Melee build advice: Warforged [3.5]

[KingoftheTrees]

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a Warforged melee character? I would love to do Warforged Juggernaut at some point but was curious to see if anyone else had any good ideas for that kind of character? I have an idea for a Warforged fighter/psychic warrior/Juggernaut/pyrokineticist, but not sure how that would work in game. Any thoughts/criticism is welcome!

[Knaight]

Warforged Crusader.

Mechanics: Lots and lots of Devoted Spirit. Everything else is fluid. As a crusader, direct damage is largely ineffective, Warforged immunities put a serious hamper on everything else. Devoted Spirit was chosen mostly for thematic reasons, but also largely because of how well it works defensively. More optimal builds would take advantage of Martial Study to grab a Diamond Mind counter or two. A two level dip into fighter lets this happen quickly, and it should be hard to screw up the character.

Background: Model ZB Serial 14, or as she prefers Zeba, is one of many mass produced Warforged sent to war. She was not set apart by capability, by attitude, or by anything much other than luck, and survived more by virtue of those around her getting caught by missile fire when she wasn't. It was enough to force introspection regarding the war and her place in it, and she came to the conclusion that atonement was required, attempting to live a pious, nonviolent life. Who she actually became was a compromise between her nature and attempt to abandon it, in her mind just another effect of the world around her dictating her actions.

[Dusk Eclipse]

A Warforged Dungeoncrasher fighter / Warforged Juggernaut, gets some sweet Bullrushing synergy.

[Urpriest]

Landforged Walker from Secrets of Xen'drik is pretty awesome, especially on an Archivist chassis. Plant Shape allows for pretty kickass melee, backed by a liberal helping of cleric and druid buff spells, and unlike Wildshape it scales with character level, so you can fit in ten more levels of whatever prestige class strikes your fancy.

[gorfnab]

Landforged Walker from Secrets of Xen'drik is pretty awesome, especially on an Archivist chassis. Plant Shape allows for pretty kickass melee, backed by a liberal helping of cleric and druid buff spells, and unlike Wildshape it scales with character level, so you can fit in ten more levels of whatever prestige class strikes your fancy.

Landforged Walker also makes this an interesting build:
Warforged Monk 2/ Druid 3/ Landforged Walker 5/ Sacred Fist 10

[Greenish]

Warforged are, IMO, one of the best races, if not the best one, for monks.

Of course, monk as a class is rather underwhelming, which is why you use it for a short dip to ease your way into psychic warrior (Expanded Psionic Handbook) or Ardent (Complete Psionic), and slap on the Tashatalora feat (Secrets of Sarlona). You can be the giant robot!

[Kno Lawjick]

I've always loved this little combo rigth here.
In no perticular order...
Exotic weapon proficiancy (Warmace)
Two weapon fighting
Oversized two weapon fighting
Monkey grip

This lets you use two large warmaces, each doing 3d6 damage.
The problem with this is you get -2 AC (for the warmaces), -4 on attack rolls (-2 for two weapon fighting, -2 for using large weapons).
But with a high strength and the adamantine body feat, your're good!

[Keld Denar]

One interesting thing with ToB...damage comes mostly from your maneuvers, with base weapon damage being a relatively minor component. As such, you can make a Warforged who primarily attacks with his slam attack. Eventually upgrade to a Battlefist to increase your base damage a bit and allow for easy enchantment. The advantage is that you never have to worry about dropping your slam, or getting disarmed.

There is a decent Homebrew PrC on this forum called Warforged Armorlord. It focuses around upgrading your existing Warforged abilities (like Adamantine Plating, or Improved Fortification, or size increase on your Slam damage, etc). Its pretty awesome, I recommend looking into it for any 'forged ToB user.

[AslanCross]

If your DM allows ToB and PHB2, a Warforged Knight/Crusader with a glaive is a great tank. You have battlefield lockdown and can use your innate slam for adjacent targets. The Psychic Warrior route also gives you the ever-awesome expansion.

Monk/Unarmed Swordsage also works great for the warforged.

I've always loved this little combo rigth here.
In no perticular order...
Exotic weapon proficiancy (Warmace)
Two weapon fighting
Oversized two weapon fighting
Monkey grip

This lets you use two large warmaces, each doing 3d6 damage.
The problem with this is you get -2 AC (for the warmaces), -4 on attack rolls (-2 for two weapon fighting, -2 for using large weapons).
But with a high strength and the adamantine body feat, your're good!

Whereas you could just use Power Attack to gain a reliable +8 damage bonus with just one feat for the same attack bonus penalty without the ridiculous AC penalty. See the Maul and the Greataxe, which are heavier than the Warmace and yet do not involve the AC penalty; no idea why. I just houserule the Warmace's AC penalty away.

Sure, you get +2.5 more bonus damage on average (3d6 averages out to 10.5), but that just cost you four feats right there, not to mention that Monkey Grip's effect can be replicated by two races (Half-Giant and Goliath) or an item (Strongarm Bracers).

[KingoftheTrees]

I pretty much have access to anything WotC, including Dragon Magazine. I would have to run any homebrew stuff by him, or he may even make something up. I like the idea of a warforged Juggernaut, but not sure what else to do. Fighters seem so boring, and I'm not familiar with the ToB stuff. But I have read some of it. Juggernauts kinda focus on charging/bull rushing, what else could I do with that? Other than taking dire charge at epic levels?

[Greenish]

not to mention that Monkey Grip's effect can be replicated surpassed by two three races (Half-Giant, Eneko and Goliath) or an item (Strongarm Bracers).

Fixed that for you.

I pretty much have access to anything WotC, including Dragon Magazine. I would have to run any homebrew stuff by him, or he may even make something up. I like the idea of a warforged Juggernaut, but not sure what else to do. Fighters seem so boring, and I'm not familiar with the ToB stuff. But I have read some of it. Juggernauts kinda focus on charging/bull rushing, what else could I do with that?

Have you seen Dungeoncrasher already? Then there's Brute Combat, Combat Brute and Shock Trooper, all of which are tactical feats for getting more out of your Bull Rushes.

[KingoftheTrees]

I have not actually seen those. I guess I should have said "I have access if I can find it" haha. My DM has almost everything in PDF format, but if it exists I can use it. Where/what is Dungeoncrasher?

[Urpriest]

I have not actually seen those. I guess I should have said "I have access if I can find it" haha. My DM has almost everything in PDF format, but if it exists I can use it. Where/what is Dungeoncrasher?

Dungeoncrasher is from Dungeonscape, and is a set of variant class features for fighters. It trades feats for the ability to do large amounts of damage when bull rushing enemies into objects.

[Greenish]

I have not actually seen those. I guess I should have said "I have access if I can find it" haha. My DM has almost everything in PDF format, but if it exists I can use it. Where/what is Dungeoncrasher?

Dungeoncrasher is a fighter ACF from Dungeonscape that focuses on Bull Rushing enemies to obstacles (and breaking down stuff). It replaces fighter's 2nd and 6th level bonus feats.

Combat Brute and Shock Trooper are in CW. The former gives you bonus to attack and damage after bull rushing someone (and some other stuff). Brute Fighting (RoE) is a warforged-only feat which focuses on charging & PA with two-handers (I forgot the details in the above post).

[Endarire]

Be a Warforged Psion (Shaper) using power armor.

Adamantine Body optional.

PS: Warforged Juggernaut ain't that great. Astral construct power armor gives you a renewable HP shell starting at ML3. How's +31 HP at L2 or 3 sound? You can still use vigor to further increase your HP, share pain to halve damage with your psicrystal (who also has vigor), and do a lot of spiffy things.

Take that, healing-immune Juggernaut!

[AslanCross]

Fixed that for you.

How could I forget about Eneko? Eneko is awesome, especially the part about "I can has enormous bow."