Thistle discovers Melee!

[Lycanthromancer]

ToB isn't the only source of awesome melee-ness. Psychic warriors, totemists, and incarnates have tons of options for martial classes.

Also, factotums, wild shape rangers, psions, and pretty much any tier 1 class, as well.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Yeah the hood is amazing, and as far as I can tell totally legal and cheese free...also very anime flavor!  

So looking at my original build, I can subtract the MinWar template...now I *could* add in the Draconic template which is flavorwise redundant to dragonborn but no so mechanically.

ACTUALLY...what this really needs is 1/2 minotaur, but I would feel dirty if I took it for less than 4 LA (which would make it on par with a warforged charger). Doing so would sacrifice a fighter bonus feat and the second tier of dungeoncrashing. Doing the math I lose on average 26 damage off the slam, but it could be worth it for a persistently higher nonraging/bear form Str with a higher BAB and (if the DM allows), a shift into "brown bear" for that goes from large to huge rather than from medium to large.

What say you, oh gods of charop?

[Rymosrac]

Warforged Charger is garbage. Way too much LA, way too many Racial HD. I wouldn't take Half-Minotaur for +2 LA unless there was buyoff.

Edit: Half-Minotaur. Not minotaur warrior. FINALS STEAL MY SLEEP

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Warforged Charger is garbage. Way too much LA, way too many Racial HD. I wouldn't take Minotaur Warrior for +2 LA unless there was buyoff.

Yes...LA sucks for full casters for example...but for *this* particular build, I only give up 4 levels of fighter.  But for the purposes of the exercise, lets assume I *do* give those levels of fighter, lose the bonus feat and dungeoncrashing 2, and lets say I don't take 1/2 min...what should I do with those 4 levels?  And don't say Warhulk...1/2 min is a superior 4 level investment with greater stat gains (though it still wouldn't advance BAB) and I could still conceivably buy off 1 LA and get a final level in...

[Lycanthromancer]

anime flavor!

What say you, oh gods of charop?

"Oh, no."

[Anklebite]

anime flavor!

What say you, oh gods of charop?

"Oh, no."

never bring anime to a dnd game.

[Rymosrac]

Thirded, but I'm biased. Gorram weeaboos.

[weenog]

A little anime influence is fine by me.  A character that lives on nothing but pocky and spaghetti breakfast is not.  And buster swords are only to be used for committing seppuku.

[Anklebite]

A little anime influence is fine by me.  A character that lives on nothing but pocky and spaghetti breakfast is not.  And buster swords are only to be used for committing seppuku.

or by thri-keen dual wielding monkey gripped fullblades.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

anime flavor!

What say you, oh gods of charop?

"Oh, no."

never bring anime to a dnd game.

um...why not?

The comic Battle Chasers did this to great effect. Even the Hood Handbook mentions a heavy Final Fantasy influence which is most def anime.  I mean...running a hundred feet up a wall, flipping off and one shotting a dragon on the way down?  And lets not forget the ToB with it's maneuvers and stances. DnD, the Maid rpg it is not, but Ninja Scroll...it very well *could* be...

[Anklebite]

anime flavor!

What say you, oh gods of charop?

"Oh, no."

never bring anime to a dnd game.

um...why not?

The comic Battle Chasers did this to great effect. Even the Hood Handbook mentions a heavy Final Fantasy influence which is most def anime.  I mean...running a hundred feet up a wall, flipping off and one shotting a dragon on the way down?  And lets not forget the ToB with it's maneuvers and stances. DnD, the Maid rpg it is not, but Ninja Scroll...it very well *could* be...

it's fine if things happen to turn out slightly anime-ish. hell, characters and concepts can even take ideas from anime. builds and rules can end up similar to anime.

but if I hear one more fucking irrelevant anime reference in-game, I'm gonna have to choke a bitch.


played with this one guy who simply could not understand the difference between IC and OOC character humor. every goddamn encounter involved him doing something retardedly anime.  the worst part is, he thought it was clever and funny.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Touched a nerve, did I? 

[Anklebite]

Touched a nerve, did I? 

thankfully, didn't play with that dumbass long enough for it to become a nerve. 


still though, annoyed me to no end when one of my good friends wanted to play a centaur who fought with a greatsword helf backswept....

really, direct anime references should be kept out of dnd. 

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

MASSIVE overhaul of my Dragonforged Dreadnought build.

Dropped two levels of Cleric and some Warshaper. Got halfway done then realized Half-Minotaur (as badassed as that would look) can't be added to a Living Construct Subtype.  Went back to the drawing board, threw in some Psychic Warrior for good measure and added flavor, kept my second stage of Dungeoncrashing madness, and tweaked my feats until I could add Frenzied Berserker as the cherry on top.  Savage!

As always, please critique...tis the only way I will get better with my optimizing.

Actually...I would love someone who understands these builds better than me to break down my action chain and get into how much damage he could actually do.

Here is my stab at it (pun intended): At level 20: Brown Bear Rage+Frenzy+Ape's Fury+Expansion+huge 2 Handed greatsword:

Pounce-Charge foe+Leap(ing) Power Attack (-5 AC), Full Attack, triggers free bullrush via Knockback, knocking foe into another foe, getting a free trip against both and dealing 8d8+3x Str for knocking one into the other or into a wall, and after making said Full attacks (4, 2 of which likely hit), get ANOTHER attack at full BAB

So that is 4d6+36+15 for the first leap, same for the second attack (let's assume 3 and 4 miss), and then a 3rd from the Frenzy, and then 8d8+72 for the Dungeoncrash...

= 12d6+8d8+225 or an average of 303 per round to a single target, possibly 108 to a second (the one who got bullrushed), and if either of those two croak, it's happpy great cleave time from a Huge Creature with Reach, and I can ShockTrooper-direct my charge to optimize my position to do so.


It's not quite Hood (I mean, what else is aside from Tier 1....is Hood the most melee damage possible in this game?  Just curious), but it's also not bad for my first attempt at a melee ubercharge...and...it's got alot of flavor.  Oh and those strikes are healing my allies, I don't get fatigued after the Frenzy/Rage, and can snap out of it before hurting anyone I don;t want to using Iron Heart Surge...

Options:  Sacrifice the Dungeoncrash 2 for Improved Trip and maul those two guys while they are down (4*(4d6+51)+4d8+48)= 326 to the first guy...hmmm...more optimal...what do you guys think?


...and man, does it ever suckthat I couldn't take half minotaur.  Even more strength, and if the DM let the Brown Bear Form increase him from Large to Huge, I could be GARGANTUAN with expansion...oh well...

[Sohala]

Need another flaw for endurance.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

It doesn't have Endurance. Endurance comes from the "Bear" form.

[Sohala]

I must have missed the gain from the PrC which part is it in? Either way, unless you are going to count in some retraining, Steadfast Determination needs to be moved later in the build.

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Aww, crap! I hate it when I miss stuff like that....hmmm.  You know, an argument could be made to a sensible DM to not require the prereq, since everything Endurance helps with, Warforged are already immune to, making it a true waste of a feat.

[weenog]

You know, an argument could be made to a sensible DM to not require the prereq

  There was a street preacher that used to go around foretelling the end of the full caster rule and how Fighter 20 could keep up, used to start most of his arguments that way.  Name of Aelryinth, I think...

[Thistledown Thurbertaut]

Is that your way of saying "fat chance"?  Seriously though, read Endurance and then come back and tell me that Warforged don't already have that and then some...