Help building a Dread Lumberjack

[SaintPatience]

Hello playgrounders!

This forum has played a major part in my builds and theorycrafting before; but only with builds that have already been done by someone else.

But now I've registered in order to present (hopefully) a new character concept: The Dread Lumberjack

Imagine the most Canadian, beard-sporting Brawny Man. He wears flannel. He wields an axe. He speaks like Ned Flanders. He's a simple man who understands his place in the world, and is content with it. Until you piss him off.

The build I'm considering is as follows:

Damaran Human (taking Jotunbrud)
STR 17
Dex 15
Con 16
INT 12
WIS 14
CHA 13
Barbarian 2 / Fighter 4 / Ranger 2 / Hulking Hurler 3 / Ranger 9

As far as combat goes, I envision him opening with a large thrown axe, then charging his target and finishing the job with dual hand-axes (or a giant saw blade that functions as a greatsword).

The problem is, I'm completely stumped on how to optimize this obviously niche character idea. He's going to be strength-based, but I'm not sure if I should focus more on ranged or melee combat. Or should my feats be geared toward charging?

What are your thoughts?

[Thurbane]

Is ToB allowed? Martial adept levels could do a lot to enhance your build, both for melee and throwing.

I'm guessing Ranger is mostly there for "woodsman/outdoorsman" aspect of the character? Or is it for TWF? And Fighter 4 is for feats?

...generally speaking, mundane warrior types are better off focusing on one aspect and putting the majority of their resources into that. Trying to mix throwing, TWF and two-handed weapon prowess might weaken the character overall.

[Vizzerdrix]

Bonus points if he has a giant ox.

[SaintPatience]

Is ToB allowed? Martial adept levels could do a lot to enhance your build, both for melee and throwing.

I'm guessing Ranger is mostly there for "woodsman/outdoorsman" aspect of the character? Or is it for TWF? And Fighter 4 is for feats?

...generally speaking, mundane warrior types are better off focusing on one aspect and putting the majority of their resources into that. Trying to mix throwing, TWF and two-handed weapon prowess might weaken the character overall.

No ToB, BoED, or BoVD. I probably should have mentioned that up front.

And you're spot on with my reasoning for Ranger and Fighter.

As for party role, I'm part of a three man group, and I'll be up front tanking for the most part. The other two are ranged spells and heals, and straight melee damage.

Keeping my concept in mind, what would be some good feats to initiate strong and assert control when in melee?

[Telonius]

I'd totally try to build this guy (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/Incentives.html), but I'm in the middle of a villain competition...

http://www.giantitp.com/Images/bcx/MonsterMash002.gif

[SaintPatience]

Bonus points if he has a giant ox.

With the levels in Ranger, I could definitely go full Paul Bunyon if I wanted. Lol

[ComaVision]

I think Bloodstorm Blade would work for this a lot better, especially since your axe would bounce back after you throw it at the Treant. The feat Apprentice (woodsman) would add Survival and Know: Nature to your class skills.

[SaintPatience]

I think Bloodstorm Blade would work for this a lot better, especially since your axe would bounce back after you throw it at the Treant. The feat Apprentice (woodsman) would add Survival and Know: Nature to your class skills.

Bloodstorm Blade looks interesting, but my DM doesn't allow anything from ToB.

[ComaVision]

Bloodstorm Blade looks interesting, but my DM doesn't allow anything from ToB.

Ah, my apologies, I missed the line in your earlier post. In that case, I think you're pretty going to need to do charging to have decent damage. I think there's a ranger ACF in Dragon Magazine that gives you Power Attack instead of Two Weapon Fighting. Once you have the requisite feats to do that, maybe you could pick up Brutal Throw and Power Throw to give yourself a decent ranged option when charging won't work.

[Soranar]

Instead of going for jotunbrun, why not go stoneblessed (goliath 3)
then take the barbarian goliath substition level (when you rage you grow large)

as for the oxen, the closest thing to one is a bison (druid level -3 animal companion)
which you can obtain through the wild cohort feat

[Bohandas]

You should probably take plant as a favored enemy type. That's where I initially thought this was goig when I saw the thread title.

[SaintPatience]

Thanks for all your input everybody. After scouring the Internet, I've decided to eschew many of the normal Ranger class features for ACF's that fit the spirit of a true woodsman. Link to my notes below, if anyone cares to take a look and make any other suggestions:

https : //docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1MK3c9BIU5cefGipqowo7ykyxiax7vib4i1T2SOeKbP4/edit?usp=sharing

You'll have to remove the spaces, as I'm evidently not allowed to post links until I've made ten unique posts (understandable, considering a site this popular must be on the radar for a number of spambots).

I'll be starting level 7.

[Fizban]

Build doesn't strike me so much as "dread lumberjack" as "as bunch of combat manevuer feats with some hulking hurler tacked on at the end." Jotunbrud also doesn't let you use oversized weapons or count as large for prerequisites, and there's no such thing as a Protection from Evil Belt.

If you want to be lumberjack, you've gotta be able to cut down a tree. You know how many hit points a full size tree has in dnd? 600 hit points, plus hardness 5 on every hit. That means big damage. Since you can't use real combat maneuvers for damage and PHB2's fighter has to wait until 16th level to get the same ability it gave to monk at 1st (which is still worse than Diamond Nightmare Blade), you've go no serious multipliers. Fighter can deal more damage more consistently, but Barbarian has the extra woodsman ability and Whirling Frenzy gives an extra attack. You want him to be scary when he's angry, and few things are more scary Instantaneous Imperious Intimidating Rage Commands.