big teej's build challenge: Yusuke Yurameshi

[big teej]

greetings playgrounders,

I do my best to make sure my players are able to fully realize the character they wish to play, while still keeping it within the powerlevels the group prefers.

usually, I can churn out something close enough that it just takes a little refluffing to hit the mark.

but occaisionally, I get stumped.

either due to a lack of knowledge of the concept or the mechanics themselves, I'm simply unable to provide on my own.

this is one of those times.

I have a prospective new player coming in who wants to replicate the abilities of Yuske Yurameshi, from Yu Yu Hakusho.

and I"m stumped, I haven't seen the show in years, and I never saw much of it. AND I'm rather stumped on how to replicate the few abilities I actually know about.

so my challenge for the playground is to replicate Yuskey's capabilities with 2 restrictions (and bonus points for obeying a 3rd)

restriction 1: the group is extremely low-op (sword and board type low)
this character must fit in without upsetting this balance.

restriction 2: ONLY the following sources are allowed.
PERIOD if it is not EXPLICITLY LISTED it's out of bounds



arms and equipment guide
book of exalted deeds
book of vile darkness
cityscape
complete adventurer
deities and demigods
dungeon master's guide
dungeon master's guide II
expanded psionics handbook
psionics handbook
dungeonscape
Magic of Incarnum
Monster Manual I
Monster Manual II
Monster Manual III
Oriental adventures
Player's Handbook
Player's Handbook II
Races of Stone
Races of the Wild
Unearthed Arcana
Sword and Fist
Song and Silence
Enemies and Allies
Tome and Blood
Defender's of the Faith
Master's of the Wild



and last, the optional restriction 3: the player is brand new to the game, the character should be simple to play and understand.

now, we use a very special mix of 3.0 and 3.5 psionics, so if you plan to suggest those let me know.

[Inferno]

My only knowledge of the character is from Wikipedia's rather weak description, but it sounds like a straight warlock...but as I see no complete arcane on your list, a nice easy blaster sorcerer?

[Lapak]

Just to clarify: is the 'out of bounds' because of availability or DM decision? My first thought was a Tashalatora Psychic Warrior who takes Expanded Knowledge: [Energy Ray/Stun/Push/Whatever] for the Spirit Gun. The summary of the feat benefits is on the web excerpt for Secrets of Sarlona, but if the feat isn't available on that basis it obviously won't work.

Could still go with the Psychic Warrior part, but making up the martial arts abilities is more complicated in that case.

EDIT: Yeah, just go Psychic Warrior. The various self-buffs could simulate the weird transformation-type stuff as well.

[big teej]

My only knowledge of the character is from Wikipedia's rather weak description, but it sounds like a straight warlock...but as I see no complete arcane on your list, a nice easy blaster sorcerer?

that was my intial thought as well, or perhaps a blasty duskblade/monk of some sort.

yuske is a bit of a brawler from what I remember.


EDIT


Just to clarify: is the 'out of bounds' because of availability or DM decision? My first thought was a Tashalatora Psychic Warrior who takes Expanded Knowledge: [Energy Ray/Stun/Push/Whatever] for the Spirit Gun. The summary of the feat benefits is on the web excerpt for Secrets of Sarlona, but if the feat isn't available on that basis it obviously won't work.

Could still go with the Psychic Warrior part, but making up the martial arts abilities is more complicated in that case.

EDIT: Yeah, just go Psychic Warrior. The various self-buffs could simulate the weird transformation-type stuff as well.

to answer the bolded question.

both. I have the most books out of any of my gamer-buddies, and anything I can't lay my hands on in meat space is out of bounds.

[Gotterdammerung]

Ugh, the 2 matches i thought of first are on your restricted book list =(

Warlock eldritch blast kind of mimics his spirit gun and also captures his demonic heritage and is easy to play but complete arcane isn't on the list.

And spirit shaman's chastise spirit kind of perfectly replicates the Spirit gun, and the class sort of fits his paranormal investigator vibe but the complete divine isnt on the list.

:smallfrown:


The best I can do with that book selection is shaman out of oriental adventures but it really doesn't fit all that well.

[big teej]

Ugh, the 2 matches i thought of first are on your restricted book list =(

Warlock eldritch blast kind of mimics his spirit gun and also captures his demonic heritage and is easy to play but complete arcane isn't on the list.

And spirit shaman's chastise spirit kind of perfectly replicates the Spirit gun, and the class sort of fits his paranormal investigator vibe but the complete divine isnt on the list.

:smallfrown:


The best I can do with that book selection is shaman out of oriental adventures but it really doesn't fit all that well.

:smalltongue: my library is a work in progress. sorry for making things difficult :elan:

[Seerow]

Basically Yusuke has only two real abilities: The ability to punch and kick really hard, and his spirit gun.

He can also jump really high, run really fast, and his spirit gun can be turned into a shotgun to shoot a bunch of weak shots occasionally.


The spirit gun is a limited use per day effect though, except when it's not, the anime seems to switch back and forth on this at least 3 times I can think of. At the start it's once a day, later on it's 3, then he seems to use it at will, then it becomes 5 times a day, then it becomes unlimited use again at the end.



Honestly I'd go with the unlimited use version, give a Monk eldritch blast at will, and around level 6 or 7 a multishot-esque blast shape, and call it a day. Not RAW legal, but easy enough to hash together and not even remotely overpowered.

edit: I'd also add on a major demonic bloodline, or a half-fiend template.

[big teej]

Basically Yusuke has only two real abilities: The ability to punch and kick really hard, and his spirit gun.

He can also jump really high, run really fast, and his spirit gun can be turned into a shotgun to shoot a bunch of weak shots occasionally.


The spirit gun is a limited use per day effect though, except when it's not, the anime seems to switch back and forth on this at least 3 times I can think of. At the start it's once a day, later on it's 3, then he seems to use it at will, then it becomes 5 times a day, then it becomes unlimited use again at the end.



Honestly I'd go with the unlimited use version, give a Monk eldritch blast at will, and around level 6 or 7 a multishot-esque blast shape, and call it a day. Not RAW legal, but easy enough to hash together and not even remotely overpowered.

excepting the lack of a warlock I entirely agree.....
eldritch blast is 1d6/2 levels right?

[CactusAir]

Incarnum to the rescue.

Seriously, you can approximate all of this guys abilities with Totemist melds.

You'll look kinda funny, though.

[Mooncrow]

Just to clarify: is the 'out of bounds' because of availability or DM decision? My first thought was a Tashalatora Psychic Warrior who takes Expanded Knowledge: [Energy Ray/Stun/Push/Whatever] for the Spirit Gun. The summary of the feat benefits is on the web excerpt for Secrets of Sarlona, but if the feat isn't available on that basis it obviously won't work.

Could still go with the Psychic Warrior part, but making up the martial arts abilities is more complicated in that case.

EDIT: Yeah, just go Psychic Warrior. The various self-buffs could simulate the weird transformation-type stuff as well.

I almost want to say go with wilder; it doesn't quite capture his physical fighting abilities, but he ended up being able to do so much with his Rei Gun, not to mention the "emotion linked to power" thing... hrm.

[Seerow]

Incarnum to the rescue.

Seriously, you can approximate all of this guys abilities with Totemist melds.

You'll look kinda funny, though.

It's okay, Yusuke's face has always looked kinda funny!

/kuwabara



excepting the lack of a warlock I entirely agree.....
eldritch blast is 1d6/2 levels right?

Yes, 1d6/2 levels ranged touch attack usable at will. It feels a bit weak for the spirit gun, but it's the closest approximation you're likely to get. Maybe have that at will and add the ability to add triple that plus his con mod X/day (1 per 4 levels), since you'd be homebrewing anyway to give it to a Monk.



edit: Also I agree Incarnum would be a great way to do this as well, with just a little refluffing.

[Waker]

Well, though I could probably do slightly better if a few more books were available, but whatever. This build is a rather simple gish-type since Yuske was a pretty straightforward punchy/blaster type. If the player is worried by his slightly squishy nature and low BAB he could take the Battle Sorcerer variant in UA for D8 HD and 3/4 BAB progression. Though the variant does lose spells, you did say it was specifically a low-op group.
Monk 2/Sorcerer 5/Human Paragon 3/Swiftblade 10
Take Ascetic Mage from Complete Adventurer to go off of Cha for his Monk abilities.

[Gotterdammerung]

The unearthed arcana toys with the idea of removing certain class features from 1 class and replacing them with other class features. So it's possible you could work something out with a monk with eldritch blast.

And the dmg on eldritch blast is 1d6 per 2 lvls until 11th. Then 1d6/3 levels after 11th.

ending with 9d6 at 20th

1- 1d6
3- 2d6
5- 3d6
7- 4d6
9- 5d6
11- 6d6
14- 7d6
17- 8d6
20- 9d6


I has a range of 60feet.

It is a range touch attack

It takes a standard to use

It is equivalent to a spell level of half your level. minimum 1st lvl spell at 1 and maximum 9th lvl spell at 18+

It is a spell like ability, therefore can benefit from metamagic spell like ability feats.

It is subject to Spell resistance but is not given a caster level (most assume CL=Hit die)

[CactusAir]

Forst helm bound to crown for Sonic attack every other round.

Manticore Belt bound to Totem for Shotgun at will.

Winter Mask bound to Throat for Frosthrower (like flamethrower, only with [cold])

Dragon Claws or Sphinx Claws or Girallon arms for punching people.

Totemist: Build your own Monster

[hushblade]

Basically Yusuke has only two real abilities: The ability to punch and kick really hard, and his spirit gun.

He can also jump really high, run really fast, and his spirit gun can be turned into a shotgun to shoot a bunch of weak shots occasionally.


The spirit gun is a limited use per day effect though, except when it's not, the anime seems to switch back and forth on this at least 3 times I can think of. At the start it's once a day, later on it's 3, then he seems to use it at will, then it becomes 5 times a day, then it becomes unlimited use again at the end.



Honestly I'd go with the unlimited use version, give a Monk eldritch blast at will, and around level 6 or 7 a multishot-esque blast shape, and call it a day. Not RAW legal, but easy enough to hash together and not even remotely overpowered.

edit: I'd also add on a major demonic bloodline, or a half-fiend template.

This, except I'd make the times per day scale with level. 1/day per 3 levels maybe?

[Seerow]

This, except I'd make the times per day scale with level. 1/day per 3 levels maybe?


With limited uses you want to make it significantly stronger, at least 1d6 per level, if not higher.


Also I just looked at the demonic bloodline... it's horrible. Like I knew bloodlines were bad, but that is absurdly bad. So I'm not so sure on that anymore :/

[hushblade]

Monk is pretty bad, but adding eldritch blast unlimited times per day(most of the appeal of warlock) seems a little bit much for the level of optimization we're talking about here.

[Seerow]

Monk is pretty bad, but adding eldritch blast unlimited times per day(most of the appeal of warlock) seems a little bit much for the level of optimization we're talking about here.

Actually most of the warlock goodies come from the invocations for things like fly and invisibility at will, multiple blast shapes, etc. Adding a eldritch blast at will onto monk wouldn't even bring it out of the tier 5 gutter.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Actually most of the warlock goodies come from the invocations for things like fly and invisibility at will, multiple blast shapes, etc. Adding a eldritch blast at will onto monk wouldn't even bring it out of the tier 5 gutter.Still might be an issue in hyper-low-op. IIRC teej's is the group where the druid underperforms the sword and board fighter.

[Seerow]

Still might be an issue in hyper-low-op. IIRC teej's is the group where the druid underperforms the sword and board fighter.


...heh, given that a plain monk might be pretty good as is :P. So yeah in a situation that's literally that bad, maybe give it a x/day use, but leave the option open to make it better if the player completely ignores the power in favor of just punching things with his fists because it's more effective.

[Big Fau]

The spirit gun is a limited use per day effect though, except when it's not, the anime seems to switch back and forth on this at least 3 times I can think of. At the start it's once a day, later on it's 3, then he seems to use it at will, then it becomes 5 times a day, then it becomes unlimited use again at the end.

Ahem:

At the end of the series, especially during the final battle against Sensui, it was his demonic energy that gave him that many uses/day. He had been trained with something far more than his human spirit energy could manifest.


So, really, he's like a Wilder with a massive Wild Surge and a Force Missle or something similar.

[Douglas]

How has no one mentioned Monk with Ki Blast yet? Monk fits the general unarmed bruiser type that's Yusuke's standby while fitting the group's low op, and the Ki Blast feat from PHB2 seems perfect for the Spirit Gun.

For the Shotgun, all I can think of is some Totemist for Manticore Belt (bound to Totem chakra), maybe with Expanded Soulmeld Capacity. Refluff it, of course.