Interesting fighter builds

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Barbarian background - it's not some savage getting angry, but a civilised and cultured person who gets posessed by a demon. Works with most barbarian builds I can think of.

I've got a hankering to play the archetypical elven fighter. Good Str and Dex, place feats into longbow and longsword... I was going to make them elven nobility... inbred to a ridiculous degree.

Halfling Rogue/Barbarian - it's Conan. Only shorter.

 

[Particle_Man]

Complete Warrior helped make some 'lesser' weapons quite potent via the Combat Style feats. I know of at least one person pursuing the Lightning Mace (uses two light maces) style...

This one is sub-optimal. Lightning Mace allows you the chance of another attack if you threat, for a total of initial attack + possible confirmation of crit + possible extra hit (which might threat, but at best that is 1 in 10 if you buy improved crit, and otherwise is 1 in 20).

Or you can just use, you know, hand axes. If you threat, you get twice as much extra damage if you confirm a threat. That is pretty much the same as a light mace that gets a chance to confirm a threat and a possible extra hit. And you don't have to spend a fancy feat.

So lightning mace costs you a feat for almost no benefit over just using hand axes. The only benefit of Lightning Mace is the very small chance of scoring a threat, then scoring another threat on one's bonus attack, and then scoring another threat on THAT bonus attack, etc. I think on average, the hand axes work out to more damage, since rolling to confirm a threat once for double value is likely easier than both rolling to confirm a threat and rolling to hit with another attack (admittedly, with that infinitesimal chance of infinite damage).

 

[Testament]

Hey, I never said that I was a fan of Lightning Mace, and I'd personally go for another weapon. At any rate though, Lightning Mace is a cool mental image, and style has to count for something.

 

[der_kluge]

What I ended up making is a girl of nobility who was caught up in an arranged marriage, which she defied, but couldn't stop. So, instead, she cut her hair, fled the island, and is on the lamb disguised as a mercenary named Thomas, whom the party thinks is about 15-16 years old (she's 19).

Her culture is heavily merchant-based, and sea-based, so long-sword made sense. She wields a longsword, and has a shield. Though I may end up changing the sword to a rapier for aesthetic reasons. She's physically not very strong (11), but has a good dex (15). I took improved init (which the GM said I could replace if I wanted), weapon finesse, and weapon specialization (from C&C) which is +1/+1 for her favored weapon. He said I could also swap it out, but it seems pretty good, so I'll probably just keep it. The GM is using feats, which isn't something C&C normally has.

I'm going to work up her history today.

 

[Henry]

Cool! So you will be giving Primes another chance, then? Or is he using something different?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

For a sea-faring PC, shortsword, rapier or cutlass (scimitar) make more sense than longsword. While its not completely reflected in D&D stats, those were more compact/faster weapons than the longsword, so they became the heavy personal weapons of choice. Dagger would also be high on the list of weapons for a sailor.

Then again, consider this: your PC has a low strength, so she won't have much carrying capacity. The Longsword weighs 4lbs, the shield weighs another 5-15 lbs. For the weight of the Longsword alone, you can fully arm her with a Rapier and Shortsword (2lbs each). Drop the shield and you get 5+ Daggers for throwing or fights in the ship's rigging. And then there's all that stuff about Weapon Finesse...

Additionally, because of the nature of combat at sea, a PC would more likely be a 1 weapon or 2 weapon fighter as opposed to Sword & Board- they'd want to keep a hand free so they could grab something (like a rope) or climb if they had to. About the only sword & board warriors found at sea were warriors who were primarily raiders...like Vikings. Shields are bulky...but someone who has 2 small, fast weapons can fight through and IN the rigging if need be.

 

[der_kluge]

Cool! So you will be giving Primes another chance, then? Or is he using something different?

Primes? It's C&C rules, with a lot of 3.5 extensions, like feats, flanking, and some multi-classing houserules, among others.

I'd prefer to just stick with 3.5 for "simplicity". I use quotes around that, because C&C is a more simple system, but it seems to me that sticking with 1 system, rather than a hodge-podge is more simple. But then, I'm a fighter. All I have to worry about is hacking stuff to death.

 

[Belen]

Marcus Valerius Anteros: I used the Roman equipment from MonkeyGod's From Stone to Steel. He was a former legionaire who had been unwittingly transported from the White Isle to a place called Hawkmoon. He was a sword and board fighter who took leadership and trained a cohort in legion tactics to help him fight.

The only problem is the any fighter without Power Attack sucks in 3.5 because they just cannot manage damage output.

 

[Henry]

Primes? It's C&C rules, with a lot of 3.5 extensions, like feats, flanking, and some multi-classing houserules, among others.

I was just referring to a discussion we had a week or so back about your frustration with C&C's saving throw rules (their "SEIGE" mechanic) because it sounded like the DM for your World's Largest Dungeon game had a miscalc with the fireball save.

STR is a Prime for Fighters, and I assume you're picking DEX as another, what will your third be? INT?

 

[der_kluge]

I was just referring to a discussion we had a week or so back about your frustration with C&C's saving throw rules (their "SEIGE" mechanic) because it sounded like the DM for your World's Largest Dungeon game had a miscalc with the fireball save.

STR is a Prime for Fighters, and I assume you're picking DEX as another, what will your third be? INT?

Well, that other GM followed the rule appropriately enough, but the system itself is just more deadly in that regard.

Yea, str (which I would have preferred to change, actually), dex, and charisma. I still think it's a goofy system. But, let's not get into that here.