Goliath crusader 5 -- viable advancement other than more crusader?

[rrwoods]

I'm in a game with a friend of mine. He's playing a spiked chain wielding Goliath crusader, currently single classed at 5th level. He recently expressed he might want to prestige/multiclass and I figured I'd see what the playground's input would be about where to go from there. I know that typical RKV entry is Cleric/Crusader but he's some amount of casting-averse as a player.

His stances are Iron Guard's Glare and the hit to heal one. Maneuvers I can recall are Charging Minotaur, Douse the Flames, Stone Bones, Vanguard's Strike, Crusader's Strike, and WR Tactics. He's not going Combat Reflexes (10 dexterity). He's primarily a strength based chain tripper/tank, changing his offensive strategy to deal damage and occasionally push enemies around when tripping isn't possible. I *believe* he just had a blue ice great sword commissioned but I could be wrong; that sword and WR Tactics we haven't had a chance to see in action yet as he *just* leveled to 5. (Also, he very well could swap out the most recent crusader level for something else, but given it gives access to WRT that's not likely to happen.)

Party makeup is: VoP BFC/heal cleric, melee/tank cleric, shadow hand swordsage (me!), conjurer looking toward malconvoker (without abrupt jaunt), and this guy. Available sources are all of 3.5 first party hardbacks (including Dragon Comp) but no individual Dragon mags. Very little banned material, probably none relevant to this character.

[Kaje]

Wilder? Swordsage/Warblade/Master of Nine?

[Troacctid]

Off the top of my head, some interesting choices might include War Mind, Hellreaver, Knight of the Weave, or Incarnate into Ironsoul Forgemaster or Necrocarnate.

[Pyromancer999]

A good dip would be Lion Totem Barbarian 1 with the Goliath racial substitution level for Mountain Rage and Pounce(good for a backup tactic for a Strength-based melee fighter). Mountain Rage increases your size to Large(unfortunately specifically does not increase weapon damage die), does increase base reach to 10' and the Strength bonus to +6, though.

Also, aside from previously mentioned prestige classes, if the character is aiming for RKV, it is not a bad idea to do a Cleric 1 dip, and spend some levels in Ordained Champion, which is for more martial champions of Deities. Gives you War Domain, and lets you swap out domain abilities for fighter feats, as well as spend Turn attempts for Smite effects, allows spontaneous War Domain spells for buffs, and channel spells through your weapons. It also allows you to expend spell slots for Damage Reduction/Chaotic and bonuses to damage rolls, which would allow for the player to put cleric spell slots to good use without having to deal with spellcasting if he does not wish to. Only drawback is the spell expenditures come in at 3rd and 4th level, which takes up some level space for RKV, although can still fit in all levels of RKV with Crusader 5/Cleric 1/Ordained Champion 3(only nets you the Damage Reduction)/RKV 10, which still gets you +19 BAB, along with spell slots/spellcasting of a 12th level Cleric(6th level spells). If you're not worried about the extra maneuver known at RKV 10, you can always swap that out for another level of Ordained Champion or a level in Lion Totem Goliath Barbarian.

[Telok]

Could grab two levels of warblade or swordsage for a couple more stances and the save replacement counters. It also delays crusader stance picking by an IL, which I recall as a useful thing.

A level or few of Knight... Stop laughing. It has a bit of synergy and fits the guy in heavy armor theme.

Honestly I'd look towards things that offered maneuverability, ranged attack boosts, or good out of combat utility. Possibly dragon fire adept or warlock, about half the first level isn't useful but you could pick up a skill and invocation or two that opens up new tactics.

[Bakkan]

I'll second Incarnate or Totemist. Incarnum provides great passive bonuses. Since he doesn't like casting classes, I assume he might want something without a lot of bookeeping, and having a standard array of soulmelds shaped permanently allows him to do that while allowing him a lot of flexibility should he need or want to be more versatile. In particular, the Mauling Gauntlets soulmeld helps with tripping.

[Darrin]

Barbarian 2 with Spirit Lion Totem, Wolf Totem, and Whirling Frenzy ACF sets the table for a lot of side-dishes. Seconding Hellreaver, great meatbag class for "I wanna curbstomp some evil", and the holy fury points both make you hit harder and give you something to do other than hitting things.

[rrwoods]

Some great suggestions guys, thanks!

Hellreaver in particular looks cool. His RP is very lawful good (but not lawful stupid), so it fits right in.

Goliath Barbarian looks cool, but can you still use the pounce ACF? It looks like the substitution level removes fast movement.

I really like the incarnum suggestion too.

[Pyromancer999]

There's nothing saying it doesn't, but then again, not having it there does raise questions about other substitution levels, like Gnome Illusionist not having a familiar or Scroll. I would say that Barbarian is good either way.

Although, did forget to note if alignment restrictions are in place, he can't take barbarian if he's lawful good.

If they aren't, you can also fill out the last few levels of the build after Hellreaver with Champion of Gwynharwyf, which is essentially Barbarian-as-Paladin, with accelerated Barbarian goods like Damage reduction, Paladin goods like pseudo-divine grace, and other goods besides(like spells, with some good buffs in there, although not too many). No code of conduct to boot. Very good if you want to be an incarnation of divine wrath.

[Kelb_Panthera]

Alternate class features and racial sub' levels typically only list the changes they make. Other features remain as the default version of the class.

[rrwoods]

Started a new thread for the RSL/ACF interaction discussion. Regardless I think barbarian 1 is worth it, and I'll be suggesting it to him along with everything else.