Help with an elf two weapon fighter build

[SteveC]

Here's my situation:
I have been helping a player in a medium level D&D game I'm playing in build a character. He decided he wanted to play an elf fighter that specialized in two weapon fighting. A number of the members of my group proposed some fairly complicated builds (they were pretty good ones too), but the player wanted something fairly simple. What we have made is a fairly basic, honorable, noble elf type person.

What he's got at 8th level is a Fighter 6, Tempest 2 who fights with two elven light blades. The character is pretty effective, and by the time he finishes up with Tempest he will be able to pretty much do everything his player wants him to: he'll be very good with those two weapons, and actually able to upgrade to a thinblade/lightblade combo.

The thing is, after that point, I'm not sure what to do for him. I could just have him keep up with levels in fighter (there are a lot of feats from the PHB II we could look at) but I'm looking to try something more interesting to show him a little bit more about the game system.

My problem is at this point he's pretty much locked in to nothing but either levels as a wizard or as a prestige class because of the favored class multi-classing rules. Does anyone have some suggestions for a prestige class to take? He's got the basic feats for a tempest: dodge, mobility, spring attack, two-weapon fighting and improved two weapon fighting, plus weapon focus and weapon specialization in lightblade. He's planning on picking up melee weapon mastery next level. I guess I'm looking for somewhere for this character to go in a few levels...any thoughts?

--Steve

 

[Magesmiley]

One thought is to keep going as a fighter (or fighting-type classes), but to specialize in different sorts of tricks for combat. This would probably point to the Combat Expertise chain of feats. Improved Disarm in particular comes to mind as something that could be entertaining for him as an combat trick.

The thinblade is an exotic weapon if I recall - you might check out the exotic weapon master (CW) - it has several different abilities that you can choose from for its levels.

Another notion, depending on the character's alignment is the Anointed Knight (BoED). A wizard level might make this easier to meet the prerequisites for too incidentally (allowing him to experiment with spells some too).

 

[Legildur]

You could have a look at Champion of Corellon PrC (Races of the Wild).

two good saves, good BAB. First level gets you a bonus fighter feat. Second level allows you to add Dex bonus to damage with your chosen weapon (obviously only works on critters subject to critical hits).

Prerequisites for entry are (from memory): elf, BAB +6, Mounted Combat, Combat Expertise, Dodge, 4 ranks in Diplomacy, and Weapon Focus (longsword or thinblade or courtblade).

But best you check the book itself to confirm the details.

But it would be hard to go past Tempest for all 5 levels.

 

[Wish]

Occult slayer might be worth a look too.

 

[Marshall]

Uh, Dervish is the obvious choice.
Let him retrain the WF/WS(Lightblade) to Thinblade, pick up O-TWF and retrain out SA when he gets it as Dervish...

And if hes spent the feat for Thinblades, he really should go all the way and get IC.

 

[green slime]

More levels as a fighter? to get Greater Weapon Focus and Greater Weapon Spec?

 

[Question]

I disagree with the champion of correllan PRC. It is a very nice concept, but other than getting dex bonus to damage, it is not very effective.....unless you are playing a LA race with + dex it is near impossible to get a +6 dex mod, AND have decent str/con to survive as a frontline fighter(okay maybe if you get insane rolls as well.), not to mention 13 int to get combat expertise, and the weird mounted combat requirements make no sense, as being able to move full speed in heavy armor is completely negated by using a mount.

After all is said and done its still more effective to pump str for damage and to hit, rather than spending a feat(Weapon finess), and going into the class to gain 1x damage bonus based on the dex stat, and being forced to spend lots of feats on something you will mostly never use anyway.

Also corellan's blessing is only useful for stabilizing dying PCs when the cleric is out of spells or something. It would be more useful if it was based on character level.

That said i think that double weapons are better than dual wielding something.

-You get 1.5x str bonus with one hand

-In the unlikely event you need to draw weapons it counts as one weapon instead of 2.

-It counts as a 2 handed weapon for disarms, etc.

If we compare dual wielding 2 longswords vs a 2 bladed sword the 2 bladed sword is clearly superior. Taking EWP instead of of oversized 2WF is pretty much the same thing.

However if you want to go Thinblade/Light blade, thats also do-able, but your damage will be fairly low, even if you have high str, which im guessing you dont. The spring attack feat completely kills 2WF unless you take full levels in the tempest class however, as it negates the only benefit you have(many attacks in a full attack).

 

[shilsen]

That said i think that double weapons are better than dual wielding something.

-You get 1.5x str bonus with one hand

Not if you're attacking with both ends (i.e. using TWF). If so, one end counts as attacking with a one-handed weapon (1x Str) and the other end as attacking with a light weapon (x0.5 Str).

 

[Kae'Yoss]

I'd say stick with fighter. Feats feats feats.

 

[szilard]

Depending on his stats and fighting style, Duelist might work well.

-Stuart