a relatively strange character-build CHALLENGE

[enderlord99]

The contest is closed! Congratulations to the winner: AnswererRandomguy!

Rules:


Your character build must be Epic; more specifically, level 30.
Your first 7 levels must be one level of each Monk, Ranger, Scout, Rogue, Swashbuckler, Fighter and Ninja.
You may use any prestige classes you qualify for, but may not have any levels in an eighth base class.
At first level, you gain Ascetic Hunter, Ascetic Stalker, Daring Outlaw, Daring Warrior, Martial Stalker, Swift Ambusher, and Swift Hunter all as bonus feats.
All classes in which you have levels should in some way contribute and be relevant, even if they aren't critical.
Monks can be any alignment (because it's a required class). Other alignment restrictions are unchanged.

[Glimbur]

What is the goal of this challenge? Are you looking for a supreme combatant, a skill monkey, or something in between?

Off hand, I would take the required 7 levels, take enough Divine Crusader to qualify for PrCs that give more domains, and then get all of the domains. This is because spellcasting is really good. Another option is Ur Priest. Suel Arcanamach could also be somewhat effective.

[enderlord99]

What is the goal of this challenge? Are you looking for a supreme combatant, a skill monkey, or something in between?

In between, preferably, but anything that follows the rules works.


Off hand, I would take the required 7 levels, take enough Divine Crusader to qualify for PrCs that give more domains, and then get all of the domains. This is because spellcasting is really good. Another option is Ur Priest. Suel Arcanamach could also be somewhat effective.

Divine crusader would be an eighth base class, which isn't allowed. Also, if you're focusing on spells, something tells me you aren't having all 7 base classes be contribute to the build.

[Kuulvheysoon]

In between, preferably, but anything that follows the rules works.

Divine crusader would be an eighth base class, which isn't allowed. Also, if you're focusing on spells, something tells me you aren't having all 7 base classes be contribute to the build.

Divine Crusader is a Prestige Class from Complete Divine.

[Lonely Tylenol]

Divine crusader would be an eighth base class, which isn't allowed. Also, if you're focusing on spells, something tells me you aren't having all 7 base classes be contribute to the build.

Divine Crusader is a PrC from Complete Divine.

There's some overlap between the base classes you have provided, but unless you focus on a very, very specific niche, you will not be having all 7 base classes contribute to the build. The subset of roles and concepts that fits the intersect of all seven is miniscule.

[enderlord99]

Divine Crusader is a Prestige Class from Complete Divine.

Oh. Oops.


There's some overlap between the base classes you have provided, but unless you focus on a very, very specific niche, you will not be having all 7 base classes contribute to the build. The subset of roles and concepts that fits the intersect of all seven is miniscule.

Then I guess the goal of the challenge is to find that niche. Besides, it's entirely possible to have more than one role.

[enderlord99]

Oh, come on! Someone should find this contest interesting.

[Zale]

Twenty three levels of Wizard.

During each adventure do all of the following at least once.

Punch something.
Sneak up on something.
Stab something with a sword.
Have your animal companion maul something.

[enderlord99]

Twenty three levels of Wizard.

During each adventure do all of the following at least once.

Punch something.
Sneak up on something.
Stab something with a sword.
Have your animal companion maul something.


I didn't know wizard was a prestige class.

Seriously, though, you should follow all the rules (although I guess it isn't a huge deal...)

[Urpriest]

It's epic level. Your classes are giving you: bonus feats, precision damage, and a few minor bonuses to thing.

At epic level, WBL will do all of those things infinitely better than any of those class levels. Your class levels cannot contribute, this challenge is not actually possible to achieve.

[Zale]

I didn't know wizard was a prestige class.

Seriously, though, you should follow all the rules (although I guess it isn't a huge deal...)

Ah. Missed that part.

Well, I guess any prestige class that progresses divine casting is good. Spells are godlike.

Some type of Gish?

[SowZ]

Well, the challenge could be to build it with non-magical gear? It has specified nothing about money, yet.

[Answerer]

You take 10 levels in Ur-Priest, or 2-4 and then some other divine-spellcasting-progressing PrC. Contemplative for those Domains you missed out on seems nice.

You then cast 9th-level spells off the Cleric spell list.

It almost doesn't matter what else you do, you'll be massively more powerful than anyone else built under the same rules who didn't do the same thing (or similar; Ur-Priest isn't the only such PrC).

You then take random other crap to satisfy the "relevance" clause. This shouldn't be too hard, since the Cleric spell list is pretty good at self-buffing so you can wade into combat and use the various meh-as-anything class features that those classes give you.

Throw on War Mind levels for added "fun."

So something like

Crap 8/Ur-Priest 4/Contemplative 6/War Mind 5/Thrallherd 7 because why not.

[LadyLexi]

Human for the monk as favored class
Monk 6/Ranger 4/ Scout 4/ Rogue 4/ Swashbuckler 4/ Fighter 4/ and Ninja 4

To avoid multiclass penalties take all the monk you need first then the order of levels taken are as the class appears, one level each, and then cycled back over.

Take one of the feats that continues to hold a class skill across classes and pick diplomacy. At some point take the feat that gives you one binding from the binder class so you can have the one that lets you make diplomacy checks as a full round action without penalty. 30+ 1(assumed charisma bonus) and just make everyone your friend.

With all of your random skills you can invite your friends (everyone) watch you put on a one man action show. Pick up all the skill tricks you can and charge a small (1 cp) fee for your show with all the proceeds going to charity.

Do this until you gather the attention of a divine entity with a sense of humor. Perform shows for him until he offers you a favor. Then wish that you had spent your whole life training as a wizard instead of all of your silly classes. Take Epic Spell casting.

[hushblade]

Are we assuming fractional BAB or are you stuck with 1 BAB at level 7?

[dextercorvia]

So, you have an epic level character with essentially 7 crappy racial hd, and you expect a different answer than spellcaster?

[enderlord99]

You take 10 levels in Ur-Priest, or 2-4 and then some other divine-spellcasting-progressing PrC. Contemplative for those Domains you missed out on seems nice.

You then cast 9th-level spells off the Cleric spell list.

It almost doesn't matter what else you do, you'll be massively more powerful than anyone else built under the same rules who didn't do the same thing (or similar; Ur-Priest isn't the only such PrC).

You then take random other crap to satisfy the "relevance" clause. This shouldn't be too hard, since the Cleric spell list is pretty good at self-buffing so you can wade into combat and use the various meh-as-anything class features that those classes give you.

Throw on War Mind levels for added "fun."

So something like

Crap 8/Ur-Priest 4/Contemplative 6/War Mind 5/Thrallherd 7 because why not.

So, an Ur-zilla. Sounds decent, and it's the closest we've gotten to fitting both the letter and spirit of the contest perfectly, so I think I'll declare you the winner! Congratulations.

By the way, there are 7 of those classes, and you have a full 8 levels in them. Which one did you take 2 levels in?

[Kuulvheysoon]

So, an Ur-zilla. Sounds decent, and it's the closest we've gotten to fitting both the letter and spirit of the contest perfectly, so I think I'll declare you the winner! Congratulations.

By the way, there are 7 of those classes, and you have a full 8 levels in them. Which one did you take 2 levels in?

My best bet is that Ur-Priest accidentally had in his mind that there was 8 base classes, not seven. Considering that he described it as 'Crap 8', I'm sure that he wouldn't much care, either.

[Randomguy]

Jumble of levels 7/Monk 1/Ninja 1/Ranger 6/Swashbuckler 5/Rogue 10.

You get +17 BAB (I think) from the melee classes (swashbuckler and ranger), so you get 4 attacks.
The one fighter level grants you either a bonus feat or +1d6 sneak attack, whichever you want more. Probably the sneak attack.

You have the ki pool of a level 5 ninja (2 ninja, 2 monk, 1 fighter) and you get ghost step, which is nifty, even though most enemies can see invisibility by high levels it will be useful at lower levels.

Rogue and swashbuckler levels get you +8d6 sneak attack.
Rogue, scout and ranger levels get you +5d6 +4AC skirmish, and you can take improved skirmish to boost that. You can skirmish some things that are immune to precision damage, since those would be your favoured enemies. This is a total of 15d6 precision damage, under ideal circumstances.

The 2 monk levels get you 2 bonus feats (one of which is Deflect Arrows), wis to AC, evasion (so you can trade away the evasion you get later on for something else) and flurry of blows, which is good for getting in more precision damage attacks, and will stack with the free TWF feats you get from ranger.
You have the unarmed damage of a level 18 monk, and you can TWF with a quarterstaff (wielded in 2 hands) and your unarmed strikes.

With a flying carpet you can skirmish very often.

With deflect arrows, infinite deflection, deflect anything and reflect arrows, you're immune to all ranged attacks and you even reflect them all. With spell reflection, you get to reflect even the ones that missed. With evasion and possibly improved evasion, as well as good saves, you're pretty much immune to all attacks made at a distance. Even more so if you add a level of something like Pious templar for mettle, or get it some other way.


It's not nearly as powerful as any kind of full caster, or the Urpriest with 7 dead levels, but it's a workable martial build, in a low op game, at least.

[Curmudgeon]

At some point take the feat that gives you one binding from the binder class so you can have the one that lets you make diplomacy checks as a full round action without penalty.
The Open {Least/Lesser/Greater} Chakra feats allows you to bind a soulmeld to that chakra slot if you have a chakra bind available. None of these feats state that they also grant a chakra bind, thus a non-incarnate character cannot bind any soulmelds.

[Randomguy]

The Open {Least/Lesser/Greater} Chakra feats allows you to bind a soulmeld to that chakra slot if you have a chakra bind available. None of these feats state that they also grant a chakra bind, thus a non-incarnate character cannot bind any soulmelds.

Binding from the binder class. As in, the actuall class named Binder, in tome of magic, not one of the incarnum classes.

[Curmudgeon]

Binding from the binder class. As in, the actuall class named Binder, in tome of magic, not one of the incarnum classes.
Thanks for the clarification. The capitalization helps. :smallwink:

[Answerer]

My best bet is that Ur-Priest accidentally had in his mind that there was 8 base classes, not seven. Considering that he described it as 'Crap 8', I'm sure that he wouldn't much care, either.
There's someone who actually goes by Ur-Priest around here; I wouldn't want to besmirch his name.

At any rate, no, don't really care. The only really important bit is 10 levels of Ur-Priest casting; I was originally going to just answer with Crap 8/Ur-Priest 10/whatever 12, but figured War Mind was as good a fit as any for the remaining levels (Wis based, PsyWar powers synergize with the whole self-buffing death-dealer concept, etc). Anyway, for that level, another level of Thrallherd, I guess?

Were you getting to level 32 (or if you only had 5 levels in crap classes), Metamind becomes a potentially interesting option, since it's 5/10 manifesting. Still, I'm not sure how well War Mind can make use of it. Not sure how well War Mind can make use of Thrallherd for that matter, but eh.

The other option would have been to Psychic Theurge Ur-Priest and War Mind. Figure at least 2 in Ur-Priest (need 2nd-level spells), 5 in War Mind (silly to get into the class and not get Sweeping Strike), then 5 in Psychic Theurge, you can finish your Ur-Priest casting in just 3 divine-advancing levels. All told, 15 levels for 10th-level Ur-Priest and 10th-level War Mind, 7 levels of crap, and therefore 8 levels still to play with. But I don't really know what would be useful at that point so I didn't bother. Dweormerkeeper or something similarly ludicrous perhaps. Any way to get Wild Shape from a prestige class? Cuz then you could do Planar Shepherd for maximum absurd.

[enderlord99]

Jumble of levels 7/Monk 1/Ninja 1/Ranger 6/Swashbuckler 5/Rogue 10.

You get +17 BAB (I think) from the melee classes (swashbuckler and ranger), so you get 4 attacks.
The one fighter level grants you either a bonus feat or +1d6 sneak attack, whichever you want more. Probably the sneak attack.

You have the ki pool of a level 5 ninja (2 ninja, 2 monk, 1 fighter) and you get ghost step, which is nifty, even though most enemies can see invisibility by high levels it will be useful at lower levels.

Rogue and swashbuckler levels get you +8d6 sneak attack.
Rogue, scout and ranger levels get you +5d6 +4AC skirmish, and you can take improved skirmish to boost that. You can skirmish some things that are immune to precision damage, since those would be your favoured enemies. This is a total of 15d6 precision damage, under ideal circumstances.

The 2 monk levels get you 2 bonus feats (one of which is Deflect Arrows), wis to AC, evasion (so you can trade away the evasion you get later on for something else) and flurry of blows, which is good for getting in more precision damage attacks, and will stack with the free TWF feats you get from ranger.
You have the unarmed damage of a level 18 monk, and you can TWF with a quarterstaff (wielded in 2 hands) and your unarmed strikes.

With a flying carpet you can skirmish very often.

With deflect arrows, infinite deflection, deflect anything and reflect arrows, you're immune to all ranged attacks and you even reflect them all. With spell reflection, you get to reflect even the ones that missed. With evasion and possibly improved evasion, as well as good saves, you're pretty much immune to all attacks made at a distance. Even more so if you add a level of something like Pious templar for mettle, or get it some other way.


It's not nearly as powerful as any kind of full caster, or the Urpriest with 7 dead levels, but it's a workable martial build, in a low op game, at least.

Okay, now that Randomguy has actually done the contest the way I had intended, Answerer has been dethroned. Great job, Randomguy.