Elven spear fighter help

[Azoth]

I am pondering how to make an efficient spear fighter as a backup character. Well efficient in the flavor I want, I should say.

I am looking to make him an elf (some subrace...preferably without a con hit). I am thinking skirmisher (jump, tumble, balance as skills and highly mobile not necessarily precision damage) type, that if he has to can go toe to toe for a brief period before help arrives.

I was considering something like swordsage2/warblade4/xxx but I am not really sure. I would like to keep casting minimal to non existant, and stay in light armor to not lose speed on him. Any advice is welcome from there.

I visualize him fighting somewhat like Prince Nuada from Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Not exactly like him, but similar.

[Waker]

Well, Scout could give you a bit of what you are asking for. Has good skill selection, boosts to speed, extra damage when you move (combines well with Strikes), Evasion and some bonus feats. If you don't like the movement requirement to get Skirmish you might replace it with Riposte from Cityscape. It would combine well with Warblade or Swordsage, though you might want to use Fractional BAB for the latter.

[ArcturusV]

Hmm. Well, the Con hit may not be as painful if you have Miss Chances built in. So having an Elven Fighter with a Cohort, take feats like Phalanx, Close-Order Fighting, etc. You and your other Fighter buddy can be fighting side by side, not caring you're more fragile than some Dwarf or Human because they aren't landing hits on you. Since it's all based on just having a teammate next to you with similar feats, rather than equipment it can be fluffed combat wise however you want. Instead of being the possible intention of locking shields together and such it can be just Guy A slaps away a blow meant for Guy B, Guy B knocks an arrow meant for Guy A out of the sky.

Probably not the best build, but could be interesting.

Otherwise. Hmm. A solid Tower Shield combined with the Monkey Grip feat so you can use a two handed spear one handed. Get Reach on enemies and a nice solid chunk of steel to duck behind if you're getting too much attention. Again, not optimal. But could be interesting.

[Malak'ai]

I second adding in at least 3 levels of Scout to get the extra point to AC while moving, +1d6 damage and Trackless Step.
As for feats the Dodge/Mobility/Spring Attack line combined with Short Haft for if you/they inside the reach distance. Oh, and you want to be able to go first so maybe throw Imp. Initiative in as well.

[Darrin]

I am looking to make him an elf (some subrace...preferably without a con hit). I am thinking skirmisher (jump, tumble, balance as skills and highly mobile not necessarily precision damage) type, that if he has to can go toe to toe for a brief period before help arrives.


I'm partial to Painted Elves (Sandstorm, Dex +2/Int -2), but they make lousy Warblades. Snow Elves, however, make very good Warblades (Frostburn, Dex +2/Cha -2). Wood Elf (MM) take a hit to both Int and Con, but make up for it somewhat with Str +2, and the Favored Class: Ranger makes them decent Swift Hunters.



I was considering something like swordsage2/warblade4/xxx but I am not really sure. I would like to keep casting minimal to non existant, and stay in light armor to not lose speed on him. Any advice is welcome from there.


Well, the classic "Link" build would probably be:

Warblade 10/Eternal Blade 10

If you want to do something with AoO/chaintripper lockdown, then maybe:

Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Crusader 8/Eternal Warblade 10

And here's something I stumbled across recently... the Duom is a polearm, similar to a longspear, except if you're proficient with it, you can attack adjacent opponents with a "reversed strike". It then mentions a -2 penalty if you attack a 2nd adjacent opponent... but by RAW, there is no penalty if you only attack one opponent. This weapon was listed as exotic in the Arms & Equipment Guide, but in Dragon Compendium (3.5 source), it's listed as martial. So it's essentially a spiked chain that can attack opponents 10' or 5' away, but it's a martial weapon, not exotic.

[Fouredged Sword]

For a nicely OP build, lets go the following direction.

Get an elf subtype with +2 str, +2 dex, -2 con

Lets go
Cloiseted cleric 1 (knowledge domain, knowledge devotion, and travel devotion)
Barbarian (whirling frenzy, pounce)
Scout 3
Ranger 15

Get the following feats
3rd level - Extra Rage
6th level - Swift Tracker
9th level - Improved Skermish

Pump your skillpoints into knowledges to power knowledge devotion after maxing stealth skills and perception skills. Don't completely dump Cha and get a nightstick to power travel devotion.

Wield a short spear / dagger combo with TWFing.

Charge in with a pounce and then travel devotion to back out of melee.

[Vaz]

There is the feat in one of the Eberron books that allows you to Flurry/Decisive Strike with a spear. Invisible Fist for invisibility.

A Ninja 2 dip can get a kipool with Ghost Step, and with enduring ki and extra ki.

Saint template gets you Wis to AC again IIRC. Outstanding with buy off.

Paladin 2 gets with Serenity gets you Wis to Saves and minor healing.

Shiba protector gets you wis to attack and damage.

All that leaves you 11 levels free to do whatever.

Cloistered Cleric gets you some decent abilities. Domains to help shore up some loop holes and gove some more utility, as lets face it, an elf), a fighter), and spear user) are 3 reasons you won't be a super powered combat character.

[Azoth]

There is the feat in one of the Eberron books that allows you to Flurry/Decisive Strike with a spear. Invisible Fist for invisibility.

A Ninja 2 dip can get a kipool with Ghost Step, and with enduring ki and extra ki.

Saint template gets you Wis to AC again IIRC. Outstanding with buy off.

Paladin 2 gets with Serenity gets you Wis to Saves and minor healing.

Shiba protector gets you wis to attack and damage.

All that leaves you 11 levels free to do whatever.

Cloistered Cleric gets you some decent abilities. Domains to help shore up some loop holes and gove some more utility, as lets face it, an elf), a fighter), and spear user) are 3 reasons you won't be a super powered combat character.

Shiba protector is Human only.

Paladin (and its variants) don't lend well to the feel. (sorry no stick up the butt for me). Same goes for the saint template.

I said casting is to be minimal.

As an aside, at no point did I say he was to be super powered. Given the race and weapon, I thought it would be understood to be a flavor choice for the build. Furthermore, none of your three points are entirely relevant as: A) There are entire handbooks full of builds where Elves makes exceptional characters in both mundane and magical aptitude. B) Many a strong and flavorful characters are "Fighters" in a strick sense of the word. C) The weapon of choice for a character makes almost no bearing on his usefulness and ability to contribute to a situation in game, as all optimizers know, weapon damage dice are irrelavent conpared to your bonus damage.

Fun bit of almost irrelavent discovery, if you use a spear as the base weapon and then apply the changeling and morphing weapon properties to it one can attain almost any weapon on a moments notice. Anything in the one handed or two handed weapon category can be gotten for a swift+standard action. Sure we can have some fun with that.

[Yuukale]

Spear fighting optimization? Why has noone mentioned the Hood (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19872838/Little_Red_Raiding_Hood_A_Tale_of_38_Guide_to_the_ 35_Dragoon) ?

[Vaz]

There is like 1 level of casting there, cloistered cleric was for the domains and spell list only (for scrolls etc).

Good catch on Shiba, i was trying to remember off the top of my head how best to to get Wisdom benefits as a spear fighter.

unless you have an aptitude weapon, very little feats applying to spears spears have a good effect.

Fighters are not good. They are a 2 level dip or dungeoncrasher 6. Outside of that, nope. might be able to get some use out of driving charge (i think that is its name - bull rush on charge with peirce weapon). If dragon magazine material is on the table, and la buyoff is a allowed, a half cobalt dragon (breath weapon feat, maximise breath). Barbarian pounce, cleric travel devotion (extra turning), warblade and bloodstormblade 2

you will specialise in knocking stuff back with your breath attack causing a dc48 bullrush breath then either driving charge or throw your spears depending on threat. Stormguard warrior to ensure you hit.

[Azoth]

I apologize, in my half asleep state I took the comment on 11 Levels being left to fiddle with and your comment on cloistered cleric to blur together, and suggest I use the levels to take more cleric.

I used the term "Fighter" to refer to almost any mele build that wasn't a gish. I didn't intend it to refer expressly and exclusively to the class Fighter.

[Palanan]

Not too long ago I worked up an elven spearfighter along the same lines; I had the concept of a wilderness champion who lived lightly on the land, very mobile with an emphasis on Jump and Tumble.

I was mainly using a feat rogue chassis, and while I didn't have a chance to polish him up, I did receive some helpful input (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=275775) you might be able to draw from, in particular for the spearfighting feats.