Death From Above!

[zoobob9]

I'm working on a build, and he specializes on power attacks from above. How? By Jumping.

Vertical jumps are of course extremely difficult. That is why I chose Thri-Kreen as my race. +30 to jump. After that, finding feats was the hard part.

Leap of the heavens seemed logical. Standing jump at full jump check, that's nice. Leap attack lets me get a bonus to the power attack I use if I jump 10 feet, so those two are down. I also got Exotic Weapon Proficiency for the Longaxe, which is a greataxe that, if you so choose, it can give a bonus to power attacks and count as a reach weapon. The reach counts a couple turns, so it might not be the best idea for everyone. I picked up Improved Bull rush so I can get the feat Shock Trooper, which gives a few things that I don't care for, but the really good thing: If you charge, and the bonus to Power attack is greater than +5, then you can allocate any portion to AC instead of BAB.

Are there any other suggestions for feats? I picked up Weapon Focus and Great Cleave for their versatility, but I'm not sure if its the best idea.

[Waker]

As an alternate suggestion, you could consider dipping a level of Incarnate or taking the Shape Soulmeld feat to grab Airstep Sandals. It gives you a limited flight that would allow you to get into the air above your opponents. It has a greater effect if you bind the feet chakra, which you can get with four levels of Incarnate or by taking the Open Least Chakra feat at level 6.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Not for nothing, but if a fall of 10 feet qualifies you for a charge, then a dip in Lion Totem Whirling Frenzy Barbarian gets you your full attack routine on that charge, and a dip in Warblade at 5 (for Sudden Leap, Punishing Stance, Battle Leader's Charge, and Wall of Blades... Yes, you will need it at some point something, anything from White Raven) allows you to jump as a swift action, which allows you to make a charge from above as a full-round action. This charge is a Battle Leader's Charge, which doesn't specify that only one attack gets the +10 damage bonus. :smallbiggrin: Wall of Blades helps you get over your pitiful AC when it matters, but can be replaced with any ability power.

As for feats? Well, if you're full-attacking on a charge (and you are), then attacking with four weapons becomes better than one, so... Multi weapon Fighting/Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting, I guess? :smallbiggrin:

EDIT: Silly me, I'm getting ahead of myself. Your third maneuver is a level 1 White Raven maneuver.

[sonofzeal]

Tiger Claw maneuvers, from Tome of Battle, seem pretty obligatory...

[demigodus]

You can replace Leap of the heavens if you do a 4 level dip into Warblade (with 2 non-initiator levels before hand), and pick up Leaping Dragon Stance. Does the same as the feat, except you always get the competence bonus on the jump check, and it is a +10, instead of a +5.

Alternatively, a 2-level dip into swordsage (with the second at level 8) gets the same result, but you lose one point of BAB.

Basically something you might try if you find yourself too feat starved. In either case, if you get them up to initiator level 9, you can pick up Dancing Mongoose. Because if you are full attacking on a charge, it is fun to get an extra attack in on that charge.

If you do choose to keep the feat though, still dip at least one level into Warblade or Crusader to pick up the Leading the Charge stance. You are your own ally, so that is a bonus damage on charges that scales with level.

Don't go weapon focus. It is considered suboptimal, and there are plenty of other things you can use feats on. Like using more/bigger-weapons without penalties.

[Darrin]

Are there any other suggestions for feats? I picked up Weapon Focus and Great Cleave for their versatility, but I'm not sure if its the best idea.

Weapon Focus and Great Cleave have extremely low versatility, and around here are widely regarded as very poor choices.

The +1 from Weapon Focus doesn't scale up, and there are way too many other ways to get a +1 that doesn't clog up one of your precious feat slots.

Great Cleave may look mouth-watering juicy, but the odds you'll ever be able to *use* it are staggeringly small. When you're high enough level to drop fodder-type minions in a single blow, they 1) generally no longer pose a significant threat to you in the first place and 2) are much more likely to stay the *bleep* out of your threatened reach than try to surround you.

Feats to consider:

Did no one mention Leap Attack yet, or is that already assumed? Also, Battle-Jump from Unapproachable East might be worth a look, although you'll have to ask the DM to interpret how it works with Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, etc.

Ideally, the Gold Standard combat jumper would look something like:

1) Starting from at least 10' away, jump to a square at least 5' above your opponent's head. This satisfies the 10' horizontal movement for Leap Attack. With two-handed Power Attack, your damage multiplier is x2 + 100% (Leap Attack errata), so effectively x4.

2) Fall 5', activating Battle Jump. Your attack now counts as a charge, so activate Pounce (Spirit Lion Totem) for a full attack. You get another damage multiplier, so x3 + 100% = x6.

3) Activate Shock Trooper's Heedless Charge to dump your attack penalty into AC to make sure you hit. (This isn't strictly necessary, but you're going to get books thrown at your head for this, so might as well go all-in.)

4) Activate Knockback (Races of Stone) so every attack also gets a free bull rush attempt.

5) Since you're directly above your opponent, every bull rush pushes them into the ground, so six levels of of the Dungeon Crasher ACF (Dungeonscape) does an additional 8d6 damage.

6) If your target is standing adjacent to another opponent, you can use Shock Trooper's Directed Bull Rush and Domino Rush to push your target into his companion's square as well as into the ground, which gives you a trip attack against both of them. If successful, both of those can trigger free attacks with Improved Trip, which in turn triggers two more bull rushes, and thus even more Dungeon Crasher damage.

7) You're still technically falling, and still directly above your opponent's head, so you can treat yourself as a falling object. If you took expansion and have loaded up on enough equipment to increase your weight to at least 4000 lbs, and you jump to at least 20' above your opponent, you now do 20d6 falling object damage to whoever you land on. In Core, there's no save for this damage (although if your DM has access to Heroes of Battle, he may use the Aerial Bombardment rules to give your target a DC 15 Ref save to negate this damage).

8) Use a Tumble check, catfall power, Boots of Landing (500 GP, MIC), or armor with the Landing property (+4000 GP, XPH/MIC) to negate your own falling damage.

9) Not enough damage multipliers, you say? Add a Valorous weapon (+1 enhancement, Champions of Valor) and/or Headlong Rush (Orc-only). That's x5 + 100% = x10. Frenzied Berzerker can add some more, but the math is starting to make my head hurt. There might be a way to get a mount + Spirited Charge in there with a lance somehow, but that's a level of rules depravity that I'm not sure even I can stoop to.

Make sure you (the player) have a helmet handy or have easy access to an escape route. Heavy objects are very likely to be thrown at you at high velocity.

[Zilzmaer]

Endarire, I believe, has a thread on Brilliant Gameologists called 'Little Red Raiding Hood: a Guide to the 3.5 Dragoon' that seems perfect for what you want. I'm posting from my phone, or I'd link it.