(3.5) Help me build a character that is inspirational and AWESOME!

[Mattarias, King.]

So, uhm, hey playground. I just recently got the opportunity to be a PC again, after two or so years of being my group's DM, so I of course jumped at this opportunity.

Thing is, the DM says the setting is going to be very "grimdark"- "All broken legs and zombies", as it were, since he's even introducing some continuous injury mechanics and such. My plan to counteract that is to be the most outrageous, glory-seeking, "ROW, ROW, FIGHT THE GRIMDARK!" character I can be.

Thing is.. I'm short on ideas. I know I want to have a, like, "vikings riding raptors while dual-wielding flamethrower-chucks" type "awesome" character who is also (chaotic) good-aligned, medium-sized humanoid, entirely full of himself, and out for JUSTICE! ..Paladin kind of fits this, but.. Well, they kinda suck, admittedly. Also, they need to respect authority.

..So, uhm.. Any ideas, playground? Most books should be allowed, with the exception of the Tomes of Magic and Battle. I was thinking perhaps a gish, for some fun with EXPLOSIVE ENTRANCES! but I'm not sure..

Oh, starting at level one, by the way.

[Chrono22]

Take one level of warblade. It gives you access to a bunch of nifty stances and maneuvers, and some cool class features.
Then take the rest of your levels as a duskblade. This gives you access to some high damage spells, and some cool/useful ones.

Between the two of them, these classes have alot of synergy. Duskblade gives you enough targeted damage to overcome even the most resilient of foes, while your initiater levels allow you to switch to methods you can recover. Both duskblade and warblade depend on Str, Int, Con, and Dex in that order.

As for being inspirational- be a paladin in everything but name. Be empathic, generous, altruistic, and courageous.

[JeminiZero]

No ToB? Pity. Iron Heart Surge is the best suited ability for "ROW, ROW, FIGHT THE GRIMDARK!" sudden recovery from certain defeat.

[infinitypanda]

Be a spoony bard. Go for IC optimization, and inspire them with your prowess!

[JaronK]

Yeah, Warblade and Crusader would be perfect.

But that's okay. Bards can rock out if you really optimize Inspire Courage (Words of Creation and such). Perhaps something with Bard/Warweaver/Sublime Chord to focus on making everyone around you really happy (and with a ton of diplomacy and the like, so as to make the evil grimdark villian decide to change his ways)? Plus, you can rock out on a guitar for JUSTICE!

If you want blow GRIMDARK away with true awesomeness as a surprise, consider an assassin type Factotum. Do the whole gritty thing, with Quickrazors for assassination and poison and maybe Imperious Command... and just sort of subtly buy a Lyre of the Restful Soul (see if you can make it a guitar of the restful soul) and a Rod of Defiance. Play along, all dark and grim and shadowy, until the DM sends a horde of undead at you. Suddenly, bust out your guitar, play the first few chords of Ghostbusters as a standard action with Cunning Surge, then pull out the Rod and use Opportunistic Piety to blow every undead away with your power chords. Nothing throws a DM like blowing up his evil grimdark minions with the POWER OF ROCK.

JaronK

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Consider going Paladin (of Freedom) 2/ Sorcerer 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Exorcist 8, with all the standard Gish tricks.

Cleric could be an option, particularly something along the lines of Cleric 5/ Morninglord 1/ Radiant Servant 5/ Morninglord 9. That can one-shot most undead encounters with just a few choice items, and against anything else it's just as strong as any other cleric who's proficient in all martial weapons.

[Zaq]

Bard is the obvious choice. It's easy to make a bard a very credible threat, either in their own right, through really extensive party buffing (there's more to Inspire Courage than just "hey guys, remember the +2!"), or through a combination of the two. A bit of searching should find some good resources on bard optimization, of whatever flavor and intensity you desire.

If you're going for "AWESOME," I find that the more abilities you can key off of charisma, the better. (This is not strictly necessary, but as the great X Stat to Y Bonus collections tell us, Charisma is just about the easiest ability to overload... and it's iconic to have the really over-the-top, outgoing, overwhelming personality guy be based on Charisma.) The fun magic items that fulfill that aren't really available at low level, but there are other options. I'm personally fond of taking the Killoren race (Races of the Wild) and the feat Charming the Arrow, since that's an easy way to add Charisma to attack (Charming the Arrow) twice over (Killoren smite attack... limited but effective) even as low as level 1. From there, it's reasonably simple to optimize Inspire Courage... at level 2 you can get the spell Inspirational Boost (Spell Compendium) for a +1 bonus, at level 3 you can trade Inspire Competence for Song of the Heart (via the rules in Eberron Campaign Setting, which in this particular case contain exactly zero Eberron fluff... or you can just take the feat normally, I guess) for another +1, giving you and your allies a +3 to attack and damage at level 3. Not too shabby. (If you have some control over your magic items, around this level a Badge of Valor, from Magic Item Compendium, should be affordable, for yet another +1). If you can jam the Dragontouched and Dragonfire Inspiration feats in there somewhere (you're quite feat-starved, but maybe you can get flaws or something?), you can turn the damage boost into d6s of energy damage, which is nice. Some GMs find that to be rather overpowered (it's certainly flashy and attention-grabbing, so it'll attract more GM wariness than just normal atk/dmg boosts... but then, that's exactly what you wanted, right?), and this is all possible within the next few levels. (By level 6 you can get Snowflake Wardance, but that's a long ways away.)

So yeah. You have a bunch of abilities keyed to Charisma (so you have an in-game reason to be boisterous, attention-grabbing, and overbearing, if you so choose), you have the ability to literally inspire your allies to new levels of awesome, and you have a lot of potential for growth if the game goes on long enough... and you can actually pull it off from a really low level. Bards kick ass and look great doing it.

[squishycube]

As a sidenote. If you want a mechanically awesome character as well as a flavourwise awesome character, branching out is usually not a good way to go. Specialisation is the way to power in D&D.

[bosssmiley]

Relevant to your interests. He is both awesome and inspirational.

[ondonaflash]

Some roleplaying tips, I had the opportunity to play a character like this and the basic premise I used was that so long as he good stand he would never surrender and so long as he could breathe he would never allow an innocent to come to harm. He was cheerful, honest, kind, helpful and one of the coldest killers in the world. He always offer a foe the opportunity to surrender but he only gives them one chance. I borrowed traits from David Tennant's Doctor, and Discworld's Corporal Carrot. He is a ton of fun to play.

[Dr.Epic]

Use this and just fill in awesome and inspirational stuff.

[Mattarias, King.]

Aw man, thanks guys. A lot of these sound sweet. I'll ask my DM about them. Especially the IC stuff.

I forgot to mention, this is gonna be a two-person party. My girlfriend and I. She's hiding what she's playing though, so I can't really use that to bounce off if, but yeah. Wicked undead-heavy, it seems. Can bards get some sort of turning ability via their ROCK?

What's warblade from, also?

[Drakevarg]

There's the Dirgesinger prestige class, which is basically a Necro-Bard. Or simply the Requiem feat, which allows bardic music to affect undead. Both are Libris Mortis.

[Tavar]

Warblade, crusader, and swordsage are all from Tome of Battle, so looks like that isn't a option. Any particular reason they aren't allowed, though? If it's availability, then you can get the warblade and maneuver lists from web excerpts.

[Mattarias, King.]

I think it's mostly because they have a 'new' system of doing things and my DM doesn't want to bother learning it.

Also.. Uhm.. Why would I want to INSPIRE the undead?

[Drakevarg]

Song of Horror: At 4th level and higher, a dirgesinger can strike a horrifying chord in the hearts of his enemies. Any enemy within 60 feet who can hear the dirgesinger must succeed on a Will save (DC 10 + the dirgesinger's ranks in Perform) or take 1d6 points of Strength damage and 1d6 points of Dexterity damage. A creature that is affected by a dirgesinger's song of horror or a creature that successfully saves against this effect cannot be affected by the same dirgesinger's song of horror for 24 hours.

And keep in mind Requiem is a prerequisite for Dirgesinger, so it would affect undead. Not exactly inspirational though. Unfortunately Song of Sorrow is mind-affecting (doesn't work on undead) and Song of Grief specifies living creatures.

EDIT: On checking the Requiem feat again, it actually overrides an undead's immunity to mind-affecting abilities.

On a related note, someone should homebrew a Bardic prestige class based on Dethklok. Head-exploding levels of RAWK.

[Mattarias, King.]

Oh geez. Wow. That sounds nasty. Strength an dex damage. Ouch..

Still, unfortunately not what I'm looking for. Requiem might be useful though. Hmm..

Edit: Oh, and I like your sig, Akushin.

[Sinfire Titan]

Dragonfire Bard in a party of all TWFing Swift Hunters. Choose Sonic damage, not cold. Only one species of undead is naturally immune to Sonic damage (Dracolichs, but they need a specific base creature). Imagine how much your party will love you when they are making 7 attacks/round, each of which gets an extra 14d6 Sonic damage with no save.

[Mattarias, King.]

Dragonfire Bard in a party of all TWFing Swift Hunters. Choose Sonic damage, not cold. Only one species of undead is naturally immune to Sonic damage (Dracolichs, but they need a specific base creature). Imagine how much your party will love you when they are making 7 attacks/round, each of which gets an extra 14d6 Sonic damage with no save.

Niiice. Like I said though, only a two person party. But still, I am liking this bard idea more and more. Wouldn't fire be better though? There's very few undead I can think of immune to fire, too.

[ShippoWildheart]

I think it's mostly because they have a 'new' system of doing things and my DM doesn't want to bother learning it.

I don't see what's wrong with ToB. Just tell your DM this:

Warblades are Fighters that don't suck

Crusaders are Paladins that don't suck and aren't stuck with an anal Code of Conduct

Swordsages are Monks that don't suck

That's all there is to it.

[Mattarias, King.]

I don't see what's wrong with ToB. Just tell your DM this:

Warblades are Fighters that don't suck

Crusaders are Paladins that don't suck and aren't stuck with an anal Code of Conduct

Swordsages are Monks that don't suck

That's all there is to it.

Heheh, good point. It's mostly the whole stances and maneuvers thing, but alright, can't hurt to try.

[Aldizog]

On a related note, someone should homebrew a Bardic prestige class based on Dethklok. Head-exploding levels of RAWK.

Like this?

Bard is always a good choice. In a small party, the "jack-of-all-trades" aspect lets him fill in missing roles a bit, as long as you are cautious. In a large party, Inspire Courage is just really useful.

Paladins can be great too. Why not do both? Bard2/Paladin1, switch to LG and take Devoted Performer, then multiclass as you wish (I'd say focus on one class or the other). A celestial pegasus mount is pretty AWESOME, not for power so much but for the look. Obviously a candidate for Perform (Oratory) where Inspire Courage is like the Crispin's Day or ID4 speech (or perhaps just "Villain, prepare to face judgment!").

[Drakevarg]

Edit: Oh, and I like your sig, Akushin.

Thanks.

Heh, the mental picture of a Bard/Paladin is hilariously awesome. Go with it, for the look if nothing else.

[Mattarias, King.]

Thanks.

Heh, the mental picture of a Bard/Paladin is hilariously awesome. Go with it, for the look if nothing else.

Actually, I think I will. I'll see what my DM has to say about it.

[Sinfire Titan]

Niiice. Like I said though, only a two person party. But still, I am liking this bard idea more and more. Wouldn't fire be better though? There's very few undead I can think of immune to fire, too.

Fire resistance is too common an ability. Besides, in settings like this the worst idea you can do is set the Undead on Fire. Because then you just have to deal with Blazing Undead Bombs.

[Mattarias, King.]

Fire resistance is too common an ability. Besides, in settings like this the worst idea you can do is set the Undead on Fire. Because then you just have to deal with Blazing Undead Bombs.

Hmm, point, I suppose. Though I've always felt that if the zombies are still moving, you haven't used nearly enough fire.

[Shademan]

Monk (ask the Dm for full BaB)/sorcerer blue-mage from nymphology/ enlightened fist.

"I WILL DEFEAT YOU WITH MY SEXY MARTIAL ARTS!"

[Mattarias, King.]

Monk (ask the Dm for full BaB)/sorcerer blue-mage from nymphology/ enlightened fist.

"I WILL DEFEAT YOU WITH MY SEXY MARTIAL ARTS!"

Okay, this? This is my backup plan. It's just crazy enough to work.

[Drakevarg]

"I WILL DEFEAT YOU WITH MY SEXY MARTIAL ARTS!"

Might Guy vs. Zombies. Sure, why not?

[Sinfire Titan]

Monk (ask the Dm for full BaB)/sorcerer blue-mage from nymphology/ enlightened fist.

"I WILL DEFEAT YOU WITH MY SEXY MARTIAL ARTS!"

Monk, please...

You need to do this the manly way.