Vanilla Straight Suel - Human Duskblade 3/Warblade 7/Suel Arcanamach 10
Suel Weaver by Surreal - the build that inspired this handbook in the first place
Martial Suel (by Vitellio) 7 Warblade/4 Suel/5 Abjurant Champion/1 Spellsword/ +3 warblade
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Would be a pretty good Tank/light gish. with 15 initiator levels, 20% Spell failure reduction, making a mithral twilight fullplate+ Heavy mithral shield a possible choice, 19/20 BaB, 5th level Suel casting and 12+9d12+5d8+5d10 hp.
Green Star Arcanamach by Howland Reed
WARNING: Green Star Adept's caster level increases is highly controversial. Use with care.
Paladin2/Duskblade2/Warblade2/Suel Arcanamach4/Abjurant Champion2/Green Star Adept8 Spoiler
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BAB +17, casting as 10th Arcanamach (CL = 14), +4 Str and Natural AC (with -2 Dex), Extended Abjuration AND Spellstrength, Quickened Abjurations, Divine Grace, DR 9/adamantine, some nifty abilities from being a living green statue...and probably the weirdest fluff requirements ever. But if your DM is willing to work with you, I think it'd be fun. (btw, I don't like the last level of GSA because it sucks to lose normal healing. While 75% fortification is nice, I left it off because I wanted to squeeze 2 levels of Abj Champion...personal preferences)
The Suel Man by Felonious Ela
Illumian Duskblade 3/Barbarian 1/Fighter 2/SuArc 1/Abjurant Champion 5/SuArc +3/Spellsword 1/Dragon Disciple 4
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Lion Totem variant for Barbarian 1 (pounce)
Cityscape variant for Fighter levels (Tumble class skill)
Aeshkrau for Str based build(benefits even more from Dragon Disciple), Uurkrau for Dex based builds for your Illumian sigils.
Tons of open feats (Enough feats for a great charger or a great TWFer...maybe even both.) CL20, BAB 18, great HD, full SuArc casting + bonus spells Illumian Race: Offsets need for Practiced Spellcaster if you want CL 20, reduces MAD, lets Ancient Suloise be a bonus language!!!!, and probably grants access to the Grimoire Arcanamacha due to the Illumian race's obsession with collecting and storing books. Favored class Any is also nice.
Sublime Arcanamach
Duskblade 2/Paladin (Harmonious Knight) 4/Suel Arcanamach 4/Virtuoso 2/Sublime Chord 2/Spellsword 1/Abjurant Champion 5
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Uses Harmonious Knight substitution level to gain Perform as a class skill, Virtuoso to gain bardic music and Suel Arcanamach to gain 3rd level spells - and then qualifies for Sublime Chord, advancing it's casting with Virtuoso, Spellsword and Abjurant Champion. 9th level spells, BAB 16. Perhaps it's just a needlessly complicated gish, but I like it. ^^
Shooting Star Arcanamach
DelkyrHald-Blood Ranger 5/Cyran Avenger 5/Suel Arcanamach 4/Abjurant Champion 5/Impure Prince 1
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Yes, stuff from three settings! ^^ This build has a lot of charisma synergy going on and uses Shooting Star Ranger for extra ownage. BAB 19 and lots of skill points complement it quite well. Take the Dungeonscape sub and you can even be a triple threat.
I'm so pretty, you can't hit me Abusing Charisma synergy
Nasty Arcanamach by InnaBinder
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Ranger 2/Duskblade 3/Warblade 2/Suel Arcanamach 6/Impure Prince 5/Jade Phoenix Mage 2 Feats: Combat Casting, Iron Will, Track, TWF, Symbiont Mastery, Fell Drain, Multiattack, Knowledge Devotion, Explosive Spell, Spontaneous Summoner. Maneuvers: Wall of Blades, Iron Heart Surge, Iron Heart Endurance, Stone Vise, Hunter's Sense, Claw at the Moon.
Mystic Arcanamach Mystic Ranger 10/Suel Arcanamach 10
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This build has a lot going on. BAB 17, 5th level arcane and divine spells, only two required feats and all. Take the trapfinding variant and you are a quadruple threat. Arcanamach is finished instead of going Abjurant Champion for more skill points; arcane spell selection should emphasize swift action buffs even more than usual. Sword of Arcane Order feat allows you to get arcane spells arcanamachs aren't usually allowed to.
Mounted Arcanamach by Idle Muse
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Desert Elf
Swashbuckler 1/Paladin 5/Suel Archanamach 4/Swiftblade 9/Elocator 1
ACFs & Sub.levels
- Paladin of Freedom (Aura of Courage->Aura of Resolve)
- Harmonious Knight lvl1 (Detect Evil->Inspire Courage)
- Lion Legionnaire lvl4 (Turn Undead->Wild Fighting)
- Mystic Fire Knight lvl5 (Disrupt Spellcasting when smiting)
- Holy Warrior (Spells->Feat)
Feats (!bonus, -flaw, &DragonMag)
1| Aereni Focus (Spellcraft), Expeditious Dodge, Hidden Talent (Burst), !Weapon Finesse, -Shaky, -Weak Will
3| Iron Will
5| !Mounted Combat
6| Combat Casting
9| Mobility
11| !Spring Attack
12| &Theurgic Mount
15| Mounted Casting
17| !Bounding Assault
18| Rapid Blitz
20| !Sidestep Charge
(32pt buy)
STR 10 (12 base, -2 race)
DEX 18 (16 base, +2 race)
CON 10 (10 base)
INT 15 (14 base, +1 lvl)
WIS 8 (8 base)
CHA 20 (16 base, +4 lvl)
BAB +19/+14/+9/+4
Fort +15 (+2+4+1+3+0 base, +0 con, +5 divine grace)
Refx +22 (+0+1+4+6+2 base, +4 dex, +5 divine grace)
Will +16 (+0+1+4+6+2 base, -1 wis, -3 flaw, +2 feat, +5 divine grace)
Mount - Equivalent of Paladin lvl 18 (full abilities)
SKills I haven't done, but it definitely is possible to qualify on time for the PrCs
Equipment I haven't done, mostly because it should be fairly easy to pick up the obvious stuff, nothing special needed really, aside from Mount items.
A bit of explanation on several bits here:
- Desert Elf: Is an elf (for Aereni Focus), and has a nice Ride bonus.
- Many Paladin substitution levels: Nice for optimisation, and creates (if you want), a flavouful backstory where this young elf turns to religion, but cannot find a deity (and organisation) that fits his particular brand of Psionic power mixed with interest in Spellcraft. Eventually he find the Grimoire and becomes a Mounted Archanamach.
- Spring Attack line: This build is a lot more synergistic (and was designed) with the assumption that you can Spring Attack on a horse. This largely (although not entirely) duplicates the ability of Ride-By-Attack, and is difficult to back up with RAW, but it's something that is flavourful in this build, and could easily be DM-passed.
- Wild Fighting: Valuable with Swiftblade abuse, since you can Full Attack and still move.
Further Options for Optimisation:
- Iron Will can be obtained for free from the Otyugh Hole if it exists, which I haven't assumed here.
- Elocator and Hidden Talent can be swapped out for something else if necessary; getting Iron Will for free as above and removing Hidden Talent removes the need for Flaws, if they're not allowed. Replacing Elocator with a Full-BAB class gives you FULL BAB at lvl20, pretty good even for a Gish. NOTE: Swiftblade 10 (the logical option) is more or less useless in this build; no 6th-level spell slots means the capstone is useless, and the speed boost is mostly irrelevant when mounted. This level could also be used if you want to play an LA+1 race.
- Arcane Strike is good feat for this build, and could take the slot of Hidden Talent if you're not going into Elocator at lvl20 (obviously you need to shuffle things down a bit so you take it in a slot where you qualify).
- I have switched out the Paladin's spells for simplicity here. It is entirely possible to play a more Theurgic build by switching the first level back to Paladin and taking some more magicy substitution levels (Mystic Fire Knight?). Taking some late levels of a theurgic class could get you 2nd level divine spells, although I don't particularly think this is worth it, Paladin casting just isn't good enough.
- I wanted a horse-like Mount for this character, but if you want to fly, then the pre-Suel levels can be replaced with [Anything Full BAB 5/Moonsea Skysentinel 1]. I considered Soulborn for those first 5, because it frees up a couple of feats off your build (You get a bonus feat which can be used to take Midnight Dodge, and Soulborns have Spellcraft as a class skill), which is enough to play sans-flaws if necessary.
- Alternatively, you can just remove the entire mount focus, meaning you've got 6 free levels to play around with at the front of the build. Warblade 6, if you want that flavour of cheese.
The heavy-opt version with a +1 template is probably something like a:
Fire-Souled Lesser Aasimar Soulborn 5/Moonsea Skysentinel/Suel Archanamach 4/Swiftblade 9