Fire Knight?

[Bluydee]

My friend is joining our DnD group and he wants to play character who uses fire while in melee. My first guess was Desert Wind, but that seems weak when we play mid optimization. Are there any other ways to be a fire wielding warrior? Keep in mind that also means he can't just be a sorcerer/wizard who uses fire spells and whacks stuff as a last resort or a guy who has a flaming sword or can use fireball due to his weapon.

[JeminiZero]

What level is he starting at? I was thinking of Duskblade, combining Searing Spell and Rapid Metamagic, to deliver searing fire spells via Arcane Channeling, but that requires at least level 9 (for 12 spellcraft ranks to get Rapid Metamagic), and isn't necessarily much better than a Swordsage who took Desert Wind.

[mabriss lethe]

Pyrokineticist PrC might be a decent choice for a dip, though it has some psionic prereqs for entry.

[Callin]

Silverbrow Human Dragon Fire Adept Bard

[Bluydee]

We are starting at 10, by the way.

[Gildedragon]

Allow the fella to get Searing Spell 3+(Relevant stat mod) times per day to his Desert Wind Maneuvers

[A.A.King]

Isn't the big problem with focusing on Desert Wind the fact that you focus on Fire damage a.k. the most commonly resisted type of elemental damage? If you want to focus on Fire Damage then I think that a Desert Wind build could be quite decent.

It might be handy if you qualify a bit more as to what the other people are playing (for comparison)

[Warlocknthewind]

There's the Firemane Aura Paldin ACF from Champions of Valor. Elemental smiting means smites deal.. Well, pick something for damage, say, fire.

Take a level of Cleric with Obad-hai as your deity, take at least one level of crusader, and run all ten levels of Ruby Knight Vindicator fluffed for the Shalm. That nets you Rebuke Fire, lots of fire spells, high BAB, and RKV has access to Desert Wind manuevers to boot!

[Katana1515]

If you are comfortable with backdating Pathfinder stuff, the Magus may be the answer? its a gish in a can much like the Duskblade, and if you let him re fluff some of the more common spells like shocking grasp (or just take energy substitution Fire) he should be able to be a pretty epic 'Flame Warrior' type, he will also have plenty of other neat options most fighter types dont get like Haste, Invisibility or Flight.

[Diovid]

Planar Handbook has the Elemental Warrior prc which chooses 1 element to focus on.

Dragon Magazine #314 has the Firestorm Berserker (a Barbarian prc).

Dragon Magazine #355 has the Warrior of Fire Fighter variant.

[tyckspoon]

Isn't the big problem with focusing on Desert Wind the fact that you focus on Fire damage a.k. the most commonly resisted type of elemental damage? If you want to focus on Fire Damage then I think that a Desert Wind build could be quite decent.

The fire thing doesn't help, but the main problem IMO is just that a lot of the fire-damage strikes are kind of lame. With the exception of the 'your melee hits do extra fire damage' boosts, just about every Desert Wind blasting strike does worse damage than a basic blasting spell at an increased level. And not metamagic improved or caster-level-buffed spells; a Wizard throwing stock Fireballs and maybe an Energy Sub (Fire) Cone of Cold does Kill It With Fire! better than Desert Wind does.

(The bonus-fire-damage boosts are pretty decent, tho. If you can find something subject to fire you can put out a fair amount of hurt with them. And then you get Fiery Assault. +1d6 damage per hit as a stance. Which is cool and all.. except it's freaking level 6. Punishing Stance was doing that as a FIRST LEVEL STANCE.)