3.5 Gladiator build

[calosin]

Hey everyone, I recently started a new campaign with a few of my friends, and this time around we decided to start in a setting based on the early Roman Republic. My character i supposed to be a gladiator owned by another member of the group who is a wizard aristocrat.

My question is, what would be a good build for a gladiator-themed character? I'm pushing towards using a trident and a net, but anything that works is fine too.

So far I was thinking leveling rogue/fighter, but I don't really know where to go from there. As a group the only splatbooks we have are Complete Adventurer, Divine, Arcane, and Warrior, plus the Draconomicon and Book of Nine Swords.

Thanks for your time!

[(Un)Inspired]

It's kind of a different angle than fighter or rogue but I think psychic warriors make the coolest gladiators.

They're not in any of your group's splat books but they are part of the SRD so anyone can access them.

They get bonus fighter feats and can create weapons or grow claws to fight with no matter what kind of match they are put into. They can turn into monsters and grow gigantic and use their psychic powers to boost their attack rolls, damage rolls, grappling and ac

They get great armor and weapon proficiency

Using their powers to boost their attacks they hit more frequently and significantly harder than a fighter or a rogue and using powers like hustle or lion's charge they're significantly more mobile.

Using vampiric claws or weapon they can heal themselves while wailing on their opponents so they can be self-reliant (important for a gladiator).

[gorfnab]

Warblade Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176968)
Warblades (Bo9S:ToB) make great gladiators. The maneuvers and stances are flavorful and useful. They can also be showy/flashy making for more gladiatorial style combat. You can even take Exotic Weapon Proficiency and change out your weapon of choice every day.

[ArcturusV]

Don't have Tome of Battle myself, but it sounds like that would be the way to go.

Outside of Tome of Battle? I'd go for an exotic weapon user. You touched on it with the Net... net isn't bad, but you don't lose much for not having proficiency in it. Might also include the Whip and Bolas, as they are both fun, flavorful, and can fit pretty well.

As for feats and such, I'd go with a lot of the Showy, but Not Effective, options. Make sure you pick up some gauntlets if you armor doesn't come with it. Improvised secondary weapon of metal punch, always good. If not, Improved Unarmed Strike... maybe if you port over some stuff from 3rd party or D20 Modern get stuff like Knock Out Punch. Improved Sunder and Improved Disarm, two options that are seen as "terrible" usually, but in a Gladiator sense makes sense and would be more entertaining than grappling, or tripping.

Thrown weapons, always good, and fits the theme. I'd go with "Melee weapons you can also throw" myself. So not using something like Javelins, or throwing axes. but clubs, spears, yeah.

[Gwendol]

There's a net and trident feat in Complete Warrior. The feat pre-reqs are a bit much, but the benefit is there: you get to attack with both net and trident without having to deal with the usual TWF penalties.

It's better than most other TWF style feats.

[calosin]

Don't have Tome of Battle myself, but it sounds like that would be the way to go.

Outside of Tome of Battle? I'd go for an exotic weapon user. You touched on it with the Net... net isn't bad, but you don't lose much for not having proficiency in it. Might also include the Whip and Bolas, as they are both fun, flavorful, and can fit pretty well.

As for feats and such, I'd go with a lot of the Showy, but Not Effective, options. Make sure you pick up some gauntlets if you armor doesn't come with it. Improvised secondary weapon of metal punch, always good. If not, Improved Unarmed Strike... maybe if you port over some stuff from 3rd party or D20 Modern get stuff like Knock Out Punch. Improved Sunder and Improved Disarm, two options that are seen as "terrible" usually, but in a Gladiator sense makes sense and would be more entertaining than grappling, or tripping.

Thrown weapons, always good, and fits the theme. I'd go with "Melee weapons you can also throw" myself. So not using something like Javelins, or throwing axes. but clubs, spears, yeah.

This was incredibly helpful. Do you think you could elaborate on the showy but ineffective feats? Do you mean something like Whirlwind Strike or Acrobatic Strike?

[ArcturusV]

Well, a lot of Monk Feats would qualify.

For example, Eagle Claw Attack, which lets you make a sunder attack unarmed. Basically? No PC would ever pick that feat ever, for any reason. A) You're destroying your lootage. B) It's got huge prereqs.

But for someone who's very job is supposed to be "Flashy"? Just imagine that your gladiator has say, a short sword and an empty hand, squaring off against another guy with a great sword and your gladiator just runs in, does a little jump and punches the great sword into dust.

Similarly something like Roundabout Kick. Punch someone in the nuts, then follow it up with a Chuck Norris Roundhouse to the face.

Falling Star Strike, when fighting humanoids you can blind them by poking them in the eye I guess. Yes, it's a feat. "Poke people in the eye".

Grappling Block, so that if you've got an empty hand and someone tries to slash your face with their great sword you go "Yoink, mine now!" and take it away.

But I've almost never seen a player who knew what they were doing actually pick them. No one wants to burn the long feat chain on Grappling Block to find out by the time they get it that they're fighting monsters who don't have weapons they can yoink. Or get "Eye Poke" there and find out they're fighting nothing but undead, outsiders, animals, and vermin who apparently don't have eyes to poke out.

[Ruethgar]

If you do decide to go fighter, look into the Dragon 310 ACF Exoticist. Exoticists get Dazzling Display which is more fluff flashy that anything else, they get no martial weapons but 4 exotic weapons(no wasting feats) as well as tumble instead of ride and handle animal.

[Red Fel]

Warblade Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=176968)
Warblades (Bo9S:ToB) make great gladiators. The maneuvers and stances are flavorful and useful. They can also be showy/flashy making for more gladiatorial style combat. You can even take Exotic Weapon Proficiency and change out your weapon of choice every day.

Seconding this. Gladiator is precisely what Warblade aims to be, by mechanics and by fluff: A brilliant combatant, whose two passions in life are improving his art and receiving the accolades of the people for his efforts.

ToB has often been described (in this forum, no less) as what melee was always intended to be. It lets you do whatever you want with your fighter-class, from being the sneaky stealth type, to being the mighty smasher, to being the creepily calm fencer, to being the great commander of people. Of the three base classes, Crusader is basically their cleric/paladin analogue, Swordsage the rogue/monk analogue, and Warblade the fighter/barbarian, but any of them can be adapted to almost any flavor.

As an additional side note, if you're interested in thrown weapons (e.g. net, bolas, etc.) ToB features a class entirely based on throwing everything, the Bloodstorm Blade.

I strongly recommend taking a second look at ToB:Bo9S.