Two handed weapon, no armour

[Biggus]

Last night I dreamed of a warrior woman who used a large sword in two hands but wore no armour. Apart from that the only rules-relevant detail I remember was that she was lawful good.

Is there a way to make this character work in 3.5? The best I could find off the top of my head is Swashbuckler 2/Fighter 18 with the Daring Warrior feat, but that's not very good. Is there a better way?

EDIT: I'm ideally looking to build her as a non-caster, but I'm potentially open to casting if that proves too difficult.

[sleepyphoenixx]

Cleric/Ordained Champion with a Monk's Belt? A Paladin with Serenity would work too i guess.

I mean you could forego armor with any character, but it only makes sense when you get an AC bonus elsewhere that's not compatible with wearing it.

[noce]

Both Mage Armor and Shield create invisible effects, so I guess Abjurant Champion fits your theme.

[Saintheart]

Lawful Good? Exalted spells. Luminous Armour and Greater Luminous Armour, disguise the fact you're buck naked by glittering like a disco ball that half-blinds your opponents.

[Gruftzwerg]

Monk 6 >(alignment change) > Barb 1 > Shou Disciple 5 > Drunken Master 2 / Tempest 5 / xxx 1

Monk + Shou Disciple is needed to max flurry and be able to flurry with all weapons.
Barb is obviously for pounce
Tempest allows you to use your unarmed strikes as offhand weapon for no penalty.
Drunken Master 2 gives you Stagger which allows for multiple direction changes while charging.

Build ubercharger and have 2 extra attacks for greatsword full attack and add your unarmed offhand attacks ontop of that.

edit: get a valorous weapon, ability to fly and pounce/dive with loopings each turn for a total of x3 dmg.
have a look at my ShurikeNado who is build similarly but focused on being a ranged ubercharger with shurikens.

[Biggus]

I mean you could forego armor with any character, but it only makes sense when you get an AC bonus elsewhere that's not compatible with wearing it.

Yeah, this is the problem, I can make the character just how I dreamed them but they'll suck.


Both Mage Armor and Shield create invisible effects, so I guess Abjurant Champion fits your theme.

A gish is probably the best way to build them, but there wasn't any sign of them being a caster as I dreamed them. Might resort to that if I can't make them decent without it.


Lawful Good? Exalted spells. Luminous Armour and Greater Luminous Armour, disguise the fact you're buck naked by glittering like a disco ball that half-blinds your opponents.

Believe it or not, I do sometimes dream of women with clothes on...

[sleepyphoenixx]

Yeah, this is the problem, I can make the character just how I dreamed them but they'll suck.

An unarmed swordsage finessing an Elven Courtblade could work too, though i don't know how well that fits your vision.
Dex-based, TWF with the Courtblade and unarmed strikes, take Shadow Blade for bonus damage... it's hardly optimal but at least playable.

Also keep in mind that there are several light armors that don't necessarily look like armor. The Gnomish Twistcloth or that feather cloak from Sandstorm come to mind.

Really the main issue with making a unarmored THF fighter is that you're probably going to want to be dex-based while THF works best with strength and Power Attack.

[noce]

A gish is probably the best way to build them, but there wasn't any sign of them being a caster as I dreamed them. Might resort to that if I can't make them decent without it.


Them? Who are you talking about?

[Gorthawar]

Something like monk2/paladin5/fist of raziel 10 with the serenity feat and charging smite acf might work depending on the power level of your game. Unfortunately intuitive attack only works with simple weapons.

[Maat Mons]

If you want a Dex focus, an elven courtblade is Finessible yet still two-handed. You'd still want Str 13 for Power Attack.

Going by the FAQ, Deepwarden's Con-to-AC ability is limited by max Dex bonus of your armor, so with high enough Con, ditching your armor could still be advantageous even with crap Dex.

[Biggus]

An unarmed swordsage finessing an Elven Courtblade could work too, though i don't know how well that fits your vision.
Dex-based, TWF with the Courtblade and unarmed strikes, take Shadow Blade for bonus damage... it's hardly optimal but at least playable.

Also keep in mind that there are several light armors that don't necessarily look like armor. The Gnomish Twistcloth or that feather cloak from Sandstorm come to mind.

Really the main issue with making a unarmored THF fighter is that you're probably going to want to be dex-based while THF works best with strength and Power Attack.


If you want a Dex focus, an elven courtblade is Finessible yet still two-handed. You'd still want Str 13 for Power Attack.

Going by the FAQ, Deepwarden's Con-to-AC ability is limited by max Dex bonus of your armor, so with high enough Con, ditching your armor could still be advantageous even with crap Dex.

Ah, the elven courtbalde could work, thank you.

And yes, I did eventually realise she could have a mithral shirt on under her regular shirt, Frodo-style.


Them? Who are you talking about?

The woman in my dream.

[Cavir]

EDIT: I'm ideally looking to build her as a non-caster, but I'm potentially open to casting if that proves too difficult.
There's Psychic Warrior too. Inertial Armor improves as you gain in levels unlike Magic Armor. Add Goliath and that large sword gets to be a Large sword.

[Gruftzwerg]

If the focus is defense, I would recommend the "Shifting Defense" -stance-. Allows for the cost of an AoO you could do this round, you may move 5ft away from an attacker (out of range in most chases). With Combat Reflexes and high Dex you can avoid a bunch of melee attacks without caring for your AC.

[ShurikVch]

Dragon #298 has Dragon Warrior PrC - it's unarmored melee class armed with a greatsword
It gives Wis-based extra hp, Wis-based deflection to AC, Wis-based SR, Wis-based "rage", and the greatsword can get firstly Flaming, and later - Flaming Burst enhancement
The main problem: this PrC is forbidden from being Lawful

[Arkhios]

Them? Who are you talking about?

FYI, them/they/their is a polite way of referring to a person without risking offending them, even if you are talking about one person whose gender you know. Whether or not said person is imaginary.

[noce]

The woman in my dream.

*EDITED* nevermind

EDIT: Arkhios explained just before this post that calling someone using the appropriate pronoun is offensive for some reason.

[Arkhios]

*EDITED* nevermind

EDIT: Arkhios explained just before this post that calling someone using the appropriate pronoun is offensive for some reason.

One thing doesn't exclude the other. It's not that an appropriate pronoun is offensive, it's just generally more polite to use the neutral pronoun, just in case.

It has been in use for centuries, not something that came up just recently.

Read and learn. (https://www.dictionary.com/e/they-is-a-singular-pronoun/)

[Maat Mons]

In Ye Olde Days, "you" was only used when addressing groups, and you'd use "thee" or "thou" for addressing an individual.

Then English speakers decided it would be fun to make "you" into a polite alternative even when referring to only one person. Eventually, "thee" and "thou" disappeared from the language entirely.

Now we're doing the same thing, but with third person pronouns. It makes me happy. I like symmetry.

[mabriss lethe]

There's also the Cloak of Battle. A bit expensive, but grants an armor bonus. (Could be much cheaper if you could work up a lesser version without its extra functionality. Which won't be much use to your character)

[ixrisor]

The fist of the forest prestige class lets you add con to ac when unarmoured, like a monk. It requires power attack to enter, so synergises with thf ok.

[TheStranger]

I know this takes all the fun out of it, but glamered armor is a thing.

[GrayDeath]

If the feel you have is one of "just 2 handed sword, and pretty naked", you might enjoy using a Forsaker.

Its one of the few ways I can imagine enjoying that class though, so be warned ^^

[Kaleph]

I guess that the time has come for the character that everybody holds as its unconfessed dream: a psychic warrior with the soulbound weapon ACF and vow of poverty.

[aglondier]

Homebrew a monk/duelist/swashbuckler mashup that uses a two handed weapon and kicks...

[ExLibrisMortis]

Warblade with bracers of armour and a monk's belt? No need to overcomplicate things...

[ShurikVch]

Sword Dancer PrC (Faiths and Pantheons) is a divine caster, but gets ASF for her Sp and Su abilities

Blade Dancer PrC (Oriental Adventures) have spellcasting requirement, but doesn't advance spellcasting at all, and most of its CF don't working in Medium or Heavy armor

[PanosIs]

Just get shock trooper and get extra mileage out of your negative AC!

From the imagery in my mind, Barbarian or Warblade with Robilar's Gambit plus Sidestep or Opportunistic Tactician in order to avoid some of them full attacks.

[Biggus]

Thanks for the ideas all!

[Darg]

Does the weapon have to be wielded 2 handed? What about 2 weapons treated as if they were two handed by the power attack feat?

Human Fighter 6/exotic weapon master 1/tempest 5/duelist 2/binder 3-5/x

Oversized Two weapon fighting feat along with tempest gets rid of your penalty to hit 100%. Uncanny blows from EWM makes your one handed exotic weapons count as 2 handed at all times for the power attack feat. Duelist gives int to AC, +2 bonus to initiative, and +4 to the mobility bonus. Binder for the paimon bind. Also, if you jump as part of your spring attack you benefit from leap attack.

If you really want to wield a weapon two handed with no armor

Fighter 4/spirit lion barbarian 2/duelist 7/x

You can pounce, get acrobatic charge allowing you to charge in more situations and elaborate parry allows you to use shock trooper without making yourself defenseless. Reckless offense and/or reckless charge can help negate the penalty to attack from fighting defensively once you get duelist 7. Also leaves the possibility to get driving attack at 15 that combos well with shock trooper. The interesting interaction is that driving attack allows you to initiate a special bull rush attempt, exempting it from the one size category larger or smaller rule. Normally you can't initiate a bull rush on those larger creatures, but driving attack doesn't have that clause as you skip it and head straight into the initializing portion of bull rushing.