Building my Justicar Grappler

The Idea:

Playing a Goliath Ranger 2/Paladin 2/Monk 2/ Justicar 10 who will concentrate on the Hog Tie Ability.

Stats: 15, 15, 16, 16, 10, 11

Ranger 1 Track feat = Prereq and good saves
Ranger 2 Combat Stlye melee. But is not that neccessary. I could change this lvl. Could be interessting with the Justicars Crippling Strike Ability with wich i can do 1 Str damage per successful "Sneack attack".

Monk 1-2 Evasion and good saves (sadly i loose 1 bab but that is worth it.

Paladin 2 Because of "lawful good" flavour and divine grace
(ok i admit it. i like very high save boni)

On level 7(Level Adjustment of +1 from the Goliath included) the base saves would be:
Justicar thereafter has only Will as good save.

Fort: 11 Ref: 8 Will: 5

I am not sure if our dm allows that i can change the stats with the point buy system. Right now i assume i am not allowed.

Problem 1: Due to Goliath traits i will get a 8 or 9 on Dexterity.
Is Evasion not usefull then ?

Problem 2: As a Grappler i need a good grapple check. Any ideas how i can improve it ?
The only idea i have is Enlarge Person. It doesnt matter wether it is magical or psionical enlarge. But i see no method to get it without ranks in UMD (umd is cross class skill in all my classes)


I could change the second Ranger level in Psy. Warrior 1 But then i would loose one bab again.
I could take away the Monk levels, doing without the good saves, and take 2 level Psy Warrior.

So do you have any ideas to the whole build and especcially on the Grapple Bonus and the ability to be able to cast Enlarge Person ?

If you have Magic of Incarnum, taking the "Shape Soulmeld (Girallon Arms)" feat could help. And take some Incarnum subtype feats to give you some Essentia points... The Girallon Arms gives you +2 on Climb and grapple checks, with an extra +2 for every essentia point invested. Or if you could spare two levels, take two levels of Totemist (the only class with that soulmeld) and constantly bind Girallon Arms to your Totem Chakra. You just can't wear bracers or stuff like that... But you get 4 claws and can get an outrageous grapple modifier.

I don't think Enlarge Person works on Goliaths... Not sure, since I don't own Races of Stone, but the Expansion PsyWar power does, I think. Use LA Buyoff (Unearthed Arcana or SRD) if your DM allows, to get rid of that pesky +1 LA.

Other than that... I'm not sure.

You would need expansion, enlarge person doesn't work on monstrous humanoids. Try to find a feat to gain a class skill, and get UMD (actually, UPD) that way. Or just stick with tattoos, which are expensive (double price for personal powers, and you want at least ML 3 for the augmented duration) but work.

Check Magic Item Compendium, there are a lot of items in there to add to grapple or str-based checks. An item that adds to str checks won't help, do remember, though. Away from boos right now, so I can't recall specific items.

Monsterknuffel said:

The Idea:

Playing a Goliath Ranger 2/Paladin 2/Monk 2/ Justicar 10 who will concentrate on the Hog Tie Ability.

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You're going to get on the XP penalty. You will lag way behind others in the group.

Kask said:

You're going to get on the XP penalty. You will lag way behind others in the group.

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"Playing a Goliath Ranger 2/Paladin 2/Monk 2/ Justicar 10 who will concentrate on the Hog Tie Ability."

How? It's literally impossible for such a build ot face an xp penalty. The base classes will never be more than 1 level apart, and prestige classes don't count. Maybe level 17+, he might end up uneven in level, but it's still avoidable. He may have to add another class or two, or another prestige class, admittedly. Assuming the game ever even gets that far.

StreamOfTheSky said:

"Playing a Goliath Ranger 2/Paladin 2/Monk 2/ Justicar 10 who will concentrate on the Hog Tie Ability."

How? It's literally impossible for such a build ot face an xp penalty.

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My bad, in my brain I misread and labeled as base rather than PrC.