[3.5] Help building around a story

[Admiral Squish]

Hey, playground! I've got a really interesting story here, but I'm not sure how to build the character, exactly.

A warforged warrior, elite among his class and given special training in unarmed combat, is sent to the frontlines, only to fall in his first battle against Karrnathi undead. By the time he's fully repaired, the war's over, and he's free. He's never really gotten over that first battle, and holds a powerful grudge against the undead, but with the war over, he can't get his revenge.

First off, nobody say 'unarmed swordsage'. I don't have the books for that, so no dice. SO far, I know the first few levels will be monk, then probably a level of ranger for 'favored enemy', and to get the hell out of the monk class. Then, I'm not really sure. Probably fighter or barbarian. He's supposed to be the tank, so it's gotta be melee, or at least something along those lines. Can anyone help me out?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Wouldn't a Warforged Monk never get the Monk AC bonus due to being naturally armored?

Unarmed combat based on strikes, or grappling?

A single-classed Ranger with the Bear Wrestling fighting style could work out for you. That gets Improved Unarmed Strike at 2, Improved Grapple at 6, and Stunning Fist at 11 if you get that far. Keep in mind however that hating the undead (fluff) and being specially trained to combat the undead (crunch) are two completely different things. Don't consider Ranger a requirement just to get the Favored Enemy bonus, your hate for the undead can be just as strong without it.

Bear Totem Barbarian could be useful for grappling, but isn't necessarily focused on unarmed combat. A Psychic Warrior is also a decent grappler due to powers like Expansion and Grip of Iron. The Psionic Fist (of Zuoken) PrC is good for a grappling Monk build for that same reason. Maybe even take that with Psychic Weapon Master, assuming your fists are made of psionic crystal rather than metal. Get Undead Bane enchanted on your fists instead of taking Ranger for Favored Enemy.

Note that in a grapple, you can make a grapple check instead of an attack roll to deal unarmed damage. The damage dealt is considered to have been delivered by an unarmed strike, which is a melee attack, so bonus damage from Power Attack will apply to it. Note that a grapple check is not an attack roll, and penalties that specifically apply to attack rolls do not apply to grapple checks, such as the attack penalty for Power Attack. This is exactly why the Frost Giant Mauler in Frostburn is so dangerous. However, WotC has claimed that this trick does not work based on the principle that you get something (bonus damage) for nothing (no penalty to the grapple check), but every possible translation of the rules indicates that it does work exactly like that, and at least one of WotC's own monsters uses this exact trick.

[Admiral Squish]

I'm not sure about the armor bonus. In the races of eberron book, it mentions monk being a good choice for warforged due to that they don't actually count as wearing armor or something. That's too liberal for me, but I talked to my DM and he said it would be fine to keep the basic armor without losing my monk bonuses.

The idea was strikes, but I could work with grappling too, now that I think about it.

[Keld Denar]

Warforged BardX with Dragonfire Inspiration and optimized Inspire Courage. With something like a Battlefist, your strikes would be manufactured weapon, and you could "FLAME ON" to immolate yourself into a fierce fighting machine. Add in things like Snap Kick and maybe even TWF or Multiattack or even (Improved) Rapid Strike if you can qualify for it to strike out with your body.

Yea, I know that Cha is a big thing for Bards, and Warforged get a penalty to it, but really, it only affects your Perform check, which should already be really high because of ranks, and your save DCs, which as long as you aren't trying to use spell with saves, shouldn't be a problem. Focus on spells that buff you and your allies like Inspirational Boost and Haste, then go to down with your flaming body of fury.

Seriously, could be a fun and effective character with a bit of planning. Might be a bit feat tight, and I'll be honest, I don't know all of the various warforged feats that give you neato abilities, but I'm sure someone could help with that. The biggest thing with DFI is that you want to increase your number of attacks/round, and I think that a warforged can somehow get enough natural weapons installed to qualify for Multiattack and Rapid Strike, but I'm not overly certain.

Since you are warforged and playing in Ebberon, you could even take the Bard ACF that replaces Inspire Compentance (blech) with Song of the Heart for a free +1 effective Inspire Courage. Say you followed a yellow brick road to where you met a wizard in an Emerald City and he gave you a heart :)

[Temp.]

I would use Psychic Warrior, possibly replacing the "Claws of the Beast" with "Warfists" or something. Swap claw attacks for Slams and call it a day. Even if you can't make something up there, Psychic Warriors are some of the best grapplers in the game.

If you want to stick with Monk unarmed damage, take Monk into Fist of Zuoken/Psionic Fist. Maybe add a splash of Ranger here. PW powers will give you all sorts of options--expansion, Hustle, improved AC--while still advancing Monk speed and unarmed damage.

[Keld Denar]

If you want to do a psionic monk, don't forget the Tashelatora feat from Unapproachable East, I think? It combines your psionic and monk levels for determining manifester level and UAS damage, among a couple other things.