Super Dwarf!

[Darkxarth]

Okay, so he's not really all that super, but when I asked my brother what kind of character he wanted to play, that was his answer.

After deciding that he didn't want to be a Clericy Dwarf, but rather an Axey Dwarf, I came up with this.

Super Dwarf

Dwarf Knight 7 / Dwarven Defender 1
Medium Humanoid
HD: 8d12+40 (108 hp)
Speed: 20 ft. (4 squares)
Init: +1
AC: 28 (+1 Dex, +9 Armor, +6 Shield, +1 Dodge, +1 Deflection); touch 19; flat-footed 26
BAB: +8/+3; Grapple: +10
Attack: +1 Waraxe +11 (1d10+3 20/x3) OR Light Hammer +9 (1d4+2 20/x2)
Space: 5ft. Reach: 5ft.
Special Attacks:
Special Qualities: Darkvision 60 ft, Stonecunning, Stability, Defensive Stance 1/day
Saves: Fort +9, Ref +3, Will +8
Abilities: Str 14, Dex 13, Con 20, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Knowledge (Nobility and Royalty) +10, Intimidate +13, Spot +1, Listen +1
Feats: Dodge (LV1), Endurance (KN2), Shield Specialization^ (LV3), Diehard (KN5), Shield Ward^ (LV6)
Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Items: +1 Spiked Tower Shield of Arrow Catching, +1 Dwarven Waraxe, +1 Light Fortification Fullplate, 10 Light Hammers, Ring of Protection +1, Steadfast Boots, Clasp of the Elder, Potion of Barkskin +2, Potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, 4 Potions of Cure Light Wounds
[20 gp remaining]

Clasp of the Elder*: +5 on Diplomacy and Intimidate and +2 Wisdom, when worn by a Dwarf
Steadfast Boots*: Wearer is immune to Trip or Bull Rush. Additionally, one-handed weapons or larger are always set against a charge.

I haven't filled out all of the Knight's special abilities yet, but that's not important for my question.

I am the DM, so no problems there. The question is: is it reasonable to remove the ridiculous (and useless) Toughness feat requirement for the Dwarven Defender? Also, is it balanced to swap the Knight's free Mounted Combat feat with the Endurance feat? I figure the Dwarf isn't going to be riding any mounts (what with Defensive Stance requiring him to stand absolutely still) and Endurance (by itself) isn't that great of a feat.

And my final question is, is this a decent Dwarven build, particularly for a campaign that is going to focus on army combat?

^Both Shield Specialization and Shield Ward are from the Player's Handbook II
*Both the Clasp of the Elder and the Steadfast Boots are from the Arms and Equipment Guide.

- DX

[RTGoodman]

Well, I don't know about eliminating Toughness as a prerequisite - it may suck, but that part of the point. You take a feat that's not very good to get into a PrC that's pretty decent. If you'd like, you could let him take Improved Toughness instead (from Complete Warrior, I think?). Or, if you're feeling fancy, use the 4E Toughness found here. As far as swapping Mounted Combat out, that sounds decent to me - just think of it as a Dwarven Knight racial substitution level.

Secondly, note that he gets a further +1 Dodge bonus to AC when he uses the Dodge feat (only against the one opponent specified). And in a defensive stance, he gets another +4. That means he's got a 33 AC, not bad for an 8th-level character.

For tactics, I'd say he should use his Knight's Challenge ability, and then go into his defensive stance, and then fight defensively to get more +2 AC for a -4 attack (total AC 35). Also, you might shuffle some skill points around to get 5 ranks in Tumble to get even more AC when you fight defensively. (AC 36)

Overall, seems like a pretty solid tank build. He won't be the greatest damage dealer (though he won't be terrible), but he'll be able to make enemies attack him (and miss most of the time because of the high AC).

Note, though, that it depends on what you mean by "army combat." If it's mostly whole squads, his main ability won't be as good. If they're going up against smaller groups (or one big enemy at a time), it'll work well.

[Darkxarth]

Well, I don't know about eliminating Toughness as a prerequisite - it may suck, but that part of the point. You take a feat that's not very good to get into a PrC that's pretty decent. If you'd like, you could let him take Improved Toughness instead (from Complete Warrior, I think?). Or, if you're feeling fancy, use the 4E Toughness found here. As far as swapping Mounted Combat out, that sounds decent to me - just think of it as a Dwarven Knight racial substitution level.

Hm, I may consider using the Improved Toughness 4th Ed Toughness and just drop Diehard from his feats. That being said, I still think it's a silly requirement.

Secondly, note that he gets a further +1 Dodge bonus to AC when he uses the Dodge feat (only against the one opponent specified). And in a defensive stance, he gets another +4. That means he's got a 33 AC, not bad for an 8th-level character.

For tactics, I'd say he should use his Knight's Challenge ability, and then go into his defensive stance, and then fight defensively to get more +2 AC for a -4 attack (total AC 35). Also, you might shuffle some skill points around to get 5 ranks in Tumble to get even more AC when you fight defensively. (AC 36)

I usually don't fight defensively (and I'm almost sure my brother won't) but the Knight's Challenge abilities are something he will LOVE and of course I'll remind him that using Defensive Stance makes him even tougher.

As far as Tumble, I really don't see that concept working really well with a big, heavy, almost motionless Dwarf in Fullplate armor with a Tower Shield. The rules may allow it, but I can't in good conscience allow that sort of foolishness.

Overall, seems like a pretty solid tank build. He won't be the greatest damage dealer (though he won't be terrible), but he'll be able to make enemies attack him (and miss most of the time because of the high AC).

Yeah, he's definitely a pretty decent tank, and he can still deal some damage (though like you said, not much). But I'm thinking that Test of Mettle ability (the one that draws all enemies within 100 ft to attack you) could prove invaluable on a battlefield.

EDIT:

Note, though, that it depends on what you mean by "army combat." If it's mostly whole squads, his main ability won't be as good. If they're going up against smaller groups (or one big enemy at a time), it'll work well.

I figure he can use Test of Mettle (as mentioned above) to draw out LOTS of enemies or pick out the meanest, toughest baddie within sight and call him out, effectively keeping him from wiping out squads of allied soldiers.

[RoboticSheeple]

Consider changing those Dex and Cha stats around. Grab 2 levels of DeepWarden (Races of Stone) to use Con instead of Dex for AC. That will squeeze a bit more out of the character.

Take Improved Toughness instead of normal Toughness.

And seeing as Endurance is on the bonus feat list I think it would be keeping with the flavor of the Knight to swap it.

[Darkxarth]

Consider changing those Dex and Cha stats around. Grab 2 levels of DeepWarden (Races of Stone) to use Con instead of Dex for AC. That will squeeze a bit more out of the character.

Take Improved Toughness instead of normal Toughness.

And seeing as Endurance is on the bonus feat list I think it would be keeping with the flavor of the Knight to swap it.

I don't have Races of Stone. But that would be pretty sweet... At any rate, I think I am going to swap out Toughness for Improved Toughness/4e Toughness and drop Diehard. At least until the level-up.

[RoboticSheeple]

good news!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...040807a&page=4

I <3 Excerpts

[Darkxarth]

good news!

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x...040807a&page=4

I <3 Excerpts

That is amazing! Thank you!
The only problem is that the Knight has access to exactly two of the five required skills, and getting cross-class skills up to that level would require a much higher Intelligence score (or a different class) than the Dwarf has. Still, I really like the Deepwarden class, maybe I'll use it with some sort of Con/Wis based Ranger with Zen Archery; no Dex required! (Or I could always go TWF.)

[RTGoodman]

That is amazing! Thank you!
The only problem is that the Knight has access to exactly two of the five required skills, and getting cross-class skills up to that level would require a much higher Intelligence score (or a different class) than the Dwarf has.

I don't remember what Deepwarden skills the Knight has (probably just Climb and Jump), but you could grab a level or two (or three) of Dwarf Paragon. It has Climb, Jump, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), and Survival as class skills, so you'd only need to cross-class for Heal. Also, it has full BAB, d10 HD, and you get +2 Con if you take all three levels.

Of course, by that point, you're only looking at something like Dwarf Paragon 3/Knight 4/Deepwarden 2/Dwarven Defender 1. But if you're cool with that, it seems like a pretty good start.

[Animefunkmaster]

For an army campaign setting he may have more fun as a barbarian1/fighter4/deepwarden2/frenzied berserker#.

[Darkxarth]

For an army campaign setting he may have more fun as a barbarian1/fighter4/deepwarden2/frenzied berserker#.

Yeah... my brother is already a violent enough player (he smashes down doors and breaks Goblins in half) I really don't think I want him to play a Frenzied Berserker, even if there are plenty of enemies to kill.

I don't remember what Deepwarden skills the Knight has (probably just Climb and Jump), but you could grab a level or two (or three) of Dwarf Paragon. It has Climb, Jump, Knowledge (Dungeoneering), and Survival as class skills, so you'd only need to cross-class for Heal. Also, it has full BAB, d10 HD, and you get +2 Con if you take all three levels.

Of course, by that point, you're only looking at something like Dwarf Paragon 3/Knight 2/Deepwarden 2/Dwarven Defender 1. But if you're cool with that, it seems like a pretty good start.

I had thought about Dwarf Paragon, but had decided against it because it seemed more useful to use the levels for Knight. But with Deepwarden as an option...

You know what, I think I am going to see how that'd work.

EDIT: Well, it's a REALLY cool idea, but it isn't going to work for the ECL 8 campaign I'm running. However, next time I run an ECL 10 or higher, I'll keep this build in mind for him.

[GimliFett]

A question: Why is Heal a required skill for Deepwarden? It doesn't fit at all! Drop it and don't worry about it, I say. They have no class feature that builds off it. Silly requirement, IMO.

[Darkxarth]

A question: Why is Heal a required skill for Deepwarden? It doesn't fit at all! Drop it and don't worry about it, I say. They have no class feature that builds off it. Silly requirement, IMO.

I kind of thought it was silly too, but I was already tweaking the Knight's feats and the Dwarven Defender's prereqs, I figured too much tweaking would be unfair to the other players.

[GimliFett]

I kind of thought it was silly too, but I was already tweaking the Knight's feats and the Dwarven Defender's prereqs, I figured too much tweaking would be unfair to the other players.

Fair 'nuff. It was mostly just an observation, and how I'd handle it IMC, though I'm really the only dwarf player amongst my gang.

[Darkxarth]

Fair 'nuff. It was mostly just an observation, and how I'd handle it IMC, though I'm really the only dwarf player amongst my gang.

Oh, I saved the Deepwarden class to a Word document, and in that I removed the Heal requirement. Next time he wants to play a Dwarf, I'll be heavily suggesting the Deep Warden class.

[Keld Denar]

If you have Tome of Battle, look into either taking a couple levels of Crusader (Grab a couple Devoted Spirit and Stone Dragon manuvers) and then go into the Stone Dragon prestige class. It has a lot of flavor that matches Dwarven Defender and is only 5 levels long. I wanted to play a Dwarf Crusader in a game my friend was gonna put on, but it had trouble getting players.

Another thing to look at is a level of Exotic Weapon Master (CW) and grab the Uncanny Blow special ability. It'll increase your damage output on your 1handed attacks by a decent bit.

Also, Races of Stone has some other cool Dwarven stuff, including Dwarven Battle Plate and Dwarven Mountain Plate. So long as you are gonna have 20 move regardless of armor, you might as well wear the heaviest stuff you can strap to your stout body!

I wouldn't recommend Deepwarden, since the Con-to-AC thing is limited by your armors max dex bonus. For fullplate, that's +1. Therefore, you aren't gonna be able to reap the benefit from full Dwarfy CON goodness unless you wear lighter armor, which is very UN-Dwarfy.

[Truwar]

Here are a few changes I might make.

1. Lower his constitution to 18 and raise his strength to 16. It will only cost him 8 hit points and it will help offset the penalty to hit he gets for using a tower shield. It will also given +1 to damage and make it easier for him to carry around all of that heavy equipment, which brings me to my next point.

2. Remove the spikes from the towershield, you cannot bash with a towershield anyway. Also, get the towershield made out of darkwood, it will save you a LOT of weight and is not very expensive.

3. Remove light fortification from his platemail and arrow catching from his towershield. He has an AC of 28 and 100 hitpoints, you don’t really need to worry about avoiding criticals or avoiding the odd lucky arrow shot. With the money you save, you can invest in a set of gauntlets of ogre power, increasing his strength to 18 (very important because he is only wielding his axe one-handed and cannot take advantage of multiplying his str modifier for damage by 1.5).

4. I am not sure how much the boots of steadfastness cost but they are a bit redundant. This is a dwarf with a full attack bonus and an 18 strength he is not going to run into enough creatures that CAN trip or bull rush him to make them worth it. And if the boots cost enough that you could add flaming or some other elemental damage to his waraxe you will be doing more damage than you would ever get from the being set against the occasional creature that charged him.

These changes will Increase his attack bonus by 18%, increase his average damage by 65% and he will actually be able to carry all of his equipment. In exchange he will reduce his hitpoints by 7%, lose the ability to slightly affect archers in some cases, lose a 1 in 4 chance of reducing the damage of the occasional critical hit that gets past his 28 AC (although he still has 100 hit points to soak up that damage), and loses immunity to bull rush and trip against which he has basic racial bonus (combined with an 18 str) to resist.

[Darkxarth]

Here are a few changes I might make.

1. Lower his constitution to 18 and raise his strength to 16. It will only cost him 8 hit points and it will help offset the penalty to hit he gets for using a tower shield. It will also given +1 to damage and make it easier for him to carry around all of that heavy equipment, which brings me to my next point.

That actually doesn't sound like a bad idea...

2. Remove the spikes from the towershield, you cannot bash with a towershield anyway. Also, get the towershield made out of darkwood, it will save you a LOT of weight and is not very expensive.

Bah, the spikes are like 10 gp, they're mostly flavor because they'd look cool. However, making the Tower Shield out of Darkwood is a great idea.

3. Remove light fortification from his platemail and arrow catching from his towershield. He has an AC of 28 and 100 hitpoints, you don’t really need to worry about avoiding criticals or avoiding the odd lucky arrow shot. With the money you save, you can invest in a set of gauntlets of ogre power, increasing his strength to 18 (very important because he is only wielding his axe one-handed and cannot take advantage of multiplying his str modifier for damage by 1.5).

I'll remove Light Foritification from the armor (you're right, not that useful anyway) and that will give me 3000 more gold pieces to work with. However, I'm going to keep Arrow Catching on the Tower Shield, mostly because it fits with the Knight's Shield Ally flavor, but partially because (again) it's cool and makes for a good visual. (Tower Shield covered in arrows)

4. I am not sure how much the boots of steadfastness cost but they are a bit redundant. This is a dwarf with a full attack bonus and an 18 strength he is not going to run into enough creatures that CAN trip or bull rush him to make them worth it. And if the boots cost enough that you could add flaming or some other elemental damage to his waraxe you will be doing more damage than you would ever get from the being set against the occasional creature that charged him.

The boots were 6000 gp, so not cheap, but maybe you're right. He also gets to apply his Shield bonus to opposing Bull Rushes, Trips, and a couple other things through Shield Ward.

These changes will Increase his attack bonus by 18%, increase his average damage by 65% and he will actually be able to carry all of his equipment. In exchange he will reduce his hitpoints by 7%, lose the ability to slightly affect archers in some cases, lose a 1 in 4 chance of reducing the damage of the occasional critical hit that gets past his 28 AC (although he still has 100 hit points to soak up that damage), and loses immunity to bull rush and trip against which he has basic racial bonus (combined with an 18 str) to resist.

That gives me 9000 gp to work with some more, for very little cost and substantial gain. I'm thinking Gauntlets of Ogre Strength (as suggested) and something else in the 5k gp range... that'll help compensate the cost of the Darkwood shield and leave some leftover for a couple Wondrous Items.

[Aquillion]

As far as Tumble, I really don't see that concept working really well with a big, heavy, almost motionless Dwarf in Fullplate armor with a Tower Shield. The rules may allow it, but I can't in good conscience allow that sort of foolishness.

It makes sense to me. If you're allowing him to use Dodge at all, then he's making at least small movements. A decent tumble skill lets him make those movements more efficiently, even in heavy armor. He's not rolling all over the place, he's just absorbing some blows by shifting his body to take them better.

[Darkxarth]

It makes sense to me. If you're allowing him to use Dodge at all, then he's making at least small movements. A decent tumble skill lets him make those movements more efficiently, even in heavy armor. He's not rolling all over the place, he's just absorbing some blows by shifting his body to take them better.

Well, yeah, but...

See, because he's...

Hmm...

You're right, it makes about as much sense as having a Dodge bonus of +1 (or +2 with the feat [or +6 against a giant]) so I guess I don't have a good reason against it. It'd be hard to do, but I think I can wiggle it in by dropping the Knowledge ranks... yeah, pretty sure I could. I'll think about it.

[dyslexicfaser]

If you really want a SuperDwarf!, try Tempest Stormwind's Sublime Way Dwarven Defender homebrew. It is so very dwarf.

It's so dwarf it hurts.

[herrhauptmann]

Have you given thought to throwing in some Devoted Defender (I know, never updated from 3E to 3.5...).
It requires the alertness feat which isn't too big a deal usually, but the kicker is the 4 ranks in Spot, Sense Motive and Search. Especially the Sense Motive.

However it gives good BAB, FORT and REF, plus it's AC bonus is actually superior to the Dwarven Defenders (increasing at every odd numbered level), and the other abilities aren't too shabby either. Especially the 'defensive strike' where if someone attacks your 'charge' in melee, you get a free attack of op against him (and every even level afterwards you get a +1 to the AOOP)

[Darkxarth]

Have you given thought to throwing in some Devoted Defender (I know, never updated from 3E to 3.5...).
It requires the alertness feat which isn't too big a deal usually, but the kicker is the 4 ranks in Spot, Sense Motive and Search. Especially the Sense Motive.

However it gives good BAB, FORT and REF, plus it's AC bonus is actually superior to the Dwarven Defenders (increasing at every odd numbered level), and the other abilities aren't too shabby either. Especially the 'defensive strike' where if someone attacks your 'charge' in melee, you get a free attack of op against him (and every even level afterwards you get a +1 to the AOOP)

Where is this Devoted Defender of which you speak...?

[herrhauptmann]

Sword and Fist
A 3.0 sourcebook.