Character build advice (Repentia)(D&D 3.5/PF)

[Wazirak1]

Hello there, I would like to ask everyone who cares what they would do to make an effective combat character who makes use of no armor whatsoever, and uses a -very, very big two handed melee weapon-, Bonus points for some underlying level of religious zeal!

[Darthteej]

If Tome of Battle's allowed: Crusader with a dip in monk.

If not, things get interesting.

Also, fullblade.

[Feralventas]

If Tome of Battle's allowed: Crusader with a dip in monk.

If not, things get interesting.

Also, fullblade.

Seconding Tome of Battle as an option. There's suggestions for an unarmed, unarmored Swordsage variant that grants unarmed strike and wisdom to AC as a Monk (rather than the Wisdom to AC only when wearing light armor).

Even so, nearly any character that puts on a Monk belt can manage well without armor, including Clerics, Paladins, Crusaders, and even Fighters.

I'd suggest starting in the Two-Handed Fighter archetype for at least a level or two starting at 1st, then a dip in the Martial Artist archetype Monk to mitigate the Lawful requirement unless you'd like to keep that for yourself. Alternatively you can also dip Paladin 2, (LG if you can handle it) Monk1 with the Serenity feat to make the Paladin casting and features key off of Wisdom.

Monk at 1st level for the AC matter, Paladin2, then take a turn for the material methods and practicality, 2h-fighter the rest of the way. Strength as your main stat, with Wisdom and then Dex as your secondaries. You'll have Wisdom to AC and Saves by 3rd level, and adding your strength modifier twice on damage rolls with your weapon.

[Rejakor]

Cleric.


If first level, could pick up the Force domain for Mage Armour.

If second level, could dip monk for Wis to AC and still use Mage Armour.

If third level, just go straight cleric. Be Exalted Good, and prepare the Sanctified Spell Luminous Armour. Congratulations, you now have an hour/lvl duration suit of +1 Full Plate with no check penalty or anything for the cost of 2 2nd level spells (Luminous Armour, and then Lesser Restoration to restore the str damage).

When you get level 4 spells (and hopefully have a wand of lesser restoration), upgrade to Greater Luminous Armour, which essentially gives you a +12 bonus to AC.

When you can, go into Abjurant Champion. Then your Greater Luminous Armour essentially gives you +17 armour bonus to AC. And if you got into abjurant champion by dipping wizard, you can cast shield as a swift action to get another +9 AC shield bonus.

Take Extend Spell to make your luminous armour last longer, and take DMM: Persist to persist shield and walk around with potentially 36 AC pre dex pre shield of faith pre barkskin pre anything all day.



If I wasn't going that route, psions/erudites make good unarmoured warriors with their augmentable force armour and force screen powers. Gish psion/erudite can be hard at first, though, durations are a real pain.

Saint VoP Serenity Paladin/Unarmed Swordsage/Crusader is another good option. Wis to AC twice, and wis to saving throws, and maneuvers, is a pretty decent deal by level 5.

[Wazirak1]

Monk at 1st level for the AC matter, Paladin2, then take a turn for the material methods and practicality, 2h-fighter the rest of the way. Strength as your main stat, with Wisdom and then Dex as your secondaries. You'll have Wisdom to AC and Saves by 3rd level, and adding your strength modifier twice on damage rolls with your weapon.[/QUOTE]

con wouldn't be important? I'd imagine even with boosts, the lack of armor could hurt and as such one should have more hit points?

[Feralventas]

That's actually a flaw of mine; Con is Always an important stat, even for 'casters, though it's secondary to their 'casting stat, but I tend to invariably play squishy characters (all my D8's land on 1's and 2's for HP rolls) and so I tend to prefer attack mitigation to damage resistance.

So, Strength, Con then Wis/Dex if you want more HP, or Strength, Wis/Dex, then Constitution if you want to emphasize not getting hit in the first place.

Then again, you're looking at a D8 at 1st level, then d10's the rest of the way, so you'll hardly be lacking for Potential HP. Improved toughness is a thing if you can't roll high enough or afford a decent Con score.

[Wazirak1]

Perhaps, instead of monk for 1 1st level, I take a lvl of battle dancer- Then I get cha to ac, which would synergise with divine grace from paladin 2 rather well, I'd say?

[Feralventas]

I quite like that combo myself, but you'll need to go UA variant Paladin of Freedom, or get DM fiat to mitigate the Chaotic requirement for Battle Dancer or the LG requirement for Paladin, as otherwise they're rather mutually exclusive. More so, if you're going to go for a Charisma focus, I'd endorse dips in Crusader more than a focus on the 2h fighter to really make it work, but that's not a Necessity at that point.

Going BD into Pally Does mitigate the need to pick up the Serenity feat though, which opens up another much-needed slot for more emphasis on your combat style or character idea.

[Rejakor]

Well, that build won't really get you a decent AC. You'll end up with 'the monk problem' of need str dex con + mental stat, i.e. MAD as hell.

You really need to be adding the same stat twice or be using a spell to make up the difference if you want to go unarmoured and unshielded and be in melee.

Otherwise you're going to die a lot.

Also one of the big draws of fighter is the heavy armour proficiency, and you're not really getting anything from that in that build.

If your group is mostly low op, low tier, it would probably be okay though.

[Rejakor]

My favourite way to make an unarmoured fighter, although I last did this with a crazy double rapier wielding duelist, is to go bard/battledancer. You can add Cha to AC a bunch of times, and also get miss changes etc from spells and whatnot. You eventually become a sublime chord and set everything on fire forever with dragonfire inspiration.

Typically also take a long dip in warblade, crusader, or swordsage for Song of the White Raven and general maneuver goodness.

[Eldariel]

Wielding big two-handers goes best with high Strength. You need a secondary stat to AC. You'll want to have fairly good attributes to pull this off, but you can definitely do it.

Your best option would probably include Fist of the Forests+Deepwarden Constitution-based AC stack since that gives you HP and AC from the same stat and only really requires Strength and Constitution. The Barbarian Handbook in my signature goes into some detail on both so feel free to check it out. The principal option here is that you really only get your stats to stuff around level 5-7, which will make for a rough early game.


The other option is of course spellcasting. Both Arcane and Divine magic excel in keeping you alive. In this case you need Strength, Casting Stat and Con/Dex. If you can pull that off, this is definitely the strongest way. Cleric is one option, multiclassed Wizard or Sorcerer also works.