3.5 E6 class poll

[evilserran]

Due to the complexes of the worst life in the entire cosmic existence, i am temporarily stepping down as DM in my group. A fellow group member wants to try his hand as DM, and wants to do it in E6. My fellow thoughts on E6 Aside, i have been trying to decide which would be more fun and yet still useful. Pleade no bashing, just helpful suggestions.

Option 1: Orc Dragon shaman with Sword/fullblade monkeygrip/cleavetree (by end, only level 2 atm)

I like this build because it is strong, and durable, plus it has somewhat helpful auras for increasing damages, adding dr or even healing. A fellow group member and i designed these together, to be "brothers" mine is a Copper, his is a bronze. Weaknesses of course being terrible saves and virtually no skills.

Option 2: Bhuka Warlock with eldritch spear, working into fiend walker at 6.

Strong because DR does not affect eldritch blast, ranged of 250', unlimited "spells", not a strenght but a pro, i never played one before. Weaknesses imo, squishy, barely moderate skills, ONLY 3d6 by level 6 for damage.


This is what i currently have. What is your opinion? Can you think of a better way to modify one of the builds? Which would you prefer to play? I accept and welcome any and all CONSTRUCTIVE criticism s plz

[Vortenger]

The dragon shaman has no AC either, unless I'm mistaken, and monkey grip is not a very well though of feat. It increases your overall damage by 3.5 on average... not very much. If you just want to swing the biggest sword eva', then go wild. Grabbing Power Attack would yield a much better return on investment, though.

I like the warlock idea myself personally, between these two options. Yes, the damage is not stellar, but the utility of warlock invocations far supercedes that of the dragon shamans limited repertoire. Flying overhead, zapping people while they wave their spears ineffectually is always fun.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Option 1: Forget the Fullblade even exists, the 3.5 version is a Bastard Sword made for a Large size creature. Using the 3.0 Fullblade with its 3.0 weapon size rules will only lead to confusion.

That said, weapon size increases are the least efficient source of damage, especially considering you're spending two feats on EWP and Monkeygrip (Dragon Shaman doesn't even qualify for either of those at 1st level, BAB). You're taking a -2 penalty for using an inappropriately sized weapon, in exchange for 1d10 (average 5.5) going to 2d8 (average 9). That's a gain of 3.5 damage on average, whereas Power Attacking for -2 gets you +4 damage for only one feat, +6 if you get Armbands of Might, +12 with Leap Attack, etc. If you want to use a bigger weapon, make a Goliath (the lower E6 pointbuy for +1 LA makes up for the Orc's -2 to mental stats) and do it without taking a penalty or wasting a feat.

My advice for this character would be to completely skip the oversize weapon gimmick. Switch to Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) which gets an extra +2 Con, and consider also using Dragonborn of Bahammut (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b&page=1) which gets rid of the general traits of water races except for the swim speed, as well as the orc darkvision and light sensitivity. You keep your size, ability score adjustments, and all movement modes, and everything else gets replaced by the dragonborn traits. The Heart aspect will give you a breath attack on a separate wait timer from the Dragon Shaman breath, which allows you to pick up Entangling Exhalation (RotD) at 1st level to be extremely useful at debuffing opponents and bypassing DR.


Option 2: There was quite a bit of general E6 Warlock advice in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=200988). You would still definitely be a one-trick pony, and going with a more traditional arcane spellcaster with reserve feats from CM would give you the same at-will feel on a much more versatile chassis.

With Warlock I'd suggest using a template or race that can fly, Dragonborn (Wings) or Raptoran (RotW) or Half-Fey (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20040213a) (FF) for reduced pointbuy or Unseelie Fey if your DM will allow it or a Dragonblood race/Draconic template with the Dragon Wings feat (RotW), etc. so you don't have to spend an invocation known on Spiderwalk or Fell Flight. For your one Least invocation, Eldritch Chain is fairly obvious for handling multiple opponents, but if your party is already efficient at doing that or if you're mostly facing single powerful foes, Beshadowed Blast is a decent choice.

For a Warlock in general, and especially in E6, the more spell-like abilities and items that produce spell effects you can get, the better off you'll be because it will be that much more stuff that your character is able to do. Half-Fey on a base creature that can take the feat Magic in the Blood (PGtF) can use all of those normally 1/day spell-like abilities 3/day instead. MIC has tons of items that can be activated to produce a spell effect or similar, though many may not be available in E6 depending on how your DM handles default item caster levels vs crafted item minimum caster level (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#casterLevel). Something simple like Tanglefoot Bags and items from Shax's Indispensable Haversack (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148101) will even be helpful for making you feel more useful.

[Vortenger]

^

Yep.

[Person_Man]

Have you considered Dragonfire Adept (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060912a&page=2)? It's basically a fixed version of the Warlock, with dragon flavor. Since your current proposals are Dragon Shaman and Warlock, it would probably be apt. And like the Warlock, they can benefit from the Extra Invocation feat, which would add additional flexiblity beyond blasting and UMD.

You might also want to consider Totemist (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20050907a&page=3). In E6, your options include:

Frost Helm soulmeld bound to Crown chakra: Ray of Cold (3d6ish damage).
Basalisk Mask bound to Totem: Stone to Flesh (1 round duration - which is long enough for an ally to Sunder anyone who fails their Save)
Chaos Roc's Span (Dragon Magazine 350 pg 87) bound to Totem: Provides 2 wing buffet attacks by default, binding it adds the ability to make a 10 ft cone attack with a random energy type dealing 4d4ish damage.
Frost Helm bound to Totem: 20 ft burst, enemies must Save or be Stunned.

Everything is at will, so you never "run out." More importantly, you also have the option to have a metric ton of natural weapons to switch to melee when you need to, and you can change your soulmelds every morning if you get bored of a particular build. (Unlike the Warlock or Dragon Shaman).

[Ravitiate]

This build comes to mind if you want to stick with an orc:

The cannonball (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1106486)
Orc Barbarian 1/Fighter 2/Warblade 2/Berserk 1
Feats: Battle Jump, Headlong Rush, Power Attack, Leap Attack, Power Lunge
Relevant Manuevers: Leading the Charge, Battle Leader's Charge

Max Strength and Jump, and get a ring of jump+10. Rage and frenzy stack and you have a base 50 speed, so you're looking at a jump check of somewhere along the lines of +35, plus if you can get Expedious Retreat you get another +12. Now, charge your opponent. Using everything above, you can do (Weapon damage+18+24+10+4)X3 damage, IOW something in the range of 180-190 damage. For best results, use a reach weapon to avoid AoOs from Headlong Rush and Power Lunge.

Note: You can still do well over 100 damage without using Power Attack, for those high AC opponents. Also, you can even do okay with a one-handed weapon and shield, again doing over 100 even without using Power Attack.