Help me with a kick butt char

[Ranger5]

Dwarf Monk 2, Fighter 4, Paladin 4, Medium Humanoid (Dwarf); HD 2d8+4d10+4d10+30; hp 126; Init +2, Spd 20', AC 27 (+11 Mithril Full Plate [+3], +4 Darkwood Tower Shield, +2 Dex); Flat-footed 25, Touch 12; Base Atk +9; Grp +11; Attack +9 Melee (d6+2/20/x2 unarmed strike), or +6 melee (d6+2/20/x2 darkwood javelin), or or +11 melee (d10+5/20/x3 adamantite dwarven waraxe), or +12 ranged (d6+2/20/x2 darkwood javelin); Full Atk +9/+4 melee (d6+2/20/x2 unarmed strike), or +11/+6 melee (d10+5/20/x3 adamantite dwarven waraxe), or +12 ranged (d6+2/20/x2 darkwood javelin); Space/Reach 5 ft./5 ft; SA Smite Evil (1/day +2 to hit, +4 dmg), Flurry of Blows, Dwarf traits; Turn undead; SQ Dwarf Traits; Evasion, Aura of Good, Detect Evil, Divine Grace, Lay on Hands, Aura of Courage, Divine Health; AL LG; SV Fort +23, Ref +16, Will +16; Str 14, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 14, Chr 14
Skills and Feats: Balance +2, Bluff +2, Climb -2, Concentration +3, Diplomacy +2, Disguise +2, Gather Info +2, Heal +5, Intimidate +2, Jump -10, Listen +7, Perform +2, Ride +7, Sense Motive +2, Spot +7, Survival +2, Swim -17, Use Rope +2, Tumble +5; Weapon Focus (Dwarven Waraxe), Weapon Specialization (Dwarven Waraxe), Combat Reflexes, Power Attack, Cleave, Iron Will, Lightning Reflexes, Great Fortitude
Possessions: Mithril Full Plate +3, Darkwood Tower Shield, Darkwood Javelin x10, Cloak of Resistance +5, Adamantite Dwarven Waraxe

You realize though that you will not be able to use the Evasion ability of the Monk because of your armor right?

From SRD: Evasion can be used only if a monk is wearing light armor or no armor.

And Mithral Full Plate is considered Medium not Light. Seems to me you are really gaining nothing from the Monk levels. Well except for the XP penalty.

 

[Lela]

They also have great base saves.

 

[EPRock]

Defensively, especially saving throws, he is cool.

Currently the module that I am making this character for is Rappan Athuk, and the DM has made it much more difficult than the original module outlined, We currently have a 40% death rate / game. Almost all characters have died at least once some characters have died three or four times. We all have backup characters because of the high chances of dying.

I wanted to make a very resillient character which can take quite a bit and hopefully still be standing at the end of it. There are several limitations on backup characters (1 level lower, appropriate starting money for that level, Max of two magic items). I hope that this character is able to take a beating and pull the corpses of my allies out.

One of the sickest battles was in one of the temples, there were several clerics and around a dozen low level fighters, as soon as someone would enter the room the clerics would start spamming hold person, until that person was held, then one of the fighters would go up and CDG the character.

But offensively, how is he going to get past DR 10 creatures at 10th level even with his Waraxe??? His to hit is not so good that Power Attack is going to help much. His basic drawback here (over more traditional fighter types) is that he does not have a real high strength, nor is his weapon magical. He's at least +6 lower to hit than most traditional 10th level fighter types.

Sure he may be a little weaker offensively, but similar in output to a monk, we do have a cleric in the group which is able to cast Align weapon, and Greater Magic Weapon, so for the most part things will be ok in those regards. This character will be more of an indomitable tank.

 

[Ranger5]

They also have great base saves.

This is true. But it would seem to me that 2 more levels of Fighter or Paladin (or one of each really) would make more sense. But that's just me as I really hate having XP penalties.

 

[EPRock]

Doh, Maybe I should swap monk for rogue then, but rogue suffers the same limitations

 

[Lasher Dragon]

I personally don't understand the monk levels either. I mean, the only benefit is some good saves, big deal.

 

[Rackhir]

Templates are in the core books. Are those permisable? I'm guessing not, but half-dragon kicks ass for any sort of fighter type.

Rangers also make a very good archer base in 3.5. They can be extremely effective especially if someone can properly buff them with GMW and such.

Male Dwarf(Hill) Bbn2/Ftr4/Rgr4;

"Medium Humanoid; CR 10;
HD 4d8+4d10+2d12+30; hp 84 (assuming roughly avg hp);
Init +8; Spd 30 ft/x4;
AC 21 (+8 armor, +3 dex), touch 13, flat-footed 21;
Base Atk/Grapple +10/+12;
Full Atk +17/+12 Within 30'-Holy-Ghost Touch (1d8+6;19-20/x3, +1 Composite Longbow (+2 Str));
AL CG; SV Fort +14, Ref +9, Will +3;
Str 14(+2), Dex 18(+4), Con 16(+3), Int 10(+0), Wis 12(+1), Cha 8(-1);
Skills: Handle Animal +7, Hide¹ +12, Listen¹ +11, Move Silently¹ +14, Search¹ +4, Spot¹ +5, Survival¹ +9.
Feats: Improved Critical(Composite Longbow), Improved Initiative, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Manyshot, Weapon Focus(Composite Longbow), Weapon Specialization(Composite Longbow)"

Despite wearing full plate. You are still quite stealthy. Favored enemies allows for customization. You have limited, but very useful spell casting ability and can use cure wands etc.Especially with raging you can still do melee very well with an adamatine dwarven war axe.

Holy is probably a great enchantment to have on your weapon. I'm assuming that most of the creatures you are fighting will be evil. So the extra 2d6 damage a hit works very well with an archer's high rate of fire and ability to get in full attacks more often than a melee combatant. I believe the extra damage from Holy should work with Manyshot as well since it is not precision damage.

 

[Lela]

Just out of curiosity, why are you limited to two magic items and core only?

One of the sickest battles was in one of the temples, there were several clerics and around a dozen low level fighters, as soon as someone would enter the room the clerics would start spamming hold person, until that person was held, then one of the fighters would go up and CDG the character.

Time to whip out the area effect spells. You should be pretty near cheese-grader (Blade Barriar), which would be extremely effective in close quarters.

 

[KarinsDad]

I personally don't understand the monk levels either. I mean, the only benefit is some good saves, big deal.

In Rappan Athuk, good saves are critical.

And, Combat Reflexes is also nice.

But, I would drop Flurry of Blows for Improved Grapple. Both offensively (hold down BBEG) and defensively (do not get taken out of a fight), being a good grappler is important. The Flurry of Blows will not work when armored anyway and grappling the guy takes him out nearly as effectively and for longer.


I would also consider upping the Int 10 to 13 (by dropping Wis to 13 and Cha to 12) in order to get Combat Expertise and Improved Trip. This character is not going to be casting a lot of spells (which most first level Paladin spells do not have DC anyway and he only gets one at fourth level anyway) or be that good at turning anyway.

This drops the Will save to 15, but allows the character to go mucho DC if necessary plus get a trip weapon (drop Exotic Weapon feat WarAxe for a normal Flail) and trip anything that gets near him or he gets an Attack of Opportunity against. Plus, the extra Int gives him more skill points.

Granted, the Flail does an average of one point less damage per successful hit, but this is not a damage monster character anyway.

Plus, a flail allows him to disarm at +2 if he wants to go that route.

In a defensive fight game (high DC and high saves), set up your combat monster allies by tripping opponents or grappling the really bad ones.

 

[Lela]

There isn't any EWP (Waraxe). That's free due to being a dwarf.

You can't trade Flurry for Improved Grapple. One's a bonus feat and the other comes standard on monks. But I think the Monk does get the bonus feat at 2nd level and could take it. Or if you dropped the Monk levels for Fighter you could take it and get GWF and GWS faster.