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[Jimmy]

Well, didn't get to fireball anything during the last session, but managed to kill a Seugathi that was +1 CR above the party level and has double standard treasure. Bling bling.

[Gentlefish]

Hrm. Should I play a crusader with a crit range of 12-20, a master of many forms-druid build, a caster druid with an ACF that removes wildshape but gives it WIS to AC, fast movement, and favored enemy, or a full-BAB monk with Fist of the Forest prestige and enchanted fists?

I love all three of them and I have a problem.

[Rolan7]

I swear I posted in this thread... maybe it got deleted?  Anyway question:

Is there a better sheet-hosting service for dnd 3.5e than Mythweavers?  It's really great in most respects, but recently we lost the ability to clone sheets (as far as we can tell) and we really need more boxes to hold modifiers, at least for stats.  More modifier boxes for skills would be nice too.

Tempted to make a solution with a GoogleDoc's spreadsheet, but surely there's an existing solution...?

[Tack]

Found out that harpoons in pathfinder are absolutely horsecrap.

On a critical hit (nat20, there's no AC+10 crits here), you can use the weapon to make a grapple check against the foe.
Which is basically just another level of redundancy between me and that freaking flying wizard who is taunting me.

[chaoticag]

As far as I'm aware, the natural 20 triggers a critical hit in 3.0 and 3.5 as well, not AC + 10. (Source)

The harpoon in general is a weird weapon, since it doesn't seem to be a thrown weapon, so throwing it should also hit you with an improvised weapon penalty... and you can build off of that feat wise.

You need to take exotic weapon proficiency for the harpoon, since you're gonna want it as a melee weapon, and then you'll wanna take Throw Anything as a feat. Now, the thrown harpoon will be an improvised weapon, but with no penalty to use as one. It does lower the critical damage to x2. At eighth level, you get a bonus feat as a fighter, so take improvised weapon mastery and improved critical harpoon. Your thrown harpoon now deals 1d10 damage, and crits on 17-20 x2, while melee wise, it deals 1d8 and crits 19-20 x3 .

Side note: this seems pretty cheesy and depends on a couple grey areas of rules interpretation. Consult your game master before trying this build.

Okay, had to double check this. Looks like a harpoon is a thrown weapon after all... Now I have the urge to make a Throw Anything fighter, or a javalin spam fighter.

[Tack]

It's a 2h weapon with a 10ft range increment.
Much like a trident.

It can be thrown, just not any gigantic distances

[Flying Dice]

Wait, do you get that chance on a critical threat, or upon confirming the critical?

[Sergarr]

As far as I'm aware, the natural 20 triggers a critical hit in 3.0 and 3.5 as well, not AC + 10. (Source)

Actually not quite, it trigger a possible critical hit. To actually make it you need to make a critical roll. This ensures that if you can only hit on natural 20, then not every hit that you make is a critical.

[chaoticag]

Sorry, threatens. Wrong Jargon, I think I meant to say triggers a critical threat. But yeah, the harpoon is just mechanically odd as far as ranged weapon choices go. Probably because it's meant for Bronze Age stuff in Ultimate Combat. But yeah, when a weapon has a grappling tag it means you get a free grappling attempt, rather than it meaning you can attempt a grapping attack with the weapon instead of a hit.

I think I'd prefer to take bolas over the harpoon in this case. Tripping is less powerful, but you can manage more of them with quick draw and a high enough BAB without giving up your standard actions to attack.

[Tack]

But yeah, when a weapon has a grappling tag it means you get a free grappling attempt, rather than it meaning you can attempt a grapping attack with the weapon instead of a hit.

This- but only on a crit.
Considering that it takes a full round action to reel your harpoon back to you, doesn't count for much that you get to take all your attacks.

[My Name is Immaterial]

5e's latest Unearthed Arcana is about Waterborne adventures.

Minotaur race, Mariner Fighting Style, Swashbuckler Rogue Archetype, and Storm Sorcerer Origin.

Brief glance analysis:
Minotaur is kinda interesting: it has some cool things it can do with its horns as bonus actions when used with Dash and melee attacks.
Mariner is essentially a better version of Defense for those that use Light and Medium armor and no shield.
Swashbuckler might be one of the best Rogue Archetypes: "You can use Sneak Attack with any melee attack made against a target that has none of your allies adjacent to it." Can you say 'OP'?
Storm Sorcerers seem to be designed to be short ranged damage dealers, based around retaliation.

[Sergius]

Swashbuckler might be one of the best Rogue Archetypes: "You can use Sneak Attack with any melee attack made against a target that has none of your allies adjacent to it." Can you say 'OP'?

Well, rules say Rogues normally sneak attack anyone within 5' of an ally, so if this is a replacement, it means you have to solo, while vanilla rogue "flanks". I don't think the number of viable targets for each case is too different. (except in the case of the Swashbuckler, he's most probably going to have to "tank" its target as well).

EDIT: actually NVM since this doesn't replace the regular Sneak, but since Rogues probably anyway sneak attack every round regardless. This just means the SB *can* solo if he wants and still gets the bonus. He loses the abilities of the alternative Archetypes - Thiefs is mostly utility, but the Assassin can auto-critical at least once every battle (if he isn't the last in initiative) with advantage at 3rd level.

[Rolan7]

When in doubt about whether two friendly characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two friendly characters’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.

Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking.

That's actually harsher than what my group has been using, where a line between the two flankers' centers has to pass through the victim's space (touching the corner doesn't count).  Oops.  Fortunately we don't really flank much, our rogue was ranged and also retired.

I think there's some trick or feat in Complete Scoundrel which basically lets you get flanking bonuses while being on the same side of an enemy.  Pretty weak for a feat, I think...

[Sergius]

When in doubt about whether two friendly characters flank an opponent in the middle, trace an imaginary line between the two friendly characters’ centers. If the line passes through opposite borders of the opponent’s space (including corners of those borders), then the opponent is flanked.

Exception: If a flanker takes up more than 1 square, it gets the flanking bonus if any square it occupies counts for flanking.

That's actually harsher than what my group has been using, where a line between the two flankers' centers has to pass through the victim's space (touching the corner doesn't count).  Oops.  Fortunately we don't really flank much, our rogue was ranged and also retired.

I think there's some trick or feat in Complete Scoundrel which basically lets you get flanking bonuses while being on the same side of an enemy.  Pretty weak for a feat, I think...

There's no Flanking (or facing whatsoever, that's why I used double quotes) in 5E. Rogues get sneak attack on any enemy that's next to an ally.

[Rolan7]

Oh my fault, didn't notice the discussion was on 5th edition 

I'm building another 3.5 edition character.  I can see why Warshaper has a bad reputation...  Even trying to understand the intent rather than the RAW, getting about 7 natural attacks (bite, horns-gore, tail, and 4 sets of claws) for the cost of a move action each is really powerful.  Plus immunity to stunning and criticals!  All for a 1-level dip.  And that's ignoring that, RAW, you could just keep spawning tentacles until your DM strangles you...

I think I'll take it anyway, and just use it with discretion.  I'll be an ogre-mage (different from an ogre who is a mage), who can at-will shapechange into trolls, then I'll boost the troll's three natural attacks.  Maaaybe grow some badass antlers, too, since I'm representing the quadruped (horse-totem) clan of ogres.
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ogreMage.htm

Our barbearian still runs around with 46 strength due to homebrew drugs and a homebrew rage-boosting amulet...  I think an ogre-mage monk is fairly safe.

Speaking of rage-inducing rage, my previous character got reincarnated as a badass demon.  But we were attacked by homebrew rage-inducing planar monstrosities, and we failed our will saves before we could kill them all.  My character was forced to kill the party wizard *again*, and also lost all her defensive abilities like parrying and tumbling due to the rage.  Our barbearian got yet another level of rage (essentially triple, thanks to the artifact) AND a dose of frenzy, which is yet another +6 strength AND haste (haste is banned by the DM, but not this).  His strength modifier must have been about +23, and his BAB is 16 despite us being level 15 because "racial HD don't cost levels that's dumb".  He paid 2 levels to be this:
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/ogre.htm
Which granted 3 BAB and 2 feats along with its 4HD.  Except the DM said the HD didn't count towards ECL.  bluuurgh but that's okay!  At least I can do all the min-maxing I want without ever feeling the least bit sorry    Which turns out to be, some min-maxing, but no way am I ever using Lightning Mace again (if you threaten a critical, attack again.  Hello, laminated serrated scimitars and Improved Criticals.  And 1 level of warblade to rewrite the feat requirements...  The DM told me to do this, I swear!)

Oh right, with that +39 or whatever, and my defensive abilities disabled by rage, I went down in two hits.  163HP and 10DR, meh.  Though it didn't help that our wizard/11-headed-hydra blasted me with a gout of flame which we decided counted as one attack, despite it coming from 11 heads...  Hence 10 fire resistance doing blast-all.

So yeah, Ogre-Magi 7 (yeah it *should* be 11), Warshaper 1, Druid 1, Monk 1, Sacred Fist 5.  Shapeshift alt class feature for druid, so I can get another 4 natural armor and strength with a swift action (a level 1 animal companion would be a liability).  Spellcasting of a level 4 druid, which means only 1 and 2 druid spells, but that's fine...  If possible I'll take Practiced Spellcaster to boost my Caster Level to 8.  That'll specifically help Barkskin (+4 natural armor instead of 2) and Resist Energy (20 fire resistance instead of 10).  Resist Energy being crucial since Ogre-Magi have regeneration (fire/acid).

Yeah, I think this ought to work...  Fits fairly well with what's happening in the campaign, too.  Hopefully will live a bit longer than my last character, but that's what regeneration and CON bonus is for.

Edit:
Actually, hell, level 2 and 3 of Warshaper are great too.  +4STR/CON, and +5 reach when I already have 10 as an ogre.  If I transfer two levels there from sacred fist, I only lose one spellcasting level so I still have level 2 spells.  I lose the sacred flames 1/day boost, but...  It wasn't actually crucial like at all.  And a second level in Monk would get me sweet sweet Evasion...
Ogre-Magi 7, Warshaper 1, Druid 1, Monk 1, Sacred Fist 5
Ogre-Magi 7, Warshaper 3, Druid 3, Monk 2
My unarmed strike damage roll plummets, but my strength is more important there anyway.  And I'll be allowed to use monk weapons again, which can be enchanted.  The only remaining question is, should I keep monk levels at all or should I trade them out for Tome of Battle levels?  Pragmatically the answer is obvious, but keeping the monk levels is cooler and also so much simpler.  I think they'll stay.
... Except, aw hell, a dip in swordsage gets me another WIS bonus to AC whyyyy.
Edit2:  No no, I will resist.  Besides, it would take 2 levels and technically requires light armor instead of unarmored.  And I really don't want to choose maneuvers again.  Even though taking a single level of a ToB class is so tantalizing, since you use half your other levels to determine what maneuvers you can take, and their strength... blargh.
Okay I'm sticking with monk but I'm totally asking for Bands of Blood Rage for +5 damage.  It's cheesy for a monk with natural weapons, but at least it's not ToB.