Working Warrior build (Rogue/Weaponsmaster/CoT

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I've always preferred not taking damage, to having the hps to be able to take damage.

So because of this I like having nice saving throws, evasion, and nice AC.

So I had to somehow get 2 levels of rogue, and weaponsmaster, and ideally paladin in to the mix.

So I started playing around with having a warrior, and taking 2 levels of rogue, and 7 levels of weaponsmaster.

2 levels of rogue gets you evasion.

7 levels of weaponsmaster gets you an extra x on your crits, as well as 2 extra 'width' i.e. instead of 12-20 for a crit you would get 10-20.

Also, by choosing rogue you can put a single skill point in to disable traps and pick locks, and that means you can do a few traps and locks in the game - Your dex bonus, plus that 1, plus a take 20.

And, importantly, tumble and use magical devices. Monk boots are really very nice, and having tumble as a class skill gives you some nice AC.

So I rolled up a fighter and got the requirements for weaponsmaster, and took a couple of levels of rogue. But I didn't really like him that much.

So I then realised that I could forget fighter levels completely - Champion of Torm is almost as good, the only difference being the lack of weapon specialisation. The plus being lay on hands and nicer saves - And because CoT is a prestige class, you get no xp penalties. Nice!

So in order for this build to work, you take 10 levels of rogue - this gives you the BAB to be a CoT. It's not possible to get the feats to be a weaponsmaster as a rogue any faster anyway. Then you forget rogue levels and take CoT levels (they get fighter feats) until you can take 7 levels of weaponsmaster. This takes you I think to level 19. And by level 19 you are doing a hell of a lot of damage.

Now, about stats...

I decided that I didn't need constitution. A lot of people seem to throw a lot of points in it, but I don't like doing that.

I went for 18 str, 13 dex, 6 con, 8 wis, 13 int and 14 cha.

You need 13 dex and int to be a weaponsmaster. Putting just one more point in each is nice to get the extra bonus, but I felt I didn't need the skill points, and I wanted the cha bonus to give CoT a boost. In retrospect I'd probably not do the same again.

But the build does work. Makers ruins and undead temple in HotU were a complete walkover with this char. Even though he had extremely bad hps.

The 18 str puts the epic critical feats in reach (you need 23 and then 25 str for them). But you will be struggling for feats with HotU levels.

You also have to choose weapon focus in rapier, either that or waste a feat because you need weapon focus before you can take CoT (which gives you martial weapons for free). Rapier is the 'best' rogue weapon - it has an 18-20 crit range, which becomes 10-20 with weaponsmaster, keen and improved critical and x3, which means you will be pumping out severe amounts of damage (around 80-100 for each crit, and you will crit more often than not). Even if you don't crit, you'll still do decent damage.

If I was going to change anything, then I'd throw all of the cha in to con, and because of this probably take human or dwarf instead of elf. The lay hands part of CoT is nice, but I think unless you put the effort into getting lots of cha to make it worth it (and have more than just 5-8 levels of CoT) then the cha isn't worth it. The saves bonus from CoT is independant of your cha, so it doesn't matter for that.

Also, I didn't say anywhere, but he was using a rapier and a shield. The around 8 extra AC from the shield is worth it. If you can kill a monster with 4 attacks, you can kill it with 6.

What my next build is going to be, I'm not sure of.

I quite fancy a paladin, and then going evil to see how paladin, blackguard, 2 rogue levels (and maybe a 3rd level at 18 or so to get 20 in tumble) works.

Weaponsmaster is nice, but the feat price doesn't seem to be really _that_ worth it to get the extra wide crits and the extra multiplier. Smite evil might replace it well enough.