3.5 Avatar the last air bender.

[KnotKnormal]

I want to create the avatar in 3.5 and I have no idea how to. Was thinking a druid base class. This will be a lvl 10 build.

[malonkey1]

I'd probably go ToB/Swordsage for a lot of the abilities, especially Desert Wind (Firebending), and possibly Stone Dragon for the more full-contact portions of Earthbending. Then for a lot of the other abilities (wind blasts, flight, etc.), you might be well off to dip Dragonfire Adept and/or Warlock for the breath weapons and invocations.

[Dusk Eclipse]

If you are not opposed to homebrew, there is always the Avatar d20 (https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/) which has all the types of benders as classes and the actual Avatar template (https://sites.google.com/site/avatard20/avatartemplate) another option is going with a Psionic build (Ardent would best I think, 9th level power and wisdom based) and getting powers like Energy Wall, Energy ball, etc.

[Red Fel]

First off, ToB definitely has you covered with some of the martial arts-magic transparency.

Certain aspects of the Avatar are difficult to emulate. For example, the fact that the Avatar is the intermediary between the spirit world and the mortal world is a bit of a challenge in a mechanical setting where some characters have half-spirit templates, others raise the dead as a career, and still others open gaping holes in the fabric of reality in order to take their summer vacation. It's a bit hard to be the Avatar when everyone is, to some extent.

But others, such as the various elemental powers, can be easily emulated with spells. Most of them are blaster-type spells, but some (such as Flight) are more utility-based; an Avatar with that sort of inventory won't be optimized for much beyond raw power, I'm afraid.

Another option is to go with Reserve Feats, from Complete Mage and Complete Champion. They won't give you mind-bogglingly awesome power, but they will give you at-will and thematically appropriate abilities. For example, no Airbender would be caught without Borne Aloft, which gives you move-action flight, or Hurricane Breath, giving you a knock-down blast; no Waterbender would travel the seas without Aquatic Breath for survival, Drowning Glance to discourage their foes, and Winter's Blast to stop enemies cold; and what is an Earthbender without Clutch of Earth, or a Firebender without Fiery Burst?

Are they the most optimized? Hardly. But then again, a blaster-caster isn't the most optimized character either; and indeed, you're going for flavor, not optimization here.

[malonkey1]

First off, ToB definitely has you covered with some of the martial arts-magic transparency.

Certain aspects of the Avatar are difficult to emulate. For example, the fact that the Avatar is the intermediary between the spirit world and the mortal world is a bit of a challenge in a mechanical setting where some characters have half-spirit templates, others raise the dead as a career, and still others open gaping holes in the fabric of reality in order to take their summer vacation. It's a bit hard to be the Avatar when everyone is, to some extent.

But others, such as the various elemental powers, can be easily emulated with spells. Most of them are blaster-type spells, but some (such as Flight) are more utility-based; an Avatar with that sort of inventory won't be optimized for much beyond raw power, I'm afraid.

Another option is to go with Reserve Feats, from Complete Mage and Complete Champion. They won't give you mind-bogglingly awesome power, but they will give you at-will and thematically appropriate abilities. For example, no Airbender would be caught without Borne Aloft, which gives you move-action flight, or Hurricane Breath, giving you a knock-down blast; no Waterbender would travel the seas without Aquatic Breath for survival, Drowning Glance to discourage their foes, and Winter's Blast to stop enemies cold; and what is an Earthbender without Clutch of Earth, or a Firebender without Fiery Burst?

Are they the most optimized? Hardly. But then again, a blaster-caster isn't the most optimized character either; and indeed, you're going for flavor, not optimization here.

Plus, to be honest, most of the Avatar World appears to be E6 anyway (aside from the elemental powers, most people are just people), so a level 10 in that world has a much lower optimization floor.

[Chronos]

Desert Wind is nearly an exact match for firebending, and Stone Dragon is a reasonable approximation of earthbending. So start with swordsage, and just pick a bunch of maneuvers from those disciplines.

Air and water are a little more difficult. My inclination would be to call them both psionic, but you'd have to homebrew a whole bunch of new powers.

Then, for the Avatar, you'd want a prestige class that dual-advances psionics and maneuvers. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that Wizards never officially published one of these, given that Tome of Battle does have some psionics material in it, and there are prestige classes in it for combining with arcane and divine magic. But there are plenty of homebrew PrCs already written for this.

[Red Fel]

Desert Wind is nearly an exact match for firebending, and Stone Dragon is a reasonable approximation of earthbending. So start with swordsage, and just pick a bunch of maneuvers from those disciplines.

Air and water are a little more difficult. My inclination would be to call them both psionic, but you'd have to homebrew a whole bunch of new powers.

Then, for the Avatar, you'd want a prestige class that dual-advances psionics and maneuvers. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that Wizards never officially published one of these, given that Tome of Battle does have some psionics material in it, and there are prestige classes in it for combining with arcane and divine magic. But there are plenty of homebrew PrCs already written for this.

There aren't PrCs, but there are a few feats, such as Instant Clarity. Also, some people have attempted to refluff classes like the JPM or RKV for Psionics; it's not always pretty, but it's functional. In fact, the flavor of the JPM is fairly spot-on for the Avatar; a reincarnating warrior-sage who crusades against evil, and retains memories of his past lives after undergoing a meditative trance.