Captain America Build?

[Atar Kelith]

I'm sure this question has been posed somewhere in cyberspace before, and I'm not sure this is the right forum here. But my group had an argument about the proper class for Captain America.

If you were to built Captain America, what class would he be? Assume his shield is both a defensive implement and a weapon.

My assertion is Paladin, his god being USA. Others thought he would be a Barb.

I'd like to run it by the Playground to see if I'm a nut or not

[Runestar]

There was a build on gleemax using crusader, but it seems to have been deleted.

[Hawk7915]

Bloodstorm Blade, from Tome of Battle, is often cited as the best "Captain America" class, as it gives him the ability to hurl his shield using his full strength bonus and power attack damage (instead of Dex, although Cap probably has a decent Dex anyways), let's him use maneuvers at range with his shield, and lets him ricochet his shield off targets to hit multiple enemies in a round with his shield.

To take Bloodstorm Blade quickly, you'll be needing at least a level of Warblade. You can "cheat" into it with any class that has Balance as a class skill by taking Martial Study and Martial Stance, but this build is already insanely feat-starved (need Point-blank Shot to take Blade, need Improved Shield Bash, Shield Ward, Agile Shield fighter at a minimum to be a good shield warrior, need Power Attack to get the thrown shield to get really spicy).

Master Thrower (Complete Warrior) is a good class to throw on top of the build, but has even steeper prereqs. Fighter levels can give you the bonus feats you need to take all this stuff, which is nice. If you want Cap to be good with his fists and feet as well as his mighty shield, you'll either need Monk level (the fewer, the better; certainly no more than 6), Swordsage levels (with the alternate feature) or even more feats (For Unarmed Strike, Superior Unarmed Strike, and Snap Kick among other feats), which neccesitates fighter levels (again hopefully no more than six).

I'd agree that amid all those other class levels, if you can sneak 2-3 levels of Paladin into it it would feel more "comic accurate", by giving Steve Divine Grace, Smite Evil, and Aura of Courage.

[NineThePuma]

There's also an enchantment to make shields throwable in the MiC.

[Kylarra]

If we assume 4e, then there's clearly only one class he can be...


Avenger.