Non-arrow using melee ranged classes? [3.5]

[Siege Tower]

I am not the biggest fan of magic using classes but melee combat has gotten a little dry for me. Does anyone know of a fun way to create a ranged melee class that uses an unusual weapon? I understand halflings have their slings but I'm not sure how great those can be once you start going into high levels.

[Ranos]

The boomerang ricochet and boomerang daze feats make them a fairly good weapon.

[Jeff the Green]

Halfling Rock-Skipping Champion? (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9623050&postcount=6) There's also Master Thrower (CW) which plays well with sneak attack damage.

This also probably belongs in the 3.5 subforum.

[Slipperychicken]

a ranged melee class

Only one I can think of is Bloodstorm Blade. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time with "ranged melee".

Pretty sure some spells let you melee at range. Custom item, perhaps?

[Jeff the Green]

Only one I can think of is Bloodstorm Blade. Otherwise, you'll have a hard time with "ranged melee".

Pretty sure some spells let you melee at range. Custom item, perhaps?

I assume Siege Tower means "mundane."

[Siege Tower]

I think I'm gonna go with a dual boomerang wielding master thrower. That seems a bit silly and fun. thank you for the help.

[Hiro Protagonest]

I think I'm gonna go with a dual boomerang wielding master thrower. That seems a bit silly and fun. thank you for the help.

Eberron Campaign Setting has the Talenta and Xen'drik boomerangs, both of which are strictly superior to the standard one.

[BootStrapTommy]

The Throw Anything feat. Improvised Weapons (Club-like). Throw anything at them.

Clubs. Clubs are technically free. A bunch of them in a bag. Throw them.

Mighty Great Wallop. And that one Druid spell with the weird name that effects clubs. Makes them better. Then you throw them. Much larger clubs.

Torches are technically clubs too. So throw them. With the added fire damage.

Exotic Weapon Proficiency (War Mace). The war mace is now a one-handed weapon. Duel-wield. And then throw them.

[StreamOfTheSky]

Bloodstorm Blade and/or Master Thrower prestige classes make for interesting throwing builds.

Soulbow PrC is using "mind arrows" like a soulknife uses a mindblade (minus the completely and utterly sucking horribly part), I've seen some intersting builds with that.

Warlock plays like an archer w/ a special effects budget, especially if you focus on the eldritch blast (well, aside from using Eldritch Claws/Glaive to go melee, which is technically the best way to optimize damage...).

Once saw someone pimp out their charisma super high with templates and use Whirling Blade spell as their primary offense, off a wand. Not the most effective thing ever, and the PC had lots of spell-like abilities to fall back on too, but certainly a different approach.

[eggs]

Psychic Warriors can make awesome throwers, and have enough versatility in their actions that they're likely to stay interesting (something some ranged builds like Swift Hunters have problems with).

[avr]

Psychic Warriors with expansion to Huge size and crossbows are technically firing siege weapons. This is an advantage when firing thru wind effects (Wind wall, control winds). The latter is available via feats if Eberron material is in use.

[Jeff the Green]

Since this is turning into a general advice thread rather than specifically addressing Siege Tower's question, I'll add a few things.

Bloodstorm Blade. Among other things, this lets you treat a ranged attack as a melee attack. This means you can use your Iron Heart strikes at range, use Strength for both attack and damage, and Power Attack. The last one is the best for pure damage, because it means you could use Shocktrooper while reducing the impact of the AC penalty.

Harpoons. First, it's like a lasso that does damage, since you can control them with the rope. Second, if they (or you) pull it out, they take the same amount of damage again. Third, at low levels it's fantastic against casters, since it forces a DC 15 Concentration check to cast any spell.

Master Thrower. Gets a bunch of neat things to do with thown weapons. The ones we're interested in are Weak Spot and Sneaky Shot. The first lets you make a ranged attack as a touch attack, but you lose your Strength to damage and your opponent must be larger than you. The second lets you treat your opponent as flat footed if you beat their Spot check with your Sleight of Hand check. Put those together, and you're attacking against an AC of 10 + Deflection. Probably a max of 15.

To combine them, we'll pick a small race without a Strength penalty, like a Korobokuro, Vril, or Wild Dwarf. Grab two levels of fighter for bonus feats (we'll need power attack, point blank shot, precise shot, weapon focus (harpoon), shocktrooper, and leap attack, so choose two), then a level of Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian for rage and pounce, and a level of, oh, let's say Duskblade for a couple of low level spells. Then a level of Warblade, and be sure to pick up an Iron Heart strike and an Iron Heart stance. I'd go for Wall of Blades and Punishing Stance (you actually don't have a choice on the stance). Then one or three levels of master thrower, which will net you one or two tricks. If you think you'll be fighting lots of big enemies, take three levels to get both of the tricks I mentioned above.

Then we go into bloodstorm blade. You can now make your harpoon automatically return to you, effectively doubling your damage because it gets yanked out of the enemy. Combine with Power Attack, Leap Attack, and Shocktrooper for massive damage. Don't take the 10th level of Bloodstorm Blade since it's not all that great. You can even drop out at level 8, but 9 gives you a bonus fighter feat, which is nice.

You're now at level 14/16. You can go back into master thrower to grab more tricks, which would bring you up to 18. Finish up with a couple more Warblade levels, and you're golden (you can also pick up level 5 strikes, and a stance if you're willing to give up a level of Master Thrower).

Final build: Fighter 2/Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian 1/Duskblade 1/Warblade 1/Master Thrower 1/Bloodstorm Blade 8/Master Thrower +4 (5)/Warblade +2 (3)

(Duskblade's easily switched out for another full BAB class; I just couldn't think of something better. If you want better martial maneuvers, reduce the Master Thrower levels to a total of 3 and increase Warblade to 5 for an extra maneuver and stance known.)

[Kane0]

Dual Wielding hand crossbows.

Won't be effective in the slightest, but it will be interesting.

[nedz]

Take the Leadership feat, ignore the Cohort, equip your followers with Siege weapons.
Balistae, Catapults, oh and erm, Siege Towers :smallbiggrin:


Repeating crossbows suck less than others, but not by much.


<Some divine caster> into Stormlord for javelins which go zap and bang.
Mystic Ranger is functional and fairly low OP, T3 I guess. Also a skill monkey of sorts.
Favoured Soul saves you a feat (yeah!) but is a poor T2.
Cleric or Druid FTW obviously.

[Diovid]

Dual Wielding hand crossbows.

Won't be effective in the slightest, but it will be interesting.
Make those Double Hand Crossbows (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a).

Too bad there aren't any double repeating crossbows.

[Ashtagon]

I am not the biggest fan of magic using classes but melee combat has gotten a little dry for me. Does anyone know of a fun way to create a ranged melee ...

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Maybe Fling Ally with the party's halfling barbarian?

[Twilightwyrm]

Make those Double Hand Crossbows (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a).

Too bad there aren't any double repeating crossbows.

Wouldn't rapid reload negate the entire reload time though?

[Jeff the Green]

I'm not sure what you mean by this? Maybe Fling Ally with the party's halfling barbarian?


I assume Siege Tower means "mundane."

Cookie monster is a better Katniss than Jennifer Lawrence.

[Psyren]

I'm guessing "ranged mundane" was the intent as well.

The Soulbow's projectiles, even though they are mechanically similar to arrows, have a lot of neat differences between themselves and those of a bow. You can wear a shield and fire them for instance, and you can form as many arrows as you have hands so long as you have 6 BAB or more. At mid-levels you can fire in melee range without provoking, and at late levels you can fire "railgun" shots that bypass cover, concealment and armor.

[Ashtagon]

Cookie monster is a better Katniss than Jennifer Lawrence.

Despite the misunderstanding, I maintain that a ranged character who flings his allies into melee would be an interesting build concept.

[kitcik]

Despite the misunderstanding, I maintain that a ranged character who flings his allies into melee would be an interesting build concept.

And thus the seldom used feat "Flingby Attack"

[eggs]

Just Brainstorming... How about:

Dvati twin Barbarian 1/Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6/Warmind 10/Hulking Hurler 3
(rearranged B1/F4/WM6/HH2/WM4/HH3)

Hulking Hurler allows throwing (and power attacking) with a medium load, Warmind gives PsyWar powers like Telekinetic Boomerang at a somewhat accelerated rate, plus full BA and strength boosts.

This might get a little messy, since I'm not 100% on how Dvati initiative sequences work. Text on their spellcasting mechanics makes me think their actions are simultaneous.

The idea is to Expand up to Large or Huge and spend two simultaneous full round attack actions. In one set of the actions, the throwing twin chucks his twin, dealing damage based on the twin's mass, and initiating power attack at a range (which triggers Knockback, which triggers Dungeoncrasher); with Telekinetic Boomerang, the thrown twin returns immediately, allowing further attacks. The thrown twin is simultaneously making its own melee attacks (also using power attack/knockback/dungeoncrasher). With Shock Trooper, the diagonal bull rush should make directing the target easy (especially since there's little reason "downward" shouldn't be a component of "diagonal").

If I'm mistaken on how Dvati initiatives work, they could alternatively take turns throwing each other at something. And if improvised weapons (ie. the twins) aren't valid subjects for Telekinetic Boomerang, 4 levels Bloodstorm blade would be required in plase of TK boomerang (probably replacing of Fighter 5-6 and Hulking Hurler 2-3), and a Warblade dip would have to replace Barbarian.