Warforged Melee / "Paired Characters"

[Chester]

Hello!

So, I'm planning a Warforged Melee character, and one idea was something like this:

Fighter(Dungeoncrasher) 6 / Warforged Juggernaut 2 / reforged 2 / warforged juggernaut 3 / X

My buddy and I had an idea, though . . . . coming up with "paired characters". I'd play the Warforged (Juggernaut is the ultimate goal), and he'd play either a human or gnome artificer/fighter type. He'd be the "inventor", and I'd be his invention.

We were looking at some build ideas, and came across some "group feats" such as Phalanx (or somehting like that).

Anyway, are there any ideas you can offer? Suggestions / advice for this build? 3.5, point buy 41.

I'm not married to 6 levels of fighter . . . in fact, other alternatives are welcome to make it less plain.

Thoughts?

EDIT: My buddy's not necessarily against gnomes, but he just played a gnome, so if there's a viable alternative, that would be good.

[lytokk]

Not exactly a build idea, more of a fluff idea. Warforged dumb as a rock but strong as a giant, and a lame kobold who's got all the brains and none of the brawn. Kobold can't walk on his own, rides around in a backpack on the warforged. Artificer works great for the kobold in this build, who's constantly buffing the warforged.

Throw a couple levels of barbarian on the warforged too, course with the adamantine body you won't be getting any speed bonus, but if you trade that off for pounce you're golden, unless that doesn't work anymore with heavy armor.

[Red Fel]

Anyway, are there any ideas you can offer? Suggestions / advice for this build? 3.5, point buy 41.

I'm not married to 6 levels of fighter . . . in fact, other alternatives are welcome to make it less plain.

Thoughts?

EDIT: My buddy's not necessarily against gnomes, but he just played a gnome, so if there's a viable alternative, that would be good.

I'm generally a fan of Warforged Warblades, rather than Fighters. As an added bonus, if you go with a Battlefist or IUS/SUS, you can even avoid the expense of weapons altogether, which - added to the fact that you don't wear armor - saves you a bundle.

That said, there are several ways you could go with a Friend-of-Warforged. One is a "The Big Guy's With Me" type build, which usually involves a smaller or squishier race. My favorite is a Tibbit Psion, but any Small race can make this pretty effective. Someone who casts buffs is also excellent. As an aside, ask your DM if the Underfoot Defense option of the Confound the Big Folk feat works on allies as well as enemies. If it does, find a way to make your Warforged Large, such as via templates. Then, while you occupy the same space, any attack against you has a 50% chance to hit him, turning him into a very effective tank. (That only works if he reads the feat in a particular way, mind you.)

Another option, which you've hit upon, is to go with the artificer-type. But rather than pure Artificer, have you considered Renegade Mastermaker? You meet all the requiremens by Artificer 5. You gain your RM level to all Craft checks, and that would include repair checks to fix himself or the Warforged.

Also, the image of a Small Warforged is hysterical to me for some reason.

As a final note, a Shaper Psion is extremely helpful to a Warforged, because of Psionic Repair Damage (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/psionicRepairDamage.htm). (Also because some people use Shapers with Psionic Major/Minor Creation to create clouds of airborne toxins to which non-breathing Warforged are immune.)

[A.A.King]

There exists a few combat feats that sort of rely on someone else also having that feat, but those usually work best if both characters are very similar in build. So instead of feats like "Shield Wall" and "Phalanx Fighting" have the team work focus on the fact that your friend can learn just the right spells to buff you with.

If you think fighter is a bit of a cliché, how about Paladin? The Warforged Paladin Racial Subsitution levels are quite good. Your buddy could have been too weak to join the paladins and so instead he created you, the ultimate tool for the fight against evil

[Diovid]

Hello!

So, I'm planning a Warforged Melee character, and one idea was something like this:

Fighter(Dungeoncrasher) 6 / Warforged Juggernaut 2 / reforged 2 / warforged juggernaut 3 / X

Anyway, are there any ideas you can offer? Suggestions / advice for this build? 3.5, point buy 41.

I'm not married to 6 levels of fighter . . . in fact, other alternatives are welcome to make it less plain.
If you're going with Figther, you might want to use the Dead Levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/cwc/20061013a) variant and the Zhentarim substitution levels (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060327a), they're free upgrades (well, as long as your DM allows you to ignore the fluff of the Zhentarim..).

Furthermore, you might want to start with a level of Barbarian (keeping the rest of the build similar to what it already is). Not only does this give you rage (for which you should take the Extra Rage feat and possibly, given the rest of your abilities, the Destructive Rage feat) but it also alows you to trade away Fast Movement for Pounce via the Spiritual Lion Totem alternative class feature from Complete Champion.

Other feats you should look at: Power Attack, Improved Bull Rush, Shock Trooper, Brute Fighting, Adamantine Body and possibly Pushbeak.

[negativedreamer]

Kobolds do look fun to do the artificer with... tough choice between that and the tinker gnome. thanks for input!

[Chester]

I like the Barbarian as first level, and the sprit lion totem isn't bad; also, nothing that Boots of Springing and Striding can't fix :smallwink:.

Thanks for the input everyone!