Need help with a player's character idea (D&D 3.5)

[tLHJack]

Hey there. Long-time reader, first-time poster.

I have a player who has a very specific character idea in mind, and I like it and would like to help him make it work. But, it's a bit hard to work with in the rules, and I'd like to not bend them too much (and so rile the ire of the other players).

So, concept: kid inherits a unique, magical weapon from his grandfather, who was a legendary warrior. The weapon has been passed down through their family for centuries. The setting is a kind of a cobbled-together generic, but with ideas brought in from lots of established settings. He is from the Orient (ala Rokugan).

The hard part: the player wants to build his character around finding out about and mastering this weapon, which is a bit Thundercats/Rod-of-Seven-Parts-ish. It's made of a bunch of tiny little interlocking plates of unknown metal, very durable. It appears as a staff, but through a series of touches/button-pushes/twists, can be compressed smaller (a club), blades can pop out (lajatang, spear), can break apart into two sections (joined via tiny chainlinks like a flail or shrunk like nunchaku, or broken into two jo-sticks/clubs), or three (three-section staff), or.... I hope you get the point. He's trying to come up with a 20-level build for this character, and we're having trouble making him effective as a fighter with such a weird variety of weapons.

The build that he's had the most luck with is a straight Fighter (possibly adding Human Paragon) wielding a Legacy Weapon (using some of the suggestions found here to make the thing work well and not be a trap). How can he Specialize in a particular weapon, or Focus in one, or grab Improved Critical, or anything of the sort, with such a wide weapon variety, though? His feats wind up eating into it a lot, grabbing feat after feat of Exotic Weapon, with a few generic ones thrown in (Improved Initiative, Power Attack).

Any good ideas on how to make this a bit more workable? Any help or ideas are appreciated!

[Zaydos]

Aptitude Weapon (+1 enhancement value, Tome of Battle) allows you to apply feats like Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization to it even if it is not the weapon you chose.

[Vizzerdrix]

Ive seen a rod someplace that changes into several weapons. Sounds like what you want. Maybe a 2 level dip into chameleon for the changeab.e feat so he can adjust his combat style day to day.

[Extra Anchovies]

Ive seen a rod someplace that changes into several weapons. Sounds like what you want.

Would that be the rod of lordly might (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#lordlyMight)?

[tLHJack]

Aptitude Weapon (+1 enhancement value, Tome of Battle) allows you to apply feats like Weapon Focus and Weapon Specialization to it even if it is not the weapon you chose.

Oooh, good one. I haven't studied the Tome of Battle much (or implemented it). This is a nice, succinct fix.

[Vizzerdrix]

Would that be the rod of lordly might (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rods.htm#lordlyMight)?

I think so, but I remember different weapons and no spells. Maybe a lesser version in another book?

[Efrate]

Couldn't you use EWP: Legacy weapon of weirdness, and each form you use it in as long as you still make it Legacy weapon of weirdness, just form:(club). Similar to like a dwarven urgosh which can be used as an axe, a spear, or a double weapon? But weapon focus dwarven urgosh gives you bonuses to the axe head, and the spear head, and the double weapon use.

There are a couple of transmutation like weapon enchancements that sort of do that already in the MIC iirc, but just go warblade 10/legacy champion 10 for a reasonable if far from awesome build.

You get all the legacy champion goodies, almost all the warblade goodies losing only dual stance and improved uncanny dodge of the good abilities, and 2 bonus feats, still get 9th level maneuvers. You get 2 legacy feats to kind of make up for your warblade bonus feats, and a bunch more use of your legacy weapon abilities, plus the ability to switch out some to customize it to your liking. You end with 17 BAB, enough for 4 attacks, base saves of 10 6 10, HP equal to a fighter on average, and it fits the theme.

[Andezzar]

The morphing property allows you to change the shape of a weapon. EWP and one level of Warblade makes you proficient with any one exotic weapon each day.

[tLHJack]

Couldn't you use EWP: Legacy weapon of weirdness, and each form you use it in as long as you still make it Legacy weapon of weirdness, just form:(club). Similar to like a dwarven urgosh which can be used as an axe, a spear, or a double weapon? But weapon focus dwarven urgosh gives you bonuses to the axe head, and the spear head, and the double weapon use.

There are a couple of transmutation like weapon enchancements that sort of do that already in the MIC iirc, but just go warblade 10/legacy champion 10 for a reasonable if far from awesome build.

You get all the legacy champion goodies, almost all the warblade goodies losing only dual stance and improved uncanny dodge of the good abilities, and 2 bonus feats, still get 9th level maneuvers. You get 2 legacy feats to kind of make up for your warblade bonus feats, and a bunch more use of your legacy weapon abilities, plus the ability to switch out some to customize it to your liking. You end with 17 BAB, enough for 4 attacks, base saves of 10 6 10, HP equal to a fighter on average, and it fits the theme.

This looks like another good suggestion for a way to build him. I'll look into this some more, and suggest it to him. Thanks!

[Thurbane]

I think so, but I remember different weapons and no spells. Maybe a lesser version in another book?

Possibly the Rod of Surprises (MIC p.58)? There's also Morningstar of the Many (MIC p.54), but I strongly suspect Rod of Surprises is the one you're thinking of.

In regards to the OP, if you don't want to put the aptitude ability on the weapon, the player could always dip one level into Warblade or Bloodstorm Blade (both in ToB) to get the ability to shift his feats to a different weapon each time he meditates.

[thoroughlyS]

The Ancestral Relic feat (Book of Exalted Deeds p.39) (http://alcyius.com/dndtools/feats/book-of-exalted-deeds--52/ancestral-relic--70/index.html) sounds like exactly what you want. Your player designates one item they posses as their ancestral relic, and can basically pay money to have its power grow over time. The only caveat is that the feat doesn't become available until 3rd level.

The Samurai (Oriental Adventures p.20) gets a similar ability called Ancestral Daisho at 1st level, but there are a few caveats. Chief amongst them is that it has to be a paired katana and wakizashi, which can only have properties equivalent to bonuses. This ability still scales with character level, not class level, which is nice.

If you go the Ancestral Relic route, I recommend starting off with a shortspear, spear, or longspear, so that they can apply the Changeling property (Magic Item Compendium p.31) at 5th level. If you're lenient, I might even recommend allowing the player to "trade out" redundant abilities as time passes. For example, the Morphing property (MIC p.39) would render Changeling obsolete, so it could be dropped off the weapon. This would also allow them to add Morphing onto the weapon a level earlier.

If your player is planning on taking feats like Weapon Focus and so on, I would also recommend looking at the Kensai prestige class (Complete Warrior p.49) or Exotic Weapon Master (CW p.30), although I've never used them myself.

A couple of properties worth looking at (most of which can be found in the MIC) are, changeling (spears can change into one another, +2,000gp), morphing (change into any weapon, +1), skillful (allows wielder to use with proficiency, +2, Complete Arcane), metalline (change into different metals, +2), Aptitude (Tome of Battle).

Depending on how lenient you are, you might also allow the player to take abilities from unique items at cost, like the Rod of Surprises mentioned above.

You might also consider using the Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) rules. They offer a much stronger progression option, but they were an experimental idea put forward in Unearthed Arcana, so you might not want to use them.

[tLHJack]

Thanks for the Warblade and Ancestral Relic suggestions. I'll bring those options up for him as well.