Melee character/gish that is extremely disruptive?

[Xaroth]

This is a bit of a random thought that I had, but I thought that the idea of having a character that is extremely up-in-your-face, giving you nearly no chance to cast spells that require more than a swift action or react while constantly giving you some form of status condition, would be really interesting to create. It'd also be insanely annoying to fight against, naturally.

A few pointers off the top of my head:

Has a very high movement speed. If you try to move away from them, they'll catch up to you, and punish you for it.
Almost makes it necessary to move out of their threatened area lest you be destroyed.
Capable of reacting on a whim to stop someone from casting a spell.
Access to all movement speeds, so it's very difficult to escape from.
For the purpose of just, the image I have in my head, they'd probably be very fast with attacking too, maybe using a speed weapon, maybe having boots of Haste, maybe something else. I'm not sure.

In essence, I'm looking for the "I'M NOT GIVING YOU TIME TO THINK!" build.

Where would I begin, with this? Maybe dipping two levels into fighter to start with?

EDIT: On second thought, starting with SLT Barbarian for Pounce is probably the much better option.

EDIT 2: I'm thinking it'll be a build that goes up to 20? But if I could achieve it earlier than that, that might be pretty cool.

[The Glyphstone]

Spiked Chain sounds mandatory for a weapon. You need to be able to stop them from just 5-ft stepping out of your threat range, whether that's closer to you or further away, and doing whatever they want from there.

[Xaroth]

Spiked Chain sounds mandatory for a weapon. You need to be able to stop them from just 5-ft stepping out of your threat range, whether that's closer to you or further away, and doing whatever they want from there.

Yeah, the Spiked Chain for tripping would be pretty phenomenal, wouldn't it? A trip, and if you fail your trip attempt and are then tripped, you can just drop it to avoid the trip and then use something else. That determines one feat: EWP: Spiked Chain. But should I get this from a flaw, or just the first level feat?

[Troacctid]

Neither, just use a martial reach weapon. It's a lot cheaper.

[Xaroth]

Neither, just use a martial reach weapon. It's a lot cheaper.

I found the Guisarme, which also allows for trip attacks, but if this is going to be an up-in-your-face character that can't get straight up in your face, it's not too great, is it? A character wielding the Guisarme can't attack someone right next to them with it, after all, right?

[Malroth]

Bard 4 into Crusader4 for White Raven Tactics, Song of the White Raven and Thicket of Blades, Finish off in Jade Phoenix mage and Abjurant Champion

[Efrate]

A glaive and some gauntlets or armor spikes saves a feat. Start by looking at the crusader lockdown builds I would imagine, and fitting in swiftblade somehow, maybe with leapfrog wizarding(does that work or not saw a thread a while back but didn't read it) into the casting. Immediate action counters would be great to facilitate a lot of the no you don't moments.

If you are open to pathfinder stuff, look at the Harbringer class from the path of war expanded IIRC. Its on the d20pfsrd. Its a more mobile int SAD swordsage for the most part.

Sticking to 3.5, the tome of battle is the likely the first place to look, since it gives your martials the tools to actually do things with the action economy other than move attack end.

[Xaroth]

Bard 4 into Crusader4 for White Raven Tactics, Song of the White Raven and Thicket of Blades, Finish off in Jade Phoenix mage and Abjurant Champion

Why Abjurant Champion? And what maneuvers do you think would be good for Crusader 4?


A glaive and some gauntlets or armor spikes saves a feat. Start by looking at the crusader lockdown builds I would imagine, and fitting in swiftblade somehow, maybe with leapfrog wizarding(does that work or not saw a thread a while back but didn't read it) into the casting. Immediate action counters would be great to facilitate a lot of the no you don't moments.

If you are open to pathfinder stuff, look at the Harbringer class from the path of war expanded IIRC. Its on the d20pfsrd. Its a more mobile int SAD swordsage for the most part.

Sticking to 3.5, the tome of battle is the likely the first place to look, since it gives your martials the tools to actually do things with the action economy other than move attack end.

Unfortunately I'm sticking to 3.5e for this. But I could do that, with the armor spikes and the gauntlets. But what do you mean by crusader lockdown builds? I haven't heard of those before, oddly enough.

[Troacctid]

I found the Guisarme, which also allows for trip attacks, but if this is going to be an up-in-your-face character that can't get straight up in your face, it's not too great, is it? A character wielding the Guisarme can't attack someone right next to them with it, after all, right?
No, but you can just wield a hands-free weapon at the same time to do that, like a spiked gauntlet, armor spikes, natural weapon, etc.

If you want to be harrying spellcasters, then I recommend the Spellcasting Harrier feat, or its little brother Mage Slayer.

[Xaroth]

No, but you can just wield a hands-free weapon at the same time to do that, like a spiked gauntlet, armor spikes, natural weapon, etc.

If you want to be harrying spellcasters, then I recommend the Spellcasting Harrier feat, or its little brother Mage Slayer.

Hm, good point. I could go with a human for the race, I suppose, maybe slap a template on? Hm.

[Hiro Quester]

With the combination of speed and fast reactions, in a Gish, it sounds like you are describing a Swiftblade.

A battle-sorcerer base, perhaps, or even a bard/sublime chord swiftblade, who specializes in abusing celerity and the swiftblade's time-stop like ability.

Able to be right in the opponent's face, ready to damage them to counter-cast (force a concentration check equal to the damage taken orlose the spell they were about to cast.

Spamming bladeweave to inflict dazed on anyone they damage, even.

[Xaroth]

With the combination of speed and fast reactions, in a Gish, it sounds like you are describing a Swiftblade.

A battle-sorcerer base, perhaps, or even a bard/sublime chord swiftblade, who specializes in abusing celerity and the swiftblade's time-stop like ability.

Able to be right in the opponent's face, ready to damage them to counter-cast (force a concentration check equal to the damage taken or lose the spell they were about to cast.

Spamming bladeweave to inflict dazed on anyone they damage, even.

Goddamn, that looks and sounds incredible, especially starting with Battle Sorcerer. So Battle Sorcerer... 6? And then Swiftblade?

[Troacctid]

If you want Swiftblade, I'd go Stalwart Sorcerer over Battle Sorcerer so you don't lose so many spells. The extra BAB doesn't help you enter the class any sooner anyway.

[lord_khaine]

I think you want a solid dose of psionics in there. For the almost unequaled mobility, ability to dispel buffs, and temporal shenanigans.

[Eldariel]

Slayer (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/prestigeClasses/slayer.htm)-based Lockdown character with Mage Slayer & Thicket of Blades seems pretty good. Provided the DM rules the caster level penalty doesn't apply to manifester level. Otherwise those feats are quite painful though you could wing Mage Slayer with Practiced Spellcaster.

Far as Swiftblade goes, Elf Wizard 6/Swiftblade 9/Abjurant Champion 5 is the gold standard; still gets 9th level spells including Shapechange, Time Stop, Disjunction, Gate & everything those entail. You even get Extraordinary Haste which means you can keep it active even in Dead Magic Zones or Antimagic Fields (though to cast it, you probably need to be able to cast spells; if you pick up Persistent Spell you could have it up all day). Certainly, for messing with time and getting extra actions and being disruptive though, Swiftblade is a solid choice.
Abjurant Champion is generally an autoinclude since it advances both, BAB and casting fully while giving you some decent abilities making it an excellent Gish prestige class. Also 17 BAB so you don't really need to bother with Arcane Discipled Divine Power or similars. Of course, you could just take Incantatrix and persist some buffs to a similar end. It would cost you two more BAB at least, but it would enable you to just use Incantatrix's Metamagic Effect ability in conjunction with Persistent Spell to make all your buffs last all day.

The usual lockdown setup is:
Combat Reflexes
Thicket of Blades (stance, Tome of Battle; can be acquired via. two feats or a level in Crusader)
Mage Slayer

Reach weapon and size increases on top of that are automatic. Everything else is more or less optional. Spells can take care of the most of it.

[Endarire]

Hood (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=7200.0). She's been around for years. Enjoy!