Hey! Hey, you! LOOK AT ME!, or, 'Making the whipping boy work'

[tuesdayscoming]

As a thought experiment, I'm trying to turn Soak (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19857918/Soak_-_The_Whipping_Boy_Wizard?pg=1) into a viable character.

The basic idea, for those who don't want to read the linked thread (understandable), is that he casts Shield Other on all of his allies, then uses Delay Death to ensure that he himself does not die. On top of this, he will use Forced Share Pain to split the damage he takes with an enemy and, once he has a good damage pool, use Hostile Empathic Transfer to shred an enemy and get back up to full.

What I'm looking for is a few good feats and items to help this character work more efficiently.

In terms of items, initiative is going to be huge (getting up Delay Death before the hurt comes), so a +1 Warning/+1 Eager quarterstaff seems a must. Also, you never want that Delay Death going down, so slap a Spellblade enhancement on either end, too – one with Dispel Magic and one with Greater Dispel Magic. That should have protection covered pretty well, I think, but I'd still love to have a few more contingencies in place. What counters does this guy really need to cover for?

On the feat end, Goad seems to be a great fit. Will pretty effectively get melee characters (at least one at a time) focus firing on you. Can anyone think of a similar way to provoke casters and ranged combatants into focusing on you too? If at all possible, it'd be great to have this method affect more than 1/round, but I'd love to hear anything you've got.

As always, thanks, Playground!

[Seffbasilisk]

The Arrow-catching enchantment, will redirect any shot within five feet towards you.

I don't recall at this moment, but there was something that allowed you to take a spell for another...

[Morph Bark]

Obviously feats listed in that thread would come in handy, such as Extend spell, Craft Contigent Spell and Arcane Disciple: Protection. Improved Initiative for you would also be wise.

[Kantolin]

Delay death is immediate, so you may not need to have a high initiative to get it up in time.

I believe the guardian mantle lets you take damage for an adjacent ally via psionic focus? That may help.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Delay death is immediate, so you may not need to have a high initiative to get it up in time.

You can't take an immediate action if you're flat-footed, so you either need to consistently win initiative or pick up a way to not be flat-footed, of which the latter is probably more reliable. Picking up the Fate domain (grants Uncanny Dodge) via Catalogues of Enlightenment would probably be easiest for the Soak build as given, but obviously there are other options.

[Psyren]

I believe the guardian mantle lets you take damage for an adjacent ally via psionic focus? That may help.

Melee damage only, so no spells or arrows. On the plus side, you only have to do it after you know the attack was a hit (but before you know how high the damage would be.)

Psionics has other helpful tricks in this vein, e.g. Empathic Transfer, Share Pain, Dimension Swap etc.

[Douglas]

You can't take an immediate action if you're flat-footed, so you either need to consistently win initiative or pick up a way to not be flat-footed, of which the latter is probably more reliable. Picking up the Fate domain (grants Uncanny Dodge) via Catalogues of Enlightenment would probably be easiest for the Soak build as given, but obviously there are other options.
Uncanny Dodge does not (in 3.5e, Pathfinder is different) actually prevent you from being flat-footed. It just lets you keep dex to AC despite being flat-footed.

[sonofzeal]

In terms of drawing attention, I like the "Iron Guard's Glare" stance from ToB. It's not a huge factor, but since it makes enemies aware of the effect it does seem to work very well at drawing attention to you.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Uncanny Dodge does not (in 3.5e, Pathfinder is different) actually prevent you from being flat-footed. It just lets you keep dex to AC despite being flat-footed.

Whoops. *facepalm* I've just been reading through the PFSRD for a friend's Pathfinder game and got those mixed up. Well, I guess it'll be a bit more difficult to pick it up, until higher levels get you access to foresight and all. The abovementioned quarterstaff and nerveskitter would probably be a better low-to-mid levels solution, then.

[Gwendol]

Knight Test of Mettle? That may force everyone (non-allies) failing their will save to attack you. You get some other abilities that may provide synergies.

[Pechvarry]

Would it be easier to use Book of Exalted Deed's Glory of the Martyr instead? It's Paladin 4/Gwynharfluaghlawa 4. Hmm. Coulda swore there was a spell just like this but cleric-able. Anyway, it's mass shield other, meaning you could feasibly go a divine/melee route. The connection is severed for any individual who leaves, though since they're saying the spell stays active as long as one subject remains close enough, it doesn't really say they can't reconnect. If you can get a DM to say reconnection is fine, then this seems like a fun approach.

We had a guy who did this with the cleric "treat next roll as a 20" spell on charge attacks and the MiC weapon enhancement to gain temp HP based on crit damage dealt. Funny way to tank.

[tuesdayscoming]

Some lovely ideas, here, guys, thanks!


You can't take an immediate action if you're flat-footed, so you either need to consistently win initiative or pick up a way to not be flat-footed, of which the latter is probably more reliable.

Hmm, I'm actually not familiar with any methods of ensuring that you are never flat-footed. Making sure you are never denied Dex to AC, sure, but flat-footed? Am I just oblivious to some well known tricks?


The Arrow-catching enchantment, will redirect any shot within five feet towards you.

I don't recall at this moment, but there was something that allowed you to take a spell for another...

On the former, nice call. Wish the range was a bit more, but you can't win them all. Do you remember what book this is from?

On the latter, it's the spell Redirect Spell from Shining South, IIRC. 1 round/level, all spells targeting ally affect you instead (again, IIRC). I think it may actually be castable into the War Weaver's Eldritch Tapestry, too... hmm. Might it be worth somehow picking up Mettle to best survive the nastiness that this spell could bring down on your head?


In terms of drawing attention, I like the "Iron Guard's Glare" stance from ToB. It's not a huge factor, but since it makes enemies aware of the effect it does seem to work very well at drawing attention to you.

Nice little incentive, certainly. The problem would be that when an opponent starts realizing that it gets hurt every time it hits you (forced share pain), taking the -4 on attacks starts to sound like a less daunting penalty.


Knight Test of Mettle? That may force everyone (non-allies) failing their will save to attack you. You get some other abilities that may provide synergies.

Hmm... I'm not familiar with this class, and am AFB at the moment. Would someone be so kind as to give me a basic run down? How does the ability work? How big of a dip into Knight does it require?

edit:
Would it be easier to use Book of Exalted Deed's Glory of the Martyr instead? It's Paladin 4/Gwynharfluaghlawa 4.

Hmm... Sounds viable... I will read up on this spell when I'm back to books.

[PlzBreakMyCmpAn]

Gwynharfluaghlawa 4... I approv

[PairO'Dice Lost]

Hmm, I'm actually not familiar with any methods of ensuring that you are never flat-footed. Making sure you are never denied Dex to AC, sure, but flat-footed? Am I just oblivious to some well known tricks?

Offhand, one or two PrCs give it as a capstone (Divine Oracle and one other, I think) and foresight gives it as well. There are probably other methods, but I'm away from my books and don't remember them at the moment.

[Veyr]

Doesn't being a Dire Tortoise also basically give it to you, plus you always get a surprise round, or something absurd like that?

[Zaranthan]

Nice little incentive, certainly. The problem would be that when an opponent starts realizing that it gets hurt every time it hits you (forced share pain), taking the -4 on attacks starts to sound like a less daunting penalty.

Except when they hit someone else, they still get hit back via shield other dealing damage to you anyway. I'd wager it'd be hard to figure out which guy reflects less damage before running out of hit points.

[tuesdayscoming]

Hmm, Glory of the Martyr really is a useful spell for the build. Gets rid of the need for War Weaver levels, in a sense... But you still have to have spellcaster levels, so why not take War Weaver anyways? Its an extraordinary class.

On that note, holy god is Blood of the Martyr (also BoED) ever a good spell for this character! Take 20+ damage to heal an ally for the same amount as you take? Transferring half that damage to an enemy? And casting into the Weave? Yes please!

[Flickerdart]

Test of Mettle isn't viable for this. It's a CHA+1/2 Knight level based save (so the DC will be awful), Mind-Affecting, and breaks when anyone other than you attacks them.

[Veyr]

Goad, unfortunately, is worse.

[tuesdayscoming]

Hmm... What if we based the character on a sorcerer? Or *gasp* a Sha'ir?!

The latter in particular could be quite tasty, I think. I've never actually seen one in play, but being an arcane Cha based caster with no effective limit to number of spells known might help. Would at least bump saves on these taunt abilities a bit.

Oh. Test of Mettle also requires a 4 level dip.

Poo. Well, that's probably not worth it at all, then.

[Starbuck_II]

You can't take an immediate action if you're flat-footed, so you either need to consistently win initiative or pick up a way to not be flat-footed, of which the latter is probably more reliable. Picking up the Fate domain (grants Uncanny Dodge) via Catalogues of Enlightenment would probably be easiest for the Soak build as given, but obviously there are other options.

Scout's uncanny dodge does prevent being flatfoot dyue to wording: it says prevents being flatfoot.

[Vulaas]

War Weaver would be a good option for making it so that at the very least you can get your Shield Other to hit all your allies at once, among the other buffs to make it so that they are less tasty targets than you.

[The Shadowmind]

One of the lesser properties that a Weapon of Legacy could have is Cunning, which is immunity to being Flat-footed.

[Gwendol]

Knights are good at what the OP wants to acheive, but not in the way intended. And for test of mettle to really shine you will probably have to invest more than four levels of knight, or get insanely high CHA.