Making Dave Strider

[N. Jolly]

so being a crazy huge mspa fan ive felt like stating out some of the characters and the one i really want to do is dave strider...right now im thinking swiftblade with battle sorc but bard is a nice base too especially to include his rapping skill if anyone has ideas id love to hear them???

[HappyBlanket]

Homebrew Base Class: The Knight of Time (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=209443)

Anywho, if you're staying away from homebrew, this might be a bit tricky. Most Time orientated abilities are strictly high-level powers and spells, so multiclassing is going to be difficult.

Stay AWAY from Battle Sorcerer. There have been nightmarish stories about new players attempting to use that class, thinking it the perfect balance between Fighter and Sorcerer... You're simply better off picking one or the other.

Bard, though musically inclined, shouldn't have much of a role in the build. THis is because Dave never uses his music for combat (unless you count a few epic slam battles). Instead of taking levels of Bard, put a few crossclass skill points into Perform: Sick Burns and Perform: Slam Poetry.

My first instinct is to take levels of Psion or Psychic Warrior, taking Powers such as Time Hop, Time Regression, Temporal Acceleration, and Hustle. MAYBE Powers like Deceleration, the various Precognitions, etc. Fission might be able to duplicate his Time Clones.

You'll probably be taking the Expanded Knowledge feat to get some of these Powers.

[Claudius Maximus]

Swordsage/Ardent, mostly Swordsage. Use Practiced manifester to overcome the power limits with Ardent, and choose timey mantles like Fate and Time. Get Synchronicity and Twin Power. Suddenly you can hit people twice at once, which you could fluff as the momentary aid of a time clone.

If you want to get really crazy you could pull an infinite PP trick and some way to ignore xp costs and go nuts with Time Regression and stuff. Real clones with real loops is hard to do in D&D though.

[HappyBlanket]

Swordsage/Ardent, mostly Swordsage. Use Practiced manifester to overcome the power limits with Ardent, and choose timey mantles like Fate and Time. Get Synchronicity and Twin Power. Suddenly you can hit people twice at once, which you could fluff as the momentary aid of a time clone.

If you want to get really crazy you could pull an infinite PP trick and some way to ignore xp costs and go nuts with Time Regression and stuff. Real clones with real loops is hard to do in D&D though.

It's moments like this that make me wish I had read Complete Psionics, instead of skimming it half heartedly. Fate and Time is pretty much who Dave is.

[Claudius Maximus]

Also, the Sun Sword from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft counts as either a short sword or a bastard sword for each parameter depending on which is more advantageous to you.

Surely you see where I'm going with this.

[Redshirt Army]

Powers of Note:

- Forced Dream: Level 3 (Magic of Eberron)
This power lets you reset your turn if something bad happens, expending the power (lasts 1 round/level).

- Synchronicity: Level 1 (Complete Psionic)
Lets you ready an action without a trigger, and if you augment it, you don't have to specify what your readied action is. Makes for good shenanigans with Linked/Twin Power, and plays nice with Swordsage Strikes.

- Time Hop: Level 3 (SRD)
Absurdly useful in many different situations, and fits very well with Dave's theme.

- Time Hop, Mass: Level 8 (SRD)
Mechanically it's not that useful, but this power represents Time Travel forwards quite well. Furthermore, with Forced Dream shenanigans, you can use this to talk to a version of yourself in the future, then trip Forced Dream to remain in the past. BAM! Ontological paradox!

- Temporal Acceleration: Level 6 (SRD)
Time Stop as a level 6 power? Sure, I'll take it.


You'll need to go Ardent with Practiced Manifester to keep up a good ML while still squeezing in some Swordsage levels, so you'll need Hidden Talent: Synchronicity plus a bunch of Expanded Knowledge. Ideally, your DM will let you alter Jade Phoenix Mage to work with Psionics. Slayer can be good too, with near/full manifesting and a full Base attack Bonus.

Sample Build:

Dave Strider
Race: Human
Ranger 1/Ardent 4/Slayer 3/Swordsage 2

Feats:
(1st) Practiced Manifester
(Human) Hidden Talent: Synchronicity
(Ranger) Track
(3rd) Linked Power
(6th) Twin Power
(9th) Expanded Knowledge (Forced Dream)

Base Attack Bonus: +8/+3
Base Saves: Fort +4 Ref +7 Will +10
Manifester Level: 10
Initiator Level: 6
Base Power Points: 37

Powers Known:
(Feat) Synchronicity
(Ardent 1) Deceleration
(Ardent 1) Precognition (Offensive)
(Ardent 2) Psionic Lion's Charge
(Ardent 3) Clairvoyant Sense
(Ardent 4) Time Hop
(Slayer 2) Dimension Slide
(Slayer 3) Remote Viewing
(Feat) Forced Dream

Maneuvers Known:
Shadow Stride
Mind over Body
Mountain Hammer
Sudden Leap
Death from Above
Ruby Nightmare Blade
Sapphire Nightmare Blade

Stances Known:
Assassin's Stance
Hearing the Air

Books Used:
Players Handbook
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Complete Psionic
Tome of Battle
Magic of Eberron

Both your manifesting and your initiating is based off of Wisdom, which you also add to your AC when wearing light armor. You start off as a Ranger (STRIDERRRRRR) for the skill points, BaB, and Track Feat. Your Mantles are Conflict, Fate, and Time, with all the associated abilities. This build seems to remain playable at lower levels as well. (Just lop off the maneuvers, powers, and feats he didn't get yet, and recalculate Power Points etc.) Sadly, I couldn't find a way to shove Adaptive Style in as well, but you have other tricks to use when out of maneuvers.

Add ability scores and items to season to taste.

[FMArthur]

I would honestly go straight Ardent. You need to spend a lot of PP to spam your powers like Dave does. They get psion-level PP while getting medium BAB and a lot of physical powers. It's fun to use Ardent just for the sole purpose of it being multiclass-friendly, but that's just not what you need out of it for Strider. Your PP pool grows at an increasing rate the more actual Ardent levels you get, and I feel that it's important.

You need the high level Powers Known to get Fission, which is 7th level and you need 8ths to take Expanded Knowledge for it. Fission and Inconstant Location are absolutely critical for Dave's multiplicity and rapid-fire teleport shenanigans.

Of course, if anyone would be amenable to metagaming his own reality, it would be Dave. Infinite PP tricks are just the sort of temporal abuse that Dave would go for. But if you ever needed to put him down in an actual gameworld, that's probably a no-go.

[Redshirt Army]

I would honestly go straight Ardent.

You could do that too, though some of the fancy sword tricks he does are pretty clearly maneuvers. (Tell me this (http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004728) isn't Mountain Hammer.) That said, you could just Martial Study for them.

Alternatively alternatively, you could go Psychic Warrior with the Mantled Warrior ACF, and just kick ass in general. You'll still need Martial Study and Expanded Knowledge, but since you get bonus feats it's somewhat abated.

[HappyBlanket]

Ranger 1/Ardent 4/Slayer 3/Swordsage 2

Swordsage needs to be taken last, so that, at some point in that build, your level distribution across your three classes will be 4 / 1 / 3.

[Redshirt Army]

Swordsage needs to be taken last, so that, at some point in that build, your level distribution across your three classes will be 4 / 1 / 3.

Ardent 4/Ranger 1/Slayer 3/Swordsage 2 ?
Ranger 1/ Ardent 4/ Swordsage 1/ Slayer 3/ Swordsage 1 ?
Swordsage 1/ Ardent 4/ Ranger 1/ Slayer 3/ Swordsage 1 ?