E6 Totemist builds

[macfadden510]

Hey y'all

I'm hopefully going to be joining a PbP e6 game pretty soon. I want to play a Totemist (Magic of Incarnum) so I'm wondering if there are any effective e6 specific or low-level builds. I've considered taking a 1 level dip as a Barbarian but I am concerned over the loss of the available chakra bind at level 6 (essentia is no concern considering the amount of feats I should be able to pick up).

Right now I'm a Saurian Shifter (razorclaw) with the feats Shifter Instincts, Razorclaw Elite, and Extra Shifter Trait (junglerunner) and the flaws Wild and Bestial Instinct. Stats are 16 STR, 16 CON, 16 DEX, 10 INT, 10 WIS, and 6 CHA (with racial adjustment; 32 pointbuy). Shifter is important but I'm open to advice towards feats and stat arrays. It looks like I'll be playing the frontline melee fighter in the group.

If it matters, the game will also be using the vitality/wound point rules and the spellpoint system (low-magic setting) and we will be starting at level 2.

Thank you for the help!

[Gotterdammerung]

Overall, I commend your choice for Totemist in an e6. It has some interesting early game power available between your totem chakra and improved essentia capacity giving u a 4 max essentia meld and the general way the system scales so well with feats. E6 games get inundated with feats if they go on a long time and Totemist has the benefit of a LARGE list of feats that increase its power (basically a totemist will never run out of feats and almost every feat will significantly improve his power). Only a few of the incarnum feats have unreachable requirements, I would imagine it is within the parameters of normal E6 houserule to drop the requirements of double chakra from 9 manifester lvl to 6 manifester lvl but you will have to ask your GM.

As far as race goes, you seem fine. Obviously one of the incarnum races would give you more essentia but it isnt necessary. I would recommend becoming really familiar with the incarnum feats first before you peruse the melds as the feats will greatly affect the parameters of power your melds can achieve. And the feats will give you possible access to other melds outside of your class. Knowing what the feats can potentially provide and ranking them based of off importance for you will help you make more pin point choices on which melds to take.

[8wGremlin]

might I suggest reading this thread [3.5] Help Me Build a Level 6 Totemist (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=214969)

I think the best version that I've played was the Totemist 2, Incarnum 4

this post in particular

My suggestion is Warforged Totemist 2/Incarnate 4

Warforged gives you a slam attack and a bunch of immunities. Though any race with natural weapons will work fine, or you could use one of the Incarnum races if you want an extra point of essentia instead.

Totemist 2 for Girillion Arms bound to Totem Chakra, giving you 4 claw attacks. For your remaining two soulmelds I suggest some combination of Dragon Tail (Dragon Magic) for a tail attack, Chaos Roc's Span (Dragon Mag 350) for 2 wing buffet attacks, Rageclaws or Blood Talons for Die Hard, Threefold Mask of the Chimera for Immunity to Flanking (if you know your DM is fond of Rogues), or Wormtail Belt for the Natural Armor bonus.

Incarnate 4 for Astral Vembraces (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20060217a) bound to your Hands, which gives you DR 8/magic plus 2 more Slam attacks. For your remaining three soulmelds, I suggest some combination of Mantle of Flame (4d6 retributive fire damage), Spellward Shirt (Spell Resistance 17), Dragon Tail (it's a Totemist and Incarnate soulmeld, so bind it under either), Mage's Spectacles (UMD), Acrobat Boots (Tumble), or Impulse Boots (Uncanny Dodge).

Your Incarnate soulmelds require lots of essentia if you want them running at full power. You'll have 6 points from your class levels, and 1 if you're an Incarnum race. That's enough to keep 2 soulmelds at full. If you want to keep an additional soulmeld or two full, you can get a Wand of Soul Boon (Magic of Incarnum pg 104) to add up to 5 points (though you'll need to increase the caster level, which can be expensive), you can bind the Necrocarnum Weapon soulmeld to your Hands for a number of points equal to the essentia invested in that soulmeld (so 3 points at that ECL), and you can buy an Essentia Jewel for 1 more point (Magic of Incarnum pg 113), and you can take the Bonus Essentia feat for 2 points.

Spend 5 minutes reading this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=7066595) - there are cheap magic items or feats to Unarmed Strike, bite, gore, and other attacks. Otherwise, take a look at Multiattack, Improved Unarmed Strike, Touch of Golden Ice (Book of Exalted Deeds), Quickdraw (if you run out of enemies within reach, you can still draw a net or other thrown weapon and get off at least one more attack, and you can easily draw a reach weapon when needed), Martial Study/Stance, and other feat that I've mentioned or linked to. Also, Open Least Chakra is nice to get an extra Chakra Bind if your DM allows it to add one. Improved Essentia Capacity (Spellward Shirt) is also worthwhile if you're in a magic heavy game, as it'll bump your Spell Resistance up to 21 when the soulmeld has max essentia in it.

Also, peruse the Pounce and Free Movement thread. I suggest Broken One's Sacrifice, Protective Imposition, Anklet of Translocation, Greaves of Aundair, Lion's Charge, and/or Knight's Move. Remember that you can put wands into a Wand Chamber (Dungeonscape) and activate them with Mage's Spectacles if you don't dump Cha.

[Person_Man]

I suggest... wait, nevermind, already done.

How does the Vitality/Wound point system interact with normal healing? And why is Shifter important?

[Fouredged Sword]

Pounce is important for a multi-attack build. You can get it through a meld OR through a dip in barbarian.

Totemist 6 with a feat taste of crusader is also a pain to kill in melee. Just saying. Pick up Astral Vembraces through a feat for slams and DR. Grallion arms to the totem grants 4 claws. Get a monks belt, item that grants a bite/gore attack, and anything else you can dig up. Two feats will allow you to heal 2 points every attack, and you get tones of attacks.

[8wGremlin]

I suggest... wait, nevermind, already done.

How does the Vitality/Wound point system interact with normal healing? And why is Shifter important?

I bowed to your knowledge Person_Man, it needed to be shared...

[Psyren]

I second Totemist 2/Incarnate 4 for E6. You get the exact same chakras unlocked as a Totemist 6, but a much larger list of melds to choose from, more essentia and binds, literacy, and a much higher Will save, and only lose 1 point of BAB (which won't matter once you get the Multiattack line.) Depending on your race, you can get Rapidstrike as well.

[Kuulvheysoon]

IIRC, don't you need the [dragonblood] subtype to access the soulmelds in Dragon Magic?

So Dragon Tail might not be an applicable meld.

[Psyren]

IIRC, don't you need the [dragonblood] subtype to access the soulmelds in Dragon Magic?

So Dragon Tail might not be an applicable meld.

Dragontouched feat (DrM) solves that, or he can be a Silverbrow Human, Fireblood Dwarf etc.

[Kuulvheysoon]

Dragontouched feat (DrM) solves that, or he can be a Silverbrow Human, Fireblood Dwarf etc.

Well, the OP seems fixed on Shifter for race, and by the sounds of it, all of his pre-"epic" feats are tied up.

Mind you, not a reason to dismiss the meld completely, just something to consider.

[macfadden510]

Thanks for all the feed back. I'm going with Shifter for three main reasons:

I love the flavor.
More natural attacks (razorclaw, longtooth) when shifting.
Shifting seems viable in e6 considering how duration and times-a-day is based off shifter feats, which with e6 there will be a lot of.

I do have concerns though about the redundancy of my shifter natural attacks and feat choices, especially considering the effectiveness of girallon arms and how sphinx claws grant a better pounce than the razorclaw elite psuedo-pounce.
With flaws, my feat slots at 3rd and 6th level are still open.

Here's the link to vitality/wound points (insert link isn't working). I'm not sure how it exactly works with things like diehard and the bloodclaw/rageclaw soulmelds.
http://dndsrd.net/unearthedInjury.html

[Psyren]

Not sure what you mean by natural attacks being redundant - typically you pile them all on there along with Multiattack and just shred.

[macfadden510]

My concern is this: do they stack? For example, let's say I have girallon claws, threefold mask of the chimera, and sphinx claws active. Girallon arms and 3-fold Mask are bound to my totem chakra (if my GM lowers double chakra to level 6), granting me 4 claw attacks and 3 bite attacks (on a full round action). If I charge, I can use all my claw attacks and all my bite attacks. Now if I have these active and I shift, do I gain 2 more claw attacks or do I still only have the 4 but I use the better damage die/modifiers.
Related, if I choose extra shifter trait (longtooth), would I have 4 bite attacks? Then if I had longtooth elite, would all my bite attacks deal 1 point of CON damage while I'm shifting. Conceivably at 6th level I could have 6 claw attacks, 4 bite attacks that deal 1 point CON damage each, and use all of them on a successful charge.
Am I missing something?

[Person_Man]

Thanks for all the feed back. I'm going with Shifter for three main reasons:

I love the flavor.
More natural attacks (razorclaw, longtooth) when shifting.
Shifting seems viable in e6 considering how duration and times-a-day is based off shifter feats, which with e6 there will be a lot of.

I do have concerns though about the redundancy of my shifter natural attacks and feat choices, especially considering the effectiveness of girallon arms and how sphinx claws grant a better pounce than the razorclaw elite psuedo-pounce.
With flaws, my feat slots at 3rd and 6th level are still open.

Here's the link to vitality/wound points (insert link isn't working). I'm not sure how it exactly works with things like diehard and the bloodclaw/rageclaw soulmelds.
http://dndsrd.net/unearthedInjury.html


So I won't argue with flavor. If you just like something, than play it.

But from a purely mechanical point of view, you can get a better deal from Warforged (slam, immunities), Darfellon (bite, Str bonus, Swim speed, but 20 ft movement), variant Kobold (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) (bite, claws, and with one Feat a tail, plus dragonblood), or Skarn (spine attack, Str bonus). Each of them will add at least 1 natural attack ALL DAY, without the need to activate Shifting or worry about Shifting uses running out. Warforged and Skarn won't overlap with any natural weapons provided by Totemist.

I would also say that once you get to 6ish+ attacks per turn, you probably don't need to invest any further resources (racial abilities, Feats, magic items, etc) in adding additional attacks. Honestly, is there an CR 6ish creature that can't be killed with 6ish well boosted attacks ? There are plenty of other things you can do with defense, breath weapons, AoO combos, etc.


RE: Weird variant Unearthed Arcana injury system, it seems like the key is having a high Fort Save. This is good for you, since you can be mostly Con SAD if you want to be (using Basalisk Mask, Frost Helm, wands, breath weapons). You can also boost it with Pauldrens of Health and Dragon Mantle. It's also worth noting that the Soulspark Familiar has Fast Healing, which seems to be much more effective in this variant system.

[Fouredged Sword]

Attacks of the same type do not stack. Claws do not stack with claws, bites do not stack with bites. You CAN pick the best die for the maximum of each type though. If you have two 1d6 claw and grallion arms you can have 2 1d6 claws and 2 1d4 claws rather than 4 1d4 claws.

[Talionis]

I will point out Shifter as a race tends to eat all your feats. Incarnum also tends to eat a lot of feats. Incarnum feats get more essentia to use which is important and there are a couple feats that care how many Incarnum feats you have.

Shifter also gets better with more shifter feats.

Both are considered better in E6 than normal games because you have access to many more feats, but some of that goodness erodes when you are pressured to take lots of both feats. One or both will be delayed. If you play long enough and don't plan on highly optimizing then it may not matter, but I worry that you will be troubled trying to make both systems shine.