Level One Blues

[Jansviper]

So as a long time DM, I find myself thinking less and less about making characters and more on how to kill them in new and interesting ways.

So maybe I wasn't too surprised when I found that I couldn't make a character for the life of me, and that the only thing I know about optimization is when to spot it being out of hand.

So I'm looking for some help, I'd like to make level 1 character that is good at killing other level one characters. Because frankly, I hate level 1, and I have no idea what's considered good.

 

[Michael Silverbane]

A dwarven greataxe (or greatsword) wielding barbarian makes for a fine level one character. he's got a lot of hit points, and hits real hard, plus the fast movement makes up for him having stumpy legs. I'd take Weapon Focus for your feat, so as to maximize your beat down potential.

Of course, the dwarven barbarian is not necessarily the most exciting character to play, since he tends to be a bit... uh... unsociable, and often somewhat thick-headed. Of course, pumping your mental stats would allow you to play against type, while letting your Barbarian rage (sometimes) make up for the relative lack of combat ability that low physical attributes will leave you with.

Later
silver

 

[nittanytbone]

CoDzilla FTW!

The mighty level 1 druid gets:

- A riding dog tank that can kick any fighter's butt, and continue to kick it at level 3 and up
- Two spells, plus ability to use scrolls
- Decent skill points with a few useful skills

Not too shabby. It only gets sicker as the levels increase, too.

Barbarian with greatsword and power attack/weapon focus works too at low levels, though.

 

[Mistwell]

This thread will help:

http://forums.gleemax.com/archive/index.php/t-750056.html

I happen to like the simplicity of:

Human Fighter 1

Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip

A simple, yet highly effective low-level melee set up. The idea is to grab a reach weapon, then use attacks of opportunity to trip Medium or smaller foes. There are many, many advantages to this. First, the initial to-hit roll is a touch attack. Second, with your bonus from Improved Trip, you're quite likely to knock down your foe. Third, you get a free attack at +4 when you do knock down that foe. Fourth, you get an attack of opportunity against that enemy when they stand up. Fifth, you get battlefield control; an enemy that's wasting their standard action getting up isn't spending that action attacking. Sixth, because of Combat Reflexes, you can do this to multiple enemies and are still effective while flat-footed.

 

[Drowbane]

For high strength damage output, Falchion (among the PHB weapons at least) is king.

compare~
2d4+6 (11av) 18-20x2
2d6+6 (13av) 19-20x2
1d12+6 (12av) 20x3

This really kicks off after Improved Crit (or Keen)...

 

[DreamChaser]

How bout a half-elf diviner?

What?

DC

 

[irdeggman]

A dwarven greataxe (or greatsword) wielding barbarian makes for a fine level one character. he's got a lot of hit points, and hits real hard, plus the fast movement makes up for him having stumpy legs. I'd take Weapon Focus for your feat, so as to maximize your beat down potential.

Of course, the dwarven barbarian is not necessarily the most exciting character to play, since he tends to be a bit... uh... unsociable, and often somewhat thick-headed. Of course, pumping your mental stats would allow you to play against type, while letting your Barbarian rage (sometimes) make up for the relative lack of combat ability that low physical attributes will leave you with.

Later
silver

Or a half-orc barbarian with same weapon and power attack instead.

My players have found out how truely deadly power attack can be when done by a raging barbarian with a 2 handed weapon.

Half-orc bumps Str, raging increases Str, using a 2 handed weapon gives 1 1/2 times str mod on attack damage, power attack allows trading in BAB (1 in this case) for double that (2 in this case) in damage.

 

[Klaus]

Half-orc barbarian 1
Str 17 (21 raging) Dex 13 Con 14 (18 raging) Int 8 Wis 12 Cha 6
Attack Greataxe +4 melee (1d12+4/x3) Raging: Greataxe +6 melee (1d12+7/x3)
AC 14 (+3 studded leather, +1 Dex) Raging: AC 12
HP 14 Raging: HP 16
Speed: 40


Dwarf barbarian 1
Str 15 (19 raging) Dex 13 Con 16 (20 raging) Int 10 Wis 12 Cha 6
Attack Greataxe +3 melee (1d12+3/x3) Raging: Greataxe +5 melee (1d12+6/x3)
AC 14 (+3 studded leather, +1 Dex) Raging: AC 12
HP 15 Raging: HP 17
Speed 30

The question is wether you want +1 to attack and extra movement (thus half-orc) or 1 extra hit point and 1 extra round of raging (thus dwarf).

 

[Ridley's Cohort]

The Barbarian is an appealing 1st level character and is often underestimated as a long term commitment.

Hit points, Rage, and fast movement really improve combat survivability. The other nice thing is the skill points. With a modest 10 or 12 Int you can have a few out-of-combat tricks to your character.

As long as your character is highly competent at combat (which every Barbarian is likely to be), how much you enjoy your character is more likely to increased by some out-of-combat shticks than by squeezing out a 4% bump in average damage output. Skills are the one means building a shtick to roleplay with.

 

[Thurbane]

This thread will help:

http://forums.gleemax.com/archive/index.php/t-750056.html

I happen to like the simplicity of:

Human Fighter 1

Combat Reflexes, Combat Expertise, Improved Trip

A simple, yet highly effective low-level melee set up. The idea is to grab a reach weapon, then use attacks of opportunity to trip Medium or smaller foes. There are many, many advantages to this. First, the initial to-hit roll is a touch attack. Second, with your bonus from Improved Trip, you're quite likely to knock down your foe. Third, you get a free attack at +4 when you do knock down that foe. Fourth, you get an attack of opportunity against that enemy when they stand up. Fifth, you get battlefield control; an enemy that's wasting their standard action getting up isn't spending that action attacking. Sixth, because of Combat Reflexes, you can do this to multiple enemies and are still effective while flat-footed.

Excellent advice Mist, except that I should point out standing from prone is a move equivalent action, not a standard action. The enemy will still be very much hampered, however.