[3.5] Gentleman Adventurer Style Character?

[selpathor]

So a friend of mine is going to beginning to running a new 3.5 campaign and for this game he has decided to try a no magic group. Usually I am the guy who plays the wizard or other caster class so I need to do something other than my usual class.

Since I can't play a caster character I would like to take a whack at gentleman adventurer type of character. At the moment I'm considering a character based around disarming and tripping my opponents who has some skill in diplomacy and intimidate for the gentleman side.

BTW; We are starting at level 3.

Current Idea;
Human
1 Marshal/ 2 Fighter;
Marshal for the minor aura that gives a charisma bonus to trips, disarm, and other similar actions.

Feats;
Combat Expertise
Improved Disarm
Improved Trip
Improved Initiative?
Power Attack?

Any Suggestions for better builds or ideas?

[inexorabletruth]

You could toss factotum in there to get inspiration points that you could apply to your intimidate and dip checks.

Also consider Weapon Focus/Weapon Specialization track. It would give you bonused to hit which would make you more effective at tripping/disarming.

[Slipperychicken]

You could toss factotum in there to get inspiration points that you could apply to your intimidate and dip checks.


I'd strongly recommend them, but sadly, Factotums are magic. You could try making a deal with the DM; in which you strip their magic off (that is, their SLAs and healing) and give them Full BAB in exchange; they'd still be solid trippers (Int to Trip attempts ftw), and excellent Gentlemen.

Combat Reflexes is nice for trippers. Spiked Chains are effective, but not very gentlemanly. Also, is Tome of Battle allowed at your table? Because that book can really help spice up melee, like Wall of Blades (Iron Heart 2) so you actually feel like you're parrying blows instead of standing stock still for someone to hit you.

[Gildedragon]

I'd recommend factotum too, an instead of the spells ask about using ToB maneuvers.

Force of Personality (CA) if you want to play a fella with more charm than good sense
Combat Panache (PH2) may be a good later option using perform weapon drill


If flaws and dragon mag are allowed there's some flaws worth looking into
Chivalrous Courtesy [flaw] (Dragon 324)
Code of Arms [flaw] (Dragon 324)
Glory Hound [flaw] (Dragon 328)
Honorable Challenge [flaw] (Dragon 327)
Honor the Duel [flaw] (Dragon 324)

[Flickerdart]

You can just ignore the Factotum's SLAs. He doesn't really need them. You want to start as Factotum 3 so that you have Brains Over Brawn, which adds your Int to, among other things, trip checks and initiative.

Afterwards, I would recommend a level or two in Monk (Passive Way style) to get Improved Trip and the ACF Decisive Strike. Only one level of Monk is necessary if you wish to pick up Combat Expertise and Improved Trip with your own feats. The reason you want Decisive Strike is that it doubles all of your damage until the start of your next turn. Use Decisive Strike? Double damage. Knock-down activates, you trip them, make the bonus attack from Improved Trip? Double damage. They try to stand up and provoke an AoO? Double damage.

After that, a level of Cloistered Cleric (again, you don't even need to care about the spells) gets you Travel, War, and Knowledge devotions. Travel gives you mobility (since Decisive Strike is a full round action), and the others are there to boost your to-hit and damage when you need it.

Along the way, you have great skill points from pretty good lists. This is an Intelligence-based build, rather than a Charisma one, so it's not precisely what you're after.

For a charismatic character, you could try a Killoren Hexblade/Cleric instead. Again, the spells aren't important - what you want is the Killoren Smite racial ability (1/hour, HD/day, an attack has +CHA to hit and deals +HD damage against everything but fey, animals, and plants), the ability to Turn Undead, and the ability to curse people. If your DM lets you use the Hexblade fix published by its creator, all the better. Grab the feat Divine Might (+CHA to damage for 1 round, costs 1 TU), and the Hexbands from MIC (3/day as a swift action, +CHA to damage for 1 round on a target that is Cursed by you). The feat Charming the Arrow makes your ranged attacks based on Charisma instead of Dexterity if you are not inclined to meet your enemies at sword range.