Iron Chef Optimization Challenge: E6 Appetizer Edition (Round VII)

[DEMON]

Speaking of which, Hexblade level 6... what a capstone.

Meh. +1 BAB, +1 to all saves, +1 caster level, +1 spell per day... you gotta enjoy the little things.

The designers and the editors did, at least...

But all that aside, I've got "something" in mind for this rounds, let's see how it turns out.

[Zombulian]

Please excuse my ignorance but I couldn't find an answer in the OP, are we working with 6th level WBL?

[Zaq]

Items and wealth are officially up to each contestant and then up to each judge.

Historically, many judges take a dim view of builds that rely heavily on items, but this is far from universal (certainly not in any way mandatory), and it’s entirely reasonable to argue that, for example, it’s unrealistic to act like a level 6+ character has no more resources than a level 1 character. You might feel like you can show off your chef’s touch better with some well-chosen items than with a more spartan build, which is great! But you’re on the hook if a judge doesn’t like it.

Basically, it’s a gamble to make a big deal about your items*, so if you do, make sure that you’re gaining something out of the discussion.

(*Autocorrect turned that into “it’s a gamble to make a big deal about your interns,” which seems like it could go in several directions.)

[lylsyly]

I am out. The best I could come up with was a [blank] and/or [blank] dip, and since it's already been mentioned ............

[Zaq]

I am out. The best I could come up with was a [REDACTED], and since it's already been mentioned ............

Dammit guys, this is precisely why we have the “no speculation” rule!

johnbragg, think you can edit your post to remove the speculative bits and limit the damage? lylsyly, perhaps you can remove it from your post too. And don’t be discouraged. There’s more to the chef’s touch than just which six class levels you take. It’s not like the builds in the Ninja round who each had six levels of Ninja all felt the same or were treated the same, right?

[Zaq]

The builds have started trickling in. Have I mentioned that I love you folks? Because I love you folks.

Keep 'em coming, everyone! This is going to be a good round.

[daremetoidareyo]

I can't wait to see what you guys did.

[MinimanMidget]

Yeah, I'm really curious to see what everyone's done to polish this turd into diamonds.

[Zaq]

Fewer than 48 hours remain. I know that the traditional last-minute flurry of submissions is called the last-minute flurry for a reason, but I confess that I had expected to see more by now. How many folks are still planning to get something in before the deadline?

[Falontani]

I forgot the deadline. I'll see if I can get something. Otherwise I'll judge

[WhamBamSam]

I have my build table done and was planning to finish the entry up tonight.

[Long_shanks]

I have one in and was working on a second, but I won't have time to finish it. And I don't think it deserves finishing either ...

[WhamBamSam]

Build submitted. Looking forward to the reveal.

[johnbragg]

Oh god this is taking so much longer than I thought.

I will finish what I thought was the quickie build. The carnival-of-dips build maybe not.

[lylsyly]

I am very interested in seeing what folks came up with myself.

[Zombulian]

Rushing to get all my formatting done and submitted while also working on my Capstone project.
Interested to see what ya'll came up with.

[DEMON]

Rushing to get all my formatting done and submitted while also working on my Capstone project.
Interested to see what ya'll came up with.

Out of curiosity... is the Capstone project related to the competition, or is it a list of E6 capstone feats for all the classes... or something else?

[Zombulian]

Out of curiosity... is the Capstone project related to the competition, or is it a list of E6 capstone feats for all the classes... or something else?

Capstone as in my project for my senior year of college

[johnbragg]

Oh god this is taking so much longer than I thought.

I will finish what I thought was the quickie build. The carnival-of-dips build maybe not.

[My Entry] is in the contest.

His companion, the halfling Swashbuckler 1/Monk 1/Rogue 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Hexblade 1, will not be appearing.

[Zaq]

[My Entry] is in the contest.

His companion, the halfling Swashbuckler 1/Monk 1/Rogue 1/Wizard 1/Warlock 1/Hexblade 1, will not be appearing.

That gives me a terrible idea to add very far down the list.

The deadline is basically right now. Think you can get your entry in within an hour, Zombulian?

[Zombulian]

That gives me a terrible idea to add very far down the list.

The deadline is basically right now. Think you can get your entry in within an hour, Zombulian?

*Downs pot of coffee*

If I need to!

Edit: Crap I've been working with PST time this whole time. Sorry about that

[Falontani]

I'm down for judging! I'll probably start on Monday

[Zaq]

Right, you've all got until I finish cooking dinner, and then I'm just going to post whatever we've got.

[Zaq]

I have no idea what happened to the picture. I've never actually seen the picture.

Boros, the Demon of Elysium


Image by Cloister on DeviantArt


LN Lesser aasimar Monk 1 / Hexblade 4 / Swordsage 1

Spoiler: Stats

Show

Str 14 (6)
Dex 10 (2)
Con 14 (6)
Int 14 (6)
Wis 14, 12 (4) +2 racial
Cha 18, 15 (8) + 1 at level 4, + 2 racial

Spoiler: Build table

Show

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Monk	+0	+2	+2	+2	Concentration 4, Jump 4, Know (arcana) 2, Know (religion) 2, Listen 4, Spot 4, Tumble 4	Claws of the beast, Improved unarmed strike (Monk), Stunning fist (Monk)	Flurry of blows, AC bonus
2nd	Hexblade	+1	+2	+2	+4	Intimidate 4	--	Hexblade curse 1/day
3rd	Hexblade	+2	+2	+2	+5	Intimidate 6, Concentration 6	Vestigial wings	Arcane resistance
4th	Hexblade	+3	+3	+3	+5	Intimidate 7, Concentration 7, Know (planes) 1 (cc)	--	Mettle
5th	Hexblade	+4	+3	+3	+6	Intimidate 8, Concentration 8, Spellcraft 2	--	Dark companion ACF
6th	Swordsage	+4	+3	+5	+8	Intimidate 9, Concentration 9, Jump 5, Tumble 5, Listen 6. Skill trick: Never outnumbered	Ordered chaos	Quick to act +1, Discipline focus (weapon focus with Tiger claw)

Epic feats
1 Imperious command
2 Intimidating strike
3 Cloak of the obyrith
4 Otherwordly countenance
5 Poison talons
6 Demonic skin
7 Primordial scion
8 Keeper of forbidden lore
9 Eyes of the abyss
10 Precognitive visions

Spoiler: Awesome backstory totally not written in 15 minutes, I swear

Show

Ever felt you were the butt of a cosmic joke? “An angel and a demon walk into a tavern…”
And nine months later, a little cherub was born, looking like the perfect little angel. I don’t remember my parents. As far back as I can remember, there was only the monastery, the strict discipline of the monks, the tolling bells waking me up long before the sun would dare show its face, and the long days spent working and training. Training for what? They would never tell, but assured all of us it responded to a higher purpose. It felt like home, I guess, for a while at least, but something was burning inside me, something no meditation and overwork could ever truly quench.
And then, the “higher purpose” came for us. Demons… dozens, scores, hundreds of them. I can’t clearly recall the night our monastery fell, but the only thing I know is that as soon as demon blood touched my fists (or rather as soon as I punched a demon to death), something broke in me. Like a dam that burst, memories flowed, memories of a brutal demonic past, memories that corrupted my soul for a while and my body forever. My hands were now twisted, a clear indication of the taint within me.
As the monastery fell, so did I. I learned strange eldritch powers, from the whispers in my head, and wings started sprouting from my back. Society shunned me, and I shunned it right back. I hunted as many demons, devils and any other vile creatures as I could, avenging my order I kept telling myself. Now I know it was to make sure I was not becoming one of those creatures.
But there is always a light at the end of the tunnel, however long the tunnel might be. I found friends that could look beyond my hideous physique and see me for the tortured soul I was. With them, I regained control of myself and we continued on fighting evil creatures, but now it was to protect people, defend communities that could not defend themselves from evil.
As I grew in power, so did my curse. I have made my peace with it now; it is part of me and I can’t deny the power I gained from it. There is also a sweet irony killing demons with demonic powers.
And maybe I’m the still butt of a joke, but this joke can kill.

Spoiler: Build breakdown

Show

So, what exactly is the Hexblade good for? Not very much, as it turns out. However, it wants to be a combatant that debuffs enemies. So, let’s achieve that, with as many Hexblade levels as we can along the way.
First, the race. Lesser aasimar is only for the stat bonuses. To qualify for all our feats, we need Int 13, Wis 13 and Cha 15… Since we are already investing a lot in those stats, +2 wis and +2 cha (especially since most of our debuff options are keyed off those two stats) are invaluable to optimize a lot of abilities. Plus, the image of an angel-type slowly morphing in a not evil demon is pretty sweet.

Spoiler: Levels 1-6

Show

Level 1 - Let’s start with another stalwart: Monk! It has a few benefits, the best being Improved unarmed strike and Stunning fist, our first debuff option. +2 to all saves is also nice, but he’ll never really use the AC bonus. Boros also starts on the path of the abyssal heritor, with Claws of the beast (for a +1 profane bonus on unarmed strike damage)
Level 2 – Here we go. Hexblade curse 1/day. Nice to add to our list of debuffs and use when needed. We also start investing in the Indimidate skill. That will come in handy later.
Level 3 – Arcane resistance with a +4 bonus to charisma means that spells and SLAs won’t be really likely to affect him. Demonic skin grants a +2 bonus to natural armour and the Claw of the beast bonus is now +2 as well.
Level 4 – Nothing really to note. Mettle is a fine ability, especially considering our saves, but I’m not sure how often it’ll come up. Still, better to have it than not have it.
Level 5 – Alright, here is our Hexblade capstone: the Dark companion ACF. It’s a free debuff for any enemy adjacent to it, always on and moves at your speed. That’s why Expeditious retreat is one of our spells known, to enhance the mobility of Boros and of the companion. The other spell is Magic weapon, to bypass any pesky DR/magic that could crop up.
Level 6 – Enough of Hexblade, as we got both the needed debuff options. It’s time to get other abilities that will shore up our attack and defences. Swordsage at IL 3 allows us to pick up second level maneuvers, which opens quite a few interesting and powerful options. Plus, a free weapon focus is not too shabby, since our AB is pretty low in the end.
Maneuvers known: Distracting ember (free flank, +2 to attack), Action before thought (concentration check instead of reflex save), Cloak of deception (swift action greater invisibility is great to set up an attack or to get away if we need to), Sudden leap (move the distance of a jump as a swift action. That will get handy with our soon to be gigantic jump bonus), Rabid wolf strike (small bonus to damage but big bonus to hit can come in handy vs tough opponents to hit) and Claw at the moon (small bonus to damage with a successful jump check, which we will always succeed on). Usually, his readied maneuvers will be Action before thought, Cloak of deception, Distracting ember and Rabid wolf strike.
Stance: Step of the wind is our best option. Boros can now move around the battlefield unimpeded.
Finally, Ordered chaos allows Boros to keep his alignment, making it consistent throughout his career.

Spoiler: Bonus feats

Show

We start with Imperious command and Intimidating strike. Now, Boros can make an opponent cower for a round before being shaken for another round, as a swift action after making a successful attack.
And then enter the other 8 abyssal heritor feats. The bonuses start scaling like crazy, and we add a couple of other debuff options along the way.
Abyssal heritor bonuses
Alright, let’s see some numbers for all those tasty feats.
Claws of the beast: +6 profane bonus to unarmed damage, -2 to sleight of hand
Demonic skin: +6 natural armour, -2 to escape artist
Cloak of the obyrith: DR 10/lawful, -2 survival
Otherworldly countenance: +10 intimidate, make opponent sickened as a full round action 10/day, -2 disguise
Poison talons: Once per hour, poison, 1d4 str damage, DC 15, -2 heal
Vestigial wings: +30 jump, feather fall as long as you take a move action each round, -2 swim
Primordial scion: Melee attacks considered chaotic aligned to overcome DR, +3d6 damage vs lawful creatures, -2 listen
Keeper of forbidden lore: +10 know (planes) and spellcraft, -2 gather info
Eyes of the abyss: darkvision 60ft, +10 spot and search, -2 diplomacy
Precognitive visions: 5 +1 insight bonuses (AC, attacks, will saves, reflex saves, and intimidate checks), -2 spot

Spoiler: Debuff options

Show

Dark companion: -2 saves and AC. No save. Start softening the enemy; it’ll only make the other debuffs more likely to work
Hexblade curse 1/day: free action, -2 attacks, saves, ability checks, skill checks and weapon damage rolls, DC Sadly, once per day hurts, because it’s a solid debuffs, inflicting a penalty on pretty much everything except AC. Use on the biggest, baddest you are expected to fight in the day.
Otherworldly countenance 10/day: Full round action, DC 17 sickened. Sickened is another -2 to attack rolls, weapon damage rolls, saving throws, skill checks and ability checks. The full round is pretty bad, but it works at range, so we can use it if we can’t catch up to a target on one turn. However, the feat also grants a +10 bonus to intimidate, so…
Demoralize + Imperious command + Intimidating strike + Never outnumbered: The interaction between those feats and this skilltrick is a bit wonky. Intimidating strike allows for a swift action demoralize after a successful attack made as a standard action. So, we can cower that target for 1 round, then make it shaken. I’m not sure what happens with Never outnumbered (When you use Intimidate to demoralize an opponent (PH 76), you can affect all enemies within 10 feet that can see you, rather than only a single enemy you threaten) and Intimidating strike (If your attack hits, you can make an Intimidate check against the foe you struck): will it affect everyone within 10 ft or only the target? I would like the latter (hey, free cower) but it would need a DM ruling. Nice thing though, we can keep doing this each round to keep the enemy we’re hitting cowered as long has it can’t beat our intimidate check (clocking in at an impressive +24).
Stunning fist 2/day: DC 15, pretty low, but it goes up for every debuff that happens first. Can be used with Intimidating strike to double up on the nasty for a round when we really need it, or to use on enemies immune to fear.
Poison talons: DC 15, 1d4 str damage, 1/hour as a swift action. Not much, but it can still amount to a -1 or -2 penalty to attack and damage.
So, if everything is used and goes our way, we’ve got a possible -4 attack, -4 damage, -6 to saves, -4 skill checks, -4 ability checks, 1d4 str damage, -4 to AC, denied of dex and can’t take any actions. Furthermore, we can keep an enemy cowered as long as we hit; we only need to hit a first time and it goes downhill from there. And we got maneuvers to help with that.

Spoiler: Weaknesses

Show

Strenghts are covered. What about weaknesses? There are a few, but they are not that big.
Fort save: It’s not bad, but still mediocre. If it’s a spell, +10 is good, but a non-spell fort save could be hard to beat.
Ranged/flying enemies: The worst one. Boros has almost no options at range and enemies have to be close to get caught in his spiral of debuffs. Sure, expeditious retreat can help close a gap quickly, but an optimized ranged or flying enemy could take him down. Still, items or companions could help mitigate that one, but alone, that’s a major problem.
Society: Ya know, Boros is one ugly SOB. Walks around, looking like a demon, cursing people, making them piss their pants (voluntarily… or not), ripping them with his deformed hands… I know it’s not mechanical, but a setting would have to be pretty unconventional in order for him to freely walk around town.

Spoiler: Magic items?

Show

More of a bucket list than needs. Boros is functional as is, but magic items are always fun to have
+1 fearsome (DotU) mithral breastplate: +7 AC, +5 intimidate, intimidate as a move action… Yes, please.
Amulet of mighty fists: always nice to have your fists be magical to overcome DR
Charisma and strength boosting items: Better DCs, better saves and better attacks.
Winged boots: Alright, this one’s a bit of a dream. Expensive, but it would get rid of the major weakness of the build.

Spoiler: And finally some numbers

Show

Attack: Unarmed strike +8, 1d8+8 (+3d6 vs lawful enemies)
Flurry of blows: +6/+6, 1d8+8
AC: 20 (+6 nat armour, +2 wis, +1 precognitive vision), could be upped by 4 with a Mithral breastplate, or even by 2 with a simple chainshirt.
HP : 47, DR 10/lawful
Init: +1
Saves
Fort: +6 (+3 base, +2 con, +1 precog)
Ref: +5 (+5 base), concentration +11 (with Action before thought)
Will: +11 (+8 base, +2 wis, +1 precog)
+4 vs spells and spell like abilities, mettle
Intimidate +24
Concentration +11
Jump: +39
Spot: +15
Listen: +7
Spellcraft: +14
Knowledge (planes): +13

Spoiler: Sources

Show

Complete warrior: Hexblade
PHBII: Dark companion ACF (p. 47), Intimidating strike (p. 79)
Tome of battle: Swordsage (p. 15), maneuvers and stance (chapter 4, p. 47)
Drow of the Underdark: Imperious command (p.50)
Fiendish codex II: Abyssal heritor feats (chapter 4, pp. 82-87)
Trashbin… erm PHB: Monk (p. 39)

[Zaq]

What a horrible night to have a curse.

Erica D’zhar
CE Human Hexblade 5/Thrall of Orcus 1

Cry Havoc

Spoiler

Show

’Twas a terrible shame what happened to Miss Eri’s young man. Poor lad just wasted away, and she was never the same after. She’d scarcely leave the room where he died, and when she finally did, she started to fall in with a bad crowd. It chills the blood to think that even half the things they say about what went on at those parties of hers are true. The sounds and smells coming off the old manor alone are enough to turn the stomach, and the townsfolk are starting to say the place is cursed. But no matter the debauchery she’s gotten up to, it hasn’t cheered her up any. She’s always been weeping, every time I’ve seen her since she lost her love. If you’ve the stomach for it, she’s hosting one of her shindigs tonight, and I’m sure you’d be welcome. After all, Miss Eri loves company.

Tears of Blood

Spoiler

Show

Ability Scores
Str 16, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 15
Increase Cha at 4th level.

Build Table

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Hexblade 1	+1	+0	+0	+2	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2cc, Concentration 2, Intimidate 4	Evil Brand, Thrall to Demon	Hexblade’s Curse 1/day
2nd	Hexblade 2	+2	+0	+0	+3	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 4, Intimidate 5	-	Arcane Resistance
3rd	Hexblade 3	+3	+1	+1	+3	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 6, Intimidate 6	Lichloved	Mettle
4th	Hexblade 4	+4	+1	+1	+4	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 7, Intimidate 7, Spellcraft 1	-	Dark Companion
5th	Thrall of Orcus 1	+5	+3	+1	+6	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 7, Intimidate 8, Spellcraft 1, Never Outnumbered	-	Carrion Stench
6th	Hexblade 5	+6	+3	+1	+6	Knowledge (Arcana) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 2, Concentration 9, Intimidate 9, Spellcraft 1, Never Outnumbered	Bind Vestige, Spell Focus (Enchantment)B	Hexblade’s Curse 2/day

Epic Feats
1. Improved Bind Vestige
2. Combat Reflexes
3. Stand Still
4. Obtain Familiar
5. Improved Familiar (Night Hunter Deep Bat)
6. Power Attack
7. Supernatural Instincts
8. Imperious Command
9. Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots)
10. Open Least Chakra (Feet)

Spells Per Day/Spells Known

Level	1st
4th	0/2
5th	0/2
6th	1/3

*Does not count bonus spells per day from a high Cha score.

Spells Known
Death’s Call
Hideous Laughter
Bloodletting

Break Down In Tears

Spoiler

Show

Initial Levels

Spoiler

Show

Getting into Thrall of Orcus takes some doing, but Hexblade offers an easier time of it than most with full BAB and access to some Necromancy spells. So drop some poor sod down on a pile of skulls and give him a good stab. Like most Hexblades, Erica trades out her Familiar for the Dark Companion ACF, which gives you an extra little debuff to stack with your limited uses of Hexblade’s Curse and Carrion Stench from Thrall of Orcus. After dipping into Thrall of Orcus, she goes back to Hexblade to pick up the second use of Hexblade’s Curse.

Epic Feats

Spoiler

Show

Now we’re really getting somewhere. With Improved Bind Vestige, Erica can bind Focalor for his Aura of Sadness (another debuff to stack with the aforementioned). She also makes up for trading away her familiar by burning a few feats to get an Improved Familiar, specifically a Night Hunter, one of the Deep Bats from Monsters of Faerun for its Frightful Presence ability. Have it swoop in after your other abilities have tanked enemy saves to then tank their saves (amongst other things) further by rendering them shaken (it’s also big enough to use your Intimidate ranks effectively to get the debuff that way if Frightful Presence doesn’t work and has 50ft (Perfect) flight and a four natural weapon full attack routine). If you burn a Hexblade’s Curse use, you can pile up a whopping -10 penalty to saves, and nearly as debilitating penalties to attack rolls and skill checks with basically no action investment. That’s essentially a way of saying that all their endeavors fail, especially in E6. Naturally, this will delight Erica’s caster friends who now have weak saves to target, but she can make some use of it herself as well. Tumbling past her or casting defensively is a tough propositon, and when she uses Stand Still on her AoO attacks, they fail the save. Supernatural Instincts which allows her to make AoOs against supernatural abilities as well (partially covering the gap left by Arcane Resistance, and partly just adding to the problems that she causes people by getting up in their grill). Finally, there are a few standard choices in there, and we finish things off with Shape Soulmeld (Impulse Boots) and Open Least Chakra (Feet) to pick up Evasion to work alongside her high saves and Mettle. Wade into battle with Spiked Armor and a polearm of your choice, and render enemies’ lives difficult and brief.

Something In My Eye

Spoiler

Show

Book of Vile Darkness: Thrall of Orcus
Champions of Ruin: Thrall to Demon, Evil Brand
Complete Arcane: Obtain Familiar
Complete Mage: Bloodletting, Death’s Call
Complete Warrior: Hexblade
Complete Scoundrel: Never Outnumbered
Drow of the Underdark: Imperious Command
Elder Evils: Lichloved
Fiendish Codex II: Supernatural Instincts
Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting: Night Hunter Bat as Improved Familiar
Magic of Incarnum: Shape Soulmeld, Open Least Chakra, Impulse Boots
Monsters of Faerun, minor updates in Player’s Guide to Faerun Web Enhancement: Night Hunter Deep Bat
Player’s Handbook II: Dark Companion
Tome of Magic: Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, Vestiges
Everything else can be found in the SRD

[Zaq]

Not going to go full meme and name the build Gishy McGishface? Maybe we should put it to a vote. I'm sure that'd end well.

Human, starting stats S 15 D 10 C 14 I 12 W 8 Ch 13.

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skill Ranks	Feats	Class Features
1st	Hexblade 1	+1	+2	+0	+1	+4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge Arcana, +4 Intimidate	Power Attack, Magical Training.	Hexblades’ Curse 1/day
2nd	Battle Sorcerer 1	+1	+2	+0	+3	+1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1Intimidate		Sorcerer spells Familiar
3rd	Wizard 1 (Conjurer)	+1	+2	+0	+5	+1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Knowledge Religion	Alacritous Cogitation, Sudden Still	Wizard spellbook Abrupt Jaunt
4th	Hexblade 2	+2	+3	+1	+7	+1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate	Ability increase to Strength 16	Arcane Resistance
5th	Hexblade 3	+3	+4	+2	+7	+1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate		Mettle
6th	Hexblade 4	+4	+4	+3	+8	+1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate	Enlarge Spell	Hexblade spells Dark companion

Gishy McGisherton, Male Human Hexblade 1/ Battle Sorcerer 1/ Wizard 1/ Hexblade 3

Start: Human, S 15 D 10 C 14 I 12 W 8 Ch 13.
Level 1. Hexblade 1. BAB +1, Fort +0 Ref +0 Will +2. 12 hp.
Class abilities: Hexblades’ Curse 1/day
Feats: Power Attack, Magical Training.
Skill Ranks: +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge Arcana, +4 Intimidate
Magical Training. (Players Guide to Faerun 41) Sorcerer version—2 cantrips known, 3x/day. Choose Mage Hand, Prestidigitation.

Level 2. Battle Sorcerer 1 (SRD/UA). Adds BAB +0, Will +2. 18 hp
Class abilities: Sorcerer Spells Known 0x2, 1x1. Spells per day 0x3, 1x2. Familiar.
UA Variant class Battle Sorcerer loses 1 spell known, 1 spell per day per spell level, gains light armor, light armored casting, d8 hit die.
Sorcerer Spells Known: Ghost Sounds, Mending, Open/Close; Enlarge Person.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate

Level 3. Wizard 1 (Conjuration Specialist). Adds BAB +0, Will +2. 23 hp.
Class Abilities: Wizard spells (3 0^th, 2 1^st), Scribe Scroll, Abrupt Jaunt (1/day)
Feats: (3^rd level, Wizard 1 Bonus). Alacritous Cogitation, Sudden Still
Spells Memorized: Unseen Servant, Alacritous Cogitation, plus 3 cantrips
Alacritous Cogitation (Complete Mage page 37) allows you to keep one spell slot open to be Schrodinger's Wizard for anything in your spellbook, and I expect it to be banned at many tables, but it's a WOTC source.
Abrupt Jaunt (PHB2 69, ACF for Wizard’s familiar). 10’ teleport, 1/day.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Knowledge Religion

Level 4. Hexblade 2. +1 BAB, Will +1. 30 hp.
Class Abilities: Arcane Resistance, + CHA to all saves.
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate
Ability Score Increase. +1 Strength (16)

Level 5. Hexblade 3. +1 BAB. Fort, Ref +1. 38 hp.
Class Abilities: Mettle. Evasion, but for Fort and Will saves
Skill Ranks: +1 Spellcraft, +1 Knowledge Arcana, +1 Intimidate

Level 6. Hexblade 4. +1 BAB, Will +1. 45 hp.
Class Abilities: Hexblade spells (2 spells known, 1 spell per day)
Hexblade Spells Known: Expeditious Retreat, Karmic Aura (CM 108).
Dark Companion (ACF for Hexblade familiar, PHB2 p 47). Shadowy thing that gives -2 to AC, saves of adjacent enemies. Very goth.
FEAT: Enlarge Spell.

Epic Feats
1. Great Fortitude
2. Lightning Reflexes
3. Practiced Spellcaster (improves CL to 5)
4. Communicator (use arcane mark, message, comprehend languages as SLA)
5. Insightful (use detect magic, detect secret doors, read magic as SLA)
6. Battlecaster (Medium Armor, Sorcerer)
7. Battlecaster (Medium Armor, Hexblade)
8. Battlecaster (Heavy Armor, Sorcerer)
9. Battlecaster (Heavy Armor, Hexblade)
10. Improved Toughness (+6 HP)

Build concept: The hexblade is trash, so even an upgraded Hexblade isn't going to have level-appropriate firepower. So, in keeping with the spirit of the original class, Gishy has loaded up on minor spell effects that might have situational use--cantrips as SLAs, cantrips with metamagic, 1st level spells that, thanks to Alacritous Cogitation, are basically spontaneous. (Note that the wizard spells suffer from armored spell failure, and there is a RAW case that the SLA cantrips do so as well).

Lately, in his prosperous middle age, Gishy has started armoring up, from light armor to full plate.

Fluff: Gishy was a dark and emo boy. He was fascinated with the dark powers of blending swordsmanship and sorcery. Foolishly, he trained as a hexblade. Once out in the world with no magical powers to speak of, he sought out real spellcasters to learn their secrets. After a time, he achieved more peace with himself and resumed the path of the hexblade.

[Zaq]

I wonder if there's a story behind the name here . . .

Sventir
(Azurin Mage-hunter, CE Devotee of Sertrous)

Spoiler: Fluff

Show

"Ah ya got a bounty for a rogue apprentice of yours eh? Y'see that grumpy lookin fella over in the corner there with the bloody shield? That's Sventir, he's your man. Better not let him know who's apprentice he was though. Sventir hates casters. Always has. Always will. No one really knows why, but 'tween you 'n me I think he's got one o' them in-fee-ree-ohr-eh-tee complexes."

Spoiler: Ability Scores

Show

Str 16
Dex 10
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 15 (+1 at level 4)

Spoiler: Levels

Show

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
1st	Lion Totem Whirling Frenzy Barbarian 1	+1	+2	+0	+0	+4 Jump, +4 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Evil’s Blessing (Elder Evil)	Whirling Frenzy 1/day, Illiteracy, Pounce
2nd	Golarion Cleric 1	+2	+4	+0	+2	+4 Jump, +4 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +2 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (Religion)	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin)	Turn/Rebuke Undead
3rd	Hexblade 1	+3	+4	+0	+4	+4 Jump, +5 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +3 Spellcraft, +2 Knowledge (Religion), +2 Knowledge (Arcana)	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer	Hexblade’s Curse 1/day
4th	Hexblade 2	+4	+4	+0	+5	+4 Jump, +5 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +2 Knowledge (Arcana)	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer	Arcane Resistance
5th	Hexblade 3	+5	+5	+1	+5	+4 Jump, +7 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +4 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +4 Knowledge (Arcana)	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer, Insane Defiance (Elder Evil)	Mettle
6th	Hexblade 4	+6/+1	+5	+1	+6	+4 Jump, +8 Intimidate, +4 Listen, +4 Survival, +4 Survival, +1 Spot, +2 Swim, +5 Spellcraft, +4 Knowledge (Religion), +6 Knowledge (Arcana)	Improved Shield Bash, Combat Expertise (Azurin), Mage Slayer, Shield Specialization	Dark Companion

Spoiler: Epic Feats

Show

Shield Charge
Improved Trip
Shield Slam
Agile Shield Fighter
Divine Shield
Shield Ward
Parrying Shield
Shape Soulmeld (Mauling Gauntlets)
Cobalt Expertise
Animal Devotion

Spoiler: Gear

Show

Necessary:
Net
Spiked Heavy Shield x2 (at least)
Thunderstones
Alchemist's Fire
Tanglefoot Bags

Optional and Depending on WBL:
Bashing Property and Valorous Property on Shield
Riverine Armor or Shield
Nightsticks for more Turning

Spoiler: Tactics

Show

Sventir tries to close the gap on any caster he's facing as fast as possible. He's not very sneaky, so generally he just makes a mad dash in their direction, possibly buffing his saves beforehand with Evil's Blessing and then throwing his net at the opponent. With both Parrying Shield and Shield Ward applying his Shield bonus to Touch AC and Divine Shield bumping up his base Shield AC in the first place, hopefully he won't get hit by any rays.

Spoiler: Parrying Shield and Shield Ward

Show

I think there's a strong case to be made that these feats stack based on their respective wordings. Shield Ward says that you "apply your shield bonus to your touch AC" (as well as to a few other maneuvers), meanwhile Parrying Shield says "you gain your shield bonus as an addition to your Touch AC." I take these different wordings to apply similarly to a Deepwarden/FotF applying their Constitution to AC. Different circumstances that are pulled from the same bonus.

Spoiler: Sources

Show

Complete Warrior
PHB
PHB II
Complete Champion
Unearthed Arcana
Magic of Incarnum
Lord of Madness
Elder Evils
Complete Arcane
Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting

[Zaq]

It's one thing for a full-size build, but when I get an E6 appetizer build that's long enough that it needs to be PM'd to me in pieces, my interest is piqued.

Tio Hexblahday

Hexblade 3/ Sha’ir 27/ Hexblade 3

Background:

Sit down, read the entry. Think, “How to optimize this.”
Look at the class features...Man this thing stinks.

Look up dead levels. Oh cool, you get prestidigitation at level 6, and if you already have that spell, you can choose any other 1st level spell. Put an overconfident emphasis on “ANY” and you might be able to argue that you can go off of the hexblade spell list. To the googles.

Devastating smite from the Forge of War! A first level spell that doubles smite damage! That can get built around. How do we get smite onto a hexblade?

Killoren from races of the wild get a smite! Awesome, we can take hexblade 6, and rules lawyer our way into using the dead levels prestidigitation to get a spell from the paladin spell list!

What else is cool about killoren? Scour. Fey type? Cool. Let’s check that fairies feature fey corner or whatever it’s called on the dnd archive. There is a fey only feat called Beauty’s Bounty! Get charisma to hit points! Yay.

What else is cool about killoren? Scour that book. They live forever!

What can we do with that?

Man Hexblade as a class really stinks.

Read closer, hmmm. They get a familiar.
A familiar that takes a year and a day to replace and...what am I doing?

Beginning at 4th level, a hexblade can obtain a familiar. Doing so takes 24 hours and uses up magical materials that cost 100 gp. A familiar is a magical beast that resembles a small animal and is unusually tough and intelligent. The creature serves as a companion and servant. The hexblade chooses the kind of familiar he gets. As the hexblade advances in level, his familiar also increases in power. Treat the hexblade as a sorcerer of three levels lower for determining the familiar's powers and abilities (see the Familiars sidebar on page 52 of the Player's Handbook). If the familiar dies or is dismissed by the hexblade, the latter must attempt a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw. Failure means he loses 200 experience points per hexblade level; success reduces the loss to one-half that amount. However, a hexblade's experience point total can never go below 0 as the result of a familiar's demise or dismissal. A slain or dismissed familiar cannot be replaced for a year and day. A slain familiar can be raised from the dead just as a character can be, but it does not lose a level or a point of Constitution when this happy event occurs. A character with more than one class that grants a familiar may have only one familiar at a time.

So you can drop a level...on purpose if you wanted to. Wait, didn’t beauty’s bounty give you bonus hit points whenever you gained a permanent stat increase. Dang it. It also takes that hit point away if you lose that stat increase.

Are there any other feats that give you free stuff for stat increases?

To the google. And the answer is, “Yup!”

Wisdom breeds caution racial feat from underdark.
And Mind over body regional feat from p. 41 in PGTF.

Wisdom breeds caution requires you to be a deep gnome, no good, killoren or bust. But the feat doesn’t have that pesky “if you lose that stat increase” clause that beauty’s bounty did. How about Mind over body?...AWW man, Expanded psionics handbook came later and published another feat called mind over body, and it stinks.

Anyways, then realize that you don’t really know the level loss rules so well.
So let’s look it up.

Here’s the relevant bits

DMG p.296 LEVEL LOSS: A character who loses a level instantly loses one Hit Die. The character’s base attack bonus, base saving throw bonuses, and special class abilities are now reduced to the new, lower level. A 2nd-level rogue, for example, normally has the evasion ability, but when she is drained to 1st level, she loses that ability. Likewise, the character loses any ability score gain, skill ranks, and any feat associated with the level (if applicable). If the exact ability score or skill ranks increased from a level now lost is unknown (or the player has forgotten), lose 1 point from the highest ability score or ranks from the highest-ranked skills. If a familiar or companion creature (such as a paladin’s mount) has abilities tied to a character who has lost a level, the creature’s abilities are adjusted to fit the character’s new level.

What can I do with this. Time to look at those feats again.

ReDiscover wisdom breeds caution from the underdark supplement. It’s a feat that can only be taken svinfergblin. But that race is disallowed due to LA. WAIT! There is an appendix to Player’s guide to Faerun that has a lesser Snivgerglkejr version. Sweet. Sorry Killoren, you didn’t have the feat support.

So if you have a few years between level 3 and level 4...you could dismiss your familiar every year, drop to third level, and do it over again.

Are snivergoijodij good at living a long time? Look it up. No. Base age is 20 years. That’s no good. Killoren got to stop aging at old age. Sniverlkglkjfg die as soon as humans do. But...Aren’t fey immortal. Back to fey corner. DM’s call, but yeah, basically.

So let’s add the unseelie fey template from dragon compendium.

Awesome, snighkjflkej also get a cool racial feat to summon elementals, and unseelie fey can tank saves.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself, there must be a better way to get permanent hit points through the tactical loss of levels. Get to the googlomobile.

Incarnum fortified body? +2 hp per incarnum feat. Psionic Body +2 hp per psionic feat. Draconic toughness: +2 hp per draconic feat. The problem is that these feats grant hp for every feat you have. If we’re losing levels, we want something that grants a bonus for feats taken.

Hmmm. Devil’s stamina gives you hit points for selecting the devil touched feat, not having the feat. Time to learn more about Hellbred.Sweet, they get a free devil touched feat at 4HD. Sorry unseelie fey lesser snivregldkjfo, we are hellbred fans now.

But do hellbred live forever like a killoren, so that we can gain lots of Hit points by adding a few per year and our familiar, when we finally keep it, will have half of that. Nope. Actually, there is no support for hellbred aging or size. Put a pin in that, let’s go see if there is a way to optimize 4th level through multiclassing. Because waiting a year for a familiar seems like terrible design.

SHA’IR! You only lose 200 xp when you dismiss your gen familiar. And you only have to wait a day to spend 100gp and summon a new one.

Wait. Do we have to choose the same class everytime we level up into a level that we’ve levelled up into before? FAQ to the rescue. Shroedinger’s validity as a primary source aside, there isn’t an answer in ye old PHB or DMG.

Rules faq
When a character dies and comes back to life a level lower, are there any guidelines as to which level he must lose? Does it have to be the last level he gained? When he gains a level again later, can he choose a different class than he did originally? What about a lst-level character (who instead loses a point of Constitution)? Can he begin with a new class completely?The rules are silent on this issue, but it seems most logical if the character loses the class level he gained most recently. The same is true of any feats, skill ranks, or ability score adjustments gained due to the now-lost level. The character is under no obligation to make the same selection(s) when he next gains a level with XP. A character who regains a lost level from restoration or a similar effect must regain the same class level (and other abilities) that he lost. In other words, you can’t use level drain and restoration to rebuild your character. A lst-level character doesn’t lose a class level, so he can’t change his existing class level.

Sweet. Now we can gain +2 hp per day by taking sha’ir and dismissing the gen and selecting devil’s vigor at level 4 over and over again. We don’t need to live forever anymore. We don’t even need to be fey type. Man, hexblade stinks so bad, having to wait a whole year for a new familiar...

Now...What else can we add to that? Wait, we need to up our fortitude save to qualify for devil’s vigor. Double check the text...Nevermind, it’s a racial bonus feat. No pre-reqs required.

Ok, now we need to pay 100 gp each time we summon a gen. So let’s check the Wealth by level chart. 2700 gp for 3rd level and 5400gp for fourth. So inbetween 3rd and fourth level, we need to take between a month to six weeks to summon a familiar everyday and dismiss them. And we need a way to earn 200 xp per day as we move back and forth over the level 3-level 4 border. We need to kill/defeat a single CR 1 monster/trap every day to make this happen.

The create trap spell from races of the dragon has 12 hour long duration and creates a CR 1 trap. All of the traps listed are CR 20 disable device checks. All we need is a means of disabling that trap...off to the alternative ways to get class skills thread. Hmmm...noble from dragonlance might work...but if we dip that, then we lose that sweet prestidigitation capstone....

Masterwork thieves tools and bigby’s helping hand can net us a +4 to that check. Unskilled we can get 3 ranks by level 3. DMs will probably have an issue with you assuming that you can just cast your own trap spell and remove it with a skill check as a means of xp hacking. Maybe we should go look at item crafting feats that we can take. Or...wait!...we can also just...walk into the trap...also, we should really get to choosing our stats. We’ll get to that later.

DMG p.39 Overcoming the challenge of a trap involves encountering the trap, either by disarming it, avoiding it, or simply surviving the damage it deals. A trap never discovered or never bypassed was not encountered (and hence provides no XP award).

So maybe we just need a way to heal the damage from the traps. Basic arrow trap is the way to go here, it deals 1d6/X3 and attacks at a +10. All we need to do is get our AC to 21 by level 3. If we put an 18 in dex and wear a chain shirt and heavy wooden shield, we have an AC of 20. Wait, the trap probably catches you flat footed…

Maybe we should work on just healing the damage. It would probably help the overall character anyway if we stand to gain like 54 additional HP from these shenanigans anyway. Ok, we got hibernate from dragon compendium, rapid metabolism from a psionics book, faster healing from complete warrior (Trash. As much trash as the hexblade. You actually lose ability to heal ability damage with that feat) and draw from the land from a forgotten realms book. The only one with a favorable prerequisite is rapid metabolism. So we gain back our HD + 2x constitution modifier every night. So long as we have a constitution of 14 or higher, that is a better deal than the rest of those feats. And who knows, maybe there’s a soulmeld to help out even more or something.

Wait. We need to kill or dismiss our gen familiar everyday. We can just send him into the trap and dismiss him if he survives. Sweet. Economical.

We’ll just use all of that fey work as hellbred backstory. Once an unseelie fey snigvrfelfinb, tio hexblahday repented at death and was reincarnated as hellbred.

Ok. So we now have hellbred
1.Hexblade: devils favor, FEAT
2. Hexblade
3. Hexblade: FEAT
4.00 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.01 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.02 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
4.03 Sha’ir: Devil’s stamina
~
4.27 Sha’ir: Devil’s flesh
4.28 Hexblade: Devil’s sight
5.Hexblade
6. Hexblade: Feat

So, just read some more devil touched feats. They all have this weird language about selecting the feats. Devils favor, which you get for free from being a hellbred, grants you a pool of floating +2 to attack rolls. On your final go around as a temporary sha’ir, take devil’s flesh, which gives you a natural armor bonus equal to ½ of the number of deviltouched feats that you have selected. Which would be 28 at this point. That’s a +14 to natural armor and intimidate checks. Sweet.

Take Devil’s sight on the 28th time you join the land of level 4, and choose hexblade instead of sha’ir and get on your way to your epic feats. You can get blindsense for 5 rounds 29 times a day. That’s like at least an hour of blindsense…

Sweet. This T.O. Hexblade is coming together. Now all we have to do is select 13 feats that synergize with a high con score, charisma casting, full bab, an extra 50 hp, a familiar with an extra 25 hp, and an armor class of 24 at a minimum.

Let’s brainstorm some backstory.

Mental note: make a story about elemental gen who tell stories of Tio Hexblahday, this otherwordly force who traumatized an entire generation of tiny djinni’s. The new generation think of him as a boogey man tale. But the effect of Sha’ir for a day prince of lies and deceit really disillusioned a number of real gen.

Tio Hexblahday is restless and driven spirit reincarnated into the form of the hellbred. For atonement of his past crimes Tio has chosen not to drape his mantle over the class chassis of the paladin, with all of it’s splat support and cool alternative class features and substitution levels and decent charisma casting. Nope. Tio takes the high road. He is using the Complete Warrior’s hexblade class to prove how driven he really is to make good on his promise to repent. If he can be a warrior of light by using the power of the hexblade class, despite its terrible handicaps, then surely the good gods would smile down on him. He takes death devotion because he’s hellbred. Hellbred are edgy. Death domain is edgy. It’s like icecream and cake. They go together.

By level 2, Tio is wondering where his spells are. Duskblades get spells. Rangers get two bonus feats by now. Paladins add pluses to all their saves. The hexblade can only use his trick once a day. This road is much more difficult than he thought it would be. 2 skill points! C’mon!

By level 3, Tio is tired of being less effective than the warrior NPC class. At least he gets Mettle. Too bad he can’t take a hit to his fortitude save any better than a house cat can. Tio quits trying to be good. The only way to get ahead is to accumulate so much power and influence through the fear of destruction that you are unassailable. Only on this field of fate can poor Tio hope to eke out an eternity in hell. Resentful, Tio takes supernatural transformation to turn his edgy spell like ability of death devotion and boom, he’s got the poor mans 1/day enervation. More useful than a one time use -2 to other peoples rolls.

At level 4, Tio goes onto a spree of killing gens that he was taught to summon to retrieve spells for him, seeing as now his hexblade class chassis saddles him with a familiar weaker than a sorcerers while paladins are a level away from a golden mount of light. To rub salt into the wounds, he keeps sending the gen to collect the spells that will kill them. Meanwhile, this fluctuation of soul power from partitioning his life force to summon djinni to kill everyday for an entire lunar cycle, seemed to reverberate dissonance into the hellbred scourging pact. Tio’s power swelled from this weird performative beseeching of any force in the universe to give him more power. Tio takes and kills 27 gen in as many days. More if he gets a loan of a couple hundred gp from friends. Sure, he is evil now. But maybe when he returns to hell, it won’t be at the bottom.

Level 5. Still no spell slots? Daheck! And that spell selection sucks. Sucks. At least you get these useless feats.

Level 6: Tio has stuck through all crappy levels and achieved what only Tio Hexblahday could achieve: Working entirely around his class to not stink. He can now command spectral spawn. He can buy a high charisma horse, enervate it to death. You might need to burn some nightsticks, if you’re allowed to do that. That’s a mighty good start to your wightocalypse. That’s some mighty hellbred going to hell renegotiating term power right there. Man, Tio is so glad that he didn’t take any Eberron branded feats or equipment so that he could be a forgotten realms denizen. And after this we have 10 levels worth of feats to figure out what to do at the top of your mountain of power.

Node spellcasting hijinks with versatile spellcaster? Mother cyst feat with versatile spellcaster? Improved energy drain and spell drain? Familiar boosting feats? It’s hard to beat a 6HD hexblade with a 24 AC and 100 hp and a retinue of spectral spawned cronies.

Let’s assume that you can’t use nightsticks as death devotion fuel. First epic feat chosen then: Death Devotion again.

Ok, we can enervate more enemies if we use a double weapon. Let’s look for a double weapon that doesn’t need exotic weapon proficiency. Quarterstaff. Nice. Then we check the guide to getting free feats to see if we can catch ourselves a free TWF feat. Consider taking planar touchstone and finding a deity with a chosen weapon of quarterstaff and access to the war domain….Maybe later.

Let’s do TWF as our second feat. If you can snag gloves of the balanced hand (Magic Item Compendium) at 8,000 gp, you can choose a better feat. But let’s assume that your gracious DM isn’t going to let you get away with that seeing as how they were totally blindsided with your false sha’ir era.

Improved energy drain is a good way to yield a mild buff. And it allows spell drain, which you actually can use. Hexblade doesn’t give you enough casting, so you better go take it from others. You need caster level 5th for spell drain though. I guess we should do practiced spell caster. Wait, maybe one of those hexblade trash bonus feats from level 5 can help us. Nope, they don’t raise caster level. Practiced spellcaster it is. At sixth level, with the practiced spellcaster feat, you cast at 6th level! Hexblade is a wellspring of turd, that’s for sure.

1. Death devotion
2. TWF
3. Improved energy drain
4. Practiced spellcaster
5. Spell drain

I like this so far. You get 3 attacks per round. You drain levels. You have a hex that you can use to help with pesky saves against your energy drain. And if you kill them with that energy drain, they become your spectral minion if their charisma is 8 or above. If it is a spell caster you hit with your twf, you can rip off some sweet spells. Do we want to use this ability to become a magic item crafter? Attune gem looks like a good choice. It only takes an hour + spellcasting time. We can make that legal by taking the exceptional artisan feat. That gives you fourteen minutes 54 seconds to defeat your opponents that you’re stealing spells from and whip out a gem. Assuming that you can stand there at the scene of a mage murder for 45 more minutes. Do hexblades get rope trick? Now you can store your stolen spells for rainy days. And if the spell is so high level that you lose a level, by taking exceptional artisan after attune gem, you can still craft it in time.

Another option is to take arcane strike, and use the stolen spells as bonuses to hit and damage.

6. Attune gem
7. Exceptional artisan

Three feats left…
I reckon we could do mother cyst and versatile spellcaster. Finish it out with the ability to burn your 1st level slots to get cysts into others so that you can scry on them… That seems...less optimal though. Maybe we can upgrade the familiar? Any familiar feat requires a dismissal, and thus, a one year gap in adventuring.

Let’s do arcane strike. Nevermind, you need 3rd level spells.

Hmmm.
Let’s get weapon finesse. When twf with a quarterstaff, we can use our dex modifier instead of our strength. That’s at least a plus 2, which counteracts the TWF penalty. Come to think of it, combat reflexes works really well with your enervation quarterstaff abilities. Throw some life drain in for some easy temporary HP. Good enough.

8. Weapon finesse
9. Combat reflexes
10. Life drain

Tio Hexblahday just needs some spells and skills chosen, notably diplomacy, spellcraft, and craft(gemcutting). Besides that tho...he’s done. It’s been a long journey since the days that he was a killoren or an unseelie snvifrogjeoijsl gnome.

Do we cheese the prestidigitation dead level capstone? Who cares, you can kill a faerunian charisma 8 horse and begin your wightocalypse.

---

Level	Class	BAB	Fort	Ref	Will	Skills	Feats	class abilities
1	hexblade	1	0	0	2	12: spellcraft 4, diplomacy 4, craft (gemcutting) 4	Devil's Favor (Fiendish Codex II p. 81), Death Devotion (Complete Champion, p. 57)	Hexblade's curse 1/day
2	hexblade	2	0	0	3	3: diplomacy 5, intimidate 2		Arcane resistance
3	hexblade	3	1	1	3	3: diplomacy 6, intimidate 4	Supernatural Transformation (Death Devotion) (Savage Species, p. 39)	Mettle
4	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina ( Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.01	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.02	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.03	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.04	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.05	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.06	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.07	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.08	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.09	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.1	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.11	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.12	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.13	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.14	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.15	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.16	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.17	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.18	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.19	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.2	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.21	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.22	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.23	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.24	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.25	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.26	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Stamina (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.27	Sha'ir	3	1	1	5	3: diplomacy 7, speak language (auran), speak language (ignan)	Devil's Flesh (Fiendish Codex II p. 82)	Summon Gen Familiar, spellcasting
4.28	hexblade	4	1	1	4	3: intimidate 7	Devil's Sight (Fiendish Codex II p. 83)	Summon Familiar, spellcasting
5	hexblade	5	1	1	4	3: intimidate 8, craft (gemcutting) 6	Combat Casting	Bonus feat, hexblade's curse 2/day
6	hexblade	6	2	2	5	3: intimidate 9, craft (gemcutting) 8	Dragons of Faerun Web Supplement p.6	Prestidigitation

EPIC FEATS

1	Death Devotion
2	Two Weapon Fighting
3	Improved Energy Drain (Libris Mortis p. 27)
4	Practiced Spellcaster (Complete Arcane, p. 82)
5	Spell Drain ( Libris Mortis p. 30)
6	Attune Gem ( Magic of Faerun, p. 21)
7	Exceptional Artisan ( Eberron Campaign Setting, p. 52)
8	Weapon Finesse
9	Combat Reflexes
10	Life Drain ( Libris Mortis p. 28)

Abilities
Str: 12
Dex: 14
Con: 12+2: 14
Int: 15-2: 13
Wis: 8
Cha: 16

Add +1 to dex at level 4

Alignment: start at neutral
Shift to neutral evil at level 3


Other ideas and possible long term goals:
Find someone who has access to the ability rip spell from serpent kingdoms. If this means doing favors for yuan ti, so be it. Have that caster rip your racial Hellbound trait and give it to someone or something else.

Hellbound (Su):

[Zaq]

There you go, five Hexblades! I'll start working on a table for the OP. Judges, you know what to do!

[MinimanMidget]

I was planning to try judging, but it's more intimidating than I was expecting. I guess I'll see how I go.