Low level, cross platform help needed

[Sigh]

Hey all, I recently died in a session I'm in and given the setting this forces me to roll up a new character with one less level than I died with, so now I'm at level 2 (this is generally one of those DMs that makes games that starts you out at a low level and keeps you there, in my first game with this DM we beat the game at level 3 after several months of running about almost dying). In any case I'm sort of at a loss for what to make, I don't want to just roll up my last character again but without the perks that come with that extra 3rd level, but I'm still fairly new to roleplaying and number crunching and what have you so I have no clue on how to minmax effectively.

Adding to this the fact that he's allowed for the intermixing of both 3.5 AND d20 classes and feats (it's a long story) and I'm all the more lost as to what exactly to build. Honestly I'm a bit demoralized as this is the first character I've ever lost in a serious game so any help here would be greatly appreciated.

[Doc_Maynot]

Do you mean d20 Modern? or OGL d20? or 3rd party?

[Sigh]

D20 Modern, no 3rd party stuff unless you can really explain it as not broken or abusable.

Though to be honest if I could make something totally broken with just 2 levels and two systems that would be amazing, probably not going to happen though haha.

Ah yes, I almost forgot that I'm trying to go for a physical fighter, as that was what I was playing before I died and the party really needs a guy that can land hits.

[andromax]

Try a 2 levels in Warblade as an Earth Dwarf. (+8 stability). Always a good start for a tank type.

[Xerlith]

Are 3.5 templates available as well?

Dragonborn of Bahamut (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b) (Heart aspect) Human Crusader2

Say that you became a Dragonborn after obtaining 1st level (that should let you keep the human bonus feat)

Feats:
Human: Combat Reflexes
lvl1: Stand Still
lvl3: Entangling Exhalation

Stance:
Iron Guard's Glare and Martial Spirit

Strikes:
Douse the Flames, Crusader's Strike, Stone Bones, Leading the Attack, Vanguard Strike

Con=Str>Dex>Cha>Wis>Int

Grab a Glaive and a Spiked Gauntlet, so you threaten reach and adjacent squares.

In combat, you focus on being the meat shield and controlling enemies.

Stand Still + Combat Reflexes is the basis of a lockdown build. Someone's melee? Well, they won't get to your allies.

Entangling Exhalation allows you to stop your foes every 1d4 rounds, unconditionally.

Douse the Flames is a GREAT way of allowing your allies to move safely around the battlefield.

The effectiveness depends on how many gunslinging enemies get thrown at you.

[Sigh]

Xerlith that was a fantastic suggestion and I brought the concept up to my DM, but he shot it down as we really aren't in a setting where dragons have a huge presence (aka none at all), so unfortunately that's not a direction I can take this time. He did say that I could go for it in our next game though, so there's that.

[Xerlith]

Well, it's no biggie - you can simply lose the Dragonborn part and you should do just as well - you lose only the AoE Entanglement, but remain a full-fledged Lockdown tank.

Tell us something more - what concept do you have in mind?

[Urpriest]

Well, it's no biggie - you can simply lose the Dragonborn part and you should do just as well - you lose only the AoE Entanglement, but remain a full-fledged Lockdown tank.

Tell us something more - what concept do you have in mind?

Without the Dragonborn, I'd probably go for Warforged instead of Human...unless that's also not present in the setting, of course.

There's a beautiful first-level build for Duskblades out there, that should still be quite potent at second level. It involves taking feats from Drow of the Underdark to convert your Light spell-like ability to Silent Image and Hypnotic Pattern.

[Sigh]

Yes I suppose a few more details couldn't hurt my cause.

So basically we're playing in an MLP-themed game, with slightly modified racial perks depending on what species you're playing. To make things easier for everyone, however, I'm planning on playing another Earth Pony as they are essentially the humans of this type of campaign, blank slates that have middling and versatile traits. Either that or a griffon, but to be honest the ability to fly is really not that useful in these campaigns, beyond not taking fall damage but even then something is usually dropping us on the ground forcefully.

Earth ponies get +2 to the ability score of our choice, and begin the game with the Toughness feat. Any build that leaves the Will stat well enough alone is preferable, our DM likes to employ threats that target that save. I'm looking for some sort of physical fighter, I'm making him come from the fantasy-styled part of the world (it's a "modern meets fantasy" kind of thing) so stuff with magic is negotiable but generally allowed as long as it meshes relatively well with the setting(s). Except psionics, as much as they'd fit my entire group has a thing against the brokenness of psionics.

Like I said at the beginning, I'm just trying to see if you guys had any input on how to maximize my potential with the possibilities combining D20 modern and 3.5 have to offer.

[bekeleven]

Say that you became a Dragonborn after obtaining 1st level (that should let you keep the human bonus feat)
Found on page 10.

Other Racial Traits: You lose all other racial traits of your original race, including bonus feats, skill bonuses, attack bonuses, save bonuses, spell-like abilities, and so forth. Two specific instances warrant clarification.

If your original race granted you a nonspecific bonus feat (such as the one gained by a human at 1st level), any feat can be lost, so long as it is not a prerequisite for another feat you have.
If your original race granted bonus skill points, you should deduct an appropriate amount of skill points from your current skill ranks. The specific skills affected are up to you, but the DM’s input might be required to adjudicate tricky situations (such as multiclass characters who might have purchased ranks of various skills as both class skills and cross-class skills).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) with the Half-Minotaur template from Dragon 313. That gets a size increase with everything that comes with it, for total adjustments of Str +16, Dex -2, Con +8, Int -4, Wis -2, Cha -2, +4 natural armor, Darkvision 60, Scent, Track, 40 ft. land and swim speeds, the race of water traits, orc traits, +2 listen, search, and spot, and a 1d8 gore attack, for only +1 LA. In two levels you can buy off the level adjustment (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/reducingLevelAdjustments.htm) and eventually catch back up.

Get two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm), Bravado (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30) and Murky-Eyed, for two extra feats. Consider going Lion Spirit Whirling Frenzy Wolf-Totem Barbarian 2/ Dungeoncrasher Fighter 6/ War Hulk, with a Spiked Chain, Knock-Back, and Knock-Down.

[Sigh]

Okay so I finally got down and dirty and whipped up a sheet, most of it is from 3.5 (which makes sense, as my character is going to be from the Fantasy side of the game as opposed to the Modern one) but I did port over a couple of feats from D20 Modern to spice things up a bit. Let me know what you guys think, how I can improve, if I've made any mistakes, etc. (and yes, the points are correct in the Ability Section, Earth Ponies get a +2 in whatever Ability score you choose)
http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=920887

[Xerlith]

Okay. Take the Toughness feat. Erase it. Thoroughly. Forget it ever existed. Then forget harder. Ask your DM to change it to Improved Toughness instead. Yeah, basically it's... Well, improved Toughness.

Also, as you are lvl2, you do not qualify for Streetfighting, which requires BAB +2 - that you do not have. As the Brawl feat prerequisite.

[Gavinfoxx]

MLP themed lockdown build.

Are the races anthros?

Pegasus or Griffon with spiked chain, then, and the usual feats... the flight mobility will be more useful on the battlefield than the extra durability.

And if flight isn't useful, that's because you aren't using it right. YOU have to be the one to go flying, and start trying to use flight tactically... and strategically.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It looks like you made a Cleric with Wisdom 12. That's a bad thing, don't do that, the minimum ability score required to cast a level X spell is X+10. You can increase it at every 4th level, but you'll still not be able to cast your highest level spells available until you've had those spell slots for quite a few levels. The absolute minimum casting stat starting out is 15, so you can put a +1 on it at 4th, 8th, 12th, and 16th level to have a 19 at level 17 when you get 9th level spell slots.

[Sigh]

Okay. Take the Toughness feat. Erase it. Thoroughly. Forget it ever existed. Then forget harder. Ask your DM to change it to Improved Toughness instead. Yeah, basically it's... Well, improved Toughness.

Also, as you are lvl2, you do not qualify for Streetfighting, which requires BAB +2 - that you do not have. As the Brawl feat prerequisite.

We actually get Toughness free as Earth ponies, forgot to mention that.

Also whoops I forgot that Streetfighting needed Brawl as a prerequisite, modifying now. Any good feats that I can replace it with given my current setup?

Races are unfortunately not anthros, when I said flight isn't useful I meant it's because the DM himself said flight is generally going to not be useful given the amount of rules that go into every check while you're flying. Suffice it to say all of us are lazy bastards and really don't like going through that much work, especially when these rules were made up for humanoid flyers and not quadruped pegasi, who should be more naturally adept to this kind of thing. Basically flying in our campaigns are good for not taking fall damage and getting more varied vantage points, but that's about it.

@Biff Honestly I just put the extra 2 points into Wisdom to give myself an extra point in Will (will saves are very common), but if you have a better suggestion for where I should relocate them then by all means let me know.

[Xerlith]

Cleric. Wis-caster. High wisdom- good.

Wis should be AT LEAST 14.

Basically, for a melee clericzilla, Str>Wis=Con>Cha>Dex>Int.

And you actually mentioned Toughness before. I'm just telling you to trade it for Imp. Toughness instead. At least THAT scales. :smallwink:

By the way, Brawl and Streetfighting work only with unarmed strikes. You're better off using weapons, most probably.

A Cleric may be whatever you want. If you wish to be a source of party healing, consider Martial Study: Crusader's Strike.

As a Cleric you get two domains - make your 2nd War and worship an ideal of War through Tactics, with the ultimate Tactical weapon - glaive. Now you get Martial Weapon Proficiency: Glaive. Reaaach. Gauntlet for adjacent as normal.

What are your long-term goals for that build?

Finally, can you list the full race benefits of the Earth Pony?


Oh, and... How are you using gauntles on a quadruped? :smallconfused:

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

@Biff Honestly I just put the extra 2 points into Wisdom to give myself an extra point in Will (will saves are very common), but if you have a better suggestion for where I should relocate them then by all means let me know.

There's no point in making the character a Cleric if you're not able to cast spells. I don't know how you're determining ability scores for this character, but swapping Con and Wis would be a good start, or don't make Str so high if using pointbuy.

[Sigh]

We started with 32 points, and before I added the two supplementary Ability points to STR my scores looked like this:

16
12
16
10
12
10

I took away 2 from Con, gave them to Wis, now I'm left with 2 supplementary points that I should either put into Int or Dex. Honestly, I'm leaning more towards Dex, as the rest of my party is plenty intelligent enough to pick up my slack... Okay, after a bit of fine tuning and taking everyone's advice here's where I am right now with my numbers. Again, feel free to call me an idiot if I haven't thought this through enough.

16 (before extra 2 from racial bonus)
14
14
8
16
8

As for the gauntlets, suffice it to say that I was going to explain it away as "you just put metal boots on the hoof and bam! instant gauntlet." but mostly I was just putting it there in case I ever lose my Morningstar somehow, I can remove it easily enough from the page and little to nothing will really change. Still need something to replace Streetfighting though, I was thinking either Cleave or Improved Sunder...

http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=920887 (revised sheet)

[Xerlith]

Get the glaive instead of Morningstar, since you have MWP:Glaive now. Letting one hand go of weapon (as well as grabbing it again) is a free action, so you can smack someone with a fist while still holding the glaive.

I'm partial to the Martial Study feat. How about Martial Study: Steel Wind instead of Cleave?

[Sigh]

I don't suppose you have a link to an explanation for this Martial Study stuff you're talking about, I can't seem to find it in the danddwiki. Thanks for the advice about the Glaive though.

[Gavinfoxx]

First of all.

FRIENDS DON'T LET FRIENDS USE DANDWIKI!

It's a completely un-managed group of bad homebrew mixed with badly transcribed official stuff, illegally copied of course, none of which is properly tagged!

If you want to read free online D&D stuff, read this:

http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=513.0

For the stuff you are supposed to be able to get, or otherwise, just google individual things like "Martial Study Feat" and you'll find some place that talks about it...

[Xerlith]

Martial Study is a feat from the Tome of Battle book, allowing you to take (and use) one martial maneuver you qualify for.

dandwiki is mostly homebrew. For open game content look at d20srd.org, a more questionable place is dndtools.eu

[Sigh]

That makes sense then. In any case, from what research I've done in the last 10 minutes anything in the Martial Study line past just the weapon proficiency would be inciting more complexity than my DM AND my group would have the patience for, so I think I'll just stick to the run of the mill feats for now, and along that train of thought, being able to use Improved Sunder to at least try and prevent what happened last time from happening again wouldn't be too bad of a choice IMO.

Here's my updated sheet again one last time in case anyone has any nitpicks or if I mistyped something or whatever. http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=920887

[Sigh]

Well you guys the game finally ended, everyone but the medic died (because there's always one left to see what happens) and it turned out that my character never actually existed at all, but at least I got to have a noble sacrifice that legitimately saved the day before re-unexisting. (it's a long story)

Still, you all helped me to see a lot of neat builds, and also helped me create a character that kicked butt. Thanks.