Hello everyone, looking for some help here.
I'll be joining an event of D&D 3.5 soon, where we're limited to core only content, and will be starting at low level with potention to level up a few times, and when we die we may start with a level 1 character.
What I'm looking for, is optimization guides for D&D 3.5 core only that's good(functionnal, at least) from 1 to 20.
Any links to guides or actual builds would be greatly appreciated.
Play a human wizard and focus on the conjuration school. You can ditch evocation, it's shit.
Play a human druid and get the Natural Spell feat at 6th level.
Play a human cleric and take the Travel and Trickery domains.
Prioritize Constitution and your casting stat (Int/Wis/Wis, respectively), put points into Concentration and Spellcraft.
If you need more help, google "3.5e [class] optimization" and click the first link that shows up.
Realize that D&D is only fun when playing full casters, especially with core only, because spells are the only way to have meaningful options outside of boosting damage per round. Enjoy yourself, but realize there's nothing holding the game up outside of magical power fantasies.
Take Leadership as soon as possible if it's not banned.
As this "event", are we talking about a multisession game with people you don't know? Because Core-only is a restriction often put by newbie GMs that don't know the core game is the most unbalanced of book selections. That said, as you all have said restriction in place, make the most out of it:
If you're new to the game, pick a simple class with little to no casting and make a fu soldier. You'll probably play like shit, but it's the best to learn the game.
If you're more well-versed in TTRPGs and can do some prep, pick Druid. It's the easiest, most able class to survive from level one to whenever the game ends. It has healing, it has decent armor and buffs, it has a pocket fighter as an animal companion(you'll choose Wolf) and is the easiest to build. You literally cannot fuck this up as long as you pick Natural Spell on level 6, and even if you didn't you'd still kick ass.
Clerics are a close second, with heals, great armor and some great spells. Sadly, he's the one class that has NO class features past level 1, so it can be kinda jarring. Most of your career is set in stone, so your options are more *when* you'll pick that little trick rather than *if*.
Wizards are squishy, and do barely anything until level 5 when they start breaking the game like a twig with aids. Too much paperwork for someone that asks for optimized, core-only 3.5 advice on Veeky Forums.
This event isn't a multi-session thing, it's a 6 hours one-shot.
I'm not new to the game, but I've been the only DM willing to DM D&D 3.5 in my area for 4~5 years as far as I know and the reason I need help is I feel far too restrained with core-only when building my character.
There are other restrictions, but I'm stupid and forgot about them when making my OP post.
Druids are forbidden, and wizards are discouraged(Apparently, needing to buy spells and bringing around a spellbook will be hard for characters.)
The best build in core is Druid 20. The best animal companion is the riding dog, but the wolf is basically the same if that feels cheesy. Crocodiles and bears are good upgrades. The best wildshapes are mostly crocodiles and bears, baboons for tool use, or eagles for flight. The good combat spells I remember are Entangle, Spikes, Brambles, Shillelagh, Freedom Of Movement, and Animal Growth. Awaken (use on a tree) is a potential game-breaker too. Take the feat Natural Spell.
Cleric 20 is also highly effective but the only specific spells I remember are Divine Power and Righteous Might. The key realization is that many of the buff spells are stronger than the people you apply them to. Also you have fewer ridiculous utility spells than a Wizard, but you get all the good ones.
Wizard 20 is also highly effective. Take specialist in Conjuration, drop Evocation (garbage), and Enchantment (outclassed by Illusion). Notable combat spells are Grease, Glitterdust, Web, Haste, Solid Fog, Black Tentacles, and Polymorph.
So, a special vendetta against druids. That's to be expected from a Core-only game. The usual "you're all restricted to this basic thing because I don't want to learn other shit, and you're also disallowed to use half of it because it's too good". You're kinda screwed there.
Go Cleric if you want to have fun The PHB feat list is 2 pages long, so there isn't much of a build to be made. Pick whatever spells you like, and have 2+ sets of spell selections for one day so you can change up if you get a night's sleep and your first set seems to be ineffective. Human is the all-around best choice, as usual. As equipment go, heaviest armor you can buy and a shield, then a common 1H weapon like the heavy mace. Stats are Wis>Con>rest, summon like a bitch if you pick Augment Summoning, buff yourself and others to oblivion if not. Levels 7+ you can cast Divine Power and become a better fighter than the fighter with ease.
There's an app in the Google Play Store called "D&D Spellbook" that has all the core spells for the core classes in 3.5, organized by level and spell list. Use it.
Important to note: Go LIGHT shield unless you're not drawing your weapon in combat.
You can cast if you've got a light shield on one arm and a weapon in the other hand, but that's not the case for heavy shield + weapon.
(Extending because you ninja'd me)
Sorcerers are nearly as good as Wizards. Also somehow I forgot Color Spray in the previous post. But nevermind that, without banning schools you can use Sleep, which is even better.
I don't think you're going to get to high enough levels in a six-hour one-shot that Clerics are actually that strong. Barbarians perform very well at low levels (take a two-handed weapon and Power Attack and you've pretty much finished the build).
Also, for domains, you'll pick Trickery and Travel.
Trickery adds the spells Inivisibility, Confusion and Disguise Self. Travel adds Fly, Dimension Door and Teleport. You WON'T play high level in a Core-only game, so the very greatest spells you get from those domains are not used, but those only already give you more than enough to shine as well as surviving.
Martials generally suck, but can you build the spiked chain trip fighter at first level? All you need is EWP + Combat Expertise + Improved Trip, right?
You REALLY want combat reflexes too, but no way to get all that until second level unless you replace the chain with a guisarme.
I'd personally argue that combat reflexes + guisarme beats spiked chain, but it's a matter of preference.
Goodman Games made two books, one for warriors and one for wizard/sorcerers that do a great job at building characters.
Look in the pdf thread.
>D&D 3.5
>core only content
>when we die we may start with a level 1 character.
There was an old build, the Horizon Tripper, that was actually good as a melee character, focused on tripping.
Levels: Barbarian 1 / Fighter 1 / Ranger 3 / Horizon Walker 10 / whatever you like for the last few levels.
Human, you need 13 int, max Strenght, Dex and Con.
Feats: In order - Combat Expertise, Improved Trip (Human bonus feat), Combat Reflexes (Fighter bonus feat), Power Attack, Track (Ranger bonus feat), Endurance (Ranger bonus feat), Diehard. This takes you up to level 6; customise to taste thereafter. If not human, take Power Attack instead of Diehard at level 6.
For the Horizon Walker's terrain mastery abilities, take Underground, Desert, Hills, and Plains. For the planar terrain mastery, your first choice should be Shifting - after that take Cavernous, Aligned, Fiery, and Cold.
Equipment: Guisarme and spiked gauntlet, chain shirt as armor. Alternatively, you can take Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Spiked Chain)
Assuming I'm lucky enough to have a choice, should I upgrade the Guisarme first, or the Spiked Gauntlet?
I must admit I've never seen a tripper build in action and the one time I've tried making one myself, the game stopped after the first session because the DM decided to do something else.
fpbp
The guisarme, it's your primary weapon. Ideally, you want to be poking people with it from 10ft away and tripping their shit up if they try to get closer.
Also important to remember is that you actually want to be 15ft away from the enemy when your turn ends, because that way they can't get to melee without sucking an AOO.
Why a spiked gauntlet?
so you have an option a 5ft I'm thinking.
One you don't need to draw. Makes sense.
OP here, is right. The guisarme can't attack adjacent opponents in D&D 3.5, so you need a weapon that can, and the spiked gauntlet let you do that without needing to hold another weapon, furthermore it's light so you reduce the off-hand penalty.
What and said. The guisarme can't hit a bitch who's next to you, but the gauntlet can.
That said, there is occasional dispute over "Can you threaten squares with both your polearm and your gauntlet at once" since you need two hands on the guisarme to attack with it. The "yes" argument is "Well just let go for a second to slap a ho", the "no" argument is "there's no rule that says you can".
Armor spikes are a better option since they sidestep that dispute, but much more expensive.
You don't TAKE an off-hand penalty unless you're two-weapon fighting, which is distinct from just happening to use two weapons and alternate between them.
Would you HAVE an off-hand penalty? I thought 3.5 did away with 'handedness'.
Well, if you use both weapons in a round, it still applies I believe.
See . Two-weapon fighting penalties are for when you use an extra weapon to make extra attacks.
Just read up a bit more on the matter. The feat is what confused me as it mentions that you CAN make an extra attack, not that it applies the penalty only when you do. Thanks for the correction.
4 years DMing a Gestalt Epic campaign and never had to check that up.
depends on whether or not your DM is brand new or a veteran, because if he's using just core 3.5, he's one or the other
if he's new, take the advice given here and play a conjurer or a druid with the cheese feats. If he's a veteran, just play whatever you want, but make sure to emphasize the strengths of that class (like, if you're playing a rogue, pick a race that emphasizes roguery and max dex and take the best rogue feats and items and yada yada), also try to form a good well-rounded party with good synergy (probably the single most important thing you should worry about).
spiked armor is better for the same reason, which is making attacks at enemies that are inside the reach of your guisarme
>Thanks for the correction.
No problem.
>4 years DMing a Gestalt Epic campaign and never had to check that up.
Basically nobody does it aside from reach weapon users, and reach weapon users rarely split their attacks between close and reach, so it very very rarely comes up in actual play.