3.5 / Making the Strongest, Fastest, Toughest Possible Gestalt Melee Brute

[JW86]

Hi,

So I've finished DM'ing my campaign and am now rejoining the other side of the table as a player. DM will be running a campaign with the following theme/character rulings:

- Post-apocalyptic wasteland setting. The lands are ruled over and disputed by various powerful, evil warlords who fight with one another. Any forces of good are basically shattered and enslaved.
- Many high-levels demons, devils, aberrations, illithids. The land is harsh.

- Gestalt 3.5
- 1 free LA template
- 1 free LA race
- 1 trait
- up to 2 flaws (2nd flaw must have a real noticeable impact on the character)
- 4d6, roll 7 times, drop 1 poor roll.

- Strength can replace Charisma for the purpose of Intimidate checks (important)

Now, I am seeking to create the ultimate Big Stupid Fighter.
I am brainstorming below, and welcome other creative ideas which I'll then eventually bake into a build.

Character Goals:

INSANE WORLD-BREAKING STRENGTH, NATURAL ARMOUR AND DAMAGE REDUCTION - I plan on dedicating one side of the gestalt to gaining templates (looking at half-ogre, half-minotaur, feral, mineral warrior and blooded one so far) on a Water Orc chassis (although we are granted an LA+1 race for free - any good strong suggestions? Perhaps some Anthropomorphic Elephant/Giant Squid/Balleen Whale if I can stomach the racial HD) I'll also be taking levels in War Hulk on one side of the gestalt, and perhaps taking Vow of Poverty and using the stat bonuses there for Str. I am aiming for as high a strength as possible.

RIDICULOUS SPEED AND JUMPING ABILITY - I have heard of people getting 100s of feet movement speed and enormous modifiers to jump that allows characters to leap hundreds of feet through the air. How?

INTIMIDATION AND PANICKING OPPONENTS - I will need to take levels in Zhentarim Fighter and take Imperious Command. I have read of being able to panick opponents as an immediate action, this is something I want in order to interrupt opponent's turns if they dare come at me.

ANTI-MAGIC FIELD - perhaps through Runescarred Beserker. I want to be able to shut down mages pronto, before cleaving their puny freckled heads from their mangey torsos.

IMMUNITY TO EVERYTHING - Immunity to Damage, elemental damage, mind-affecting.. if I can make this character literally invincible, I'll do it.

Contributions, ideas, suggestions all welcome.

[thethird]

Warforged Charger 4 / Warblade 1 / Warforged Juggernaut 5 / War Hulk 10
//
LA +3 / Fighter 2 / Barbarian 1 (for pounce) / Fighter or Warblade to taste

[Ursus Spelaeus]

Race: Athasian Human (Dragon magazine #319)
(Dark Sun is the post-apocalypstic D&D setting. This LA +1 race will give you +2 to two stats of your choice, plus psionic powers and power points for buffing, in addition to all the normal human features including a bonus feat and extra skill points. Pick up the Vigor power at 1st level, the Share Pain power at 5th level, and the Psicrystal Affinity power when you can for become a psionic tank. You get all this just from your race.)

Template: Half-Ogre or Half-Minotaur
(Get big for extra reach.)

Class 1: Crusader (Tome of Battle)
(d12 hit die, delayed damage pool, martial maneuvers, and all of the social skills)

Class 2: Feat Rogue (Unearthed Arcana)
(You need a source of bonus feats, but gestalting into fighter would be redundant since you are already getting full BAB, d12 hit dice, and martial weapon and heavy armor proficiencies from your Crusader half. Gestalting into Rogue with the feat variant from Unearthed Arcana gets you your bonus feats and also gets you additional skill points plus an expanded skill list.)

Trait: Quick
(An Athasian Human Crusader can afford to trade off 1 HP per level for an extra 10' of movement.)

[Zaq]

Race: Athasian Human (Dragon magazine #319)
(Dark Sun is the post-apocalypstic D&D setting. This LA +1 race will give you +2 to two stats of your choice, plus psionic powers and power points for buffing, in addition to all the normal human features including a bonus feat and extra skill points. Pick up the Vigor power at 1st level, the Share Pain power at 5th level, and the Psicrystal Affinity power when you can for become a psionic tank. You get all this just from your race.)

Template: Half-Ogre or Half-Minotaur
(Get big for extra reach.)

Class 1: Crusader (Tome of Battle)
(d12 hit die, delayed damage pool, martial maneuvers, and all of the social skills)

Class 2: Feat Rogue (Unearthed Arcana)
(You need a source of bonus feats, but gestalting into fighter would be redundant since you are already getting full BAB, d12 hit dice, and martial weapon and heavy armor proficiencies from your Crusader half. Gestalting into Rogue with the feat variant from Unearthed Arcana gets you your bonus feats and also gets you additional skill points plus an expanded skill list.)

Trait: Quick
(An Athasian Human Crusader can afford to trade off 1 HP per level for an extra 10' of movement.)

This advice isn't bad, but Crusader has d10 HD, not d12. It's still the tankiest ToB class, but the Warblade is the d12 one, not the Crusader.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

This advice isn't bad, but Crusader has d10 HD, not d12. It's still the tankiest ToB class, but the Warblade is the d12 one, not the Crusader.

My mistake. Thanks!

[Twurps]

Seconding the crusader, for the delayed damage pool, which works very nicely together with damage reduction as you get to apply DR to the delayed damage as wel. Mineral warrior for the free +1 template would provide that.

Also seconding the feat rogue, but you might want to consider 2lvls of monk, either in addition, or instead of. With all of the variants UA has to offer (Al offering 2 different feats at lvl1 and 2) there's almost always one that gives 2 required feats, and all good saves (in exchange for some skill points, but war hulk and skills don't mix well together anyway). Lose flurry of misses for 'decisive strike', only 1 attack in a round mixes well with crusader maneuvers, and double damage is always nice. not sure if it's monk weapon only? that would put a damper on things.

Other suggestions:
-use the save replacing maneuvers to boost your saves. (A level of swordsage can get you all 3 in a separate pool from any Crusader/warblade maneuvers).
-get Mettle: 1 lvl of pious templar (CD) is enough. feat prereq's suck a bit, but I don't know of any better way to get it in a 1lvl dip.

[Gusmo]

You'll want the leaping dragon stance from Tome of Battle, it increases the height of your jump by ten feet, and you're always treated as performing a jump as if you have a running start. For a vertical jump, that's equivalent to a +40 bonus. Consider adding the dragonborn template to whatever race you ultimately select, which allows you to get another +10 to your jump checks. And then of course, each +10 to your movement increases your jump check by +4. Additionally, the sudden leap maneuver will allow you to jump as a swift action.

[Rebel7284]

Typically the Tri-Kreen race is used for optimizing jump checks as they have a +30 (!) racial bonus. The non-psionic version is pretty low on the LA too as I recall.

[JW86]

Thanks guys. Here is what I am leaning towards..

Feral Half-Minotaur Lolth-Touched White Dragonspawn Goliath:
+14 Str, +16 Con, -2 Int
+20' land speed, +7 (or +13, depending on reading) Natural Armor, Immunity to Fear, Fast Healing, Darkvision, gains Improved Grab/Pounce/Rend/Rake in time.

One side going Dungeoncrasher Fighter/Spirit Lion Totem Streetfighter Barbarian with Swordsage dip. On other side going Cleric/Crusader/Prestige Paladin/Ruby Knight Vindicator.

Speed bonus:
+10 ft. from Feral
+10 ft. from Half-Minotaur increasing size
+10 ft. from Celerity Domain
+10 ft. from Barbarian... I get Pounce from Feral template.
+30 ft. from casting Expeditious Retreat

Speed: 70ft / 100 with Exp. Retreat

With approved Prestige Pally for Cleric casting, and Battle Blessing, once I get Divine Impetus from RKV that is lots of swift actions for spells and maneuvers. Barbarian Side is straight up Ubercharger, with Dungeoncrasher Fighter and Knockback. Level into Warhulk a little later into the build also for further Str and good AOE melee attacks.

Think I'm sorted now :)

[Buddy76]

Check with your dm regarding those special attacks, the feral template says "A feral creature gains additional special attacks depending on its Hit Dice, as shown on the table below. It gains the special attacks indicated in the row corresponding to its monster Hit Dice, plus all those in previous rows.". Most people interpret that as meaning that only racial hit dice (and not hit dice gained from class levels) count towards gaining those special attacks.

Some more things that came to mind:
- Have you considered goliath instead of water orcs? The stat adjustments are very similirar, your dex would take a hit but it would get you powerful build.

- The shadow template is more appropriate for sneaky builds but it does increase your speed by 150%. Worth noting.

- There is a fiendsh graft called springing leg, it's in page 211 of the Fiend Folio. It grants you a +30 bonus to jumping checks, but decreases your speed by 10ft.

- Might be too costly, but if you were a werefleshraker with 3 levels of the black blood hunter prc(Players Guide to Faerun, pg.177), you could do the full attack/rake/trip/grapple/poison routine in one turn.

- A great way to become immune to damage is regeneration+immunity to nonlethal damage. Get the troll blooded feat (Dragon 319) for the regeneration, and the Gheden template for immunity to nonlethal. Or, istead of Gheden, you could take 10 levels of Bone Knight and get immunity to nonlethal (plus most of the undead immunities).

- I assume that your character is evil, so you could take willing deformity+Deformity (Madness) to become immune to mind affecting spells and abilities. Big penalty to wisdom, though.

[JW86]

I edited the above post a little while ago as I'd worked some more things out, total stat adjustment now is simply: +14 STR, +16 CON, -2 INT. White Dragonspawn gives +2 dex so that balances out Goliath's -2 dex. Not bad at all. I also saw Goliath and went for it. No longer is my Wis/Cha disadvantaged.

I've popped Troll Blooded in as the Level 15 feat, and Gheden template to be taken at Level 16. A mid-late game boost and a half, that! I don't want to be invulnerable to damage too early on as I'd like for there to be some sense of challenge. But for late-game, that will be most fun.

Springing Leg, I'll see if this will be possible to acquire in-game.

Shadow template I'd considered earlier... I've now decided my starting templates. May add it in later.

Now, the only two remaining puzzle pieces are that I need to acquire two feats from items. Cleave and Mounted Combat. Any ideas for low-level (by level 6/7) items I might be able to acquire items which grant those feats?

Edit: Nevermind, have answered my own question.
http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=ddrl68v6r9u6ekuijle6d4l483&topic=4099