9−20 Crit Specialist (3.5e Optimized Character Build)

Introduction

Tired of two weapon fighting builds that still don't do as much damage per round as two handed?

References

Players Handbook, Complete Warrior, Book of Vile Darkness, Unearthed Arcana, Expanded Psionics Handbook, Oriental Adventures

Game Rule Components

Items

+6 Str/Int/Dex items, +5 aptitude wounding scimitars.

Progression

Stats: Highest stat in Str (Hopefully 18), but feats require Dex 15 and Int 13 as well, so leaving everything else as 8, you need 29 points to get Str 18 with the point buy method.

Race: Human.

Character Flaws: Two flaws need to be taken.

ECL	Class/HD/LA	Base Attack Bonus	Saving Throws			Feats	Class Features	Special
			Fort	Ref	Will
1st	Fighter 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	Weapon Focus(Scimitar), Dodge, Mobility, Two Weapon Fighting, Combat Expertise
2nd	Fighter 2	+2	+3	+0	+0	Power Attack
3rd	Fighter 3	+3	+3	+1	+1	Disciple of Darkness (Dispater)
4th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 1	+3	+5	+1	+1	Spring Attack		+1 Str
5th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2	+4	+6	+1	+1	Whirlwind Attack
6th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1	+5	+6	+3	+1	Combat Reflexes	Weapon of Choice, Ki Damage
7th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 1	+6	+8	+5	+3		Device Lore
8th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 2	+7	+9	+6	+4		Iron Hews	+1 Str
9th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 3	+8	+9	+6	+4	Lightning Mace	Rusting Grasp
10th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 4	+9	+10	+7	+5		Iron Power +1
11th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 5	+10	+10	+7	+5		Summon Erinyes
12th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 6	+11	+11	+8	+6	Improved Critical(Scimitar)	Greater Iron Hews	+1 Str
13th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 7	+12	+11	+8	+6		Ironskin
14th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 1/Disciple of Dispater 8	+13	+12	+9	+7		Iron Power +2
15th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 2/Disciple of Dispater 8	+14	+12	+10	+7	Power Critical	Increased Multiplier 1/day
16th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 3/Disciple of Dispater 8	+15	+13	+10	+8		Superior Weapon Focus	+1 Str
17th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 4/Disciple of Dispater 8	+16	+13	+11	+8		Increased Multiplier 2/day
18th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 5/Disciple of Dispater 8	+17	+13	+11	+8	Improved Two Weapon Fighting	Superior Combat Reflexes
19th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 6/Disciple of Dispater 8	+18	+14	+12	+9		Increased Multiplier 3/day
20th	Fighter 3/Psychic Warrior 2/Weapon Master (Kensai) 7/Disciple of Dispater 8	+19	+14	+12	+9		Ki Critical	+1 Str

Highlights

Your scimitars count as light maces for the purposes of the Lightning Mace feat due to the Aptitude enchantment. Iron Power +2 triples your threat range and stacks with Improved Critical, bringing your threat range to 12-20 (before Improved Critical). Improved Critical brings that to 9-20, due to the multiplicative stacking rules in D&D. Ki Critical gives an additional 2 points to the threat range (specifically applied AFTER other modifiers) bringing the threat range to a whopping 7-20. Each critical threat you roll gives you a free attack with the Lightning Mace feat. First round do not power attack, each critical threat conformation will be, 20(BAB) + Str + 4(Power Critical) +5(Weapon) +2(Iron Power) -4 (Two Weapon Fighting)= around 35, dependent on starting Str and magical items to boost it.

Munchkin-Size Me

Make your Scimitars from Laminated and Serrated steel for a critical range of 6-20 and x3 damage, materials are from AEG's Mercenaries book. Take a level of the variant Barbarian feature that gives you a +1 critical range on charges, if you go into epic levels.

Side Notes

Obviously evil, you think you're better than everyone else and it's extremely hard for you to not kill your opponents.

Limitations

At level 14 it's pretty much over. Your threat range is 9-20 with Lightning Mace. So, anything over a 9 is a free swing with the chance of more free swings. This gets even better at level 20 Talk to your DM abaout the use of Book of Vile Darkness in your game, its a 3rd editions book and no 3.5 one

DM Counters

If anything critical immune creatures but, Lightning Mace is on a threatened critical. So there is still a lot of attacks that could potentially be made. Sundering their weapon/weapons also works well, try adamantine to break through hardness. Also, this relies on a strict RAW interpretation of the Aptitude enchantment. Even if you obey RAW utterly, if they start at a level where they cannot start with such an item (remember, it's over 8000gp just for a +1 aptitude scimitar), don't provide them with such a weapon. And as it is not a core enchantment, you are well within your rights to say that a magic weapon seller doesn't know that such an enchantment exists, even.

Like all melee classes this class also weak to flying opponents, invisible opponents, and opponents with special defenses like displacement or blur effects. Ranged attackers are also quite difficult for this class to deal with especially against mailman style blaster mages and optimized sneak attackers.

Also, this build, like many on this site, is combat-oriented. It is unlikely that such a character will do well against traps, in negotiations, or in any other situation. You could just let the player have their fun, and then require diplomacy, especially with a paladin or other anti-evil NPC, to get information or tasks completed.

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