Character development questions

[Turjan]

For the barbarian you can't go wrong with power attack and improved initiative. Have the barbarian take 6 levels of Horizon walker asap and get the shifting planar master. Tell the barbarian to get a 2-handed weapon as THF is superior to a sword and a board.

Well, he decided on a one-handed axe and a shield so far, despite having a Greataxe weapon focus.

So, Horizon Walker is better than a standard Barbarian, or is this only due to the further planar career? As far as I guess that this campaign is going, we might have to enter a coterminous plane (Lamanna?) the conventional way.

 

[Alexander123]

The horizon walkers planar mastery allows the HW to use dimension door once every 1d4 rounds. As far as your barbarian, you should make him aware of the advantages of THF. Point to him the fact that two handed weapons get to add 1 1/2 of their strength modifer to their damage and that power attack gives 2 damage for every 1 attack bonus forgone by a person wielding a 2-handed weapon. (as opposed to the 1:1 ratio of 1 handed weapons.)

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

If you don't mind spending a little $, check out Goodman Games' [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Dungeons-Dragons-Fantasy-Roleplaying/dp/0976808501"]The Power Gamer's 3.5 Wizard Strategy Guide[/ame]. There are others in the series, but I think this one is key for less experienced players for dealing with the sheer weight of options for Wizards & Sorcerers.

Not only does it tell you what your better options are out of the PHB (and the PHB is the only book they cover in their Power Gamer's Guides), they tell you WHY those are the better options, often with statistical analysis and graphs.

 

[Turjan]

The horizon walkers planar mastery allows the HW to use dimension door once every 1d4 rounds. As far as your barbarian, you should make him aware of the advantages of THF. Point to him the fact that two handed weapons get to add 1 1/2 of their strength modifer to their damage and that power attack gives 2 damage for every 1 attack bonus forgone by a person wielding a 2-handed weapon. (as opposed to the 1:1 ratio of 1 handed weapons.)

Cool. So you can dimension door even if you are not on the plane this ability is tied to?

Plus, this shows how out of the loop I am. I usually play wizards or rangers, or now a druid, so I never did any THF myself.

If you don't mind spending a little $, check out Goodman Games' The Power Gamer's 3.5 Wizard Strategy Guide. There are others in the series, but I think this one is key for less experienced players for dealing with the sheer weight of options for Wizards & Sorcerers.

It's funny that you mention this now. I just remembered that I had that book and gave it to the player of the sorcerer about an hour ago. I'm a bit afraid he might want to switch to wizard now . But that's a problem between him and the DM .

 

[Alexander123]

Yes, the ability works on any plane.

 

[Turjan]

Yes, the ability works on any plane.

That's neat. I don't think I will get the barbarian to scratch 16 skill points for "knowledge (geography)" together, though.

 

[Dandu]

Three levels of Ranger.

 

[Turjan]

Three levels of Ranger.

Sure. But the more I think of it, the less I think it is a good idea to convince a starting player to go on a journey and take 8 class levels he probably does not appreciate to get the good stuff that he does not appreciate because he does not know what dimension door means as an advantage.

I should look for something simpler. He's talking about adding fighter levels *sigh*.

 

[Herzog]

A lot of the Prestige Classes from the Eberron books are tied to specific Eberron Religions or Organisations.

Also, there are a lot of Eberron books.

If you can give some kind of idea what Eberron religions and/or organisations 'fit' with these characters, I could give you some options.

(You might want to check with your DM before browsing the books, though. The Eberron books tend to mix DM info and Player info without warning, and some DM's therefore restrict access to the books to avoid spoilers)

 

[Turjan]

We have more or less been squeezed into doing special ops for the Brelish army. Not sure how that will work out. It seems to be directed mostly against (parts of ?) the Blood of Vol. The other lead has (possibly) to do with planar gates (most probably to Lammania). No idea whether these two leads are connected in any way. It sounds quite interesting, though.

The barbarian is chaotic neutral and from Graywall in Droaam. He got kicked out from every job he held so far. The sorcerer is a student from Wroat University. His parents are wizards and work there. My druid is actually on an assignment by his superiors in the Eldeen Reaches. As none of us ever played in Eberron, there is not much we can add to the background. I have at least an idea for my char (Gatekeepers or Wardens).