Playing in a new campaign soon and need ideas for a nice melee build

[Regissoma]

So my group is going to be starting up a new campaign soon and I am looking to build a nice melee character that isn't a two hand weapon charger. Our campaign is homebrewed and due to my characters background and special ability in this campaign will get me a set of weapons which are unlocked at different levels and the two weapon fighting feat line when using those weapons. Sadly since our DM will not allow us to share info on our actual characters and due to other group members who uses this forum I can't delve too deeply about my character. If it helps I can tell you that our stats will be quite high as the lowest possible score you can roll is a 12, and nearly all sources will be allowed.

TL;DR New campaign; Looking for a nice melee as every other role is covered; build cannot be a charger as I have played so many and I am looking for something new

Any help will be appreciated.

Edit: Race is homebrewed so I cannot chose a different race. So far in the party two casters, a tank with AoO going for him, a rogue, and then me who will be filling in the primary melee role. Currently looking into a bardblade and the psychic warrior to start off, but no concrete idea I will be taking yet.

Edit 2: I really like the idea of a bardblade or being an ardent gish, and currently looking to build those. And ya I know I made another thread because this one wasn't showing up on my work computer sorry guys. Thanks for all the help though.

[NoACWarrior]

Crusader lockdown. They are really fun to play and help with the party survivability.

Alternatively - once you get into the higher levels you could simply go cleric / favored soul tanker and only use melee spells and attacks.

[Regissoma]

Thanks for the suggestion man, and now that I am home I can finally start looking up actual builds and will look into those ideas right now.

[Hiro Quester]

A marshall can also be fun. Only 3/4 BAB and d8 for HP But can also be the party face and buffer. There are some fun role playing options, as well as decent melee abilities. Not a tank,but melee focused in fun ways.

Edit. Or a warblade. That has always looked fun to play. Here's a thread on the relative merits of crusader vs. warblade (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?198600-Warblade-vs-Crusader).

[Thiyr]

To build on the crusader/warblade ideas, a Bardblade/bardsader could be a good idea. This (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?238412-BardBlade) thread had some good description on basic ideas, though I'd personally suggest taking Snowflake Wardance. If anyone else happens to have melee/summoning, you help them out, and you've got some solid smashing on your own end, and it plays nice with your two weapons bit, assuming snowflake wardance works with that.

[Bloodgruve]

If you're going TWF you'll want mobility, full attacks and added damage to each attack.

Mobility/Full Attacks - Cleric w/Travel Devotion, Ardent or Psychic Warrior w/Dimension Hop, Factotum w/Cunning Surge, Lion Totem Barbarian etc..

Adding to multiple attacks - Any class with Sneak Attack, Bard w/Inspire Courage, Knowledge Devotion feat, etc..

The toughest thing for a melee is getting to the target, get a class that helps this, doing it and allowing a full attack is also key. Dimension Hop does this as a swift action. Travel Devotion gives you an extra move action. Then there's options for Warblade or Swordsage.

My suggestion, Bard with a Warblade and Cleric dip. Cloistered Cleric lets you trade Knowledge and Travel domains for their Devotion feats and you can still have Undeath for extra turning and a lot of Travel Devotion uses per day. Warblade or Cursader lets you take Song of the White Raven for Swift Inspire Courage and there's a couple really nice low level Maneuvers to grab. Bard though with 6x knowledge skills and Inspire Courage optimization can give you great hit and damage per swing, up to +5 from knowledges and +14 or so from IC. Kick up Str, Int and Dex15. You can get Freedom of Movement at lvl 12 if you're multiclassing which is good.

For feats follow the Inspire Courage guides, Melodic Casting is great, Snowflake Wardance if you have good Cha and IIRC Warblades Iron Heart Surge will drop your Fatigue.

-or-
Ardent with the right mantles and Dimension Hop is really great, you're basically Nightcrawler with a bunch of other powers and a good power point pool. Substitute Power and Dominant Ideal ACF's from the WotC site are great. I believe you can get Freedom of Movement also with the Travel mantle.

Lotsa damage does no good if you can't reach your target.


GL
Blood~

[Regissoma]

I just looked those ideas up guys and they are great. I will probably be building towards crusader though I need to learn about their recovery mechanic more. I will also edit my original post to give a little bit more info about things.

[Karsh]

An optimized Shadow Blade Unarmed Swordsage who wields enchanted gauntlets can do some serious damage. Focus on Shadow Hand, Tiger Claw, Diamond Mind, and Setting Sun. You'll be teleporting around the battlefield while Swooping Dragon Striking things into oblivion (protip: increasing your movement speed is the easiest way to get an insane Jump modifier. Eat your heart out, Stunning Fist.).

You're less effective against singular big nasties than you are against crowds of enemies, but you can seriously wreck shop, and you just favor your Diamond Minds and all of the lovely abilities that are most effective against things larger than you.

[WinWin]

TWF rogue is a classic. Does not mandate the rogue class exclusively, as there are a few means of taking advantage of precision damage stacking.

[Regissoma]

So after looking through I have decided to do either a bardblade or to look into a gished ardent. Sadly I hardly know nothing of psionics so if anyone has any advice on where to start it be a great help.

[Baroknik]

The guy I like to call "Runty the Mighty." While it is generally ideal for a charger build, can be used for a lockdown build as well.

Goblin Fighter 2/Stoneblessed (Goliath) 3/Barbarian 1/War Hulk 10

The basic premise is that when you rage you REALLY rage hard, you can pick up Frenzied Berserker afterwards if you want to add more to it. The way it works is by taking the Mountain Rage ACF for Goliaths, which makes you large sized when raging which qualifies you to take War Hulk levels (though only while you rage). The nice part about this chassis (besides the hilarity of a goblin hulking out) is that it get's around the War Hulk's "No Time to Think" disadvantage -- any time you aren't raged you don't qualify to be a War Hulk and so don't have any of it's class features. With this build whenever you rage you will gain +24 STR as well as all the other War Hulk goodies, while still being able to be (somewhat) socially adept. Another thing to consider is altering the base from Fighter to any other class that you want. If it is a full BAB class you can change it out easily, if it isn't -- take 2 or 3 levels of the class (if it is 1/2 or 2/3 respectively) and (if it is a 1/2 progression class) take 1 more level of Barbarian post-Stoneblessed.

I have played it with a Factotum this way and played it as something of a Bruce Banner build (smart guy normally, but total beatstick when he gets angry). It's not that optimized, but boy is it fun! If only I could find a way to get Factotum 8 and War Hulk 10 without being a Goliath (it just doesn't seem as fun) so that I could Cunning Surge my Massive Swing...

[Thiyr]

The guy I like to call "Runty the Mighty." While it is generally ideal for a charger build, can be used for a lockdown build as well.

Goblin Fighter 2/Stoneblessed (Goliath) 3/Barbarian 1/War Hulk 10

The basic premise is that when you rage you REALLY rage hard, you can pick up Frenzied Berserker afterwards if you want to add more to it. The way it works is by taking the Mountain Rage ACF for Goliaths, which makes you large sized when raging which qualifies you to take War Hulk levels (though only while you rage). The nice part about this chassis (besides the hilarity of a goblin hulking out) is that it get's around the War Hulk's "No Time to Think" disadvantage -- any time you aren't raged you don't qualify to be a War Hulk and so don't have any of it's class features. With this build whenever you rage you will gain +24 STR as well as all the other War Hulk goodies, while still being able to be (somewhat) socially adept. Another thing to consider is altering the base from Fighter to any other class that you want. If it is a full BAB class you can change it out easily, if it isn't -- take 2 or 3 levels of the class (if it is 1/2 or 2/3 respectively) and (if it is a 1/2 progression class) take 1 more level of Barbarian post-Stoneblessed.

I have played it with a Factotum this way and played it as something of a Bruce Banner build (smart guy normally, but total beatstick when he gets angry). It's not that optimized, but boy is it fun! If only I could find a way to get Factotum 8 and War Hulk 10 without being a Goliath (it just doesn't seem as fun) so that I could Cunning Surge my Massive Swing...

I actually had a build idea in a similar vein to this recently, though it was a bit sillier and involves ignoring one bit of errata that...near as I can tell a lot of people found kinda dumb. I can't remember it exactly off the top of my head, 'cause i had a few variants rolling around, but it was The Were-est Were-thing That Ever Were'd: Quasilycanthrope Lycanthrope-Bloodline Shifter Warblade 1/bloodline level/stoneblessed (goliath) 3/ Whirly-pouncebarbarian 1/ (pre-errata) weretouched master (bear) 5/warshaper 4/ whatever you feel like. At the end of the day, rage and shifting together (woo free actions!) will get you something like +28 strength total, and you get all the nice warshaper goodies always-on due to quasilycanthrope. Plus 6 more levels at the end to do whatever you feel like with, assuming i remember how bloodlines work right.

[Shining Wrath]

In Tome of Battle the Tiger Claw discipline has some nice bonuses for two weapon fighters. But you can't take Tiger Claw "naturally" if you're a Crusader, plus Crusader is very tank-ish and your party has a tank.

From ToB, then, I recommend Warblade with Diamond Mind and Tiger Claw disciplines as the main source of maneuvers and stances. Dip Lion Totem barbarian if you want Pounce early, but Tiger Claw does give you the Pouncing Claw maneuver at maneuver level 5, which you can take as early as level 9.

Since your ability scores are nice, put high points into both Int (Warblades get synergies) and Dexterity. Max out ranks in Tumble. Spend some money on Boots of Striding and Springing and the like, and be able to reach most foes quickly. With Tiger Claw you'll also want Jump, which means you'll also want speed for that.

You'll be mobile and lethal, which is what you want from primary melee. Oh, and you'll have D12 HD and Improved Uncanny Dodge, which means being in the middle of a swarm of enemies is not so much a problem as a target-rich environment. If you can pick up the Iron Heart maneuvers Mithral Tornado and Adamantine Hurricane, they will learn to regret surrounding you.