Melee help

[Overlord Rion]

All right everyone, all I'm asking for is something simple. I'm making a melee character, and I want to do as much damage as I can as early as I can.

Before templates or anything, here's his stats. Unfortunately I can't swap anything, so I need to make due.

Race-Desert Half-Orc

STR-16
DEX-9
CON-15
INT-13
WIS-14
CHA-18

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot, we're starting at level 2.

[The Crash Man]

Seems you've got a really high Charisma score for a melee character. Fortunately, you're in luck. Here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=125732) is a giant list of all the ways to add certain stats to different attributes, and from I can tell there are quite a few ways to add charisma to AC, saves, damage, and more.

By any chance do you have any idea of what you want to do with your character, concept-wise? And how does your DM feel about Tome of Battle? Your relatively tank-y stats make Crusader an option, from my (admittedly limited) knowledge.

[Overlord Rion]

With my tendency to actually play my characters AS characters instead of statblocks, he opened up the Tome of Battle for this one so long as I don't do stupid things.

EDIT: As for the concept, he's a man from the desert, descended from the local coffee tyrantmerchant (a blue dragon who actually does love his family, including his grandson, my character).

[The Crash Man]

Ah, that's good. Anything else you can give to help us? Other characters' classes, general thought of what you want to do with said character roleplay-wise, so on and so forth. All of these could help us with some ideas, whether to keep your character from overshadowing / being overshadowed or to keep your character true to a particular concept you want.

EDIT: Ack, sorry, late edits here xD

The concept of man from the desert could bring to mind a lot of things. Maybe you worship desert gods and faithfully serve them, as a Paladin or Crusader. Maybe you're a rugged and tough survivor of the sands, a Barbarian or Ranger for sure. Maybe you adapt your fighting style to match the environment of the desert, which would probably be some Tome of Battle class with the Desert Wind style. The possibilities are endless!

[Elric VIII]

Hmmm, I'm thinking Pala-bard-sader with Snowflake Wardance and Slippers of Battledancing, plus some Travel Devotion.

Paladin 4/Crusader 1/Bard 4/Crusader 11.

You need to use the Harmonious Knight option from Champions of Valor (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a). It relaxes alignment restrictions and gives you some more Bardic Music.

Then, Song of the White Raven stacks your Crusader and Bard levels.

Snowflake Wardance lets you add Cha to hit. Slippers of Battledancing let you add Cha to hit and damage as long as you move 10 feet in the round; you ahcieve this with Travel devotion (powered by your turn undead) to move as a swift action in order to get in full attacks.


EDIT in respose to your edit: You could easily fit the Harmonious Knight fluff into a desert setting (and Bard and Crusader fall in seamlessly). Although, you might have to refluff Snowflake Wardance as something like Sandstorm Wardance. Being a descendant of a dragon also opens up the possibility of taking Draconic Inspiration (add 1d6 damage to attacks based on IC bonus).

[Overlord Rion]

Other characters in the party are either spontaneous arcane casters or other melee like myself. Somehow we've actually avoided having anything divine in the party. The closest to that is a pair of rangers, one of whom gave up spellcasting.

I'd like to have a spiked chain as my weapon. Because of heritage, the spiked chain is masterwork and paid for, so no impact on WBL.

I've considered the Draconic template, and I do have one flaw, Merciless (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Merciless_(3.5e_Flaw)). He's not a savage fighter, he just doesn't take prisoners most of the time.

[Emperor Tippy]

Pity, those are pretty good stats for a Sorcerer or any other Cha focused caster.

Oh well, melee it is.

Crusader could work. So could *shudders* Paladin.

[DarknessB4Dawn]

Why not make a chain gun fighter then? With some pally levels, take improved trip and they'd never be able to get up off the ground. Add smite with that and bang, there goes your game. Well for the most part lol.

[Overlord Rion]

I'm not adverse to using some magic...as long as it boosts my melee awesome.

[The Crash Man]

Spiked chain, you say? Great weapon choice, other than losing a feat for Exotic Weapon Proficiency. You should consider grabbing Improved Trip to get a really good handle on battlefield control.

Nevertheless, still a very fine weapon and one of the most useful in the game. And getting it for free and Masterwork is a huge boon. Could probably work well with Erlic's pala-bard-sader build, especially since moving 10 feet for Slippers of Battledancing is a lot easier to accomplish with a reach weapon.

EDIT: Idiot me forgot that you need 13 INT, not 13 Dex, for Improved Trip.

[Elric VIII]

Other characters in the party are either spontaneous arcane casters or other melee like myself. Somehow we've actually avoided having anything divine in the party. The closest to that is a pair of rangers, one of whom gave up spellcasting.

I'd like to have a spiked chain as my weapon. Because of heritage, the spiked chain is masterwork and paid for, so no impact on WBL.

I've considered the Draconic template, and I do have one flaw, Merciless (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Merciless_(3.5e_Flaw)). He's not a savage fighter, he just doesn't take prisoners most of the time.

Are you open to playing a Gish? Your stats would make for a good Paladin of Tyranny/Hexblade/Suel Archanamach or Sorcerer/[Paladin or Hexblade]/Swiftblade.

You also might want to note that the feat you linked is homebrew, so it's best to run that by your DM if you have not, yet.


Pity, those are pretty good stats for a Sorcerer or any other Cha focused caster.

Oh well, melee it is.

Crusader could work. So could *shudders* Paladin.

Well, he could always play a Sorcerer/Monk/Enlightened Fist with Ascetic Mage, although I don't know why you'd ruin a good monk build with spellcasting. :smallbiggrin:

[Overlord Rion]

I did okay the flaw with the DM, but the Paladin variants don't really exist in his world.

[Elric VIII]

I did okay the flaw with the DM, but the Paladin variants don't really exist in his world.

The Paladin variant was in there just so you could get 2*Cha to saves via Divine Grace and the Hexblade version of it (cannot recall the name), that stacks.

[The Crash Man]

You said your party had no divine casters, right? With your high Charisma, you could probably use Leadership to recruit a cohort to fill that hole in after-battle healing and pre-fight buffing. As long as you don't end up falling into the trap of exploiting the feat its an easy way to both get a party "band-aid box" and get some neat roleplay potential.

[Overlord Rion]

When he looked at my stats one of the first things he said was "Welp, you'll probably be getting Leadership at some point."

[Riverdance]

Switch Dex and Int and make the righteous Thog-Paladin.

"THOG-PALADIN HAS BIG SWORD! THOG-PALADIN SMASH BAD GUYS!"

[Elric VIII]

When he looked at my stats one of the first things he said was "Welp, you'll probably be getting Leadership at some point."

Although, if Leadership isn't your thing, you can grab the Apprentice/Mentor feat and eventually get a cohort apprentice without needing to keep track of followers.

[Overlord Rion]

Chances are also fairly good that I will have an exotic pet/mount or two.





Or eight.

[Elric VIII]

Chances are also fairly good that I will have an exotic pet/mount or two.





Or eight.

Then I definitely recommend Bard and/or Swiftblade. Haste and IC get so much better with more targets.