advice on creating 8th level dwarven two-weapon fighter

[bucephelos]

So i've been invited to join a campaign and haven't played in a long time. The game is 3.5 ed eberron, and i've been told to start my character at 8th level. I've put together a character that is a dwarf 1 barb/6 rang/1 tempest, with the idea of taking future leves as a tempest figter. The 'master plan' is at 9th level to take the feat in the complete adventurer that allows your off-hand weapon to be one-handed instead of light with no penalty, then wreck shop with two dwarven waraxes - should be fun. Any thoughts on the concept so far? And what are good and/or acceptable stat ranges for an 8th level melee character - ac bonus, attack bonus, etc? I've been given a 25,000 gp limit on starting equipment and i was wondering if i should focus on armor, weapons, or misc items (rings, boots, etc). Any advice or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

p.s., my dm has agreed to waive the xp penalty that comes with having only 1 level of barbarian. We're also ironing out other allowances/trade offs regarding some of the ranger abilities that don't really fit into the 'concept' of my character, like trading animal empathy and animal companion for reg and imp. uncanny dodge and trading ranger spell abilities for combat and weapon specific feats. In case y'all were wondering . . .

 

[Shin Okada]

If you give up spell-casting and other ranger abilities, why not go for Barbarian/Fighter/Tempest instead? That way, you can have more feats, which are needed for a 2-weapon warrior. And you and your DM does not need to make-up house rules at all.

When making a tempest character, I do not stick to one specific weapon. You will eventually gain Two-Weapon Versatility class feature and thus can apply weapon-specific feats into other type of weapons.

One of my favorite build is to take Improved Shield Bash and Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting, then to take Weapon Focus feat tree for Spiked Heavy Shield.

That way, you can have better AC comparing to other two-weapon warriors. And as long as you are using your trustful spiked heavy shield (possibly a magic one), you can use whatever one-handed weapon in your main hand and apply the benefits of those weapon related feats.

So, you can fight just well with whatever one-handed magic weapon you find as a loot. Also, you can change the weapon in your primal hand depends on the opponent (say, using bludgeoning weapon when fighting against skeletons, using a weapon made of Byeshk when fighting against Daelkyr.

 

[Dandu]

I have a different take on the idea of a Dwarven two weapon fighter.

Ranger2 (for TWF)/Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian1 (Pounce)/Ranger1/Deepwarden2/Fist of the Forest1/Exotic Weapon Master2

Use your TWF with an Urgrosh and unarmed strikes. EWM gives you the ability to deal x2 strength mod damage with your urgrosh and the ability to flurry with it.

Deepwarden and Fist of the Forest give Con to AC twice, once in place of your dex bonus and a second time as an untyped bonus (kinda like a monk).

 

[Herzog]

How about

Spirit Lion Totem Barbarian1 (Pounce)/Ranger 4 (Champion of the Wild)/Scout 4 /Tempest x

(Ok, so at lvl 8 you will be at Barb 1/Ranger 4/Scout 3)

Feats:
1: Expeditious Dodge(From Races of the Wild),
2: two-weapon fighting (ranger fighting style)
3: mobility
4: improved two-weapon fighting (champion of the wild bonus feat)
6: spring attack
(9: Swift Hunter, Improved Skirmish)
(12: greater two weapon fighting)


At lvl 9, charge 20 feet to get +4d6 skirmish damage on each successfull hit, and a +2 AC bonus (includes the -2 penalty from the charge....)
or charge 40 feet for an additional +2 AC....

AT lvl 8, you're a bit left out:
Only +1d6 skirmish damage on each attack after you moved 10', and only +1 AC.
Those two feats (one from lvl 9, one from scout bonus feat) give you an incredible jump though. Might be worth it.

Edit: thought I'd mention some of the sources used.
Ranger Champion of the Wild is an alternate class feature from Complete Champion
Barbarian Lion Totem is an alternate class feature from Complete Champion
Scout is from Complete Adventurer
Improved Skirmish and Swift Hunter are feats from Complete Scoundrel

 

[Shin Okada]

Use your TWF with an Urgrosh and unarmed strikes.

Dwarven Urgrosh is a two-handed exotic melee weapon and a double weapon. Basically, using a double weapon is like using two-weapons already.

I am not sure if you can combine unarmed strikes when using dwarven urgrosh as a double-weapon. Isn't it like using 3 weapons?

EWM gives you the ability to deal x2 strength mod damage with your urgrosh

Uncannny Blow Exotic Weapon Stunt works when wielding a one-handed exotic melee weapon in two hands. So does not work when wielding a Dwarven Urgrosh.

and the ability to flurry with it.

This (Flurry of Strikes) works, as Urgrosh is an exotic double weapon.

 

[Dandu]

Dwarven Urgrosh is a two-handed exotic melee weapon and a double weapon. Basically, using a double weapon is like using two-weapons already.

I am not sure if you can combine unarmed strikes when using dwarven urgrosh as a double-weapon. Isn't it like using 3 weapons?

You can TWF with a Two Handed Weapon as your main weapon and using things such as armor spikes and unarmed strikes as your off hand weapon, Shin.

 

[bucephelos]

@shin - i chose ranger over fighter because when i compared ads/disads of the two where i've got all the prereqs to become tempest (level 6), ranger came out on top. Fighter would have two more feats and a better hit die (d10 vs. d8), where as the ranger has more skill points, 2 favored enemies, endurance, tracking, animal empathy, animal companion, and spell ability. With that in mind, i thought ranger had the better package. But i do like the spiked shield idea; i'll definitely take that into consideration.

@herzog - i do like the idea of mixing ranger and scout. It does fit in with the concept of my character, and i do have a comp adv to consult.

@everyone - those sounds like really baller ideas. But i've got a few reasons not to implement them. For one, i don't want to have to go out and buy a bunch of supplemental books for this one character. I've got a few supplements at my disposal via friends (e.g., complete adventurer, complete scoundrel, a few others), but i don't want to have to spend $50 or $100 when i'm not even sure how often we'll be getting together to play. Secondly, when i create a character, i generally get an idea of what i want my character to be (background, etc), then build him around that. That's why i'm looking to drop the animal and magic parts of being a ranger; honestly, i think they're great features of the class, but they're just not consistent with what my character is. And once i figure out how to build the character to match my idea of him, i just want to make sure he's not underpowered. I don't have any real interest in being the most powerful guy in the group. That aside, i also don't think my dm would go for me building a super-powerful character at the expense of character development and role-playing. If he suspected that, i have no doubt he would send a black dragon directly after me in a not-so-subtle way to say, "i don't think so - start over".

That said, why cant i find any information (presige classes, etc) for a dwarven caver type of ranger? That's really what i've got in mind, and while it's mentioned that they 'exist' in the ranger portion of the ph, i can't find anywhere where the concept is expanded into a proper class or prestige class or anything. That's why i was looking to drop the animal and magic parts of rangerdom. Any thoughts?

 

[Dandu]

Races of Stone has the Deepwarden, which is a prestige class for dwarves focused on being a dwarf ranger that works in caves.

I'd encourage you to use the Urgrosh at the least. It gives you the damage you need to as a fighter, and allows you to TWF with armored spikes or whatnot as your offhand. Plus it's a dwarven weapon, so you've got your roleplaying justification right there.