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AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 12:58 AM
Hey. I'm part of an 8th level campaign where I was a Half-Giant Goliath custom class with a Colossal Greathammer (ie: the world's biggest flyswatter).

He just got killed tonite :( and I need a new character.

We are as follows:

1. LG Elf Ranger. He's an exiled prince who wants his kingdom back. Royal pain in my arse.
2. LN Half-Elf Favored Soul of Odur. She's fuzzy with her diety. DM's G/F.
3. CN Spawn of Olidamara Wild Mage. Think Gypsy+Hobo w/ spells...
4. LN Human Wizard Frost Mage. Flesh to Ice abuse...

What seems to be missing. My DM will "blind eye" 1la, so I considered Catfolk

I also considered Druid or another caster to compensate for the Fave Soul's loosing connection to Odur.

I also want to be able to hold my own mono y mono. I died to a Bugbear with a Greataxe, because the Favored Soul failed a roll to allow her to cast a Cure Wounds spell.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-08, 01:05 AM
I'd recommend mentioning to the DM the idea of the Favored Soul being picked up by another god without realizing it. Vecna is the sort I could see encouraging a former follower of Odur falling to evil and causing evil in his name, soiling his reputation, without the victim having any idea. Great RP opportunity, and you're free to cover the melee/skillmonkey role that your group needs. I recommend a Swordsage, with either a Crusader dip or Martial Study to pick up some of the Devoted Spirit Maneuvers.

Tavar
2009-12-08, 01:07 AM
Druid will do that and more. You effectively get a fighter as a class feature, and when you're in wildshape(and why wouldn't you be in wildshape?) you're not too shabby yourself. There are some good buff spells in the Spell compeduim, as well.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 01:10 AM
I'd recommend mentioning to the DM the idea of the Favored Soul being picked up by another god without realizing it. Vecna is the sort I could see encouraging a former follower of Odur falling to evil and causing evil in his name, soiling his reputation, without the victim having any idea. Great RP opportunity, and you're free to cover the melee/skillmonkey role that your group needs. I recommend a Swordsage, with either a Crusader dip or Martial Study to pick up some of the Devoted Spirit Maneuvers.

Vecna is not an available Deity

and her god is losing connection with her. She's fully devoted to Odur, but something is interfering with the connection...

and as for the Swordsage with Devoted Spirit, would you be suggesting AoO anything that inhales or a RKV build...

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-08, 01:20 AM
Vecna is not an available Deity

and her god is losing connection with her. She's fully devoted to Odur, but something is interfering with the connection...

and as for the Swordsage with Devoted Spirit, would you be suggesting AoO anything that inhales or a RKV build...Neither. Snag the strikes that allow you to heal yourself or others from DS, and then focus on damage output and non-ac defenses from Shadow Hand, Diamond Mind, similar. You can function as a Skillmonkey with lots of survivability and some backup healing. If your group doesn't need a skillmonkey, though, because of how the DM runs it, I'd swap over to full Crusader instead. Lots more tankiness.

Also, Vecna is always an available deity. Even when he's dead or doesn't exist, he still has power.

Keld Denar
2009-12-08, 01:22 AM
RKVs are fun. Swordsage would be a bit of an interesting entrance. I'd recommend the classic Cleric4/Crusader1/RKVX entrance though. Pick up Law Devotion and some other feats to abuse turn attempts and all that, and go to town as a royal beat stick and pretty resiliant at that.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 01:35 AM
Vecna is a dead power. The DM's Character's Mother, the High Drow Priestess takes both Lolth and Vecna's positions. Granted, she also has as many divine ranks as Nerull, but is still occupying the slots until "a worthy hero is willing to bear the weight."

I've also been paying heed to Deities and Demigods for "deity inspiration" and thought Druid, thanks to Artemis and Demeter.

Or possibly the Ye Olde Beatstick of Thor....Mabye not....

anyways, should, or should I not use Catfolk, quite possibly the coolest race ever.

Lycanthromancer
2009-12-08, 01:36 AM
Also, Vecna is always an available deity. Even when he's dead or doesn't exist, he still has power.(I see what you did thar; ie, Head of Vecna.)

Also, a bard would be a good 5th wheel, as usual. Take lots of bardic music feats, and maybe head toward a dip in sublime chord (then go toward another bard-friendly class that advances bardic music and arcane casting, then have fun buffing your party and raping the baddies with powerful spells.

Evan's spiked tentacles of forced intrusion!

Otherwise, might I suggest a factotum 11/chameleon 9 (hitting chameleon 10 at level 21) build? You can do...well...just about anything, any time you want, and can change basically your entire build every single day to accommodate any and all weaknesses in your group. You can heal as a factotum, or as a chameleon. You have spellcasting as a factotum, or as a chameleon. You have scouting as a factotum, or as a chameleon. You have undead turning as a factotum or as a chameleon. You can tank as a factotum, or as a chameleon. You can take a few stances and a couple of strikes as feats, or you can add up to 3 levels in initiator classes to boost your martial proficiency, if you want. You can likewise take incarnum feats (see: Shape Soulmeld), psionic feats (see Hidden Talent), and binding feats to cover anything you feel you'd like to do well or in addition to any of the above. And you can swap out the chameleon's floating feat to accomplish any and all of this.

...Also note that azurin counts as human for taking feats and such, so Able Learner is quite available.

Sstoopidtallkid
2009-12-08, 01:37 AM
Vecna is a dead power. The DM's Character's Mother, the High Drow Priestess takes both Lolth and Vecna's positions. Granted, she also has as many divine ranks as Nerull, but is still occupying the slots until "a worthy hero is willing to bear the weight."

I've also been paying heed to Deities and Demigods for "deity inspiration" and thought Druid, thanks to Artemis and Demeter.

Or possibly the Ye Olde Beatstick of Thor....Mabye not....

anyways, should, or should I not use Catfolk, quite possibly the coolest race ever.Depends on the build. There are generally better things to do with +1 LA, but it's not a bad race, especially for certain classes.

SurlySeraph
2009-12-08, 01:40 AM
Your party seems a bit heavy on casting and light on skills and melee. Swordsage is a good idea, and a rogue optimized for Sneak Attack could do well. Catfolk's definitely useful for anything that needs Dexterity; go for it.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 01:40 AM
Not to mention my dm is waving 1la. So catfolk would be good. +4dex, and spot/listen/move silent boosts? Hellz yeah. (and the +2 cha would be nice to try and seduce the Favored Soul!!! lol)

Lycanthromancer
2009-12-08, 01:43 AM
Not to mention my dm is waving 1la. So catfolk would be good. +4dex, and spot/listen/move silent boosts? Hellz yeah. (and the +2 cha would be nice to try and seduce the Favored Soul!!! lol)Well, melee IS a bit short-handed. Swordsage would be a great dip for next level now that you would have your requisite 8 levels in factotum. Then it's just a matter of hitting swordsage for a level or two, then smashing heads as a chameleon (is there a feat somewhere that would allow you to count as human somehow?).

Stellar, dude! :smalltongue:

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 01:49 AM
Hold on: Would this work as a Skillmonkey/Beatstick?

Catfolk

CW Ranger4/Scout4?

Run like hell and hit things with arrows/Hit & Run

or would this be better:

Aasamir

Crusader3/Cleric of Heronious3/Ordained Champ of Heronious

That's MISTER Lawful Good to you!

BooNL
2009-12-08, 02:38 AM
Assuming you take Swift Hunter with the Ranger/Scout, there's no reason to advance both classes at the same time. You only need enough to qualify for the feat and then continue pumping your class of choice.
That said, I love rangers, but archery is a very suboptimal choice.

Myrmex
2009-12-08, 02:43 AM
Go NG or CG bard. Pick up Words of Creation (BoED) & Song of the Heart (Eb) as two of your feats. Cast Inspirational Boost (SpC). Wear a Bade of Valor (MIC). Make sure you have 8 levels in bard. Now inspire courage for 2 (bard levels) + 1(spell) +1(feat) +1(item), which gets doubled from words of creation, for +10 total. If you use Dragonfire Inspiration and heritage from a weird dragon, you could turn that into 10d6 extra force damage or something.

Bards are sweet with enough splatbooks. They get some great support from SpC.

Rogue 7
2009-12-08, 02:43 AM
I'm a swordsage fan, and with the kind of Dexterity you're talking about (where are catfolk from, anyways?), that build would be absolutely killer. If you specialize in Shadow Hand, wielding a shortsword or similar grants you many bonuses, and weapon finesse and Shadow Blade means that you use Dexterity for both attack and weapon damage. The light armor, high dex, and wisdom bonus to AC means that will also be very high, and if you ask me, having a high AC is fantastic. Assuming you start off with a 20 dex, with 2 feats, that's a +5 to AC, Reflex saves, and weapon attack and damage.

BooNL
2009-12-08, 03:00 AM
He could actually start with 22 dex that way.

Also, 40ft move speed and the ability to take pound as a feat. Catfolk are awesome.

Rogue 7, they're from Races of the Wild.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 07:19 AM
I do like the "Can't Touch Me" Swordsage. I also thought, Wouldn't that shadow hand/Setting sun ninja guy be a good PrC and much later multiclass into Ninja from CAd? My DM gives Ninja a Flurry of Blows-type class ability

dsmiles
2009-12-08, 07:34 AM
If it were me, I would say you're missing a meat shield. A wild shape-focused druid would cover this role pretty well, and with "natural spell," you could still add another caster to the party.

Animefunkmaster
2009-12-08, 09:12 AM
I see the party missing two rolls: The Skill Monkey and The Tank, neither of which is fully handled by the Ranger.

A couple things you could do here:
-Druid (obvious choice for casting, summoning, wildshape to take care of tank and most skills)
Bard/Warblade (Dragon Fire Inspiration and Song of the White Raven will put you in the same vein as the ranger of not quite doing both, but still better than the ranger)
Bard (Bardick Knack + Jack of All Trades gives you more skills then you need, Iaijutsu as well, dip for trapfinding and you should be good with skills and play out like a striker, dragon fire inspiration + Iaijutsu will hopefully down an enemy quickly)

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-12-08, 09:47 AM
I'd go with the Arcane Swordsage variant, ToB page 20 under the Adaptation heading. Even if you're limited to abjuration, evocation, and transmutation, it's one of the toughest and most versatile characters available. Get the Heart of- line of spells from CM, along with choice buffs like Shield, Greater Magic Weapon, Ray Deflection, and Heroics, and be sure to get Adaptive Style. You can even use Heroics to temporarily gain Martial Study to get any long-duration arcane buff you need, initiate that buff, dismiss Heroics, and repeat the process for another spell, so you won't even need to spend any maneuvers known on your hour/level or 24 hour duration buffs. Just play it as a caster, you'll be able to use Disintegrate every other round after all, and have Thunderlance for when you need to make any attacks. You could even make the character a Warforged and get one of the Repair Damage spells to heal yourself to full between encounters. Spells like Greater Mage Hand and Ruby Ray of Reversal will give you something to do in just about any situation, so the character wouldn't be limited outside of combat.

For a free +1 LA, I'd say Mineral Warrior (http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e) would be one of the best ways to spend it if you can take a hit to your mental stats. It's especially good for a melee combatant, since it adds quite a bit of survivability. If you typically go for face-first melee characters, consider trying out a Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater), Dragonborn of Bahamut (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20060105b&page=1) (Wings aspect), Mineral Warrior, and as long as you gain Mineral Warrior before your 6th level you'll still gain the fly speed. That gets total ability score adjustments of Str +6, Dex -2, Con +8, Int -4, Wis -4, Cha -4, with +3 natural armor, DR 8/Adamantine, Darkvision, 30 ft. land speed, 30 ft. swim speed, 15 ft. burrow speed, and once you hit level 6 a 30 ft. fly speed with average maneuverability. It makes an extremely tanky/mobile character, I'd probably play it as a Crusader or maybe a Dragonfire Adept or even a Dragon Shaman with the Heart aspect.

Haven
2009-12-08, 10:25 AM
I'd suggest taking a swordsage specializing in two-weapon fighting. With Shadow Blade and Assassin's Stance, you do a lot of damage with your two-weapon attacks. As a catfolk you could pick up pounce, which would be great. You might even consider the Bloodclaw Master PRC.

Also, the big thing that seems to be missing is a skill monkey, and swordsages are pretty good at that.

deuxhero
2009-12-08, 11:50 AM
Healer/Defiler of Temples (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Defiler_of_Temples_%28DnD_Prestige_Class%29) (It's lulz and covers skill monkey), just make sure the healer has the typical fixes attached (cast like Warmage and co, everything is charisma based, latter spells added to the list, advanced learning ect.). Defiler of Temples gives you a free domain, so you can do more than healing/buff if you use it well.

While Defiler of Temples is Homebrew, the "Tome" stuff is noted for being well built.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 04:55 PM
How would this 1 work out?

Race: Arctic Dwarf Dragonborn of Bahamut (Heart) Mineral Warrior
Class: Knight 3/Warblade 3/Deepstone Setinal 2
Weapon: Adamantine Dwarven Urgosh or Greataxe
Armor: Blue Ice Half Plate

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-08, 07:45 PM
bump

so is that what's the verdict?

Salanmander
2009-12-08, 11:21 PM
How would this 1 work out?

Race: Arctic Dwarf Dragonborn of Bahamut (Heart) Mineral Warrior
Class: Knight 3/Warblade 3/Deepstone Setinal 2
Weapon: Adamantine Dwarven Urgosh or Greataxe
Armor: Blue Ice Half Plate

Deepstone Sentinel can be taken no sooner than your 11th level, unless you have some way of getting 13 ranks in balance and a +10 BAB before then.

However, I'm unconvinced that Deepstone Sentinel gives you anything terribly useful anyway. Its iconic ability basically makes difficult terrain and a slightly better grease effect, and difficult terrain is something you can already make as a knight 3.

It has other abilities that are...I mean, they're abilities. They not *nothing*. But they're nothing to write home about. And both Crusader and Knight get some pretty good class features. Knight especially has a lot of abilities that scale with class level (vigilant defender, i'm looking at *you*), which make prestige classes less appealing.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2009-12-09, 09:52 AM
Try grabbing Deepwarden (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040807a&page=4) 2 instead, it grants your Con bonus to AC instead of your Dex bonus. With such a Con-heavy race, you're sure to come out ahead. According to the FAQ and the designers' intent, your Con bonus to AC cannot exceed the max Dex bonus of your armor, as though it was still your Dex bonus to AC, but this is not stated in the ability so you can probably still get away with it, since 'max Dex bonus' wouldn't apply to a Con bonus.

The Heart aspect is especially good with the feat Entangling Exhalation from Races of the Dragon. Use that as often as possible to keep your opponents debuffed, it makes them easier to hit and less likely to land their own attacks, and also hinders any effort of theirs to maneuver around the battlefield and attack your other party members. Also consider the feat Recover Breath in the Draconomicon, which reduces your time between breath weapons by one round.

I've never been very impressed with the Knight class, though Warblade would be an excellent choice for a tanky/dangerous character. Considering your party, I'd go for mostly Iron Heart and Stone Dragon, with some Tiger Claw or Diamond Mind to fill in the gaps. You could go Warblade 7/ Deepwarden 2/ Warblade+, you could multiclass for the right class skills to qualify earlier but I've done the numbers and it's probably not worth it in the long run. Get a two-handed martial weapon and an animated shield, take Shield Specialization and Shield Ward from PH2 with flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm), get Entangling Exhalation, Endurance, Recover Breath, and Stone Power starting out, and from level 9 pick up Combat Focus, Combat Stability, and Combat Vigor from PH2. Be sure to get Iron Heart Surge, and remember that it always automatically succeeds at ending any effect that is affecting your character, including plot-railroading spells (Mark of Justice, Geas), ongoing AoEs (fog effects, Antimagic Field), or even an effect that otherwise isn't easily dispelled (step into the first color of a Prismatic Wall and IHS the whole thing away). Use your breath weapon with Entangling Exhalation as often as possible, have a few Stone Dragon maneuvers for damage output, and be sure to get plenty of useful utility maneuvers so you've got something to do in almost any situation.

AirGuitarGod32
2009-12-09, 01:02 PM
I had the Idea of a Hellbred Dragonborn Knight 6/Kensei 2. Basically, "Sir Tanks a Lot" and I had the Idea of weilding a Spiked Hellfire Flail as my weapon, and having a scimmy as a backup.

Any thoughts?