Thri-kreen Combatant

[Goldlizard]

Hello! I am in a 3.5e game and would like to make a backup (All official sources allowed, 2 flaws) and would like to make a melee-based Thri-Kreen, focused on using dual gythka. We're currently level 6, an entirely Evil party. What Class/feats/items should I be running for?

[pabelfly]

I'll give you two different suggestions for your build. Blank feats are your choice.

First suggestion - 1 Barbarian/2 Ranger/3 Scout, add a level of Scout and get Improved Skirmish as your bonus feat, then add Ranger levels. Build is based on charging at enemies and getting your attacks off with your twin Gythka weapons. Swift Hunter feat helps damage enemies otherwise immune to Skirmish. Barbarian gets Pounce to get full attacks after charging.

Feat list:
1)
F) Weapon Finesse
F)
3)
R2) Multiweapon Fighting
6) Swift Hunter



Second suggestion - 5 Psychic Warrior/1 Swordsage. Ditch the Gythka and go for short swords (short swords get dex to damage and can greatly amp damage per attack).

Feat list:
1) Multiweapon Fighting
F) Weapon Finesse
F)
P1)
P2) Mantled Warrior ACF - Freedom Mantle
3)
P5)
6) Shadow Blade

Psychic Warrior uses tactical swift-movement Teleportation to approach enemies while getting a full attack to do damage. Psychic Warrior manifesting is pretty decent too.

One piece of advice - do what you can to reasonably boost damage per attack that you make. Damage reduction is a big problem with a multiweapon fighting build and can greatly reduce how effective your build is.

[MultitudeMan]

There's a build here (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?206576-Iron-Chef-Optimization-Challenge-in-the-Playground-XXII&p=11437829#post11437829) from the Dervish round of Iron Chef. I know it's building towards the higher levels, but it came second in that round, might give some ideas.

[Anthrowhale]

Are you using level adjustments? Your best bet is the nonpsionic Thrikreen in Shining South at 2 RHD+1LA, leaving 3 class levels.

Going with Thrikreen 2/Lightbringer Rogue 3 allows you to get in the sneak attack game with something like:

Flaw 1: Combat reflexes
Flaw 2: Darkstalker
1. Multiweapon Fighting
3. Craven

This allows you to deal an extra 5+2d6 sneak attack per hit, or 5+1d6 to the sneak attack immune. With 5+ attacks/round, that's fairly substantial.

[Goldlizard]

Thank you and thank you, and everyone has LA 4, so we count LA as 0 for everyone. You can go up to 2 lower to get extra levels, or 2 higher LA to lose two levels.

[pabelfly]

Thank you and thank you, and everyone has LA 4, so we count LA as 0 for everyone. You can go up to 2 lower to get extra levels, or 2 higher LA to lose two levels.

So did any of the build ideas here interest you?

Also, I'm guessing you're considered LA 3 for the purposes of your build. I'd consider the half minotaur template which is some serious cheese but gets you large size and a huge boost in strength. It's worth losing a class level for as a melee character if you're not doing a dex build.

[Goldlizard]

So did any of the build ideas here interest you?

Also, I'm guessing you're considered LA 3 for the purposes of your build. I'd consider the half minotaur template which is some serious cheese but gets you large size and a huge boost in strength. It's worth losing a class level for as a melee character if you're not doing a dex build.

I think my favorite is the Dervish/Scout build. I think I’ll go 2LA+2MHD, bringing me to 4. Is there anything that’s worth the manifester level and speed of thought?

[pabelfly]

I think my favorite is the Dervish/Scout build. I think I’ll go 2LA+2MHD, bringing me to 4. Is there anything that’s worth the manifester level and speed of thought?

Well Ardent 1 or Psychic Warrior 2 (Mantled Warrior ACF) can get Dimension Hop, which is swift-action teleport. Unlike charging, you don't need to worry about obstacles or rough terrain, and you can also teleport upwards if you have aerial enemies close to the ground. You can also pick up various psionic abilities to support melee too

Dimension Hop only gets better with more power points, so needs a lot of levels in the class and/or the feat Practiced Manifester

[Goldlizard]

Well Ardent 1 or Psychic Warrior 2 (Mantled Warrior ACF) can get Dimension Hop, which is swift-action teleport. Unlike charging, you don't need to worry about obstacles or rough terrain, and you can also teleport upwards if you have aerial enemies close to the ground. You can also pick up various psionic abilities to support melee too

Dimension Hop only gets better with more power points, so needs a lot of levels in the class and/or the feat Practiced Manifester

So what would I spend the LA 1 On?

[pabelfly]

So what would I spend the LA 1 On?

If you like serious cheese, check out the Half-Minotaur template in Dragon #314. I think it's very underpriced but you get quite a lot of stat boosts for just 1 LA.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?371039-Best-LA-1-Templates
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?445487-Best-LA-1-Template
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?142153-3-5-Best-PLAYABLE-LA-1-Templates
https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?535104-searching-for-3-5E-LA-1-templates

That might help a little.

[Goldlizard]

If you like serious cheese, check out the Half-Minotaur template in Dragon #314. I think it's very underpriced but you get quite a lot of stat boosts for just 1 LA.

Only problem is my DM only allows Dragon Mag sources on a case by case basis (Class specific flaws? Way worse than the regular ones, go ahead. Incredibly broken alternate class features? Not so much). But yeah, those extra psionic abilities don’t seem too hot. Also, my DM hates Psionics and there’s some kind of monster on the astral plane that slowly kills people who use too many Psionics, like Gem Dragons (or my current character, a half obsidian dragon Wizard/Ur Priest)

[pabelfly]

Only problem is my DM only allows Dragon Mag sources on a case by case basis (Class specific flaws? Way worse than the regular ones, go ahead. Incredibly broken alternate class features? Not so much). But yeah, those extra psionic abilities don’t seem too hot. Also, my DM hates Psionics and there’s some kind of monster on the astral plane that slowly kills people who use too many Psionics, like Gem Dragons (or my current character, a half obsidian dragon Wizard/Ur Priest)

Ah, well, if the DM doesn't like psionics I'd give it a miss.

I'd also skip getting that second LA in favour of making sure you start with a level in Dervish to get your full attack round off, since you want Scout and you're losing one point of BAB with it. There's quite a bit of difference between one attack and four with a multi weapon fighting build.

[MaxiDuRaritry]

If your DM is that passive-aggressive about things he's not a fan of, maybe you should reconsider playing in this game.

Or at least playing a thri-kreen. Maybe go for a character that doesn't come from the psionics books.

You could always go for the warforged mighty arms graft from Faiths of Eberron, if you really want additional arms. 1,000 gp for two additional bionic arms for extra prehensile limbs, a slam attack (which you can add to your unarmed strikes via the Beast Strike feat), and access to hand-and-arm-based warforged components.

Add the insectile creature template from Savage Species for +2 LA and a reason why you look like a humanoid vermin. The four arms it gives you are useless for attacks, although you can use them for other things while using the grafted arms for attacking, or use them for unarmed strikes if you take monk or Improved Unarmed Strike.

[Goldlizard]

If your DM is that passive-aggressive about things he's not a fan of, maybe you should reconsider playing in this game.


Oh, no. He’s actually really chill about Psionics, he just makes it clear it’s not a system of rules he likes and that playing a Psion will come with added difficulties that can be overcome later in the game.