Good Sword & Board optimization

[ArqArturo]

While controllers are great at dominating pretty much anything, and power-charging, leap-attacking Warblades are awesome, in the end of the day, sometimes you need a good solid wall of steel & muscle to keep the BBEGs minions at bay. Enter the noble Sword & Board (or Axe, or Mace, or Trident) build, that is usually overlooked.

What are any good X and Board options in 3.5 for a level 4? Assuming a 35-point buy and non-Dragon, non-Campaign-setting options are available except anything Greyhawk-related (and, sad to say, non-negotiable). ToB is marginally allowed. Also, I have to wear a physical shield, no Shield spell shenanigans.

I'm thinking a Dwarf Warblade might work, but I am fairly new at ToB, since most DMs I played with never allowed it, until now.

My stats are:

Dwar Warblade 2/Crusader 2
STR 17
DEX 12
CON 17
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 7

[NecessaryWeevil]

Briefly and off the top of my head, you're going to need methods of restricting enemy movement (to stop them from simply bypassing you) and reasons for them to attack you instead of your allies.

A few ingredients - I can't promise all these are available at level 2 or 4:

Iron Guard's Glare - Devoted Spirit stance. All of my allies are harder to hit and it's my fault. Maybe you should hit me instead.
Combat Reflexes - Every time you and your friends try to run by me I get to punch you in the face.
Improved Trip, and a tripping weapon, or Stand Still - All of those opportunity attacks you invite as you run by me now let me knock you flat on your butt.
Thicket of Blades - Devoted Spirit (I think) stance. Now you can't even slowly and carefully step around me without getting punched in the face.
A reach weapon - also useful to impede more enemies but not really compatible with a shield.

Crusader is pretty much the best tank I'm aware of, given that 'tank' means more than simply a slow-moving combatant who can soak damage.

[Heliomance]

You're going to want more than 12 Dex, because you want Combat Reflexes. Unfortunately, sword and board is not a particularly viable archetype in 3.5, because enemies can safely just ignore you. To not be ignorable, you need to be a threat. To be a threat, you need either high damage or battlefield control. For high damage, you want a two-handed weapon - so no shield. For battlefield control, you want as much reach as possible - ideally, a spiked chain. Again, doesn't work with a shield.

Sorry, this is just really hard to do well.

[Manly Man]

One thing I've seen people say is reasonable is that you can use a two-handed simple weapon as a martial weapon, so that a spear and shield build is viable enough without having to spend half of your feats on it just being workable. If that's the case, get a longspear, and either go as a Crusader, or be a Warblade and use your first feat for Iron Guard's Glare (take it at first elvel, even!), and then go for Thicket of Blades when you can qualify; it's probably a decent idea to go straight Warblade 20, since at the last level, you can be in two stances at once, which pairs beautifully with Thicket of Blades and whatever else you might want.

[Jeff the Green]

There are two options I know of. Crusader has two maneuvers (both of which are pretty decent) that use shields and they don't lose much besides reach by wielding a one-handed weapon. There's also Agile Shield Fighter, which is TWF with two feat prereqs (one of which kind of sucks, one of which you'll be getting anyway) and no Dexterity requirement.

[ranagrande]

You can use a shield and still have reach. Get a small spiked chain for your dwarf. You'll take a -2 penalty on attacks for using an inappropriately sized weapon, but you can use that spiked chain one-handed.

[Extra Anchovies]

You can use a shield and still have reach. Get a small spiked chain for your dwarf. You'll take a -2 penalty on attacks for using an inappropriately sized weapon, but you can use that spiked chain one-handed.

Undersized reach weapons don't grant reach, sadly. Kusari-gama from the DMG is a 1d6 light reach weapon (which could lead to some interesting TWFing).

[Kane0]

I'd second warblade 20 with the devoted spirit stances via martial study/stance feats. Warblade 20 gives you two stances at once, which is pretty kickass.

The majority of maneuvers a warblade gets don't really care if your using a one handed or two handed weapon, so a longsword and large shield works just as well as a greataxe as far as maneuvers are concerned.

Grab yourself whatever one handed weapon is at hand (warblades can swap out their weapon specific feats), a shield of your choice and have at it!

Make sure to pick up the diamond mind and iron heart boosts that elp your saves and allow you to ignore conditions so your not simply a roadbloack thanks to a dazing or nauseating spell or effect.

Perhaps you could also spend some skill points in intimidate or perform (taunt), so you can make a skill check or two in a fight to goad enemies into focusing on you.

[ranagrande]

Undersized reach weapons don't grant reach, sadly. Kusari-gama from the DMG is a 1d6 light reach weapon (which could lead to some interesting TWFing).

Where does it say that they lose the reach? I wouldn't really be surprised if that's the case, but I've never heard that rule before.

[zergling.exe]

If reach is that important, just get a Water Whip from the Magic Item Compendium. 1d3 lethal damage + 1d6 (Fire or Cold) damage and 15 foot reach as a one-handed weapon. Plus it has bonuses to trip and disarm attempts. Only downside is it might inherit the whips provoking when attacking.

[fishyfishyfishy]

Remove a few points from constitution and pump up dexterity a bit. You only need about a 14 before the dwarf racial mod.

Go full on crusader and take maneuvers and stances like Iron Guards Glare and Shield Block.

Fit the following feats into your build in order of your choosing: Improved Shield Bash, Shield Slam, Shield Charge, Shield Specialization, Shield Ward, Agile Shield Fighter, Stone Power, Combat Reflexes, and Stand Still. You can get all of these if you can take flaws.

Finally, there's a flavorful prestige for dwarves in ToB. Have a look, you might like it.

[Jeff the Green]

The majority of maneuvers a warblade gets don't really care if your using a one handed or two handed weapon, so a longsword and large shield works just as well as a greataxe as far as maneuvers are concerned.

Some work better, actually: the TWF Tiger Claw maneuvers. Assuming I'm remembering the wording correctly. You'll want Agile Shield Fighter for that.

On the other hand, losing the 2:1 Power Attack ratio makes Emerald Razor (slightly) less awesome.

[kardar233]

I like blending Charging with Tripping by using a combination of (Blood-Spiked Charger/Shield Charge/Shield Slam etc.) and (Improved Trip/Knockdown), using a Spinning Sword in your main hand.