Prestige class ideas for fighter build

[Conacar]

Hey all,

I'm currently playing a 3.5 fighter in a magic-light, highly-political, human-dominated campaign.

Most-used feats are:

Cleave + great cleave (for our world, highly efficient)
Weapon spec + focus (greatsword)
Quickdraw
Mounted combat, ride-by attack, spirited charge
Power attack (have it, but don't use it often)

He's especially deadly when mounted, and he uses a griffon. Recently, however, our Ranger (has a hippogriff-based prestige class) has become so well-built that our fighter (me) isn't always the primary damage doer.

Looking, ideally, for a prestige class that features either heavy mounted combat, high melee damage output (it's okay if it's based around charging), or something combining them.

Homebrew feat suggestions are good, too (our DM is open to them). Thankya much!

P.S. rarely uses ranged weapons, has extremely high STR, decent CHA, decent DEX and CON, average INT and WIS.

[ThisIsZen]

I think you might get a lot of mileage out of the Cavalier PrC from CWar.

[Troacctid]

Blackguard is decent if you're evil. Knight of the Weave is excellent otherwise. Divine Crusader is also very solid either way.

I like to try and prestige into something with spellcasting to compensate for the traditionally poor scaling of classes like the Fighter.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Rogue (or artificer, scout, anything with trapfinding) 1/Trapsmith 1 into Swiftblade is (almost) always good. You get a lot of haste-related benefits, such as miss chances, speed buffs, and eventually an extra standard action per round. It is a bit of a long-term commitment though, and you'll need Dodge and Mobility (Martial Rogue can provide one of those).

[sleepyphoenixx]

The easiest way to boost your damage is to actually use Power Attack. Get Shock Trooper (CW) to shift the penalty to your AC and rely on miss chance to avoid being hit.
You can also switch to a lance when mounted for double damage when charging (and reach).
The Riding Boots (DMG2) add another multiplier to mounted charges, as does the Valorous weapon enhancement (UE).
For non-mounted damage you can get Battle Jump (UE) and Leap Attack (CAdv).

The next step is to get Pounce. The easiest way is probably 1 level of Barbarian with the Lion Totem ACF (CC).

Choose your favorite option. You'll reach "enough" damage long before you run out of options that improve your damage on a charging build, to the point where it's generally suggested not to go all out because it's likely to piss off your party and have your DM throw books at you.

For actual classes your options are pretty much open. You can branch out into a bit of lockdown (Improved Trip, Combat Reflexes, Reach), get a different combat style for when charging isn't available or add more options for out of combat contribution.
I agree with Troacctid though that a PrC with its own casting progression is likely the best choice, because you won't get as much benefit out of staying purely martial.

[Conacar]

Great ideas. One caveat: in our campaign, humans can only use magic if they'd studied it for a long time, and there are no human sorcerers. So it's restricted mainly to old professorial wizards, of sorts.

Paladins are an exception.

That said, we've given the magical benefits of the ranger class a less magical explanation, so magic can work, it just has to be limited.

[Troacctid]

If Paladins are an exception, Divine Crusaders and Blackguards probably are too—their magic comes from the same source. Knight of the Weave is probably out, though.

[Conacar]

If Paladins are an exception, Divine Crusaders and Blackguards probably are too—their magic comes from the same source. Knight of the Weave is probably out, though.

I'll have to ask. In any case, thanks for the good suggestions.