Warblade Bradley

[DrBloodbathMC]

I'm building a TWF Warblade based off of Furher King Bradley from FMA:Brotherhood and I'm having a little trouble with feats. I'm going for more flavor than all out power, but I'd like to keep the TWF tree in this build. so far I have:

Str 16 Dex 15 Con 16 Int 12 Wis 8 Cha 8

TWF (human)
Weapon Focus Rapier (1)
Oversized TWF (flaw)
Ironheart aura (flaw)
(3)
Improved Initiative (5 WB Bonus)
Weapon Specilization (6)
Improved TWF (9)
Unverving Calm (9 WB Bonus)
Stormguard Warrior (12)
Combat Reflexes (13 WB Bonus)
Greater TWF (15)
Blind-fight (17 WB Bonus)
(18)

Maneuvers I have pretty much set, it was WAY easier to pick those than I thought. The main weakness I find with the build is enemies with DR, which is unforunate as IIRC they are very frequent in higher levels. Do you guys have any tips?

Note: I'd like to keep Warblade 20 as I think the dual stances would be a fitting thing but I'd be willing to get rid of that if it multiclassing would help with the idea. (Currently I'm a human but I could possible switch it to Elan as that would fit the homunculus theme better)

Edit: Character sheet for anyone interested https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1587783

[RaiKirah]

No real ideas for overcoming DR (save for some Stone Dragon strikes such as Mountain Hammer), but I was surprised by the CHA of 8 - Bradley is charismatic as hell in the show, and pumping some points into CHA could allow you to do some intimidate building as well. Deadful Wrath, Intimidating Strike, Never Outnumbered skill trick, Imperious Command, etc. Not entirely certain what you'd take out, but that could be a potential alternate build style.

[Deophaun]

Yeah, I'd think a Bardblade would almost be more fitting, as he buffs himself during a fight by giving a speech about how pathetic humanity is and why he's angry at children who cry at funerals.

[retaliation08]

I think, for martials, bypassing DR is mostly done with items as opposed to feats. There are some maneuvers that reduce or negate DR, like the mountain hammer line from Stone Dragon discipline.

Edit: Warbladed?

Also, and I'm not familiar with the character, but dipping Swashbuckler offers INT synergy and free Weapon Finesse. Then you could pump Dex and dump some of those Strength points into Cha.

[RaiKirah]

I've been thinking about this a little more and have some additional thoughts:

The primary thing I've noticed is that for the TWF feat chain to be effective you need to be able to make full attacks every round. Currently you don't have a method to do this. The easiest one is to take a level of Barbarian with the infamous Spirit Lion Totem ACF to get pounce. Picking up Rage might not be the worst thing either, as Bradly has a bit of rage-monster in him, and it would give you access to the Intimidating Rage feat if you're going fear escalation route.

HOWEVER, since you're going Warblade, the Tiger Claw maneuvers give you methods of making additional attacks with off-hand weapons for standard actions, allowing you to move and attack in a manner that emulates TWF pretty well and obviates the need for Pounce. In that case you could drop at least GTWF and ITWF to free up feats (Gloves of the Balanced Hand gives you ITWF if you have TWF still). I'd be inclined to keep TWF and Oversize TWF for the dual wielding Rapiers because that's awesome.

Speaking of Rapiers, they have the nifty ability to benefit from both Weapon Finesse and Power Attack, opening up the Shocktrooper chain if you want. A level of Swordsage or Martial Study and Martial Stance for Shadow Hand maneuvers would qualify for Shadow Blade, letting you dump STR and focus on DEX (though you would need Weapon Finesse from somewhere).

There's a bunch of different ways to take this, which I hope my maundering has touched on - it's up to you what you want your Furher-King Bradley to be built as.

If you need more feats and are sticking close to the Character's backstory/alignment there's easy arguments for swearing yourself to an Elder Evil or signing a Faustian Pact (Pact direct most easily defended, though if you keep the training montage a Pact Insidious might be argued).

[DrBloodbathMC]

Ok so I’m on my phone so my ability to reply is limited. Bard blade could work very well, unfortunately that’s make him really MAD, and I still want this build to be able to function.

His main cha abilities would probably come from the skill itself, as I imagine he himself isn’t naturally chasismatic (save for his intimidation) as the homunculus side of him doesn’t get humans, thus any charisma has to be learned. Otherwise I completely agree with you that throwing some points into charisma would work very well. If I don’t have points in Intimidate I’ll move them over when I get home (I just realized I have 4 more skill points I can use for being human at level 1)

Swashbuckler could work if I could find a way to work it into the build, unfortunately I still need dex for the two weapon fighting chain.

[DrBloodbathMC]

Raikirah, that some very good ideas! Looks like I’ll be dropping warblade 20, but it’ll fit his character a lot better as well as make it more effective to multiclass a little bit.

[Deophaun]

Ok so I’m on my phone so my ability to reply is limited. Bard blade could work very well, unfortunately that’s make him really MAD, and I still want this build to be able to function.
No. Charisma and Wisdom are the two attributes easiest to make a SAD character out of. The question of how you are going to go into battle unarmored like Bradely without a high Wisdom or Charisma score raises its head. Snowflake Wardance increases your chance to hit beyond where you would be if you focused on Strength or Dex exclusively. Gauntlets of Heartfelt blows give you added damage based on Charisma. Your base Strength Score at level 20 is only going to give you+5 to attack and damage, which Inspire Courage alone will match or beat. "But enhancement bonuses and tomes" are also available to the Bardblade.

[RaiKirah]

No. Charisma and Wisdom are the two attributes easiest to make a SAD character out of. The question of how you are going to go into battle unarmored like Bradely without a high Wisdom or Charisma score raises its head. Snowflake Wardance increases your chance to hit beyond where you would be if you focused on Strength or Dex exclusively. Gauntlets of Heartfelt blows give you added damage based on Charisma. Your base Strength Score at level 20 is only going to give you+5 to attack and damage, which Inspire Courage alone will match or beat. "But enhancement bonuses and tomes" are also available to the Bardblade.

I agree that Bardblade is probably a better build (read: higher optimization threshold), though it may not be the feel the OP wants.

Bardblade without using Bard is (maybe?) possible using even a single level of Warrior Skald (Warblade 5/WS 1/Warblade 19), though the stacking levels for Bardic Music uses from Song of the White Raven may not trigger since you have no Bard levels. This way you maintain full BAB and don't have to deal with spellcasting on a character that very clearly does not do so.

[DrBloodbathMC]

By raw I think that would work, as warblade levels stack with bard levels to determine bardic music, bard levels would just be 0.

So by doing that I could fluff the bardic music to his speeches on hating (insert race here) or his passion for the blade. It’d give me a +3 before any feats that enhance it. In that case I’d probably drop weapon Specialization, maybe the storm guard warrior although that with the raging mongoose/tss combo could real havoc.

With full BAB though I’d still want the TWF chain, but if I drop the storm guard I can better fit the feats into the build.

[retaliation08]

Well dropping stormguard makes combat reflexes much less useful too.

I would lower your strength to make dex and/or cha higher and rely on weapon finesse. The boost to dex will increase your attack bonus, initiative, AC, and opportunity attacks per round.

Have you considered ways of optimizing opportunity attacks? Not having a reliable means of OA shuts down a a decent part of the build.

[DrBloodbathMC]

I’ve thought about doing the rombilars gambit karmic strike thing, but it’d be difficult to fit in with two weapon fighting, which is almost the base of his fighting style.

I could probably drop greater twf, as mentioned before drop itwf and pick up glove if the balanced hand which would open up another 2 feats to use.

I’d have to play with the feats when I have easier access to my sheet.

[Deophaun]

Robilar's Gambit is pretty good with TWF if you can also fit in Double Hit. Unfortunately you do need to take ITWF for that.

[DrBloodbathMC]

I don’t mind itwf, I like the chain despite it being feat intensive. The issue I’m just thinking about is damage since I need to put a lot of points into dex so that’s stuff that I can’t put into str or another useful ability.

[RaiKirah]

In the off-chance you're not familiar with it this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus) gives some ideas for getting other stats to your damage. If you're going any type of Bardblade build, Snowflake Wardance and Slippers of Battledancing get you CHA to-hit and damage. The +1 weapon ability Aptitude from ToB lets your Rapiers qualify for Shadowblade for DEX to damage. Three levels of Swashbuckler gets INT to damage. Etc.

One of the best ways to get additional damage into a TWF build is through precision damage (sneak attack, skirmish, sudden strike), but that will change your build path significantly. You would probably want to look into the Hit and Run Fighter ACF, the Craven feat, and Assasin's Stance (Shadow Hand stance) which synergizes nicely with the Shadowblade feat.

[DrBloodbathMC]

So to possibly pick up craven I’d probably have to do warblade18/ws1/fighter1

I could probably make that work. It’d be expensive but throwing aptitude on my rapier would be possible. I’m already planning on speed +5 if I can afford it.

I’ll update my build then and see what I can do.

Iirc I have an additional 4 levels to play around with before I give up 9th level manuevers. A level or two of barbarian would bring in the rage since Bradley IS Wrath, that could get me rage and pounce, again as mentioned before.

[RaiKirah]

So to possibly pick up craven I’d probably have to do warblade18/ws1/fighter1

Craven also requires Sneak Attack class feature (Sudden Strike works too, since it explicitly counts as SA for qualification purposes). Some DMs may allow Assasin's Stance to count, some may not, so check before you use that as your prereq.

[DrBloodbathMC]

Another thought I had was losing those 4 levels loses me 2 maneuvers, so I’d have to go through my list to figure out which to get rid of

[Lapak]

One thing I am surprised no one has mentioned is that Bradley's key trait is not so much dishing out damage (though he does do that with gusto) as it is avoiding it. He's not even scratched in the series except by the most extreme and surprising attacks, which is how he survives being relatively fragile for the setting.

I'm not sure how to emulate that in D&D, but it is so key to the character I thought I should throw it out there.

[RaiKirah]

One thing I am surprised no one has mentioned is that Bradley's key trait is not so much dishing out damage (though he does do that with gusto) as it is avoiding it. He's not even scratched in the series except by the most extreme and surprising attacks, which is how he survives being relatively fragile for the setting.

I'm not sure how to emulate that in D&D, but it is so key to the character I thought I should throw it out there.

If building an AoO build you can take Elusive Target and/or Sidestep. With Robilar's Gambit and Sidestep (and a way to make 5' steps into 10') you can never take more than one melee attack at a time. Elusive Target let's you say NO to Power Attack. There are a couple other feats with Dodge and Mobility as prereqs that make you harder to hit as well.

[DrBloodbathMC]

Ok, so looking into it unless I can get my eventual DM (I'll admit, this isn't for an upcoming campaign, I just like to have a build or two in my back pocket), I'll have to forget craven since I'd be giving up more initiator levels than I'm comfortable with. So final class levels is looking at 3 barb/16 Warblade/1 Warrior skald in no particular order right now. It's time to mess around with the feats. unfortunately the Warblade bonus feat list isn't the best, so this will be fun.

[Deophaun]

One thing I am surprised no one has mentioned is that Bradley's key trait is not so much dishing out damage (though he does do that with gusto) as it is avoiding it.
I kinda mentioned it by talking about unarmored AC. You can get that into the stratosphere wearing nothing more than nothing.

For saves, the most stylish way to emulate it would be Bardblade again with Melodic Casting, ranks in Perform (weapon drill), and the Diamond Mind counters to let you cut through a fireball with your sword.

[Seto]

I would definitely focus on movement speed and DEX if I were building him. Probably a great perception modifier, too, what with his eye. He spots you from the other side of the battlefield, moves to hit you at the speed of sound, boom, you're dead. That's how I would summarize hid fight.

Also, his rapier needs to be adamantium. The man casually cuts through armored tanks.

[zergling.exe]

I would definitely focus on movement speed and DEX if I were building him. Probably a great perception modifier, too, what with his eye. He spots you from the other side of the battlefield, moves to hit you at the speed of sound, boom, you're dead. That's how I would summarize hid fight.

Also, his rapier needs to be adamantium. The man casually cuts through armored tanks.

They need to be stronger than steel yet weaker than adamantine though, since they can't cut through Greed's adamantine armor.

[DrBloodbathMC]

They need to be stronger than steel yet weaker than adamantine though, since they can't cut through Greed's adamantine armor.

Would it though? Adamantine armor gives DR and weapons bypass hardness, not DR.