Help with a barbarian-pirate...

[Mallus]

...whose name is, of course... Plundar!

BTW, his pirate ship is a zeppelin, and he'll start play around 5th level.

I've pretty sure he's a human with some mix of barbarian, rogue, and possibly ranger. Not sure about all his skills and feats, though. And he fights with two weapons (battleaxe and hook!). Not a very good with missile weapons, what with the eyepatch...

Strictly 3.5e PHB and DMG. Nothing else allowed.

 

[rowport]

Mallus-

I think you have a pretty solid skeleton plan already. I would suggest: Ranger 2/Rogue 2/Barbarian 1 with next level of Barbarian planning entry into the Duelist PrC (Dread Pirate would be restricted for you, since it is in Complete Adventurer not DMG).

That gives you: Rage, Combat Style (Two-Weapon), Sneak Attack +1d6, Evasion, and loads of skill points. If you go with the PrC, multiclass XP penalties are not a problem for any race; otherwise, go Human or Halfling and increase Rogue levels keeping Ranger and Barbarian level and lower. Either way, the synergies with light armor pretty much require a DEX-based fighting style, so keep that DEX up. With that background:

Feats might include Extra Rage and Extra Favored Enemy to max out the benefit of Barbarian and Ranger without full levels in either. You could also consider Able Learner to get the benefit of the Ranger-y skills in your Rogue levels, and your Rogue-y skills in Barbarian and Ranger levels. Obviously, sneaky skills work with all of them- but remember Survival and Open Lock/Disable Device. The various Two-Weapon Fighting Feats are all solid; with your light armor, Two-Weapon Defense is a good idea.

...

I just realized: can you use all these nifty feats, or are you totally restricted to PHB?? That makes a *big* difference!

 

[Mallus]

I just realized: can you use all these nifty feats, or are you totally restricted to PHB?? That makes a *big* difference!

I believe I'm limited to the PHB.

My initial thought was to start with bar2 for uncanny dodge. And then to push ranger instead of rogue. I don't really have a reason for this, other than the fact I've never played a ranger before (well, since 1st ed...). Why rogue over ranger?

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

Start with Rogue. Given that you get to automatically level up to 5th, the order in which you take your classes is going to be pretty arbitrary.

Going Rogue 1st is a *huge* number of extra skill points to spend on things like Tumble, Balance, and Use Rope.

 

[Mallus]

Start with Rogue. Given that you get to automatically level up to 5th, the order in which you take your classes is going to be pretty arbitrary.

I was going to start with ranger. Still a good number of skill points. I'd have a hard time justifying starting as rogue.

I'm fairly certain the DM would want the leveling order to jive with the character concept. Plundar is a barbarian from a rainforst/mesa dwelling tribe. He managed to capture a passing airship by swinging over on vines (I never met a pulp cliche I didn't like) and killing the crew. Except for a wily old rogue named Mr. Pinch, from whom he learned piloting and the scoundrels' arts.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

I was going to start with ranger. Still a good number of skill points. I'd have a hard time justifying starting as rogue.

What I think you meant there is that you'd have a hard time justifying starting as a thief.

Rogues are much more flexible.

But if Ranger fits what you want better, then it fits what you want better.

 

[iwatt]

well barbarian/rogue is pretty rangery to me (if rangery is even a word ).

Also,

What I think you meant there is that you'd have a hard time justifying starting as a thief.

Rogues are much more flexible.

is very true. Not all rogues are thiefs. Just make sure you don't put ranks on Thievery skills like disable device/open lock/appraise initially. Just max out the physical skills (balance, climb, jump, tumble) the stealthy skills (Hide, Move silently) and perception skills (spot listen).

 

[Mallus]

What I think you meant there is that you'd have a hard time justifying starting as a thief.

Rogues are much more flexible.

That's a very good point. Thanks for helping me over my mental block.

 

[Patryn of Elvenshae]

No problem! Thief-to-rogue is one of my favorite D&D 3E changes - so sayeth the Pirate (Ftr / Rog).

 

[Felnar]

starting as a barb also gets you 12 hitpoints instead of a rogues 6