Help Please =D [3.5]

[Drunkerjack]

So, I'm starting a 3.5 game. It's going to be a fairly optimized campaign with very few restrictions. Not all of my players (and by that, I guess I really mean none of them) have really gone out and tried to make heavily optimized characters before, so I've been helping them out.

So far, everything has been going great. I've been able to help everyone that's asked for it.

But this one player. He really really likes Final Fantasy. In particular, he likes Tactics, and he really likes Dancers from that game. So, he wants to play a Dancer, or something like a Dancer.

A search on Google returned no resources that can aid me (no homebrews, and I don't want his toon to be weak), and this is honestly staight-out beyond my ken. I am not a sculptor of character designs, able to turn all dreams into reality. I have no idea where to start, so I turn to these magnanimous boards for aid.

Can someone please help me help this guy make his character? We're starting off at level six. There's level adjustment buy-off. For stats, we have a 32-point buy-in. The only banned stuff is most of Unearthered Arcana, homebrews, third-party supplementaries, and Dragon magazine (although I am more than willing to bend on that).

I'm not asking for someone to do all of this work for me; I just need a helping hand or a place to start. Because, honestly? I don't really have any strong idea as to what a Dancer-type character would even do in the average D&D party.

[Samalpetey]

Could you give some more information, for the less informed of us? Like, for example, what a dancer is/does?

[Drunkerjack]

Could you give some more information, for the less informed of us? Like, for example, what a dancer is/does?

Yeah. See, that's like half my problem. I don't really have a strong idea, and he can't even explain it to me. Like I said, I did some searching, and I found someone who turned the Dancer job into a 3.5 Dancer class. http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Dancer_(3.5e_Class)

I guess that's the kind of stuff it does? I honestly have no idea.

[SoraWolf7]

If you want the character to be a dancer as in dance combat, go with the Battle Dancer class (http://dndtools.eu/classes/battle-dancer/), which provides a bunch of thematic unarmed attacks and dancing abilities. If you want a support character who also dances to work, you should probably go with a Bard who has Perform (Dance) as their chosen perform skill.

[Pilo]

That's fun I just asked a similar question 2 weeks ago. Link to the subject (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=323732).

[OldTrees1]

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dancer_(Tactics)

Disclaimer: I am not familiar with Dancers beyond what I read in this link.

However it appears like Dancers create area of effect status changes. Kinda like a mixture of the Bard and Jester(negative effects Bard) classes. Maybe a Battle Dancer (monk version of Bard) // Jester character?

Ask your player if Dancers act like Bardic Music.

Are Dancers only positive effects or do they also do negative effects?

[Hyena]

My memory of Final Fantasy is somewhat clouded, but I do think that dancers worked somewhat like bards.

[Jurai]

Dancers are a Female only class in Final Fantasy Tactics that damaged or debuffed the ENTIRE enemy force, regardless of location. It's as powerful as that sounds. Honestly, I can't contribute more than that.

[Shpadoinkle]

FFT is one of my favorite games, but the game mechanics don't translate very easily into D&D. The closest thing to a FFT dancer you can get in D&D I can think of is a bard with a sort of inverse bardic music, where all enemies in the area of effect get a penalty.

[Drunkerjack]

http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Dancer_(Tactics)

Disclaimer: I am not familiar with Dancers beyond what I read in this link.

However it appears like Dancers create area of effect status changes. Kinda like a mixture of the Bard and Jester(negative effects Bard) classes. Maybe a Battle Dancer (monk version of Bard) // Jester character?

Ask your player if Dancers act like Bardic Music.

Are Dancers only positive effects or do they also do negative effects?

Okay. I like the way this sounds, and I think I can sell it. My only remaining question is: would that even be any good?

[Jurai]

Yes. Debuff, or as TO calls it, Battlefield Control, is very good. The build idea (Jester/Battle Dancer), not as much. I would rather run Battle Dancer 5/Dervish 10/Cloaked Dancer 5.

[OldTrees1]

Yes. Debuff, or as TO calls it, Battlefield Control, is very good. The build idea (Jester/Battle Dancer), not as much. I would rather run Battle Dancer 5/Dervish 10/Cloaked Dancer 5.

Good call on Cloaked Dancer. Since that is the part of the build most like the core concept, it should be taken ASAP.

Battle Dancer 5 / Dervish 2 / Cloaked Dancer 5 / Dervish +8

It is not very powerful since the key abilities have few daily uses. However this is what fits the concept the best. As the DM, you should feel ok increasing the uses per day. Maybe even converting the Battle Dancer abilities from buffs to debuffs.

[Phelix-Mu]

I'd just retool the Beguiler spell list a bit, add in a bit of dancing fluff (maybe add somatic components if you want there to be that element), add a few AoE debuffs, and go with it. Beguiler is a solid Tier 3 chassis that can lead to all manner of builds, and retooling it shouldn't affect that appreciably, as long as changes are minor. Add Perform as a class skill (if it isn't already), and voila.

Alternatively, bards can use dance to fuel their bard abilities and there are some nice dance-themed bard feats (Snowflake Wardance, Battledancer). Problem is most of the bard spell list is geared toward buffs and support, not debuffs. This could be fixed with some work.

[Xintas]

You could also run a Bard with the Snowflake Wardance feat to get pretty decent attacks/damage in or with the Slippers of Battledancing.

If you want to max this out though? I would go bard + monk and grab the Ascetic mage and Dragonfire inspiration feats. Along with a very high charisma, you become quite hard to hit, a big boost to dmg for the whole team, and with Haunting Melody, you are also debuffing them at the same time.

Yes, it will look weird for this player to be dancing along the field, being unhittable and causing all of his team to get a big dmg boost while his enemies are shaken, but it is a decent build very in vein of what you are going for.

Source: I play only Cha heavy builds and have beaten all of the non MMO Final Fantasy games.