help building a melee char

[Frut]

So i want to play some kind of melee that can hit nice and have some fun things (like dragon parts or something like that?).. the problem is i dont really know much about dnd (im pretty newbie) and i dunno what to play :p ive been reading something about warblade and knights but i dunno.
The character is lvl 5/6 and i want to make him l/g (i have no problem with alignment tho)
P.S: no magazines, Psionics and magic of incarum.

[Sir Chuckles]

With those guidelines, we could give you hundreds of powerful builds, in seven flavors each.

"I want to be a melee character" is too non-specific. You could be literally any class and achieve that goal.

Do you want a standard Fighter set up? Do you want to charge in head first and drag the enemy caster behind a rock and do horrible things where no god dares to look? Or would want to be a Rogue who buckles his swash?

[ArcturusV]

Well, if you want to hit hard, probably going to get people suggestion the Tome of Battle classes like Warblade or Crusader. Not a bad idea. I've never had a game where I've got to see them play out to say how they really work out. In general though I can say that if you want ot go melee you want to Dip a bit, and PrC out when you can. Thus you want your build to look something like Barbarian 2/Fighter 2/Paladin 2, or Fighter 4/Ranger 2, something.

What counts as fun, nice things however is... well.. it's a matter of flavoring. Myself? I like Paladins. I like the Evil-Dar. I like Smites and the feeling of getting that tripled damage off it and just obliterating some vile enemy. I like the possibility that I can have something like a silver dragon as a mount and ride around on it all day, or a giant eagle, or a unicorn, etc.

But that's not for everyone. Hitting hard is something that almost any good melee build is going to do. So I'd ignore that as a requirement for the build, so how about what you think is fun? Flight sounds like it's up there. So maybe something like the Raptoran race, which gets Flight as you level. There's the template called Dragonborn, which gets you some dragon perks. And being Lawful Evil you shouldn't have any problems with it.

[Frut]

I dunno want i really want.. i just want some nice melee dps (we already have a tank) but not the classic fighter or frenzied berserker.
As for the paladin i really like em! but ive been reading that they are pretty underpowered in dps, is that true?

[bekeleven]

I dunno want i really want.. i just want some nice melee dps (we already have a tank) but not the classic fighter or frenzied berserker.
As for the paladin i really like em! but ive been reading that they are pretty underpowered in dps, is that true?

Paladins can get "high enough" dps, which I'd define as enough DPS to one-shot level-appropriate challenges, if they build as an ubercharger.

This limits your build in a lot of ways. Any time you can't make a mounted charge, sucks to be you.

[ArcturusV]

Well, I wouldn't suggest Paladins for "DPS", as they're are more appropriately "Spike Damage" if you're pulling from MMO terms. This god awful powerful charging smite they do is going to just obliterate things. You're really hard pressed to come up with more damage in a single go on any other build, as far as pure HP damage. But you won't be doing it all day long like "DPS" really would.

Another option just for something that's a bit less like the classical Face Smashing Power Slam fighter/berserker? Go for Samurai/Iajutsu Master. You can throw out some scary respectable damage. It requires your team to help set you up a bit (Friendly wizard casting Grease? Helps a lot), or something. But you'll power out a lot of damage, more often than the Paladin, but a little harder to pull off in general.

[Slipperychicken]

If you like the paladin, check to see if your group allows Tome of Battle. The Crusader class is a generally stronger class, has awesome endurance (especially with self-healing powers) but has very similar lore to the Paladin without the Code of Conduct keeping it down. It can do all the same stuff as a Barbarian (everything on the next paragraph), minus the lion spirit totem, but it's also tanky and has Paladin-style abilities.

If dps is your goal: one level of Barbarian, take the "spirit lion totem" alternate class feature (the one which gives you the pounce ability to full-attack while charging), weild a two-handed weapon (a longspear or greatsword will do nicely), take the Power Attack feat. Maybe take leap attack too. This should give you plenty of damage. If you really need more, ride a mount and use a lance to double your damage, but that's really too much damage if you stack everything I mentioned. To make your moung good, take the "Wild Cohort" feat.

Don't take the shock trooper feat, though, even though people might recommend it. It's totally overpowered. The game gets really boring (i.e. Not fun) if you just one-shot everything.

If you want to be mounted, consider playing a Small-sized race like gnome or halfling, so that your mount can fit indoors without penalty. You're already putting out enough damage that it's not a huge deal though.


Tl;dr: take the Crusader class if it's allowed (maybe with a 1-level dip into pounce-barbarian), take the feats Power Attack, Leap Attack, and Wild Cohort. Have a lance and a greatsword. Put points into Ride and Jump. Take maneuvers from white raven and devoted spirit.

[Studoku]

Warblade 6. Possibly Crusader 6 instead.

You don't need any clever tricks or complicated multiclassing and it's extremely difficult to make a bad character this way. Just assign your high stat to strength, pick a two handed weapon you like and take any maneuvers with big numbers or cool effects.

You'll be effective in combat and maneuvers allow you to do some nice things that a fighter can't.

You mentioned dragon parts so you might also be interested in Dragonborn of Bahamut as your race or as a goal for your character- talk to your DM about it. More details can be found here: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b

[lytokk]

If you'd like to play as the D&D equivalent of a robot, you can't go wrong with the warforged. In the eberron campain setting, and the monster manual 3. If you've already got a tank, and want some dps, mithril body as your level 1 feat and warblade class. Put your highest score in strength, second in dex, third in con and pick up the power attack feat. Grab any 2 handed weapon off the shelf and go to town.

[Forrestfire]

Seconding straight warblade for a generic fighter type. You could do something more complex, but honestly, warblade is pretty damn awesome.

If you want a swashbuckly character, I suggest going with Factotum and picking up a bunch of Fonts of Inspiration (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070606). Gets lots of tricks, a large amount of skill points, and the ability to add your intelligence modifier to lots of stuff. They also get Iaijutsu Focus as a class skill if you want extra damage when drawing your weapon.


Another option just for something that's a bit less like the classical Face Smashing Power Slam fighter/berserker? Go for Samurai/Iajutsu Master. You can throw out some scary respectable damage. It requires your team to help set you up a bit (Friendly wizard casting Grease? Helps a lot), or something. But you'll power out a lot of damage, more often than the Paladin, but a little harder to pull off in general.

While this is a neat idea, I would suggest against taking the Samurai class. It's pretty terrible, like... worse than a single class fighter level terrible.

For a character focused on that sort of theme (iaijutsu, that is), I'd suggest going with a Diamond Mind focused warblade into possibly iaijutsu master (or just straight warblade. It's an extremely solid class), or something like Factotum/Iaijutsu Master.

[ArcturusV]

Eh. Samurai actually gets the Iajutsu skill as a class skill. Factotum is the other. But I've never used it. Plus it always sounded more Rogue/Wizard than "Fighter". Don't believe Warblade gets Iajutsu Focus as a class skill, so you'd be entering Iajutsu master slow. Which is the one thing you don't want to do with it, you want that payoff from the class ASAP. Even with Factotum you're slowing the entry by 2 levels due to BAB requirement. Whereas you could go Samurai 5, Warblade 1, and enter Iajutsu master on time.

Not such a big deal if you start at level 15 or so I admit. But it sucks in a game if you have to slog through extra levels before you can get to the things that make a build work. At least it doesn't FEEL like an optimal entry path if you're doubling the requirement for Cross Class Skill Ranks, or slowing down BAB requirement.

[Forrestfire]

Those are good points. I thought CW samurai first for some reason :smalleek::smallredface:

For an Iaijutsu build, avoiding too many samurai levels is probably still a good idea. A human with Able Learner Flexible Mind (or any character with the Skill Knowledge (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/alternativeSkillSystems.htm#skillKnowledge) feat) for the the ranks in iaijutsu focus is probably the best way to go about it.

OA Samurai 2/Warblade 4/Iaijutsu Master X gets you free swords, the ability to enchant your katana easily as you level up, and a bonus feat, along with your initiator level only lagging 1 behind for the warblade levels.

Factotum 4/Warblade 3/Iaijutsu Master X gets you all skills as class skills forever, a good degree of versatility, int to initiative (which is really good for a Iaijutsu Master), and still gets you 3rd level Warblade maneuvers, although you're a level behind the previous build in both initiator level and Iaijutsu Master. While the level behind might feel bad, you're still getting iaijutsu damage, and you're also being a secondary skillmonkey. The skill points also lets you pick up UMD for buffing yourself with wands later. The 4th level of Factotum gets you sneak attack dice to stack onto that first round of combat.

You also get Int bonus synergy between the Warblade and Factotum, although the character is likely to be fairly MAD barring good rolls or just taking some more average stats (extra damage from Iaijutsu puts less of an emphasis on strength, however).

Both builds have merits, but I prefer the latter because you can then fill out Factotum to 8 levels later for extra actions, which is also really good (move + full attack is a nice trick in that arsenal). I could see both doing well though.


I think if I personally were to play an iaijutsu fighter, it'd be:

Factotum 4/Warblade 3/Iaijutsu Master 5/Factotum 4/Warblade 4 for getting some useful maneuvers, even if they're later on. Cunning Surge is better than One Strike Two Cuts most of the time, and if you boost your initiative high enough, it emulates Strike With No Thought as well. This build gets BAB +18 at 20th level, and only lags behind by more than one after you start taking more Factotum levels.

or

Factotum 4/Warblade 3/Iaijutsu Master 10/Warblade 3 for the sheer cool that is the Iaijutsu Master's capstone. This one gets BAB +19 at 20th level, losing one at level 1 and getting one at every level afterwards.

[Gwendol]

So, have you tried a dungeoncrasher fighter then? Try Goliath dungeoncrasher with power attack, imp bull rush, knock back, and eventually shocktrooper. Drop out of fighter at level 4 or 6, and go crusader after that.