[3.5] Need help making a martial character

[zilios]

Hey guys, relatively new player here. Me and some friends are currently playing through "Shackled City" as a 4 player party and we've been getting brutally pummeled. I joined the campaign halfway and my character (which I made purely flavor wise, something I thought looked cool) died in the first session. I am now playing an arcane caster at level 8, and after almost getting wiped by a CR 9 encounter I fear my character may not be long for this world. So far our party is 2 divine casters, 1 rogueish type and 1 arcane caster (me). I feel since we already have 2 other casters it might be in our best interest to get a martial/fight-y type of character in case some or all of us die.

The allowed books are PHB 1/2, DMGs, SpC, CW,CAdv,CM,CA,CSc(No skill tricks) and MIC. I would like to play something with a lot of damage that also has a decent to good AC and survivability in general. Specifically I would really like to make a TWF build work but I understand that they kind of suck? I really like the flavor of it though. I'd also like a good amount of skills if possible to keep myself relevant out of combat as well, if possible. Most importantly though, I want it strong enough so that I don't hold back the party and versatile enough that I'll be able to assist the party in most situations.

Sorry if this was too long, any help is appreciated!

[John Longarrow]

Starting around 8th level and front line.

Lvls 1-4 Barbarian for HP, fast move, and straight up combat ability.
Lvl 5/6 either Wizard or Sorcerer. Grab Shield spell
Lvl 7+ abjurant champion. Good hp, full bab, and boosts your AC when casting shield. At this point you'd be able to toss up shield as a swift action while using a two handed weapon.

As soon as you can you want to get wraith strike also. Nothing like Power Attack + Wraith strike on a high BAB build!

[Jowgen]

Considering the party make up, I'd suggest going for a battlefield control frontliner and focus on protecting the mages.

Get yourself reach (spiked chain is best, but there are alternatives), plus Combat Reflexes and the Spellcaster Guardian teamwork benefit from DMG2 p. 193. From there go for either a regular attack of opportunity tripper, or upgrade to a Knock-Down one, or maybe Standstill if that's more to your liking. A level of monk for easy access to improved trip might be worth it, plus it'll help your saves.

The strategy is to simply stick by the casters so that anything that moves for them will provoke from you and be stopped by a trip. If something gets past and your casters are threatened, they get an extra layer of protection from AoO with you via Spellcaster guardian. A Sudden Stunning weapon (DMG 2 p. 261) might also be useful, but you'll likely already find yourself streched thing between Str and Dex, but on the whole it should work. If you party doesn't already have a decent healing supply, you may want to load up on some Healing Belts to keep your meatshield body in good condition.

[LordOfCain]

Hey, just play a warblade.... oh... nevermind.... hey, play a monk... oh wait.... um.... barbarian? Maybe some fighter as well... not many options there... Maybe playing a spellthief would be fun as well as kind of filling the arcane spellcaster role?

[Grod_The_Giant]

TWF, skills, some survivability? How 'bout a Daring Outlaw build? A few levels of Rogue, then mostly Swashbuckler-- good BAB and hit points, and 4+Int skills on a chassis with a secondary Int focus.

[gorfnab]

How about a Swift Hunter (http://www.brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=103.0) build?
If you can swing the book Complete Champion you can get the Spirit Totem: Lion ACF for Barbarian which works with the builds in the spoiler. If you can't get Complete Champion I can make other recommendations.

Human
1. Scout – Dodge, Mobility
2. Ranger – Arcane Hunter ACF (CM)
3. Ranger – Weapon Finesse, B: Two Weapon Fighting
4. Barbarian – Spirit Totem: Lion ACF (CC)
5. Scout
6. Scout – Weapon Focus: Scimitar
7. Scout – B: Combat Expertise
8. Scout
9. Dervish (CW) – Swift Hunter (CS)
10. Dervish
11. Dervish
12. Dervish – Improved Two Weapon Fighting
13. Dervish
14. Dervish
15. Dervish – Greater Two Weapon Fighting
16. Dervish
17. Dervish
18. Dervish – Improved Skirmish (CS)
19. Ranger or Scout
20. Ranger or Scout

If you don't really want the last level of Dervish since A Thousand Cuts is only once per day you could have levels 18-20 be scout. Then you could take Elusive Target (CW) as your 18th level feat and Improved Skirmish (CS) as your bonus Scout feat at level 20.

Human
1. Scout – Dodge, Mobility
2. Ranger – Arcane Hunter ACF (CM)
3. Ranger – Weapon Finesse, B: Two Weapon Fighting
4. Barbarian – Spirit Totem: Lion ACF (CC)
5. Scout
6. Scout - Swift Hunter
7. Scout – B: Improved Skirmish
8. Scout
9. Ranger – Improved Buckler Defense (CW)
10. Ranger – Distracting Attack ACF (PHBII)
11. Ranger
12. Ranger – Elusive Target (CW), B: Improved Two Weapon Fighting
13. Ranger
14. Ranger
15. Ranger – Combat Reflexes, Spell Reflection ACF (CM)
16. Ranger
17. Ranger – B: Greater Two Weapon Fighting
18. Ranger – Two Weapon Rend (PHBII) or Robilar’s Gambit (PHBII)
19. Ranger
20. Ranger

[Ywvbevlin]

Just play a fighter. Its the best at fighting

[Manyasone]

Just play a fighter. Its the best at fighting

I suspect a lot of rectums are getting vacuum-sucked to their chairs at the reading of that sentence, friend

[danielxcutter]

I suspect a lot of rectums are getting vacuum-sucked to their chairs at the reading of that sentence, friend

I think that was a joke.

[Togo]

Depends on what you want. TWF can do a lot of damage, but tend to be limited in other ways, can have trouble staying adjacent to the enemy, and aren't generally very tough.

One possibility would be a Master of Many Forms build. Start off with wildshape Ranger 5, which is technically outside your range of books, but is a fairly simple variant that is widely available online. If that's not allowed, go for Druid 5. Then take MoMFs 3 and spend most of your time as the large creature of your choice - carniverous ape or troll are good basic choices. Race is your choice, although please remember that you won't benefit from Str or Dex bonuses or penalties in your alternate form, and con will only give you hp. Human is mechanically probably the best, but I found gnome was good too. Stats are similar, so get decent con, enough wis to cast the spells (i.e. not much), and then blow the rest on int, chr or whatever else you want.

Ranger or Druid 5, MoMFs3 (C Ad)
Suggested Feats: Alertness, Endurance, Fast Healing (CW), Extra Wildshape (CW?), Hawk's Vision (CAd), unarmed strike.

Unarmed strike is tricky. On paper it's great, since you can get unarmed attacks with your BAB and then treat all your natural weapon attacks as secondaries, and get them on top at -5 to hit. However, your DM may well beat you to death with the monster manual for trying such a thing, and it's really hard to play a martial artist snake, tree, or will-o-the-wisp without feeling a bit silly. This is already a powerful class, certainly Tier 2, so try to avoid pushing it too much.

The basic point of this is that you get monster natural weapons and str, which gives you decent damage, although less than most martial classes. You also get reach, which is handy, and take up more than one square, both of which help stop the monsters getting to your friends. You'll also end up as a great grappler, have some really great spot bonuses (hence hawk's vision which stacks with Alertness, monster spot bonuses, and decent wisdom).

However, the best feature is access to ever increasing suite of special abilities from monster forms. The monster books are your friend. Try carrion crawler (multiple paralysis attacks per turn), umber hulk (dungeon walls are irrelvent now), or will-o-the-wisp (sky-high AC, immunity to magic, invisible, perfect flight).

Defensively you get a very good AC which can be futher improved by mage armour, barskin, and other staple enchantments. You also heal your level every time you change shape, your level*1.5 if you take the Fast Healing feat (Cw), and your level*3 if you take Fast Healing feat and get the Healthful rest spell (ranger or druid). And you can change shape twice a round if needed, so that's the ability to self heal 8*3*2=48 hp a round. Given a wide range of immunities from different monster forms, high AC, High hp from con, self healing, and the ability to get fast healing and/or regen, and this is one of the toughest classes you can get in 3.5.

The two disadvantages are that this is a very powerful and flexible class, comparable to a sorceror, and people may complain. And it's also a huge amount of paperwork, far more than a mere wizard. You need to work out, in advance, the stats of all the forms you want to use, and what your attack routine, hp, AC, saves and feats and skill bonuses will be.


My second suggestion would be the high charisma trip fighter build. A couple of levels of Marshal, combined with barbarian and fighter to taste, then go two levels of whatever martial p-class takes your fancy, followed by Divine champion (CW)

E.g. Champion of Kord
Barbarian2/marshal3/fighter1/Pious Templar(or occult slayer) 2/Divine Champion of Kord (competition domain).

Feats : (extra rage), true believer (or improved intiative), weapon focus (greatsword), combat expertise, improved trip, power attack
Martial aura Major, (+1 to hit in melee), Boost strength, boost dex

Take Charismsa as your highest stat, followed by strength. Human works best, as you need the feats and the skill bonus. Use a Guisarm as your initial weapon, and then switch to greatsword if reach is not useful. Some barbarian variants give you imp trip without taking combat expertise, which saves a feat.

This gives decent attack, with reach, adds your chr bonus to initaive for the entire party, gives you a trip attack of str bonus+charisma, bonus+4+competition bonus (when you get the domain at 9th level). At later level, you get some good spells, and 9th level spells at the same time as the dedicated spellcasters. You can try and chase around all the prestige classes that give bonus domains such as seeker of the lost isle, or contemplative, and take them all, but how much of that you can get away with depends on the DM.

The disadvantge is that you need high stats.