Reach weapon fighter

[Tren]

So for an upcoming campaign I'm thinking about rolling a reach weapon fighter. I'm thinking I'll use guisarme and go for improved trip. I want to stay away from spiked chain cheese, but I was wondering if anyone had any advice on reach weapon/trip builds. Books I have access to are PHB2, Complete Warrior, and Complete Adventurer. Thanks!

[Hal]

Power Attack and Shock Trooper will be the biggest thing you hear, since those reach weapons are all two-handers and that's pretty much what you do with a two-handed weapon.

Combat Reflexes and a high Dex are good for maximizing your AoOs.

If you're going for a Tripper, take Knockdown (SRD) as well. If you do 10 or more damage on a single attack, you get a free trip attempt. That shouldn't be terribly difficult if you use your Power Attack.

[Person_Man]

If you want to Trip, take Knock-Down.
If you want to lock enemies down, take Stand Still.
Hold the Line is a good way to get an extra attack.
Leap Attack + Shock Trooper is a good way to get a ton of damage.
Combat Focus + Combat Vigor + Combat Stability is good for defense.

Guisarme is good for trip builds. Otherwise I prefer a small race on a medium mount using a lance two handed, because it has superior movement and damage output.

Since your books are so limited, you might want to go with Knight instead of Fighter. They're much better at battlefield control, and still get some bonus feats.

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/divineFeats.html
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/psionicFeats.html

[Kizara]

If you want to Trip, take Knock-Down.
If you want to lock enemies down, take Stand Still.
Hold the Line is a good way to get an extra attack.
Leap Attack + Shock Trooper is a good way to get a ton of damage.
Combat Focus + Combat Vigor + Combat Stability is good for defense.

Guisarme is good for trip builds. Otherwise I prefer a small race on a medium mount using a lance two handed, because it has superior movement and damage output.

Since your books are so limited, you might want to go with Knight instead of Fighter. They're much better at battlefield control, and still get some bonus feats.

http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/divineFeats.html
http://www.systemreferencedocuments.org/35/sovelior_sage/psionicFeats.html

Most groups I know don't allow 3.0 material in a 3.5 game (IE Knock-down), is your experience different?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Take Short-Haft. I cannot emphasize this enough. At some point you will be facing someone who is 5ft from you and you won't be able to step back, but they'll be to tough for you to attack with spikes. Short-haft is a must.

[Person_Man]

Most groups I know don't allow 3.0 material in a 3.5 game (IE Knock-down), is your experience different?

I mostly play with two groups. One group consists of all veterans who have collected and played D&D since 1st ed. They allow almost anything, and if you don't optimize, you're going to be very bored and/or very dead.

The second group is a mix of newer players and a few veterans. They pretty much play core + a few Completes. They're open to other books, but everyone avoids optimizing because they don't want to alienate the casual gamers.

If your DM doesn't allow Knock-Down, then Trip really isn't a viable strategy, because you end up wasting many attacks on failed Trip attempts. In that case, I suggest going with Stand Still, Scorpion's Grasp, or Knockback instead if you want a melee battlefield control build.

[Darrin]

Most groups I know don't allow 3.0 material in a 3.5 game (IE Knock-down), is your experience different?

Knock-Down appears in the Divine section of the 3.5 SRD. Thus, it can be considered 3.5 material.

The errata from 3.0, however, which says Knock-Down can't be used with Improved Trip to gain a free attack, is another matter entirely. I beleive most folks that play with Knock-Down use the errata from Sword & Fist.

[Keld Denar]

Knockdown is good, but not as amazing as everyone says. Since it requires Improved Trip to qualify, but completely negates Improved Trip most of the time, you are spending a feat to roll the attack and trip rolls in a different order, which is good, but hardly overpowered.

With just Improved Trip
a) Touch Attack
b) Trip Attempt
c) Followup Attack if successful

With Imp Trip + Knockdown
a) Regular Attack
b) Trip Attempt if damage>10

The only time you won't rely on Knockdown first is if the foe's AC is so high that you can't hit them with a normal attack, but you can hit them with the +4 to hit you get from them being prone.

All that said, tripping is a VERY unoptomized course of action in most cases. If your DM is running any type of campaign that isn't centric around medium sized humanoids, you'll find youself less and less effective as levels get past 6. This is because primarily of size increase, and the accompanying Str increase. Since trip is only centric around 3 variables (size, str, stability) that are reletively flat rather than dynamic like grapple (size, str, BAB), most of the time monsters tend to scale better than you for trip modifiers.

Losing a trip attempt can cost you your full attack, or a round grabbing your weapon, or even your whole weapon (sundering unattended objects such as dropped weapons is REDICULOUSLY EASY!).

Standstill + Power Attack is generally a better scaling way of controlling the battlefield. The penalties don't suck as bad as being prone, but the risk of a failed attempt is lower as well. Its easy to force saves in the mid 40s to high 50s by level 10 or so, which most things your CR can't even think of making.

[GammaPaladin]

It stays relatively viable if you're a Half-Ogre PsyWar (Use expansion to become Gargantuan and you can now trip anything, albeit with a 4 point disadvantage against Colossal creatures), or in any Gestalt campaign where you take a class that can access the Wu Jen spell Giant Size as your caster half of the Gestalt.

Artificer works well ;)

[Tren]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm definitely going to pick up improved trip and stand still, and I'll talk to my DM about knockdown (he has a thing for 3.0 splatbooks so he might okay it). Any good equipment I might consider besides the typical stat boosting items and magic armor? I'll be starting at level 9 with 36,000gp.

[Talic]

Ok, here's a reach build concept. Bear with me if it's less than totally effective. Assuming 32 point build.

Str: 10 Dex:18 Con:14 Int:10 Wis:14 Cha 8

Silverbrow Human (RoD) Fighter 4/PsyWar 2/Dervish 10/PsyWar 3-6
Trait: Quick

1) Dragon Tail (Drag Magic)
1R) Prehensile Tail (Serp Kingdom)
1F) Combat Expertise
2F) EWP: Kusari-gama (DMG 145)
3) Wpn Focus: Kusari Gama
4F) Dodge
5PW) Mobility
6) MultiWeapon Fighting
6PW) Weapon Finesse
9) Improved Multiweapon Fighting
12) **Open**
15) Greater Multiweapon Fighting
18) **Open**

At level 7, you gain access to dervish Dance with Kusari-Gama, and can full attack with 3 weapons.

By Level 10, Have boots of haste, for an extra attack, and movement. That'll give you 70 foot movement with your full attack.

Now, your attacks look like this, at level 8. (assume +2 dex gloves, and +1 weapons, no boots of haste yet, but both stat boosts into Dex, total dex: 22).

Main Hand: +13/+8
Off Hand: +13
Tail Kusari Gama: +13

By level 16, you should have All 3 weapons as +2 wounding. Add in Armor spikes, +3 wounding. At this point, you should have a +6 dex item, and another 2 stats into dex (total dex 28)

+29/+24/+19/+14
+29/+24/+19
+29/+24/+19
+24/+19/+14 (5 ft reach)

In Dervish Thousand cuts?

+29/+29/+24/+24/+19/+19/+14/+14
+29/+29/+24/+24/+19/+19
+29/+29/+24/+24/+19/+19
+24/+24/+19/+19/+14/+14

Yes, that's 6 attacks at max bonus. Yes, every successful attack (of the 26) deals 2 con damage. Get a way to activate Wraithstrike on yourself, and eat things.

If you can get other ways to boost attacks, go for it, but almost all attacks have reach, and the amount of attacks is disgusting. You'll have 55 move (exactly what you need to drop all 26 attacks on a full move), but get boots of haste, just in case you need a bit more.

And that, my friends, is a reach fighter that will scare entire parties at high levels (worse if they've quaffed a potion of Enlarge Person (or manifested Expansion) for 20 ft reach... Say, via Belt of Battle?).

EDIT: By switching it around, and swapping out Psywar for sorcerer (and going the Complete Mage - Armored Caster Variant for fighter) you could get enlarge person and Wraithstrike. Circlet of Rapid Casting, Drop Wisdom 6 points, add them to Charisma, and you're golden.

[Keld Denar]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm definitely going to pick up improved trip and stand still, and I'll talk to my DM about knockdown (he has a thing for 3.0 splatbooks so he might okay it). Any good equipment I might consider besides the typical stat boosting items and magic armor? I'll be starting at level 9 with 36,000gp.

If you want to trip, look for items that add to Str checks. Armbands of Might are like 4.1k gold and add a +2 to all str based checks (and PA damage). Steadfast Boots are 1.4k gold and give you attacks as if you were set for a charge and also a +4 stability bonus against counter-trips so you have a lower chance of losing your weapon. The standard Belt of Giant Str +6 is a goal to eventually shoot for as well.

[Person_Man]

Thanks for all the input everyone. I'm definitely going to pick up improved trip and stand still, and I'll talk to my DM about knockdown (he has a thing for 3.0 splatbooks so he might okay it).

There is no reason to take Improved Trip/Knock-Down and Standstill. They essentially do the same thing - lock your enemy down in one square. I suggest you pick one or the other.