Interesting Melee Classes?

[JW86]

Hi,

I'm building up a list of NPCs, with builds, for use in a potential future campaign.

A portion of the NPCs will be required to be fairly flashy melee Wuxia-style characters - so I've got plenty of Swordsage and Warblade levels worked into several of them.

I've never really looked into classes like Swashbuckler, Iajutsu Master, Dancing Blade, Shadowpouncing, in detail.

What are some of your favourite exotic melee characters and why? :)

[Zharradan Marr]

Psychic Warrior.

Take Expansion and Up the Walls. Run up a wall, manifest Expansion as a swift action, fall down on top of your enemies, squashing them. Make sure to familiarize yourself with falling object damage rules. Only drawback, you may get a sore wrist from rolling all those dice of damage.

Another idea: Fear stacking.

Innocuous fear effects (Shaken) stack into Frightened and even Panicked as long as they are from different sources. So, make multiple characters, each with his own way to cause the Shaken condition.

1. Barbarian with Intimidating Rage feat (Complete Warrior)
2. Dragon Totem Barbarian (Unearthed Arcana)
3. Warlock with Eldritch Chain and Frightening Blast
4. Bard with Haunting Melody

[JW86]

Psychic Warrior I'm somewhat familiar with but I've never considered that strategy. Good idea!

The fear-stacking sounds great as well, could picture a strike force like this acting on the orders of their lieutenant, causing all kinds of shenaningans in populated areas.

I'm quite stoked to be able to create a pantheon of interesting characters for the PCs to fight, be surprised by, and hopefully overwhelm sometime in the future. :)

[HunterOfJello]

Good-aligned Monk, Totemist, or Warshaper with Touch of Golden Ice and as many iterative attacks as possible.

Each time you hit someone who is evil, they do a DC 14 Fort save vs. 1d6 dex damage. (Secondary damage is 2d6 dex)

The same thing can work without touch of golden ice while taking leadership to get a dragonfire inspiration bard.

[Rubik]

As monks go, you can't get much better than this. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15474863#post15474863) Use your ACFs and WBL to their full extent; that'll make it much easier to keep up with the other mundane martial classes. Combine with psychic warrior and the Tashalatora feat to make this even easier.

[Seerow]

Bard using Perform(Dance), Snowflake Wardance, and Dragonfire Inspiration. You dance so awesomely that your weapon lights on fire (or whatever other energy you want. Ice might be thematic. Sonic is generally optimal) and beat people to death with your charisma.

Warblade with the spell that lets you use Perform in place of concentration checks always up (possibly as a magic item), with Perform(Weapon Drill), and a focus on diamond mind maneuvers. Cut your way through fireballs, domination, etc. Alternatively for something more interesting, go the Elan route with Perform(Pun), use your puns to deal more damage to enemies, laugh off spells, etc. Really, this works well with any number of different perform skills, and they're all awesome (A friend of mine was talking about doing this with Perform(Dashing Smile))


Warshaper (using one of the shapeshifting races to qualify), with whatever base class you want. Possibly combine with reach increasing shenanigans to have basically Mr. Fantastic.

[chronomatophobe]

I've got a recurring NPC I use in just about every campaign I run that I use as an antagonist. He's a shadow hand/diamond mind focused Swordsage, but he's a werewolf that stays in wolf form, using his bite as the weapon.

[DarkSonic1337]

1. Any gish who's focus isn't turning into other forms and buffing themselves with numeric bonuses a lot. I especially like magic channelers. I just like the idea of someone who mixes magic with fighting, not just someone who fights with magic already cast on them. Generally I like action economy breakers with this style. Things like quickened spells, the duskblade arcane channel or even better the Magus spellstrike from pathfinder, Magus spell combat from pathfinder, Swiftblade's perpetual options, Jade Phoenix Mage's Quickening Strike, Ruby Knight Vindicators divine impetus, and some psionic powers like schism or hustle and stuff.

2. Any Tome of Battle class. Many maneuvers are flashy and flavorful, though there are plenty of maneuvers that are just there for filling the gaps in melee combat (though this isn't a bad thing at all).

3. Totemist. He's a guy using magic to shape animal parts on his body to swing with and give other benefits....that's just cool.

4. Wildshape Ranger aka I wanted wildshaping but don't want to be a druid.

5. Umbral Disciple. Concealment, Hide in Plain Sight, SOULCHILLING TOUCH (this is just cool), and KISS OF THE SHADOWS (also just cool).

6. Standstill. Not really a class just more of a build. I love the guy who can actually hold the front line (no not that feat lol). Works nicely with 2 levels of Whirling Frenzy Lion Totem Wolf Totem Barbarian.

[Red Fel]

Melee Warlock (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159708).

Basically, this is your Wuxia Dark Sorcerer/Martial Artist. Flies, turns invisible, has hands that crackle with eldritch power, gains damage reduction, fires energy beams. You know. Good times.

Lots of classic Wuxia films have some sort of evil wizard who can engage the protagonist in hand-to-hand combat. This is your guy.

[facelessminion]

My favorite melee class by far is the Magus. So fun.

[OldTrees1]

Goliath Barbarian 2 / Fighter 2 / Warblade 1 / Warhulk 4 / Warblade 1
Mountain rage to large size, warhulk it up with Warblade stances/maneuvers to supplement.

[JW86]

Some great suggestions, thank you.

Where can I read more about the "Magus"? Is it the "Ultimate Magus"?

I'm considering a Swashbuckler/Blade Dancer, armed with loads of gimmicky magic items to be some kind of infuriatingly agile combatant with a thousand tricks up his sleeve. Could be fun. Maybe with some Bard in there it would add anything. This Perform business Seerow mentioned could be fun. Some kind of Perform (Trick) - "Oh Gods, not a Pit Fiend!" he cries, looking horrified behind his opponent's shoulder before planting a rapier into their stomach.

[Rubik]

Where can I read more about the "Magus"? Is it the "Ultimate Magus"?Pretty sure he's talking about the Pathfinder class.

[gorfnab]

Duskblades are an interesting option for a melee character.

[Draz74]

Where can I read more about the "Magus"?

Here. (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus) (Hmmm, I need to get around to reading it someday.)

[HammeredWharf]

A Goliath/Ogre/Anotherbigguy with the throwing maneuvers from Setting Sun, Dungeoncrasher from Dungeonscape and a good Jump check and/or Climb speed in a 3D environment. Throw them around, bash them into walls and floor, jump to higher ground for some fall damage dice.

[Dr. Azkur]

Weretiger Warblade 2/Shou Disciple 5/Warshaper 5 (ECL 20) with Beast Claws, Snap Kick and Quick Change (to change shape as a Free action!!!) and a couple of Martial Studies.

http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs35/i/2008/290/6/6/were_tiger_monk_by_YamaO.jpg

[animewatcha]

Why SUS when shou disciple gives 2d6 unarmed damage?

[Rubik]

How about a The Big Guy Is With Me (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1000846) build? A psychic warrior using Improved Psicrystal several times so he has a really powerful psycrystal that the psywar buffs to fight for him. You can also use a psion for this, but you need to be careful in early levels before you have both Share Pain and Vigor handy.

Then there's Tiny Von BigMcLargeHuge. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132294) If you can't think of something to do with a kobold who counts as both Diminutive and Gargantuan at the same time, I don't know what to tell you. Just use the Human Heritage feat from Races of Destiny and say your kobold has some human in his family tree.

You could try The King of Smack. (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/910286) That's a lot of damage. A lot of damage, especially when it's not on an ubercharger or a sorcerer optimized for blastiness.

There's this (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=11801.msg417846#msg417846), which is pretty nifty. Or this (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=2926.msg97988#msg97988).

Note that they're all psywar builds. It's a very versatile class.

[Gemini476]

Since you seem like you're a GM (talking about NPCs and all), why not take a look at some monsters as well? The Deadly Dancer from the Tome of Magic (pact magic chapter) is pretty interesting, and there's a few neat ones in the Tome of Battle as well.

Oh, and the Duskblade and Hexblade are also mildly interesting fishes to take a look at. If you want your players to hate you, the Street Fighter ACF for the Barbarian (along with some others) make it into a much more interesting class than it was before.

If you are making an NPC, then the Ninja is actually better: limited ki doesn't matter as much when its only in play for an encounter. It has native wallrunning, and might be worth looking at.

[JW86]

So many suggestions, so much awesome. Thank you.

The Weretiger build (and graphic!) are great.

Psychic Warriors were going to feature amongst the ranks of this nation's Wuxia warriors. Thanks for some excellently optimised examples.

The idea is that the plane/kingdom the PCs travel to is a large, lawful one, Oriental in style and design, with several 'Divisions' with various military specialities. There may be a Stealth/Subterfuge Division, a Law Division, a Battle Division. Each Division will have one Epic-level captain, a lieutenant in the Level 15-20 range, a handful of soldiers in the Level 10-15 range, then hundreds of mooks mainly around Level 3-5.

I want for each Division to have its separate distinct feel to the soldiers, especially the ones Level 10 and up anyway, serving under it.

So the Stealth/Subterfuge Division will likely be training largely in Swordsage with Shadow Hand discipline, Telfammar Shadowlord, Shadowcasters, Assassins, and rogues.

The Law Division I plan on being run by a stern Cerebremancer with access to all the Psionic and Magical forms of imprisonment, BFC, etc to lock down, incapacitate and drag opponents back screaming for trial.

The Battle Division I plan on being run by a Streetfighter Barbarian/Warblade, with a decent mix of overly-aggressive beserkers, and disciplined soldiers.

Generally in support of the extraplanar Wuxia feel, the standard opponent mook will probably be a Level 3-10 Swordsage, Monk, Psychic Warrior or Psion.

So many examples here, I think I need to pre-stat a good 20 of the more distinguished NPCs for any level-appropriate encounters :)

Deadly Dancers look amazing. I'm picturing the questionably alligned head of the Research Division looking into magically creating some of these nasty aberrations and keeping them secret from the rest of the government, only to have the PCs stumble upon his lab. Nice :)

[Zharradan Marr]

One of my favs for simple and efficient ECL 10 melee opponent: Duskblade 5/Abjurant Champion 5; feats: Knowledge Devotion, Arcane Strike, Battle Caster, Power Attack, Extra Spell.

Let him grab the Shield spell with Extra Spell. Now, he can lead off the encounter by casting Shield as a swift action for +9 AC, and when he's attacked he has Deflect for another +10 AC which stacks. Together with a run-of-the-mill Full Plate, that's AC 38 right off the gate. And, between his Arcane Channeling and Arcane Strike, he can dish out a lot of damage too.

[Dr. Azkur]

Why SUS when shou disciple gives 2d6 unarmed damage?

Oh, I originally typed Monk instead of Warblade + Shou Disciple and I forgot to change that. Thanks!

[Metahuman1]

Binder's cool. One day it's better Monk then the Monk, another, Better Paladin then the Paladin.


And it can be things neither of them can be if it's motivated.

I'll also advocate. I'm especially fond of the soulbound weapon and Mantled Warrior AFC's. Picture a Samurai who summons his totally effective sword out of thin air and double or quadruples his size, or wills armor around himself that would make an abjurant champion green with envy, or can charge in, full attack, and dart away.

[JW86]

Binder's cool. One day it's better Monk then the Monk, another, Better Paladin then the Paladin.


And it can be things neither of them can be if it's motivated.

I'll also advocate. I'm especially fond of the soulbound weapon and Mantled Warrior AFC's. Picture a Samurai who summons his totally effective sword out of thin air and double or quadruples his size, or wills armor around himself that would make an abjurant champion green with envy, or can charge in, full attack, and dart away.

Binding is something I want to look into. I'll steel up the courage to look at Tome of Magic again.

Soulbound weapon ACF is perfect for a couple of the foes. I'll make sure they say some call unnecessary incantation as well as name their sword, a la the anime Bleach.

Rough ideas I've made so far today

Half-Giant Psychic Warrior 13 (all about the Expansion, Knockback Power Attacks).
An Ardent 8 / Swordsage 8, focussing on Freedom, Fate and Energy mantles, with a homebrew "Frozen Zephyr" (cold/ice version of Desert Wind).
A Warblade 4/Iajutsu Master 5.
Swordsage 11
Basic Fighter 3, and Fighter 2 / Swordsage 4 mooks - some Desert Wind based, some Shadow Hand.
Looking forward to creating some Battle Dancer and Ninja based characters, and plenty initiators.
I'm especially impressed by the quality of some of the ToB Discipline homebrew that has been created, especially the classes that interact with psionics. I'm bound to have fun making plenty more inhabitants for this realm... and the PCs will hopefully have fun obliterating them in time.