Starting a Frostburn campaign

[Mongobear]

DM is going to be starting some form of new campaign entirely taking place in a setting using all of the rules from Frostburn, and I am trying to think of a class/race combo that would fit it well. My initial idea was a Neanderthal Battle Cleric of Thrym, who plays closer to a Viking/Pillager, and utilizes Divine Metamagic + Extend Spell/Persistant Spell to abuse stuff like Divine Favor/Righteous Might, and possibly going into Disciple of Thrym just for RP reasons, but that classes lack of spellcasting progressing in place of its own spell list scares me.

Can any of you think of good class/race combinations or builds that fit the setting well? We're sort of somewhere between med-op and high-op so please limit shennanigans to one trick melee ponies, with no Pun Pun or other broken builds. Most 3.5 material is allowed, and no Pathfinder transparency since we dont use that material. I would prefer to stick with a very melee oriented build, but some form of Gish or Battle Cleric would be best.

[Troacctid]

Your standard Battle Cleric build will serve you just fine without any special modifications beyond preparing endure elements. Generally, things that are good in a typical setting will be good in a frostfell setting too.

[FocusWolf413]

Maybe the dark creature template? It gives cold resistance.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

What level are you beginning play at, and what level do you realistically expect to reach?

A Lesser Aasimar in PGtF is a Humanoid instead of an Outsider with a +0 LA, but it still gets all the rest of the Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm) traits, including Resist Cold 5. That's ideal for a battle cleric in a frozen environment, IMO.

I would avoid worshiping a CE deity unless the rest of your party is similarly aligned. The Disciple of Thrym is designed for Frost Giants to take it, so it's an ideal choice for his typical followers. For a melee Cleric, I'll typically prefer Cleric 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10, using the Frog God's Fane in CS to get the feat prerequisite for Divine Oracle. You can just not pick a particular deity and take whatever domains you want, provided they all fit your character's ideal.

[Mongobear]

What level are you beginning play at, and what level do you realistically expect to reach?

AFAIK, we are starting at level 4-6, tending towards the higher level. Realistically, I expect us to either finish or get burnt out of this adventure by the early to mid teens, so say 15 at the highest. The DM is consistent, but the group tends to either tunnel vision end goals or skip red herrings and go right for the obvious target/MacGuffin.


A Lesser Aasimar in PGtF is a Humanoid instead of an Outsider with a +0 LA, but it still gets all the rest of the Aasimar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/planetouched.htm) traits, including Resist Cold 5. That's ideal for a battle cleric in a frozen environment, IMO.

I thought the same thing initially, but the one caveat in this whole thing is that the only Races/Dieties we are allowed are those in the Frostburn book, and no +LA at all. As far as classes/feats/etc, almost anything from 3.5 is allowed, otherwise.

My idea I am toying with right now is a Neanderthal Battle Cleric of any Diety with War Domain, and go for something good PrC-wise with atleast 7/10 spell casting and functional class features, but it has been so long that I don't really know of any off the top of my head.

There wouldnt happen to be a Battle Cleric Handbook would there?


I would avoid worshiping a CE deity unless the rest of your party is similarly aligned. The Disciple of Thrym is designed for Frost Giants to take it, so it's an ideal choice for his typical followers. For a melee Cleric, I'll typically prefer Cleric 6/ Divine Oracle 4/ Contemplative 10, using the Frog God's Fane in CS to get the feat prerequisite for Divine Oracle. You can just not pick a particular deity and take whatever domains you want, provided they all fit your character's ideal.

I was mainly looking at DoT just because it seemed interesting, but yeah I realised the whole CE + Cleric thing probably wouldnt end well. We do tend to play sort of dickish/semi-evil parties, but theyre usually in the attitude of Anti-Heroes. We do good things, but the means we tend to use are of questionable morality, and Paladins are universally laughed out of the group should someone show up with one, unless they plan on going Blackguard.

My typical Battle Cleric build tends to go straight Cleric and just run off of DMM shennanigans, and I take enough Extra Turning feats to have a nice pool for Metamagic boosting, but I am looking for something more functional or flashy than that. The magical locations aren't allowed, fo I think the frog god's thing wont work, I'd prefer something more straight forward like Cleric 6/"Good Prestige Class" 10 as our group limits PrCs to a single choice until you finish the full level progression of any.

[Falcon X]

Play an Uldra. Get to be and icy fey and annoy the rest of the party by being emo all the time and raging against civilization. Not quite as bad as the Kender K word, but still pretty bad.

[Mongobear]

Still looking for tips on Battle Cleric builds/Prestige Classes. Ordained Champion is a good idea, but the Dieties default required for it arent included, however the DM said that he may allow it with Frostburn dieties, so thats most likely my choice unless something changes.

[daremetoidareyo]

What I was attracted to in frostburn:

unarmed swordsage/barbarian/frostrager

Using that icechucker machine entirely with javelins and pairing it with a stormlord from complete divine. Shocking thundering d12 damaging javelins. It also breaks you from the weird reliance on cold damage that frostburn seems to maximize.

urban druid 5 (halfling substitution levels)/beastmaster 1/windrider 3/wildplains outrider 4/halfling outrider 5/other stuff. Ride around on an animated surfboard companion/mount with a lance. At fourth level, upgrade to a winged battle sled to ride around on charge attacking with a lance.

Still some dumb rules about harpoons ripe for abuse.

[Fizban]

Still looking for tips on Battle Cleric builds/Prestige Classes. Ordained Champion is a good idea, but the Dieties default required for it arent included, however the DM said that he may allow it with Frostburn dieties, so thats most likely my choice unless something changes.
This. The first deity on the list is Lawful Good and has the War domain, there is no reasonable argument against it and Ordained Champion gets rid of the only problems with Divine Power builds. Bonus feats, swift action spontaneous Divine Power, and swift action spontaneous Blade Barrier, so dead. No need to DMM: Persist, and you can use your turn undead for better smiting than the classes that are supposed to smite. And hey, your new deity Aengrist even has an actual weapon worth wielding for your War domain bonus feat: free bastard sword!

I also like Frostrager (AC barbarian build what?) but it's offense is pretty bad until 5th when you get rend, and then it's only average, still pretty cool. Wild Shape Ranger into Primeval is the only way to to do it in my book, but then you're literally a one trick animal.

[Mongobear]

This. The first deity on the list is Lawful Good and has the War domain, there is no reasonable argument against it and Ordained Champion gets rid of the only problems with Divine Power builds. Bonus feats, swift action spontaneous Divine Power, and swift action spontaneous Blade Barrier, so dead. No need to DMM: Persist, and you can use your turn undead for better smiting than the classes that are supposed to smite. And hey, your new deity Aengrist even has an actual weapon worth wielding for your War domain bonus feat: free bastard sword!

Yeah thats the diety he has adjusted Ordained Champion to fit, along with Iborighu? i think the one with a Scythe as favored weapon, which depending on how our group decides to go in this world, I may go for over Aengrist since Scythes are OP. Im pretty much settled of Cleric/Ordained Champion as my build, I just need to figure out the process of how I get there, since I am rusty on the Battle Cleric's finer points. He told me that DMM: Persist wasn't allowed, but any other metamagic feat was ok, so I may DMM: Extend still, unless the Prdained Champion's Smite stuff is actually worth it compared to just spamming Power Attacks.



I also like Frostrager (AC barbarian build what?) but it's offense is pretty bad until 5th when you get rend, and then it's only average, still pretty cool. Wild Shape Ranger into Primeval is the only way to to do it in my book, but then you're literally a one trick animal.

I did look at the Frostrager before settling on a Battle Cleric, but I noticed that its offense seemed weak as well. The idea I had was to somehow cheese my way into Monk Unarmed damage, but outside of going straight Monk, I don't know anyway that would actually work. I tried to get him to reverse engineer Pathfinder classes and allow me to play a weaker version of the Brawler but he banned anything from Pathfinder because our group fears change, despite Pathfinder being miles better than, imo.

As far as the Primeval, I thought it was interesting, but another player expressed interest in the PrC before me, so I decided not to persue it.

[Troacctid]

The Ordained Champion smite actually works really well with spamming Power Attack, since it gives you a big ol' boost to accuracy that you can convert into more damage.