D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 smart, tricky fighter build help please

I know some people enjoy this sort of character building and many of the posts I see are pretty clever so I thought I would ask.

Books Allowed: ONLY the PHB, DMG, MM 3.5

Roleplaying Design: Drow Fighter, Lawful Evil

How would you build this fighter to have him be a tricky fighter, eventually will become a Blackguard?

Original Stats:

17
14
14
13
10
6

Drow:

+2 Dex
+2 Int
+2 Cha
-2 Con

Stat placement, feats, skills, items to use / seek, making Blackguard, any other advice please? Remember, ONLY the 3.5 PHB, DMG and MM will be allowed for the entire game.

Thanks in advance!

Ranger 2/Fighter 4/Blackguard 10/Fighter 4

Stats:

Str: 17
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 15
Wis: 10
Cha: 16

Feats:

Level 1: EWP: Spiked Chain, Track
Level 2: Two Weapon Fighting
Level 3: Power Attack, Cleave
Level 5: Improved Sunder
Level 6: Combat Expertise, Improved Trip
Level 9: Combat Reflexes
Level 12: Improved Disarm
Level 15: Mounted Combat
Level 17: Ride By Attack
Level 18: Spirited Charge
Level 20: Trample

TWF with a 2HW and Armor Spikes. Pack a lance and deal lots of damage on a charge.

Equipment: Spiked Chain, Armor Spikes, Lance, Animated Shield.

Does it have to be a drow? And does it have to be a fighter? Rogue would probably make your concept a lot easier to fullfill.

Or maybe a (fallen) Paladin / Bard / Blackguard.

So this is assuming that you are going single-class Fighter, Blackguard as soon as possible, and then more levels in Fighter.

Well you need Power Attack, Cleave, and Improved Sunder to even *be* a Blackguard. If you are tricky, you need the feats that allow for tricky maneuvers, so Combat Expertise leads to Improved Disarm and Improved Trip. Improved Bull Rush also has its uses, as has shown.

So for feats you get:

1 Power Attack
F1 Cleave
F2 Improved Bull Rush
3 Sunder
F4 Combat Expertise
6 Improved Disarm
F6 Improved Trip

before you hit Blackguard. Obviously you need to max out ranks in the cross-class skill Hide for 7 levels, and well as spend at least 4 skill points buying 2 ranks of knowledge (religion). It is too bad Bluff is not a class skill for either fighter or blackguard, but Intimidate is a class skill for both, and it has a few tricky combat uses.

For stats, the trick is figuring out a dump stat for the 6. Usually strength and con are needed for fighters, but you want an int of at least 13 for some tricky feats. Wis and Cha are good for blackguards. This leaves dex at the dump stat.

So, put the 10 in Int (goes up to 12 with race, then +1 to it at 4th level). 13 is pretty smart (draconic is a pretty good language, but your background might commit you to the Drow silent hand gesture language). Put the 17 into strength (you always need strength), the 14s into chr and con (chr goes up to 16 which is great for spells and smites; Con goes down - sorry about that). The 13 can go into wisdom (becomes 15, so you keep your wits and spells about you). Dex goes up to 8 with the racial bonus.

At 8th, 12th, 16th and 20th level I would keep pumping up strength, but that is just me.

Items? Well shadow armor would help with your hide score, and to add to the "hide in shadows and then sneak attack" you could get a sword of subtlety. Perhaps even an intelligent one, to get extra "tricks" from its independent actions. Or maybe add "unholy" and "axiomatic" or "bane" depending on what you predominately fight against (very interesting that you went LE instead of CE for your Drow -- trouble with the family?) A spiked gauntlet is nice both for the "evil" theme and to make sure that you are never unarmed.

A feat to take later in your career would be Leadership, as one great "trick" is "use your underlings to lead your enemy into an ambush". Other high level feats of note:
Craft Arms and Armour (your Blackguard levels make you a spellcaster, after all) to allow you to tweak your armour and weapon(s). Once you have a weapon you want for the rest of your career, you can risk Weapon Focus, Weapon Specialization and Greater Weapon Focus, but there are other options. Quick Draw, Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are a nice combo for using ranged thrown weapons (do not overlook the humble Javelin . . . of Lightning) when you have to. And while the three "saving throw" feats seem boring, they can save your hide (Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes).

Sorry about the +2 LA, but you did say you wanted Drow.

More esoteric things to look for (since you are not afraid of LA). Try to get bitten by a lycanthrope or vampire - suddenly you get a wealth of options. This assumes your DM allows you to remain a PC, mind you, and you might not like to change your alignment (but that still leaves wererat as a lycanthrope option).

Hope this helps.

Very interesting all thank you so much. Quite a bit to ponder.

Please keep it coming.

StreamoftheSky: Yes, I am open to alternatives to the Fighter and even Drow. I was tossing around the idea of being a Half-Elf. Please show me what you are thinking.

The country we are starting in has LE rulers and I wanted to try to play a sort of 'honorable yet evil' type. That is the reason to head toward Blackguard so a fallen Paladin idea is interesting.

Some other ideas you all threw in were Ranger, Rogue and Bard as possibilities.

This is all great. I am not very familiar with D&D 3.5 so I have been just flipping through the books and pointing at what I am thinking about making up.

Yeah that 6 was a bad, bad roll but we had to stick with it.

Thanks again everyone. More thoughts on this?

One fun fact: You can be a Paladin of Wee Jas, fall and become a Blackguard, and still worship Wee Jas.

But if you want an "honourable yet evil" type, how Evil do you want to be? Because Blackguards tend to emphasize EVIL for the sake of EVIL, much like Paladins fight for GOOD for the sake of GOOD. Blackguards have made peaceful contact with some evil outsider, and those guys don't mess around with small-timers.

You could, instead, be a fighter all the way, for example. You can be "evil" without being, y'know, EVIL.

You might want to look at the Duelist, as they emphasize intelligence in their martial combats.

And if by "Smart and Tricky" you mean "Rat Bastard" that is the short definition of Rogue, so that is another option. You could even go Rogue/Assassin fairly easily, in which case, oddly, I would recommend the Grey Elf from the Monster Manual. Extra Int and extra Dex for the win!

Particle_Man said:

You might want to look at the Duelist, as they emphasize intelligence in their martial combats.

Click to expand...

It also emphasizes sucking.

Dandu said:

It also emphasizes sucking.

Click to expand...

I disagree. It emphasizes mediocrity. But we have had this debate before...

Tricky fighter, IMO, = Fig 4 (W Spec rapier)/Rogue X, with Combat Expertise etc etc. Or chain. Certainly, Quick Draw and at least one spare weapon is a good idea, at least by the mid levels.

From what level (ECL) will the campaign starts?

And how far will it likely to continue?

Those two factors may limit or expand options.

For example, some LA+X races are good as warriors if the starting ECL is high enough.

And I have another question.

Do you want to be a melee combatant? Or could your PC be an archer type?

This is exactly why I knew I needed help with this. So much to consider. Thank you all.

It begins at level 1 and goes on up.

I would like to be a melee combatant, but doesn't necessarily have to be a plate wearer.

The tank role looks like it will be mine alone as the rest of the group has chosen their classes. So either I need to be able to take hits or avoid them or both, but I would like to render enemies less powerful somehow when they face my character by employing some neat combat trickery if possible.

I also still like the idea of some Fighter or Paladin levels along with Blackguard being the goal. I could be talked out of being a Drow.

Thanks again everybody for your continued input! *taking notes*