Looking for characterbuilding advice
Dandu
First Post
The answers you seek and more can be found in the Warblade Handbook.
tl;dr: You don't have to have high Int (more than 14).
tl;dr: You don't have to have high Int (more than 14).
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A Warblade could use Int instead of Dex as a 2nd tier stat. Dex is only really important if you're going the mobility route (Tumble, climb, balance, light armour etc). Warblades are only proficient with thrown ranged weapons in any case.
Could you pull of something out of Boringus Maximum...errr...Gladiator? Make a fallen Roman Legionaire type, who has been imprisoned/court maritalled or whatever and fought as a gladiator? Fighter class. Team up with another player who doesn't mind a background in the Legion either. Take the Phalanx Fighting feat and make a shield wall. You can wrangle +5 AC out of your non-magical heavy shield if you do it right, and get a minimum of +3 AC for it, though you're limited to a light weapon (short sword/drusus?).
Could you pull of something out of Boringus Maximum...errr...Gladiator? Make a fallen Roman Legionaire type, who has been imprisoned/court maritalled or whatever and fought as a gladiator? Fighter class. Team up with another player who doesn't mind a background in the Legion either. Take the Phalanx Fighting feat and make a shield wall. You can wrangle +5 AC out of your non-magical heavy shield if you do it right, and get a minimum of +3 AC for it, though you're limited to a light weapon (short sword/drusus?).
Dandu
First Post
Not completely. Grapple will be a problem if you don't have much strength, for example.
That and I believe you'll end up doing less damage than someone fighting with a two handed weapon and the equivalent strength modifier since you deal x1.5 more damage. Power Attack operates at a 1:2 ratio for a THW as well.
You can go for Two Weapon Fighting, obviously, and gain more attacks, but TWF is considered subpar from a damage dealing perspective unless you have a source of bonus damage dice like Sneak Attack.
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Crusader all the way, if possible coordinate with at least one more player on your team and try and build in some synergy as Axel mentioned.
The two most obvious possibilities I can think of involve 2+ crusaders.
Iron guard's glare is absolutely amazing in low magic settings, especially with more than 1 crusader around. (Enemies you threaten get -4 to hit your ally), with Phalanx fighting and making a shield wall you could make yourself virtually unhittable at lvl 1.
Scale mail (4)
Heavy Shield + Shield wall (5)
Iron Guard's Glare (4)
AC at lvl 1: 23 (enough to make most CR1 monsters require a 20 to hit you, and quite a few CR2 monsters would have a very hard time hitting you as well)
Another, slightly more offensive version would be to use a polearm/spiked chain (I hate the spike chain, though for a "gladiator" I can see it as flavorful). Using this you could each give each other +4 AC, and all your allies could have +8AC (against melee attacks at least) =D
Combine that with the extra durability the recovery strikes (Crusader strike for example) give you, and you should have an incredibly potent team starting at level 1. At higher levels it gets even nastier with stuff like thicket of blades, tactical strike, shield block, and white raven tactics(!!!). Having more than one person on your team with white raven tactics is absolutely devastating, especially considering the crusader's method of recovery, you don't need to be shy about using it, as you are likely to re-acquire it within a few rounds.
The two most obvious possibilities I can think of involve 2+ crusaders.
Iron guard's glare is absolutely amazing in low magic settings, especially with more than 1 crusader around. (Enemies you threaten get -4 to hit your ally), with Phalanx fighting and making a shield wall you could make yourself virtually unhittable at lvl 1.
Scale mail (4)
Heavy Shield + Shield wall (5)
Iron Guard's Glare (4)
AC at lvl 1: 23 (enough to make most CR1 monsters require a 20 to hit you, and quite a few CR2 monsters would have a very hard time hitting you as well)
Another, slightly more offensive version would be to use a polearm/spiked chain (I hate the spike chain, though for a "gladiator" I can see it as flavorful). Using this you could each give each other +4 AC, and all your allies could have +8AC (against melee attacks at least) =D
Combine that with the extra durability the recovery strikes (Crusader strike for example) give you, and you should have an incredibly potent team starting at level 1. At higher levels it gets even nastier with stuff like thicket of blades, tactical strike, shield block, and white raven tactics(!!!). Having more than one person on your team with white raven tactics is absolutely devastating, especially considering the crusader's method of recovery, you don't need to be shy about using it, as you are likely to re-acquire it within a few rounds.
Good advice. I actually ended up rolling a warblade because I wanted access to Diamond Mind(I thought the touch attacks would be pretty nice in a game with low magic)
However, if no one else seems to come around, I may swap the class over, since I think the healing would prove invaluable.
StreamOfTheSky
Adventurer
Guess I'm late to the thread, but given your parameters, I'd have probably done a Changeling Crusader going into Warshaper. Crusader gives healing abilities, good tanking benefits like heavy armor, and strikes. It also has the Thicket of Blades stance, to help control the battlefield with a reach weapon. Warshaper then extends your reach, makes you immune to crits and sneak attacks (handy in a low healing game, I'd think), and most importantly...always on Fast Healing 2 at level 4 in the class (don't take level 5).
Changeling Crusader 4 / Warshaper 4 / Crusader +12 is a pretty solid build, could even mix in other classes if needed. And Vow of Poverty does sound like it'd be really helpful...
Changeling Crusader 4 / Warshaper 4 / Crusader +12 is a pretty solid build, could even mix in other classes if needed. And Vow of Poverty does sound like it'd be really helpful...
Given the Low/No magic stance the DM has taken (the whole point was to avoid magic-related shenanigans) I doubt he/she would appreciate me attempting to play another Changeling warshaper in another game as well.
I kindof have a major love for Warshaper, since it incorporates many of my favorite elements and combines it with shapeshifting, I feel that it would go against the spirit of the goal of the game if I introduced it. (The shapeshifting and gaining natural weapons and the like would probably be rather... magical?)
Otherwise I probably would gun for that idea, since warshaper just makes me inordinately happy for whatever reason.
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