[3.5] Damage Sink Build

[Bakkan]

I'm starting a new 3.5 campaign in which Tier 1,2, and 6 classes are banned. Assume all 3.5 material is allowed, but no Dragon Magazine. Fractional BAB and saves are in effect, together with the rule that you may only gain the +2 for a good save once. We start with 150,000 GP and 72,000 XP, LA buyoff is in effect. Stats are 34-pt buy. No flaws or traits. No Chaotic or Evil alignments. Finally, the DM has let us know that the world we will be in is high-magic.

My concept for this character is to fill the "healer" role in an interesting way: namely by absorbing the damage into myself and then letting my fast healing and other healing abilities take care of things. The is sometimes done preemptively, by making enemies attack me, especially given my long list of immunities and resistances.

The overall optimization level in my group is medium-low to medium-high, with me being on the higher end. Hence I try to make characters that are good at support and defense rather than offense so as not to outshine anyone else. We will (probably) have 4 other people in the party: A Psychic Warrior (unknown beyond that), a DFI bard going into Sublime Chord, a Rogue/Shadowdancer I am introducing to Swordsage with great success, and an unknown melee glass cannon type, likely a barbarian.

Here's the current state of the build and a summary of its qualities:

Race/Template: SaintedBoED DragonbornRotD WarforgedMM3
Type/Subtype: Outsider (Native, DragonbloodMM3, Living ConstructMM3)
Classes: ArdentCPsi 3/Dragon ShamanPHB2 1/IncarnateMoI 3/CrusaderToB 4 (XP total: 56,000)

Hit Dice: 6d8+5d10 (Average: 57)
BAB: +8 = 0.75 + 1.5 + 2.25 + 4.0
Base Saves: +7.00/+3.67/+7.33 = 2.50/0.33/2.50 + 1.50/1.00/1.50 + 1.00/1.00/1.50 + 2.00/1.33/1.33

Racial Features

Save DCs of all effects increased by 2
+1d6 damage to evil creatures (+1d8 evi outsider), same to evil creatures striking with natural weapon
Spell-Like Abilities: At will -- guidance, resistance, virtue, bless
DR 5/evil (10/evil next level)
Fast healing 5
Low-light vision
Darkvision 60 ft
Protective Aura (+4 deflection to AC and +4 resistance to saves vs evil creatures, nongood summoned creatures can't come within 20 feet, protected from mental control or possession, spell effects of 3rd-level or lower excluded, raise or lower as a free action)
Constant tongues effect
Wings (30 ft speed flight, average maneuverability)
No need to eat, sleep, or breathe
Immune to acid, cold, electricity, petrification, dragon frihtful presence, poison, sleep effects, paralysis, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, energy drain
Resistance to fire 10
+2 AC versus dragons
+Wisdom modifier insight bonus to AC


Class Features
Dragon Shaman: Draconic Totem: Silver

Draconic Auras: Energy Shield (2 cold damage to enemies striking with nonreach or natural weapons), Senses (+1 Spot, Listen, Initiative), Vigor (fast healing 1 to half health)
Ardent: Good, Guardian, Life mantles

Granted Abilities: Expend psionic focus to deal +1d6 damage to an evil creature, expend psionic focus as immediate action to absorb melee damage on an attack against an adjacent ally, expend psionic focus as a swift action to increase ML by 1 when manifesting a Life mantle power.
Known Powers: body purification, deaden blowCpsi, empathic transfer, stygian wardCPsi
Incarnate: Good Incarnate

Good aura, detect evil at will, incarnum radiance 1/day (free action, +1 AC for 3 + Con mod rounds)
Soulmelds: 3 shaped, 1 bind, crown chakra open, 3 essentia, expanded soulmeld capacity +1
Typically Shaped Soulmelds: Enigma Helm (bound to crown chakra, as nondetection, caster of divination must make DC 14 caster level check, +essentia enhancement bonus to Will saves, immunity to enchantment(charm) effects), Lifebond Vestments (heal ally for 3+5*essentia points of damage, take half healed as damage, limit once per hour per creature), Therapeutic Mantle (Additional 2*effect level + 2*essentia points of incoming healing)
Crusader:

Furious Counterstrike (+attack and damage when have damage in delayed damage pool), Steely resolve 10 (delayed damage pool), indomitable soul (Cha to Will saves), Zealous surge (reroll a save 1/day),

Maneuvers Known: (Initiator level 7)

1st Level: Crusader's Strike (on hit, heal self or ally within 10 feet for 1d6+5 points of damage)
2nd Level: Foehammer (+2d6 damage, ignore DR and hardness), Shield Block (Immediate action, grant ally my shield bonus +4 to AC), Tactical Strike (+2d6 damage, allies adjacent to target move 5 feet)
3rd Level: Revitalizing Strike (on hit, heal self or ally within 10 feet for 3d6+7 points of damage), White Raven Tactics (swift action, ally within 10 feet gets initiative moved to after me)

Stances Known: Martial Spirit, Thicket of Blades

Stats (no items):
STR 16 (16 base)
DEX 12 (14 base - 2 dragonborn)
CON 22 (14 base + 2 warforged + 2 dragonborn + 2 saint + 2 levels)
INT 10 (10 base)
WIS 16 (16 base - 2 warforged + 2 saint)
CHA 10 (8 base - 2 warforged + 4 saint)

Planned Ability Enhancers: +4 Strength, +4 Con, +4 Wis (48,000 gp)
Planned Defensive Items: +4 Full Plate, +1 Animated Heavy Shield, +2 Amulet of Natural Armor, Minor Cloak of Displacement
Stats after items:


STR 20, DEX 12, CON 26, INT 10, WIS 20, CHA 10
HP: 145 (57 + 8*11)
AC: 33 (+12 armor, +1 Dex, +3 shield, +2 natural, +5 insight), T 16 FF 32
AC vs Dragons: 35, T 18, FF 32
AC vs Evil: 37, T 20, FF 36
AC vs Evil Dragons: 39, T 22, FF 38
Miss Chance: 20%
Saves: Fort +15 (+19 vs evil), Ref +4 (+9 vs evil), Will +14 (+18 vs evil)


Feats:
1 - Practised Manifester (Adept)CPsi
3 - Expanded Soulmeld CapacityMoI
6 - Psionic Meditation
9 - Bonus EssentiaMoI
12 (planned) - Extra Granted ManeuverToB
Bonus: Iron Will (Otyugh Hole)

Sources: Anything not cited is from the SRD
BoED: Book of Exalted Deeds
CPsi: Complete Psionic
MoI: Magic of Incarnum
ToB: Tome of Battle

I'm looking for critique and opinions regarding this build. In particular, what ways are there for me to absorb status effects, diseases, curses, ability damage, and such into myself? I would like to basically be the guy from the Green Mile who absorbed bad stuff into himself and then got rid of it. Am I overfocused on one aspect to the point of being less than useful? No part of the build is set in stone, so I welcome all suggestions. Thanks in advance!

[AslanCross]

Perhaps somewhat sub optimal, but taking Stone Power and gaining 10 temp HP every turn helps beef up your damage pool. As for absorbing conditions and ability damage, I'm stumped.

[sonofzeal]

The usual standby for immunities is Necropolitan - it makes you undead, without LA, and without an alignment change. Although you might need an Atone after, depending on the character.

Of course, being undead costs you your Con score, which might be a problem....

[Flickerdart]

Shield Other (or the psionic Share Pain) seems like the obvious choice here.

[rmg22893]

The usual standby for immunities is Necropolitan - it makes you undead, without LA, and without an alignment change. Although you might need an Atone after, depending on the character.

Of course, being undead costs you your Con score, which might be a problem....

Improved Toughness somewhat mitigates the loss of a Con score, although it's still sub-optimal HP-wise.

[sonofzeal]

Improved Toughness somewhat mitigates the loss of a Con score, although it's still sub-optimal HP-wise.

Couldn't undead get Cha to hp?

[rmg22893]

Couldn't undead get Cha to hp?

Certain undead can, yes. Some undead get the Unholy Toughness ability which gives Cha to HP, but there is no feat for this.

[ericgrau]

Since you can't be a cleric you can pick up a ring of friend shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#friendShield) instead. A bit expensive but you can pick the most important ally. Later you could afford 2 rings. Or 1 level of paladin would let you use a wand of extended shield other for 11250 gp. Or extended enlarged shield other for 21000 gp. 50 charges tends to last entire campaigns, but OTOH getting it 24/7 is nice in case you get surprised, especially if you travel a lot and don't do many dungeon crawls.

[Cor1]

I think you could do everything in that with a straight Psion. You'd tank better, manifest better, heal better, smack better.

If Psion is banned, then a PsyWar 4 / Ardent 7 may do everything better too... with Overchannel, you take advantage of the rule in Overchannel that says "Normal: Your manifester level is equal to your total levels in classes that manifest powers." to get no penalty on advancing Ardent even if you're four levels behind. (It's like a free Practiced Manifester.) With a Mantled PsyWar (does that exist? Oh, yes. You get a mantle ability and access to a Mantle's powers at PsyWar level 2 for the cost of your PsyWar lvl 2 bonus feat.) you'd see no difference at all, it'd be like four free levels of PsyWar as gestalt, without taking Practiced Manifester.

But taking it linked to PsyWar nets you +4 ML for a feat slot. Add to Overchannel. You get a crazy ML bump, and can learn high-level Ardent powers, or upgrade your Expanded Knowledges with the Psychic Reformation in the Expanded Knowledge you took at lvl 9.

Keep you templates if you want, but applying them to an Elan would make it tank better than anything... with the Life Mantle, you can be the party healbot, and you have a crazy manifesting level, like, 20-21 :
11 class +
1 with Life Mantle +
1 from Ioun Stone Orange Prism +
3 from Overchannel +
4 Practiced Manifester +
1 from Torc of Power Preservation =
spend 21 pp + 10 for tanking Overchannel -1 from Torc of Power Preservation =
spend 30 pp to manifest as a 21th-level manifester at level 11.

So you could heal, if you Twin it, and spend two psionic foci, everyone within 20 ft of 110 HP for 30 pp : 55 from Mend Wounds for 11pp, Twin it for a focus and +6pp, Augment it of 4 to affect everyone within 20 ft.

You can make that build a very durable tank and efficient healbot, but with more emphasis on Psionics. Half your HD count as Initiator Levels anyway, so you don't really have to take a lot of levels in those, and you can qualify for prestige classes from just feats. (The Psionic Feat Battery trick may help you with missing feat slots.)

[Ashtagon]

Tier 3-4-5, and high magic setting? Has your GM outright banned wizards and clerics and psions, or are they being reserved for NPC use only? The answer to this question should affect your build.

[Glimbur]

Perhaps somewhat sub optimal, but taking Stone Power and gaining 10 temp HP every turn helps beef up your damage pool. As for absorbing conditions and ability damage, I'm stumped.

The Strongheart Vest soulmeld is an Incarnate soulmeld and it helps you resist ability damage. It is infamous for arguments about combining it with Hellfire Warlock, but for just resisting general ability damage it unequivocally works.

[rot42]

Bind the Dahlver-Nar vestige for immunity to Wisdom damage/drain, madness, insanity, and confusion. It also gives you a Shield Other style effect, but it only works to move damage from you to your psicrystal (or other creature, sure, but psicrystal is often going to be the best choice). It is a second level vestige, requiring three levels of Binder or one and a feat. Just the immunities are available at the cost of two feats and automatically making a bad pact, but no class levels. Source: Tome of Magic.

You might also consider the Justice mantle with Knockback or something that prevents the enemy from being able to complete the attack (I think there is a soulmeld that gives Awesome Blow). This might wind up too feat intensive to put on anything except a Psychic Warrior, though.

[Bakkan]

The usual standby for immunities is Necropolitan - it makes you undead, without LA, and without an alignment change. Although you might need an Atone after, depending on the character.

Of course, being undead costs you your Con score, which might be a problem....


Improved Toughness somewhat mitigates the loss of a Con score, although it's still sub-optimal HP-wise.


Couldn't undead get Cha to hp?


Certain undead can, yes. Some undead get the Unholy Toughness ability which gives Cha to HP, but there is no feat for this.

Indeed. The lack of a Con score would hurt my ability to take hits, and even if Necropolitan bumps up my hit dice to d12s (I can't recall if it does), that wouldn't make up for the loss. In addition, I'm unsure how being undead would interact with my other abilities, and this is just a personal thing, but I find good-aligned undead unbelievable most of the time.


Shield Other (or the psionic Share Pain) seems like the obvious choice here.


Since you can't be a cleric you can pick up a ring of friend shield (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/rings.htm#friendShield) instead. A bit expensive but you can pick the most important ally. Later you could afford 2 rings. Or 1 level of paladin would let you use a wand of extended shield other for 11250 gp. Or extended enlarged shield other for 21000 gp. 50 charges tends to last entire campaigns, but OTOH getting it 24/7 is nice in case you get surprised, especially if you travel a lot and don't do many dungeon crawls.

Now this is an excellent idea and one I plan to use. The 50k price tag on the ring is a little steep. However, even with an extended enlarged shield other, the maximum range is 85 feet, and if the target and I are ever more than 85 feet apart the spell ends and must be recast before the next fight. Given the fact that I'm a flier, that could become problematic.



I think you could do everything in that with a straight Psion. You'd tank better, manifest better, heal better, smack better.

If Psion is banned, then a PsyWar 4 / Ardent 7 may do everything better too... with Overchannel, you take advantage of the rule in Overchannel that says "Normal: Your manifester level is equal to your total levels in classes that manifest powers." to get no penalty on advancing Ardent even if you're four levels behind. (It's like a free Practiced Manifester.) With a Mantled PsyWar (does that exist? Oh, yes. You get a mantle ability and access to a Mantle's powers at PsyWar level 2 for the cost of your PsyWar lvl 2 bonus feat.) you'd see no difference at all, it'd be like four free levels of PsyWar as gestalt, without taking Practiced Manifester.

But taking it linked to PsyWar nets you +4 ML for a feat slot. Add to Overchannel. You get a crazy ML bump, and can learn high-level Ardent powers, or upgrade your Expanded Knowledges with the Psychic Reformation in the Expanded Knowledge you took at lvl 9.

Keep you templates if you want, but applying them to an Elan would make it tank better than anything... with the Life Mantle, you can be the party healbot, and you have a crazy manifesting level, like, 20-21 :
11 class +
1 with Life Mantle +
1 from Ioun Stone Orange Prism +
3 from Overchannel +
4 Practiced Manifester +
1 from Torc of Power Preservation =
spend 21 pp + 10 for tanking Overchannel -1 from Torc of Power Preservation =
spend 30 pp to manifest as a 21th-level manifester at level 11.

So you could heal, if you Twin it, and spend two psionic foci, everyone within 20 ft of 110 HP for 30 pp : 55 from Mend Wounds for 11pp, Twin it for a focus and +6pp, Augment it of 4 to affect everyone within 20 ft.

You can make that build a very durable tank and efficient healbot, but with more emphasis on Psionics. Half your HD count as Initiator Levels anyway, so you don't really have to take a lot of levels in those, and you can qualify for prestige classes from just feats. (The Psionic Feat Battery trick may help you with missing feat slots.)

Psion is banned as it's Tier 2. To be honest, I'm not sure everything there is strictly legal; in particular, the usage of the Overchannel's "Normal" line in that manner strikes me as odd, and stacking that with Practised Manifester is suspect. Also, the Life mantle's healing is far less efficient than Empathic Transfer. 2 hp/PP vs 2d10+2d10/pp above 3? I'll take the second every time. Since Empathic Transfer has a maximum PP spent of 7, any Manifester level above 7 is not too useful for this build as far as I can see. I'm open to correction, in particular if there is more efficient Psionic healing than Empathic Transfer. Note that I have fast healing, so once I absorb the damage, I don't need to do too much more.


Tier 3-4-5, and high magic setting? Has your GM outright banned wizards and clerics and psions, or are they being reserved for NPC use only? The answer to this question should affect your build.

I believe the DM has simply removed those classes from existence, while at the same time making essentially every item printed available for purchase. My guess is NPC Artificers who have absolutely no interest in adventuring.


The Strongheart Vest soulmeld is an Incarnate soulmeld and it helps you resist ability damage. It is infamous for arguments about combining it with Hellfire Warlock, but for just resisting general ability damage it unequivocally works.

That is a good idea. I'll probably wind up replacing the Enigma Helm with the Strongheart Vest. The nice thing is that I can change my soulmeld loadout every day.


Bind the Dahlver-Nar vestige for immunity to Wisdom damage/drain, madness, insanity, and confusion. It also gives you a Shield Other style effect, but it only works to move damage from you to your psicrystal (or other creature, sure, but psicrystal is often going to be the best choice). It is a second level vestige, requiring three levels of Binder or one and a feat. Just the immunities are available at the cost of two feats and automatically making a bad pact, but no class levels. Source: Tome of Magic.

You might also consider the Justice mantle with Knockback or something that prevents the enemy from being able to complete the attack (I think there is a soulmeld that gives Awesome Blow). This might wind up too feat intensive to put on anything except a Psychic Warrior, though.

Re: Binder, I'm not sure that investment will be particularly worth it. I already have immunity to a lot of enchantment effects, and shaping the Strongheart Vest will give me Wisdom resistance (pumpable through essentia). I would have to spend two feats to be able to manifest Share Pain on a psycrystal, one for the psycrystal and one for Expanded Knowledge, and given my fast healing I don't think it's worth it to be honest.

I don't qualify for Knockback as is and it would take a lot of work to get there, and the soulmeld that grants awesome blow only does so when you bind it to a waist chakra, which I don't have.

I agree that a few levels of Psychic Warrior might free up some additional options, but I don't want to step on the other Psychic Warrior's toes.


Thanks for the help everyone. Let me know if you have anything else. I'm still interested in ways of absorbing other effects, especially ability damage since I have Body Purification to easily heal myself but not others of ability damage.

[Cor1]

Psion is banned as it's Tier 2. To be honest, I'm not sure everything there is strictly legal; in particular, the usage of the Overchannel's "Normal" line in that manner strikes me as odd, and stacking that with Practised Manifester is suspect. Also, the Life mantle's healing is far less efficient than Empathic Transfer. 2 hp/PP vs 2d10+2d10/pp above 3? I'll take the second every time. Since Empathic Transfer has a maximum PP spent of 7, any Manifester level above 7 is not too useful for this build as far as I can see. I'm open to correction, in particular if there is more efficient Psionic healing than Empathic Transfer. Note that I have fast healing, so once I absorb the damage, I don't need to do too much more.


I made a mistake, too : if you have Overchannel + Talented, you can augment poweres lvl 1-3 without taking damage if you expend a focus.

There is better than Life mantle, yes : Vigor + Share Pain + two psicrystals. But I'm not sure your psicrystal could advance. I think they didn't intend PsyWar to take those, but it's an obvious mistake for Ardents and Erudites. Erudites gain a free psicrystal, but psicrystals only advance by Psion or Wilder levels, per RAW.

Having two psicrystals, you could Vigor yourself (and pet rocks) for 105 HP, with Share Pain up on each psicrystal, then put the psicrystals in your pocket. They count as objects, then, and must be sundered through total concealment to be damaged - you can safely bet that won't happen.
And you'd have effectively 315 hp, for a total of 24 pp. Share Pain is hour/level, so manifesting Vigor for 21pp and a psionic focus should be enough for tanking an encounter. If it's HP that you need.

That enough return on investment?