[3.5] [Optimization] Favored Soul

[modi]

Hi all. I was just fooling around for a new campaign about to start here, trying to SAD my favored soul into a lovely gish. I was looking for some opinions on how I did, if you could? And I picked a Favored Soul for flavor, cheese, and I didn't feel like playing a tier one, if anyone is curious.

Favored soul 5 / Swordsage 1

DM's Homebrew Race: Halfling (K'hrrgn)
Stats: 5d6 drop lowest (1), 1's reroll and explode. This might be redone, I told him my stats and he was dismayed.

Str 14, Dex 28, Con 18, Int 14, Wis 16, Cha 17

Not including buffs:
Hit - +18 [To hit: +3 BAB, +1 small, +2 non-metal, +1 Focus, +1 magic, +10 Dex]
AC - 29 [3 armor, 3 shield, 10 dex, 1 small, +2 NA]
Saves - Fort +10, Ref +18, Will +11
Dmg - 1d4 + 12

Items (have been approved):
+1 Bronzewood Short Sword (material in A&Eq)
+1 Nightscale (Underdark)
+1 Heavy Darkwood Shield
+1 Cloak of resistance
+2 Gloves of Dex
Eternal wand of Bless (MIC)

Feats:
1 Versatile Spellcaster (alternatives?)
3 Weapon Finesse
6 Shadow Blade

FS Spells:
0 - Create Water, CMW, Detect Magic, Light, Purify Food & Drink
1 - Conviction, Divine Favor, Obscuring Mist, Resurgence, Shield of Faith
2 - Close Wounds, Spiritual Weapon, [one more]

Swordsage abilities:
Stance - Island of Blades
Man. - [Moment of Perfect Mind, Mighty Throw, Mountain Hammer, Shadow Jaunt] readied, also: Action before thought, counter charge

K'hrrgn:
+4 Dex, -2 Str, -2 Int; Stonecunning; +4 craft rel to stone; +2: move silently, know(dungeon), spot, search, climb; darkvision 80 feet; +2 natural armor; +1 to all saves, +2 to hit with non-metal weapons; +2 ac vs dwarf, goblin, grimlock
Blood and Bones of earth: cannot use metal weapons/armor, can summon an earth elemental based on HD 1/day

Thoughts? Errors in spell selection?

[faceroll]

Why Shadow Blade if you want to be SAD? That gives you dex dependency when you already need wisdom and charisma for casting/swordsage stuff. I would put that 26 in a casting stat.

Spiritual Weapon is also one of the worst spells out there. I would rather have something like Silence instead.

[modi]

I didn't know what my stats were going to be, so I went the route of picking spells without saves, primarily buffs, to up my combat potency. Even with the high stats, I figured my save DC's would be crappy; I tried to make it so that hit, damage, and AC would all come out of Dex, and then I could find ways to pump it as high as possible.

[Wings of Peace]

Go Swordsage at 1st level for the hilarious increase in skill points.

[modi]

Good point, thanks, I'll do that and find a way to flavor it into my backstory.

[Psyren]

Are you married to the dex-fighter/swordsage concept? Because you could be a sweet Fist of Raziel super-paladin gish.

Favored Soul 7/Sacred Exorcist 1/Prestige Paladin 2/Fist of Raziel 10

- Can choose from all paladin and cleric spells
- 17 BAB
- CL 18 (9ths)
- Various flavors of smite, which stack with your smite from PrC Paladin and key off your enormous Cha
- Cha to saving throws and detect evil
- You can now wear armor + shield instead of being an agile-type
- Permanent magic circle against evil and all associated benefits

Your stats would then have the 26(?) in Cha, the 18 in Con, the 17 in Str and the rest wherever.

You'll need either Knowledge Devotion or Education to get Planes and Religion though. (Why oh why aren't these class skills for favored souls when almost every divine PrC needs them.)

[Glimbur]

Go Swordsage at 1st level for the hilarious increase in skill points.

You might be better off with swordsage after 4 (or 6) levels of Favored Soul in order to get higher level maneuvers. The typo is pretty funny, though.

Augury and Lesser Restoration are useful 2nd level spells, but they're ok to have on wands. Wave of Grief (SpC) is a decent sized debuff. Close Wounds (SpC) can be useful. Extend Tentacles... ok, it's not worth taking but the idea is funny.

[Jude_H]

Exemplars of Evil gives a Favored Soul ACF that trades Weapon Focus, which is redundant with the SS ability, for Claw and Bite attacks, which combo nicely with Tiger Claw and Shadow Hand disciplines. If you have access to that ACF, I highly recommend it.

There's another ACF in Drow of the Underdark that trades Energy Resistance for Tremorsense. It's not as clear cut, but given the FS's access to Resist/Protection from Energy, it might be worth considering.

[Fizban]

Well, for second level spells and things to do if you pumped your save DCs instead of dex, there's Frost Breath from the Spell Compendium. The damage is negligible, but the important part is that if they fail the reflex save for half, they're also dazed for one round. You could be rocking a DC 19 cone of stunlock.