5th level fighter, few limitations

[Kheti sa-Menik]

Okay, some help would be good.

We're starting a new campaign. We're tired of plot driven, character intensive, detailed D&D for the moment. One of the group is running a random dungeon crawling expedition. Backstory and plot will take a backseat to whooping monster butt and looting.
I don't usually go in for this kind of powergaming, but it will be nice for a SMALL change of pace.

So I am not a powergamer and need some assistance building a character.
The DM is known to be deadly and favor some psionics.

Class, feats, and race: Any WOTC book is a go, 3.0 or 3.5, except campaign specific items like Forgotton Realms, Eberron, and Dragon Lance, they're out. But any race or class or feat pulled from any other source is fine. One caveat: if there is both a 3.0 and 3.5 version of a class, feat, or race, the 3.5 version will be used.
I can even use nonWOTC sources as long as I can bring a copy of the source to the table.

I would like to build a fighter type, close combatant, not ranged. And as a dungeon crawler, no mounted combat types. I'm not great with spell casters.
NO alignment restrictions...in fact we're leaning toward evil as a group.
Psionics are allowed but I'd like my character to stay away from them as I as a player don't know them very well.

So, here are my guidelines:
5th level
Stats: 15, 15, 14, 14, 14, 7
9000gp

Edit: One small other caveat: nothing funky from Unearthed Arcana.

 

[szilard]

Do you want to specifically stay straight Fighter, or are you interested in multiclassing and/or prestige classes?

-Stuart

 

[Legildur]

If it's straight power you are after, I'd be looking at a half-orc barbarian or maybe a dwarf fighter.

Half-orc racial adjustment and 4th level ability boost would get you an 18 Str. Combined with a two-handed weapon is +6 damage. Ignoring magical items, attack bonus would be +9 for 1d10+6 damage (for a greataxe), and raging would take that to +11 for 1d10+9. For feats I'd go with Power Attack and Cleave.

Dwarven fighter is another option, either an axe and shield wielder or two-weapon axe style (dwarven waraxe and handaxe say) for the extra attack.

Human Paladin also looks tempting with those stats, dumping the 7 into Int.

 

[Kheti sa-Menik]

Do you want to specifically stay straight Fighter, or are you interested in multiclassing and/or prestige classes?

-Stuart

Any and all base and prestige classes are open and available.

 

[pawsplay]

What level do you expect to play up to? Assuming your campaign runs to 10th level or so, how about a nice dwarf fighter? And by nice, I mean, awful. The flavor is vanilla, but the serving size is a nice big scoop.

Str 15, Dex 15 (16), Con 16, Int 14, Wis 14, Cha 5.
Feats at 5th level: Power Attack, Cleave, Combat Reflexes, Close Quarters Fighting, Improved Buckler Defense.

Basically, you take a two handed weapon, or a one handed weapon you want to use two-handed (morningstars are nice; two damage types), and you wear a buckler. Since you're a dwarf, you wear heavy armor. You hit hard, and against low AC opponents, you hit very hard; if you're lucky, you drop your opponent and get a swing at the next one. If anyone tries to run past you, you take an AoO (four per round, totaly). If anything tries to eat you, you get an AoO and if you hit, it doeesn't eat you. You are a walking chunk of beatdown. Although you lack creative attack strategies, in terms of damage and AC, you are near the top of your game, and relatively unafraid of most exotic attacks. Your backup weapon is a glaive; it has reach, and you can still use it with a buckler.

You'll be maxing out four skills: Intimidate, Jump, Tumble, and Climb. At 5th level, you can have 4 ranks of Tumbling, with a +2 synergy bonus from Jump. In masterwork or magic armor, you can probably pull of avoiding AoOs from time to time, and if you don't, who cares?

At 6th level, take Endurance (6th level feat) and Dodge (Fighter feat). Now you can sleep in your armor. At 8th level, you take Combat Expertise, allowing you to occasionally turn into a wall of dwarf, and at 9th, you take Toughness. At 10th level, you become a Dwarven Defender, completing your tranformation.

 

[Legildur]

There is doubt over whether Improved Buckler Defense works with a two-handed weapon. The feat states 'when you attack with a weapon in your off hand', which is something different (to many people). It's been debated numerous times, but without resolution.

And I personally have troubles picturing how a glaive would be a back up weapon.... that's a pretty long and unwieldy object to have sheathed somewhere where it wouldn't get in the way. Now as a primary weapon (with morningstar as a backup) you could be onto something.

 

[szilard]

Do you want to go for the heavily-armored-tank-thing or would you prefer a lightly-armored-highly-mobile-fighter-type?

Is the campaign actually likely to be dungeon-based... or will there be a lot of urban and wilderness stuff as well?

-Stuart

 

[pawsplay]

There is doubt over whether Improved Buckler Defense works with a two-handed weapon. The feat states 'when you attack with a weapon in your off hand', which is something different (to many people). It's been debated numerous times, but without resolution.

I think it's legit. If not, you can either switch to a large shield and deal with a somewhat smaller Power Attack, or forgo the use of a shield. Either option opens up a feat you could use for Hold the Line or Improved Sunder.

 

[Fat Daddy]

So you wanna use a Glaive?

And I personally have troubles picturing how a glaive would be a back up weapon.... that's a pretty long and unwieldy object to have sheathed somewhere where it wouldn't get in the way. Now as a primary weapon (with morningstar as a backup) you could be onto something.

If you want to use the Glaive you should look at taking Short Haft from PHB II. Pre-req's are proficiency and weapon focus with the reach weapon and +3BAB. Swift action lose reach and threaten/attack adjacent squares and also a swift action to regain reach. Can be taken as a fighter feat.
IMO a very handy feat.
Semper Fi
Kevin

 

[brehobit]

I'd say you have three basic options: high AC, high damage, or something funky.

High AC is almost certainly a dwarf, probably fighter. High damage is a half-orc barbarian. The variations on this are Paladin (not for an evil party) or duskblade. Given your stats, the duskblade is actually a pretty good option, but you have to deal with the spells.

The dwarf build above is pretty good, but I'd it works really hard in dealling with grabs. If your DM doesn't tend to use them, I'd replace combat reflexes with weapon focus and IBD with weapon specialization then jump to the one-handed dwarven war axe and heavy shield.

A more genericly useful dwarf build would be ranger 3 fighter 2, then pious templar to level 3 then battlesmith. Takes some work to pull this off, but by level 9 you are doing silly amounts of damage with a hammer. You have a lot more skill points (and useful skills).

For the half-orc barbarian the only thing you really need is extra rage. Weapon focus isn't a bad thing either.

The duskblade really does look huge starting at level 5. You'd need shocking grasp and ghoul's touch to make this really work. A lot depends on how your DM rules casting with weapon and/or shield in hand. But at 5th level you can (once per day and assuming 16 STR and a +1 two-handed sword) do:
2d6+1 (sword) +4 (STR) +10 (power attack for 5) +5d6 (shocking grasp) damage with an attack bonus of:
5 (BAB) +3 (STR) +1 (sword) -5 (power attack) +20 (quicked true strike). =+24.

That's an average of about 40 points of damage with what is almost an auto-hit (a 2 hits AC 26!) Very little can reliably do that. And even without the true strike cheese, you still can do 30ish points of damage 6 times a day or so.