PDA

View Full Version : Help with two builds for expedition to castle ravenloft.



selfcritical
2007-04-25, 01:34 PM
For those not acquainted with the module, conversion of a 1st edition module(and thus stupidly deadly from what I'm told), with lots and lots of undead crawling all over the place. Party is 6th level, and has a stupidly good attribute spread because the DM believes the campaign is so harsh. (5d6, drop the lowest 2, reroll ones). We're also using the LA buyoff rules from unearthed arcana.
Currently we have 4 members in the party.
One pretty bog-standard paladin, mounted feats, power attack, and improved smite I believe.
Shifter druid using the shapeshifting variant from PHB II, melee-spec for shifter feats.
Aasimar cleric of pelor, with extra turning, quicken turning, and some feat that lets you burn turn undead to protect from negative energy.
Me, artificer, lots of wands and scrolls, I've got persist spell, twin spell, energize spell, extend spell, and will pretty much use them on every buff I can. I've got the anti-trap skills spiked as well.

We're looking to add in a 5th player. He's interested in rangers and psywars, and wanted some help putting the guy together. He's pretty good at optimizing in other systems, but just doesn't have the breadth of familiarity with dnd. We can use just about any 3.5 wizards book, and Mindscapes from malhavoc. 6th level character

His rolls are pretty nice. 18 17 17 16 14 12

So first skeleton, the psywar. This guy is ment to be very tough to kill, have some good options vs undead, and work as primary front-line alongside the paladin, with the druid pinch-hitting. I wanted this guy to be able to open up hard with some nice damage, and then be able to survive once he's gotten the attention. Staying power is definately a concern.

Race, azurin(from MoI, like a human, but gives an extra essentia point), our ebberon campaign had houseruled inspired as a template, so he gets that and then takes off the +1 ECL with the above buyback rules.

STR 18
Dex 12
Con 17
Int 14
Wis 18(after 4th level bonus)
Chr 17

Levels psywar 5/Ghostbreaker 1(ghostbreaker has fighter BAB, full psywar casting progression, d8 hit die, and at first level gains turning as a paladin)

Feats
-Midnight augmentation(invest an essentia point in a power to reduce the cost of augmenting that power by number of invested essentia for 24 hours. This character has two essentia to invest)
-Linked power(metapsionic feat, you pay the cost of the second power as augmentation, it manifests the next round without you spending an action on it)
-Metapower(you pick a power and a metapsionic feat. When you use those two in combination, the cost of using that metapsionic feat is reduced by 2 PP The question is which ).
-Powerful charge(from ebberon corebook)
-Greater powerful charge(ditto, with the combination, you're looking at an extra 2d6 every charge attack, 3d6 if I've made him bigger via scroll-age. I'll give you a clue, psychic lion's charge is on the power picks)
-Power attack
- sacred vengence(gives 2d6 to all attacks vs undead for a round in exchange for a turn udead attempt)

Powers known picks.
1st lev
Vigor
Bite of the Wolf
Combat precscience

2nd
Lion's charge
Stygian erasure(removes negative levels)
dampen power(immediate action, sets variable, numeric effects against you to minimum possible, so that a 6th level character with this and protection from elements laughs off a targeted meteor swarm).

Starting wealth is 17,000, any "undead hunting gear" is 25 percent off.
Looking for suggestions for tweaks, item picks, etc.


Second build would be races of the wild elven ranger, bow speced, undead favored enemy, orc favored enemy, trade out the animal companion for the alternate class feature from PHB II
that make your ranged attacks cause someone to be flanked for the next round, feat spread as such

Improved favored enemy(undead)
rapid shot
manyshot
precise shot
improved rapidshot

The New Bruceski
2007-04-25, 01:56 PM
Well I'm not good at building characters, but a note for your paladin:
As is evidenced by the title, a whole lot takes place inside a castle, most of which would not be too suitable for mounted combat. There's plenty of outside stuff too, but he might want to make sure that, even if he's got feats to excel there, he at least agrees not to mope during the times when he can't use em.

Also, I've got the book, and planning on running the thing once I find friends and make sense of the maps (suggests miniatures combat, but the maps are all rotated to make it difficult to photocopy. Also the castle itself is shown isometrically and I think in floor-by-floor style). While I'm going to avoid any sorts of reveals, I will say that looking at what you have so far, if I were the DM I know where I'd lead you *evil grin*

Annarrkkii
2007-04-25, 02:05 PM
Well, consider trading in Sacred Vengeance for the standard Leap Attack, to finish up the build you've got going with Lion's Charge and Greater Powerful Charge. It's cliche, but effective. Alternatively, drop Greater Powerful Charge, if you want to hang on to sacred vengeance. The step up from 1d8 to 2d6 is really only an average of 3 points, whereas Leap Attack is more in the region of 5-10, if done right.

Legoman
2007-04-25, 02:14 PM
Take the dip in Psywar, and go Warblade thereafter.

Take 15 on a Concentration check, by expending psionic focus? Sure.

Concentration check as a save? Yes please.

selfcritical
2007-04-25, 02:27 PM
Well, consider trading in Sacred Vengeance for the standard Leap Attack, to finish up the build you've got going with Lion's Charge and Greater Powerful Charge. It's cliche, but effective. Alternatively, drop Greater Powerful Charge, if you want to hang on to sacred vengeance. The step up from 1d8 to 2d6 is really only an average of 3 points, whereas Leap Attack is more in the region of 5-10, if done right.

I'm the artificer in that party, so he'll end up being enlarged a fair portion of the time(So +3d6 per attack on a charge, sword/bite/tail{tail from a dorje of dragon's tail}). But leap attack definately should be on the agenda. That's in complete adventurer?

Annarrkkii
2007-04-25, 05:29 PM
Complete Adventurer indeed. Make sure you're THF for maximum output, but Leap Attack is just the traditional next step for someone with a charging/PA build. Plus, you'll get the PA to most of your secondary attacks, as well.

Bear in mind, however, that the tree is addictive. There's always one more feat around the corner that will increase you Charge output that much more—Headlong Rush, War Jump, Shock Trooper—but if you give in, you'll be building just another of the typical, bland charge-monsters. That's why I recommended it over Greater Powerful Charge, since that saves you Sacred Vengeance for flavor and some undead effectuality. Also, bear in mind that the increase from Powerful Charge's 2d6 to Greater Powerful Charge's 3d6 is not huge...