Quest for Nines

[Roguenewb]

So, D&D has a lot of "9's" a colloquial term for max level powers of a certain power source, as far as I know, there are the following nines:

9th level Arcane Spells (technically Wiz/Sorc and Wu Jen, but the Wu Jen pile is small, there is also the three focused caster lists)
9th level Cleric Spells
9th level Druid Spells
9th level Psionic Powers
8th level Vestiges
Dark Invocations (Two lists, Dragonfire Adept, and Warlock)
Soul Chakra Binds (Incarnum)
9th level Manuevers
9th level Mysteries
Lexicon of the Perfected Map 4 Utterances
+16/+11/+6/+1 Base Attack Bonus.

Then there are some stranger "9s"

Weapon Supremacy
Mighty Rage
Inspire Heroics
4th level Paladin Spells
4th level Ranger Spells
6th level Bard Spells

And there may be others that I am not noticing in my exploration of them.

There are lots of ways to get multiple 9s, and I thought I'd try to make a compendium of them.

Starting with Easy Mode:

Archivist 20: Automatically gets Druid 9s and Cleric 9s. More magic-mart or RAW DMs also make it possible for them to get Wizard 9s. More tricks can add a bunch of the "lesser" 9s.
-Cleric 9
-Druid 9
-Wizard 9
-Bard 6
-Ranger 4
-Paladin 4

Artificer 15: Can make scrolls of all spellss, so, the artificer can burn gold to get all the casting based 9s. With one feat, can get the ability to make martial scripts, and another feat gives power stones.
-Cleric 9
-Druid 9
-Wizard 9
-Wu Jen 9
-Bard 6
-Ranger 4
-Paladin 4
-Manuevers 9
-Psionic 9
-Mysteries 9

Warblade 19/Fighter 1. Technically you can do it with straight warblade 20, but you don't get a bonus feat at level 20.
-Manuevers 9
-Weapon Supremacy

Bard 10/Sublime Chord 10. This gets a bunch of related 9s, and is basically just bard.
-Sor Wiz 9
-Bard 6
-Inspire Heroics



Then, moving on to classic builds:

Bard 7/UrPriest 2/Mystic Theurge 1/Sublime Chord 2/Mystic Theurge 8. Using Sublime Chord and Ur-Priest to jump ahead on casting, a similiar build is posssible using Nar Demonbinder or Beholder Mage, and Aposotle of Peace, but I believe this is considered the best Chord/Ur/MT build in general.
-Cleric 9
-Sor/Wiz 9
-Bard 6

Wizard 5/Mindbender 1/Ur Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 10/Wizard 2. This is the simpler variation on the above build. It gets one less 9, but it's caster level for urpriest spells (w/ practiced spellcaster) is 22, so that's something, right?
-Cleric 9
-Wizard 9

StP Erudite 10/Ur Priest 2/Psychic Theurge 8. Similar to the above build. Depending on your DM's rules interpretation of "Sanctum Power", you could in theory get:
-Arcane 9
-Cleric 9
-Psionic 9

Wizard 1/Druid 3/Arcane Hierophant 10/Mystic Theurge 6. Using precocious apprentice to qualify for hierophant early, this is essentially the druid version of The Ur-Priest builds.
-Wizard 9s
-Druid 9s

StP Erudite 1/Archivist 1/Psychic Theurge 10/Legacy Champion 8. Using your personal brand of entry cheese, you get basically everything. The notable hole is Incarnum.
-Cleric 9
-Druid 9
-Wizard 9
-Bard 6
-Ranger 4
-Paladin 4
-Psionic 9s

Cleric 4/Crusader 4/Divine Crusader 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10. Using another fast progression casting class, we get some nines!
-+16 BAB
-9th level cleric spells from a single domain (Options include Wish and Miracle!)
-9th level Manuevers


Alright guys, what am I missing? Alright guys, help me get more nines!

[Anthrowhale]

Cleric 4/Crusader 4/Divine Crusader 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10

Gives:
BAB 18 (= "Fighter 9")
9th level domain spells
9th level maneuvers

[Little Brother]

The Truenamer "9" is Perfect Map 4. Nothing else the Truenamer has matters.

Also, there's no such thing as a 9th-level utterance. Only goes up to 6(Evolving Mind), 5(Crafted Tool), and 4(The one that matters, Perfected Map)

Also, I think you mean fifth-level Ranger spells.

[Roguenewb]

Cleric 4/Crusader 4/Divine Crusader 2/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10

Gives:
BAB 18 (= "Fighter 9")
9th level domain spells
9th level maneuvers

Thanks! What, exactly, are cleric 1-4 for? Could you take Paladin 2 instead of some for CHA to saves?

And 5th level ranger spells are only in a Dragon Magazine alternative version, and there are no unique spells of that level.


What else we got?

[Mithril Leaf]

Triple 9s:

Ardent 3/Beholder Mage 2/Cerebremancer 5/Ur-Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 3/Psychic Theurge 5

Take Assume Supernatural Ability by level 3 and buy a casting of Polymorph Any Object. Become Beholder, stab out eye, enter Beholder Mage. Take Cerebremancer to advance BM to 7 and Ardent to 8. Have Iron Will and Spell Focus: Evil by level 9. Enter Ur-Priest. Enter Mystic Theurge to get Beholder Mage to 10 (unnecessary but there's room and it's good) and Ur-Priest to 5. Enter Psychic Theurge to get Ur-Priest to 10 and Ardent to 13. Have Practiced Manifester by the last level so that you can learn your 9th level power.

I would probably prefer to take Erudite instead of Ardent though for fuller access to psionics. You can also opt to get your psionics side up to 15 by sacrificing the last levels of BM and UP (you still get 9s, just not as many). The Ardent part could then have more 9th level powers at least, and the Erudite would get its 8ths. I don't think either is as good as having extra Beholder Mage slots if you ask me...

A quick archive binge later and this surfaces.

[Morph Bark]

There are feats that allow a spellcaster to turn their spells from arcane to divine or vice versa. This combined with Scribe Scroll allows them to scribe their spells as spells of the other type (so a wizard can scribe divine spell scrolls). This allows the Archivist access to every spell ever.

Spell-to-Power Erudite has ways to get spells to turn into powers from classes other than the wizard, meaning that now all spells are available to him.

Psionic Artificer can turn every power up to 9th level into dorjes, which are basically the psionic version of wands. Through StP Erudite they now can turn spells of levels 5-9 into "wands".

Dark Invocations often copy spells and the few that don't are good for their level, but otherwise lacklustre. I would also not count them as "true 9s", just like Incarnum stuff.

If you can get Psionic Artificer to somehow count for the arcane side of Noctumancer, you can get another pair of 9s out of that.

Or you can use a psionic version of the Jade Phoenix Mage for maneuver 9s and higher BAB.

The last option depends on houseruling/homebrewing, while the one before might be possible through some convulated scheme involving possible Dragon material.

Even without it, you got:

Ardent 9s
Cleric 9s (plus Favoured Soul and Ur-Priest)
Druid 9s (plus Spirit Shaman)
Psion 9s (plus Wilder)
Shaman 9s
Shugenja 9s
Sublime Chord 9s
Wizard 9s (plus Sorcerer, Beguiler, Dread Necromancer and Warmage)
Wu Jen 9s

And for non-true 9s:

Assassin 4s
Bard 6s
Blackguard 4s
Divine Mind? Xs
Duskblade 5s
Hexblade 4s
Lurk Xs
Paladin 4s
Psychic Rogue 6s
Psychic Warrior 6s
Ranger 4s
Sohei 4s
Suel Arcanamach 5s
Warmind 5s
etc.

[*.*.*.*]

I've seen a few triple 9 builds, but I don't think I've ever seen a quad 9 build.

Interesting~

Edit- In retrospect, having access to 'Mental Pinnacle' Invalidates the need for psionic 9.

[eggs]

There's also the stupid Spellbook/Versatile Spellcaster combination, which opens silly things like Beguiler 16/Archivist 1/Chameleon 1 with full spontaneous access to all arcane and divine spells.

Except cantrips, oddly enough.

[Fable Wright]

I'm just going to leave these (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=2671.0) here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3945177).

[Roguenewb]

This thread is going awesomely. What is shards of leadership?

[Saintheart]

...no love for the Assassin school of spells? :smallfrown:

[Anthrowhale]

Thanks! What, exactly, are cleric 1-4 for? Could you take Paladin 2 instead of some for CHA to saves?


Turn Undead. An optimized version is something like:

Raptoran Cloistered Cleric 1(knowledge devotion)/Barbarian 1(pounce)/Fighter 1(feat)/Ranger 1(hide)/Crusader 2/Warblade 2(White Raven Tactics)/Divine Crusader (Magic) 2/RKV 10

You end up with:
a) RKV bonus actions
b) An Epic Spell ready fighter
c) Disjunction and AM-Field.
d) Ability to heal (via devoted spirit) and fly (via Raptoran) inside the AM-field

[Hand_of_Vecna]

...no love for the Assassin school of spells? :smallfrown:

Pardon me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Assassin has anything much to offer. Ranger, Paladin and Bard all have sexy unique spells that are broken if gotten early (like at the level a full caster get's spells of the same level) or under leveled versions of spells that allow cheap items and make archivists a little cheesy.

The often abused Runescarred Berzerker is probably more relevent to the conversation.

Edit: Hide from Dragons a spell level earlier than Bard. Nice for Artificers.

[Duke of URL]

Not as "9"y as some of the other concepts, but Warlock 4 / Binder 1 / Ur-Priest 2 / Eldritch Disciple 8 / Hellfire Warlock 3 / Mindbender 1 gets you dual "9"s by level 19. You even have one level free to add whatever you want to the mix. Caveat: you'll need to go "priest of a dead evil god trying to bring him/her back" to qualify for both UP and ED.

Cleric 9
Dark Invocations

UMD + Scrolls/Staves should also make other 9s accessible.

[ThiagoMartell]

Wizard 5/Virtuoso 1/Prestige Ranger 1/Prestige Paladin 1/Ur-Priest 2/Sublime Chord 2/Mystic Theurge 8

Bard 6th
Paladin 4th
Ranger 4th
Sorcerer 9th
Cleric 9th
BAB 16 due to Divine Power
Leadership + Inspire Greatness + Dark Chaos Shuffle = 9th level maneuver (the Stone Dragon 9th has no requirements, IIRC)

[Fable Wright]

Elven Generalist Domain Wizard with Versatile Spellcaster and Alacritous Cogitation is a 1 level 2 feat dip that can get you Wizard 9th level spells...

[NeedsAnswersNao]

Spells known? Spell Slots? Not to mention the gestalt rules-ignoring attempts. I feel like PBMC ruined D&D for me (http://blacktowerclan.com/forums/index.php?topic=169.0) after I read his dump site.

The rest of this looks so meh in comparison.

[ThiagoMartell]

Spells known? Spell Slots? Not to mention the gestalt rules-ignoring attempts. I feel like PBMC ruined D&D for me (http://blacktowerclan.com/forums/index.php?topic=169.0) after I read his dump site.

The rest of this looks so meh in comparison.

What the hell are you talking about?

[dextercorvia]

Elven Generalist Domain Wizard with Versatile Spellcaster and Alacritous Cogitation is a 1 level 2 feat dip that can get you Wizard 9th level spells...

Only one feat if you work in a spontaneous casting some other way first.