The Mighty Glacier: Help on playing the Heavy

[Comica]

Perhaps I should explain.

I'm trying to find a way to play a "Heavy" character: Dishes out Massive Damage, a Butt-Ton of HP, Huge AC, basically being the team Tank. I also want to play a Monstrous character, being a Monster vs any of the base races, for Function and Flavor. I've decided Ogre works for this (+10 Strength and +4 Constitution (and -2 Dex/-4 Int and Cha) with 6 levels and 4d8, some Natural Armor, etc.), but I don't know what Classes to pick to be beefy, as well as keeping good Flavor (vs. simply slapping unrelated things together for maximum breakage). We're starting our campaign somewhere between Lv. 8-10 or so.

Oh, perhaps I should clarify "Flavor", since I know someone's going to ask. I mean flavor as in having a consistent theme for the character. I don't know what flavor to go for yet, but perhaps someone has an idea?

(Also, I'm still on the fence about Ogre. The stats and potential memes are a good driving force, but I'm open to other suggestions for race.)

[ATHATH]

A Warforged Crusader with the Adamantine Body feat is pretty tanky (and moves slower than other Warforged).

[Starkeeper]

The Ogre's a pretty bad choice, go for a Water Orc with Half-Ogre if you must, gets you almost everything the Ogre offers with just LA 2 instead of wasting 6 levels, a Goliath of straight Water Orc might still server you better though. Warblade's the Class you'll want to look at if you want to dish out pain while having a good HP pool.

[Comica]

The Ogre's a pretty bad choice, go for a Water Orc with Half-Ogre if you must, gets you almost everything the Ogre offers with just LA 2 instead of wasting 6 levels, a Goliath of straight Water Orc might still server you better though. Warblade's the Class you'll want to look at if you want to dish out pain while having a good HP pool.

Right, I'll look into that. Thanks!

[Comica]

Just found Warblade.

Oh boy, here we go.

[PraxisVetli]

Just found Warblade.

Oh boy, here we go.

Warblade masterrace!

[Bobby Baratheon]

Template stacking will almost certainly give you better results than a straight monster. A Half-Ogre/Half Minotaur Goliath would be large, count as huge when beneficial, have massive stat boosts and only cost +2 LA, which can be bought off very easily.

One option would be to become a Half-ogre/half-minotaur dwarf, then dip one level Fist of the Forest and take Deepwarden. You'll get Constitution to AC twice (albeit with one of those instances replacing Dexterity), still be large sized, and have enough strength to pummel anything into the dust. All for a measly +1 LA.

The Feral template might interest you as well; it grants rather impressive natural armor, very nice natural attacks, decent stat modifications, fast healing, pounce and faster movement. All for +1 LA.

EDIT: combining feral with Deepwarden/Fist of the Forest would get you a very nice AC. With a consitution of 22 (+6), you'll have (from natural armor and class features alone) an AC of 29.

EDIT2: Crusaders are good "heavies" too, though in a different way than the Warblades. Crusaders are just flat out almost impossible to kill, with a TON of self/ally healing abilities. Warblades dish out the pain, crusaders take it and laugh.

[Troacctid]

I'd recommend the Mineral Warrior (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e) template. Nothing like DR 8/adamantine and a nice big Con boost to make you feel tanky. And since you turn into living stone or whatever, you are literally the heaviest character on the team.

[Prime32]

Dragonborn warforged Fighter (Dungeoncrasher) 6/Warforged juggernaut 5

On top of high durability and charging through walls (you have the equivalent of +30 Strength for that purpose), you're also immune to a ton of effects which would shut down a normal warrior (e.g. ability damage/drain, mind control, instant death). Plus your primary means of attack also moves enemies around, making it harder for them to reach your allies (if you're partnered with a Battlefield Control wizard, they'll also appreciate your ability to push enemies into their spell effects).

[ATHATH]

Dragonborn warforged Fighter (Dungeoncrasher) 6/Warforged juggernaut 5

On top of high durability and charging through walls (you have the equivalent of +30 Strength for that purpose), you're also immune to a ton of effects which would shut down a normal warrior (e.g. ability damage/drain, mind control, instant death). Plus your primary means of attack also moves enemies around, making it harder for them to reach your allies (if you're partnered with a Battlefield Control wizard, they'll also appreciate your ability to push enemies into their spell effects).
Unfortunately, Dungeoncrasher Fighter is dysfunctional. It requires you to bullrush someone into a wall, yet the bullrushing rules explicitly forbid you from doing so.

[Comica]

Well, at this point, I have decided to make my character a Half-Minotaur, Half-Ogre Orc Barbarian/Orc Paragon. It may not be the singular most optimized build of all ever, but it's worth a shot (considering my DM probably won't want me taking an exotic class i.e. not in the PH)

[Comica]

Well, at this point, I have decided to make my character a Half-Minotaur, Half-Ogre Orc Barbarian/Orc Paragon. It may not be the singular most optimized build of all ever, but it's worth a shot (considering my DM probably won't want me taking an exotic class i.e. not in the PH)

Also, my Ability Bonuses (not including level-up or class bonuses) are
+20 Str
+12 Con
-2 Dex
-6 Int
-2 Wis
-4 Cha
With only a +2 LA, the likes of which I'm buying out with the "Removing LA" rule (to have all my levels w/o LA)

[Bobby Baratheon]

Why the LA+2? Half Ogre and Half Minotaur together are actually only LA 1. One of them (Iforget which) states that the LA only counts if you go up a size. The other one already bumped you up to large, so the second is free.

[Comica]

Why the LA+2? Half Ogre and Half Minotaur together are actually only LA 1. One of them (Iforget which) states that the LA only counts if you go up a size. The other one already bumped you up to large, so the second is free.

Clever, clever! Thanks!