Warcraftian BladeMaster in Traditional 3.5 D&D.

[Zephyros]

Sooooo... My currently running campaign is one of some guys who used to be total noobies but after some gaming the proved to be really nice and mature roleplayers with good understanding of the rules... Till now the party was missing a primary combatant ( Elven Spellthief/Wizard/Spellwarp Sniper, Lesser Aasimar Cleric TurnFreak with divine feats and nightsticks, Rogue\Ranger\Master Thrower) -before you ask: Yes I helped them with their builds which mainly materialized what they wanted to play.

New friend arrives.. And has no problem to play the tank/ melee guy.. But what I really know without asking is he will sure get bored of the traditional fighter pack-mule. So when I ask him what exactly he likes his character to be able to do, and in short he replies " I want him to be able to act some stunts like the Warcraft 3 Blademaster Hero..." (which means something like mirror image, windwalking and backstabbing the crap out of people using some big badass sword)

I think that its is doable by using ToB... What do u propose?

THX in advance

[CrazedGoblin]

id say ToB to hehe, but thats about it hehe

[Neftren]

Probably some sort of Warblade with all the wind based Maneuvers... and maybe multiclass into swordsage to get Desert Wind for the fire stuff...

[Catch]

Tome of Battle, most definitely.

A Swordsage would probably be best, probably with handful of Desert Wind, Shadow Hand and Diamond Mind maneuvers, maybe a little Tiger Claw too.

[Artemician]

It's actually ridiculously easy to create, if you stop to think about it.


1) Wind Walk - (Greater)Invisibility. Many Maneuvers from the ToB would fit as well, especially that one that gives you Greater Invis for 1 turn. Bonus damage comes from Sneak Attack dice, which can be gotten by Assassin's Stance, or Death in the Dark
2) Mirror Image (Mirror Image. Doi). Alternatively, there are stances in ToB make for nice substitutes (Child of Shadow stance and Pearl of Black Doubt spring to mind..)
3) Critical Strike - Improved Critical (Falchion)
4) Bladestorm - Mithral/Adamantine Hurricane, combined with things like Dancing Mongoose and Girallon Windmill Flesh Rip really make for a Bladestorm of pain. Alternatively, the Dervish's Dervish Dance class feature models this perfectly.

[Enzario]

Considering the other characters in your party, ToB might be the only way to make sure that he's not completely walked over by your CoDzilla and other-guys-who-I'm-sure-are-über-as-hell.

That notwithstanding, the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread was the Ghost-faced killer. It's a PrC in either Complete Adventurer or Complete Warrior, and it follows generally along those lines. As I said before, though, he's gonna need quite a bit more than a fighter-oriented PrC to be able to keep pace with the other guys.

[Zephyros]

Actually I think the whole theme of Ghost Faced killer is neat.. I am so going to remake that to be more ToBy (and also more useful )

[GolemsVoice]

I think what also matters is the fluff you give him. If he's into fluff, that is. Blademaster in WC3 are japanese-styled warriors, that do not rely on the orc's savage fury but rather on a code of honor.

[Tor the Fallen]

I think what also matters is the fluff you give him. If he's into fluff, that is. Blademaster in WC3 are japanese-styled warriors, that do not rely on the orc's savage fury but rather on a code of honor.

Grom Hellscream and Korgath Bladefist were both maniacs, but they followed the path of the blade.

[Stam]

Hmm. Master of Nine, perhaps? Hard to build right, but it sounds to me like you're experienced enough to do it. ;)

[axraelshelm]

i had thought about this one and yes grom is the coolest out of the warcraft 3 game i suggest psychic warrior great little class and with expanded knowledge you can have any power you want greater invisiability included.

[Darrin]

So when I ask him what exactly he likes his character to be able to do, and in short he replies " I want him to be able to act some stunts like the Warcraft 3 Blademaster Hero..."

Were you aware that there is already an Orc Blademaster PrC based on the WoW concept, printed in Dragon #299? It's 3.0 material, but still quite usable.

Requires five not-so-great feats, though... probably better to just stick with straight Warblade or SwordSage.

[Townopolis]

Sounds like a Desert Wind+Diamond Mind+Shadow Hand+Tiger Claw Swordsage to me.

Maybe make a variant that replaces light armor proficiency with a monk's AC bonus progression.

Also, had an interesting idea if you want to use Tiger Claw maneuvers to simulate Bladestorm (although you could probably use the level 9 Diamond Mind maneuver). He takes Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bastard Sword, Oversized TWF, and TWF (I'd advise removing ITWF and GTWF and just letting TWF give iterative attacks, because of my own experience with the feat tree's power) and allow him to "Dual Wield" with just the one weapon.

You'd have to figure out some way to work with enchanting the weapon, to make sure it didn't get out of hand. It could be as simple as making him pay double to enchant his weapon because... it's cold iron... or something.

The point is he'd get the mechanics of TWF, but only be fighting with the one bastard sword/katana/ninto/whatever you call it.

[Foolosophy]

If you want to stay inside core a melee bard could work aswell. Just take perform "weapon drill" or "war dance", make a melee heavy built and use the occasional bard spell for mirror image (i think they get it) and invisibility.
If you use other splat books you could think about adding frostburn's snowflake wardance (with other fluff it it's an issue) and that one melee bard feat from complete adventurer ...forgot the name

It won't be nearly as effective as a ToB build, though.