Advice for Sword and Shield character starting at level 3 going to 7 or 8 w / 15 point buy

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

ponmbr wrote:

I feel more like I'm going to be a secondary front liner. Since we have a barbarian I'm going to attempt to be flanking with him as much as possible for those sneak attacks so I don't think I'll necessarily be a tank though I don't know how combat is going to work out yet.

As far as weapon selection I was almost sure I'd want the scimitar plus light shield but then I remembered my DM said in the past he'd allow the Bashing enchantment to stack with a spiked shield for the 2D6 dice. I would have to verify with him again though on that. If it's cool I'd go heavy spikes steel shield in the main hand and off hand a kukri or gladius or something.

Seems good.

Only thing to consider. If the Barbarian is CCed somehow (Failed save, Put to sleep, Feared, ect ect.) You will be the only front liner. I find in later levels 7+ that many times this becomes a case that something Debilitating happens and it's time for someone to step up. Luckily this kind of build could stand on the front lines rather well. Even without sneak attack. Just know there will be times flank is impossible and your time to shine comes around.

[ponmbr]

Oh definitely. Nothing ever goes as planned if I've learned anything. Having the higher dex for Double Slice might work out in that case since early on having a higher AC can be effective. And if we make it to 8 then I can up that 15 to a 16.

I suppose I should point out that I now know what our final group member is going to be. He was tossing cleric around for a while but then he went in a complete different direction and chose the hunter class, and feral hunter archetype. He chose the skinwalker race and from my understanding he'll be sort of a front liner as well with his animal forms and stuff so another potential flanking candidate and someone else who can get the enemies attention.

[ponmbr]

I just got confirmation that the DM will allow me to use a Bashing spiked heavy shield at 2D6 whenever I can afford to get that enchantment so it looks like spiked heavy shield will be my main hand weapon. I don't think I'll go with Double Slice after all, or if I do it will be at a later time if this character ever gets to go beyond 8 in another game.

Now I just have to figure out how to spend my 3000 starting gold. I think I should grab a +1 shield enhancement to prepare for the Bashing enchantment later and to get some more AC. I'd also need a masterwork off hand weapon and a composite bow of +4 strength, and of course the various starting equipment I would need like rope and all that. +1 armor might be good too to get even more AC to be able to tank more effectively if needed.

[ponmbr]

Since you guys said you like hearing how it went, we had our first session with combat tonight. We fought some sort of skeleton knight wraith things, not sure what they were and the DM didn't name them. But the big one had this ability to turn ethereal and go through our wall of characters to the back where our archer paladin was standing and took a nice chunk out of him. But he wasn't completely ethereal because our barbarian was able to come up behind him and grapple it (apparently the barbarian has wrestling intentions because his name is a Triple H pun, and he wears a big championship belt) and then eventually used a German suplex on it, killing it after it took a couple arrows and a Ray of Frost from the sorcerer.

Meanwhile, I was left up front to defend against the other 4 knight ghost things. We were in a 10 foot wide hallway starting and I was at the front next to the barbarian before he ran back to wrestle the boss. There was also an NPC alchemist there who I was trying to protect after the big meatshield ran back to help the paladin and sorcerer. I tried to 5 foot step in front of the NPC (he started behind the barbarian) to block the bad guys but they had some ability to block my movement and take the square I was trying to move to and they ended up getting a poke on the alchemist but he got away. So then they showed this ability to appear under us with their shields, attempting to smash us into the ceiling and requiring a fort save to get only shifted back 5 feet. This happened and the hunter ended up having to fight one, which he did well against with his wolf shape natural attacks and animal summon. I tanked the other 3, only getting hit once with my 20 AC and doing quite well on my rolls to attack. Sadly, being skeletons I couldn't crit or get sneak attacks (and I did roll an 18 with my kukri) but I held my ground quite well.

An odd thing I noticed is that my off hand attack is more accurate than my main hand thanks to the masterwork quality on my kukri. If I two weapon fight without power attack, I end up with a +6 to hit with my main hand shield after studying a target and taking the -2 for TWF with a light offhand weapon. My off hand ends up being a +7 thanks to the +1 masterwork bonus unless I did my math wrong and it's possible since this is my first foray into two weapon fighting.

So yeah, first combat session went well despite some unexpected tactics from the enemies and I was pleased with my performance in combat. My D20 definitely helped though. Apparently I didn't roll under a 12 in combat XD.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

Quote:

Sadly, being skeletons I couldn't crit or get sneak attacks (and I did roll an 18 with my kukri) but I held my ground quite well.

This a House Rule?, cause Pathfinder you can critical and sneak attack undead. They did some major and much needed fixes to Sneak Attack.

[ponmbr]

Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Quote:

Sadly, being skeletons I couldn't crit or get sneak attacks (and I did roll an 18 with my kukri) but I held my ground quite well.

This a House Rule?, cause Pathfinder you can critical and sneak attack undead. They did some major and much needed fixes to Sneak Attack.

I believe so. He decided it during our last Pathfinder campaign over a year ago IIRC.

[Charon's Little Helper]

ponmbr wrote:

Fruian Thistlefoot wrote:

Quote:

Sadly, being skeletons I couldn't crit or get sneak attacks (and I did roll an 18 with my kukri) but I held my ground quite well.

This a House Rule?, cause Pathfinder you can critical and sneak attack undead. They did some major and much needed fixes to Sneak Attack.

I believe so. He decided it during our last Pathfinder campaign over a year ago IIRC.

I've gotta say - that sucks. Not only is it a massive nerf to anyone with SA, but undead were revamped rather heavily based upon the idea that they could be critted - especially the tougher ones have more HP then they did in 3.5.

I hope that he at least jacks up their CR due to that rule.

[ponmbr]

After clarification apparently ghosts can't be but undead can be. These things we fought were like half ghost half undead so he didn't allow crits on them.

[Fruian Thistlefoot]

ponmbr wrote:

After clarification apparently ghosts can't be but undead can be. These things we fought were like half ghost half undead so he didn't allow crits on them.

Ok that makes more sense.

[ponmbr]

Just wanted to make this post and thank everyone who posted for all the help and suggestions to a noob like me, it really helped a lot. Hopefully if someone finds this via a Google search it will help them as well.