How to make a nude character work?

[Pika...]

Nonsense that inspired this:
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0025.html

While I know a Mithral Chainshirt pretty much takes away all the penalties and is basically the same thing mechanically as being nude, I just like the idea for creativity and a fun character concept.

I figure Rogue is the way to go.

Perhaps the DM will allow a Flaw/Phobia against wearing clothes?

I imagine Amulet of Natural Armor is a must. So would be Dex boosting items. Also any Deflection items.

Any other suggestions?


Many Pikas in advance!

[Gavinfoxx]

Druid. Wild Shape. Duh.

/thread

[lord pringle]

I know someone once made a vow of nudity.

[Skyrunner]

I know someone once made a vow of nudity.

The monster that is basically an animated cloak must be that character's bane.

[Kuulvheysoon]

I know someone once made a vow of nudity.

that would have been the inestimable Tayla. You can fin d the relevant thread here;

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45529

[Pika...]

Druid. Wild Shape. Duh.

/thread

That works so well and makes so much sense that it takes the funniez out. :smallfrown:



I know someone once made a vow of nudity.

Perfect!!!

[Jack_Simth]

Any other suggestions? Well, how far do you want to take "nude"?

Is that
A: 'no armor' (but cloak, gloves, belts, boots, et cetera are fine)?
B: 'nothing at all'?

Vow of Poverty (Book of Exalted Deeds, but that's not particularly well thought-out, so ideally one of the assorted fixes floating around) is very handy if it is B you're after, rather than A.

As for class: Druid, Sorcerer, Cleric (with the Summon Holy Symbol spell), Favored Soul (see Cleric), Psion, Wilder, an the assorted variants on those classes will do well - mostly because much of the flexibility a character needs can come from either spells (or similar things), or from equipment... and if you don't have equipment, you'll need spells (or similar things).

[Unusual Muse]

Vow of Poverty Monk.

[Pika...]

Well, how far do you want to take "nude"?

Is that
A: 'no armor' (but cloak, gloves, belts, boots, et cetera are fine)?
B: 'nothing at all'?

Vow of Poverty (Book of Exalted Deeds, but that's not particularly well thought-out, so ideally one of the assorted fixes floating around) is very handy if it is B you're after, rather than A.

As for class: Druid, Sorcerer, Cleric (with the Summon Holy Symbol spell), Favored Soul (see Cleric), Psion, Wilder, an the assorted variants on those classes will do well - mostly because much of the flexibility a character needs can come from either spells (or similar things), or from equipment... and if you don't have equipment, you'll need spells (or similar things).

I don't know. I was thinking A, but was not aware you could pull off B.

[hydraa]

There may be stuff in BoEF that applies

[Flickerdart]

The Totemist and Incarnate need no magic items at all to work, and almost any ol' spellcaster could run around naked and still be the most powerful thing on the continent.

[Gavinfoxx]

and almost any ol' spellcaster could run around naked and still be the most powerful thing on the continent.

Not true! They would need to be an Eidetic Wizard with Eschew Materials, a Sorcerer with Eschew Materials, or if they use a holy symbol, some divine caster with Worldly Focus. And maybe Eschew Materials to boot (there are divine material components for lots of prayers, yaknow)...

[hydraa]

Spells could be tattooed on.
Perhaps a tattooed holy symbol?

{and being nude would allow more skin to be accessible for reading}

Tattoo of mage armor

[animewatcha]

Vow of poverty on totemist or soulmeld ( or whatever incarnum class it helps the most )?

[The Dark Fiddler]

Spells could be tattooed on.
Perhaps a tattooed holy symbol?

{and being nude would allow more skin to be accessible for reading}

Tattoo of mage armor

I do believe there's a variant in Complete Mage that allows wizards to use tattoos to replace their spellbooks.

[elonin]

Maybe a monks belt? That gives wisdom +1 without having to be a monk. I had a build that used monks belt, dex boosting items, rop, and amulet of natural armor and I recall hitting an ac in the mid 30's without difficulty.

[Taelas]

Vow of Poverty Monk.

While it may seem intuitive, this is actually a terrible idea. Monks like gear.

[Flickerdart]

Not true! They would need to be an Eidetic Wizard with Eschew Materials, a Sorcerer with Eschew Materials, or if they use a holy symbol, some divine caster with Worldly Focus. And maybe Eschew Materials to boot (there are divine material components for lots of prayers, yaknow)...
I'm sorry, but since when does a book count as clothing?

[Particle_Man]

Maybe a monks belt?

But then we are losing the "nudity" part of the nude character. :smallsmile:

[dsmiles]

Look into the Chainmail Bikini supplement. I'd link to a place you can buy it, but my google-fu is weak tonight.

[Morithias]

There is the "Ancestral Speaker" in Dragon Magazine in 311. Normally clerics can't take vow of poverty due to needing a holy symbol...but ancestral speakers get this power.

"Holy Presence – The Ancestral Speaker acts as his/her own holy symbol & does not require any other object."

[Crasical]

VOP Sorcerer with Eschew Materials?

[TypoNinja]

I don't know. I was thinking A, but was not aware you could pull off B.

We had a wizard who did that for a while, he used illusionary clothes so as not to attract too much attention, other wise, he was starkers.

I started calling him Captain Sausage after I made the will save and saw through the illusion.

[Gavinfoxx]

VOP Sorcerer with Eschew Materials?

Then he couldn't buy grafts or magic tattoos or psionic tattoos or permanency'd magic spells! :( :( :(

[hushblade]

You could make it a wu-jen taboo.

[gallagher]

if you are gonna be naked, call yourself flanders and go around shaking your butt saying "feels like im wearing nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all"

[Cruiser1]

VOP Sorcerer with Eschew Materials?
Nude Arcane casters don't need Eschew Materials (although they can certainly take it if they have an available feat). Sorcerers and Wizards can cast the spell Summon Component (CM), just as Clerics can cast Summon Holy Symbol (CC).

[King Atticus]

In the very first session I ever played in, my character did this (unintentionally). We were in a castle playing bodyguard to the heir apparent to a king whose health was failing. There was an assault on the castle in the middle of the night and a group of assassins was trying to get to the heir. I didn't have time to don armor so I ran out into the fray with nothing but my greatsword and a smile. When the battle was over, and we were victorious in repelling the baddies, the party bard composed a song about me and from that time forward for the rest of the campaign wherever we went I was always greeted with recognition and whispers about 'The Naked Paladin' :smallbiggrin:

[Siosilvar]

Ask Talya (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45529).

[EnnPeeCee]

It might be plausible to use a Forsaker for this.

[Cespenar]

While it may seem intuitive, this is actually a terrible idea. Monks like gear.

It is underoptimized, but not unplayable. It has good AC, and Intuitive Attack + Touch of Golden Ice + Flurry of Touch Attacks makes stuff a bit interesting. I can see one in a low to mid-op game.

Also, you can always multiclass and go arcane or divine monk.

[Jack_Simth]

I don't know. I was thinking A, but was not aware you could pull off B.
Yeah. It's non-optimal, but you can definitely pull it off. There's some things you mostly can't do without - ranged attacks, flight, teleportation, and such - which a fighter, rogue, ranger, Paladin, Barbarian, Monk, or other 'mundane' character would normally get from items... but basically all such can be replicated via spells, powers, invocations, et cetera - and the Vow of Poverty covers the simple numeric bonuses.

[Desril]

I think someone made an Illusory Clothes spell in the homebrew section a year or two ago.

For fitting in with the city streets, I'd advise some sort of shapeshift or illusions.

For combat viability, an Abjurant Champion using Shield and Greater Luminous Armor trumps a heavy shield and full plate any day of the week. If the glowing suit of transparent magic plate mail doesn't count as 'nude' try talking your DM into treating Mage Armor as an Abjuration (as it should be anyway).

[D@rK-SePHiRoTH-]

Vow of Poverty monk2/egoist psion18 with Tashalatora and Carmendine Monk

There is nothing this character can't do. Including Inherent Ability bonus (reality revision)

Now think that its Fissioned copy would benefit from VoP and inherent bonuses as well

come at me bro :smallcool:

EDIT:
In case of LA variant, add Spellwarped or Half-Dragon to the equation.
Now that's unstoppable.

[Venger]

roll a master of many forms. when you wild shape, everything you're wearing/carrying melds into your body, leaving you naked anyway (wilding clasps aside) so this presents the problem for momfs wanting to use their humanoid wild shape for disguise being naked. normal momfs use a vestments of many styles, but you could just be awesome and not care. try playing as an illumian for extra lulz. you could have your sigils block your junk for the more sensitive party members (plus depending on whether you picked str or dex as your synergy stat, you'd get a lot more bonus spells when you wild shaped into something with that as a high score)

[Dr.Epic]

You could just go Vow of Poverty.

[Gavinfoxx]

You could just go Vow of Poverty.

A little late to the game, eh?

[Slipperychicken]

Play a Warforged :smallcool:. I'm pretty sure there's a non-squicky way to keep a bag of holding inside the Warforged's body.


EDIT: Warforged Components. Can be any magic item, and can't be removed unless the Warforged wants to, or is dead/inert. Obviously, the cost doubles if they're slotless. Play a Warforged Artificer, and win the game nude.


WARFORGED COMPONENT
Any character capable of creating a magic item can make the
same magic item as a warforged component

[Soranar]

Well how about this:

Race: human
Alignment: any chaotic

STATs (32 pts)

STR 8
DEX 16 (Main stat)
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 16

2 flaws

Battledancer 20 (it's unarmed strike is allowed to do off hands attacks, unlike a monk)

Feats:

Level 1 : Sacred Vow, Vow of poverty, Weapon finesse, TWF
Level 3 : Martial study
Level 6 : Shadow blade
Level 9 : Improved TWF
Level 12: Martil stance (assassin's stance)
Level 15: Greater TWF
Level 18: Snap kick

Unlike a monk, a battledancer gets a way to pounce and fly as in class abilities (on top of Full BAB and the ability to make offhand attacks with unarmed strikes)

Your whole class is based around dancing so you might as well do it naked. If you want to play at a lower level, dip Barbarian for pounce and you're set (you only get pounce by level 8 if I remember right, the class is in dragon compendium).

[Larkas]

Look into the Chainmail Bikini supplement. I'd link to a place you can buy it, but my google-fu is weak tonight.

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/19192/E.N.-Armoury---Chainmail-Bikinis?it=1

It is a solid, if completely humorous, complement. It even has some application in a serious game! And yes, it does have rules for full nudity :smallbiggrin: Seriously, for 5 bucks, I can't recommend it enough.

[Feralventas]

Here's my take on it.

If you can get the Saint template, eat the level adjustment and that will get you your WIsdom to AC. Then your next step is a dip in Battle Dancer for Charisma to AC. Next up you mix in a touch of Sorcerer for utility's sake, picking up Shield and Mage Armor. Your buffed AC in the buff will probably be somewhere around 22. A dip in Monk can also get your Wis to AC, or you can forsake that and just take the dip in BD before a 1 level dip in Fighter for the bonus feat, then two in Paladin so that you now get your Cha to your saves as well as your AC.

Battle Dancer1
Fighter1
Sorcerer1
Paladin2
Warblade1

And now into Abjurant Champion. Full spellcasting progression while buffing your abjuration AC bonuses to scale. Then you can move on to either a more 'caster-ish focused PrC (initiate of the 7-fold veil while premeditating yourself odd colors and making the battlefield a technicolor rave-party to boot) or just keep on the path of the Gish via Eldritch Knight.

If you want to go completely animalistic, Complete Chamipion's Fist of the Forest gets Constitution to AC, a dex-based Rage, and similar unarmed combat bonuses.

Take Craft Wondrous Item and make Jewelry for your magical gear; Piercings are hardly going to be more scandalous than wandering 'round naked.

[Marlowe]

3 Warlock levels can get you a 2d6 ranged attack and a set of Eldritch claws without holding a single visible weapon.

[Talionis]

Rune scarred Barbarian gets limited casting, enough for utility and to be fun, but won't hurt a campaign.

[gbprime]

Non-wild-shape variant druid gets Wis to AC like a monk. Then take the Mystic Wanderer PrC which adds Cha to AC in the same fashion. If you have the stats for it, you can air out whatever anatomical bits you like and still be well protected. :smallamused:

[GoatBoy]

If you're willing to take a dip into the unholy world of 3rd party supplements, the Book of Erotic Fantasy has a "Pierced Master" (or something like that) PrC which lets you get the whole benefit of magic items by enchanting jewellery and piercing different parts of your body, which takes up the item slot but gives you the whole benefit of the item.

The book is written by one of the authors of a few of the "official" books, but I can't really speak on how balanced it is. Nevertheless, it might be what you were looking for.

[Strormer]

An alternate take on the concept of the warforged artifacer, become a mage that uses nothing but a pile of wands and ioun stones, then, just because it will look cool and make ioun stones less risky, learn to imbed ioun stones and they become a permanent part of you that can only be removed willingly or when you're dead. No space limitation, no limit to how many can be imbedded, and yeah. You're now the naked man with a wand in each hand and little magic gems in your skin.
And because I love groaner puns, you have to call yourself a "stud." ^_^

[gbprime]

If you're willing to take a dip into the unholy world of 3rd party supplements, the Book of Erotic Fantasy has a "Pierced Master" (or something like that) PrC which lets you get the whole benefit of magic items by enchanting jewellery and piercing different parts of your body, which takes up the item slot but gives you the whole benefit of the item.

The book is written by one of the authors of a few of the "official" books, but I can't really speak on how balanced it is. Nevertheless, it might be what you were looking for.

The real gem out of that book is Disciple of Aaluran PrC. First off, you can get into it at 3rd level, which makes it a godsend for sorcerer. But on top of that, it gives bonus feats, full casting, a clerical domain, a sanctuary ability, and a couple "sexy" powers.

Trouble is, the fluff has them as kinda giving it away rather freely, and I'd be afraid someone would actually want to roleplay it. :smalleek: So much for ever having a serious plot again...

[The Glyphstone]

If you're willing to take a dip into the unholy world of 3rd party supplements, the Book of Erotic Fantasy has a "Pierced Master" (or something like that) PrC which lets you get the whole benefit of magic items by enchanting jewellery and piercing different parts of your body, which takes up the item slot but gives you the whole benefit of the item.

The book is written by one of the authors of a few of the "official" books, but I can't really speak on how balanced it is. Nevertheless, it might be what you were looking for.

There's a simple rule for dealing with the BoEF. Everything in the book falls into at best two of the following three categories: Balanced, Usable in a Game, Mature.

By far the most broken thing, though, is the Metaphysical Spellshaper. It's like an Incantatrix on crack.

[Kaeso]

if you are gonna be naked, call yourself flanders and go around shaking your butt saying "feels like im wearing nothing at all, nothing at all, nothing at all"

Stupid sexy Flanders!

[ursineoddity]

Synthesist summoner, of course. You could argue that you're wearing your eidolon, but you would still be visible inside of it. The eidolon is your armor and your weapons.

[Talya]

Bah. I was swordsaged to my own thread.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Vow of poverty on totemist or soulmeld ( or whatever incarnum class it helps the most )?

You mean soulborn? ...Yeah, no.

[Rubik]

I'm currently working on a TO build that uses the metamind's font of power/temporal reiteration trick, and since his power and spell durations are essentially permanent for that reason, I just kept all his magic equipment on, used a necklace of natural weaponry (of unarmed strikes) with the ghost touch property (so my whole body counts as ghost touch), cast the Sequester (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/sequester.htm) spell on every piece of gear he has, then used the Ghost Form spell to force himself and all of his gear to permanent incorporeality. Since he and his gear are incorporeal and his gear is invisible, but he can interact with the world as corporeal any time he wants, so long as he doesn't wear mundane clothes he still has all of his magic items but is effectively naked (since, y'know, his equipment is incorporeal and invisible, but still affect him).

I figured it wouldn't do to force him to take his magical goodies off to have sex or bathe or whatever, so there we are.

[Thumperganker]

Actually vow of poverty monk can work very well. Though there are items that are helpful, there is a lot gained just by being a monk, and not a huge amount lost by not having clothing. Perhaps in high levels this may change, but at its core , without clothing, still have high ac, hit hard, move fast, good saves.

[Rubik]

Actually vow of poverty monk can work very well. Though there are items that are helpful, there is a lot gained just by being a monk, and not a huge amount lost by not having clothing. Perhaps in high levels this may change, but at its core , without clothing, still have high ac, hit hard, move fast, good saves.Tashalatoran monk/psion or monk/psywar would be 999% better with VoP than plain monk, though.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Actually vow of poverty monk can work very well. Though there are items that are helpful, there is a lot gained just by being a monk, and not a huge amount lost by not having clothing.
Like what? Unarmored AC bonus? ...That's not worth much. Fast Movement? A barbarian with the Quick trait has a speed twenty feet faster than you at level 1. Later, he can get Boots of Striding and Springing. Sure, you'll eventually overtake him, but that's a fair distance and a lot of monk levels away. Also, Flurry of Blows? Sucks. The only reason it's used at all is because if you're a straight monk, it's better than the monk's full attack.


Perhaps in high levels this may change, but at its core , without clothing, still have high ac, hit hard, move fast, good saves.

Can you back that statement up?


Tell you what. You make a VoP monk, I make a regular barbarian. Single-classed, 32 point buy. I'm being nice here, I could've said warblade. Two versions, core-only except for VoP (in which all the obscure monk ACFs and feats that are any good aren't available, but neither is the good barbarian stuff), and full splat access (you take whatever you want, I take whatever I want). Levels 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20.

[LikeAD6]

Bracers of Armour would be very useful for most nude characters and probably would not count as making the character not nude, as they do not cover a significant percentage of the character's body or any locations that the character could be accused of hiding out of modesty, unless covering one's wrists/forearms is required in the character's culture. I would go with this item and others over VoP because magic items are cool and this would work for a character of any alignment.

[Gavinfoxx]

Can you back that statement up?


I can back that statement up with a level 15, heavily ACFed, vow of poverty monk with extreme splatbook access (including dragon magazine), and a minor houserule that allows me to combine some ACFs that might not otherwise be able to combine. Do you want the build?

[Flickerdart]

Making a good monk isn't hard. All you have to do is get rid of as much Monk as possible, and replace it with actually good features - and even then the optimization effort spent to do so would make any decent class godlike. So Gavinfoxx's claims aren't so much incorrect as irrelevant.

[Gavinfoxx]

Making a good monk isn't hard. All you have to do is get rid of as much Monk as possible, and replace it with actually good features - and even then the optimization effort spent to do so would make any decent class godlike. So Gavinfoxx's claims aren't so much incorrect as irrelevant.

No I mean, straight monk. Monk 15. I found a triiiick.

[nedz]

This happened to me in a recent game. My character was in the bath when the fight kicked off, so he grabbed a towel and started rushing about, ..., and it fell off :smallredface:

Character was a Sorceror, and being naked held no particular disadvantage.

[Slipperychicken]

This happened to me in a recent game. My character was in the bath when the fight kicked off, so he grabbed a towel and started rushing about, ..., and it fell off :smallredface:

Character was a Sorceror, and being naked held no particular disadvantage.

Another use for the humble rope: belts. A hat of disguise might've done well, too... Aand you just put the image in my head of a male Sorcerer walking around in nothing but a Cloak of Charisma. Thanks.

[The Glyphstone]

No I mean, straight monk. Monk 15. I found a triiiick.

I don't think getting your DM drunk and bribing them heavily with money and more alcohol counts as a trick.:smallbiggrin: Though a sufficiently liberal definition of 'hits hard' will suffice in its place.

[Taelas]

No I mean, straight monk. Monk 15. I found a triiiick.

A trick that relies on even a minor houserule isn't much of a trick. :smalltongue:

[nedz]

Another use for the humble rope: belts. A hat of disguise might've done well, too... Aand you just put the image in my head of a male Sorcerer walking around in nothing but a Cloak of Charisma. Thanks.

Cloak ? What cloak ? He wouldn't be naked with a cloak now would he :smallbiggrin:
If its any consolation he was a Gnome, so its somewhat less of an eyeful.

[Rubik]

Another use for the humble rope: belts. A hat of disguise might've done well, too... Aand you just put the image in my head of a male Sorcerer walking around in nothing but a Cloak of Charisma. Thanks.Hey, if he has a high Charisma he's bound to be pretty as heck. I'm all for it.

[mattie_p]

I can back that statement up with a level 15, heavily ACFed, vow of poverty monk with extreme splatbook access (including dragon magazine), and a minor houserule that allows me to combine some ACFs that might not otherwise be able to combine. Do you want the build?

Yes. I love the monk concept, but 3.5 makes it RAW, honestly, unplayable without heavy houserules. I'll accept Dragon Mag features and tricks, especially as I am probably the DM and would love to employ a usable monk as DMPC and/or BBEG.

[Gavinfoxx]

Yes. I love the monk concept, but 3.5 makes it RAW, honestly, unplayable without heavy houserules. I'll accept Dragon Mag features and tricks, especially as I am probably the DM and would love to employ a usable monk as DMPC and/or BBEG.

Well, I got the evil version... lets see if I can manage a 'good' version...

Lets see, what are the ACF's I would use...

Wild Monk
Raging Monk
Holy Strike or Sacred Strike
Ilmater Monk lvl 3
Iron Constitution
Whirling Frenzy
Invisible Fist

[WORK IN PROGRESS, EXPECT THIS POST TO BE EDITED]