Optimizing survivability with no casting at low levels

[danzibr]

Hey all,

In the not too distance future I'll be starting a campaign at level 2 or 3. I'd like to make a character with no magical talent but who can take a lot of punishment (at the expense of doing anything else useful, such as damage). No restrictions on race, and only non-magic restriction on class.

I'm going to be playing in a non-optimized group, so I'm down with blowing feats on Toughness (I was originally thinking to maximize hp). Crusader might be too good for this group (were it not for non-magic, I'd probably roll Elan Psion or something). What comes to mind for me is something like... human with two flaws, Slow trait, that one regional feat for +5 hp, a bunch of Toughness, Bear Barbarian.

Not quite sure how character creation will go, but probably a decently high pb, maybe a free +1 LA (Mineral Warrior is tempting, but... might be too good), maybe gestalt.

[nedz]

Monk.
Three good saves, Evasion and can run away quickly.

[emeraldstreak]

anything optimized will be way too good for this party

[Necroticplague]

Feral Crusader, or Mineral Warrior Crusader. The fast healing of the former means you can start off every fight at top health, and the natural attacks mean using the crusader's stance the heals you a little with each hit is more useful. The DR provided by the latter, while insignificant at latter levels, is going to be very noticeable at lower levels.

Or alternatively, depending of lactose tolerance, a Gheden Human that has the Troll-blooded feat (Gheden gives you the prereqs). Essentially immuner to any non-fire, non-acid damage. Unfortunately, fatigued in sunlight is a pain, so see if you can't find a way around that. Like carrying around something to block out sunlight.

[emeraldstreak]

if you go tblood just get full hit point dmg immunity

[Astralia123]

Why is it so common to see gestalt on this board...?

Is no casting Paladin considered non-magic in this case? No matter how much hp you have, you will need healing. You get lay on hand quite early in this case.
Races with natural armor, fast healing, damage reduction and so on would be great but I'm not exactly familiar with that. Maybe you can roll for a monstrous class that has all these above (but it should be remembered that some creature type cannot be raised, like outsiders)
Being large size is going to help you a lot if you are the tough type, as grappling monsters combined with other monsters can often easily take out one or two PCs very quickly. Not being the easy target would improve your survival ability, no doubt.

Or maybe you can be a stealth type and get hide-in-plain-sight as early as possible. Use ranged attacks in this case, so that you do not get in melee range that often.

[With a box]

Psion
Why? They don't cast spells. They just manifest powers

[Jeff the Green]

Duskling or Azurin (with your favorite template) Crusader/Incarnate. Pick up Stone Power and Expanded Soulmeld Capacity (astral vambraces). Shape Astral Vambraces (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) and Fellmist Robe. You'll have DR 6-8/Magic and a 10% miss chance for ranged and reach attacks (and you can trade off some of the DR for more miss chance as appropriate). Add on Crusader's Delayed Damage pool, the ability to eliminate that damage with Stone Power, and healing maneuvers and stances, and you've got a very hard-to-kill character.

[Bluydee]

Dragonwrought Kobold that is old. Grab epic toughness for all of your feats.

[Scrapheap]

If you can swing a 20 con take Roll With It (savage species I think) for dr2/- stacking each feat. Prereq is toughness and con 20.

[Gwendol]

Hey all,

In the not too distance future I'll be starting a campaign at level 2 or 3. I'd like to make a character with no magical talent but who can take a lot of punishment (at the expense of doing anything else useful, such as damage). No restrictions on race, and only non-magic restriction on class.

I'm going to be playing in a non-optimized group, so I'm down with blowing feats on Toughness (I was originally thinking to maximize hp). Crusader might be too good for this group (were it not for non-magic, I'd probably roll Elan Psion or something). What comes to mind for me is something like... human with two flaws, Slow trait, that one regional feat for +5 hp, a bunch of Toughness, Bear Barbarian.

Not quite sure how character creation will go, but probably a decently high pb, maybe a free +1 LA (Mineral Warrior is tempting, but... might be too good), maybe gestalt.

I'm going to suggest Knight. d12 HD, some shield related abilities, minor self buffs, and a mechanic for drawing aggro, and keep enemies close. If you can add some crusader to the build, even better (at least for the martial spirit stance).

[Jeff the Green]

If you can swing a 20 con take Roll With It (savage species I think) for dr2/- stacking each feat. Prereq is toughness and con 20.

Keep in mind that at low levels DR/- isn't significantly better than DR/Magic and at higher levels the DR you can get from Roll With It is negligible. And it's a lot easier to swap out a soulmeld than a bunch of feats.

[Inevitability]

Take the Symbiotic template (choosing some kind of swarm), then add single level in the Ghost template class. For essentially +2 LA, you are now immune to most things that would be able to kill you.

And unless ghosts are considered 'magical' enough to be banned, it fits your group's restrictions.

[darksolitaire]

Initially Barbarian or Knight for D12 hit dice. What armor you want depends on your dexterity modifier. Knight gets heavy armor proficiency, Barbarian gets to rage and increase his Con. Fighter is the only class that starts with Tower Shield proficiency, so taking a level could be good. 3rd level character can buy Full Plate, but our group limits items so that you can't have more then half of WBL invested in single item. If you have high dex, you could invest in mathril light armor. Oriental Adventures gives Chakar Aina and Dastana, which can be worn with chain shirt to increase AC.

So 3rd level character Knight / Fighter with Half Plate and Tower shield would have AC of 21 with dex dumped and all points in Con. Mithral chain shirt, chakar-aina, dastana and Tower shield would give AC of 20 plus up to 6 points of dexterity.

If you aren't feat starved, playing Dwarf and getting Con increase beats having toughness as extra feat at 3rd level and then starts getting ahead. Racial boni on some saving throws make it slightly better then human at pure survival. Some Elf variant that doesn't take Con penalty nets immunity to magical sleep and bonus on saves against enchantments.

That leaves us with saves. Two levels of Paladin (or Paladin variant) gets Divine Grace. If you go Knight 2 / Fighter 2, you can enter Survivor class from Savage Species, which has all good saves. It gets Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, and improved versions of both. Survivor is rare case in that it gets to use these abilities in any armor.