A little help?

[TobiasMNB]

Ok I have a character concept inmind and i was wondering if I could get some help in building it. I have been allowed to use any book from either 3 or 3.5 and im not 100% on which level we will be starting at but at a guess level 7ish. ok now thats the dull stuff out of the way lets get on to the description.

This guy is an expert with a Glaive has trained his whole life with the weapon. I want him to wield an over sized weapon (snarf snarf) probably a 15' reach glaive. (i believe this requires a feat) another feat i want is the short haft which allows you to use a reach weapon at closer range (he can use the glaive at 5'). The class i am looking at is the weapon master from sword and fist (i think) does this sound like a good plan?

Any other questions about the guy please ask :)



(sorry about the aweful grammer)

[Flickerdart]

Weapon Master was centered around critstacking, which doesn't work the same way in 3.5 as it did in 3.0.

A larger glaive will not give you better reach - only your size affects your reach. However, there are a number of feats (Deformity: Tall, for instance) that will give you extra reach. Magically increasing yourself in size will also help there.

[Draz74]

Getting an oversized weapon isn't as simple as spending a feat, if the weapon was already a two-handed weapon. Even worse, using an oversized weapon doesn't automatically increase the weapon's reach; it defies common sense, but reach has been ruled to be a property of the creature wielding it, not a property of the weapon itself.

So using an oversized glaive won't give you 15-foot reach. If you want reach greater than 10' with a glaive, you'll have to try one of the following options:

Increase your own size; for example, by being a Psychic Warrior and using the Expansion power.
Take a feat that explicitly increases your reach, such as Inhuman Reach or Deformity (Tall). Note that both of these feats have lame prerequisites (another feat), one turns you into a pseudo-monster, and one is specifically EVIL.
Use the Dancing Blade Form stance from Tome of Battle. This is the "cleanest" option if your DM is comfortable with Tome of Battle; but unfortunately, it's not available until Level 10 (or Level 9 if you spend a feat on it).

[TobiasMNB]

Flickerdart: Ahh yes i should have mentioned that my DM allows us to use the 'best' rules from either 3.0 or 3.5 but this is a fair point i will have to clear this up with him. Either that or pick a different class can you think of any that would do this (as i say i want him to be a specialist in one weapon only)

Draz74: He is infact he loves the BoNS to rather an unhealthy degree :) this could be a really nice thing to work towards :)

[TobiasMNB]

However, weapons that normally have a
reach of greater than 5 feet have different reaches
when you design them at different sizes. If you’re
designing a larger version of such a weapon, increase
its reach by 5 feet for each size category it increases. A
Huge guisarme has a reach of 15 feet, for example,
while a Gargantuan guisarme has a reach of 20 feet.

woo arms and equipment guide pg 5 sorry i thought i was going mad

[Draz74]

Draz74: He is infact he loves the BoNS to rather an unhealthy degree :) this could be a really nice thing to work towards :)

Then, to get that stance as early as possible, you're pretty much confined to playing a pure Warblade. Not that that's a bad thing.

Also, btw, the Short Haft is pretty much crap, since it requires a swift action to switch between reach and non-reach. Which means that you can't, for example, switch during someone else's turn in order to adapt your Attacks of Opportunity. There's a better feat, IIRC, somewhere in Dragon Magazine, which is similar but lets you switch reach on/off at any time, at the cost of a small penalty to your attack rolls. Can't remember what it's called or which Dragon it was in, though.

EDIT: Ah, ok, that's a rule I was not aware of since it was changed in 3.5e. In that case, you can get the reach you want just by being a Goliath or Half-Giant, since they can wield Large weapons without penalty.

[Flickerdart]

A&EG is 3.0, and superseded by 3.5 rules that say otherwise.

[TobiasMNB]

I think the DM is resticting to human but with monkey grip and the flaw perfectionist i can decrease peanalty to only -1. he is also funny about dragon mag but i will se if i can find it and see what he says :D thank you

[Flickerdart]

Monkey Grip sucks. Grab a pair of Strongarm Bracers from the Magic Item Compendium instead.