I think this is my best overall melee build. Does massive damage, has incredible defenses, and eventually gets full divine casting. The only thing it can't do is insta-kill. Ever wanted to be a pouncing dragon? Then this build is for you! What this build gives you: 16 pre-epic BAB for 4 attacks/round; very high damage output - between Lolth's Meat, (Epic) Weapon Specialization, Two-Weapon Fighting, Two-Weapon Rend, massive Strength from Shifter, Power Attack, Holy Warrior, Maneuvers, and Blood in the Water, this character can average ~2900 melee damage a round (~3500 if you begin combat with a pounce) and ~900 on a single pouncing charge***; you also get charisma bonus to saves and the best saving throw boost there is (Diamond Defense); Intelligence to reflex saves, critical confirmation, damage against flat-footed opponents and rolls to disarm, trip, etc.; the ability to clear any status effect that it somehow does get hit with (Iron Heart Surge); an animal companion that scales with level (even non-Shaman levels); Shaman spellcasting; turn undead (but tops out at level 21); ability to see invisible creatures (Spirit Sight); healing once a minute while recovering maneuvers (Vital Recovery); can switch all weapon-specific feats to match your best weapon; it can obtain huge DR and AC from Shifter forms as well as immunities; and there is no LA with this build. Weak points: low Strength and low Constitution until level 13, then it doesn't matter anymore. Build Name: Shiftblade Race: Half-Drow STR 8 DEX 16 CON 8 WIS 13 INT 13 CHA 16 Lvl Class 1 Shaman 1: Lolth's Meat, Domains: War, any other 2 Sha 2 3 Sha 3: Two-Weapon Fighting 4 Sha 4: B: Expertise, DEX 17 5 Sha 5 6 Sha 6: Alertness 7 Sha 7 8 Sha 8: B: Improved Trip, DEX 18 9 Warblade 1: Weapon Focus (Aptitude), Stance: Blood in the Water, Manueuvers: Flesh Ripper, Emerald Razor, Disarming Strike 10 WB 2: Maneuver: Iron Heart Surge 11 WB 3: Maneuver: Ruby Nightmare Blade 12 WB 4: Improved Critical (Aptitude), Stance: Pearl of Black Doubt, WIS 14 13 WB 5: B: Endurance, Maneuver: Pouncing Charge 14 Shifter 1 15 Shft 2: Improved TWF 16 Shft 3: INT 14 17 Shft 4 18 WB 6: Weapon Specialization (Aptitude) 19 Shft 5 20 Shft 6: DEX 19 21 Shft 7: Greater TWF 22 Shft 8 23 Shft 9 24 WB 7: Epic Weapon Focus (Aptitude), Maneuver: Raging Mongoose, WIS 15 25 Shft 10 26 WB 8 27 WB 9: Epic Weapon Specialization (Aptitude), B: Vital Recovery, Maneuver: Diamond Defense 28 WB 10: WIS 16 29 WB 11: Maneuver: Time Stands Still 30 Sha 9: Holy Warrior 31 Sha 10 32 Sha 11: WIS 17, Domain: Any 33 Sha 12: Two-Weapon Rend, B: Improved Disarm 34 Sha 13 35 Sha 14: 36 Sha 15: Power Attack, WIS 18 37 Sha 16: B: Armor Skin 38 Sha 17 39 Sha 18: Cleave 40 Sha 19: WIS 19 Recommended Readied Martial Maneuvers: Pouncing Charge, Iron Heart Surge, Raging Mongoose, Time Stands Still, and Diamond Defense Note, this a good candidate for an undead template, especially Curst. As a general strategy, this build should begin combat by charging the strongest opponent, initiate raging mongoose as soon as possible, recover maneuvers, repeat. When it comes to domains, it is generally best to pick those that add good melee buffs to the Shaman's arsenal. Offensive spells generally won't be super useful in this build. Keep a spell from the War domain of the highest level you can cast prepared to max out the bonus damage from Holy Warrior. ***Damage calculations updated after the scripted combat system was updated to pull in all the damage boosts. They assume max level, that enemies are not crit-immune, and +20 damage from Lolth's Meat (which seems like a good average that I am doing in combat-heavy modules).