Theranon's page

How mount dependent depends on your feat selection...you can make a Cav that pretty much does nothing with his mount but use it as a pack mule.

Thought the class was mostly based around their mount. But yea, getting some nice knight vibes right now. I wonder if I could dive abit to the mountside. Are there any essential mount combat feats?

Honor Guard Cavalier: if you want a bodyguard build, this is it. Order of Dragon will make your aid another bonuses increase, too. This is great start for a Battle Herald, if you want to go that route.

How mount dependent is this build? Havent been looking at cavalier mainly due to dependancy on a mount.

Dont want to make a magus to compete with already sensitive guy, lol.

Armor's max dex bonus only applies to the AC bonus from dex. It will not effect initiative or the number of AoOs you can make with combat reflexes. Losing access to Armor Training is not that big of a loss, when you can get the same benefit from mithral armor.

Hmm, that does not indeed sound that bad. So something like this:

STR: 18 DEX: 16 CON: 15 INT: 7 WIS: 11 CHA: 7

Combat reflexes
Bodyguard
(+dirtyfighter/toughness/Dodge (for combat patrol)/(something else))

There is a feat in the Dirty Tactics Toolbox that is great for anyone wanting to use a lot of different maneuvers, Dirty Fighting. It allows you to use any maneuver without provoking if you are flanking, and if you already have the improved version of the maneuver it gives you a +4 bonus when flanking. It also counts has having Int 13, Dex 13, Combat Expertise, and Improved Unarmed Strike for the purpose of qualifying for improved maneuver feats or feats that have improved maneuvers as prerequisites.

I'll have to ask if I may use this, looks like a nifty feat to open up other options than just reduce hitpoints to 0.

Phalanx warrior with the bodyguard stuff and combat patrol seems like fun. Pity they get their flavour ability kicks in at lvl 3 so no reach untill that, with shield. Also losing the armortraining would hurt combat reflexes?

If you want to focus on direct protection, there are a few feats for that:

Saving Shield
Bodyguard (requires Combat Reflexes)
In Harm's Way (requires Bodyguard)
Combat Patrol (requires base attack bonus 5, so at least level 5)

It's weaker than simply destroying your enemies, but since it's a newbie group, I'd gladly take the chance to play something unusual.

Yea - dont want to be an ass and go with a maxstrpwrattack2hlargeweapon-route. Currently playing a fey sorceress which Ok. But our warrior is easily confused so I spend most of my spells to keep my self alive than really getting to work my mojo. Hence I need someone with abit more beef and means to make it more fun for the other casters.

Yea was thinking of martial flex. But hmm, that reach thing would be interesting. Could probably make the life of our castes more enjoyable when the rest of the warriors are just running after lone goblin x)

Also reading about alchemist now, didnt know they were part of d8 club. And seem to be offering somewhat interesting gameplay. Need to read more. Vivisec looks nice.

How about just going sohei forexample to get imp unarmed and reach weapon. They even get a bonus feat which opens options as well. I was toying with a weaponadept/maneuvermaster before, pity you cant use decent weapons with weapon adept.

Edit: damn sohei just kicks in @ lvl 6
edit edit: Why isn't martial flex a fighter default skill...sheehs.

Help!

I'm really struggling to make character that is interesting to play from day one (lvl 1) We have quite a slow progress game with lots of new people in the game, and a beginner GM. I my self have played different systems ,and versions of dd in the past.

What I've found that the system is more restrictive than what I recalled. For example I've used to being able to do all the feat locked combat maneuver stuff without having to "unlock" each damn one. So playing a warrior feels more like you either specialize on one maneuver or suck donkey balls doing it.

Archetypes seem to help with the fluff problem abit, but most of the more interesting stuff takes way too much time to actually kick off.

Would like to have an adaptable melee warrior guy with maybe some spellcasting potential. So far the best I've encountered seems to be Battle oracle that actually can change the feats on the fly.

The team it self has no active (or thoughtful) warrior types. So I was thinking of some sort of bodyguard - style character.

We currently have Core, APG.UC, UM, ARG and 20pt buy. I also have access to large size orc, but I feel that could be a game breaker.

This is more of a brainstorming thread really. Any fun and adaptable builds from level 1 are welcome...

I played an orc once for several levels, and it's obviously not a great race. The +4 strength is nice, but it just can't make up for the mental penalties. Maybe if they had some other racial features, like bonuses to Intimidate and Survival, or resistance to disease or better speed, it wouldn't be so bad. But they really have very, very little. They get no love. If you really want to play an orc, go for something that doesn't rely on a mental ability score. Otherwise, play a half-orc and call it an orc.

This I've noticed, how ever rooting even more for the 2h-brute build is the fact that our gm wants orcs to be large. Which sorta makes them excel even more in the 2-handed mayhem...Might as well go barb. If I end up as an orc. Might be that I'll just skulk back to humans and be done with it. The bodyguard warrior or monk looked like an interesting build to remedy our current situation.

Do you have to play an orc? Because the mental stats are going to be quite limiting regardless of anything else.

Would you be satisfied with a half-orc?

If so than a character with a reach weapon (for battlefield control) and Bodyguard & In Harm's Way feats can really make you a protector of your party members. Nearly any class can do this so if you have a particular class you're interested in I can help further.

But being an actual Orc is going to cause problems because of the penalties to mental stats. An Orc is only ever going to excel at wielding a two-handed weapon due to the way strength bonuses are doubled for it. For pretty much anything else the +4 to strength you get isn't enough of a bonus to balance out the determent to your mental stats.

Yea. I've noticed the mental stats are quite a killer to anything not involving hitting hard. Well for str combatmaneuvers it's good - but makes the (viable)selection quite limited. Combat reflexes- bodyguard - in harms way are all obtainable by a human monk or warrior by level 1...Hmm...

Add maybe combat patrol to that.

My main reason for this actually is the fact that our warrior types are running like madmen after everything, and then we have goblins up our ass whilst they're running after a goblin in the woods. This is really annoying since I've been playing a fey sorc/controller with no real methods of killing anything. And well, when I have to burn all my spells to just keep my self alive. It's not very efficient. Eventually the warriors end up next to my mangled corpse because the spell(s) eventually run out (or failed to work) :P

Hence I decided not to go that path again, but to actually help the other soft targets not experiencing the same.

Why have you chosen to go with Monk?

Well the idea was of abit more diciplined orc. But the mental stats really drag this down. Didnt want to succumb to the plain olde barbarian...even though it seems quite tempting right now. We are missing a bodyguard type character at the moment and was hoping to fill that role without going the warrior/paladin/barb route. Wanted to have more spice to it, so to speak.

Take a look at the brawler class and see if that will serve as a suitable replacement for a monk. Also, consider lowering your strength to 18 so you have points to put elsewhere.

The problem being that we don't have ACG in use, as of yet.

STR: 18 DEX: 16 CON: 12 INT: 8 WIS: 13 CHA: 5 so something like this? Then again now I would be better off with a human...gah That -2 on every nonphysical stat is kinda bummer.

Any options for character that can actually do other things than damage in combat, mainly maneuvers?

We're starting at level 1 so I wanted to have a character with options in combat. Also wanted him to work like a bodyguard for the less beefy, and doing some battlefield control

Also our gm wants orc to be Large (no other modifiers but just the medium ->large [no stat changes etc])

20pt buy, APG, UC, UM and ARG

Wanted to build abit different kind of an orc:

So I ended up with:
Orc, Monk (Maneuver Master / Weapon Adept
STR:20
DEX:12
CON:15
INT:8
WIS:12
CHA:5

Feats: Improved dirty tricks (or trip) and deflect arrows. (since my ac is really low. Contemplating on changing it to power attack (d8 quarterstaff with power attack and hight str sounds nice, and is cheap :P)

AC is the biggest problem for me, and makes me wonder if i'd just be better of being a plain olde bodyguard warrior or invul barbarian

Could low ac be compensated with crane-style, how much pain will the beginner levels be?