Polearm Build - Help

It gives you one feat and one BAB. With Int 13, it won't take long to max out your Concentration skill anyway. And the saving throw bonus you get from going into paladin is somewhat mitigated by bad rounding giving you -1 to your base Will and Reflexes. Aside from that fact that Withstand supercedes your paladin bonus.

I would totally prefer one more feat and +1 BAB. You could even ditch a non-fighter feat for Skill focus (Concentration) and you're still ahead.

I see your point and I am going to chew on it for a bit. However, I have another question. In the PHB it says you do not incure an AoO while triping with a reach weapon such as the guisarme. If that is so the case, what is the point of taking Combat Expertise and Improved Trip if one has the feat Short Haft from the PHBII. Which allows you to use a reach weapon on adjacent targets. Can you trip targets when using the Short haft feat?

Again all, thanks on all of the help!


-Blood

For a reach-polearm wielding AoO lovin' dwarf, I'd go:

Str 16, Dex 18, Con 16, Int 14, Wis 10, Cha 8

OR:

Str 18, Dex 18, Con 15, Int 13, Wis 10, Cha 8

...almost regardless of the particular polearm you choose.

The idea behind that build means the more AoOs the better, and you're trying to keep opponents at a distance anyway, so your Dex will matter more to you than your Con.

Personally, I'd pass up Short Haft in favor of Armor Spikes and taking Deft Opportunist earlier.

Bloodweaver1 said:

I see your point and I am going to chew on it for a bit. However, I have another question. In the PHB it says you do not incure an AoO while triping with a reach weapon such as the guisarme. If that is so the case, what is the point of taking Combat Expertise and Improved Trip if one has the feat Short Haft from the PHBII. Which allows you to use a reach weapon on adjacent targets. Can you trip targets when using the Short haft feat?

Again all, thanks on all of the help!


-Blood

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The big point of Improved Trip is that, once you trip someone, you get a free attack against them. That's *huge*, because not only do you hamper your opponents on AoOs, you don't sacrifice damage to do so. You also get a +4 on trip attacks, which is big.

And I don't see anything that says you can't use a guisearme to make trip attacks while using Short Haft.

For the whole pure Fighter vs. Fighter/Paladin thing: It is personal preference. You *can* get the requisite skill ranks as a pure fighter, by level 7. However, you're buying them cross-class, and you're taking longer to get them. Now, yes, you're a fighter-type, and skill points aren't your bread and butter, so you may be fine spending twice as many. However, I think Paladin synergizes nicely into this build, and, thus, recommend two to three levels of it, depending on race. Dwarf does lessen the boost a bit (namely, you need a 16 Charisma, which gets adjusted down to a 14, for Divine Grace to really be good), but, still. +2 to all saves is well worth a feat, in my opinion. Even a +1 to all saves might be worth it. That's not counting the very limited, but still potentially useful, abilities like Lay on Hands, Detect Evil, Smite Evil (yes, it'd be very weak), or the always fun ability to use wands and scrolls of spells on the Paladin list.

For gear: It depends on the party composition, and if you take Paladin levels or not. +1 Guisearme, +1 Mithral Shirt, Ring of Protection +1, and a Wand of Cure Light Wounds if you think extra healing would be handy and you go Paladin. Otherwise, swap the wand for a Cloak of Resistance +1 to help your saves. You can go with heavier armor, but this will let you apply your full Dex mod, which is handy.

I was thinking of holding off on getting a magical weapon as the kensai PrC creates one. I was thinking of making the weapon out of a special material, but I do not forsee that being an issure in this game. Mitheral armor would be good considering the high dex (I was considering breast plate) and I guess a amulet or ring of protection would be a good idea considering the lack of a shield. The party has a full cleric so I think a wand will not be necessary, so the cloak should work. Any other ideas?

-Blood

Not that I've really had a chance to play it thoroughly yet, but I built a 6th level character for spiked chain wielder specifically for battlefield control. I ended up taking a half-orc Bbn1/Ftr2/Clr3. Deity was Kord (Strength and Luck domains). I took the alternate cleric ability from PHBII where you can spontaneously cast spells from one domain (and lose the ability to spontaneously cast cure spells). Enlarge Person is a 1st level spell from the Strength domain. Even one level of cleric (with at least a 12 Wis) could be worth it for the size bonus to tripping and strength.

If you concentrate on tripping, then a non-magical weapon is not a big deal... except for incorporeal undead and critters with damage reduction x/magic.

pawsplay said:

Don't rush to get into Kensai? Seriously, it's a nice class, but with medium BAB and only ten levels, what's the rush?

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Isn't Kensai full BAB?

Anyhow, rather than Ftr 1/Pal 4 or Ftr 3/Pal 2, consider Ranger 1/Ftr 2/Pal 2. The only reason to take Fighter 3 is to take more levels of fighter after - and if you're dead set on Kensai, that seems unlikely.

Bloodweaver1 said:

I was thinking of holding off on getting a magical weapon as the kensai PrC creates one.

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I'm fairly certain that the Kensai weapon enhancements stack with those of a magical weapon.

-Stuart

szilard said:

I'm fairly certain that the Kensai weapon enhancements stack with those of a magical weapon.

-Stuart

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I'm fairly certain they don't.

hafrogman said:

I'm fairly certain they don't.

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"Stack" may be the wrong word - but you can get Kensai enhancements on a magical weapon. Complete Warrior has rules for this.

-Stuart