[3.5] Prepare to taste justice! SHOVEL JUSTICE!

[aphoticConniver]

So I'm retiring my character in my current campaign soon, and, as the title implies, I want to try and create a Shovel Knight-esque character. Assuming his shovel would be a reflavored greataxe and a level of 18, how do you guys think this would be best accomplished?

[Gnome Alone]

Google reveals that Shovel Knight seems to be some kind of retro videogame. Care to elaborate for those of us unfamiliar with it and unable to view videos?

If he has mostly mundane "hit-stuff-real-hard" abilities, the answer's usually warblade levels.

[aphoticConniver]

Well, Shovel Knight is built around the core concept of the down-thrust. Shovel Knight himself is, well, a knight who wields a shovel. Most of the alternate moves (that I know of) that he has are used via subweapons. I was thinking of using Warblade, but what sort of discipline would be as bombastic and over the top as possible? I want to play up the fact that the idea is completely and utterly ridiculous.

[Lateral]

Iron Heart and Diamond Mind can be pretty pretentious. Think of Finishing Move from the former and the Nightmare Blade line from the latter as flashy, over-the-top anime-style attacks that involve yelling the title of your attack at the top of your lungs. You can even add more titles to it, just for the lulz.

"DIAMOND NIGHTMARE THUNDER HAMMER NINJA POWER CTHULHU KILLING DEADLY LASER SHOVEL STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!!!"

[avr]

Stone Dragon would be the most in theme with your shovel-user, but also hard to use reliably in level 18 environments.

Either of the racial PrCs in ToB lends themselves to pretentiousness easily. The Deepstone sentinel lets you make nearby earth into your slave after all.

[Vizzerdrix]

I'm the Shoveler. I shovel well (http://splitsider.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/mysterymen1.jpg)

[mattie_p]

Rusty and Co says the answer is paladin (http://rustyandco.com/comic/level-6-5/).

[aphoticConniver]

Stone Dragon would be the most in theme with your shovel-user, but also hard to use reliably in level 18 environments.

Either of the racial PrCs in ToB lends themselves to pretentiousness easily. The Deepstone sentinel lets you make nearby earth into your slave after all.

You know, I was actually thinking of using a dwarf before I saw this class, to more fit the build of the character. But this is definitely what I'll be using as a PrC, with Warblade as a base class. One concern I do have is the neutered maneuver progression, and how that will affect my character's combat abilities.

[avr]

Say you take deepstone sentinel from level 11-15. A single-classed warblade would learn 3 more maneuvers and be able to ready one more over that level range. This is what the deepstone sentinel gets, though only from Stone Dragon. Presumably you'd go back to warblade afterwards and pick up a couple more maneuvers at levels 16 and 18. It's not neutered for maneuvers.

The annoying part would be losing the warblade 16 stance. You might want to spend your 18th level feat getting an 8th level stance.

Also you'd miss out on trading in a couple of low level maneuvers for 6th and 7th level ones. Still, by level 18 (assuming you traded in maneuvers for your lowest level ones whenever you could) you'd know two 9th level maneuvers from any warblade discipline, one 8th level from any, one 8th level Stone Dragon, one 7th level Stone Dragon, one 6th level Stone Dragon, two 5th level from any, two 4th level from any, two 3rd level from any and one lone 2nd level maneuver and be able to ready six maneuvers at a time. That's very close to what a warblade 18 would have.

The only real concern is the standard Stone Dragon problem; it doesn't work on a ship, while flying or swimming, above the ground floor of a building, on dragonback, in a tree, on a beach of bones/pile of skulls, etc etc. Fortunately not all your maneuvers will be Stone Dragon ones and you can switch easily, but it's surprising how often it's unavailable.