Is it possible to realistically be a melee/close range purist in practical gameplay?

[aleucard]

I think we all know how borked most mundane options for distance combat are in comparison to melee or (even worse) magic, but I find it hard to believe that it doesn't have a place. I'm wanting to try this little thought exercise to see if I'm right.

Alright, time for parameters. Shrodinger's Campaign starts at level 6, and ends at around level 20; maybe more, maybe less, I'll leave that up to you as long as you keep inside of 3 levels of there. There will be enough time for the majority of conceivable encounters and situations to have been met in between those, with the last bit being an uber-war between the party (3 other people in the party besides you, you can specify what you'd think is ideal, but only go into what roles would be helpful and what classes would best fit) and an interplanar invasion from both the Far Realms and the Abyss, with the party leading a multi-planar army in retaliation.

The things that this character will need to do (unless one or more roles are called out by you as being taken by the other 3 members of the party) are being able to soak damage, being able to resist or otherwise deal with status effects, being able to deal damage (max range of attack: Close or 60 ft., whichever applies most), stealth, social situations, and being able to deal with odd encounters (what if you're dealing with an Nilbog or something and the party Wizard isn't waking up?). Any build is allowable, as long as it doesn't use anything with further range than Close or 60 ft. on its attacks. The only potential restrictions would be (since I'm not that familiar with either) Cleric and Druid, since most of the things I'm aware of from them are equally functional at all ranges, and they don't have many distance attacks anyway (or attacks period).

[Zweisteine]

Please clarify a bit about the range thing. The appears to be asking if melee is doable, by the first sentence implies that ranged combat is less effective than melee.

By the rest of the post, I gather that you need to build a tank of sorts.

First, you asked to be able to absorb damage, deal with social situations, and do stealth. The only way I can think of without excessive cheese is Wizard, but I doubt you want that.

For absorbing damage, I've it this: Gheden (half-undead) template, along wih the troll-blooded feat. There's a spell in Sandstorm that gives you the fire subtype, making you immune to fire. Get a magic item to make you immune to fatigue, and find a way to resist/be immune to acid (cleric has a spell for that—persist it). You are now immune to damage.
Gheden makes you immune to nonlethal damage, troll-blooded gives you regeneration 1 (makes all damage nonlethal, but you're immune) and makes you fatigued in sunlight, and fire as avid pierce your immunity.

[aleucard]

Please clarify a bit about the range thing. The appears to be asking if melee is doable, by the first sentence implies that ranged combat is less effective than melee.

By the rest of the post, I gather that you need to build a tank of sorts.

First, you asked to be able to absorb damage, deal with social situations, and do stealth. The only way I can think of without excessive cheese is Wizard, but I doubt you want that.

For absorbing damage, I've it this: Gheden (half-undead) template, along wih the troll-blooded feat. There's a spell in Sandstorm that gives you the fire subtype, making you immune to fire. Get a magic item to make you immune to fatigue, and find a way to resist/be immune to acid (cleric has a spell for that—persist it). You are now immune to damage.
Gheden makes you immune to nonlethal damage, troll-blooded gives you regeneration 1 (makes all damage nonlethal, but you're immune) and makes you fatigued in sunlight, and fire as avid pierce your immunity.

Mundane ranged combat, to be specific. I don't agree with this myself (being able to enchant ammo and launcher separately should count at least a little, and versatility/safety counts for the rest), but it seems to be the prevalent opinion.

The most magic I'm wanting the character in question to have would be the stuff a Gish would take. I want to see if a close-range purist would be doable in a fully-stocked campaign.

If you don't want to have to worry about stealth or social, you can easily call those out as being another party member's job. Oddball encounters would be the only other thing that can be forgiven that way, and even then it's only a little.

Bear in mind that while this does assume good understanding of the game's rules and quirks, turning yourself into the Tarrasque is not going to fly with any DM in existence.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Mmm. Off the top of my head...

Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian 1/Incarnate 1/Totemist 18. Form natural weapons, pounce, and eat everything's face. Shape Incarnate melds to do a decent job of skillmonkeying, or for your defenses.

Wildshape Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms 10/Warshaper 5 (mixing the PrCs in any order you like-- 7/5/3 or 3/5/7 both work pretty well). Darn near unlimited shapeshifting, picks up darn near any special quality he wants, and it's all natural-weapon melee brutality.

Factotum 8/Warblade 12.

[Azoth]

Without messing with stats or maneuvariblity an easy way to soak damage is Quasilycanthrope for +1LA easily bought off. You now have DR10 silver. From there you can spend 3 Levels in warshaper to get +4str/con and fast healing 2 and only lose 1BAB in the process. Easily tacked on to any mele or ranged build.

[OldTrees1]

Dragonborn(Wings) Goliath Barbarian 2 (Mountain Rage, Spirit Lion, Wolf Totem) / Fighter 2 / Warblade X

Use the Knockback, Knock-down and Three Mountain feats to have zone of control and lockdown potential.

Flight and Pounce extends your melee "range" to "enough".

[Togo]

My go-to build for versatility is Ranger with the wildshape ACF, followed by master of many forms.

That gives you the ability to soak damage (access to fast healing, ability to heal some multiple of your hit dice as a move action, high AC, reach), great stealth (various animals and will-o-the-wisp), diplomacy and disguise as class skill. You also get various movement and sensory abilities, and large amounts of reach, allowing you to act as a wall to protect other party members. Your ranged attacks are the big weakness of the build, since apart from some rock-throwing as a giant, you're pretty much hoping to get into melee.

I've also tried something like barbarian/marshal/fighter/occultslayer/divine champion, where you end up as a trip-fighter doing lots of damage. It worked fine playing in a campaign from 1st to 12th level, so I'm not really seeing the problem.

However, it's worth pointing out that the problem with ranged combat is less that it isn't good, as that it's harder to break. Certainly I've played characters that manage quite happily with ranged combat, and do respectable damage even under difficult conditions. If you want to have a higher op build, then it's harder. You can easily get to the stage of doing 250-300 damage a round to high AC targets with a pure archer, (or more against hoardes of lesser creatures) by abusing skirmish damage rules, and it's hard to imagine a game where that would both be insufficient, and yet doing damage in melee was still worthwhile. Monsters generally aren't built to have more than a few hundred hp at the levels you're talking about, so what would the extra damage be for?