Weapons master build that needs help

[FTG82]

Hey so in my d&d group we've just started to use the book of nine swords and i saw the warblades ability to switch weapon focus/everything else that involves a single weapon (if i'm wrong about this please tell me because I don't want to cheat) So i was thinking about making a character who specializations in Weapons as a whole. Be it a two-hander, a one-hander and shield, dual wielding, or range. As well as able to tell you each weapon (knowleadge weaponry?) and is pretty agile (Jump, Tumble, Balance, Hide, and Move silently ) So i'd like to have feat weapon focus, weapon specilization, the greater form of each of those, twin weapon fighting (and other stuff like that) and the ability to use range weapon in close quarters. Personally i want her to be a human or another race that looks human like as she will probably be a monster hunter but other races that could replace human to help my goal would be very nice. So i know i have to have at least one level in warblade to get that ability and some manuvers would be nice. But the other classes and bonuses idk. Fighter and rogue maybe?
If this isn't possible then sorry for bothering you.

[Khedrac]

Well if you want to go up the Weapon Specialization feat tree you have to be a fighter or warblade, apart from classes that get a few of them as bonus feats no other class can even take weapon specialization.

Now you could mix fighter and warblade for a few extra bonus feats from fighter, but if you goal is to make a weapons master you probably just want to go straight warblade (rogue adds virtually nothing to a front-line combatent build unless wanting the extra damage to make two-weapon fighting viable).
If you really want to dip a class to get extra mobility skills (though again it delays takign weapon spec & the later feats) dip Barbarian which gets you faster movement and more hit points as well as a nice range of movement skills.

I'd suggest searching for a warblade handbook.

[Venger]

don't take weapon specialization, it's terrible

as mentioned, warblade handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?176968-Masters-of-the-Sword-A-Warblade-s-Handbook-Under-Construction) does a good job of explaining the basics. warblade 20 is a perfectly solid build.

[Darrin]

Hey so in my d&d group we've just started to use the book of nine swords and i saw the warblades ability to switch weapon focus/everything else that involves a single weapon (if i'm wrong about this please tell me because I don't want to cheat) So i was thinking about making a character who specializations in Weapons as a whole. Be it a two-hander, a one-hander and shield, dual wielding, or range.


There was a Weapon Master PrC in the 3.0 book "Sword & Fist", but it was a pain in the tuchus to qualify for (essentially, get "Whirlwind Attack" and all of the useless prereq feats that go with it). It wasn't particularly powerful as far as melee PrCs go, but it did have some rather unique abilities that don't show up anywhere else in the game. It also had Knowledge (Weaponry) as a class skill! Unfortunately, it was "replaced" in 3.5 with Exotic Weapon Master, which did nothing to replicate any of the 3.0 Weapon Master abilities. Also, in 3.5, Knowledge (Weaponry) isn't really a thing, sadly enough.



As well as able to tell you each weapon (knowleadge weaponry?) and is pretty agile (Jump, Tumble, Balance, Hide, and Move silently ) So i'd like to have feat weapon focus, weapon specilization, the greater form of each of those, twin weapon fighting (and other stuff like that) and the ability to use range weapon in close quarters. Personally i want her to be a human or another race that looks human like as she will probably be a monster hunter but other races that could replace human to help my goal would be very nice. So i know i have to have at least one level in warblade to get that ability and some manuvers would be nice. But the other classes and bonuses idk. Fighter and rogue maybe?

As a system, D&D does not do a very good job at rewarding characters with a broad range of abilities. Specialization in one or two key focus areas tends to be more effective. When you're a melee-focused meatbag, the biases in the system can be particularly harsh and punitive: even if you specialize with one particular weapon or focus on one particular tactical combo (Chain-Tripping, Boomerang Daze, etc.), the novelty of melee damage gets overshadowed once the spellcasters get to 7th level, and can become somewhat irrelevant once the GAWDMODE wizards can end an entire encounter with a single spell. That being said, your particular group may have a low optimization level overall or a more casual play style. As far as what you're trying to do... yes, it is possible, but getting the entire Weapon Specialization line of feats (along with Melee Weapon Mastery/Weapon Supremacy) along with the Two-Weapon Fighting feats *and* some Ranged feats... uh... that's kinda Candy Shop Syndrome ("TAKE ALL THE FEATS!") gone horribly wrong.

Being able to easily switch between a variety of different weapons *sounds* like a KEWL ability in D&D, but in practice it's more of a non-ability. Very, very few combat situations call for you to switch to a different weapon. The most common ability that requires switching weapons is usually Damage Reduction, which generally leads to Golf Bag Syndrome: you keep a few backup weapons that are cold iron or silver "just in case", but most of the time you can power through DR by just doing more damage.

Also, switching weapon styles in 3.5 is problematic. The most effective weapon style in 3.5 is Two-Handed Fighting (THF): grab a greatsword and Power Attack, and you've got everything a meatbag needs for levels 1-20. You can optimize it up the wazoo for 300+ damage with Leap Attack, Shock Trooper, and a bunch of other multipliers, or you can tone it down and deal with one of the other uncomfortable realities of 3.5: most of the fighter bonus feats are terrible, and despite seven years of product development there are very few effective or interesting feat chains.

Two-Weapon Fighting (TWF) is very difficult to do well in 3.5 for a variety of reasons (I wrote the TWF OffHandbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?279079-3-5-The-TWF-OffHandbook) if you want to go into more detail). Long story short, damage doesn't scale up enough to compete with THF and it's difficult to full attack every round. You *can* combine THF with TWF, but it looks a lot like a typical THF/Power Attack/Ubercharger build with Improved Unarmed Strike/TWF/Improved TWF/Greater TWF shoehorned in there somewhere.

Ranged combat is also difficult to do well in 3.5: damage is worse than TWF, fewer ways to add attacks or bonus damage, and your effectiveness is usually tied to what magic items and enhancements you have access to.

Ok, so, I'm getting a little long-winded here... I'll try to get back to hopefully what you're looking for. If you want to do THF, TWF, and Ranged feats, then you need to maximize bonus feats. So you might want to try: Warblade 1/Barbarian 1/Fighter 18:

Race: Human
1) Warblade 1. Feat: Power Attack. Bonus: TWF. Human: Improved Unarmed Strike.
2) Barbarian 1. Spirit Lion Totem -> Pounce (Complete Champion), Whirling Frenzy ACF (Unearthed Arcana).
3) Fighter 1. Feat: Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle). Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
4) Fighter 2.
5) Fighter 3. Bonus: PB Shot.
6) Fighter 4. Feat: Leap Attack (Complete Adventurer). Bonus: Shock Trooper (Complete Warrior).
7) Fighter 5.
8) Fighter 6. Bonus: Weapon Focus.
9) Fighter 7. Feat: Weapon Specialization.
10) Fighter 8. Bonus: Melee Weapon Mastery (PHBII).
11) Fighter 9.
12) Fighter 10. Feat: Improved TWF. Bonus: Greater TWF.
13) Fighter 11.
14) Fighter 12. Bonus: Rapid Shot.
15) Fighter 13. Feat: Snap Kick (Tome of Battle).
16) Fighter 14. Bonus: Precise Shot.
17) Fighter 15.
18) Fighter 16. Feat: Greater Weapon Focus. Bonus: Greater Weapon Specialization.
19) Fighter 17.
20) Fighter 18. Bonus: Weapon Supremacy (PHBII).

That's as much of the THF/TWF/Ranged Candy Shop that I can squeeze into 20 levels... unless your group allows flaws from Unearthed Arcana, in which case I'd probably try to fit in Quickdraw/Woodland Archer, or maybe Combat Reflexes/Double Hit (Miniatures Handbook). Taking Travel Devotion twice would also be nice.

Another option would be to maximize your Warblade maneuvers. You need an Initiator Level of 17 to get 9th level maneuvers, so this means you can take 14 Warblade levels with up to 6 non-Warblade levels. You mentioned Monster Hunter, which sounds like a little Ranger might be nice for Favored Enemy. You also mentioned Hide/Move Silently, which is also Ranger-ish. So... how about Ranger 2/Barbarian 1/Battle Dancer 1/Fighter 2/Warblade 14:

Race: Human
1) Ranger 1. Feat: Power Attack. Bonus: Track. Human: Able Learner.
2) Ranger 2. Bonus: TWF.
3) Barbarian 1. Feat: Weapon Focus. Spirt Lion Totem -> Pounce. Whirling Frenzy ACF.
4) Battle Dancer 1. Bonus: Improved Unarmed Strike. (from Dragon Compendium Vol. 1)
5) Fighter 1. Bonus: Improved Bull Rush.
6) Fighter 2. Feat: Leap Attack (Complete Adventurer). Bonus: Shock Trooper (Complete Warrior).
7) Warblade 1.
8) Warblade 2.
9) Warblade 3. Feat: Improved TWF.
10) Warblade 4.
11) Warblade 5. Bonus: Quickdraw.
12) Warblade 6. Feat: Weapon Specialization.
13) Warblade 7.
14) Warblade 8.
15) Warblade 9. Feat: Double Hit (Miniatures Handbook). Bonus: Combat Reflexes.
16) Warblade 10.
17) Warblade 11.
18) Warblade 12. Feat: Melee Weapon Mastery (PHBII).
19) Warblade 13. Bonus: Improved Initiative.
20) Warblade 14.

If flaws are allowed, then we could move up Weapon Focus and Improved Bull Rush to 1st level, maybe make some room for Superior Unarmed Strike (Tome of Battle), Darkstalker (Lords of Madness), Nemesis (Book of Exalted Deeds), or Favored Power Attack (Complete Warrior).

[Falontani]

I would pick up a few levels of Chameleon, mainly for the floating feat that you can change daily.

[Eldariel]

As a system, D&D does not do a very good job at rewarding characters with a broad range of abilities. Specialization in one or two key focus areas tends to be more effective. When you're a melee-focused meatbag, the biases in the system can be particularly harsh and punitive: even if you specialize with one particular weapon or focus on one particular tactical combo (Chain-Tripping, Boomerang Daze, etc.), the novelty of melee damage gets overshadowed once the spellcasters get to 7th level, and can become somewhat irrelevant once the GAWDMODE wizards can end an entire encounter with a single spell.

While half-true (specifically for meatbags), it's worth noting that the casters' power tends to specifically come down to effortlessly being good at everything. Same with the better mundanes (ToB & al.). Broad range of abilities (far as "effect" is concerned; they tend to all stem from the same source for most relevant builds) is the very definition of encounter solving power in 3.X.