Ideas for a TWF pick build?

[Matrota]

I'm back again, and in my boredom, have been starting to design a dwarven character who fights with dual-wielding a heavy and a light pick, and will hopefully be inflicting some heavy damage through TWF and such. Only things that are really set in stone for this build is that I'm going to be taking the Stone Breaker feat from Secrets of Sarlona. Does anyone have any advice for thematic feats, skill tricks, or classes I could look into that would help make him a brutal, intimidating kind of fighter? I just think that warpicks in general are much more gory and nasty than the standard sword, spear, axe, or club, and would like to help back that up somehow. Rending with the picks helps (Stone Breaker), but what else might lend itself to that kind of image? I'm not necessarily looking to focus on intimidation or anything, but it might be interesting to throw into it. I already rolled for stats, and here are the stats assuming I played an earth dwarf:

STR: 19 (+4)
DEX: 15 (+2)
CON: 19 (+4)
INT: 10 (+0)
WIS: 15 (+2)
CHA: 13 (+1)

I play with multiple DMs, but all permit 2 flaws, 2 traits, a free regional feat, and with proper justification I can often get 3-4 flaws instead of just two. We use all 3.5 content and dragonmags, and can use PF on a case-by-case basis with DM-approval.

[Zaq]

Hmm. Is the rend from Stone Breaker a swift-action attack (with an attack roll), or is it just a semi-automatic damage roll? If there's no attack roll associated with it, there's relatively few ways to beef up the damage from a rend, so I'm not sure that we'll be able to do terribly much to showcase it. Knowledge Devotion should work, though, as should the Pact Augmentation feature of the Binder. If you can convince a GM that the rend is a "melee" damage roll, various abilities associated with Evil Incarnates should also work, but I don't see anything actually designating the rend ability as melee.

Part of the problem is that, like almost all style feats, Stone Breaker eats way more than its fair share of feats, and those feats rarely have too much synergy (TWF and Power Attack, really?). So this build is basically going to need to blow a bunch of levels on Fighter, take a ton of flaws, or both. So there's a limit to our flexibility. Taking Stone Breaker automatically allocates a full five feats, which is a seriously nontrivial portion of your build choices.

Hmm. Nothing says that you have to be adjacent to a target to rend it. Just that you have to have hit it. Can we do something amusing/stupid with Throw Anything and/or with Bloodstorm Blade, just for giggles?

[Darrin]

You can combine TWF with Power Attack a couple different ways. In this case, I'd recommend the typical PA/IBR/Shock Trooper route, and picking up the Oversize TWF feat so you can get PA on both your primary and offhand picks.

Hmm. Where is the war pick from? I'm having trouble finding it.

You could take Exoticist Fighter (Dragon #310) to pick up EWP: Dire Pick (Complete Warrior), and then go into Exotic Weapon Master for the "Uncanny Blow" stunt. You may have to work out with the DM whether or not you get two-handed damage when wielding one-handed exotic weapons, but if so, then you can dish out the same oodles of damage as any Pouncebarian/Ubercharger build.

Once you get BAB +11, you can add Two-Weapon Rend (PHBII) on top of Stone Breaker's rend.

[Matrota]

Hmm. Where is the war pick from? I'm having trouble finding it.

Ah, I meant heavy pick, i think i was under the impression that war pick was the correct namw for it. Changing the op now.


Once you get BAB +11, you can add Two-Weapon Rend (PHBII) on top of Stone Breaker's rend.

I had forgotten that fest existed! Thank you.

[BowStreetRunner]

As with any TWF build, you need to get both your attack and damage up. Your attack is already suffering from TWF penalties that you need to overcome, and damage is usually less because you don't benefit from larger weapons and the bonus for using a weapon two-handed. You have Weapon Focus for attack from your prerequisites, which is okay. Power attack is another prereq and while it helps damage it hurts attack even further. Knowledge Devotion can help both attack and damage, so it's a really nice option. Nor do you need to invest a ton of skill points to make it useful, just get at least one rank in each of the Knowledge skills that relate to creature types (even if you have to do so cross-class).

Another thing that is needed by TWF builds is more ways to ensure you get multiple attacks per round. Not every enemy is going to sit around while you try to get into position to full attack them. Two Weapon Pounce is another option here. What I really like is a dip in Warblade for some martial adept maneuvers - there are a few that give extra attack options for TWF builds.

[Thurbane]

I don't have much to add, except the OP made me instantly think of one of my minis:

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/Uj4AAOxy1NxSDGG0/s-l640.jpg