Need help for 3.0/3.5 build please

[The Jamth]

Hello all!
I have a friend who is new to DMing a campaign, and as such I want to make a relatively straightforward character. I realize to some this may come off as a troupe or cheesy, but I want to make a Spartan-esque character. This campaign will start at level 5. I am looking for builds to see what path I want to take with this guy. I don't want to build straight fighter, but if that looks to be best, I will. In the theme of Sparta in movies and video games, I plan to use a heavy shield, a short spear, and a xiphos as my weaponry. Armor wise, I will most likely use a breastplate.

I do not have stats rolled for the character as of yet. My group is still in a campaign that I am running, so I have some time before this character comes out to play. I respectfully ask for tips on builds and (if possible) explanation as to why you suggest that. Thank you in advance for any and all help!

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

While Spartan soldiers are legendary, they're only considered as such due to their teamwork. A lone Spartan was no better than any other experienced hoplite or heavy infantry. There are a lot of Greek heroes (Achilles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achilles), Actaeon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actaeon), Aeneas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeneas), Alexander the Great (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_the_Great), Atlanta (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atalanta), Bellerophon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellerophon), Daedalus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daedalus), Castor and Pollux (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castor_and_Pollux), Heracles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heracles), Icarus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icarus), Jason (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason), Meleager (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meleager), Odysseus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odysseus), Peleus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peleus), Perseus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perseus), The Argonauts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts), Theseus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theseus)....), and you see the same weapons and armor on most of them because that was the available technology of the time. The people of the Bronze Age didn't have advanced plate armors, they didn't have chain mail, they didn't have steel for longswords. They didn't use greatswords or greataxes because they didn't need to power through armors like chain mail. In those days a spear was all it took to pierce through whatever armor your opponent was wearing and kill him, spears were cheap and plentiful, so every army used them and everyone had one.

The thing to remember about those days is that every soldier had to pay to provide his own equipment. Southern Greece used short spears because only the wealthy could afford the horse, so there was seldom any cavalry. To the north in Macedon they had a lot more horses, and they used 18-ft. long spears. They also liked to fire bows from horseback, in part due to the financial loss if their horse was killed. Those who couldn't afford hoplite armor were light infantry who threw javelins and carried a spear.

What I'm saying is, you can have the flavor of a Greek hero without limiting yourself to the run-of-the-mill equipment they had in abundance at that time.


If you want the look and feel without having a gimped character, I recommend making a LN Warforged Crusader, and say he's a prototype from the brilliant inventor Daedalus. So he's modeled after a Greek hoplite, but he's more than an ordinary soldier. Take Adamantine Body and the Quick trait, get Extra Granted Maneuver, and if using flaws take Stone Power and Shield Specialization, and plan to get Shield Ward. Your natural slam attack adds 1.5x your Str bonus to damage, you don't get iterative attacks with it but you can't full attack with a standard-action maneuver anyway. Starting at 5th level, stances known are Martial Spirit and Bolstering Voice, maneuvers known are Revitalizing Strike, Battle Leader's Charge, Mountain Hammer, Crusader's Strike, Stone Bones, Leading the Attack, and Vanguard Strike, the first five of which are readied.

You can stick with a single-classed Crusader for your entire career, or you can consider prestige classes that make him better at what he was designed for (holding the line). One of the best builds for this is Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9, always binding Naberius to negate the drawback of the Hellreaver 5 ability. Just write the special prerequisite into your backstory, any 5th level character can say they killed a Dretch.

[The Jamth]

You can stick with a single-classed Crusader for your entire career, or you can consider prestige classes that make him better at what he was designed for (holding the line). One of the best builds for this is Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9, always binding Naberius to negate the drawback of the Hellreaver 5 ability. Just write the special prerequisite into your backstory, any 5th level character can say they killed a Dretch.


Love the flavor of your response. Was great to get that history about the whole scheme. And yes, a phalanx is the best way for true Spartan soldiers to rule the battlefield. But I'm curious; is the level path you gave from Pathfinder? If so, that source material is not allowed in this campaign. Or is this from some of the more obscure D&D books?

[Evoker]

Love the flavor of your response. Was great to get that history about the whole scheme. And yes, a phalanx is the best way for true Spartan soldiers to rule the battlefield. But I'm curious; is the level path you gave from Pathfinder? If so, that source material is not allowed in this campaign. Or is this from some of the more obscure D&D books?

Those are all D&D 3.5e. Crusader is from Tome Of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, Binder is from Tome of Magic, and Hellreaver is from Fiendish Codex II. So, not super obscure except maybe for the last one.

[The Jamth]

Those are all D&D 3.5e. Crusader is from Tome Of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, Binder is from Tome of Magic, and Hellreaver is from Fiendish Codex II. So, not super obscure except maybe for the last one.

Neat! Thanks for that!

[Anthrowhale]

I have a soft spot for the Allied Defense feat which can be pretty potent if used intelligently in a teamwork situation. In addition the "Double Team" feat from Dragon Compendium allows you and a buddy to flank monsters you both threaten regardless of position. Altogether, this suggests something like Sneak Attack Fighter 20 with feats:

Human: Combat Reflexes
1. Combat Expertise
3. Allied Defense
6. Double Team
9. Improved Combat Expertise
12. Craven
15. ??
18. ??

One member of the team will use Combat Expertise to boost the AC of all adjacent team members while still threatening adjacent monsters. Two+ other members of the team can benefit from the AC boost while attacking with high precision damage. For high level monsters, this combination with dexterity based fighters inside of an antimagic field can be pretty potent in melee against most of the monster manual monsters.

[reddir]

For a straightforward character for either new players or new GMs:

I thought the go to was the Barbarian class. One of the simplest and easiset to act with or plan for.

Would this work for you?

[Maat Mons]

If you're willing to compromise a little on the shield front, the Shield and Pike Style feat (Dragon 338, p92) gives an interesting option. It lets you wield a longspear and carry a light shield at the same time. So you can attack enemies 10 feet away with the longspear, and make shield bash attacks against enemies within 5 feet.

Admittedly, you'd get better results from a spiked chain, but that doesn't really fit your theme. And the light shield / longspear combo could make a passable battlefield controller with the Stand Still feat.



You could use the Agile Shield Fighter feat to do a little two-weapon fighting. Two-weapon fighting isn't that great, but if you have Sneak Attack or something, it can be worth it. Unfortunately, there's no "Improved" version. You could use the actual Two-Weapon Fighting feat chain with a heavy shield and a shortsword. Or even just eat the -2 penalty and go heavy shield and shortspear. The Dex requirements hurt though.



Precision damage kind of sucks though. Out of the 15 creature types in the game, 5 of them give immunity to precision damage. And then there are all the other options for gaining immunity too. Power Attack is more reliable, but it's kind of a pain to use it when not going two-handed.

It can be done. If you're two-weapon fighting and neither of the weapons is "light," you can get the Power Attack bonus on all your attacks. With twice as many attacks, you're theoretically getting close to the same benefit as the doubled bonus that two-handed weapons offer. Except you spent a bunch of extra feats to get there, you need two magic weapons, your attack bonus is lower, and you're even more reliant on full attacks.





One option for a character using a heavy shield an shortspear is Cleric. You've got proficiency with all shields (except tower shields). You've got proficiency with all simple weapons, which includes all spears. If you want to have the option of using a swortsword, the right deity would give you proficiency if you took the War domain.

Clerics do have the slight annoyance that they normally need a hand free for things like presenting a holy symbol. Dungeonscape gives you the option of making your shield itself into a holy symbol. And for other things that need a hand, there's the Shield Gauntlet (Races of Stone, p158). That's a heavy shield that leaves your hand free for casterly things. If you don't take a feat, you'll suffer the shield gauntlet's armor check penalty on various things. But if it's mithral, the penalty is zero.



A mithril breastplate is a pretty good armor choice. It's the best protection out of things that don't slow your movement. You could wear a breastplate on a character that has heavy armor proficiency, and it would be a valid build decision, not just handicapping yourself.

[Fizban]

I plan to use a heavy shield, a short spear, and a xiphos as my weaponry. Armor wise, I will most likely use a breastplate.
Using a shield means you value AC. In order to reach full AC with Breastplate, you will need some dex. Having some dex, and using a short spear, means you have a throwing weapon as your main weapon, and your ranged attack won't be terrible.

There's a nifty hack you can use with shortspears: they're a ranged weapon, which means they qualify for Ranged Weapon Mastery, which says nothing about ranged attacks (only ranged weapons- and the shortspear does not stop being a ranged weapon when you're stabbing with it). So you take Fighter 4+ and Focus/Specialization/Ranged Weapon Mastery, getting your total +3 attack/+ 4 damage (which matters all the more since you're one-handing a d6 weapon), and you also get the +20' range increment for your throws, *and* you get the +2/+2 from ranged mastery on any other piercing ranged weapon. Like, say, a bow.

Quick Draw will let you throw multiple spears per turn, and qualify you to take Hurling Charge from Miniatures Handbook, which gives you two attacks on a charge: one by throwing the weapon you started with, and one at the end of the charge.

If you can get your DM to make an extremely minor allowance, you can head over to Drow of the Underdark and take Tormtor School: a feat which lets you use a swift action to throw a javelin at someone else right after you stab someone with it. There's no reason to actually restrict this to javelins over shortspear, the feat specifically *removes* the penalty for using a javelin in melee, so using it with a shortspear is actually weaker (shorter range) in exchange for making more sense. This one also requires Point Blank Shot.

Combat Expertise is great for anyone who actually has AC, because suddenly having +5 AC can cut enemy accuracy in half, or down to almost nothing, and Allied Defense is a natural pick after that. Alternatively, Drow of the Underdark has Constant Guardian and Dutiful Guardian, which let you shield an ally and then switch places with them in response to an attack, if you want a more active tank ability.

If the party is standing next to you to maintain buffs, the casters might be advised to use similar buffs- Magic Circle, Globe of Invulnerability, Anticold/fire Sphere, Antilife Shell, and so on.

If you need a bit more oomph, you can use Warblade or Crusader. Warblade steals Weapon Specialization, but its bonus feats are actually from a tiny list, so pure Warblade still won't fit all that stuff. Crusader has some more allied defense stuff, but lacks access to the Pearl of Black Doubt stance, which lets even a single miss from a mook cause your AC to start exploding.

Fighter 6/Martial Adept X?
1 Quick Draw
1B Point Blank Shot
2B Shortspear Focus
3 Rapid Shot
4B Shortspear Specialization
6 Hurling Charge
6B Tormtor School
9 Ranged Weapon Mastery

Now, usually you'd go Fighter 4/Martial X, but the BAB 6 requirement on both Hurling Charge and Tormtor and the fact you want Ranged Mastery ASAP (if not 8th, then 9th, don't wait until 12th), means Fighter 6 is better to cram it all in. The wacky build kinda relies on having both Hurling and Tormtor so you get three attacks on a charge: throw, charge, throw at someone else. If you can't get Tormtor then go 4/X. Having Ranged Mastery, Str, Dex, and Rapid Shot mean you're basically a full archer build, on top of the slightly delayed maneuvers, and with the Hurling Charge trick and flexibility of making ranged attacks at any time mid-melee without worrying about losing your bow.

Of course that's not counting choice of race, as human bonus feat would let you have and eat cake. Though still not fit in the extra two you'd need for Combat Expertise and Allied Defense. Side-note: normally Improved Combat Expertise is pretty lame since no one wants to take more than -5, or particularly cares about making themselves even harder to kill. but giving the whole party a constant +10 AC? When the base AC cap is already the same for everyone (so some Mage Armor and dex make everyone nearly equal)?

[PoeticallyPsyco]

I'll second the recommendation for Crusader; the class is solid and fun to play, and one of the only ones in the game that can really 'tank' in a way that supports the party. (Normally focusing on defense means enemies can just attack other people, but Crusader can actually make that much harder and punish them for trying). Maneuvers like Shield Counter also mean they benefit significantly from having a shield. Iron Guard's Glare and Thicket of Blades are the stances you probably want to be looking at (it might even be worth taking the Martial Stance feat at 6th level to grab the second one early). To make it easier on yourself and your DM, jot down your maneuvers onto index cards or something: using them like a deck you can shuffle and draw from makes it very easy to keep track of what maneuvers you have access to each round.

If you want to double down on being a defensive tank, Devoted Defender is a prestige class that's worth a look (Sword & Fist, pg 13). You probably want just 1-3 levels so you don't slow down your Crusader progression that much, but in those levels you get the ability to designate a party member once per encounter as your "charge" (arguably, you could instead be your own charge), then switch places with them when someone attacks them to take the blow in their place (1st level), make opportunity attacks against opponents that attack them (2nd level), and straight up parry attacks made against them (3rd level).

[Anthrowhale]

Precision damage kind of sucks though. Out of the 15 creature types in the game, 5 of them give immunity to precision damage. And then there are all the other options for gaining immunity too. Power Attack is more reliable, but it's kind of a pain to use it when not going two-handed.

The Greater Truedeath and Greater Demolition crystals help quite a bit here. Another approach is something like Lightbringer Rogue 3/Swashbuckler 17 with Daring Outlaw.

[The Jamth]

You can stick with a single-classed Crusader for your entire career, or you can consider prestige classes that make him better at what he was designed for (holding the line). One of the best builds for this is Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5/ Crusader 9, always binding Naberius to negate the drawback of the Hellreaver 5 ability. Just write the special prerequisite into your backstory, any 5th level character can say they killed a Dretch.

I looked into this, and the Naberius binding makes for some fun. I'll have to keep this in mind! Thank you!

[Doctor Despair]

I looked into this, and the Naberius binding makes for some fun. I'll have to keep this in mind! Thank you!

A fun feat that works with Naberius (once you have a base will save of +5) is Insane Defiance.


As an immediate action, whenever you are the target of a mind-affecting spell or spell-like ability, you can take 1 point of Wisdom damage to retarget the effect to another creature of your choice within the effect's range. The new target takes a —4 circumstance penalty on its saving throw, if any, against that effect.

So once a round, you can redirect mental effects onto opponents. This includes your own, if you have any you can target yourself with!