[3.5] Need advice on a class to play...

[Devorum]

A friend has decided he wants to GM, and is starting a 3.5 game. I haven't played 3.5 in about 5 years, but all of the classes and races seem really lackluster as I look through my old books. What is a good, fun class to play that generally has something useful to do most rounds? I usually like being on the front lines, but like to have something to do besides "stick sword in enemy, repeat as needed", but I'm open to all suggestions.

My stats (he used the roll 4d6, drop lowest, reroll 1's) are: 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 13. Yeah, pretty ridiculous...he even watched as I rolled them, and I think his head exploded. So far we have a CN Wizard, a CN Ranger, and a CG Beguiler.

Any advice is appreciated, as I apparently brain dumped everything I knew about 3.5.

[Gnorman]

Signs point to Warblade.

[Devorum]

Signs point to Warblade.

After reading through it, I think it would be a wonderful fit. However, the GM is a bit Grognardy and I have a feeling he is in the "Tome of Battle is broken and OP" group. I'll try to convince him to let me play it, though.

[Togo]

Stats like that, I'd lean more towards something that ususally suffers from MAD*. Paladin or ranger? (Or monk, but probably not if you haven't played in a while, because it takes a lot of work to keep them competitive).

(MAD - needing high scores in a lot of different stats. )

[marcielle]

A pally might not be too happy with all the chaos in the group and you already have a ranger so I'm going to suggest Ardent. 9th level powers, 3/4 BAB and decent HD. And of course, your wizard will be green with envy when he sees how much better your psicrystal can be. A soulbound weapon PsyWar would be more appropriate if your ranger is ranged though. You'll always have the perfect weapon enhancement for the job.

[Righteous Doggy]

Well, you don't have someone to handle anything divine, nor heavy armor. How about a cleric? You could also go coistered cleric variant and pick up higher armor profs with a dip into a good priestiege. DMM persist comes to mind if you want to play someone up front, and a dip or two into a priestige lets you flavor it.
Edit: And he has a wizard. How is ToB op by comparison? Chain save or die spells or being able to trick the whole enemy team into thinking they're their own enemy hurts.

[Duncan_Ruadrik]

Duskblade. You get to kill stuff dead, but cast spells while doing it, and cast some spells when you arent killing things. Though, almost all of your spells are for killing things.

PLus, since you are an INT based caster, you will have a decent amount of skill points to play with.

[Ozreth]

Dunno what game you are playing (maybe 4e?) but if the basic D&D classes all seem lackluster to you then D&D may not be your game. If you're playing 4e that's different, as it's almost a totally different game, especially as far as classes are concerned.

Fighters fight.
Wizards cast spells.
Clerics heal you.
Rogues sneak.

Past that it's all up to you to make the character fun and come alive :)

But I guess that's all moot, since you're playing regardless. My advice is just do some wacky multiclassing stuff or play one of the non typical classes from splat books like duskblade, spirit shaman etc. Or some dragon **** :p

[RaviStrife]

I would recommend looking at Favored Soul from Complete Divine. It's the Cleric equivalent of a sorcerer, but with good saves, 3/4 Bab, a D8 HD and crazy staying power (not to mention getting far more spells known than a sorcerer). Seems like it would fit your party well, while giving you some versatility.
Invest a few spells known in spells like Divine Favor, Rightous Might, and Divine Power, and you can fill the Big Stupid Fighter slot with room to spare. Save some slots for the Save or Dies and you can take out big threats while the wizard is playing Batman.
My personal best experience was playing it as a necromancer-type Save or Die specialist....Rigor Mortis is magical when heightened with Spell Focus and Greater Spell focus. *Smack, *Coup de Grace. >=-D

[Last Laugh]

Duskblade. You get to kill stuff dead, but cast spells while doing it, and cast some spells when you arent killing things. Though, almost all of your spells are for killing things.

PLus, since you are an INT based caster, you will have a decent amount of skill points to play with.

I second Duskblade. Other fun melee oriented alternatives: scout+Ranger with the cross class feat from complete scoundrel (name escapes me, AFB, anyone wanna type the name out?). High skill points, and the damage you deal comes from how you move (skirmish) ranger is in phb, scout is from Complete Adventurer.

Psychic warrior or ardent can be proficient melee classes with fun abilities. swift action movement abilities and access to spell like psionic power. Expanded Psionics handbook has psychic warrior, and complete Psionic has Ardent.

[TheTick]

The Scout/Ranger thing is Swift Hunter, IIRC.

[Devorum]

Dunno what game you are playing (maybe 4e?) but if the basic D&D classes all seem lackluster to you then D&D may not be your game. If you're playing 4e that's different, as it's almost a totally different game, especially as far as classes are concerned.

Fighters fight.
Wizards cast spells.
Clerics heal you.
Rogues sneak.

Past that it's all up to you to make the character fun and come alive :)

But I guess that's all moot, since you're playing regardless. My advice is just do some wacky multiclassing stuff or play one of the non typical classes from splat books like duskblade, spirit shaman etc. Or some dragon **** :p

It is 3.5, which I played quite a bit of in the early-mid '00s. I've mostly played Pathfinder and other various non-D&D (Dread, Paranoia, Warhammer, Scion) games since '07 or '08, though...and honestly every 3.5 class and race is bland compared to its PF equivalent.

As for ToB being OP, there is a mindset that believes that if martial classes are ever given nice things it is OP.

[Righteous Doggy]

Erm, tabletops are what you make of them. if you don't like somethings fluff you can always change it, or make up things(homebrewing is fun! Brain need work)... And pathfinder has the same thing with more of the spaces filled doesn't it?(and a love of overshadowing capstones :P)

anyways, did you pick anything out of the things suggested?

[docnessuno]

Go with the sacrilegous fist! Your group seems to be lacking the divine support and with those stats it's going to work like a charm
Str 18 Dex 17 Con 17 Int 16 Wis 18 Cha 13

Monk 2 / Duskblade 3 / Ur-Priest 2 / Sacred fist 10 / Enlightened Fist 3


As for ToB being OP, there is a mindset that believes that if martial classes are ever given nice things it is OP.

Sometimes it's just a matter of DM's not having a clue about what is or isn't strong at all. I have met plenty DM's who belived mystic theurge is an overpowered PrC...

[Rubik]

I would suggest a factotum 8 (from Dungeonscape)/warblade 12 (though not necessarily in that order) with the highest Intelligence and Constitution scores you can get, a pumped-up Use Magic Device skill, and a few heal-type wands. If you take the Able Learner feat (from Races of Destiny) you can have all skills as class skills FOREVER, and almost everything will be Intelligence-based (due to factotum, since they get Int to EVERYTHING), you'll never have a situation where you're not useful (since you're a frackin' factotum), and you'll be a rampaging beast in combat (factotum+warblade).

Take a few iterations of the Font of Inspiration (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070606) feat (I'd say 3-4, at most) and then beat the living hell out of everything that gets in your way.

[dspeyer]

Good on the front lines, plenty of options, makes use of awesome stats...

Sounds like cleric. Kord seems like about the right deity. Wade into the enemy with a greatsword and some major self-buffs, but if that doesn't work fall back on a really big spell list. And your companions will appreciate a healer.

If you like spontaneous, check out the spontaneous variant in UA.

Pure optimizers would tell you to go cloistered and dmm-persist divine power. That strikes me as cheese.

[Thurbane]

Gotta say, Binder, probably going into the Knight of the Sacred Seal PrC. Plenty of options, and a decent front row type. KotSS really only costs you one subpar feat (Weapon Focus), so if you take a race with a natural weapon it won't be totally wasted. Either that, or pick up a single Exotic weapon proficiency (say, Spiked Chain or Minotaur Greathammer), and use Weapon Focus for that...

[Malachei]

In this particular party, with no divine caster, and your preference for a front-liner, I'd suggest you cover both with a

Crusader / Cleric / Ruby Knight Vindicator.

If your DM has issues with ToB, you might state that this build is arguably less game-breakable than a druid (even though you get swift-action fun).

[Righteous Doggy]

If your DM has issues with ToB, you might state that this build is arguably less game-breakable than a druid (even though you get swift-action fun).

You could argue alot of things are less game breaker than a druid or wizard in ToB. A wizard can be immune to crits/sneak attacks and fly all day and still murderize you with a Save or Die of choice by 9th level.. Nothing in the ToB to my knowledge does that.

[Pilo]

Well, go for Druid (CN)! Obviously you will wast a good stat but you could be a frontline fighter and a divine caster, two roles that your team does not have.

16,13,17,18,18,17 could be a good repartition.

[Malachei]

Well, go for Druid (CN)! Obviously you will wast a good stat but you could be a frontline fighter and a divine caster, two roles that your team does not have.

16,13,17,18,18,17 could be a good repartition.

These stats are almost a waste on a druid.

[Devorum]

Sorry for the late reply, but I did manage to talk the GM into allowing Tome of Battle classes, but not psionics. Looks like I'll be Warblading it up! Thanks for all the suggestions!

[Rejusu]

ToB but not Psionics? And yet he's allowing Wizards. I think you need to take your DM aside and educate him on what's balanced and not balanced. I always find it funny that there's DM's who'd ban ToB and the XPH (which are probably two of the most balanced books in 3.5) and yet allow everything in the PHB (despite it being one of the most unbalanced).

Shame really, I was going to suggest a Tashalatora Psychic Warrior. Which is basically sort of like a monk, but with all the bad levels of monk replaced by Psychic Warrior levels.

[killianh]

Sorry for the late reply, but I did manage to talk the GM into allowing Tome of Battle classes, but not psionics. Looks like I'll be Warblading it up! Thanks for all the suggestions!

One Suggestion for the Warblade with the stats you have and the roles covered by the other guys would be to try and get into the Master of 9 PrC as soon as you're able to. That or mix some Factotum levels in there to cover skill monkey stuff

[Malachei]

Sorry for the late reply, but I did manage to talk the GM into allowing Tome of Battle classes, but not psionics. Looks like I'll be Warblading it up! Thanks for all the suggestions!

You might want to consider dipping Swordsage (two levels) for additional maneuvers and Wis to AC.

[The Glyphstone]

Sorry for the late reply, but I did manage to talk the GM into allowing Tome of Battle classes, but not psionics. Looks like I'll be Warblading it up! Thanks for all the suggestions!

Make sure to take White Raven maneuvers where you can spare the slots - it'll make your party members more likely to support you in a balance argument if you're handing out +4 to-hits and giving them free turns while still smacking people in the face.

[danzibr]

A friend has decided he wants to GM, and is starting a 3.5 game. I haven't played 3.5 in about 5 years, but all of the classes and races seem really lackluster as I look through my old books. What is a good, fun class to play that generally has something useful to do most rounds? I usually like being on the front lines, but like to have something to do besides "stick sword in enemy, repeat as needed", but I'm open to all suggestions.

My stats (he used the roll 4d6, drop lowest, reroll 1's) are: 18, 18, 17, 17, 16, 13. Yeah, pretty ridiculous...he even watched as I rolled them, and I think his head exploded. So far we have a CN Wizard, a CN Ranger, and a CG Beguiler.

Any advice is appreciated, as I apparently brain dumped everything I knew about 3.5.
Bard! Bardadin would be good, or as there's been convo of ToB, bardsader or bardblade. Or otherwise melee Bard. So much Bard goodness.

[Person_Man]

I vote Sorcerer or Druid. If you choose simple but powerful spells, they're dirt simple to play, and always have something interesting to do. You can never have too many spellcasters in a party. You don't need a meat shield in the party, because you can just Summon one. And they're both core, so a DM who is specious of splat books will have a hard time complaining.