3.5 Barbarian/Fighter/Weapon Master

[Molant]

One of my players recently asked me to help him create a character (for another group). He wants to mostly split levels between Barb and WM, but I managed to convince him that fighter levels would help reach WM faster.

The weapon will be either two bastard swords, two great swords or two great axes. He's willing to take the -2 for oversized weapons.

Race is negotiable (he doesn't care) and he hasn't rolled ability scores yet.

I've never made or played a weapon master myself, but is this potentially a reasonable character or is my player just wasting his time (and why, please)?

[Darrin]

I've never made or played a weapon master myself, but is this potentially a reasonable character or is my player just wasting his time (and why, please)?

Are we talking about the 3.0 weapon master? Because technically, according to WotC, the 3.0 Weapon Master was updated to the 3.5 Exotic Weapon Master.

However, if you do want to use the 3.0 Weapon Master... it's not very optimal, mostly because it requires you to take about 7 feats, almost all of which are UltraStinky McWeaksauce. If you really want whirlwind attack, it's a lot more convenient to pick it up as a +1 weapon enchantment (MIC p. 46).

If you really want to do a Weapon Master, then there is a Psychic Weapon Master that *was* updated for 3.5. It still requires a bajillion useless feats to qualify for, but isn't quite so stinky because... well, because you can explode things with your mind.

Can you find out what exactly the player likes about the Weapon Master? If you're trying to optimize critical threat ranges, critical multipliers, and so forth, then we can probably suggest some much more effective PrCs/feats/combos to do that. If you're trying to master a variety of exotic weapons, then a Warblade or Haberdash build is going to work a lot better than a Weapon Master.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Strength-based character like this is better off using a weapon in two hands with Power Attack than using TWF. Depending on what he rolls for ability scores, it may be a viable choice, but only if he gets at least three stats 17+. If not, and he still insists on doing that, which will also split a STR/con character into STR/DEX/con, then he is indeed wasting his time. Even with exceptional ability scores he'd still be better off using a Bastard Sword two handed with Uncanny Blow from Exotic Weapon Master, and power attacking for that -2 he'd have for TWF.

For the build itself, I'd make him a Dwarf using a Dwarven Waraxe, the Barbarian movement bonus makes up for the only disadvantage he'd have, and it would save a feat on exotic weapon proficiency. Use the Wolf Totem Barbarian variant from UA and pick up Knock-Down from Deities and Demigods, he'll be hitting his opponents so hard he knocks them to the ground. Forget about using Fighter and take Warblade instead from Tome of Battle, it's better in every way. Go Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/ Warblade 4/ Exotic Weapon Master 2, and probably just take more Warblade levels after that. Get Uncanny Blow and Trip Attack, which should give him an extra +2 when using Knock-Down. Take the feat Extra Rage a few times instead of more Barbarian levels. Focus on Iron Heart and Stone Dragon maneuvers and stances, with some Tiger Claw mixed in.

[Eldariel]

WM is frankly quite a decent class; if nothing else, it deals a lot of damage, which while not amazing, is at least something. Max damage dice can be quite amazing if you use a somewhat larger weapon and extra AoOs never hurt anyone.

Yeah, the entry requirements are absolute garbage, but at least they qualify you for Elusive Target, Improved Trip > Knock-Down and Melee Weapon Mastery, all of them (Melee Weapon Mastery less so) perfectly good feats on their own right. And stacked Critical Range can lead to some nice damage particularly with some 20/x4 weapon.


I'd focus on a build that gets a lot of feats; probably multiclass Monk, Fighter and maybe Ranger or Psychic Warrior to maximize your bonus feats on early levels. Also, some Totem Barbarian for added bonus feats sounds good. Since you have so many feat chains to finish in order to make your prerequisites worth taking, you'll want a lot of feats.


This shoehorns you into a sort of a controller/tripper build with unusual damage capabilities, but that's not really a bad place to be at at all, especially since you can use any weapon provided you take Knock-Down.

It's too bad the archetype that would really love the class for the bonus damage (Archers) loses so much in the prerequisites.

[Mongoose87]

It's too bad the archetype that would really love the class for the bonus damage (Archers) loses so much in the prerequisites.

This looks like a job for Homebrew!