(3.5) Need help building a "noble monster" PC

[PangolinPie]

Alright well first let me supply the backstory...

I've been playing the same character in my friends game for a good year or so now; a dwarf barbarian who's been the primary muscle in a group of....NOT muscle. Last game session we had to end the night mid battle due the time of night but its pretty damn apparent to me that by next game, my guy IS going to die...because my GM isn't one of those bitches who uses deus ex machinas to save characters just because he wants to keep them around; if you **** up, YOU DED...

However, creating a new character at this point would have to be something that could originate in our current location, which is another plane of reality that we have yet to learn the name of but its basically a dark barren wasteland covered in an endless ocean of shambling undead kept at bay as we travel via a shining book of Pelor (similar to the movie Pitch Black with all the aliens just outside the range of the light waiting to pluck someone off the edge and drag them away). There are a few remote human habitats scattered about, heavily fortified in which they live in constant terror. We're currently on our way to take on the big bad sorceress/necromancer boss lady and to avoid said zombie nastiness we've ventured underground which actually appears to have some actual life but so far have only just seen a few mindless beasts and monsters.

What I'm currently picturing in my head as a character idea is some kind of big, hulking meat shield who appears quite monstrous and frightening but has a heart of gold. Its not unlike the original literary depiction of Frankenstein's monster who was actually quite intelligent and even faithful despite his very existence being a middle finger in gods face. I'm not really considering going full undead with him as the most viable option, the Necropolitan template has a lot of ritualistic fluff that just doesn't interest me but maybe some kind of humanoid who was once living, like a Goliath who was tortured and experimented on, stitched back together and now looks like a patchwork nightmare, entire body cloaked in rags and a hooded cloak to hide his face from the world having somehow survived underground for years on his own. I'd also like to shy away from inherently "dumb" racial options as well as I'd like to be able to hold down a decent conversation while not sounding like a bad Tarzan impression.

Stat wise I'm thinking if there's some way to mix elements of dungeon crasher and hulking hurler together to just make him a one man wrecking crew with his bare hands but I'm open to other ideas.

The other members of our team are two glass cannons; a sorcerer and a radiant cleric of pelor and the third a swift dual blade wielder who racks up crazy multiple hits in melee combat so I'm thinking more of a "one big heavy hit" theme with not much in the way of magic unless its something really unique and interesting. We also have a follower of my current character, a halfling master thrower/whisperknife that the GM might keep around even if/when my current PC dies as he's grown close to the rest of the team and the GM has had a lot of fun playing him.

Limitations:

- No Tome of Battle
- No Psionics
- No third party rules
- Possible homebrew if its not OP and is intriguing enough
- Overall though mostly only core rulebooks

While he does tend to limit races and base classes to the original PH, a long time has passed since we started and given we're in another plane of reality, he may be open to other ideas as long as its core material but still not a fan of the ones mentioned above.

And we're all at 14th level but I don't mind LA for the sake an interesting character idea

Any ideas?

[Troacctid]

Hellbred from Fiendish Codex II would be perfect for you. You also might be interested in Daelkyr Half-Blood from Magic of Eberron.

[Inevitability]

An intimidate-based character may be interesting: you'll have actual uses for charisma and intelligence, the best races tend to be monstrous-looking (desert half-orc) and feats that enhance intimidate tend to gruesomely change your character's appearance in some way (Willing Deformity).

[Flickerdart]

Have you considered the Totemist from Magic of Incarnum? Most of the fluff for their soulmelds is along the lines of "you grow a monster part" so they appear quite savage if they choose. Just don't use the benign-looking soulmelds and you'll have the "monster" part of your noble monster down.

To add the "noble" part you can dip Cleric or Ur-Priest, and then go Sapphire Hierarch to progress both your casting and your incarnum abilities. Or if you prefer arcane, Soulcaster. Focus on self-buffs to avoid the overt "yet another magic dude" thing while still getting tasty tasty power.

[Kaje]

Your Frankenstein comparison makes me think Warforged. What about a Warforged SLTbarbarian/ Totemist/ Warforged Juggernaut?

[Ortesk]

See about homebrewing, or looking up a monster class for, a flesh golem. Thematically it fits, if you say your maker wanted you more human like so you dont have all the powers, but you get to not be a knuckledragger.

Barring that, a warforged Jugg would fit well, just say he looks like frankestiens monster. When he was made, he was patched together from human and warforged parts. Would be slightly interesting, dm may allow it since it would have only cosmetic affects

[PangolinPie]

Hellbred from Fiendish Codex II would be perfect for you. You also might be interested in Daelkyr Half-Blood from Magic of Eberron.

Not really digging the whole "demon" angle particularly.


An intimidate-based character may be interesting: you'll have actual uses for charisma and intelligence, the best races tend to be monstrous-looking (desert half-orc) and feats that enhance intimidate tend to gruesomely change your character's appearance in some way (Willing Deformity).

Definitely something worth considering but I'm very much into the idea of a large sized racial choice.


Have you considered the Totemist from Magic of Incarnum? Most of the fluff for their soulmelds is along the lines of "you grow a monster part" so they appear quite savage if they choose. Just don't use the benign-looking soulmelds and you'll have the "monster" part of your noble monster down.

GM isn't a fan of Magic Incarnum...yeah he tends to be picky about content being more of a traditionalist.

To add the "noble" part you can dip Cleric or Ur-Priest, and then go Sapphire Hierarch to progress both your casting and your incarnum abilities. Or if you prefer arcane, Soulcaster. Focus on self-buffs to avoid the overt "yet another magic dude" thing while still getting tasty tasty power.

Really thinking more of a bruiser over a divine caster but like in the other replies, something worth considering if I get to that point.


Your Frankenstein comparison makes me think Warforged. What about a Warforged SLTbarbarian/ Totemist/ Warforged Juggernaut?


See about homebrewing, or looking up a monster class for, a flesh golem. Thematically it fits, if you say your maker wanted you more human like so you dont have all the powers, but you get to not be a knuckledragger.

Barring that, a warforged Jugg would fit well, just say he looks like frankestiens monster. When he was made, he was patched together from human and warforged parts. Would be slightly interesting, dm may allow it since it would have only cosmetic affects

Warforged is definitely a compelling idea I'd have to look into but yeah flesh golem kind of has more of what I was originally thinking.

I guess one detail I forgot to share is that the other players really aren't optimization types. Only one of them has prestiged (Radiant of Pelor), the other two are happy with just playing straightforward sorcerer and fighter respectively, enjoying the RP experience more than maxing out stats. Therefore anything too crazy with the multiclassing and stuff would seem off balance by comparison.

I might just go with a far simpler idea; the tried and true half-ogre template (raised in a human civilization so more likely to be more good natured); unarmed brawler/grappler, straight Fighter to start with Hulking Hurler and find another simple/effective but not overly complicated PRSC to round him out.

Any suggestions for another class like that, that isn't too overcomplicated that will compliment a big grappler/brawler/charger type? No Warhulk please. Also not big on the idea of barbarian as a base class; my current character is a barbarian and I've been playing him for a LONG time...wanna try something different.

[Vizzerdrix]

Insectile template comes to mind. If dragon and dungeon mags are okay, Obah Blessed is fun. Quite a handy template, to be honest.

[Fizban]

One big hit just isn't viable without ToB most of the time, but there is a weaker sort of alternative in a class you probably don't want to take: Monk, with Decisive Strike from PHB2. Instead of flurry of blows you can make one attack as a full round action, and double the damage for that attack (and any other attacks that come up) until the start of your next turn. The catch is that you have to use a monk weapon, and if you want to get more than one attack on your turn you have to stick in monk until 11th. Note that unlike flurry of blows, nothing prevents you from using decisive strike when you're wearing armor, so you can just dip monk at 1st level to get it and then leave forever (bonus points if you use Overwhelming Attack style to get Power Attack for your monk feat).

So you've got a two handed weapon (quarterstaff) to use with power attack, one hit on your turn for double damage plus any other AoOs you can get. You could go straight fighter after that, focus/specialize/melee mastery up your attack and damage. If you want to actually do monk instead of dip and run, here's my fixes:
First and most important: AC bonus. Crank that sucker up, 2+1/2 monk level. People expect unarmored martial artists to be hard to hit, not laughably easy, and the first part of this is giving them an innate AC bonus that actually matches armor. Monk AC bonus should stack with Bracers of Armor (or Monkwraps of Armor) so they don't lose out on the normal Enhancement scaling, but you can have it not stack with Mage Armor if you want.

Second part: give him Wall Walker from Dungeonscape and Water Step from Stormwrack, in addition to rather than replacing Slow Fall. With the ability to both run up and slide down walls, and move across water, the monk should actually have some mobility.

Third: very common, allow Flurry of Blows on standard action attacks, so that you aren't massively penalized for moving, and explicitly allow gauntlets/handwraps for enhancing unarmed. *Since we're talking Decisive Strike here obviously that should be allowed as a standard action ability (not a standard attack because that could transfer into a full attack).

Fourth: the Wholeness of Body ability is equal to your full normal hit points instead of some tiny amount (much like a Guardinal's Lay on Hands, except self-only). This makes the ability useful in combat as a 1/day full hp recovery, and makes a Monk stand out from other "mundanes" in that they do in fact recover all hp in a single day without need for magic items.

Fifth: if the campaign runs long enough, throw in a bonus feat at 10th, 14th, and 18th, from any feat associated with Monks. Just to fill things out and help with those massive feat trees.
Alternatively there's big weapon build, a goliath with a fullblade deals 3d8 per hit before bonuses. There's not much you can do that will support a single attack over full though, that's why ToB is needed to make the archetype viable. Unless you intentionally take sub par feats like Powerful Charge (+a die on a single attack after a charge), all your damage going to apply on every attack you make and you've no reason to not take as many as you can get. Shield Slam is normally usable but undead are immune to it. Hulking Hurler has some single attack abilities, but the base weapon damage even for big stuff isn't much more than a fullblade and if you're specifically fighting hordes of undead the hurler's single attack/single target only stuff is not helpful, and you've already rules out Warhulk.

Duidzilla is an option. Water it down with PHB2 shapeshift, the numbers might look intimidating but they're actually much less than what you can do with normal druid stacking and have a very predictable damage range. The last two forms are slam based so you only throw one big hit with each arm like a golem. You can still be a scarred and twisted hulk, and since your intent is brawling rather than casting you can lose some levels if you want, or drop it to bard spells per day if it's just too much.

What about Green Star Adept? Scarcity of resources aside, it's got strength bonuses and DR. You can enter with Warlock and use Hideous Blow for a single hit (as long as your DM will waive the AoO on the invocation). There's a post somewhere that says the Warlock's creator originally intended Practiced Spellcaster to do Eldritch Blast damage as well (basing the damage on your caster level rather than class level), with that ruling Green Start Adept would have full blast damage and it's easy enough to change the capstone so it doesn't make you immune to healing.

[Telonius]

When I hear "noble monster" I usually flip right to Sharakim in Races of Destiny. They're a bit on the weak side (+1 Level Adjustment, and it sounds like buyoff probably won't be available), but they're very thematic. Pluses to Strength and Intelligence. Something like a Rogue or a Fighter could do well.

[Alistaroc]

- Possible homebrew if its not OP and is intriguing enough

flesh golem
I won't speak on OP, as I find it's extremely subjective, but Osclecamo's Flesh Golem Monster Class (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=15809.msg278510#msg278510) is pretty awesome. I'll say right away that it appears quite powerful to me, again though, I don't know about OP. Personally, I love the Meat Hook ability; it basically turns you into Thresh from League of Legends or Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. The high-level abilities of System Specialization, specifically the Skin and Blood ones are real powerful, granting a shifting damage/energy immunity or fast healing equal to your Strength modifier. So again, powerful, maybe worth LA, maybe not, all up to you and your DM.