particularly good-aligned wizard could definately reflect a love of the outdoors with.

Flaw: Love of Nature (Will save to attack animals, plants and vermin)

Feats:
1st: Nymph's Kiss (BoED): Extra skill points and more.
1st: Initiate of the Faerie Mysteries (Dragon 319 regional): Use Int instead of Con for hps.
3rd: Magic of the Land (RotW): Tack a healing rider (+2 hp/SL) onto any spell you cast with a Knowledge: Nature check...in a natural setting.
12th: Tested (D319): Gain the ability to cast either commune or true seeing 1/day (choose when feat is selected).