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View Full Version : [3.5] Hey! You got Soulcalibur in my DnD!



Tyrael
2009-08-20, 06:09 PM
Ahoy, folks. I've always been a big fan of the Soulcalibur games, especially the characters and the archetypes they represent. If this has been done before, I apologize, but the Search didn't turn up too much that was useful.

What do you guys think would be appropriate stats for Soul Calibur's characters? I'll jot down a few of my own random thoughts off the top of my head:

Nightmare: Fighter/Barbarian (possibly with the Fiendish template?)

Raphael: Swashbuckler/Rogue (Daring Outlaw and Sneak Attack galore?)

Lizardman: Lizardfolk Fighter



That's all that comes to mind at the moment. What do you guys think? Build ideas, class ideas? Items? Any templates?

I don't know Tome of Battle that well, but I hear it's good for this type of thing.

erikun
2009-08-20, 06:23 PM
Ivy is a Chain-Tripper. :smalltongue:

Edge Master would be a Weapon Master or Exotic Weapon Master. Hildegard would be a fighter, knight, or marshal. Xianghua reminds me of a Bladedancer, or a Bard with combat feats. Cervantes is probably a Dread Pirate.

Voldo would be an optimized Monk/Soulknife, just because nobody expects that to work. :smallwink:

AslanCross
2009-08-20, 06:57 PM
-Siegfried: Crusader.
-Voldo: Shadow Hand swordsage.
-Astaroth: Goliath Barbarian with some template that turns him into a construct. (Probably Half-Golem? He IS a Golem after all.)
-Kilik: Monk/Swordsage, focused on Setting Sun and Stone Dragon.
-Nightmare: Half-Fiend Death Knight Crusader. Heck, evil Crusaders even have an aura that drains life from allies.
-Ivy: Spiked chain tripper.
-Xianghua would probably be a Diamond Mind/Setting Sun Swordsage.
-Cervantes: Tiger Claw Warblade/Rogue/Dread Pirate. He'd probably be a necropolitan or even a Death Knight.
-Talim: Desert Wind/Tiger Claw Swordsage/Paladin. I actually built a character like this. She had Serenity so her Paladin features ran off Wis instead of Int, and she fought with two tonfas (not the crappy monk weapons; I used light maces for that).
-Taki: Ninja/Swordsage, for Wis synergy. Ninja levels for Sudden Strike. (Rogue works too, but that's too MAD).
-Mitsurugi: Iron Heart Warblade all the way.
-Alexandra sisters: Pretty straightforward crusaders, though Sophie might multiclass to paladin while Cassie might have warblade instead. No idea how to model her tantrum move, though. <_<
-Maxi and Li Long: I guess they really need Monk levels for Flurry of Blows and proficiency with monk weapons. Monk/Swordsage for awesomeness.
-Zasalamel: No idea how to model this guy. Probably a scythe-using Swordsage.
-Night Terror: Balor Warblade 20 <_<

Frosty
2009-08-20, 07:11 PM
I notice a distinct lack of Fighter levels in these builds :smalltongue:

erikun
2009-08-20, 07:19 PM
That's because most Soulcalibur charactes are good at what they do. :smalltongue:

AstralFire
2009-08-20, 07:20 PM
Judging from their apparel, they all have extremely low Int scores.

Siosilvar
2009-08-20, 07:21 PM
Psychic Warrior could work for Voldo, too, using the claw powers.

Mushroom Ninja
2009-08-20, 07:24 PM
Judging from their apparel, they all have extremely low Int scores.

Not at all! Surely this (http://pages.infinit.net/creator/Ivy.jpg) is properly protective armor!

AstralFire
2009-08-20, 07:34 PM
Get it away from me before I set it on fire.

deuxhero
2009-08-20, 07:36 PM
There was a thread on gleemax about remakeing videogame characters and I know they did Voldo (I think Nightmare as well). Gleemax is down now (and I have no idea how to find it anyways) though.

Mushroom Ninja
2009-08-20, 07:44 PM
Get it away from me before I set it on fire.

But how? Surely armor of such caliber would be fire-resistant.

Sinfire Titan
2009-08-20, 07:54 PM
But how? Surely armor of such caliber would be fire-resistant.

Nothing is resistant to Internet Backdraft.

deuxhero
2009-08-20, 07:57 PM
So internet backdraft does damage as a hellfire blast?

AslanCross
2009-08-20, 08:15 PM
Judging from their apparel, they all have extremely low Int scores.

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/hildegard-von-krone-in-soul-calibur-4.jpg

Looks pretty decent to me.

http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/siegfried-schtauffen-in-soul-calibur-4.jpg (Crystal encrustation notwithstanding)

AstralFire
2009-08-20, 08:16 PM
SC IV girl was a very nice change of pace.

CRYSTAL ARMOR SIEGFRIED does not. I'm pretty sure their goal is to make him look as ridiculous as possible with each new game.

Tyrael
2009-08-20, 08:20 PM
I thought Siegfreid looked pretty good in Soulcalibur 2. Then again, I guess it was technically just an alternate costume for Nightmare.

AslanCross
2009-08-20, 08:22 PM
Actually, I think Xianghua, the Alexandra sisters and Talim are decently-clothed compared to Ivy and Setsuka.

Sophitia even had a full-plate deal way back in Soul Edge, which was my favorite of her alternate costumes. Then again she also had her Xena alternate costume. <_<

Hat-Trick
2009-08-20, 09:07 PM
The Alexandra sisters are better than Ivy, Taki, Setsuka, and SCIII Tira, but they're still fanserviced unrealistically. Tira looks more... normal in IV, but the voice actor... *shutter* I'd rather not have a squeaky mouse for a voice actor.

Kulture
2009-08-20, 09:08 PM
Setsuka's alternate costume is a victorian gown.
You could argue that it could well be reinforced, while her kimono costume is merely non-constricting and thus allows greater dex bonuses (many oriental adventures/rokugan campaigns use armorless styles)

Ivy is pretty much a lost cause and getting even more lost with each new game.
Were she any more lost, she'd be in a H. P. Lovecraft short-story.

Hilde was built as an antithesis to Ivy, so she's worked out well.

Siegfried has obviously goen for astral steel armor, or maybe armor made with materials from the plane of water.

Nightmare is likely a fighter or warblade specialising in the use of a fullblade (maybe even a mercurial fullblade, hard to tell what organic matter and a bulbous (largle fluid filled) eye can do to a weapon's balance)

Probably has levels of black-guard and has the half fiendish and deatknight templates, and judging by what soul-edge does when something hits it, the half-farspawn template. Maybe even a frenzied berserker judging by how he has a habit of ripping apart entire armies for fun.

Raphael is likely a vampire rogue/duelist for the simple fact that everyone who plays him is a cheap git with no moral standards :smalltongue:

Necrid is defiantely plannar, likely half-fiend or half far-spawn (he was once human)

Hilde is a paladin.

Siegfried is probably a fallen paladin/crusader judging by what a 'remorseful' (read: whiny) person he is.

Setsuka is a samurai/courtier judging by her use of an iaijutsu style and weapon.

Mitsurugi is is a Rokugan Samurai, probably with a Crab clan prestige class.

Yoshimitsu is half-abberation Ninja/souleater

Night terror is probably a Balor Warblade/barbarian/frenzied berserker/that large+ size only class beginning with the war prefix that subs BAB for strength

AslanCross
2009-08-20, 10:32 PM
Night terror is probably a Balor Warblade/barbarian/frenzied berserker/that large+ size only class beginning with the war prefix that subs BAB for strength

That would be War Hulk. Night Terror's beam spam can't be represented by this, though, but I guess the Balor's (Sp) abilities cover those.

Gorgondantess
2009-08-20, 11:24 PM
http://www.videogamesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/hildegard-von-krone-in-soul-calibur-4.jpg

Looks pretty decent to me.

Ah-ah-ahhh! Nope, that is completely impractical armor. Women's armor should be the same as men's; the beasts on it would deflect a thrusted blade up and center, rather than to the sides- and without a helmet or gorget, she's going to die pretty quickly.

AstralFire
2009-08-20, 11:29 PM
Still, by Soul Calibur standards, she's practically GI Jane.

Frosty
2009-08-20, 11:41 PM
Kulture, Mitsurugi is more like a Lion Samurai than Crab. He's not BIG enough to be a Crab, and he's not in Heavy Armor. Also, he's not wielding a tetsubo.

9mm
2009-08-20, 11:43 PM
Ah-ah-ahhh! Nope, that is completely impractical armor. Women's armor should be the same as men's; the beasts on it would deflect a thrusted blade up and center, rather than to the sides- and without a helmet or gorget, she's going to die pretty quickly.

*points at the gravity defying helmet by her hip*

Where the sword goes depends on where exactly on the breasts she got hit. that said lets face it, SC IV was the worst of the bunch, despite sensibly clothing one of the characters.

AslanCross
2009-08-21, 12:00 AM
Ah-ah-ahhh! Nope, that is completely impractical armor. Women's armor should be the same as men's; the beasts on it would deflect a thrusted blade up and center, rather than to the sides- and without a helmet or gorget, she's going to die pretty quickly.

I'm aware of that, but it still looks at least more protective than Ivy's stripper outfit. :P And she does have a helmet in that pic. I just have no idea how it's hanging onto her belt.

Coidzor
2009-08-21, 12:16 AM
Transdimensional-hole velcro.

The same thing that keeps kimonos and such that are basically falling off from actually falling off and doing more than being fanservice cleavage parties..

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-21, 12:44 AM
To be honest, I see most of the characters as being Fighters due to the lack of attacks which really fit for ToB classes (admittedly, I've only ever played Soul Calibur 1, but apart from some flashy throws and weapons igniting occasionally, nothing really seems ToB like).


Tyrael, Tome of Battle is seen as good for making more versatile melee warriors because it was designed specifically to give more options to that sort of character (this review, http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12448.phtml , explains what the classes and Maneuvers are like).

elliott20
2009-08-21, 01:13 AM
I actually feel that Siegfried would fit better as a crusader with some stone dragon maneuvers too.

I personally would only drop the core classes in for flavor purposes, and focus mostly on their ToB classes for the actual power.

AslanCross
2009-08-21, 03:58 AM
To be honest, I see most of the characters as being Fighters due to the lack of attacks which really fit for ToB classes (admittedly, I've only ever played Soul Calibur 1, but apart from some flashy throws and weapons igniting occasionally, nothing really seems ToB like).


It's a common misconception that a majority of ToB strikes involve igniting weapons and/or other visually-impressive effects. Only Desert Wind has igniting weapons. Shadow Hand has clouds of shadow. The Devoted Spirit stances generate visible auras, and Divine Surge "sparks off your weapon." Everything else can be visualized without any flashes, explosions or similar visual cues.

Cervantes's, Taki's, and Talim's attacks and leaps model Tiger Claw very well, IMO. Diamond Mind maneuvers are so internal that you could make any attack look like them. (I'd think they would look like Mitsurugi's unblockable attacks.)
Several characters have rapid spinning attacks that can be accurately modeled by Mithral Tornado and Adamantine Hurricane (keep in mind that the Whirlwind Attack feat is a full round action and therefore would take approximately six seconds to perform).

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-21, 04:07 AM
Those are good points. I was thinking about the jumps which are used for s lot of Tiger Claw maneuvers and the fact that characters can't heal themselves in SC games (I'm not sure if there's any throws which can chuck people at least 10' like Setting Sun Maneuvers can either, and Diamond Mind Maneuvers which grant saving bonuses and White Raven Maneuvers wouldn't fit in the game). To be honest, I always imagined Devoted Spirit Maneuvers as being free fromspecial effects beyond wounds visibly closing up.

elliott20
2009-08-21, 04:35 AM
When I think more closely about it, Mitsurugi can very easily be a warblade with a focus on Iron Heart with hints of Diamond Mind stuff mixed in.

Cervantes, Taki, Talim, and even Voldo to a certain extent can have some tiger claw in there.

While no SC character is able to throw people at great distance in game, they do have a crap load of stuff that revolves around knocking people off balance and such.

Beyond just that, a lot of moves can easily be re-fluffed to be merely a mental focus which can prevent damage, which is how the crusader stuff can work.

Let's also not forget that everyone has soul charge moves which is spark-rific. It's just a matter of fluffing it right.

This is not to say everyone will have crusader levels or something. But fluff wise, I can easily see Talim, Cassandra, Sophitia, Nightmare, and Siegfried be running around with crusader levels. (Talim not so much)

Nightmare and Siegfried would be mostly Stone dragon, Devoted Spirit, and if you want to differentiate between them a bit more, you can always just let them multi-class across to another martial adept for different flavors.

Cassandra and Sophitia can be a cross class between swordsage and crusader to get some devoted spirit and some diamond mind for their speed element. Throw in a level of two of paladin to get some flavor in there

Talim would be a swordsage with some crusader levels, focusing on tiger claw, diamond mind, and have a bit of devoted spirit on the side.

Astaroth can be a barbarian/warblade who goes stone dragon.

Rock can be something fairly similar. Just strip the golem/half-giant template, adjust the level distribution between barbarian and warblade and you're done.

Raphael can be a swordsage/warblade for diamond mind, some setting sun (just grab a couple counter maneuvers), maybe a bit of iron heart and you're set. throw in some duelist or whatever to get the flavor right.

In fact, you can pretty much swordsage/warblade combo for a lot of characters.

Cervantes? tiger claw from swordsage, warblade for iron heart, throw in some pirate-y classes for flavor. (Just make sure you make him a bit higher level than the rest of the cast since he's SUPPOSED to be one of the more powerful characters in the series)

Voldo? Swordsage for tiger claw (jumping and dual wielding), shadow hand for sneakier stuff, and you're pretty much good.

Maxi? swordsage

Kilik? swordsage (+monk if you want the flavor)

Edge Master? Swordsage/Warblade/Master of the Nine

Olcaden? same as Edge Master but give him more levels. (I'd say his one of the only legitimate characters who should be closing in on level 20)

In terms of levels, I peg them mostly around the 10-12 range as such.

Siegfried 13
Voldo 10
Astaroth 12
Kilik 12
Nightmare ECL 14
Ivy 12
Xianghua 10
Cervantes ECL 16
Talim 10
Taki 12
Mitsurugi 12
Sophitia 12
Cassandra 10
Maxi and Li Long 11
Zasalamel 14
Setsuka 11
Seung Mina 10
Edge Master 15-18
Olcaden 20

elliott20
2009-08-21, 04:40 AM
heck, if you want to push this further, I can even do this for street fighter or tekken characters. I mean, with superior unarmed strike and the unarmed swordsage variant, you can pretty much get most fighting game characters you'd want to emulate.

In fact, PHB2 pretty much allows you to build a Ryu clone, and one that allows you to follow his progression throughout the bazillion street fighter games, culminating in what is supposed to be the peak of his power in SF3.

Jin from tekken would be the perfect showcase for the retraining rules in PHB2, as he actually drops his previous fighting style to train himself in traditional karate.

Amiria
2009-08-21, 05:43 AM
I was thinking about statting some of them too a while ago, but as gestalt characters for more options/awesome. For a PbP game that never really took off, I made someone fighting like Seong Mi-na as a Warblade8/Fighter2//Swordsage8/Monk2 (Passive Way) fighting with a Dwarven Warpike.

I agree with using ToB classes as the best base classes for them. But 2 levels of Fighter and or Monk (including the variants (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#monkVariantFightingSty les) and maybe also alternative class features) are very nice to get 2 feats (and other stuff in case of monk).

Btw, someone playing online ? I have SC IV since a few weeks, only played 3 fights online and lost all of them. :smallredface:

SlyGuyMcFly
2009-08-21, 07:21 AM
Not at all! Surely this is properly protective armor!

Maybe they use this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) rule variant?

Prime32
2009-08-21, 08:00 AM
Tome of Battle was actually partly based on Soul Calibur. Siegfreid uses a lot of Iron Heart manouevers, for instance.

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-21, 08:17 AM
Where did you get that information from, Prime? I know the book was inspired by anime and video games but I didn't know SC was a direct influence.

Prime32
2009-08-21, 08:29 AM
Where did you get that information from, Prime? I know the book was inspired by anime and video games but I didn't know SC was a direct influence.It mentions Soul Calibur in a sidebar on page 6.

Also lol (http://kotaku.com/5030327/learn-about-soul-calibur-iv-from-a-cute-manga).

Tempest Fennac
2009-08-21, 08:39 AM
Thanks for pointing that out (I'm not sure how I forgot about that specific influence).

Tyrael
2009-08-21, 08:54 AM
I'm thinking about trying to make Nightmare, but the DM of the game I'm running doesn't like Tome of Battle. Any alternatives? I'm definitely thinking the Half-Fiend Template (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031114a) is the way to go. Any suggestions for classes or feats?

Optimystik
2009-08-21, 09:28 AM
I notice a distinct lack of Fighter levels in these builds :smalltongue:
That's because most Soulcalibur charactes are good at what they do. :smalltongue:

Ba-zing.


Maybe they use this (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/adventuring/defenseBonus.htm) rule variant?

How did I not see that before?

elliott20
2009-08-21, 10:05 AM
I'm thinking about trying to make Nightmare, but the DM of the game I'm running doesn't like Tome of Battle. Any alternatives? I'm definitely thinking the Half-Fiend Template (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20031114a) is the way to go. Any suggestions for classes or feats?

If that's the case, your options are far more limited.

do fighter for maybe 6 levels or so, then go blackguard maybe? two-handing fighter does ok, I think.