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Reprimand
2011-02-06, 06:36 PM
I really like the character Xykon besides him being the main antagonist he's probably one of my favorite characters. I wanted to make my first arcane spellcaster in my first evil campaign be a little bit like him. We're starting off at level 6 and I want to do him justice. If someone could help me build him in Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 I really need the help. This will also be posted on the OoTS forum.

The biggest problem is Feats and Spells (What kind of feats should a caster take anyway? And if you say combat casting I'll hit you.)

As for spells I'm going to be using the panel where O-Chul gives a Roy a list of Xykons Spells for some guidiance:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0670.html

I'd really love any help I can get (especially experienced arcane spellcasters out there).

Talbot
2011-02-06, 06:38 PM
My initial thought is on race: once you figure out what kind of caster you want to be, pick a vaguely humanoid race that boosts the right stat- then become a Necropolitan. That snags you the Undead template and all sorts of immunities.

Callista
2011-02-06, 06:38 PM
Well, Xykon is more of a blaster than anything, and being a lich does give him a pretty big level adjustment; so he's not particularly optimized. If you can live with that, then go for it.

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 06:41 PM
Well first off my main thought for race would be elf because the -2 con isn't going to matter when I become a lich, or any race that raises int or dex at the expence of con.

Necropolitan? (noob needs translation and sources please! xD)

Starbuck_II
2011-02-06, 06:42 PM
I really like the character Xykon besides him being the main antagonist he's probably one of my favorite characters. I wanted to make my first arcane spellcaster in my first evil campaign be a little bit like him. We're starting off at level 6 and I want to do him justice. If someone could help me build him in Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 I really need the help. This will also be posted on the OoTS forum.

The biggest problem is Feats and Spells (What kind of feats should a caster take anyway? And if you say combat casting I'll hit you.)

As for spells I'm going to be using the panel where O-Chul gives a Roy a list of Xykons Spells for some guidiance:

http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0670.html

I'd really love any help I can get (especially experienced arcane spellcasters out there).

Before he became a Lich he had average to low Wis/Int (8-10 I'd peg it).

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 06:43 PM
Before he became a Lich he had average to low Wis/Int (8-10 I'd peg it).

Good to know since a lich does techiquely get a +8 racial bonus to listen

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 06:46 PM
Well, Xykon is more of a blaster than anything, and being a lich does give him a pretty big level adjustment; so he's not particularly optimized. If you can live with that, then go for it.

True but he also used a lot of necromancy; i.e. energy drain, animate undead, and seems to use other fun spells like symbol of insanity

And a +4 LA isn't like HUGE, +lich is pretty OP for just +4 LA

Whoops! Double post sorry!

Talbot
2011-02-06, 06:48 PM
Necropolitan is from Libris Mortis. It basically just makes your base race Undead. Downside: it's harder to heal, and you can be turned. Upside: boatloads of immunities and no need for a Con score.

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 06:49 PM
Necropolitan is from Libris Mortis. It basically just makes your base race Undead. Downside: it's harder to heal, and you can be turned. Upside: boatloads of immunities and no need for a Con score.

I was just going to go lich at 11 and go demi lich at 21+ our DM is pretty cool and we tend to find a good amount of loot, combining that with betting my earnings in the areana on my party means I can get lich right away at level 11

We also tend to level up fast since we have a high level npc and everything is scaled to him. He's about level 10 so we reap the benefits.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2011-02-06, 06:57 PM
He's a Sorcerer, so there's a good place to start. Sorcerers typically do best with spells they can cast repeatedly, since they know so few but can cast so many. Xykon doesn't seem to have a familiar, so use the Metamagic Specialist ACF in PH2. Xykon is smart, so get a decent Int score (14 at least). Wisdom is an easy dump stat for most arcane spellcasters, so put it as low as you can.

I'd definitely pick up Fell Drain from Libris Mortis, and use it with Power Word: Pain from Races of the Dragon to deal a negative level every round to your target. A Lesser Rod of Chain Spell in Complete Arcane would be amazing with that. Get a decent selection of spells that attack various saving throws, and get spells that are useful when used repeatedly. I'd take Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) and make it a Runestaff from Magic Item Compendium to greatly expand your available spells known. Edit: If you get tons of cash, upgrade your item familiar to also act as an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Hound of Doom (CW), you won't regret it.

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 07:22 PM
Okay wow that's really good! Any tips on raising spell saves?

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2011-02-06, 07:42 PM
This works for enemies which have racial HD rather than class levels:
1. Put at least one rank in every knowledge skill (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/knowledge.htm) that's used to identify creatures by type.
2. Make a cheat sheet listing each creature type (http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/typesSubtypes.htm), what skill is used to identify it, and what its good/weak saves for its racial HD are. Also put typical immunities and vision types on there.
3. If an opponent's creature type isn't immediately obvious, you can roll a Knowledge check to try to identify it without spending any action at all. You can even ask what its creature type is so you know what type of knowledge check to roll. You now know what that opponent's weak saves are, and can cast a spell that it's less likely to save against.

Starting at 6th level, I'd get the following spells:
0- The Three M's, Detect/Read Magic, Prestidigitation, Stick
1st- Power Word: Pain, Grease, Mage Armor, Magic Missile
2nd- Web, Glitterdust
3rd- Stinking Cloud

For your Runestaff, you could put Mage Armor on it and know Shield instead. I'd put Bands of Steel and Ray of Dizziness on there, along with Ray of Stupidity. An item familiar must start out worth at least 2,000 gp, and then you can upgrade it yourself for half cost. Say it started out with Ray of Stupidity, Mage Armor, and Wall of Smoke: (2^2*400)+(1^2*200)+(1^2*200)=2000. Since then you've upgraded it to also contain Bands of Steel and Ray of Dizziness: (3^2*400)+(3^2*200)+(2^2*200)+(1^2*200)+(1^2*200)= 6600 gp, so you would pay 2000+(6600-2000)/2=4300 gp. Note that it states how many and what levels of spells a runestaff should contain, but there's nothing to stop you from adding to it yourself, and since it's your item familiar you won't need to take Craft Staff or have the spells available to do it. Your number of spells known is only limited by how much cash/xp you can spend, and having it gives you a 10% bonus to your XP so you shouldn't even fall behind because of crafting costs!

Dusk Eclipse
2011-02-06, 07:51 PM
No mention of solo's sorcerer strategems or the mailman?? For shame..Gitp...for shame.

Solo's stupendous sorcere strategems is the best handbook for sorcerers, it is floating somewhere over at Brilliant gameologists Forum, I can't link right now so either google it or hope someone else can link it.

The mailman, a sorcerer based build which exels at dealing damage (iirc somewhere in the 1400 points of damage) it is on the wizards boards, again google it or ask for a link (stupid cellphone making linking night imposible :smallanoyed:

Draz74
2011-02-06, 08:13 PM
I'd definitely pick up Fell Drain from Libris Mortis, and use it with Power Word: Pain from Races of the Dragon to deal a negative level every round to your target.

Before doing this, you should realize that Power Word Pain is totally overpowered (especially in this combo), and that this tactic will earn you the enmity of your DM. And that he can use Power Word Pain back at you.

Fell Drain is a cool feat though.

Biffoniacus_Furiou
2011-02-06, 08:25 PM
No mention of solo's sorcerer strategems or the mailman?? For shame..Gitp...for shame.

Solo’s Stupendously Superior Sorcerer Stratagems (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=74801) there ya go.

The Mailman uses the Incantatrix prestige class from PGtF, I would highly recommend it. It requires Iron Will, you can say you visited the Otyugh Hole detailed in Complete Scoundrel to get that for 3,000 gp without spending a feat on it. You should also get Versatile Spellcaster from Races of the Dragon, so at Sorcerer 4 you'll be able to spend two 2nd level spell slots to cast a 3rd level spell from your Runestaff and be able to start out Sorcerer 5/ Incantatrix 1. That means if Human your feats should be Fell Drain, Versatile Spellcaster, Item Familiar, and anything you want at 6th, plus a bonus metamagic feat. You could get Draconic Heritage to qualify for Practical Metamagic from Races of the Dragon, or you could save a feat by using Silverbrow Human from Dragon Magic and start out with Practical Fell Drain so it would only be a +1 metamagic.

Get Extend and Persistent Spell at Incantatrix 1 and 4 so you can use Metamagic Effect to Persist buffs like Shield, Swift Expeditious Retreat, Swift Fly, Greater Mirror Image, etc. each of which you can put on your Runestaff usable 1/day for extremely cheap. Be sure to add a high Competence bonus to Spellcraft to your item familiar so you can always succeed at Metamagic Effect by taking ten. It would actually be worth putting a higher stat on Int and even casting Fox's Cunning before buffing for the day just so you get more uses of Metamagic Effect.

I'd pick up Split Ray later on, Ray of- spells like Stupidity, Dizziness, and Light, along with Enervation, are often useful if cast on two opponents at once or in the case of Enervation twice on one target. Ray of Stupidity automatically disables any animal it hits, and many magical beasts and giants well, though often you'll need to hit something twice with it hence Split Ray. Just get a versatile selection of spells and you should do fine.

The Vorpal Tribble
2011-02-06, 09:37 PM
Ok, this is agonizing. Are you looking for an optimized Xykon using classes and races and general material that has nothing to do with him, or do you want an OoTS-based, comic derived Xykon the way we know he is?

I will do the latter just so I don't have to read anything more here if that's what you're wanting.

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 09:59 PM
Ok, this is agonizing. Are you looking for an optimized Xykon using classes and races and general material that has nothing to do with him, or do you want an OoTS-based, comic derived Xykon the way we know he is?

I will do the latter just so I don't have to read anything more here if that's what you're wanting.

Mostly my own build using general material but I'll be RPing him as Xykon.
I still need some suggestions on feats although I think I'm on the right track.

Lateral
2011-02-06, 10:13 PM
I was just going to go lich at 11 and go demi lich at 21+ our DM is pretty cool and we tend to find a good amount of loot, combining that with betting my earnings in the areana on my party means I can get lich right away at level 11

We also tend to level up fast since we have a high level npc and everything is scaled to him. He's about level 10 so we reap the benefits.

Xykon's epic-level, but he's not a demilich. Demiliches are floating lich heads.

Also, you made this thread both here and in the OotS forum. Please don't do that.

Reprimand
2011-02-06, 10:14 PM
Ah, okay thanks for that.