A little DnD concept help
By
catsi563,
Posted on: 2010-09-28 18:02 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
Quote:
My personal opinion: Drop Scout and replace it with Ranger. Rangers get Two-Weapon fighting fairly early.
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Originally Posted by Smersh
I call upon some collective wisdom from the boards. My wife and I just joined a new gaming group in our new hometown. The game is, in the words of the GM, "A mix of 3.0 and 3.5." (No, I don't have any more information about what that means. He's also said that we'll be starting with access only to the core books, but we'll be branching out beyond that relatively quickly.
So, I've got some questions. I am thinking I can talk him into slight expansion beyond the basic books in the early levels if absolutely necessary, but I'll try to stick to the main sources. My concept is this: Zulu Elf. A barbarian wood elf who uses a shield and a one-handed spear as his primary mode of attack. I'm planning to multiclass into a barbarian/scout/wildrunner. What I'm looking for is a little feat advice. I am hemming and hawing. Do I want to take Two-Weapon Fighting and Improved Shield Bash? Do I want to walk down the line towards Spring Attack, leveraging the monk-like speeds I will attain? Should I focus on Power Attack and some of its ilk? Or do I want to go somewhere else effective? I'm looking for opinions. Don't worry about prerequisite stats; we haven't started the game and I can shift my numbers around still. Also, if someone has a line on where I can find an official reference to a one handed spear (an assegai) that does 1d8 points of damage rather than the anemic 1d6 I'm stuck with, I'd appreciate it. |
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I agree with nightphall. Rangers cna spec two weapon fighting style early and have everything youd need to be a scout and roll into wildrunner.
Asto the rest styalisticlly an elfen Zulu style warrior would seem to be a spring type fighter highly mobile and agile using the spear as the prime weapon and switching off to a short curved sword as needed to dart opast an opponetns guard.
So you mean you'll put down your rock, and I'll put down my sword; and we'll try and kill each other like civilized people?
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Ranger? Sure, it's favored class for a wood elf, but I don't really want what it has to offer me. If I was worried about getting the feats I need, I'd pick up a few Fighter levels instead. Scout, also, gives out some bonus feats which can be used to grab the Spring Attack line.
And, of course, having Improved Uncanny Dodge by level 4 will be nice. And 8 skill points as opposed to 6.
Still undecided between two weapon shield bashing and spring attack. I'm favoring spring attack, but I hate the idea of having to take Dodge and Mobility as my first feats. They're useful, but boring.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.
-Don't just rebel, build a better world, comrade!
Quote:
Part of the decision is what kind of target you want to be good at fighting. |
Originally Posted by Smersh
Still undecided between two weapon shield bashing and spring attack. I'm favoring spring attack, but I hate the idea of having to take Dodge and Mobility as my first feats. They're useful, but boring.
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Dodge provides a +1 Dodge Bonus, which means it's effective against Touch Attacks (armor and shield bonuses are not). A lot of spells use Touch Attacks. Spellcasters are reluctant to use them because they require being in melee range, but if you're going to get in their face anyway, they'll have no qualms about using "Shocking Grasp" or "Chill Touch" against which that plate mail and steel shield are worse than useless (metal armor gives the user of Shocking Grasp a +3 to their Touch Attack, which is already ignoring the armor's AC Bonus). And there are Ranged Touch Attack spells too. "Scorching Ray", for example, is a nasty S.O.B. with no Saving Throw that turns heavily-armored knights into crispy critters from 30 feet away. And that's a 2nd-lvl spell, so it only gets worse from there. A Dodge Bonus is also better than a Shield Bonus because it doesn't matter which direction you're attacked from.
Mobility makes it easier to move around the battlefield, past enemies you can leave for someone else, to single out and attack specific targets (enemy spell-casters and archers), or to disengage from a fight in order to get something else done ("You guys hold the line, I'll go smash the Orb of Mayhem"), or to support your squishies ("Hey, that ninja is attacking our Wizard! Get away from our Wizard!"). You get some nice synergy with Improved Uncanny Dodge at 5th level too.
Spring Attack becomes most useful when you hit 6th level and get a 2nd attack per round.
And if you can get a 13 Intelligence, Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack are all prerequisites for Whirlwind Attack. Add in a Reach weapon, such as a Two-Handed Spear, and you can scrub the battlefield of all those annoying minions. There's no such thing as "too many Kobolds" with Whirlwind Attack.
All of the above has mediocre-to-terrible synergy with the Fighter or Paladin who wears heavy armor and toes the line against the enemy's onslaught, come Hell or high water. They're going to want Feats like Diehard, Improved Bull Rush and Cleave. If someone else in your group is playing the prototypical knight in shining armor, they won't be a good choice to be the guy or gal who goes after the enemy spell-casters. A fast-movin', uncanny-dodgin' thrasher like an Elven Barbarian, on the other hand...
I call upon some collective wisdom from the boards. My wife and I just joined a new gaming group in our new hometown. The game is, in the words of the GM, "A mix of 3.0 and 3.5." (No, I don't have any more information about what that means. He's also said that we'll be starting with access only to the core books, but we'll be branching out beyond that relatively quickly.
So, I've got some questions. I am thinking I can talk him into slight expansion beyond the basic books in the early levels if absolutely necessary, but I'll try to stick to the main sources.
My concept is this: Zulu Elf. A barbarian wood elf who uses a shield and a one-handed spear as his primary mode of attack. I'm planning to multiclass into a barbarian/scout/wildrunner.
What I'm looking for is a little feat advice. I am hemming and hawing. Do I want to take Two-Weapon Fighting and Improved Shield Bash? Do I want to walk down the line towards Spring Attack, leveraging the monk-like speeds I will attain? Should I focus on Power Attack and some of its ilk? Or do I want to go somewhere else effective?
I'm looking for opinions. Don't worry about prerequisite stats; we haven't started the game and I can shift my numbers around still.
Also, if someone has a line on where I can find an official reference to a one handed spear (an assegai) that does 1d8 points of damage rather than the anemic 1d6 I'm stuck with, I'd appreciate it.
Comrade Smersh, KGB Special Section 8 50 Inv/Fire, Fire/Rad, BS/WP, SD/SS, AR/EM
Other 50s: Plant/Thorn, Bots/Traps, DB/SR, MA/Regen, Rad/Dark - All on Virtue.