Looking for options to put sword and board or one handed characters stronger

[Da Beast]

I'm rolling up a new character and want to make either a one handed duelist type character or a sword and board defender but as I'm sure we all know these options are pretty weak compared to two handed heavy hitters. So I'm wondering if anyone can point me towards any material for these archetypes, I'm interested in feats, ToB disciplines, or classes to bring these fighting styles up to par. 3.X, Pathfinder, or even home brew is okay so long as it's good without being over powered. This is for a gestalt game btw.

[Frog Dragon]

Crusaders can gain some mileage out of shields with certain Devoted Spirit maneuvers.

There's also the Shield Ward feat in PHBII that makes your shield bonus apply to trip, bull rush etc defenses and touch armor class, which is pretty good. Parrying Shield from Lords of Madness also gives shield bonus to touch AC, but not the other bonuses. Shield Ward has Shield Specialization as a prerequisite however.

For one-handed melee, there's the Einhander tactical feat, which is not terrible if you're set on the concept. In general though, for one-handed no-shield melee, you're going to have to accept being pretty much strictly worse than THF.

Edit: As a shameless plug, I did make some feats for a one-handed combat style (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=110622) some time ago.

[Shining Wrath]

The Crusader from ToB gets some nice shield maneuvers.
The Warblade gets a "moveable" Exotic Weapon Proficiency / Weapon Focus, which lets you pick up Bastard Sword without being locked in to that weapon forever.

As for home brew, I have three suggestions:
1) If you've ever done martial arts, quickness matters. A lot. Add Dex modifier to melee 'to-hit' rolls.
2) Boost shield utility. Some of the largest ancient empires (Alexander, Rome, Shaka) were built off of "tower shield + piercing weapon" soldiers. Ever see anyone use a tower shield in D&D? Me neither. But obviously they should be a viable choice. So:
Buckler: +1 AC, +1 Reflex save
Light: +2 AC, +1 Reflex
Heavy: +3 AC, +2 Reflex
Tower: +6 AC, +2 Reflex
3) It is pretty illogical that a Fighter with strength of 26 can jump 30' while carrying 306 pounds of weight (OK, has to have trained Jump, but still), but can't one-hand a bastard sword because
A bastard sword is too large to use in one hand without special training; thus, it is an exotic weapon. A character can use a bastard sword two-handed as a martial weapon. . Establish strength and dexterity requirements for allowing a PC to use a one-handed weapon as light, or a two-handed weapon as one-handed. The rules should make it nearly impossible to one-hand a reach weapon; that is, it's got to be the whole point of your build if you are using a halberd one-handed.

[Slipperychicken]

I'm just going to admit that sword-and-board and one-handed are straight-up inferior to two-handed fighting, and suggest a fix:

-A character who isn't two-handing (i.e. using a shield or single-handed weapon) might add the bonus he would gain under the class defense bonus (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) optional rule to his AC, in addition to bonuses from armor. This represents the enhanced ability to block and parry with his shield and/or weapon. This might be enough to balance out THF damage bonuses.

[Averis Vol]

Something I did for my group was to make it so shields didn't compete with two handers for damage, they just gave them a better chance at survival. So for the shields in the PHB it goes like this:

Buckler: keep the same and gives 10% miss chance
Light shields: Base +2 ac, no max dex bonus, 15% miss chance
Heavy shields: base +3 ac, no max dex bonus, 25% miss chance
Tower+: keep the same and grant 40% miss chance

yea, in addition to AC you get non magical miss chance. this means only select enchantments (blood seeking and the like) and things like improved precise shot are getting through it. No, true seeing, no tremor sense, nothing.

This gives them a needed commodity that, yes, they can get from a caster, but in smaller proportions for shorter amounts of time. What's even better is that with one being non magical, the two stack.

[Kudaku]

The Dervish Dance feat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/extras/community-creations/pel-s-lab/dervish-dance) is a valid contender for making characters who focus on one-handed weapons, but it does require you to have two hands and it only works with scimitars.

[JaronK]

May I humbly suggest the D&D Smiteadin from this thread?

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=1532.0;wap2

It can defend allies while destroying the heck out of enemies, and should be plenty strong.

JaronK

[rollforeigninit]

You can always look into making a ToB character that makes use of Strikes to boost the damage. Many strikes are standard actions. To Compliment this there are a couple feats that might help. Snap Kick explicitly adds another attack to one you are making already. Cloak Dance (from the EPH) gives you something to do for concealment if you aren't moving & Graceful Edge lets you 1 hand Finesse Bastard Swords or the like with a shield bonus to AC and some other benefits. I don't have time to look them up just now but they might make a 1H fighting style more interesting.

[(Un)Inspired]

The pathfinder magus swings a weapon with his primary hand and uses his empty off-hand to cast spells. He can even casts spells as part of a full round attack.

This is the biggest benefit I can find for having a weapon in one hand and the other hand totally free.

As far as sword and board goes, not much beats the crusader, they get some crazy defensive maneuvers through devoted spirit as other people have said. Person_Man has an amazing guide on this site for being the best you can be while using a shield.

[Prime32]

In terms of house rules...

DDO lets characters with EWP(bastard sword) treat it as a two-hander for all purposes (damage, Power Attack, disarm checks...), even in one hand.
Then there's the common rule of giving everyone the Shield Ward feat for free (shield bonus applies to touch AC and when resisting combat maneuvers), possibly replacing the second part with Ref saves vs bursts and spreads.

[ngilop]

here is some sheild feats (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268577) i made for my campaign.

Shield Pummel [General]
Prerequisite: Improved Shield Bash, Base Attack Bonus +3
Benefit: Your Shield bash now can knock an opponent prone if they fail a fortitude save at DC 15+Shield Bash damage dealt.

Shield Wall [General]
Prerequisite: Base Attack Bonus +6
Benefit: You can no longer be flanked by the attacker on front and your shield side.

Bulwark [General]
Prerequisite: Shield Wall, CON 13
Benefit: No attack goes through your shield completely, giving you DR 2/-

Brutalize [General]
Prerequisite: Improved Shield Bash, Power Attack
Benefit: When making a Shield Bash attempt and using the Power Attack Option a successful attack Staggers the target for 1 round.

Mangle [General]
Prerequisite: Improved Shield Bash ,Base Attack Bonus +12
Benefit: A successful Shield bash attack fatigues the target.

Shield Deflection [General]
Prerequisite: Bulwark, Base Attack Bonus +14
Benefit: Once per round as an immediate action you may re-direct any single target spell cast at you back at the originating caster, who suffers the normal effects of that spell.

[Slipperychicken]

The pathfinder magus swings a weapon with his primary hand and uses his empty off-hand to cast spells. He can even casts spells as part of a full round attack.

This is the biggest benefit I can find for having a weapon in one hand and the other hand totally free.


Magi can use two-handed weapons in conjunction with Spell Combat. Changing handedness (i.e. from 1-handed to 2-handed or vice versa) is a free action, so one could cast a spell with a free hand, then 2-hand the weapon and attack with it.

[Novawurmson]

If you're interested in third party, Dreamscarred Press is putting out a PF version of the initiation mechanics from Tome of Battle. There's a whole discipline devoted to shields (Iron Tortoise) and a disciple devoted to Einhander (Scarlet Throne). The playtests are available for free here (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=3066.html).

[Pex]

If you're playing a Pathfinder game then the problem is solved for you because the key to two-handed weapon power is Power Attack. Pathfinder's Power Attack allows one-handed weapons to deal decent damage. Two-handed weapon deal a bit more, which is a feature. However, the fact that it is not overwhelming more lets the other fighting styles shine on their own. There is feat support for interesting things to do. Class archetypes, especially for the Fighter, also help improve particular combat styles. The dwarf fighter in my group uses a tower shield at no to hit penalty save for Power Attack doing 1d8 + 11 damage at 6th level. Compare that to my Paladin who uses a greatsword and deals 2d6 + 13 damage. I do a bit more, as I should with a two-handed weapon, but he is in the same ballpark with a lot better AC.

If staying within 3E but anything goes, Tome of Battle is your solution. There is maneuver support for any fighting style. Just for base damage it's the maneuvers that provide it. You don't even need 3E's Power Attack though two-handed weapon users still might want it, especially if they pick non-damaging maneuvers for buffs, tactics, and defense.

[Pickford]

Da_Beast: You're looking for Complete Warrior and PHB II.

Sword or whatever, and Board specific feats:
PHB - Improved Shield Bash
CW - Phalanx Fighting; Shield Charge; Shield Slam
PHB II - Shield Specialization; Active Shield Defense; Agile Shield Fighter; Shield Sling; Shield Ward; Blood-Spiked Charger

Require a team:
CW - Formation Expert [tactical]

Shield/Defensive character friendly feats:

PHB - Dodge; Combat Expertise; Improved Disarm
CW - Close-Quarters Fighting; Defensive Strike; Karmic Strike;
PHB II - Robilar's Gambit; Driving Attack; Brutal Strike; Defensive Sweep; Melee Evasion

For a One-hander: Einhander (PHB II), Swashbuckler base class (CW), Duelist PrC (DMG).



Shining_Wrath: Tower shields already grant cover, which gives a +2 bonus to reflex saves, it also means no attacks of opportunity on you.

I think the real downside of the Towershield is you can't shield bash with it, but for its defined purpose (AC + safety vs ranged attacks) it's pretty good.

I think we could put together a fairly annoying to hit enemy at early (1st-2nd) levels
scale mail (+4, +3 dex max), heavy Shield (+2), Combat Expertise for another +1/+2, Defensive Fighting for another +2, Shield Spec for another +1, Phalanx fighting for another +1
AC 25, a 1st level Barbarian will hit that (without raging) on only a 19-20 (+5 str mod, +1 BAB), raging it'll only hit off a 17-20, charging off a 17-20, raging charging off a 15-20. Of course, by way of comparison, the Barbarian's AC would then be something on the order of: Regular 14 or 15 (+3, +1 or +2 dex mod), raging (12 or 13), charging (12 or 13), raging and charging (10 or 11).

[Da Beast]

If you're interested in third party, Dreamscarred Press is putting out a PF version of the initiation mechanics from Tome of Battle. There's a whole discipline devoted to shields (Iron Tortoise) and a disciple devoted to Einhander (Scarlet Throne). The playtests are available for free here (http://dreamscarredpress.com/dragonfly/ForumsPro/viewtopic/t=3066.html).

Has Iron Tortoise changed much since it was posted here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=160377)? I remember seeing it before and having issues with how powerful it was.