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Pika...
2010-04-04, 07:15 PM
So I am working on this character, which I am basing on a major NPC which TPKed my group last session. Just so you know, a CR 18 NPC can take on an ECL 3-5 group, with a pet CR 12 Purple Worm, 6 slave/servant Ogres, and and 13 loyal troglodytes with 3 fighter levels each WITHOUT any armor of any kind after getting caught by surprise. :smallwink:

Basically, I made a Dexterity queen. +12 mod to Dex, and 2 Rogue levels for Evasion. She was also a level 16 Psion. Dodging his and Tumbling out of the way was somewhat easy for her let's say.


Now I am trying to mimic that on a much smaller scale for a PC who's fluff is that he is a slightly snobbish noble who feels by being able to out assassin an assassin he is likelier to found his own noble house. Basically, I do not want him to wear any visible armor, so he can be ready for battle be it traveling on a road, going unhindered in a dungeon, or preferably in a high-class gathering if trouble breaks out (hey, if they don't survive he sudden went up in rank by merely surviving).


So the build idea I had, which I have never even considered or seen is as follows for this backup character:
1. Psion (Telepath) 6. With his great hide and move silently, and lots of ranks in Concentration to dismiss displays, he will basically take control of minds from the shadows when needed, or simply waste them if necessary.
2. Rogue 2. Evasion, plus sneak attack, plus Craven Feat and possibly another one.
3.Force Screen to use as on-the-spot shield. However, I am worried about the constant per battle power points cost.
4. Any other ideas?



http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_1.png

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_2.png

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_3.png

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_4.png

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_5.png

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f173/celestialkin/SSA-X2_DD_CharSheet_v30a18_Page_6.png



Fluff: for those who might be interested:

Korrah ("Black Beast" in Common), of the En (Autumn) noble house is the third child, first son of this ancient High Elf noble house's current patriarch Thro ("Sage" in Common) and matriarch Nuaer ("Hopeful-Singer in Common). While as the first, and so far only, male he is technically entitled to the noble house upon his parent's death. However, he has never agreed with those sexist traditions and has too much love for his older sisters Ty ("Crystal" in Common) (oldest child) and Lue ("Riddle" in Common) (middle child) to pull off such a stunt against them.

Therefore, Korrah has renounced his succession as future patriarch, but not his noble status, in favor of his eldest sister Ty or the gods forbid she comes to ill end his other sister by 23 years Lue. Their parents are split on this subject, as Thro demands at the very least Ty and Korrah marry to not bring dishonor to the household. As part fey Elves do not suffer from inbreeding unless it proceeds for numerous generations straight, and Ty is truly the classical image of an Elven Princess with a celestial personality to match, so it is not as though Korrah would mind the arrangement, but he believes Ty would and he dislikes the idea of being pressured into doing as others choose (a personality trait common in this free willed, and ambitious Elf noble).Their mother on the other hand is glad to see that old tradition put to rest, and is proud of her son's actions and love for his sisters.

Due to his father's anger and insistence Korrah has decided to leave his noble realm's safety to hopefully one day found his own minor house, which he hopes to raise to a higher status before his death. This terrifies his mother, but Korrah has convinced her this is the only way to keep Thro from forcing Ty into a marriage she will end up unhappy with.

He has no quorums with the "younger races", and is even willing to make deals with the "savage races" (hence it quickly became his responsibility at the En noble house), and actually fancies a drink with a Dwarf every once-in-a-while, so he is open to the idea of serving as a noble under a sovereign of a foreign land, and even of a different race. However, while quite intrigued by foreign powers and races he is still a noble of the High Elves, so he can (and does) occasionally come off as quite haughty.

Two other issues with his sire should be noted:
1. His father Thro strives to be recognized as a High Mage of the High Elf Kingdom. His son Korrah has been secretly paying lip service to the first psionic deity Sardior, and has since be granted enough insight into the workings of his mind to begin personal psionic training. His sage father is not too pleased with this life decision either, especially due to his credibility as a magical wizard and how it would affect his goals.
2. While a noble, and a fine one at that by is own assurance, he feels that in the cutthroat world of politics one who knows how to cut throats himself is better off and safer than those depend on hired help for their safety, espionage, and let's be honest occasional murder. Hence he has worked with his realm's thieves guild in exchange for rogue training.

Brendan
2010-04-04, 07:37 PM
assuming this is 3.5, maybe take a level of monk. after all, you don't want armor.

Escheton
2010-04-04, 09:42 PM
monk or ninja dip for wis to ac, swordsage for both wis and light armor.
If you want psionics, check out complete psionics.
Lurk is a really nice psionic sneaky bastard, and there are some wisbased psionic classes in there as well if you want to avoid mad-ness

tyckspoon
2010-04-04, 09:56 PM
Inertial Armor and Linked Power. Inertial Armor provides very cheap, long-lasting AC, and is explicitly allowed to be invisible. Linked Power is just a crazy useful action-economy tool, allowing you to put up buffs that otherwise might not be worth giving their own action (like, say, Force Screen.)

Runestar
2010-04-04, 10:03 PM
Rogue1/wiz4/unseen seer3 with able learner. Screw evasion.

TheMadLinguist
2010-04-04, 10:07 PM
Battle Dancer1 (dragoncomp) gives cha to AC when unarmored.

Godskook
2010-04-04, 10:28 PM
How about a Gish caster build? A prepared caster Abjurant Champion can swift-cast both Shield and Luminous Armor, giving him a snazy +19 to AC without actually wearing Armor. And it gives opponents -4 on melee attacks against you. Switch to Greater Luminous Armor if you can handle the standard action cast time or Greater Mage Armor if your DM houserules that it works with Abjurant Champion(Using GMA would give +6).

However, given that its hours/level, you could just walk around with it pre-cast, despite the glowing.

If you're set on Psion, see if you can get your DM to 'brew a new version of Aescetic Psion that's more in line with Ascetic Mage in terms of quality. It is embarrassing how better the Mage version is for Charisma characters, despite still not being the greatest feat.

Pika...
2010-04-04, 11:17 PM
Inertial Armor and Linked Power. Inertial Armor provides very cheap, long-lasting AC, and is explicitly allowed to be invisible. Linked Power is just a crazy useful action-economy tool, allowing you to put up buffs that otherwise might not be worth giving their own action (like, say, Force Screen.)

Inertial Armor, wow I had completely overlooked that one for all these years. It is way better than Force Screen, and I believe it can even be used together?

I think I will switch for Inertial Armor either way. Thanks!!!

And I will look up Link Power again.



Battle Dancer1 (dragoncomp) gives cha to AC when unarmored.

He is going to be heavy on the Leadership route.

And he does worship Sardior faithfully. :smallbiggrin:

Perhaps he chooses to dance to draw attention to his deity?

Irreverent Fool
2010-04-05, 04:02 AM
So I am working on this character, which I am basing on a major NPC which TPKed my group last session. Just so you know, a CR 18 NPC can take on an ECL 3-5 group...

Even with all of those low-CR minions (with the exception of the worm), there is no way that can ever be a fair fight. A character of that level should be able to slaughter dozens of 5th-level characters without breaking a sweat. Were you just killing the party to end the game?

obnoxious
sig

Optimystik
2010-04-05, 05:57 AM
Even with all of those low-CR minions (with the exception of the worm), there is no way that can ever be a fair fight. A character of that level should be able to slaughter dozens of 5th-level characters without breaking a sweat. Were you just killing the party to end the game?

obnoxious
sig

This. I'm doubly surprised that you thought a level 16 psion should be somehow reasonable if caught naked.

Commander_Vimes
2010-04-05, 01:16 PM
You can have someone who seems unarmored pretty easily using any class

I played a cleric who often worked at infiltration and assassination. Instead of abandoning heavy armor he had a suit of glamered full plate with the calling ability. Basically he could walk around unarmored until he thought he might need it and could then summon his armor onto his body looking exactly like whatever he was wearing as a standard action. He also wielded a sizing gisarme that he would shrink down to few inches and use as a hair piece. For added fun the full plate was spiked.

Effectively he could go from looking like no threat to covered in spiked full plate and wielding a huge reach weapon (also had Strongarm Bracers) in one round.

There's also a low level spell that either lets you ignore your armor check penalty or just silence the noise it makes, so he didn't even have to sound like he was in armor.

Fair warning: walking around in spiked full plate that people people don't perceive as spiked has unintended consequences, especially around people who like to hug...

Frosty
2010-04-05, 01:20 PM
+1 for not remotely fair.

Commander_Vimes: You need to post more often. Anyone who appreciates Terry Pratchett enough to grab the name of Vimes must be awesome and we need more awesomeness on this board!

Adumbration
2010-04-05, 01:22 PM
I would actually recommend Binder for this. I think you needed just 2 or 3 levels of it to bind Paimon, which makes you the ultimate dexterity fighter. Throw in a few levels of Swordsage for that feat that gives you dexterity to damage as well, and you should be set.

EDIT: Here's a character sheet I made once for ECL 3, if it helps anything:
http://www.thetangledweb.net/forums/profiler/view_char.php?cid=17756

Pika...
2010-04-05, 03:57 PM
Damn, I guess this is a big no for my question if my concept/build would have worked. Disappointing. :smallfrown:

Oh well, I am finishing up this one, and will attempt another backup PC who is a Wild Elf elder monk/psion using that feat mentioned above. While the first one might be a failure he might be fun, and I will have the better one just in case. I will be wasting most on his feats in the Dragon Magazine (346?) feat tree for leadership, though, so would that be an issue?

Thanks for the help!


ps. Well, as for the NPC they just barely got her due to her weakness (the cleric took out the lights and almost everybody had darkvision, so she was blind/no Dex). They just did not realize she was suddenly getting owned and had to retreat, so they popped the lights back on. :p

Also, she only had two items, one was a staff which really did not do anything (aside from leading to the PCs assuming it was mega powerful, and they wasted quite a bit of rounds on it...:smallbiggrin:), and a single emergency power stone of (what was that healing power called again from Complete Crud).