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View Full Version : [3.5] Changing character direction



Malacode
2009-02-23, 06:17 AM
Here's the preamble (TLDR): In a PbP game I'm in, I'm playing a Paladin of Pure Law (Homebrew, basically a normal paladin but lawful neutral, not lawful good)/Dread Necromancer. basically, the idea was that the guy came back to life after dying through sheer bloody-mindedness and unwillingness to give in. Currently, the game is level 6, and the build is Necropolitan Paladin 1/Dread Necro 5. I'm trying to use fear effects to their greatest advantage while still dealing decent, if not great, amounts of damage, and accordingly I've taken a few fear inducing feats.

My problem? Well, BAB sucks. I'm planning on taking another level of paladin, then three more levels of dread necromancer, but that's still open.

The actual question: I'd like to find a PrC which is thematically appropriate for scary undead but also nets me decent BAB and a few more melee options. I thought about Osteomancer, from Dragon Compendium, as they get more fear effects, a few abilities and as a bonus, 1/2 spellcasting -but- the BAB is still pretty bad. So, does anyone know of -anything- that fits this? It doesn't have to be perfect or anything, as the DM is open to homebrew, but it'd still be cool to see what people can come up with. So yeah, thanks in advance to anyone who can help

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-02-23, 08:46 AM
The feat Arcane Strike (CW) can help boost your attack bonus for one round at a time. You could make undead minions and have them use the Aid Another action to give you a bonus to hit. Be sure to get a Ghostly Visage familiar, and always have it Melded to you so it can use its Gaze of Terror at will; Paralyzed opponents are easier to hit! You could take the feat Arcane Disciple (CD) and pick a domain that includes Divine Might, and keep in mind that you can cast it more than 1/day if you use different level spell slots. For example, use your 1/day 4th level Arcane Disciple spell to cast it, then use your 1/day 5th level Arcane Disciple spell to cast it Extended, etc. Instead of that, check out the Bloodline feats from Dragon magazine (at Crystalkeep (http://crystalkeep.com/d20/rules/DnD3.5Index-Feats.pdf)), Orc Descent adds quite a few nice melee buffs to your list, though it would need to be adapted to work with Dread Necro and you'd need to be an orc or half-orc.

As for prestige classes, the only one I know of that specifically deals with fear effects is the Dread Witch from Heroes of Horror. For this character, I'd suggest just taking feats for fear effects (Dreadful Wrath and Frightful Presence and maybe Ability Focus for each) and go with some more typical Gish PrCs. You'll definitely want at least seven levels of Dread Necromancer for the Familiar, and picking up the eighth isn't a bad idea. That leaves you with ten more levels to gain, I'd say go Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5, and then take four levels of any prestige class that gets full spellcasting and at least 3/4 BAB. That will get you 18th level spellcasting and a +15 BAB at level 20, a decent Gish build by any standards. That last PrC sort of trips it up, but you could try adapting either Sacred Exorcist (reflavor it from good-vs-evil to law-vs-chaos) or Church Inquisitor (arcane instead of divine, not sure how it could work) to fit into the build. Another option would be to swap/retrain one of your Dread Necro levels for another Paladin level, and go Paladin 2/ Dread Necro 4/ Spellsword 1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Sacred Inquisitor 8, which gets 18th level spellcasting and a +16 BAB at level 20. Get the feat Obtain Familiar (CA) if your DM will let you get a Ghostly Visage with it instead of having to hit DN 7.

Darth Stabber
2009-02-23, 10:33 AM
Honestly 3/4 bab is not bad, you can still hit stuff most of the time, so long as you don't rely on power attack, I mean rogues, bards, and clerics still manage to hit stuff. And you have the added benefit of a melee touch attack that can be delivered via spectral hand, honestly staying in the class might be to your benefit. If you absolutely have to gish it up, eldritch knight could be the ticket, full bab, 1 lost caster lvl and a fighter bonus feat. I've played Human Dread necromancer up to 16, and didn't feel like i missed out on a thing, and actually spent a fair amount of time up close and personal, delivering touchg. The class gives you a fair amount of fear to play with, without relying on it (so many things are either immune to fear or have big bonuses against it). Spell selection also helps big time, you have expanded knowledge every few lvls in the class, and most fear effects are in necromancy to start with, sounds like a peachy way to pick some of the tastiest fear spells from the vast array of splatbooks available. keep in mind that these are just my thoughts and some one could be horribly maimed if you take my advice, or worse no one will get horribly maimed.