Building a Warforged Crusader

[lytokk]

So, in an upcoming game, we;'ve got 3 players. One will be an elven duskblade, and the other is going to be playing a human ninja. I was having a hard time deciding what holes existed in the roster, and felt a Warforged Crusader could do well to tank, and provide some amount of healing. This will be my first ToB character, so any feedback on if I'm doing something wrong will be appreciated. Unless I can think of anything better, here's the plan, complete with stats

STR 18
DEX 12
CON 19
INT 16 14
WIS 14
CHA 12 14

Feat:
Adamantine Body

Manuevers:
Crusaders Strike
Stone Bones (does the DR5/Adamantine Stack with the DR2/Adamantine I have from the body feat to bring it up to DR7? Since the wording is gain DR5 wasn't 100% sure)
Leading the Attack
Charging Minotaur
Douse the Flames
Vanguard Strike


Stance:
Martial Spirit

Skills
Keeping Capped
Craft: Weaponsmithing
Intimidate
Knowledge History
Diplomacy
Thinking of cross classing for some sort of perception skill, though, I'm not sure if I should take cross class ranks, or just take a level in another class and add them to my skill list, and I'm not sure which class.

Any feedback anyone can give me about this build would be great.

[Xander_Phoenix]

Stone Bones (does the DR5/Adamantine Stack with the DR2/Adamantine I have from the body feat to bring it up to DR7? Since the wording is gain DR5 wasn't 100% sure)

No, it doesn't.

[Val666]

e.e

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?181655-Spirit-of-Steel-The-Crusader-s-Handbook-WIP

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Keep in mind that warforged get a natural slam attack that adds 1.5 Str to damage if you don't attack with any other weapons in the same round (Races of Eberron p22). Natural weapons such as this don't get to make iterative attacks if you have a BAB +6 or higher, but martial strikes take a standard action to initiate and cannot be used with a full attack anyway. With Str 18 you'll be doing 1d4+6 damage (7-10, average 8.5), versus something like a Longsword will deal 1d8+4 (5-12, average 8.5), but the slam can be used in a grapple and in close quarters, and you won't have to spend any gold on a melee weapon at 1st level. Plus you'll get the satisfaction of punching your enemies!

Regarding skills, there's something very important to note about Adamantine Body. It reduces your normal base land speed to 20 ft., and you're considered to be wearing heavy armor. You're slowed down by the feat itself, not from wearing armor, so you can still use Tumble. You can trade Ride for Tumble as a class skill (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a), so get max ranks in that, along with Jump and Balance, or at least get five ranks in each of those for synergy bonuses and other benefits (Balance). If you're going to max out Intimidate, you should switch Int and Cha, and put your 4th level point into Cha. You need Cha 15+ to take the feat Imperious Command from Drow of the Underdark, which is amazing for using intimidate to demoralize opponents. Get the Never Outnumbered skill trick in Complete Scoundrel and you can intimidate every opponent within 10 ft. once per encounter. Get your plating upgraded to +1 Fearsome (also in Drow of the Underdark, the most recent version of the ability) and you can demoralize as a move action and still attack or use a martial strike in the same round, plus it counts as spiked armor.

I'll strongly recommend the Quick trait (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm#quick), the hp loss will be negligible with Con 19 and you'll be back to a 30 ft. move speed. I'll also recommend two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) (more here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30)) to get two extra feats. I'll definitely suggest Insomniac, and maybe Murky Eyed or Bravado or even No Time For Book Learning. With those two extra feats you can get Stone Power and Extra Granted Maneuver from ToB, or maybe Shield Specialization and Shield Ward in PH2, or even Hidden Talent and Up The Walls (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicFeats.htm#upTheWalls) in XPH, in which case you would want ranks in Concentrate.

Edit: Something else to consider is the Dragonborn of Bahamut (https://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b&page=1) template. You would only lose your default composite plating and light fortification to that, you keep your original type and subtypes so you keep all the Living Construct benefits and drawbacks. Your slam attack is not listed as a racial ability, it's a physical quality and you'll still retain it after becoming Dragonborn. You'll still be a Warforged and can still take Adamantine Body and retain all of its benefits. Get the Heart aspect for a breath attack and take the feat Entangling Exhalation from Races of the Dragon to keep all your opponents debuffed with that, plus they'll view your character as more of an immediate threat and they'll be less capable of repositioning to a more advantageous position. You're bound to have rounds when you don't have any useful maneuvers available, so this will give you something extremely useful to do at those times. You could also opt for the Wings aspect to gain a fly speed, and it's only limited by encumbrance due to carried weight, being considered to be wearing heavy armor won't hinder your ability to fly from this in any way. Keep in mind though that flight is easily obtained via items later on and the breath attack is immediately useful and will continue being useful throughout your entire career.

[lytokk]

I should have specified that the group is medium optimized, and we don't use flaws or traits. I'd think about dragonborn, but things like that should always be up for DM approval. My goal is to make sure I create a character who's functional within the party without overshadowing either of the other 2 characters. I don't know much of anything about their builds, so I'm really shooting for mid-ground. I made some edits to the sheet above, for reasons.

Dropped INT from 16 to 14 since it's not as hugely important in the build and I had more than enough skill points to do what I needed.

Bumped up CHA from 12 to 14 in order to get the most out of the CHA to will saves.

Dropped Stone bones and replaced with Vanguards Strike, I though I already had strike on my list but apparently did not. And since Stone bones won't stack, not as useful for a level 1 manuever.

I'll look into switching out Ride for Tumble, would be a lot more useful to me. Need DM approval.

I read through the guide but it seems to be somewhat unfinished. Either way, about all I'd want in a second class would be at least 1 perception skill, and full BAB, which as far as I can tell would stick me with ranger, unless I can find a decent PrC. Any more thoughts?

[FreakyCheeseMan]

Personally, I like Iron Guard's Glare more then Martial Spirit. Particularly if you have a reach weapon, your allies will really love you for this, and enemies having -4 to attack will remain relevant longer than the occasional +2 HP.

On a related note, I would very seriously consider getting a reach weapon: Crusaders get some really nifty tricks towards a lockdown build, including the ability to make AoOs again 5-foot steps. It might be worth it to raise your dex and go for combat reflexes someday, even. Also, I seem to recall a number of abilities - Iron Guard's Glare, first and foremost - that effect "All threatened enemies." Those abilities are a lot more fun when that means 24 squares, rather than 8.

[lytokk]

The big idea behind Martial Spirit is twofold. First, we have no healer, and no one capable of casting healing spells, so wands of CLW are out. Healers belts are nice, but since we're starting at level 1, we can't afford one at creation so its up to the DM if we can get one. Second, going with a warforged. I can't heal naturally overnight so those few hp I'll be getting back from it can go a long way to keeping at least me, if not the rest of my party alive.

I was going to take IGG at level 2. Still up in the air regarding my weapon choice. It'll all come down to how well the other PCs are built. If they're built well, I'll be able to up my weapon choice to include some reach. For now, I'm just assuming a mid range with no desire to outshine, so would most likely go sword and board. I can always get something magical to up my dex for combat reflexes if need be.

*edit* While I've got some attention, If I use for example, Crusaders Strike and have the cleave feat, does the healing effect go off twice if I hit twice, or just on the first hit?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Crusader's Strike only heals once, even if you hit multiple times from Cleave or with AoOs.

Plan to go Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9. Hellreaver is in FC2 and it allows you to spend a swift action to heal anyone within 20 ft. for 10 points at 2nd level, 20 points at 5th level, a limited number of times per encounter. At the 5th level you can take Con damage to refresh that limit, so the number of uses is only limited by how much Con damage you're willing to sustain. The Binder level allows you to bind Naberius, which gives you Fast Ability Healing 1 among other benefits. With an odd Con score such as 19, you can take 2 Con damage and go to 17, fast heal it back to 18 the same round and then back to full the following round, and have your full pool of uses of the healing ability back with almost no drawback. You'll still have an initiator level of 17 at 20th level for 9th level maneuvers!

[Regissoma]

I would like to recommend the Spike Chain as a reach weapon if you can get the right feats in as well. And ask your DM if you can use Sweeping Strike from War Mind 5 allows you to use a strike twice, because Sweeping Strike states that anytime you could attack one target you can target another creature in your threat range which may apply to strikes as well up to your DM. If not War Mind 5 is still great, that class ability lets you hit two things during any melee attack attempt you get even AoOs and you get access to Expansion to increase your size. Easiest way to qualify is to just take Hidden Talent, must be taken at lvl 1, and somehow get Knowledge(Psionics) 8 ranks. Otherwise just a single dip into anything that gets you PP and that knowledge would do.