Building Son Goku D&D 3.5

[Azoth]

Before this goes any further, I do not mean a certain hyperactive walking garbage disposal who only fears his wife, I am referencing Son Goku from a Journey to the West. Now, I obviously don't want to build a deity here, but more a character in tune with the theme and generic abilities of Son Goku. Does anyone have any advice?

[TaiLiu]

Hm. What level are you aiming for?

[Shades of Gray]

While I know the names are synonymous, changing the name to Sun Wukong (his Chinese name) might clear up a lot of the misconceptions.

[KillingAScarab]

You may wish to refer to the character by another name to avoid the attention you do not want, then.


In the novel, he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices.
...
Sun Wukong possesses an immense amount of strength; he is able to lift his 13,500 jīn (8,100 kg or 17,881 lbs) staff with ease. He is also superbly fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 kilometers or 33,554 mi) in one somersault. Sun knows 72 transformations, which allows him to transform into various animals and objects; he has trouble, however, transforming into other people, because he is unable to complete the transformation of his tail. He is a skilled fighter, capable of holding his own against the best generals of heaven. Each of his hairs possesses magical properties, and is capable of transforming either into a clone of the Monkey King himself, or various weapons, animals, and other objects. He also knows spells that can command wind, part water, conjure protective circles against demons, and freeze humans, demons, and gods alike.If you did not wish to be a druid, a wizard or a wu jen, how many of the 72 transformations were you hoping to get?

[TaiLiu]

Looking through his abilities: he seems to be a very high level gish with some Divine Ranks.

[Juntao112]

He is also superbly fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 kilometers or 33,554 mi) in one somersault.
A literal interpretation of his ability; it is more accurately interpreted as a a figure of speech indicating that he can jump extremely far.

[SowZ]

An epic level multi-class character. Probably a couple level dip in Monk and a lot of levels in Wildshaping Ranger or else Druid.

[KillingAScarab]

In addition to taking the magical staff, Wukong also defeated the dragons of the four seas in battle and forced them to give him golden chain mail (鎖子黃金甲), a phoenix-feather cap (鳳翅紫金冠 Fèngchìzǐjinguān), and cloud-walking boots (藕絲步雲履 Ǒusībùyúnlǚ)I'm wondering what the best way will be to represent the cloud-walking. There's actually a spell called cloudwalkers from Complete Divine that's Druid 7, Weather 6, but it's for multiple targets. Magic of Incarnum has a soulmeld called airstep sandals which could be useful from low levels, but you do fall if you aren't on the ground at the end of your movement, and getting the fly speed up to match the cloudwalkers spell would require 5 essentia and a chakra bind.

[SowZ]

I'm wondering what the best way will be to represent the cloud-walking. There's actually a spell called cloudwalkers from Complete Divine that's Druid 7, Weather 6, but it's for multiple targets. Magic of Incarnum has a soulmeld called airstep sandals which could be useful from low levels, but you do fall if you aren't on the ground at the end of your movement, and getting the fly speed up to match the cloudwalkers spell would require 5 essentia and a chakra bind.

It could just be a magic item, not a class feature, cause that is what it was.

[TaiLiu]

I'm wondering what the best way will be to represent the cloud-walking. There's actually a spell called cloudwalkers from Complete Divine that's Druid 7, Weather 6, but it's for multiple targets. Magic of Incarnum has a soulmeld called airstep sandals which could be useful from low levels, but you do fall if you aren't on the ground at the end of your movement, and getting the fly speed up to match the cloudwalkers spell would require 5 essentia and a chakra bind.
The Wu Jen class has the Cloud Chariot spell. It goes really fast, too.

[KillingAScarab]

It could just be a magic item, not a class feature, cause that is what it was.I'm not versed in magic items. I'll leave that for someone else.


The Wu Jen class has the Cloud Chariot spell. It goes really fast, too.Hmm... water mastery might fit well, too, with weilding the "pillar that pacifies the oceans."

[TaiLiu]

Hmm... water mastery might fit well, too, with weilding the "pillar that pacifies the oceans."
A high level Wu Jen could emulate some of his abilities excellently, I think.

[KillingAScarab]

Upon his triumphant return, he demonstrated the new weapon to his followers, growing his size in proportion to the original length of the staff.Giant size. I'm sold on Wu Jen.

[Crinias]

Let's see... Son Goku was a magician, warrior and trickster of immense skill.

Now, let's get to the bones of his being: Son Goku is a Munchkin, it's that simple.
He first started off as a monkey born from a stone (reminds me of Slaadi), but upon learning of his mortality he set out to adventure. This is after being proclaimed Handsome Monkey King by his subjects, mind you.

He found a man that taught him a lot of magic (from there we get Wu Jen and all those absurd abilities such as Shapechange, Body Outside Body, etc.)

Wu Jen fits thematically and has spells that simulate some of his abilities (Cloud Chariot for flying on cloud at high velocity, 10 miles a minute IIRC, Body Outside Body for multiple clones of yourself).

At some point he learned martial arts. Swordsage is an obvious choice for a lot of his other abilities - Balance On the Sky for walking on thin air, some Desert Wind stuff, perhaps. Setting Sun for some good counters, of which he has many. Tiger Claw for maxing out Jump stuff.

Thankfully for him his initiator level at that point must have been quite high, so maybe he didn't take 20 Swordsage levels, perhaps 10 or less.

The combination of manuevers and Body Outside Body should make you quite formidable.

He went to the Dragon King's underwater palace and fought all 4 Dragons of the Sea, and from them he obtained his famous quarterstaff, a phoenix-feather cap, cloud-walking boots and a fine golden chain mail that was very light. In other words, after obtaining the best magic and martial skills, he obtained the best magic items he could find, some of which probably count as major artifacts.

Now, the real problem is that he became an Immortal by eating the Peaches of Immortality, the Pills of Immortality and the wine of the Jade Emperor, if I recall correctly. That's a problem. Divine Rank 0, perhaps?

At this point, I think, he started messing up the heavens, and this was after being named Protector of Horses (dont ask and just put 10 ranks in Ride and Handle Animal). He called himself Great Sage Equals Heaven. He was later caught for his crimes.

He was put in a crucible, put to burn in a fire that could kill even gods. Well no biggie, all it did was strengthen the Pills inside his body and made his body tough as diamond. So... permanent stoneskin or something? Also, the smoke from the fire made his eyes uber strong and gave them True Seeing and Detect Evil, but made it weak against smoke.

I don't know at what point it was, but he also erased his name from the book of Dead Names and of all the monkeys he knew. So essentially he's really immortal, as if there was some sort of need to overstate it. Also, I think that it's stated that he has 72 resurrections (I don't have it clear if they are his transformations or what), all of which are immortal as well.


You see where I'm going with this? He obtained the best magic, the best martial arts, the best defenses, the best armor, the best weapon, the best utility items, and even the best title, for crying out loud. He's practically the God of Munchkins.


Oh gods, what else? He was going to defeat the Jade Emperor after rampaging through the heavens (after defeating the armies of heaven, of which each soldier was the representation of a celestial body, and they were being led by the greatest tactician in history), but Buddha showed up.

Buddha, being very wise, asked him what the weak should do if they are defeated by the strong. Son Goku replied that the weak should back off. So Buddha challenged Son to escape from his hand (Buddha's avatar was Huge-sized and Son Goku was Medium-sized). Buddha bet him that if he could not escape his hand, he'd have to, in his own words, back off. If he won he could do whatever he wanted with the Heavens.

Son was rightfully suspicious and even bragged he could jump 108000 li (as said before, a really long distance) in one jump. But his arrogance got the better of him, so he agreed to the challenge.

And so he stepped onto Buddha's hand and jumped.

He jumped far, and he decided to go all the way until the end of the world. And so he went past the boundaries of the planet, and the moon, but it wasn't enough, so he went beyond the other planets, but again, it wasn't enough, so he went beyond the stars...he saw as he leaped the Outer Gods that revolved around the Daemon Sultan whose Name no Pair of Lips Dare Speak, and he thought nothing of it, and went even further.

And eventually he reached a place where there were five pillars. He realized this was the end of the world, and that these pillars help up the heavens (don't ask how that works) and he was satisfied. However, he quickly thought that someone might refute the fact that he had arrived there, so he transformed his staff into a brush, and wrote on the central pillar: "Great Sage Equals Heaven was here (or something along those lines)".

And so satisfied, he leapt back to the Buddha's hand, through stars and planets and eldritch abominations.

And that was how the legend of the first Jumplomancer came to be. All who saw Son wept even before he landed, such was his skill modifier.

"Oh, you're back, I see. Did you go far?"
"Hah! Indeed, go look if you can, how far I went! I went all the way to the end of the world, to the pillars which hold up the heavens themselves! I left a mark for the whole world to see!"
"Did you use a brush?"
"Yes, how did you know...?!"
And Buddha lift the fingers of the hand which was holding Son Goku, and behold, written in his middle finger was written: "Great Sage Equals Heaven was here"
Son Goku naturally was awestruck.
"All this time you have been in my hand", said Buddha.
"Huh, no way! Trickery! You've used a trick somehow! Wait," said Son Goku, "let me go back and check it out!"

But Buddha's Sense Motive check was epic, and as overdeity he automatically rolled a 20. He closed his hand quickly, and Son Goku could not escape.
Like the monkey he was, Son squirmed and screamed and screeched and yelled:
"No fair! Cheater! Give me one more chance, in a fair fight, and I'll defeat you! There is no way that could have happened, I leapt all the way to the end of the world!"

But Buddha remained calm. "Oh you angry monkey, you are wrong. I've won. My hand encompasses the entire universe, I exist everywhere, at all times and places. I exist even inside your own heart."

And so Buddha rightfully reminded Son of the pain he inflicted upon the hundreds of mortals and even gods of the world. And, with the hand that was holding Son, he sent his fist towards the earth, and where it struck was created a mountain, where he used an epic Binding upon Son, to remain there for 500 years. And although the monkey begged and cajoled and denied and asked for mercy, Buddha remained calm, and told him that it was his own heart which had imprisoned him. And so he left him there.

And that's not even all of Journey to the West, or even getting into some of the really outrageous things he does.

Moral of the story: Son Goku is an epic Divine Rank X creature with an unknown number of levels in Wu Jen and Swordsage, with some pretty epic loot.

Also, even if you're a munchkin, don't piss off the DM.

Also, Buddha is Yog-Sothoth, the One-in-All and All-in-One, the Gate and the Key, whereby the Spheres meet.

My job here is done.

[Azoth]

While I appreciate your enthusiasm in describing the exploits and abilities of Son Goku Crinias, I can't help but feel you went a bit overboard.

I am not looking to build Son Goku exactly, but a character themed similarly to him. One that can emulate some of his more defined abilities and tricks.

I can definitely agree that Wu Jen is a good place to start for covering his spell casting abilities. From there, perhaps a refluffed Jade Pheonix Mage gish is in order to represent him more clearly.

[DMVerdandi]

Okay, Here we go!

Sun Wukong

Awakened Mineral Warrior Monkey
Gestalt Monk//Erudite(Spell to Power) XX

Nyoibo
+5 Sizing Metaline Quarterstaff

Feats
Carmindine monk
Superior Unarmed Strike
Versatile Unarmed Strike
Psionic meditation
Heighten Power
Extend Power
Persistent Power (3.0)

Is STP erudite my solution to every problem? Yeah.
But it works... It works so well:smallredface:

With this monkey is going to be monk-y enough for you to monkey around and have a good time. The Unique powers per day are small in number, so you can get by using the "ENERGY" powers if you do feel like dbzing it up.
Energy push [electricity] for kamehameha!

Outside of that, you have enough spells and powers so that any power that wukong has is covered.

Having the ability to learn ANY ARCANE SPELL up to level 8 as powers comes in handy, especially without needing a spellbook.

On the Monk side, Carmindine monk nicely makes everything SAD for intelligence and will make everything easier.

And yes, I said yes on persistent power. Technically, all 3.0 content that hasn't been changed is usable by RAW. Take it. It's yours.
Now, power up, buff to high heaven, and kick some ass. Be Mindful though, You don't have that many Unique powers per day, and you can't spend PP past your caster level.


Also, If need be, Put the monster levels on the monk side until they are payed for, and then continue on with the monk.

[Crinias]

While I appreciate your enthusiasm in describing the exploits and abilities of Son Goku Crinias, I can't help but feel you went a bit overboard.

I am not looking to build Son Goku exactly, but a character themed similarly to him. One that can emulate some of his more defined abilities and tricks.

I can definitely agree that Wu Jen is a good place to start for covering his spell casting abilities. From there, perhaps a refluffed Jade Pheonix Mage gish is in order to represent him more clearly.

Well, of course I went overboard, that's half of Son's charm. Honestly, his skills are far too wide to make such a character without selling him short or going into epic. And of course, even if you want to sell him short you still want to make him an effective character, so I've no clue how to help you in that regard. I mean, what level are you aiming for? Or are you just building him up from scratch to be an NPC?

[Gurgeh]

Ignoring for now the fact that you really ought to be using his Chinese name, "Son" is his surname - if you want to refer to him by one name then Goku/Wukong would be more appropriate, although he's generally referred to informally as "Monkey" in most of the sources I've read.

Wu Jen is an excellent fit for him, anyway - a lot of the unique Wu Jen spells (cloud chariot, making himself enormous or tiny, commanding water and wind) were likely taken directly from Journey to the West, and the taboos can work nicely hand-in-hand with Xuanzang's commandments and arbitrary restrictions.

You can probably approximate him well enough with Wu Jen 20, though you could always go the Wu Jen/Monk/Enlightened Fist route for fun times.

Perhaps a better option would be to go with a Gestalt character - something like a Wu Jen/Swordsage into Enlightened Fist with a Monk level and extra Wu Jen levels at the Enlightened Fist levels that don't progress casting. Or something like that, anyway.

[Frozen_Feet]

Monk // Druid gestalt in core, or Swordsage // Wu-Jen gestalt if you have the books. Pick a level you're comfortable with. I'd say you have to go all the way to 20 to get all of Wukong's stuff, but you'll do fine even early on.

Seconding a sizing metalline quarterstaff. Mithral chainshirt, boots of levitation/winged boots and hat of digsuise/headband of intellect could do forrest of your equipment. :smallsmile:

[Lonely Tylenol]

I once made a (slightly cheating) E6 character modeled after Sun Wukong. I say "cheating" because I designed him to be a very advanced NPC, so he is actually ECL10: 6 class levels, +2 Saint LA, +2 Anthropomorphic Ape RHD. The simplest build is basically a Swordsage who emulates anything Swordsage doesn't get with magic items (I cheated again with the magic items, a little bit, as his staff and armor are explicitly meant to be divine relics in my game). After all, a lot of Sun Wukong's abilities DO come from magic items (his staff is clearly a Called Sizing Quarterstaff at the least, and his Cloud Stepping Shoes are boots of CL5 Jump combined with Boots of Landing in a low-level game, and Boots of Cloud Chariot in a high-level game).

Here's the (incomplete, lacking feats and skills) build:

In case you need ideas. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=505411)

[DMVerdandi]

Ignoring for now the fact that you really ought to be using his Chinese name, "Son" is his surname - if you want to refer to him by one name then Goku/Wukong would be more appropriate, although he's generally referred to informally as "Monkey" in most of the sources I've read.

Wu Jen is an excellent fit for him, anyway - a lot of the unique Wu Jen spells (cloud chariot, making himself enormous or tiny, commanding water and wind) were likely taken directly from Journey to the West, and the taboos can work nicely hand-in-hand with Xuanzang's commandments and arbitrary restrictions.

You can probably approximate him well enough with Wu Jen 20, though you could always go the Wu Jen/Monk/Enlightened Fist route for fun times.

Perhaps a better option would be to go with a Gestalt character - something like a Wu Jen/Swordsage into Enlightened Fist with a Monk level and extra Wu Jen levels at the Enlightened Fist levels that don't progress casting. Or something like that, anyway.


Monk // Druid gestalt in core, or Swordsage // Wu-Jen gestalt if you have the books. Pick a level you're comfortable with. I'd say you have to go all the way to 20 to get all of Wukong's stuff, but you'll do fine even early on.

Seconding a sizing metalline quarterstaff. Mithral chainshirt, boots of levitation/winged boots and hat of digsuise/headband of intellect could do forrest of your equipment. :smallsmile:

Well, of the reasons I used STP Erudite in the build are
1. Yes, It can learn spells from any arcane class. And that means Wu Jen spells.

2.Is limited by Unique spells per day. Less Book Keeping.

3. Not Reliant on a spellbook.

4. Buying new powers costs XP. Decent Limitation.

5. Works Well with Monk.

6. Works well with the idea of Son's whole mental thing. He was clever enough to master daoist ritual, without actually performing wu/wei. Wukong means "Aware of emptiness". He does not empty himself. Infact, he exhalts himself to the great sage that equals heaven, BECAUSE he is cleaver enough to cast daoist spells without being a daoist.

Also, later he becomes a buddha, and buddhism is once again, about MENTAL awareness of Not-self (Anatta= Empty Self).

He is by all traditional views definitely a psion, and almost surely an erudite because of the way he learns quickly without actually changing how he does it. He did not become a Wu jen (Person who practices wu), he just stole their abilities due to the "Monkey see, Monkey do" way of nature.

In this case, It was monkey see, monkey wu:smallcool:

In that aspect, I think my build is most accurate.

[Prime32]

Silver dragons (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/dragonTrue.htm#silverDragon) can walk on clouds and transform themselves, though the LA is hard to swallow. Gain immunity to fire somehow and take the Tireless and Troll-Blooded feats, and now you can't be killed by hp damage (though you can be KO'd). Add immunity to poison to stop people from penetrating this by applying trollbane to their weapons.

In PF you could use a very young silver dragon (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/bestiary/monster-listings/dragons/dragon/metallic-silver) as an 8th-level character, and it also gets detect evil.

Titan Bloodline (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/bloodlines.htm#titan) lets you wield a Gargantuan warhammer in one hand.

Hyperconscious has the throw ectoform power (and the astral zealot PrC which improves it), which is useful for creating large numbers of copies of yourself.

[Talionis]

Why do I think he would have some Cancer Mage in him?