Remember, remeber...

[Socratov]

...the fifth of november
for the gunpoweder treason and plot.
I can think of no reason
why the gunpoweder treason
should ever be forgot.

long story short... I'd like the forumite here to build me V from an ever favorite movie of mine: V for Vendetta. Mind you I will probably not play this character, but I am curious what the collective minds of the Playground will come up with giving actual body to this magnificent persona.

Obviously he will have some invisible blade, but there must be more to this...

Anything in 3.5 is allowed, yes, even haxxor Dragon magazine...

[Strormer]

He is a level 5 idea, and thus he is immortal. Also, his mask is a magical item which gives him an inherent bonus to sheer awesomeness. I would also mention mittens of cooking +2 somewhere because breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

[gorfnab]

Avenging Executioner (CS) fits thematically although it's not the most useful of prestige classes. A level of Master of Masks (CS) would definitely get you the V mask (assassin and faceless would be appropriate masks).

[Feytalist]

I'd suggest a Daring Outlaw swashbuckler. With enough rogue levels to get evasion and perhaps uncanny dodge. Master of Masks is a cool idea, but no more than one level. Invisible blade is also a good idea, and I might even suggest Master Thrower for a level or two.

High Dex, high Int, high Con (maybe, otherwise some sort of DR), Str does not seem to be so much of an issue, although some Str boosty item might be appropriate.

High social skills, although maybe not a high Cha. He is a lunatic, after all. Physical skills like Tumble and Jump also high. Disguise not really necessary (he never disguised himself in the comic, other than a series of different masks)'


Also, I'm doing my utmost not to fall into a discussion of my main pet peeve: Movie V is nothing like the original comic book V. But never mind.

[Socratov]

wouldn't him being a lunatic lower his wis instead of his cha? I mean his social skills are great, but let's not call him sane and wise...

[Feytalist]

Yeah, that's why I said maybe. It depends on your interpretation. He obviously has great social skills, but he's scarred as all hell and a bit erratic sometimes. Also goes around masked, which lowers his credibility somewhat. Might point to low Cha, might point to low Wis.

[Socratov]

ok, let's assume he's non epic, what would his build look like (also assuming 32 point buy), and what template would he have, in the movie he is said to be some kind of human, turned into abberration...

[Madcrafter]

Why counldn't you wait a few days and actually post on the 5th?

I think that it would be fine to give him both high wis and cha.The mental state of a person (unless it is an actual defect) does not really lower these, and looking at the character (from the movie), he seems to have quite a bit of both. If you have to lower one though, I would go with Cha, and give him plenty of skill ranks in the social skills, which seems to make the most sense.

Otherwise Feytalist's build seems reasonable.

[Feytalist]

I do vaguely recall him being called an abomination or somesuch, but that was the more usual meaning of the word, simply equating to "unnatural". So a straight-up human would be fine, I think.

Although, come to think of it, he was dosed with potions and such, which apparently accounted for his boost in intelligence and toughness, so some sort template might fit. Something that gives an Int boost and some DR or natural armour perhaps? The scarring would probably be purely superficial.

[Venger]

I do vaguely recall him being called an abomination or somesuch, but that was the more usual meaning of the word, simply equating to "unnatural". So a straight-up human would be fine, I think.

Although, come to think of it, he was dosed with potions and such, which apparently accounted for his boost in intelligence and toughness, so some sort template might fit. Something that gives an Int boost and some DR or natural armour perhaps? The scarring would probably be purely superficial.

avenging executioner is a great idea, it fits very well thematically.

it precludes good alignment, but whatever, being good is seldom beneficial mechanically. I really like V (especially movie V) and the alignment system's not very good at representing antiheroes like him. the alignment junk below is because you have to be evil to enjoy PoT/PoS's divine grace and cannot be good for AE (because only bad guys want revenge?) and I think that a hypothetical DM is... unlikely to buy you saying V is CG (or godsforbid LG) and if you play G, you can't go AE, which is the crux of this build.

AE provides very good synergy with paladin of tyranny for divine grace and the debilitating aura thing that gives -2 to enemy saves when theyre within 10 ft of you. you're a melee dude due to AE's sneak attack thing and bloody blade. you're all about intimidating too, so go for the "never outnumbered" skilltrick at lvl 5 (great fit thematically) to intimidate as many dudes as you can get in range with one go (albeit 1/encounter)

stacking fear effects in this game is brutal at low-to-mid lvls, which is where I see V fitting anyway.

avenging executioner's fear stuff DC is also all Cha based, which makes you a little more SAD.

I would suggest faceless mask (anonymity is an important theme in the movie and the book) and the gladiator mask since it gives free EWP with EVERYTHING.

second only 1 lvl of MoM. assassin only gives 1d6 extra SA, which is sort of nice, but probably not better than nondetection or EWP with everything (depending on the campaign) and the SA damage scales with MoM lvl, so doesn't help much with a 1 lvl dip, whereas the faceless mask gives you permanent unnerfable undetectable alignment, DC15+momlvl nondetection and a lat +5 competence bonus against mind affecting spells and abilities, and gllaiator gives the EWP at the beginning. the +1 to atk/dmg is kinda nice too.

if you really want all 3 masks, just stay for 2 MoM lvls. it'll also advance your paladin casting if youve got wis to spare.

depending on how devoted you are to the mask motif, which plays a fairly important role in both the book and the movie, 3 MoM lvls gets you the situational but amazing mask specialist ability that makes all non-persona masks more powerful and also gets you another persona mask for a total of 4. I'd suggest dragon since the save is cha based (this build is very SAD) being able to use it 3/day is sort of disappointing, but you can just switch to a different mask, so that's whatever. you could also fluff dragonbreath as his explosive aptitude. another MoM lvl (for 4) will make the damage 4d8 instead of a piddly 2d8 and net you your 2nd lvl of advanced spellcasting if you care about that, so depending on your other options for dealing damage and how successfully you're able to use your sneak attack, this gives you more versatility, especially for burning down buildings/combustibles and blowing **** up, which movie/book V is very good at.

since the masks' appearance is pure fluff, you could have them all be identical guy fawkes masks for extra lulz.

MoM is disgustingly easy to qualify for, 8 bluff/disguise/perform (acting) requires you to have those things as class skills, but a 2 lvl dip in rogue takes care of that.

an alternate possibility if it's low-op (and/or since you might not use this build) is a couple levels in bard with your predominant skill being acting, which fits the thespian V to a T. it's cha based (moar SAD) and also provides a slightly better spellcasting progression to advance w/MoM as opposed to PoT's, which also lets you dump wisdom, further enhancing your SADness.

rog2/PoT 3/ AE 5/MoM 1 (or 2,3,or 4, by your preference)

MoM1 puts you at lvl 11, giving you 9 more levels to play around with.

invisible blade provides excellent synergy with AE with its full SA progression and free improved feint and super-improved feint to make all enemies flatfooted all the time and render them vulnerable to your bloody blade ability and scare everybody with your ultraviolence, like that one scene in the book (tragically not present in the movie) on the train where he stabs a guy through the chest with his fingers and freaks everybody around him out

invisible blade requires a lot of lame feats you are never going to use since it used to be one class with master thrower, but WotC split them in two and forgot to remove all the ranged prereq feats from invisible blade. talk to your DM and see if he will allow some of the feats to be changed to more melee friendly things or ignore them. if he sticks to the RAW, you don't care, since none of the other classes I've suggested require any feats to get into, so you can burn the 3 feats on IB. bluffing to feint is yet another cha based skill that you need to max ranks in for more SADness. however, be aware that IB will require you to increase your intelligence bonus to at least +1 for every invisible blade level in order to make use of the free dex bonus to AC. an item will do it for this (headband of intellect in his silly pilgrim hatband) since you probably won't go into IB until later on, when you can afford to max out 2 ability scores, but if you either roll high, have plenty of money, or are using a higher point buy, you might move IB levels up

rogue first because always the class with the most skillpoints first to take advantage of 4 skillpoints at 1st level. you can max out all your prereq junk now depending on what you roll/buy for int. remember, more points here earlier means less gold you have to spend on a headband of intellect later. wear light armour (mithral chain shirt or breastplate, since your str had better be high) for now and take it off when the int bonus to AC reaches 4 (if chainshirt) or 5 (if breastplate) or earlier if your DM uses more touch attacks than flatfooted stuff like dire turtles. he also wears a breastplate in the movie when he fights with creedy and his goons in the subway, so you can even justify it in-canon.

PoT (or PoS if you view V as more chaotic than lawful and depending on how much you/your DM care about the letter of alignment, so to speak. while V fights the Orwellian police state and thus could be said to be chaotic because he self identifies (in the book) as a disciple of anarchy (and has a hilarious scene where he talks to a statue of justice, pretends it is his girlfriend and that he has been cheating on her with anarchy and "dumps" her while providing dialogue for her) or how he is identified a couple of times in the movie as a terrorist by the pretty decidedly LE Orwellian police state. you could also argue that while he does fight the law, he adheres to a somewhat strict (if at times hard to follow) code of contact and say that he's LE.

-2 to saves is obviously better than -1 to AC, but this is largely a matter of personal taste.

that said, mechanically, PoT/S should come ASAP in the build so you can add your big, fat Cha onto your saves. your cha will only get better as time goes on (it is your primary stat) so your saves will too.

AE is fear-based, so you really ought to go into that when you can, which is right after divine grace, assuming rog2/PoW (paladin of whatever) 3, so you qualify on time (buy skillranks in its stuff first) fear becomes less useful as you get into higher levels, so you should make full use of it when it is strongest, from levels 6-10.

after this, you have 10 lvls left, and can dip as much MoM as you feel is appropriate or go IB first. you ought to have all the feats by now since this build is very feetloose and fancy free. IB is 5 levels long, and the capstone is darn useful, especially considering how hard it is to squeeze off multiple SAs a round at level 15+

assuming you want just 1 lvl of MoM, you have 4 lvls left. if you want 4, you have 1 left.

if you took that much MoM, might as well go for 5. lvl 5 lets you wear 2 masks at once (lolwut) and gives you a 5th mask. you have all the good ones by now (seeing as you can't use a couple of them since you don't have the right spells) but free things are good.

assuming you only dipped 1, you have 4 levels left, you might as well go master thrower 4.

due to a typo by the designers of this game, master thrower's evasion stacks with any evasion that you might already have (like the evasion you have from rogue) and gives you imp evasion. if you feel guilty pulling one over on your DM like this, just give V uncanny dodge, which is what the careless writer of this was thinking of. if your game is hard enough that you need to pull underhanded tricks for imp evasion, do so. V would be proud.

you also already have 2 out of the 3 feats it requires from your IB lvls (PBS and WF(dagger, which can be thrown so counts as a thrown weapon) and all you need is precise shot (blah)

get this so you can chuck a bunch of daggers at once in bullettime like in the movie. 4 lvls also gives you "snatch arrows" so you can catch stuff with your super speed and 2 weapon tricks, which will be doubletoss (throw 2 weapons at 1 or 2 targets (laws of physics be damned) within 30 feet like he does when he kills all of creedy's goons in the subway) and you also get to add your full str bonus onto each one instead of half and incur TWF penalties. you're a SAer, so I don't need to tell you that you should've already taken or at least started the TWF chain by now. and also palm throw, which lets you throw 2 weapons with 1 attack roll (presumably at only 1 target) and you don't get to apply your str bonus.

you also get quickdraw. awesome?

your build by the end will look like this:

rog2/pow3/AE5/MoM1/IB5/MT4

or

rog2/pow3/AE5/MoM5/IB5

enjoy! thanks for the prompt, I wanna use this in a game now

[Gotterdammerung]

I think factotum/ lore master/ + a trap maker class works

I would also house rule a version of warrior of darkness out of the BoVD changing it into an experimenter class. Like a evil scientist who anoints test subjects with dark oils and elixirs.
then pick 4 of the oil list and 3 of the elixir list that best describe V.


Another way would be a house rule template to account for his otherworldly powers from being a science experiment.

Test Subject LA +2

Str +4
Dex+4

Fast healing 5
Dr 5/-

enhanced speed +20 inherent speed bonus

enhanced reflexes +2 inherent AC and reflex saves



something like that.

[Socratov]

he would need some MT for palmthrow (which he specifically uses in the movie) as well as two with one blow (same reason). About alignment, he would be CN, CG at best...

[Calanon]

ok, let's assume he's non epic,

BLASTPHEMY! (at caster level 110 :smalltongue:)


what would his build look like (also assuming 32 point buy), and what template would he have, in the movie he is said to be some kind of human, turned into abberration...

I can imagine V being an Elan of sort without all the psionics :smallannoyed:

I wish to play this build... as soon as I can decode it :smalltongue:

rog2/pow3/AE5/MoM1/IB5/MT4

or

rog2/pow3/AE5/MoM5/IB5


Rogue = Rog
??? = pow
Avenging Executioner = AE
MoM = Master of Mask
??? =IB

[Venger]

he would need some MT for palmthrow (which he specifically uses in the movie) as well as two with one blow (same reason). About alignment, he would be CN, CG at best...

glad you agree :)

yeah, this poster's been around since the movie came out:

http://cdn.okcimg.com/php/load_okc_image.php/images/0x0/0x0/0/15045385994495287524.jpeg___1_500_1_500_cb94de6a_. png

one of the more famous CG demotivators

if you'd like to focus on MT, move it up on the build. remember, you can apply SA onto ranged attacks within 30 ft (which your daggers will always be) and that makes you happy

[Gotterdammerung]

I wish to play this build... as soon as I can decode it :smalltongue:


Rogue = Rog
??? = pow
Avenging Executioner = AE
MoM = Master of Mask
??? =IB


rogue
paladin of whatever
Master of masks
Avenging executioner
Invisible blade

Is one possibility.

roger
power ranger
Artemis Entreri
Master of Mucinex
Invincible Baker

Is another possibility.

Gotta love abbreviations....lazy typers!

[Calanon]

rogue
paladin of whatever
Master of masks
Avenging executioner
Invisible blade

Is one possibility.

roger
power ranger
Artemis Entreri
Master of Mucinex
Invincible Baker

Is another possibility.

Gotta love abbreviations....lazy typers!

[Calanon, liked this comment]
:smallwink:
Why is Spy Master suddenly coming to mind for this build... Idk it just seems like it would work for flavor...

[Venger]

,

BLASTPHEMY! (at caster level 110 :smalltongue:)



I can imagine V being an Elan of sort without all the psionics :smallannoyed:

I wish to play this build... as soon as I can decode it :smalltongue:


Rogue = Rog
??? = pow
Avenging Executioner = AE
MoM = Master of Mask
??? =IB


Oh dear, I'm sorry, I tried my best to explain all my abbreviations in my post. gotterdammerung is correct, PoW= paladin of whatever (slaughter/tyranny) IB= invisible blade

you're more than welcome to play it, please tell me how it works out.

[Lord Ruby34]

Hmm, shouldn't V be an E6 character? He is still a human in a realistic setting after all. It seems like E6 would be a better fit considering that. Although he is quite a bit beyond normal humans, but that could just be quite a few epic feats.

[Socratov]

glad you agree :)

yeah, this poster's been around since the movie came out:

http://cdn.okcimg.com/php/load_okc_image.php/images/0x0/0x0/0/15045385994495287524.jpeg___1_500_1_500_cb94de6a_. png

one of the more famous CG demotivators

if you'd like to focus on MT, move it up on the build. remember, you can apply SA onto ranged attacks within 30 ft (which your daggers will always be) and that makes you happy

yeah, sorry, i had trouble reading because i was drunk last night... happens to the best of us :smallyuk:


Hmm, shouldn't V be an E6 character? He is still a human in a realistic setting after all. It seems like E6 would be a better fit considering that. Although he is quite a bit beyond normal humans, but that could just be quite a few epic feats.

if you want it to be, sure... but since he needs classfeatures from classes not captured in feats a lvl 20 build seems the answer... then again, he is truly epic in any way he acts (I just think he isn't epic in character level, as in past lvl 20)

[Wings of Peace]

V always struck me as a Factotum. He's essentially so obsessed that he's taught himself to be proficient in stealth, hand to hand combat, explosives, infiltration, and all manner of other things. That says Factotum in my book.

[Socratov]

could be... however, it's not just that he does everything, just to able to do everything, but he has a certain skillset (like making homemade explosives, sneaking in and out of places unnoticed etc.) which he uses to the fullest. Also he uses his skillset to the maximum... So I agree with Venger that he is more of a multiclass character then a factotum...

[Venger]

yeah, sorry, i had trouble reading because i was drunk last night... happens to the best of us :smallyuk:


oh, that's okay. :smalltongue:



could be... however, it's not just that he does everything, just to able to do everything, but he has a certain skillset (like making homemade explosives, sneaking in and out of places unnoticed etc.) which he uses to the fullest. Also he uses his skillset to the maximum... So I agree with Venger that he is more of a multiclass character then a factotum...

glad you agree!

the build I proposed can be reworked to include factotum if you'd like, rogue was just there for SA and evasion cheese. if your DM disallows it, and you wanted to go more for throwing, swashbuckler 3's insightful strike puts your int onto damage and factotum 3 puts it onto everything else, so you could go

factotum3/swashbuckler3/MoM1/master thrower 5/ invisible blade 5/xx3 (fortune's friend mebbe, or cloaked dancer to progress SA. after all, " a revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having."

this gives you almost all the factotum abilities, most importantly brains over brawn that puts your int onto your str and dex checks. you'll appreciate this when it's time to roll sleight of hand or jump or what have you. swashbuckler allows free weapon finesse, which seems fitting and allows you to make str less of a priority. don't dump it though, V has super strength, it would be inaccurate to build him otherwise. MoM1 for the gladiator mask which gives EWP with everything, including the xendrik boomerang, if you're in the mood for some good cheese. take boomerang daze and combine it with your thrown tricks and int do dmg do deal stupid amounts of damage with a stupid number of attacks/round. beware damage reduction, it will ruin your day. this build uses int instead of cha, so have it be the highest. the same 4 feats as last time required for MT and IB, so you can take what you like after you're in, and factotum has everything as a class skill, so you can get your prereqs down pat, especially with a higher int than the other build.

consider "flick of the wrist" if you like SA, it requires quick draw, which MT1 gives you, so take it at level 9. make a sleight of hand check (that you add your int to! thanks, brains over brawn!) against enemy spot and if they fail, they're flatfooted for the attack. this is also a good feat for the earlier build, who focused more on SA. it also suits v's style of swordsmanship, which is very errol flynnish and meshes well flavourwise with his swashbuckler weapon finesse.