Cookie Cutter Melee "Beat Stick" Builds

[nittanytbone]

Cleric 20 of Kord.

Domains: War and Strength

Feats: Power Attack, Divine Might (optional if charisma is high), Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Divine Metamagic Persistent Spell

Ability Scores (28 point buy):
Str 14+, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 10

Tactics: At lower levels, Persist Divine Favor. Your To HIt bonus is now equal to a fighter's, and you have all your buff spells. Once you hit level 7, Persist Divine Power. You are now a Fighter with +6 strength. Use Eagle's Splendor and Nightsticks (Libris Mortis) or the Extra Turning feat and you can even dump charisma; if none of those are options then you might need to dump dex and int to get cha up to 14.

Equipment: Two handed greatsword wielder, plate armor, nightsticks (libris mortis)

 

[Nyaricus]

Human Knight (PHBII) 20 with a bastard sword.

Seriously. Huge amounts of damage-soak ability, no PrCs needed.

Take the good, standard stuff, like PA, WF, IC, etc. Also be sure to take a bunch of good feats featured in PHBII (the shield and armour ones) and focus on protecting the crap out of your hide and beating the crap out of others. You'll have amazing defense with this build, and with your Bastard Sword, you can dish it right back at the other guys. Plus, you can spurn the enemy into attacking you, which is a bad idea - for them!

Honestly, likely the best damage soaker and one of the runner-ups for damage-dealers in the game. Hands down.

I can't wait for my players to gain 17 levels when I get to pit them against Cyr, a Mike Mearls Ogre Mage Knight 15 and her husband Soth, a Mike Mearls Ogre Mage Warlock 15

cheers,
--N

 

[Venator]

Wow, thats some amazing feedback guys. Thanks a lot. (Thank god i found this board)

Some of you included suggestions for feat breakdowns, thanks for that. Id love to get some discussion on feat builds for the various class breakdowns. Other than feats published in world specific books or the periodicals basically everything is fair game.

The Karmic Strike feat looks to be an incredible way to dish out massive damage, but you also end up taking a great deal of damage. I understand that theres also a few charge oriented feats (leap attack) that string together for massive damage? Is it better to focus on the Weapon Focus / Spec / Mastery feat line or go for one of the "trick" builds?

Thanks again guys, this is exactly what i was looking for.

 

[nittanytbone]

Is it better to focus on the Weapon Focus / Spec / Mastery feat line or go for one of the "trick" builds?

It depends on the DM. If the DM randomly generates treasure, stay away from them. What are the odds that you'll just happen to find that special enchanted greatsword in a treasure pile instead of a flail? If he's randomly generating treasure, you want to be able to pick up almost anything and be effective, which makes "generic" feats like Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, etc more useful.

In general, Weapon Focus is often useful, but merely so that you can covert the +1 to hit to +2 damage via Power Attack. Its only one feat and you don't have to invest in four levels of fighter to get it, so if you can't use your weapon of choice, its not a huge biggie.

The only time I really consider 4 levels of fighter is if (A) I REALLY need a lot of feats and (B) if I REALLY need to get bonus damage on each hand for a dual-wielder, and for some reason rogue SA or ranger Favored Enemy is not appropriate.

Generally, I'd only really consider a 2 level fighter dip to be optimal. Usually you can get more out of two levels of some other full BAB class than you can out of a dead level and a bonus feat.

 

[Krel]

If you get Power Attack, Leap Attack, Combat Brute, and Shock Trooper...that is some serious power attack damage. Grab a two-handed weapon (I like the greatsword or the falchion), get Improved Critical, all the weapon focuses, and you should be good to go. That is, of course, if you have enough room for all of those feats and their pre-reqs.

I play a straight barbarian. It might not be as good as a fighter/barbarian, but he still does a great deal of damage.

Here's a nice list of feats:

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/featsform.pl

 

[Nifft]

Archtypes IMC:

Good Guys:
- Paladin 9 / Sorc 1 / Dragon Disciple 10 (Kingsguard)

Neutral Guys
- Barbarian 1 / Rogue X (Bandit)
- Ranger 2 / Ftr 2 / Rogue 6 / Exotic Weapon Master 1-2 / Rogue ++ (Bandit Leader)

Bad Guys (oooOoooo, there are so many!)
- Phase Spider 6 / Blackguard 10 (Fang of Lolth)
- Phase Spider 6 / Ghost Face Killer 10 (Fang of Lolth)

Cheers, -- N

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Others have pointed out a lot of the vanilla builds. So, here are a few builds that vary in their amount of vanillaness:

1. Half-orc barbarian: 1-20.
1 Power Attack
3 Cleave
6 Close Quarters Fighting (or great cleave)
9 Reckless Rage (or close quarters fighting)
12 Leap Attack
15 Improved Bullrush
18 Shock Trooper

Very vanilla: rage, hit things, and rely upon the cleric and his heal spells for defense. Also reasonably effective though there are some things you just won't want to tangle with. If you want more vanilla in your strategy but less independence you can take Endurance and Die Hard at levels 6 and 9 and get the cleric to cast Delay Death on you. Then hope that the cleric has enough healing to get you back above -10 before Delay Death wears off .

Somewhat less vanilla:

Half-orc
Barbarian 2/Fighter 18
1. Power Attack, Combat Reflexes
3. Cleave, Weapon Focus (Glaive or EWP: Spiked Chain)
4. Dodge
6. Mobility, Weapon Specialization (Glaive)
8. Spring Attack
9. Elusive Target
10. Greater Weapon Focus: Glaive
12. Improved Critical Glaive, Close Quarters Fighting
14. Greater Weapon Specialization: Glaive
15, 16, 18, 18, 20 either the glaive feats that you delayed in order to use a spiked chain or the various PHB 2 polearm and weapon mastery feats.

This is less vanilla because of the multi-classing, and the somewhat complex tactical nature of the spring attack/elusive target/combat reflexes chain of feats, but is still a fairly common archetype using all PHB classes and mostly PHB feats.