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What’s Changed?
The new 3.5E barbarian is built to encourage players to go straight through to level 20 with it. Here’s what’ we’re looking at:
- Better damage reduction (5/- instead of 4/- at level 20, starts at level 7 instead of level 11)
- Better raging (“no longer winded” earlier, “greater rage” earlier, and the new “mighty rage”)
- Better uncanny dodge (now “trap sense” and “uncanny dodge”, “trap sense” goes up to +6 instead of just +4)
- Better saves while raging (“Indomitable will” is a huge boost to the otherwise weak-willed barbarian)

General tactics
At lower levels, it is usually better to save your rage for the tough encounter of the day. However, rage also works very well as a your “second wind” in combat. Don’t be afraid to rage if your hit points are looking low and you need to extend yourself in a fight, or the last foe in a tough encounter needs to be dropped fast. Try to get a feel for when an encounter is worth raging and whether or not an encounter might be the only one for the day. However, try to save a rage for an unexpected ambush or a nighttime raid on your camp.

Be sure to use your increased speed to your advantage. You can charge from farther away than normal, and wearing medium armor lets you move just as fast as a party member of the same race wearing light or no armor. Keep this in mind when considering how you plan on moving in combat.

Go toe-to-toe with enemies. Generally speaking, you can take a decent amount of punishment and still dish out plenty of damage to the other guy. You can take damage better than anyone else in the party, and even a level 20 cleric needs a big tough barbarian to hold the line while he buffs up.

The survival skill will let your character survive in the wilderness easily. If you spend a lot of time out of cities in the wild, this skill is absolutely one of the most valuable you can get.

Multiclass notes
Generally speaking, multiclassing the new barbarian is a mistake. Playing a barbarian is an all-or-nothing deal. Either you splash one level of barbarian for a rage each day and the enhanced movement or you go through to level 20 for the mighty rage (+8 strength and con). The other good “jumping off” points for multiclassing the barbarian are at the following levels:
- Level 5 (Rage 2/day and Improved Uncanny Dodge)
- Level 10 (2/- damage reduction and enough “room” in your development for a full prestige class)
- Level 11 (Greater rage)
- Level 17 (Tireless rage)

Good mutliclasses with barbarian include:
- Ranger (skills overlap and the ranger allows you to develop other a combat style to save feats)
- Fighter (bonus feats, more armor/shield proficiencies, weapon specialization, and greater weapon focus/specialization)
- Druid (skills overlap, druids can use any proficient weapon now, a raging brown bear is a frightening thing)
- Sorcerer (take 4 levels for the buff spells and a familiar to boost your saves)

What are the basic ways to build a barbarian?
There are quite a few ways you can build a barbarian to take advantage of the abilities you gain from this class. The barbarian grants you an increased speed, the ability to take massive amounts of punishment, the ability to deal lots of damage quickly, and a decent spread of skills to allow a barbarian to survive out in the wild.
- The Wrecking Ball- A barbarian designed to do massive amounts of damage as quickly as possible
- The Meat Shield- A barbarian designed to take hits and survive as much punishment as possible
- The Skirmisher- A more skill-oriented barbarian who is supposed to use his speed to disrupt the enemy plans
- The Raider- A raging barbarian charging with power attack, greater cleave, and spirited charge from horseback with a lance is deadly

The Wrecking Ball
“Com’ere a minute! I gotta axe you somtin’.”

The goal of this character is to do tremendous damage as soon as possible. To that end, this character would do well to pick a large weapon and be sure to have a good strength score. A personal favorite is always the scythe, but the classic greataxe and greatsword are always good (and now viable for the gnomish barbarian). You want to do as much damage as possible when you hit, and you want to take advantage of the fact that you are doing tremendous amounts of damage. A barbarian who uses one specific type of weapon is well advised to take “weapon focus”, as that +1 to hit can be the difference between a miss and a hit. Power attack, especially with a two-handed weapon, is also a very strong idea. At higher levels, taking improved critical effectively doubles the number of times you will score a critical hit. Cleave and greater cleave let you take extra attacks for when you drop your foe, but might not be worth it if your campaigns don’t focus on fighting against hordes of low-level enemies. Cleave alone is more often than not worth taking for the extra attack it grants when you drop a foe, but greater cleave needs to have large numbers of enemies that you can drop in a single round to be effective. If you aren’t worried about losing potential loot that your enemies have, your high strength makes improved sunder a very tempting feat to take.

The Meat Shield
“Huh? Was that it?”

Every party needs someone to stand on the front lines and take hits for everyone else. That is where this concept comes in. The Meat Shield has a high constitution to maximize hit points and gets the best armor possible. There is always a good old large shield as well to further boost AC (especially once you reach higher levels and can afford a good enchanted shield). At lower levels, consider using a reach weapon instead, which can let you make attacks of opportunity on enemies who charge you. Combat reflexes lets you do this more often (should you chose to stick with this route) and combat expertise (though unusable while raging) opens up the possibility of improved disarm and improved trip. All of these are extremely helpful for anyone who use a reach weapon. If you’d rather go for a sword & board style (a one-handed weapon and a shield) instead, consider two-weapon fighting and improved shield bash (which makes a great offhand weapon that adds strong AC bonuses). Another thing to consider is splashing a level of fighter for heavy armor proficiency and tower shield proficiency to further increase your AC. Power attack is not as critical as it is with the Wrecking Ball, but still always welcome. Raging becomes more defensive (for the extra hit points, and a good large shield covers the -2 AC loss) as a means to hold the line. Move quickly to defend the weaker members of the party from attack, and make sure to stay on good terms with the cleric.

The Skirmisher
“Jus’ ‘scuse me a sec… I’ll be right back.”

A Skirmisher is a character designed to backup the scout (be it the rogue, the ranger, or the monk). The Skirmisher stays ahead of the party (but behind the scout) to be first into combat, disrupting the movements of the enemy with his high speeds and weakening the enemy at critical points. A well-placed raging power-attack can drop weaker foes and disrupt the enemy control of the battlefield. For example, an enemy grappling monk who tries to attack the spellcaster, an enemy rogue flanking the fighter, or the enemy wizard who is laying down destructive spells all make good targets for the Skirmisher. A Skirmisher should take feats to increase damage like a Wrecking Ball (such as power attack), and probably feats like Improved Initiative to get the first strike in. A reach weapon like a glaive is an excellent choice for the Skirmisher, who generally is more lightly armored than the Meatshield or the Wrecking Ball, because it lets the Skirmisher effectively use power attack while remaining out of his enemy’s reach. Again, tactical feats like improved trip and improved disarm are useful, because the goal of the skirmisher is to disrupt the enemy as much as possible. This character is designed to move quickly and keep the enemy off-balance. Cleave and greater cleave are generally less desirable, because this character is designed to attack specific enemies.

The Raider
“Ride ‘ard an’ hit ‘arder.”

There’s nothing like doing a few hundred damage with a charge, is there? A good charging barbarian who takes plenty of ranks in ride can take the mounted combat tree of feats, which ends in the lovely spirited charge. For those of you not familiar with it, spirited charge lets you deal double damage on a charge while mounted, triple damage with a lance. Just to do the math, let’s say the raging barbarian has a 24 strength and takes a -3 penalty with power attack. The damage would be (1d8 + 13) x 3 (average damage of 49.5, maximum damage of 60, assuming no weapon enhancements and no critical hits). This character flies into a rage and then charges right through his opponents, doing a good amount of damage while his warhorse gets in it’s attacks with it’s hooves, and then you get to gallop out of melee attack range with ride-by attack. The goal of this character is something like that of the Skirmisher and the Wrecking Ball combined. Your goal is to do a lot of damage to the enemy quickly, use your mobility to attack important enemies quickly, and drop them before they can pose a threat to your party. Cleave is a strong choice for this character, who is very capable of dropping opponents in a single hit. Plus, cleaving during a charge will let you hit yet another foe for that monstrous damage.

Conclusion
How you play the barbarian is up to you. Using mobility and your ability to do plenty of damage coupled with your tough nature, you have an extremely strong character who is more than capable of taking care of himself. And most importantly of all, never forget your skills: they let you survive where a fighter can’t.

3.0 Splash Notes
Extra rage (Masters of the Wild) is a great thing that can make a single level of barbarian valuable.
Frenzied berserker (Masters of the Wild) and berserk (Deities & Demigods) rage bonuses stack with a barbarian’s, allowing for a +14 bonus to strength and constitution with a level of each, but only once per day.
A two-level splash of cavalier (Sword & Fist) can make the Raider build very good at charging indeed with the deadly charge ability.
Two levels of holy liberator (Defenders of the Faith) can get divine grace and smite evil, if you have a good charisma. Five levels can get you a celestial warhorse, but costs you tireless rage.

What’s Changed?
The new 3.5E bard has taken a few steps in the right direction to make it a far more appealing class, and makes it much better as a “jack of all trades”:
- More skill points
- Better selection of weapons (all the old “bard weapons” a bard could chose a single proficiency from are now all available to the bard)
- Better bardic music (“inspire courage” increases with level, inspire heroics, song of freedom)
- Casting in light armor without arcane spell failure
- Better spells overall

General tactics
You can strike up bardic music once per day per level, and inspire courage is almost always worth using in a tough fight to increase the abilities of all your allies.

Your skills can let you wheel and deal with almost anyone you meet, while still allowing you to be a passable fighter and spellcaster. Also, as you can always wear light armor and cast, you are generally much tougher than the average spellcaster, meaning that the bard who sits in the back with the wizard can make the back line of the party much stronger in melee.

Your spells are capable of ending an encounter before they begin. Charm the orc warband leader and prevent the fight from starting, or cast glibness on yourself to bluff the local magister into believing that you’re actually a city guardsman going undercover, and you’d hate to have your cover blown.

Don’t be the first into melee. You can do much more than swing a sword. Indeed, your spellcasting is often better than any damage your sword can do.

Speaking of spellcasting, most of your spells fall into the enchantment school, which is completely negated by the spell mindblank. Make sure you have dispel magic handy or you have a friendly caster who can cast it against the Big Bad Evil Guy who has mindblank cast on himself.

Use magic device can round out your casting repertoire all by itself when you find yourself a wand of fireball or a staff of the magi.

Multiclass notes
Mutliclassing the bard is harder than it used to be. Back when bardic music relied on ranks in perform, you could multiclass a bard all day long and still be singing bardic music the whole time as well as any other bard (but maybe not as often). In 3.5, there are still a few good “jumping off” points for you to multiclass your bard. That said, one of the best ways to make a bard “better” at whichever role the party needs him for is often accomplished through multiclassing.
- Level 6 (Suggestion)
- Level 9 (Inspire courage +2 and inspire greatness)
- Level 15 (Inspire courage +3 and inspire heroics)
- Level 18 (Mass suggestion)

Good mutliclasses with bard include:
- Rogue (the skill points are great, the skills overlap, sneak attack rocks, and evasion can be a lifesaver)
- Fighter (good for a one-level splash to qualify for eldritch knight)
- Sorcerer (both need charisma, and though you can’t cast sorcerer spells in armor, you can use it to add some combat spells to your repertoire)
- Ranger (helps round out the bard to be skilled at surviving in the wild and helps qualify for horizonwalker)

What are the basic ways to build a bard?
There are quite a few ways you can build a bard to take advantage of the abilities you gain from this class. The bard is designed to be a jack of all trades, a supporting caster, a social powerhouse, and a passable fighter as well. Also keep in mind that a bard is the only arcane caster who can cast healing spells, meaning that he can even serve as a back-up combat medic.
- The Skald- A warrior bard who can hold his own in combat and can inspire his allies while staying in the thick of combat himself
- The Eldritch Archer- A bard who sits safely behind the front lines plinking away with his bow and casting beneficial spells for his allies
- The Loreweaver- A bard who is designed to be the best caster he can be, and still be one of the most knowledgeable members of the party
- The Noble- The bard who is the master of social situations and manipulation

The Skald
“Let me spin for you the tale of your doom.”

The goal of this particular bard is to be a warrior first and a caster/singer/social dilettante second. And, as with most builds, it fares best when coupled with multiclassing (in this case, with the fighter). Also keep in mind that it is important for a fighter-type to gain four attack (+16 Base Attack Bonus) by level 20, and this build does that. This character splashes in four levels of fighter to grab weapon focus and specialization in a weapon of choice. Lacking sneak attack damage or ways to boost the damage dealt with his weapons, sword and board is a good way to go for the skald (although you’ll want to grab a mithryl large shield as early as possible to avoid that whole spell failure thing). However, something must be said for the nostalgia of a warrior skald whirling about like a vicious blender of destruction. So whether you dual wield or go sword & board is up to you (though sword & board would probably be more beneficial). Other good feats to pick up would be defensive ones, like expertise, improved disarm, and dodge. A bard 16/fighter 4 qualifies for weapon specialization and still has a +16 base attack bonus by level 20. I would recommend splashing the levels of fighter intermittently throughout the game to keep your bardic ability progression strong. Make sure to get mithryl medium armor (which counts as light armor) for your skald to keep his AC high.

The Eldritch Archer
“Take your best shot.”

Bards gain a free proficiency in the shortbow (and elves come in with a longbow proficiency), and coupled with the support nature of the bardic music ability, bards make excellent archers. It keeps their relatively low AC and HP score out of melee and behind the people he is supporting. Obvious feats like point blank shot and precise shot should be taken early, with rapid shot and the rest of the archery tree following. Standing safely behind the meat shields, the eldritch archer plinks away with his bow, dealing some damage in needed places while still free enough to cast spells and sing as needed to keep the party going strong. Again, multiclassing serves the bard well in this case, because a single level of fighter splashed in can qualify this character for either arcane archer or eldritch knight. Taking either prestige class sacrifices bardic music ability for a better base attack bonus (+17 base attack bonus by level 20). Arcane archer makes all ammunition enchanted (though the fact that the bonus no longer stacks with weapon bonus makes this less attractive), and allows you to cast some of your spells through your arrows. Eldritch knight is the more attractive choice, though it offers a smaller selection of skills and a weaker HD, it grants you near-full caster level progression, which means a bard 9/fighter 1/eldritch knight 10 is casting as a level 18 bard and attacking with a +17 base attack bonus. Neither of these multiclasses is really required, but they can make the character a bit better at what he does.

The Loreweaver
“I know this.”

Back in the days of Baldur’s Gate II, bards were well-loved because of their high lore rating. Nowadays, bardic lore is a secondary ability, but a proper build can make a bardic caster a very formidable foe indeed. This character sacrifices melee and archery for increased spellcasting ability, with the goal of becoming a bard 10/loremaster 10. To start, keep in mind the weakness of bardic spellcasting: you have a limited number of spells per day and a limited number of spells known. To get around this, you have lovely metamagic and item creation feats. To qualify for loremaster, you need three metamagic or item creation feats. As far as metamagic feats, there’s not too many attractive ones for a bard, except perhaps extend spell. Item creation feats, on the other hand, are far tastier. Craft wand, scribe scroll, brew potion, and craft magic arms and armor are all very useful for a bard. The first three help overcome the limited spells known and spells per day of a bard, while the last one can help you do that (use-activated arrows of hold person can put a cramp in the enemy’s day) and let you get a decent set of armor and weaponry for yourself. Knowledge skills are up to you, but pick skill focus for the one you use more often (history is a favorite of mine because it lets the DM give the backstory to the world through your character). Later on, make sure to grab spell focus in enchantment, then possibly greater spell focus in enchantment and spell focus in illusion, which together make up most of your spells. This character can identify anything just by looking at it, and given enough time, can find the answer to anything for the party. For a bard, he’s a pretty good spellcaster, and for a spellcaster, he’s pretty tough.

The Noble
“My good sir, you weren’t planning on arresting me, were you?”

Often times there are answers to any situation that don’t even involve drawing a sword or blowing something up with a fireball. The noble is a character designed to take advantage of this and dominate any social scene he can, manipulate anything he can talk to, and for the noble, that’s just about anything. Skills are key here. Bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, sense motive… important skills for a social bard to have. Feats of choice are skill focus and those feats that grant +2 to two different but related skills. Max out your charisma. Combat skill is secondary to your ability to get people to see things your way. If that fails, make them a little more receptive with a few enchantment spells and try again. Fight only when you can’t win (mindblanked enemies, plants, undead, etc.), and when you have to fight, make sure you have plenty of “friends” there to help you out. Find out who the big powers are in town and get to be their friends, and make friends with the lower folks who hold key positions (the guard who works the gatehouse every night alone, the hired help who carries shipments into the magic items shop, or the thieves’ guild member who has the dubious honor of keeping the safehouse safe). You’ve got a winning personality: use it. If everyone’s your friend, then they certainly aren’t your enemies, are they?

Conclusion
How you play the bard is up to you. Using spells and your modest combat abilities together makes you a fairly well-rounded character. Your skill selection can be the difference between a night in jail or a night with the count’s beautiful daughter. And most importantly, you can keep a party going strong in combat, often giving your group the edge over the enemy. Tough fights are often the ones where that little +1 bonus to hit can be the difference between victory and defeat.

3.0 Splash Notes
The feats from Song & Silence that let bardic music affect undead and plants can help if you find yourself fighting large numbers of these mindless creatures.
A great prestige class for the social-minded bard is the mindbender from Tome & Blood, which grants bonuses to bluff, diplomacy, and sense motive in addition to letting you control the minds of other creatures.
A caster bard who gets a lot of use out of illusions might consider taking the shadow weave adept from Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting to get a boost to these spells.
Again, holy liberator is a great choice for a bard who wants to be a little better in combat. Two levels will get you divine grace and smite evil. Put that high charisma to good use!

What’s Changed?
The druid is more powerful! Huzzah and double huzzah! Maybe now all the druid-haters out there will realize the class does have plenty to offer. Now the changes we’re looking at:
- Wildshape is better and worse. It now has a HD limit and does not grant extraordinary abilities, but you can shift into dire animals and even legendary animals right away.
- Spontaneous casting of “summon nature’s ally” spells, which are fairly nice, but not as powerful as the “summon monster” spells
- An animal companion is now a fairly powerful ally, but you can’t have an army of animal companions anymore.
- Spell list has seen some alterations, mostly for the better.
- No “spiritual vow” restriction on druid weapons.

General tactics
Once you get wildshape at level 5, natural spell is basically a no-brainer as your level 6 feat. Now you can be the amazing spellcasting Chipmunk of Doom.

Your “dump scores” should probably go into strength and dexterity. Wildshape will allow you to get the scores you need when you need them (such as combat or for scouting).

Survival is an excellent skill for any characters trying to make it on their own in the wilderness. While those other bums are paying for rooms, you can rough it quite comfortably.

Wildshape needs to be conserved, but the long duration makes it possible for you to use one wildshape for the entire day’s encounters. That said: if you smell trouble, wildshape!

Don’t forget that druids cast divine spells too, so bead of karma is still a great thing.

Your attack spells are generally weaker than cleric or wizard spells as the game progresses, but you still can be an absolutely deadly melee combatant with wildshape.

Multiclass notes
Druids and multiclassing do not mix. Every single druid class ability is dependant on class level. Certainly if you just want druid spells, then you can multiclass to a caster prestige class, or you can go to the shifter if you just want wildshape, but if you want both, you can’t multiclass.

Good mutliclasses with druid include:
- Ranger (skills overlap and are plentiful)
- Fighter (the one level splash gives you access to the best weapons, armor, and shields)
- Barbarian (skills overlap and a raging dire bear can be very frightening)
- Sorcerer (a low-level shot in the arm of a few good spells can make this a nice dip)

If your heart is set on multiclassing, I’d highly recommend keeping in mind the following “jumping off” points:
- Level 5 (wildshape 1/day)
- Level 8 (wildshape up to large 3/day)
- Level 12 (wildshape tiny and plant 4/day)
- Level 15 (wildshape huge 5/day and timeless body)
- Level 18 (wildshape 6/day, elemental 2/day)

What are the basic ways to build a druid?
There are quite a few ways you can build a druid to take advantage of the abilities you gain from this class. The druid is a good caster, a good warrior (while wildshaped), and now even a good tactical force (with a strong animal companion and spontaneous casting of summon nature's ally).
- The Avenger- Another mounted build, this time with clerics. Huzzah and double huzzah!
- The Shapeshifter- Wildshape is good, and this druid proves it.
- The Summoner- This druid shows you how to summon with the best of them.
- The Survivor- A druid who just will not stay dead.

The Avenger
“A pint of blood for ever broken branch.”

Some druids are just too uptight. This is one of them. Mounted on his heavily advanced animal companion, the druid charges into battle ready for blood. Druids make good mounted warriors, if for no other fact than they can ride big animals and turn into big animals themselves, and big animals hit hard. There are two ways to go here: archer or charger. The charger will always do more damage, but the archer can do damage all day long and isn’t as reliant on druidic powers (and hence is better for a mutliclassed druid). The charger is easy to build: mounted combat, ride-by attack, spirited charge, and power attack are the keys (and of course proficiency in the lance). The archer is similar, but benefits heavily from the druid animal companion. The archer’s worst nightmare is being caught in melee. Sitting on top of a bloodthirsty dire tiger is an excellent defense against such a threat. While your tiger rips into your foe, you can continue plinking away, healing your mount as needed, and use your mount’s excellent speed to gain a tactical advantage of always being able to target needed foes. And remember that as a druid, you have access to some other great tactical spells, like entangle, which can change the shape of the battlefield with a single casting.

The Shapeshifter
“Don’t fear the halfling. Fear the dire bear the halfling is turning into.”

A druid who uses wildshape effectively is a dangerous foe in melee. An angry dire ape with a huge spear or a legendary tiger with greater magic fang can both make for deadly opponents, especially when the animal actually has the mind of a cunning druid. This druid should take advantage of power attack, because being big and hitting hard is a good thing, and if the druid has one or two favored wildshapes, weapon focus in your wildshapes’ main attacks isn’t a terrible idea either. Remember that a wildshaped druid gains the extraordinary attacks of the animal in question, which might color your decision on which animal to use in a given situation. If you need to get out of a collapsing cave fast, cheetah is a good idea. If you need to reach a high ledge, a hawk or eagle is a good idea. If you need to kill off a foe, consider going rhino to nail your foe with a painful charge (with power attack, of course), or go for a big cat to get that lovely pounce attack. Your own form is weak compared to what you can become. You can normally shift into a powerful from early enough in the day and remain that way for the better part of the day, so if you know you’re going to go fight goblins in the woods, turn into that brown bear when you head out. The rule of thumb with wildshape is to shift as little as possible and as early as possible to make sure you’re ready for the day’s encounters.

The Summoner
“Have you met Chompy Furster? Let me just call him over.”

Another new niche the druid has access to is the role of the summoner. Without even preparing summoning spells, you can fill up the area with nature’s allies. Sure you can’t have a horde of animal companions anymore, but being able to summon an army of them sure seems like fun. The two keys here are “augment summoning”, which will make your summoned allies considerably beefier, and ‘extend spell”, which can keep your allies on the battlefield longer. You don’t need to prepare summoning spells, either. Just prepare things like elemental swarm, and drop your lower levels spells to throw down some summoned allies. You can do this for quite a while, and usually with great effectiveness (especially when you can do it in the guise of a chipmunk sitting up in a tree and laughing maniacally). Summon allies strategically to flank with your party, or to drop summoned animals “behind enemy lines” and onto the spellcasters. This build also benefits from the druid’s ability to buff up animals, meaning that your average summoned animal is a good deal tougher than a normal animal. Also, you can still cast your normal offensive/buff spells, so you should still be able to act as a good support caster for the group. And if things still are going wrong, just wildshape into something with big teeth.

The Survivor
“But I’m not dead yet!”

Druid are durable, but they can really go far in terms of how hard it is to kill them when you throw in some feats that are fairly fitting for a force of nature like the druid. This build allows a druid to make an exceptional meat shield in a pinch while also making it easy for the druid to avoid death in a situation that should have killed him. While a little complex, it is good for a newer player who is playing in a tough game. For feats, go for endurance and diehard. Endurance will let you sleep in your armor and will let you run for a long time without getting tired (and animals can run very fast indeed). And diehard, while not a great feat, will make you almost impossible to kill. If someone drops you to -2 hit points, normally you cross your fingers and hope you stabilize. With diehard, you just cast a cure spell on yourself, dust yourself off, and jump back into the fight. This druid uses his wildshape to escape from dangerous situations and his spells to keep foes busy while he makes his getaway. The goal is to stay alive in the most dire situations, and there are DMs out there who love to run games that routinely wipe out the party. This build does not rely on druid abilities as much as other builds, so levels of monk to beef up saves are often a good idea, and it should allow you to get a high armor class while you are wildshaped. If things get too dangerous, flee and heal up while hidden somewhere in the woods. Use your abilities to win fights, of course, but be sure that you always have a way out.

Conclusion
Druids are more powerful than their previous incarnation, and they are finally getting the respect they deserve. The strength of the druid lies in his ability to assume a form useful for a variety of situations. The druid’s spell list is certainly nothing to scoff at, and the versatility of the druid allows him to be the second best (and with focus, possibly the first best) at anything in the party.

3.0 Splash Notes
Spells from Defenders of the Faith and Masters of the Wild make a druid very powerful, especially Miasma, Briar Web, and Spikes.
The contemplative (Defenders of the Faith) and divine disciple (Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting) are both easy ways for a druid to pick up cleric domains and domain powers.
The aforementioned avenger can do very well with a few levels of hospitaler from Defenders of the Faith if wildshape is not really a focus for the character.
Persistent spell can make your animal form and your animal companion much stronger all day long.

Navaruk, I disagree whole-heartedly. Rogues are my favorite class, but the small benefit of sneak attack does three things which hurts druids:

1. Slows base attack bonus progression (+0 BAB for a rogue at level 1)
2. Causes the loss of a caster level for the druid
3. Delays wildshape abilities

The problem is that there is very little synergy between the two classes. Few skills overlap, there is almost no base attack bonus to be gained, and that 1d6 points of sneak attack damage, while very nice with a permenant flanking partner. Rogue stacks well with arcane casters because of arcane trickster.

The problem is that if you take levels of rogue, you lose druid levels and hence druid abilities, which in the long run are often more powerful than rogue abilities. The standard builds for this are:
Druid 15/Rogue 5 (you still get decent sneak attack and huge wildshape)
Druid 13/rogue 7 (more sneak attack and a thousand faces)
Druid 11/rogue 9 (tiny wildshape and even more sneak attack)

But I can tell you really like this build, so for others like you...

Ranger 3/druid 5/assassin 5/arcane trickster 7

This build requires the ranger levels (interchangable with rogue if you really want sneak attack, though I prefer the skill overlap, bonus feats, and better save/base attack bonus progression) to lay the foundations to qualify for assassin by level 8. Assassin is your backdoor into arcane trickster, leaving you casting as an 12th level druid and sneak attacking as a level 11 rogue. Not shabby, but you only have one wildshape per day.

Overall, I still think the cons outway the pros. It takes two levels of rogue to get that +1d6 to damage, whereas flamestrike and other spells like that increase by +1d6 every caster level. You gain no armor proficiencies and only weak weapon proficiencies from the rogue, and very little in the way of abilities (aside from sneak attack, which doesn't always work... ask my DM who has sent nothing but undead and constructs after us for about two months straight).

What’s Changed?
If nothing else, the monk is better now than he was before, and that’s saying something. The old 3.0 monk really lacked flexibility and wasn’t much more than a hard-to-hit target. Now, however, the monk can be so much more.
- Flurry of blows now allows for many attacks with high accuracy in a round.
- More flexibility in bonus feats.
- Better ability to penetrate damage reduction.
- Lower maximum speed.

General tactics
You area almost always faster than your opponents, so make sure you use this mobility to your advantage. Tumble when needed, apply pressure where needed, and cover weaker characters is necessary.

You can get an amazing number of attacks. Try to get weapons that add damage dice or pick up sneak attack to take advantage of this. Also, four levels of fighter or any class with full base attack bonus progression will get you a +16 base attack bonus, which translate to an extra attack.

Improved grapple is core, and is a very efficient way for a monk to deal with opponents who use large weapons or cast spells.

Keep your armor class high. You don’t have the hit points to survive many attacks.

Multiclass notes
Multiclassing a monk lets a player focus on certain aspects of the monk. If you want to deal more damage, you can splash some levels of fighter. A few levels of paladin will help your defense and boost your damage against evil creatures. Ranger levels will make you a much more dangerous archer and enable you to last in the wilderness.

Good mutliclasses with monk include:
- Fighter- The base attack bonus, bonus feats, and weapon specialization make fighter attractive.
- Paladin- Divine grace and smite evil are both amazing abilities and work well for a LG monk.
- Ranger- Grab the archery combat style and make use of the free skills.
- Rogue- Sneak attack and uncanny dodge. That is what splashing rogue is all about.

The levels to keep in mind for monk are:
- Level 2 (evasion)
- Level 5 (+1 AC and flurry of blows penalty drops to -1)
- Level 9 (no penalty to flurry of blows)
- Level 11 (greater flurry)
- Level 16 (ki strike adamantine)

What are the basic ways to build a monk?
A good monk should take advantage of his ability to avoid damage, his high speed, and his good number of attacks in combat to ensure that he is doing the most for his allies.
- The Archer- A fighter-splash monk who uses speed and skill with bows to control the area.
- The Master Decoy- A character who uses his survivability to keep the enemy from attacking the real threat.
- The Ninja- Put multiple attacks to good use with sneak attack and poison!
- The Piledriver- Unarmed attacks and grappling kills mages dead.

The Archer
“I shoot you, you die. You shoot me, I catch and shoot it right back at you.”
Inspired by Green Gnome’s “Dragon” build

The advantage of the monk is that he can move out of dangerous areas, something that most archers have trouble with, while still remaining a real threat in melee. The trouble with this is that monks can use a rather poor selection of weapons. Enter the fighter. At the cost of four levels of monk progression, you can get proficiency with the longbow, something that will make playing a monk-archer far more viable. Feats to invest in are point blank shot, rapid shot, precise shot, shot on the run, and manyshot. Monk bonus feats should buy stunning fist, deflect arrows, and improved trip. Stunning fist and improved trip let you get out of melee to continue shooting more easily, whereas deflect arrows effectively negates one successful ranged attack against you each round. Your goal is to move quickly and take shots at your opponents while preventing them from charging you or being able to effectively hit you with ranged weapons. Shot on the run and manyshot are a great pair of feats that let you jump into range, fire off three arrows at once, then jump back out of range. If you get stuck in melee, trip your foe, then use a stunning fist on him once he’s on the ground with your free attack, and then run like hell out of range and start shooting again. Since you don’t need to invest in armor, buy a good bow and consider getting arrows to be used against certain foes (ie fire arrows against trolls or holy arrows against undead). Put skill ranks in tumble, climb, listen, and jump. You want to stay out of reach if possible, and if you’re up a tree, the other guys will have a tough time getting at you. Finally: don’t be afraid to move. Two kinds of archers stand still while shooting: dead ones and soon-to-be dead ones. Use your speed.

The Master Decoy
“I’m as fast as fast can be, you’ll never catch me!”

This build uses the defensive boosts four levels of paladin can give to create a character designed to be durable above all else and able to survive all the attacks he can draw down on himself. Get as high an AC as you can. The stats to worry about here are dexterity, constitution, wisdom, and charisma. Put divine grace to good use to keep your saves sky-high, and make sure to have a good armor class. Your role in combat is to zip through the air and smack the dangerous foe, then dart out of combat. Feats of note here are dodge, mobility, and spring attack, as well as combat expertise. You need to make sure you’re safe to draw the attention of the enemy and that you can survive doing so. To get the enemy’s attention, try to use your one smite per day coupled with spring attack to make then reconsider you as a threat. Although paladins dislike using trickery, a paladin who considers using illusionary magic a tactic rather than a dishonorable trick might consider having a friendly mage cast an illusion spell on you so that you do look like the quintessential paladin in heavy armor with that shiny holy avenger in your hands. A paladin who shoots through the air like a bullet smiting people is quite a threat, and most evil foes will probably consider chasing you down to end that threat. Another alternative is to draw opponents away, and then attack them one at a time once they’ve been divided and you’re safe from being flanked or outnumbered. Divide and conquer works wonders, and a master decoy knows this fact very well.

The Ninja
“Like a shadow barely seen, like a whisper barely heard.”

Everyone loves ninjas. Having the Real Ultimate Power is a dream we all share. Well you can have a ninja without having to use splatbooks. The ninja I will now outline for you is one that uses a core prestige class: the assassin. The goal here is to use those extra attacks to their maximum effect, and there’s nothing like sneak attack to make the most out of having extra attacks. And sneak attack comes packaged as the even sweeter death attack when you take levels as an assassin. Why take assassin over rogue? Well, you gain poison use, spells, death attack, and faster uncanny dodge progression. The only “wasted” ability is the bonus to saves against poison. But this couples very well: you have evasion, improved evasion, uncanny dodge, and improved uncanny dodge. Stunning fist lets you render your opponent flat-footed for the rest of your sneak-attacks. Poison and shurikens were practically made for one another (3.5 EDIT- Shurikens now do 1d2 damage apiece and only one can be thrown at a time, but it is still a monk weapon, meaning it can still be thrown with flurry of blows). So at level twenty, if this character planning is to take someone out, he can do the following: study the enemy for three rounds, then throw five poisoned shurikens, which will do death attack damage. If he manages to survive that, then you stunning attack him with your last shurikens (you did buy a few +1 returning shurikens of ki, didn’t you?) so that he’s flat footed for your next volley. The optimal mix here is monk 11/assassin 9. You can qualify for assassin very easily as a lawful evil monk, but wait until level 11 to multiclass, because this will give you your maximum number of attacks per round with flurry of blows. Quantity is key, because poison and sneak attack make quantity absolutely worth it.

The Piledriver
“Nothing shuts a mage up like a headlock.”

Finally, a pure monk build. Now let’s get started. A character who wants to take mages down needs to have good spell resistance, good saves, and the ability to make casting spells difficult. Well gee golly of monks don’t meet all of those requirements! Monks start with excellent saves, they gain spell resistance, and a wonderful combat option called grappling kills mages dead. The build is simple. Get stunning fist, improved grapple, and a high strength. Rush the mage at the beginning of combat and start grappling as soon as you can. With a higher strength and base attack bonus, you should be able to keep him from casting for the better part of combat. The trouble naturally arises when you fight a caster more on your level, like a druid or a cleric, who are fairly strong in their own right. You need to close quickly and get into a grapple before they can buff or (in the case of the druid) wildshape into something with ridiculous strength. You can survive being hit by spells with your high AC, saves, and spell resistance, but being in melee with a much more powerful foe, like a fully-buffed cleric, is not smart. Take casters down before they can buff up and keep them in a grapple for as long as you can. Don’t let them cast if at all possible. Other feats of choice are improved trip (a wonderful readied action against a spellcaster is trip, because it usually takes them down, and then a free attack can deal the damage you need against a now prone target). Take the casters down and keep them down while the others worry about the rest of the enemies.

Conclusion
Monks are the fastest and one of the best classes in terms of personal defense. They don’t rely on magic for their abilities, and are more than capable of combat on their own terms. Use their abilities to stay mobile and hit the enemy where it is needed. You are not a primary fighter: you’re a hard to hit target and a tactical foe who can remove certain opponents from battle.

3.0 Splash Notes
Oriental Adventures makes monks great and then some.
If you want to throw magic items out the window for yourself, consider splashing four levels of forsaker from Masters of the Wild for extra durability.
Mantis leap + power lunge (Sword & Fist) + flying kick (Oriental Adventures) allow for the good old fashioned ubercharge monk.

Sneak attack is not worth giving up spellcaster levels for, CD, but it is helpful with a build designed to use sneak attack (ie straight rogue). I used it in the above monk build because assassin allows for spells, decent skills, uncanny dodge, and full sneak attack progression.

The power of sneak attack comes from someone who can use it four or five times in a round. A +5d6 sneak attack is an average damage bonus of +17.5, max damage of +30. Put out over a course of four or five attacks, that's a pretty nice chunk of damage for a melee build. Are there other ways to deal damage? Sure. But sneak attack is extremely powerful when used in the right build.