Versatile Fighter Prestige Classes

[Heikold]

Hi, long time lurker first time poster here.

My girlfriend enjoys playing, but she's not really that into the nuts and bolts of building characters (which I love) and often asks me to do that bit for her after giving me a general concept.

This time I've been commissioned to make her a fighter who's sort of based on the Punisher. The idea is to have a large variety of weapons that she can choose from based on the threat at hand. She's probably going to wheel them around in a cart.

Specialising in a single weapon therefore is out of the question as the character is all about variety, but I'd rather not blow a load of feats on exotic weapon proficiencies to increase variety. Could you guys recommend some prestige classes that increase rather than decrease the flexibility of the weapon set she'd be drawing from? I'm really drawing a blank.

[Seerow]

There's an Exoticist Fighter variant in Dragon Magazine that gives you 4 or 5 free exotic weapon proficiencies, that might help you out in regards to wanting a good variety of weapons.



That said, for a Punisher or Batman type, I would go for Rogue and/or Blackguard before Fighter.

[Urpriest]

The Master of Masks Prestige Class has a mask that gives you proficiency with all exotic weapons. Search for Haberdasher the Masked for an example build.

[Squark]

It takes an hour to change them, but Warblades can swap exotic weapon proficiencies each morning as needed. You'd still need 2-3 feats, but you'd be able to tailor your usage to the situation.

[OldTrees1]

Master of Masks 1(Gladiator's Mask: Proficient in all Martial and all Exotic weapons)

Edit: Ninja'ed


I would also recommend things that boost your general combat
War Mind 5 (Your attacks hit 2 squares rather than 1 creature)
Scarlet Corsair 5 (Feint as a free action, Demoralize groups)
Warblade 1 (Iron Heart Surge and White Raven Tactics)

[Heikold]

Hmm... Exoticist is an interesting ACF. I'm unsure if losing the whole martial weapon list would be worth it though.

The Punisher thing is only a loose inspiration - she's pretty firm on the character being a martial combatant rather than stealthy or magey.

[lytokk]

I have a player in my game doing something like this, except all he's using is daggers, well, and 1 greatsword. Anyway, as the game progresses, its going to be increasingly difficult for her to have the array of weapons she wants and keep up with things like damage reduction.
That is, unless she decides to have say, a cold iron handaxe, a silver longspear, and an adamantine warhammer. Keeping up with weapon enchantments is going to be difficult. Taking warblade levels instead of fighter and using the mountain hammer line of manuevers will likely help.

Anyway, onto the build my guy is using. Psychic warrior using dissolving weapon. He uses his downtime to cast that on every weapon he has, strikes with them once, drops it and then grabs another. Just food for thought.

[OldTrees1]

Hmm... That's an interesting ACF. I'm unsure if losing the whole martial weapon list would be worth it though.

The Punisher thing is only a loose inspiration - she's pretty firm on the character being a martial combatant rather than stealthy or magey.

You can regain all martial weapons with the Militia feat. Or a level(or 2) of Barbarian.

[Heikold]

Thanks for all the really fast and useful responses guys! I was hoping that I'd found the right people to ask!

Warblade and Master of Masks are both really good ideas. Master of Masks in particular I think is a genius call - all exotic weapons for only one level of it? Yes please! I'll have to look into the requirements though to see how hard they're going to be to meet.

Warblade is a class that I'd love to play some time, but the DM for this campaign has mentioned a few source books that he'll be accepting and Complete Scoundrel is one of them. TOB isn't on the list and whilst I'm sure with a bit of persuading he'd let her use Warblade I'd be 50/50 over whether it'd be a bit over complicated for her anyway.

[Heikold]

You can regain all martial weapons with the Militia feat. Or a level(or 2) of Barbarian.

Kicking myself for not thinking of that as it's so obvious!

To be honest, the more I think about it Master of Masks is going to be a bitch in terms of requirements. All simple weapons, all martial weapons and 4 exotic weapons at level 2 without any requirements to leap through hoops for is more than enough.

[lytokk]

I thought the TOB classes would be overcomplicated when I first started using them, but once I realized you end up with a much more limited access to maneuvers, it got a lot less complicated. But, if TOB isn't allowed, hmm...

I don't know really. But whatever you build, its going to need quickdraw... Maybe a dual wand user. Partially charged wands so when the clip (charges) runs out, you just drop it and pull out another one. But, she wants melee... I'll have to think on this some more.

[Troacctid]

Tome of Battle classes should feel pretty familiar to anyone who's played a martial class in 4th edition.