RL Arena Tournament

[Dusk Eclipse]

After I told my RL gaming group of the Arena in the forums, we decided to have our own Arena-esque tournament, now we will be doing four different combats.
5-lvl, 10-lvl 15-lvl and 20-lvl combats

The rough Character creation rules (still to be discussed) are:

32 point buy
Any WotC aproved book material even campaing specific
No la buy off.
WBCL
Any race
Up to two-meaninful flaws (no shaky for a greataxe wielding barbarian for example)

So I am looking for sugestions for builds, tactics, equipment etc

My planned builds for every lvl are

5-Lvl Barbarian with pounce and probably using a trip weapon (Guisarme or Spiked chain If I can squeze the feat)

10-lvl Pyrokinetist using Power attack sheananingans (SP?) and probably using one of the other element variant

15-lvl..Two-weapon wielding rogue with maximum possibility of SA

20-lvl Some kind of caster, tending towards psion kinetis for all those area powers, but looking for a good psion prestige class with full manifesting advancement if possible, since it is PvP and just one combat I am going nova.


Thanks in advance.

[SurlySeraph]

This should be in the Finding Players (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=51) section. Send a private message to a moderator to have it moved.

[Dusk Eclipse]

This should be in the Finding Players (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=51) section. Send a private message to a moderator to have it moved.

Actually I think no, this for a REAL LIFE arena tournament my local gaming group and I are organising, and I was asking for help.

(There is no intention in this message to be rude, I am just pointing a fact)

[infinitypanda]

Real life

Arena

You sick, sick person.

Edit: Advices.
Avoid a direct damage psion for your 20th level character. Try to go with something that will kill your opponent on the first hit, preferably with no save allowed. And don't just break the action economy, make it your bitch. This is level 20. You can do things like that.

For your rogue, get a ring of invisibility (it's a measly 20k). You might also want to go Assassin to get spells (since spells are always nice, and alignment doesn't matter). However, I'm sure a better optimizer will come in soon and give you much better advice on playing your rogue.

Power attack shenanananigans will be kind of weak at level 10, because you won't be able to fit in 10 levels of Frenzied Berserker which, while not necessary for a PA build, is definitely nice. You could go halfway to get the 3:1 increase, but the 4:1 is golden.

Your level 5 barbarian doesn't need pounce, since he doesn't have iterative attacks anyways (unless you are a whirling frenzy barbarian). Actually, a whirling frenzying pouncing barbarian sounds kind of cool. You should play that.

[Dusk Eclipse]

By real life I mean a REAL LIFE table top game in an actual table with players that know each other and are in the same place at the same time playing.

[Tyndmyr]

See, I had sudden visions of geeky faces peering over tower shields to the background noise of "I cast magic missile" screamed weakly.

I declare this thread a vast disappointment.



In seriousness, at level 5+, go with a caster. You can cast fly and protection from arrows at those levels. Thus, you're pretty much immune to non-casters unless they can fly naturally at a decent speed.

[Eldariel]

Level 5 is poor for Barbarian 'cause you're just one level away from the second attack. Also, Fighter/Barbarian is vastly superior; you absolutely need to shore up your Will-saves and sorta your Reflex-save too, so Resolute [Complete Champion] ACF for Fighter and Steadfast Determination-feat [Player's Handbook II] are absolute musts.

Frankly, it seems like either a ranged build, or a caster would be optimal at this point; ranged build because casters can fly and casters because you could fly. Winged races are still 1 level from flight, and Wind Wall is available, making "hard lock" against most landbound creatures doable (though depending on the terrain, they may have escape places you can't hit, forcing you to move too).


Level 10...I'd strongly consider Cerebremancer with early entry on both sides to get Schism + Celerity [PHBII spell] for early action economy rapage. Loredrake [Dragons of Eberron sovereign archetype] Dragonwrought Desert Kobold for level 7 spells is the single strongest option, of course.

Pyrokinetist...well, I think you lose out to a straight manifester in pure power here. If you want pure power, straight manifesting is going to perform better.


Level 15, if you aren't playing a full caster, might as well not bother. Magic is so ridiculous at this point that you can just annihilate anything. I'd probably go with Wizard 5/Incantatrix 10 with insane metamagic abuse to wreck people at this point.

Probably a heavily metamagicked Orb of Force along with twinked out Greater Dispel Magic (to get by Ray Deflection) along with few non-ray forms of offense (Streamers [Shining South], Manyjaws [Spell Compendium], etc.) are probably great.

Why I suggest against Rogue: There's still small line in Sneak Attack "A rogue cannot sneak attack while striking a creature with concealment..." which means anything with Blinking, any type of Invisibility you can't completely penetrate, any kinds of fog-effects, or such is completely immune to Sneak Attack.

Oh, not to even mention any kinds of Fortification Armors, critical immunity and such. Or Uncanny Dodge of equivalent level. I'm fairly sure getting Sneak Attack off on this level is an exercise in futility if people at all prepare for it at all.


Level 20, be a caster! Vancian caster, even. Anything else would be just...silly. Though what manner of caster depends on you; Factotum 9/Ur-Priest 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 9 would be a respectable build, for example.

Just standard Sorcerer/Incantatrix with Arcane Fusion nova would also work quite well (if you don't know, Arcane Fusion-nova involves (Greater) Arcane Fusion [Complete Mage] + Celerity [Player's Handbook II] to basically cast any spell of 7th level or lower + cast Greater Arcane Fusion again; if opponent is dead, Daze doesn't matter and if it does, Limited Wish replicated Favor of the Martyr [Spell Compendium] just fine).

Either way, you'll want access to Foresight, Moment of Prescience, Celerity, Contingency, Eyes of the Oracle, etc. Basically, you want to be able to take actions.

[infinitypanda]

Sadly, what Eldariel says is true.

[PhoenixRivers]

For level 10: Cerebremancer. Accessible early via the following:

Wizard 2 / Ardent 1

Take the feat Precocious Apprentice (CompArc), and the feat Practiced Manifester (ExpPsi). This will get you level 2 spells and powers, and 6 ranks. From there. Cerebremancer 7... End up as a Wiz 9, Ardent 8.

Well, Ardent 8 for power points and powers known. Ardent 10 for Max level of power available. That gives you 5th level spells and powers, so woo hoo with Anticipatory Strike.

For level 15: Provided Web Enhancement is allowed:

Monk 2 / Bard 1 / Ardent 2 / Ur Priest 1 / Psychic Theurge 9 (do a google search, it'll pull up the Wizards article)

Focus on Wisdom above everything else. Practiced Manifester To get Ardent level up to par. Take the CompMage Spell Reflection ability for Monk. You'll be ardent 15 (ardent 11 for total number of powers known and PP) and UrPriest 10. PsyTheurge is a casting class, so it adds to your CL by the Ur-priest's ability. It also grants a CL by the ability of the PsyTheurge class. So while you'll have spells as an UrPriest 10, your Caster level will be 19. 9th level spells, 8th level powers.

For level 20:

Wis 3 / Ardent 1 / Cerebremancer 10 / Wiz 4-7 / Ardent 2-3

Ardent 17 (9th level powers)
Wiz 17 (9th level spells)

Rock out.

[Olo Demonsbane]

Eladrial/PR: What is an early entry trick for the Psion? I havent been able to figure any out yet. I know about the Ardent one...are there no better ones?

As for build ideas, for your 10th and 15th level builds you can head over to the Test of Spite, watch a couple of fights, find a build you like, PM the owner so you can see the character sheet, and base your character off theirs.

[PhoenixRivers]

Ardent's really the only early entry trick for psions that I know of.

I've got alternate entry paths for UrPriest, Ardent, <Insert arcane caster>, and the like. But not Psion.

[Eldariel]

Eladrial/PR: What is an early entry trick for the Psion? I havent been able to figure any out yet. I know about the Ardent one...are there no better ones?

I, too, do not at least remember any early entries for Psions right off-hand. That is not to say some don't exist, but all the same, it's fully possible that the rules set has none.