D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Restricted Tripper Input Please

[Deicidal]

Hello everyone,

I'll be joining a 3.5 game soon with an old DM buddy of mine and wanted to bring a character to the table that has the option to control the battle field if the need arises since the other players have never played D&D (kind of like a "get out a jail free card"). Due to the other players being new, the DM has limited the books allowed to the list below and forbidden prestige classes to limit what the players have to worry about.

PH
PH2
Races of Destiny
Frostburn
Sandstorm
Races of Stone
Races of the Dragon
Complete Warrior
Complete Divine
Complete Adventurer
Complete Warrior
Complete Arcane
Tome of Battle

We will be starting at LvL 1 and the build i've decided to go with is a fighter tripper with a two level dip into crusader to get thicket of blades, but i'm at a loss for some of the details (skills, some feats, etc)....

Stats available (18/16/15/14/13/10)
Starting gold 160

Human
Fighter 1) Exotic Weap Prof (spiked chain) / Combat Reflexes / Combat Expertise
Fighter 2) Improved Trip
Fighter 3) Power Attack
Fighter 4) Weapon Focus (chain)
Fighter 5)
Fighter 6) Weapons Specialization (chain) / Improved Disarm
Fighter 7)
Fighter 8) Weapon Mastery (Piercing)
Fighter 8 / Crusader 1) Greater Weapon Focus (chain)
Fighter 8 / Crusader 2)
F9/C2)
F10/C2) Robilar's Gambit / Deft Opportunist
F11/C2)
F12/C2) Counter Attack
F13/C2) Defensive Sweep
F14/C2) Greater Weapon Specialization
F15/C2)
F16/C2) Overpowering Attack / ?
F17/C2)
F18/C2) Weapon Supremacy

I have a feats at lvl 18 i'm not sure what to do with
I'd like to have a spare weapon other than the spiked chain (preferably piercing) but i'm not sure what to go with
I'd like to have the ability to use heal/enlarge magical items at some point
I'm not sure what maneuvers (other than thicket) to take when i dip crusader

Any help, adjustments, and insight would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I’ve never built a tripper, but I imagine they have similar stat & feat requirements as a polearm build or disarmer. So anything that increases your reach or your ability to get AoOs would be good.

What are the highest Dex races available?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A thought: instead of spiked chain, you might consider using something in the Flail family, all of which are disarming/tripping weapons. You give up reach, yes, but it’s not exotic (saving you a feat) and they’re not finesseable (saving you a feat).

Instead, take XWP: Bola. That will let you trip at range.

With a heavy Flail, you do 1d10, but it’s a 2 handed weapon. A regular Flail still does good damage, and lets you use a shield.