Core, halfling, Captain America?

[kroonermanblack]

I was toodling through the forums here while on my lunch break and found a few Captain America builds.

Anyone want to recommend a simple one that uses just the core (say, PHB1, DMG, etc. levels of 'core') builds, for a halfling? The idea started with a halfling paladin, and the mental image of him kicking in doors yelling 'halt evil doers!' and charging at things on a dog-mount, and just sort of escalated from there.

I'd probably define the 'Captain America' build by his shield. Throwing, blocking, bashing, etc., rather than by his mental prowess, war history, or anything else.

Problem is, I'm not sure how to make an unarmed fighter with a shield as a weapon not suck without delving deep into the millions of splatbooks or other material for obscure min/max things.

Also, the same idea might get cross applied to a half orc for giggles.

[Troacctid]

There aren't any shield feats in core, so your Captain America can have an adamantine shield, but he can't do anything with it besides get an AC bonus. Sorry.

[sideswipe]

if you are willing to extend to core and completes you can get everything you want. otherwise like stated you can have an adamantine shield and do an ordinary shield bash.

[kroonermanblack]

if you are willing to extend to core and completes you can get everything you want. otherwise like stated you can have an adamantine shield and do an ordinary shield bash.

Haha, well, ok, let's expand the book selection then! The rule is more 'anything not core is subject to DM Fiat/approval' and that we prefer to keep it to core.

[sideswipe]

ok well in complete warrior you have the feat throw anything, it allows you to throw your shield, and the returning enchantment then allows you to have it return to you after thrown.

shield charge and shield slam for free trip attempts and daze with a shield. also complete warrior

the shield specialisation tree in complete adventurer allows you to get a multitude of bonuses with your shield. one of them is shield sling which could be used instead of throw anything if you are going for a bigger investment.


those are just in completes. there are more the more obscure you get, but for just a few feat splats in a couple of very standard books you can really build captain America.

[Troacctid]

Add Tome of Battle on top of those and you gain access to Bloodstorm Blade, which lets you do lots of cool stuff with thrown weapons, like attack multiple enemies at once, make a free disarm attempt on hit, that sort of thing.

[sideswipe]

Add Tome of Battle on top of those and you gain access to Bloodstorm Blade, which lets you do lots of cool stuff with thrown weapons, like attack multiple enemies at once, make a free disarm attempt on hit, that sort of thing.

if the DM is iffy with magic item compendium, PHB2 and the completes he's not going to even consider one of the most highly banned books at any table. it was my first go to thing, but he would never allow it.

[Extra Anchovies]

This would work much better in Pathfinder: Shield Champion Brawler 5 lets you throw your shield and have it ricochet back to you (plus gives you punchin' skillz), then 15 levels in Warder for Iron Tortoise maneuvers (fireball? No problem, I'll block it with my shield) and Broken Blade maneuvers (for moar punchin' skillz).

In 3.5, though? Not really any way to do shield-throwing effectively without Bloodstorm Blade.

[lytokk]

You'll need the bashing enchantment on your shield, which is just a +1 shield enchantment. You can also enchant your shield as both a weapon and a shield. So you could have a shield with the +1 Returning Frost weapon enchantments and +1 Bashing Arrow Deflection shield enchantments, just as an example. Its a +3 cost weapon and a +4 cost shield.

I think if you then put spikes on the shield those can be enchanted as completely separate weapons but don't quote me on that.

Feats, well, just improved shield bash, thats about all that's in core.

[Deadline]

That's a pity, because a Warblade(or Crusader)/Bloodstorm Blade would fit this build perfectly.

[sideswipe]

thats the problem with core only, you have a fighter using his weapon, a twf rogue, a healing cleric and a utility mage. (though you can do more most of the optimisation tricks are not core)

[Urpriest]

You can enchant a shield as a melee weapon, even without Bashing. In fact, it's not clear that you can enchant a Bashing shield beyond +1 without it failing to stack with the effects of Bashing.

The way to do this in Core is to get a shield with the Throwing and Returning enchantments, and the Improved Shield Bash feat (since it's basically the only shield synergy in Core). There isn't much more to it, or much more you can do with it.

Do note that, in restricting you to Core, the DM is probably trying to avoid this sort of thing. DMs who restrict to Core generally do it because they want a relatively limited and predictable set of character concepts, doing something creative with your character will likely be seen as an attempt to get around the DM's idea of how the game should run.