3.X/Pathfinder hybrid game looking for some classes

[Sunseeker]

At some point in the not-so-far-far-away future, I'm going to be participating in a Drow-centric campaign(we will be Drow, and we will be evil). I tend to play martial-type characters though I've grown a soft-spot for archer-types.

Anyway, what I'm looking for is a list of martial-ish classes that generally deal in heavy weapons, heavy armor and have a BAB equal(roughly) to a fighter. I know of Pathfinder's Anti-Paladin, but it strikes me as little too obviously...counter for the sake of being counter. I know there are some classes along the lines of what I'm looking for in some 3PP books...but I can't remember what they are. Probably Heroes of *evil terms* and the like.

I'm not looking for something obscenely broken, just something I can pull a little more out of than "oooo I'm an evil fighter!" or "oooo I'm a paladin who wears black!" Light magic usage is nice but not necessary, as I don't much care for casting, I'd prefer a class that kept it to a minimum, as I know I'll be losing martial qualities for casting I won't ever use.

So...suggestions?

 

[nijineko]

since you are mixing in 3.x, i suggest the athasian soulknife. wotc designated athas.org the official dark sun 3.x site, so any material they produce is likewise designated official by wotc.

the athasian soulknife is a prestige version of the soulknife. it is found in the prestige class appendix volume 1 on the athas.org site. works much better as a prestige than a base class. it is pretty easy to qualify for as well. add in soulbow, noting that soulbow and soulknife levels stack for mind blade in certain ways, and then use the practiced mindblade feat from dragon mag to boost both your blade and bolt. depending on how you qualified, you may have 3 or 4 powers to play with. i would suggest expansion and psionic lions charge, if you do.

this will give you a solid melee combatant with an equally solid ranged ability. being psionic, heavy armor is a go.

another possible build if your dm allows tashalatora to select prestige classes is to take a single level of monk, and select soulknife as your class, then take the flowing blade feat. allows you to flurry with your mind blade. if you take the decisive strike acf, you get double damage instead of flurry. this idea invalidates heavy armor, though you could go bracers of armor, instead.

in the same vein shape the blade to a two handed weapon, take the overwhelming strike monk style, and flurry and/or decisive strike with power attack.

 

[VariSami]

Somehow I feel like Psychic Warrior might be a fun way to go. I'm not sure of how well it mashes with Pathfinder but at least it's a change in pace. The BAB is cleric level, though. However, Drow are capable psions so it might also work fluff-wise.

 

[ppaladin123]

Somehow I feel like Psychic Warrior might be a fun way to go. I'm not sure of how well it mashes with Pathfinder but at least it's a change in pace. The BAB is cleric level, though. However, Drow are capable psions so it might also work fluff-wise.

Dreamscarred Press did a great update to the psychic warrior and psionics in general for Pathfinder. It is available on the Pathfinder SRD page for free.

 

[gamerprinter]

I'd suggest Samurai, but honor doesn't really work among the drow. You could reflavor samurai as house warriors, loyal to your house, but with plenty of in-fighting and political intrigue as the main emphasis. If you do there's some interesting archetypes that might fit.

From Rite Publishing's Way of the Samurai (which on Black Friday sale at DriveThruRPG.com for $ .99), check out the Yabusame (archer specialist samurai) which is also on d20pfsrd.com. There's also the Kuge, which is kind of noble house born samurai with slower samurai progressions, more skills and diplomacy emphasis.

If you reflavor Ki to be the inner strength powers of some drow house warriors, Ninja would seem to fit in drow society pretty well.

Magus probably works very well with drow being mage-fighter gishes.

 

[Nezkrul]

either play Pathfinder or don't, if you mix both and then play a 3.5 class you will most likely be underpowered in comparison to the player who picked a PF class; as that is what PF did - they made base classes more powerful. Likewise, 3.5 PrC's are usually underpowered in comparison to PF equivalents (not always).

I like fighter builds that play as controllers rather than brutes/tanks. So, I suggest the following, so long as you may use the resources required (PF PHB, 3.5 PHB2, 3.5 Tome of Battle, 3.5 Complete Adventurer, 3.5 Complete Warrior, 3.5 Miniatures Handbook, 3.5 Lords of Madness (not needed but fun to add), 3.5 Complete Arcane)

Human Fighter 1 - infinity

feats/ability choices- EWP (spiked chain) -f1, Aberration Blood -h, Combat Reflexes -1; Stand-still -f2; Weapon Focus (spiked chain) -3; Weapon Specialization (spiked chain) -4f; Inhuman Reach -5, Weapon Training (flails); Martial Study (crusader's strike) -f6; Deft Opportunist -7; Melee Weapon Mastery (piercing) -f8; Mage Slayer -9; Martial Stance (thicket of blades) -f10; Close Quarters Fighting -11; Robilar's Gambit -f12; Combat Expertise -13; Improved Trip -f14; Hold the Line -15; Overpowering Attack (alternate class feature, PHB2) -f16; Pierce Magical Concealment -17; Defensive Sweep -f18; Improved Initiative -19; Improved Disarm -f20

Now what this gets you is:
- a guy that has 20 foot reach with a spiked chain
- gets an AoO on anyone he wants within reach that moves for any reason, even a 5' stuff or tumble
- he makes caster's cry cuz they can't cast defensively and if they try to move away he smacks them (with Standstill)
- if he gets charged he gets an AoO on them when they enter his reach and then another one (with Standstill) when they try to leave the first square of his reach coming towards him (and then they cry when they stop there and their turn ends)
- he gets an AoO on anyone that attempts to grapple him and gets a bonus on the grapple check equal to the damage he deals
- takes a full round action to make one attack that deals double damage, but until the start of his next turn ALL of his attacks he makes deal double damage (makes Stand-still's reflex save nearly impossible to make)
- he can trip and/or disarm people easier and from too far away for them to attack back/disarm/trip him
- gets +4 to hit with AoO's; and whenever anyone attacks him from within his reach, they provoke an AoO after their attack (they get +4 to hit and damage against this guy but who cares)
- adjacent foes who don't move provoke an AoO, and if they do move you can choose to let them, or try to Stand-Still them, or just smack them for damage.

You're like a tornado who just sits in the middle of a combat and locks down the opposition, letting your friends (who are hopefully ranged combatants) take out the guys you can't reach or that seem to be immune to your efforts to lock down. Given time, against people with less than stellar reflex saves, you win every time slowly but surely.

 

[Herobizkit]

Hard to go wrong with Inquisitor. Pick a deity that allows the use of a heavy weapon and now you're a skilled (6 + Int) unholy hunter-stalker (BAB as Cleric and gets skill bonuses for Intimidate, Sense Motive, Survival, and Monster Lore) that also has a few Clerical tricks (spontaneous caster) and self/party buffs (Judgments x/day, Detect alignments at will, bonuses to Initiatve and Teamwork feats) as necessary.

 

[Sunseeker]

either play Pathfinder or don't, if you mix both and then play a 3.5 class you will most likely be underpowered in comparison to the player who picked a PF class; as that is what PF did - they made base classes more powerful. Likewise, 3.5 PrC's are usually underpowered in comparison to PF equivalents (not always).

I like fighter builds that play as controllers rather than brutes/tanks. So, I suggest the following, so long as you may use the resources required (PF PHB, 3.5 PHB2, 3.5 Tome of Battle, 3.5 Complete Adventurer, 3.5 Complete Warrior, 3.5 Miniatures Handbook, 3.5 Lords of Madness (not needed but fun to add), 3.5 Complete Arcane)

Human Fighter 1 - infinity

feats/ability choices- EWP (spiked chain) -f1, Aberration Blood -h, Combat Reflexes -1; Stand-still -f2; Weapon Focus (spiked chain) -3; Weapon Specialization (spiked chain) -4f; Inhuman Reach -5, Weapon Training (flails); Martial Study (crusader's strike) -f6; Deft Opportunist -7; Melee Weapon Mastery (piercing) -f8; Mage Slayer -9; Martial Stance (thicket of blades) -f10; Close Quarters Fighting -11; Robilar's Gambit -f12; Combat Expertise -13; Improved Trip -f14; Hold the Line -15; Overpowering Attack (alternate class feature, PHB2) -f16; Pierce Magical Concealment -17; Defensive Sweep -f18; Improved Initiative -19; Improved Disarm -f20

Now what this gets you is:
- a guy that has 20 foot reach with a spiked chain
- gets an AoO on anyone he wants within reach that moves for any reason, even a 5' stuff or tumble
- he makes caster's cry cuz they can't cast defensively and if they try to move away he smacks them (with Standstill)
- if he gets charged he gets an AoO on them when they enter his reach and then another one (with Standstill) when they try to leave the first square of his reach coming towards him (and then they cry when they stop there and their turn ends)
- he gets an AoO on anyone that attempts to grapple him and gets a bonus on the grapple check equal to the damage he deals
- takes a full round action to make one attack that deals double damage, but until the start of his next turn ALL of his attacks he makes deal double damage (makes Stand-still's reflex save nearly impossible to make)
- he can trip and/or disarm people easier and from too far away for them to attack back/disarm/trip him
- gets +4 to hit with AoO's; and whenever anyone attacks him from within his reach, they provoke an AoO after their attack (they get +4 to hit and damage against this guy but who cares)
- adjacent foes who don't move provoke an AoO, and if they do move you can choose to let them, or try to Stand-Still them, or just smack them for damage.

You're like a tornado who just sits in the middle of a combat and locks down the opposition, letting your friends (who are hopefully ranged combatants) take out the guys you can't reach or that seem to be immune to your efforts to lock down. Given time, against people with less than stellar reflex saves, you win every time slowly but surely.

I loled. I do love the spiked chain, but this is the first time I've been shown how ridiculous it can be made.

I may not follow your setup exactly as I'm not fond of control mechanics(mostly for the exact reasons you're abusing them), but it certainly gives me an excuse to play around with a weapon I've been wanting to try out for a while.

As to the previous suggestions of psions, I really don't think that's quite what I'm shooting for. After reading through all the more martial-oriented ones, they just seem like less interesting versions of base classes. Not really catching me there.

I'm going to read up on the samurai and inquisitor some more and see if those can be appropriately reflavored to something Drow themed. I'm not sure if I want to go through the work of evil-izing the inquisitor's class features though.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

In a tangential note, you can do something similar with a PsyWar/Monk unarmed combatant. Partnering Aberrant blood + Inhuman Reach with Vile: Willing Deformity + Vile: Deformity [Tall], you get a medium sized creature with +10' Reach. Add in the PsyWar's Expansion power, and you're boosting your size up to 2 size categories on top of that...

Back on topic, though, a dip in PsyWar for Expansion is a bit of a shortcut for that reach bonus.

 

[gamerprinter]

I loled. I do love the spiked chain, but this is the first time I've been shown how ridiculous it can be made.

I've actually eliminated the Spiked Chain as an available weapon in my worlds, for just this reason - besides a spiked chain doesn't really exist from historical resources, it's just a weapon created for D&D for it's mechanical advantages.