Help Making a Double-Bladed Sword build [3.5]

[alvinbaena]

First Post, yay!

So, I know some (the important) rules of the game, but I find it hard to make really good characters. For example making one-class chars all the time, and that seems kind of boring to me, and I really would like to change that.

I was reading the Tome of Battle and came upon the classes of the book, and they seem especially good for two weapon fighting, especially the Warblade, but I would like to make something that is kind of viable against several enemies at once.

The setting is simple, battle arena, fast leveling up til' level 6 and then normal progression until maybe level 12 but who knows, maybe we'll make it to 20.

I was thinking of doing something like Fighter 2/Warblade 4 for the first 6 levels, then taking two levels of Bloodclaw Master and there I'm stuck.

We are using everything besides Eberron, Forgotten Realms and the Exalted Deeds stuff because it's too Overpowered, says our DM.

Please excuse any mistakes, English is not my native language.

[Gavinfoxx]

Uhhh... you do know that Double-bladed sword kinda, um. Sucks?

How interested are you in winning the arena fight? Could you tell us about the optimization level of the enemies (is this player versus player or player versus monsters)?

[Urpriest]

Does it need to be a Double-Bladed Sword? There are classes out there specifically made to support Double-Bladed Scimitars (in particular, Revenant Blade), so that might be much more powerful.

Edit: Ah, just realized that you don't have access to Eberron...then yeah, your setting doesn't really have interesting Double-Bladed Sword users, it's just not an aesthetic your DM is using. Better to just use two swords.

[Gavinfoxx]

Further, it sounds like the DM doesn't have a good grasp on what is or isn't overpowered. Remember, one of the most basic things a DM can do to remove most of the overpowered stuff in the game is to ban the Player's Handbook (it has Cleric, Druid, Wizard, and a ton of overpowered spells...)

[Juntao112]

You may find some of the tricks in the Exotic Weapon Master (C.War) to be useful.

[Scerpico]

I'd second that, Revenant Blade is an awesome class that is very close to what you're after and has some very nice synergy with Tome of Battle (Particularly the PRC Eternal Blade)

Perhaps you could your DM to allow the class on a case by case basis?

Other than that I suggest Master Thrower, some of the throwing tricks in there such as double toss and palm throw let you chuck up to 4 weapons per attack,combine that with Deadeye shot which bumps your critical mod and you'll be a terror at mid to short range.

[Dusk Eclipse]

Exotic Weapon Proficiency isn't bad on a Warblade, for some reason he want's to change weapon he cam do it with an hour of practice, besides as a Warblade he has access to both Tiger Claw and Iron heart, which both synergize incredibly with TWF. Hell Punishing stance gives him a pretty good boost from the start, never mind stuff like Wolf Fang strike, Dancing/Raging Moongoose, Girallon Windimil Flesh ripper ( the second funniest maneuver to shout it's name when using it) for damage. And he would have access to Sudden leap, quick-silver motion and pouncing charge for movement.

Ranger 2 (to get TWF with less dexterity tax)/Warblade 4 is an excelent base for a Two weapon fighter.

Having said that I agree that nothing beats Revenant blade when trying to make an useful TWFighter.

[Razgriez]

Well fighter wise there are a few options (The ToB stuff, ask the folks familiar with that).

a Two Bladed Sword/Scimitar, etc is one of those rare times where Weapon Focus and Weapon Spec might actually go from "Underwhelming/waste of a feat slot" to "Something resembling decent" if only because you can add those bonuses to all of your strikes in a full attack action. If you're going to use double weapons, consider doing the quick 3 levels of Exotic Weapon Master. For double weapons, get Flurry of Strikes (Bonus Attack at a cost of -2 to all attacks until your next round). From there, fill the remaining slots with the following as according to your build:
-Trip Attack (Trip build): Now your Two Bladed Sword is considered a Trip weapon. If you happen to use this PrC for an Exotic weapon already with the Trip ability, you get a small bonus to trip attacks.

-Double Weapon Defense: Minor AC bonus for holding your Double weapon with both hands. Not incredibly impressive, but still, something.

-Show-Off (Intimidate build):This lets you add your BaB to inflict the "Shaken" status for several rounds against an opponent you use Intimidate on.

Aside from that, anything that gives more attacks, or lets you do Special attacks with your weapon within reason should be where to look at. Two Weapon Rend is a decent feat as well to inflict fairly sizable amount of bonus damage. Check out Fighter Two weapon builds for other feat considerations, such as Melee Weapon Mastery (Slashing), and Slashing Fury.

[alvinbaena]

Uhhh... you do know that Double-bladed sword kinda, um. Sucks?

How interested are you in winning the arena fight? Could you tell us about the optimization level of the enemies (is this player versus player or player versus monsters)?

He is thinking in it being a 1v1 maybe 2vX at some point and I expect a battle royale. I suppose he will take the time to make the important characters but I think it will consist mostly of cannon fodder NPCs and some monster, but mostly NPCs.

[Gavinfoxx]

So you don't expect intelligently played, optimized, spellcaster-heavy opposition of any sort in the arena (ie, no real extremely difficult threats then that would require more optimization to have a chance of handling at all)?

[alvinbaena]

So you don't expect intelligently played, optimized, spellcaster-heavy opposition of any sort in the arena (ie, no real threats then)?

Well I want to win the arena, but I also would want to not die. I expect some NPC that will require some tactics to beat, but I would imagine that it will consist mostly of several characters of the same type just a little bit stronger every time, and some 1vX battles with same stats NPCs.


Does it need to be a Double-Bladed Sword? There are classes out there specifically made to support Double-Bladed Scimitars (in particular, Revenant Blade), so that might be much more powerful.

Edit: Ah, just realized that you don't have access to Eberron...then yeah, your setting doesn't really have interesting Double-Bladed Sword users, it's just not an aesthetic your DM is using. Better to just use two swords.

I could always make it with two normal swords, but what's the challenge in that =). I was also thinking of making a throwing weapons type dude, but looking in the Googles it seems that from lvl 1 it isn't really viable.

[Wings of Peace]

The people who are suggesting Revenant Blade to you have the right idea. Here is the handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872270/The_Revenant_Blade_Handbook).

Edit: Too bad it's Eberron.

[dantiesilva]

Well halfing rogue using the halfing varriant for a level one character is actually pretty good. 2d6 damage to sneak attack when you throw your weapon at level 1.

Say

Halfling Rogue 1/Halfling Paragon 3/Wishperknife( Or invisible blade) And you have a very decent thrower. Using a few tricks with feats you can every single turn throw your weapon as if your opponent is flat footed, thus Sneak attack.

Flaw1Quickdraw
Flaw 2 Point blank shot
1st level Two weapon fighting
3rd level Weapon finesse
6th Flick of the wrist

By level 5 you can be in Wishperknife
By level 6 Invisible blade without doing early entry tricks

Later on taking master thrower to make you almost always get a critical. You can easily optimize on a thrower. And boost your AC up. And If you get Swarmfighting and convince a few people to be halflings with you the fun really begins. You can have a total of +4 to melee attacks with your daggers. Sure melee may not be your best range but sometimes they are just faster then you, and making the negatives from TWF go away and become positives is a boon in and of itself. Alone you get +1. Take some of the feats from Races of the wilds and you got a super halfling that can not be hit.

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=447371

This is a build I used for alot of fun, and though not optimized, its abilities kept me alive alot.