Ok so I'm currently in a 3.5 campaign that has almost reached its conclusion and we'll be switching to pathfinder for our next campaign. I've been looking through the book and am really intrigued at playing a fighter using a shield.
my initial intention was to do a traditional 1 hand weapon (flail) and heavy steel shield and have the shield focus and the shield bash feat trees. However, I was browsing some of the old posts on these boeards yesterday and came across a thread in which one of the responses mentioned a concept for a shield fighter that intrigued me and i started wonderin if it would work.
A fighter who's primary atk weapon is a shield (heavy steel, considerin pros and cons of spiked or no spikes) secondary weapon is attacking with armor spikes. which then leaves one hand open for tactical purposes and I was thinking of using the whip for trip/disarm purposes.
it seems like this would work, it would probably, from what ive looked through the book, an investment of a good number of feats. But since im not concerned with Min/Maxing that doesnt matter to me.
SO my question for you all is. Does this work? what are some feats you would reccommend? stats on a 20 point buy, race reccommendation?
I would like to have shield bash tree, imp trip and disarm for the whip, need twf. beyond that i'm open to suggestions and ideas.
again this character is just a concept at this point that sounds kinda fun and intriguing to me and i just wanted to get opinions and ideas on different builds for it.
Thank you for your time and interest.
I don't think this is answering the question you're asking, but here's my opinion. If you're honestly not trying to min-max and are going for a fun-to-play concept (both from a mechanical and role-playing standpoint), then I say go for it. I've long wanted to build a whip-based character, and it looks like you've already got the particulars figured out.
I don't think this is answering the question you're asking, but here's my opinion. If you're honestly not trying to min-max and are going for a fun-to-play concept (both from a mechanical and role-playing standpoint), then I say go for it. I've long wanted to build a whip-based character, and it looks like you've already got the particulars figured out.
Yea min/maxing doesmt matter to me I want to not be useless but thats about as far as i care about it.
and like you Ive been intrigued by a whip based fighter for a while. With this concept I can use the whip for trips/disarm/reach etc, but when i need to deal damage im not gimped or having to drop the whip and draw another weapon.
I don't think this is answering the question you're asking, but here's my opinion. If you're honestly not trying to min-max and are going for a fun-to-play concept (both from a mechanical and role-playing standpoint), then I say go for it. I've long wanted to build a whip-based character, and it looks like you've already got the particulars figured out.Yea min/maxing doesmt matter to me I want to not be useless but thats about as far as i care about it.
and like you Ive been intrigued by a whip based fighter for a while. With this concept I can use the whip for trips/disarm/reach etc, but when i need to deal damage im not gimped or having to drop the whip and draw another weapon.
would you then be happier with a whip based character? The adventurers armory has the scorpian whip which is a whip for all the goodies (triping disarming etc) but does 1d4 lethal damage. If all you are looking for is a way to do damage AND use a whip, that may be a better route.
would you then be happier with a whip based character? The adventurers armory has the scorpian whip which is a whip for all the goodies (triping disarming etc) but does 1d4 lethal damage. If all you are looking for is a way to do damage AND use a whip, that may be a better route.
I would actually be interested in that. One of our players actually has the armory ordered just waiting for it to get here so i'll def. look at that.
Though I am also equally intrigued by the concept of primarily fighting with shield and spiked armor. ive never given it thought before and when i seen it mentioned in that thread its been on my mind all night lol.
So thank you for your suggestion and i'll definitely be lookin at that weapon but id like to continue with more ideas and suggestions.
would you then be happier with a whip based character? The adventurers armory has the scorpian whip which is a whip for all the goodies (triping disarming etc) but does 1d4 lethal damage. If all you are looking for is a way to do damage AND use a whip, that may be a better route.
I would actually be interested in that. One of our players actually has the armory ordered just waiting for it to get here so i'll def. look at that.
Though I am also equally intrigued by the concept of primarily fighting with shield and spiked armor. ive never given it thought before and when i seen it mentioned in that thread its been on my mind all night lol.
So thank you for your suggestion and i'll definitely be lookin at that weapon but id like to continue with more ideas and suggestions.
well using the scorpion whip as your primary and a light sheild as your secondary may be a better path. Even a fighter will run out of feats if you are doing the two weapon tree, the sheild bash tree, weapon focus for 3 weapons, and improved disarm/trip etc. Cutting out one additional weapon class will make the character more feasable from a number of feats perspective, and it wont take as long to come together (in terms of levels.
well using the scorpion whip as your primary and a light sheild as your secondary may be a better path. Even a fighter will run out of feats if you are doing the two weapon tree, the sheild bash tree, weapon focus for 3 weapons, and improved disarm/trip etc. Cutting out one additional weapon class will make the character more feasable from a number of feats perspective, and it wont take as long to come together (in terms of levels.
yea I get ya on that and i'll be looking into that as an option once my friends armory does get here.
As far as the feats go I was thinking to only get weapon focus on the primary weapon not all three which in the original concept would have been the shield or in the possible new concept the scorpion whip
I was originally thinking only to pick up two weapon fighting and not go farther into the TWF tree, is that viable or not so much?
are there any special qualities or restrictions on the scorpion whip as opposed to the regular whip other than the lethal damage?
well using the scorpion whip as your primary and a light sheild as your secondary may be a better path. Even a fighter will run out of feats if you are doing the two weapon tree, the sheild bash tree, weapon focus for 3 weapons, and improved disarm/trip etc. Cutting out one additional weapon class will make the character more feasable from a number of feats perspective, and it wont take as long to come together (in terms of levels.
yea I get ya on that and i'll be looking into that as an option once my friends armory does get here.
As far as the feats go I was thinking to only get weapon focus on the primary weapon not all three which in the original concept would have been the shield or in the possible new concept the scorpion whip
I was originally thinking only to pick up two weapon fighting and not go farther into the TWF tree, is that viable or not so much?
are there any special qualities or restrictions on the scorpion whip as opposed to the regular whip other than the lethal damage?
Well you will want weapon focus on your whip, as every little bit to help your CMB is important since CMB outpases CMD. Otherwise particularly when things start getting bigger you wont be able to trip/disarm.
Depends on what you mean by viable. Both the shield and armor spikes have relatively low damage dice. If you dont continue along the twf chain you will fall behind in damage pretty hard, and it seems your intention is to be pretty good at doing damage.
As for the scorpian whip, i dont have my copy in front of me, but im pretty sure it functions exactly the same as a whip except for doing lethal damage.
One of the old 3.0 splatbooks had a whip-based PrC. It wasn't some super combat deal, but emphasized the whip as a tool (and as a weapon secondarily).
One of the old 3.0 splatbooks had a whip-based PrC. It wasn't some super combat deal, but emphasized the whip as a tool (and as a weapon secondarily).
Whipmaster from sword and fist (i think). It would require significant conversion though as it's definately outdated even in 3.5. However some of the abilities might mesh well with combat manuevers. I be you could find a 3.5 version out there somewhere that might help the conversion process.
One of the old 3.0 splatbooks had a whip-based PrC. It wasn't some super combat deal, but emphasized the whip as a tool (and as a weapon secondarily).Whipmaster from sword and fist (i think). It would require significant conversion though as it's definately outdated even in 3.5. However some of the abilities might mesh well with combat manuevers. I be you could find a 3.5 version out there somewhere that might help the conversion process.
yea im loving the ideas for the whip because it has always intrigued me. I may not have been completely clear on the concept that im kinda ridin on right now. I wanna focus a bit more on the shield/armor spikes fighter and get ideas for that. The Whip is almost secondary thought for utility with the disarming and tripping but im really wantin to focus on fighting with the shield/armor spikes.
ive never seen a charcter like that and it kind of intrigued me how it would work if it could work.
One of the old 3.0 splatbooks had a whip-based PrC. It wasn't some super combat deal, but emphasized the whip as a tool (and as a weapon secondarily).Whipmaster from sword and fist (i think). It would require significant conversion though as it's definately outdated even in 3.5. However some of the abilities might mesh well with combat manuevers. I be you could find a 3.5 version out there somewhere that might help the conversion process.
Lasher, and I think ENWorld made a 3.5 conversion once - I don't have it offhand, though.
A player in my current campaign is playing a shield fighter that dual wields shields. The key to his build is this feat:
Shield Master (Combat)
Your mastery of the shield allows you to fight with it without hindrance.
Prerequisites: Improved Shield Bash, Shield Proficiency, Shield Slam, Two-Weapon Fighting, base attack bonus +11.
Benefit: You do not suffer any penalties on attack rolls made with a shield while you are wielding another weapon. Add your shield's shield bonus to attacks and damage rolls made with the shield as if it was an enhancement bonus.
This allows him to be absolutly absurd with his defence while maintaining attack ability almost as good as the party barbarian.
One of his shields is spiked, the other not, so he can hit with both bludgening and peircing damage.