Suggestions for Build [3.5]

[Jorlain]

Looking for some suggestions for a character that I'll be playing this evening in a new 3.5e game. Kind of want to play a melee build of some sort. Been a while since I've hit things with a big stick.

My stats are kind of rediculous. 18 18 16 16 15 12

Any official book is acceptable, though I won't have access to any books until I get to the game tonight.

In this campaign we have one restriction, there are only spontaneous spell casters.

Since I wanted to beat people with a big stick, I went ahead and Okay'd playing a Mul from the Dark Sun campaign setting, using the conversion provided by www.athas.org found here: The Burnt World of Athas (DS3_R7.pdf)

This basically gives me +4 Strength, +2 Con, -2 Cha, Darkvision, for +1LA. We're starting at level 4, so I'll buy off the LA at level 3. Basically Muls are super-dwarves, and classify as a dwarf for all intents and purposes.

I just can't decide what I want to do with it. So far there's a barbarian, a druid, a warblade, and a scout in the party.

I'd be grateful of any prospective write-ups anyone can suggest. I'm having a massive mind-blank for this character and I can't shake it.

[Ferrin]

I would have said Binder if it wasn't for the Charisma penalty, and there's allready a Warblade in your group. So I'll suggest either the Incarnate, Totemist, or Duskblade. Though a Binder can still work great, seeing as you have rediculous stats.

[Flickerdart]

With those insane stats you might get good mileage out of a Paladin. 18 STR, 18 CHA, 16 WIS and CON, 15 INT and 12 DEX makes a rather shiny knight. Jump into a PrC as early as you can, since there's nothing for Paladins beyond 6th level. Alternately, the UA Prestige Paladin variant entered through a UA Spontaneous Casting variant Cleric (since there are no prepared casters in your world) gets better casting and needs to spend fewer levels for Paladin goodies, even if your mount will be a lower level.

[Ferrin]

With those insane stats you might get good mileage out of a Paladin. 18 STR, 18 CHA, 16 WIS and CON, 15 INT and 12 DEX makes a rather shiny knight. Jump into a PrC as early as you can, since there's nothing for Paladins beyond 6th level. Alternately, the UA Prestige Paladin variant entered through a UA Spontaneous Casting variant Cleric (since there are no prepared casters in your world) gets better casting and needs to spend fewer levels for Paladin goodies, even if your mount will be a lower level.

Instead of pumping charisma he's better off taking the Serenity feat from Dragon Compendium, basing all paladin abilities off of wisdom. I wouldn't play a paladin either way though, but if you do... Serenity(Dragon Magazine Compendium) and Battle Blessing(Complete Champion) are a must for you.

[Flickerdart]

Dragon Mag isn't a "book" as such, so it might not be allowed, and with monster stats like that he has better things to do with his feats.

[Ferrin]

Dragon Mag isn't a "book" as such, so it might not be allowed, and with monster stats like that he has better things to do with his feats.

Dragon Magazine Compendium is a book, actualy.

And no, basing everything off of wisdom makes him less mad as well as granting some additional power, seeing as wisdom is better then charisma in about everything. 18 Str, 18 Wis, 16 con, 16 int, 15 dex, 12 charisma. Also; Battle Blessing is a must for paladins. But I'll say it again; play something other then a paladin, like a totemist or incarnate.

[Zaq]

+1 for playing an Incarnate. They're kind of like Bards in that they don't need high stats (I once played one without anything higher than a 14 and did just fine), but they're able to benefit from all of them.

Well, or a Bard, I guess. Bards are cool, but yeah, they're not so much the "hit with a big stick" types. They're more "hit with a little stick and have it hurt WAY MORE THAN IT SHOULD" types.

[Jorlain]

Conundrums.

I'll be honest... I don't like paladins. And unfortunately, I don't think we have a Magic of Incarnum book.

I hate making last minute characters. Everyone always beats me to the roles I like to play. :)

Edit: Apparently there's another player I was unaware of... A spontaneous cleric. Hrmph.

[Ferrin]

Conundrums.

I'll be honest... I don't like paladins. And unfortunately, I don't think we have a Magic of Incarnum book.

I hate making last minute characters. Everyone always beats me to the roles I like to play. :)

Edit: Apparently there's another player I was unaware of... A spontaneous cleric. Hrmph.

Ohhhh, so your DM allows the spontaneous divine casting variant? How do you feel about druids? And the PH2 Shapeshifter variant? Will be weaker then a regular druid, but that's a good thing. You get high stats so Shapeshifter variant might actualy be better.

[true_shinken]

Dungeoncrasher Fighter. Use your big stick to ping-pong your enemies.

[Escheton]

Dragon shaman, dragon shaman, dragon shaman.

Halfling or gnome, or that superdwarf, but halfling or gnome is more fun.

Be all about the power, THE UNLIMITED POWER!!!

Get lotsa con so you never really need more then half your hp. (vigor)
Deal bonus damage against anyone daring to hit you and your allies (energy shield)
well, thats about it, the other aura's suck. Though 5 or 6 lvls are pretty damned sweet.

Just be more badass then the warblade, cleric and rest of them combined. As a small char.

Get a crusaderlvl at lvl 5 or 8 for second or 3rd lvl maneuvers and stances that complement your awesome dragon-y power.

Dip a totemist lvl around that time as well. Not sure what to do past lvl 8 though. But there has got to be some prestigeclass that adds to the awesomeness.

[Ferrin]

Dragon shaman, dragon shaman, dragon shaman.

Halfling or gnome, or that superdwarf, but halfling or gnome is more fun.

Be all about the power, THE UNLIMITED POWER!!!

Get lotsa con so you never really need more then half your hp. (vigor)
Deal bonus damage against anyone daring to hit you and your allies (energy shield)
well, thats about it, the other aura's suck. Though 5 or 6 lvls are pretty damned sweet.

Just be more badass then the warblade, cleric and rest of them combined. As a small char.

Get a crusaderlvl at lvl 5 or 8 for second or 3rd lvl maneuvers and stances that complement your awesome dragon-y power.

Dip a totemist lvl around that time as well. Not sure what to do past lvl 8 though. But there has got to be some prestigeclass that adds to the awesomeness.

Dragon shaman is a sub-par class which relies on charisma for his touch of vitality ability. He doesn't have MoI available. Playing a crusader -can- work, but a binder would give him more flavor. Oh, and binder.

[Greenish]

Just be more badass then the warblade, cleric and rest of them combined. As a small char.

Dragon shaman is just a weak Dragonfire Adept.

Anyway, if you're ok with +1 LA, how about using an official 3.5 race? Namely, goliath: +4 strength, +2 con, -2 dex. Powerful Build (and always counts as running for jump checks).

[Ferrin]

Dragon shaman is just a weak Dragonfire Adept.

Anyway, if you're ok with +1 LA, how about using an official 3.5 race? Namely, goliath: +4 strength, +2 con, -2 dex. Powerful Build (and always counts as running for jump checks).

I second this idea, will make some options quite a bit stronger, like the Crusader and Binder. But aside from that it would be nice to hear- Wait, why haven't I mentioned the Psychic Warrior yet? You know what, I'll do it now:

Psychic Warrior!

[Jorlain]

Never done a psionic class before. That might be interesting. I was always under the impression, though, that psi warriors were sub-par. They sound interesting, though.

[Greenish]

Never done a psionic class before. That might be interesting. I was always under the impression, though, that psi warriors were sub-par. They sound interesting, though.

Psychic warriors are solid tier 3, on par with ToB classes and miles ahead of fighters, monks, rogue, barbarians and their ilk.

[Edit]: Psywar can grapple the tarrasque!

[Jorlain]

Psychic Warrior it is!

Being that I've never played one, happen to have any advice? Our DM doesn't impose penalties for multi-classing, though I try not to go much beyond 2 base classes, as things tend to get too muddy and it takes away the fun (for me, anyways).

Thanks for the help so far! I'm kind of excited now. :)

[Greenish]

Psychic Warrior it is!

Being that I've never played one, happen to have any advice? Our DM doesn't impose penalties for multi-classing, though I try not to go much beyond 2 base classes, as things tend to get too muddy and it takes away the fun (for me, anyways).

Thanks for the help so far! I'm kind of excited now. :)

Psywar build compendium. You can build one to make many things, so maybe tell us what you would like to do?

[Jorlain]

I'm gunning for a Two-handed melee character, that doesn't lose usefulness after level 6.

Full BAB would make me happy, but 3/4 BAB can be made to be good enough providing the abilities compensate.

Psychic Warrior sounds awesome, but the guys I play with are kind of elite character builders. It's tough to keep up with them. I don't want to have a useless character because I didn't have the knowledge to make the character correctly. Of course, then I'd be able to make a new one if he died, though. :)

I guess what I mean, is that I'd like a (mostly) pure damage character for this game. If you can think of something that isn't overly complex that you think might work out for me, great!

Hah, I sound like such a putz. :)

[Ferrin]

I'm gunning for a Two-handed melee character, that doesn't lose usefulness after level 6.

Full BAB would make me happy, but 3/4 BAB can be made to be good enough providing the abilities compensate.

Psychic Warrior sounds awesome, but the guys I play with are kind of elite character builders. It's tough to keep up with them. I don't want to have a useless character because I didn't have the knowledge to make the character correctly. Of course, then I'd be able to make a new one if he died, though. :)

I guess what I mean, is that I'd like a (mostly) pure damage character for this game. If you can think of something that isn't overly complex that you think might work out for me, great!

Hah, I sound like such a putz. :)

No, it's great that you tell us what you want, as long as that's clear we can scour any books we want!

A simple pure damage character is a barbarian, though a Duskblade is even better, as well as giving more choices. Psychic Warriors are fun to play, you just need to know when to use your powers and which to choose, other then that they're quite simple.

[Jorlain]

Maybe I'm focusing too much on hitting things with a big stick and should drop the Mul idea.

I mean, we don't have any arcane casters at all... I'm kind of loathe to play a Sorceror, though. Not a big fan of bards, either...

Are there any decent spontaneous summoner builds? Might be fun to summon hordes of monsters, elementals, et cetera... Especially if I could get my hands on some battlefield control, too.

[Ferrin]

Maybe I'm focusing too much on hitting things with a big stick and should drop the Mul idea.

I mean, we don't have any arcane casters at all... I'm kind of loathe to play a Sorceror, though. Not a big fan of bards, either...

Are there any decent spontaneous summoner builds? Might be fun to summon hordes of monsters, elementals, et cetera... Especially if I could get my hands on some battlefield control, too.

A Psion Shaper has exactly what you want!

Oh, and you might want to look at this: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070718

Play a binder!

[Greenish]

Are there any decent spontaneous summoner builds? Might be fun to summon hordes of monsters, elementals, et cetera... Especially if I could get my hands on some battlefield control, too.

Druids get spontaneous summons from a decent list and some rather effective battlefield control. Spirit Shamans are spontaneous casters with druid spell list, and they get to select their spells known every day.

[Jorlain]

What book do binders come out of?

[Ferrin]

Tome of Magic, it also has Shadowcasters and Truenamers. Shadowcasters can be fun with any of the various fixes and the truenamer is broken(broken as in it doesn't work, and overpowered when it does).

[true_shinken]

Well, is you drop the mul thing, you could play a Factotum.
Large parties also benefit the most from classes like Bard, Dragon Shaman and Marshall.
Since you guys don't have an arcane caster and you want to hit things, I second the Duskblade suggestion, though.

[gallagher]

i would actually be a shapeshift druid, its an ACF or a cleric, go for either divine might/righteous wrath path for cleric, or the shapeshift druid ACF. then you can break the house down

[Greenish]

i would actually be a shapeshift druid, its an ACF or a cleric, go for either divine might/righteous wrath path for cleric, or the shapeshift druid ACF. then you can break the house down

Well, without the shapeshift variant you can break down Tokyo.

[Ferrin]

Well, without the shapeshift variant you can break down Tokyo.

Yeah, but he's only level 3 when he starts, so he can have a strength score of 26 with the Shapeshift variant, though I think Mul's get +2 Strength/+4 con instead though, not 4/2.