Seeking Immortality 3.5

[Gordy95]

Hey, first time poster, don't be too harsh if I accidentally break some forum rules. So here is my dilemma. I'm playing in a highly optimized 3.5 campaign. My only other of partner is a dread necromancer/pale master lich, lvl 17. I am a lvl 17 fighter/disciple of dispater. We both have highly optimized equipment(between my feats, items, weapons and all that stuff I have an attack bonus ranging between 32 and 38, crit on 9-20, wield a gargantuan vorpal weapon, Make confirm rolls between 40 and 46.). All in all killing stuff is a specialty. My problem is that I am more at risk of dying than my companion. I (through a series of truly messed up events that involved almost destroying 6 other PCs in another campaign) managed to acquire golem armor. While powerful in the immunities it gives, golem armor also makes it impossible for me to be healed while inside, and requires an hour to escape from. All in all, it makes me a beautiful glass cannon. My friend, being a lich, doesn't need to worry about dying. I on the other hand am terrified. Does anybody know of a way to get the same style of death immunity that a lich would have but for a fighter/ disciple of dispater character. I have access to changing prior class levels, changing race to any race or creature possible, epic magic is available, all resources are open. Assume all books applicable to 3.5 are good with a few exceptions (notably magic of faerun). Ready, set, go!

[ArcturusV]

The road to Immortality is often the domain of Wizards and Sorcerers. As a fighter there's not a whole lot of options available for you. The only one that immediately pops into mind is giving in and becoming a type of undead as well. Probably the Vampire. Then the only ways to actually kill you are esoteric enough that someone has to actually know you're a vampire and plan accordingly. But that +8 LA is a big bullet to bite on for limited immortality.

One that requires a little more DM/teammate help is if you can have something like a Contingency to Reincarnation cast on you. Which depends on your DM making available spellcasters who will cast it on you. And while there is some legalese RAW "Well a city is this large, I can buy someone's services to do this" angle to it... don't expect that to fly too far. But since you are a high optimization campaign, shouldn't be TOO much trouble getting that through the door. So basically you'd get a 1-Up. Which needs to be renewed everytime you die.

Edit: Of course if you do go Vampirism, remember this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHEItvqF-tg

[karkus]

*Ahem* (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/announcement.php?a=1)

Be sure to scroll 1/2 of the way down, under Minor Infractions and read "Mea culpa" Offenses

At any rate, the best thing I could find was Death Knight, from MM2, page 207. It's a warrior version of the lich, but there isn't a phylactery. You could, however, ask your DM if you could homebrew it just a little into replacing your quasi-useful Eldritch Blast with a phylactery, by somehow asking your patron, Dispater (or at the very least, one of his minions) to do so for you.

It may seem strange asking an archfiend to do a somewhat menial task for you, but keep in mind that Death Knights (LA+5) are made by having a more powerful being (sometimes it's even an evil god) turn you into a warrior of death, devoted to service to them, so having Dispater make a hidey-hole for one of his most valuable servants seems fair to me.

An example of the Eldritch Blast (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0440.html)

[Gordy95]

Vampirsm is one of the first ideas I came up with. The LA is severe, but Vampirism would come with a huge social standing in the campaign in addition to the combat prowess. The nobility of the nation my companion and I fight for is made up of vampire houses vying for power (the campaign is lawful evil even though I walk a line that is quite close to chaotic evil). Being one of them would give me a large social standing boost. On the other hand +8 LA is completely unnacceptable, seeing as we are so close to epics. Slowing down leveling at all is a huge problem. One of the solutions I particularly like is the epic spell seed transformation, which allows me to change my physical body permanently into anything I want, and have any equipment I was wielding become part of my body as well. (The lack of limitation on this spell is disturbing, to my knowledge and interpretation, there is nothing keeping me from becoming Mechagodzilla just by having an epic level spellcaster and some high level caster friends make a epic level ritual spell that transforms me into a Terrasque while I'm wearing my golem armor.) So racially I could become anything, or alternatively any object, but then all the sentience problems run into each other.

Another note that I should have mentioned earlier, I am not seeking immortality in the sense of living forever. I am seeking to survive the most dire of battles. My DM is a great guy, but he loves to throw some really crazy crap at us just to see if we can find a way out. He makes puzzles without intended solutions just because he trusts us to wriggle our own way out. He once threw a level 20 wizard at us who used a delayed magic missile time stop wombo combo(all while riding an adult red dragon):

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Magic_Missile_Stormer_(3.5e_Optimized_Character_Bu ild)

[Stannum (IV)]

I'm not familiar with golem armor, but if it gives you the construct type and that is the reason it gives all those immunities, repair spells could go a long way towards negating that 1-hour changing time. Pretty much as good as cure spells, right up to the heal analog.
You stated that race changes are possible: there is an artifact torq for warforged that heals them slowly while worn, stores their soul when they are reduced below -9 hp, and returns it to their body when it heals it sufficiently. So, in the vein of "enough artifacts will solve any problem," there's that. If it means that much to you, and it only puts you on par with other party members, I could see a DM allowing you to acquire it after a side quest. Yours may differ.
Crafted contingent spells (complete arcane) by RAW I believe are bought as magic items, so that might be an argument for getting it if the town is within the given size. You can also have up to one per hit die, so you don't need to renew them all the time (though they are vulnerable to dispel magic, so, eggs in one basket and all). I'd add a contingent teleport as well, just in case whatever killed you has attacks left.
Epic magic actually includes the spell "contingent resurrection". Just noting. Also, anything (in many cases, literally anything) can be done with enough epic magic. You saw silliness in the listed spells. That is but a taste of what is to come. EDIT: Well, I should say, what is possible, as I cannot predict your future campaigns.

[karkus]

I like the Contingency idea...

Try going for a Contingent Ring of Raise Dead (single use) and call it a day. Unless you're hacked to pieces, Resurrection isn't necessary, and unless if you're willing to have it renewed every ~2 weeks, don't bother with the real spell. If you must, you can add on a few more charges to the ring, but a single Get-Out-of-Death-Free card is already useful in itself. Also, try to keep in mind that every usage drains a level from you, so don't be too reckless with your bonus life.

Additionally, if you don't have an extra ring space, try for something else, like a cloak or a crown of thorns, etc.

[Gordy95]

Sadly golem armor does not give me the construct type, it actually has the text:

"The wearer of Golem Armor gains damage reduction 15/adamantine. He or she also cannot regain hit points by any means (mundane or magical) while the armor is worn. It requires 1 hour to don or extract oneself from Golem Armor"

the problem with most, if not all, resurrections is that they must heal hp to resurrect me. Since I cannot heal inside the armor, I am immune to being resurrected. Perhaps a teleportation is what I am looking for, but my DM has very specific nonstandard rules about teleportation and plane shifting, so anything would have to be run by him.

[Gavinfoxx]

The best you can do is be absurdly hard to kill and not worried about the passing of years

http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=5996.0

Get that, and then focus on being absurdly hard to kill -- methods generally include Wizard-focused things, like living forever in your Genesis plane, and only Astral Projecting outside, and having Clones, and a Simulacrum army of other yous to do things, and the spell Contingency, and the feat Craft Contingent spell, etc. etc. etc.

After all... EVERYTHING can be permanently killed. Even gods.


I wrote a handbook on how to make lots of low level people relatively hard to kill via some effects...

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z9NJIs751Af3i0IEIJwCkIp9H9YFiZYZ7u-wmYVaheI/edit?pli=1

Most of that stuff won't be useful... since you are mostly a Fighter with one prestige class, you will have to go on a Rebuild Quest to completely change every aspect of your build to get you WAY MORE MAGIC so that you can be much much harder to kill at this level... Seriously, survival at level ~18 or so, in an optimized world, is about having more, better, quicker, and smarter magic than everyone else. Whether you are a Lich or a God or whatever.

[ksbsnowowl]

Non-caster Lich? Sepulchral Thief from Cityscape. Still has a tough LA though, at +6.

Alternatively, get some fast healing. Best option would likely be Shadow Creature from Lords of Madness, which can get you fast healing 2 for +2 LA, but it's soooooo worth it, because it also gets you shadow blend (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/shadowMastiff.htm).

[Twilightwyrm]

The road to Immortality is often the domain of Wizards and Sorcerers.

Is it though? I mean don't get me wrong, the road to invulnerability can often be the road of wizards and sorcerers, but oddly enough, easily surviving death, or even just living forever, seems to be, if not necessarily equally difficult, difficult for both arcanists and warriors. One cannot, oddly, simply attain immortality via arcane magic, or necessarily make recovering from death any easier. Of course, Lichdom is the obvious exception to this, but it is but one method that many casters, understandably (what with the +5 LA) do not opt for. There are some prestige classes that offer essentially eternal life, but they are few, and actually equal to if not outnumbered by the warrior based classes that grant it. All this seems to just be generally the domain of divine spell-casters (and occasionally bards).

[Gordy95]

Fast healing doesn't apply, I am actually immune to regaining health points from any source, mundane or magical

[Waspinator]

Would a Ring of Arming work with the golem armor? Doing a Kamen Rider pose may be necessary.

[ksbsnowowl]

Fast healing doesn't apply, I am actually immune to regaining health points from any source, mundane or magical

Oops.

Sepulchral thief is likely your best option then. That, or get a really high Ref save, and 5 levels of Telflammar Shadowlord.

[ArcturusV]

Well, the standard means of Immortality for characters in DnD.

Attaining Divinity: Outside of DM fiat, the only way I've seen to do this involved arcane magic TO combos.

Lichdom, as you mentioned.

Contingent Reincarnation: Needs an Arcanist on top of a Druid to obtain, but possible. It's not invulnerability, it's "Anytime you die, you are reborn" so effective immortality. Ressurection/Raise Dead is just effective Invincibility, not Immortality, as you lose levels or cannot return from Natural Deaths, but Reincarnation doesn't have that problem.

Clone: This can be a means to Immortality, and again is high level Arcane Magic.

I can't really think of any divine ones that do it (Outside of Reincarnation which needs a wizard to Contingency you with it). Not saying there aren't, just it's not coming to mind. And most of the capstones from PrCs/Classes I've seen aren't really immortality so much as "No longer suffers penalties due to aging"... or becoming an undead of course. Least as I can recall at the moment.

Elves used to be practically immortal right out the box. They never had an age they die by. As long as an elf avoids violent death, they won't die. But I don't know if this got revised away in 3rd edition.

[Carth]

The stasis clone spell, from Lords of Darkness, might be of use.

[Gordy95]

Waspinator, Ring of Arming is just about the most perfect item I have ever seen!
a standard action to escape my armor is more than i could ever have asked for, especially because my DM has reruled over the whole one hour thing being only a physical limitation. That is a very good start. That allows me to escape my armor on death with a contingent ring of arming. from there a contingent ressurrection cast on me, and then another contingent ring of arming that activates upon death, and if I'm really feeling self protective, I can have a contingent harm on myself to get my HP back. (I have tomb tainted soul, so I heal from negative energy)

[Waspinator]

Yeah, I thought so. Even without contingencies, if the ring lets you bypass the one hour thing it sounds like you might be good. At least you could use it to pop out, get healing, and pop back in.

[Battleship789]

Seconding the Ring of Arming (MIC 122). Pretty cheap (plus the item combination rules are in the same book, so there shouldn't be any problem if you need the other ring slots), though the standard action activation time is painful. A Belt of Battle is basically a given at this level for any character with access to one, so it isn't too bad.

[Gordy95]

My companion can almost full heal me with Harm, imbued into his familiar, so the ability to pop out and be instant healed at any time is already pretty glorious. I can keep his familiar with me in my armor, always imbued with a charge of harm, so that when i use my two ring of arming contingencies i can pop out, get the harm heal from the familiar who will have contingented his turn to come when I ask for the heal, and then my other contingented ring of arming will activate as soon as I command word it to get me back into my armor before anybody else can act. All in all a sexy fast plan.

[Waspinator]

Probably want to add some stats onto the ring if you're going to wear it all the time. According to the Magic Item Compendium's rules on that, you can get either deflection AC or energy resistance easily.