Arcane Vampire Hunter

[Blackhawk748]

Class: Battle Sorcerer

Concept: Undead killing machine

Weapon of choice: Scythe

other than that im pretty well open to suggestions, such as a good prestige class. No ToB please

[dascarletm]

Truedeath crystal.

Sanctify Spell with Spontaneous Metamagic?

[Kuulvheysoon]

Hmmm... arcane is hard(er) to do.

One PrC that I'd really suggest is the Hunter of the Dead, from CW. It's a divine class, however, though you might be able to convince your DM to convert it to arcane for you, especially considering the fact that it's got it's own casting list.

Also, why a scythe? The excellent critical hit modifier (x4) is completely wasted on the Undead.

[Blackhawk748]

entirely because i think Scythes are Bamf, and its been way to long since i wielded one

[dascarletm]

Truedeath crystal really helps the scythe with that crit mod. Too bad you'll be missing out on all that bludgeoning weapon anti-undead abilities.

[NeoPhoenix0]

it sounds counter intuitive but get antimagic field as soon as possible. it will hurt the vampire far more than it hurts you. his control over spawn is suppressed while in the field. his dr is negated because it is not one of the extraordinary types like bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing. no children of the knight, dominate, no energy drain, no alternate form, no gaseous form, and creatures killed by blood drain won't rise as vampires if killed in an antimagic field.

[Sgt. Cookie]

In Complete Divine or Champion there is a Sorcerer ACF. You trade out a spell known and in it's place you get the use of a single Cleric Domain, Domain Power included. I'm certain that there is a Domain that gives you Turn Undead, I think it's in Ravenloft, but I'm not certain.

[Kuulvheysoon]

In Complete Divine or Champion there is a Sorcerer ACF. You trade out a spell known and in it's place you get the use of a single Cleric Domain, Domain Power included. I'm certain that there is a Domain that gives you Turn Undead, I think it's in Ravenloft, but I'm not certain.

The Dragonlance Campaign Setting's (alternate) Sun Domain explicitly grants TU.

[KillingAScarab]

I am a fan of the deity Kelemvor from the Forgotten Realms setting. This is relevant to you because in the book Faiths and Pantheons on pages 186 - 188 there is a prestige class which is very much geared towards allowing clerics of Kelemvor to hunt down and destroy the undead. You're arcane, but this was a 3e class, so it needs an update to 3.5 anyway. Ask the DM to swap out the bastard sword proficiency and divine requirements for something else. The alignment requirement is really just to match Kelemvor's alignment.

This class doesn't grant it, but as is, it stacks with cleric levels for turn undead. If you could get the ethereal purge spell-like ability it grants to maybe force gaseous vampires to reform instead (or maybe in addition), that could be a plus.

[Sgt. Cookie]

The Dragonlance Campaign Setting's (alternate) Sun Domain explicitly grants TU.

Wait, so Dragonlance Clerics don't automatically get TU?

Either way Blackhawk, if you can get by your DM, it'll be well worth your while.

[Morbis Meh]

If you can see if your DM will refluff Knight of the Raven into an arcane class, like others have said you can pick up TU from an ACF or a one level dip into Sacred exorcist. Knight of the Raven is an excellent PrC that is made for Vamp hunting!

[Kuulvheysoon]

Wait, so Dragonlance Clerics don't automatically get TU?

Either way Blackhawk, if you can get by your DM, it'll be well worth your while.

There are no clerics in the DL universe. The default divine casters there are Mystics, a spontaneous Wis-based caster that gets access to a domain. If you choose the Sun one, you get TU.

[Feralventas]

Control Undead
Spell Focus (Necromancy)
Heighten Spell.

Mind-Control undead, order them to self-destruct. Spam it at your highest level spell capacity.

Look up the sorcerer/wizard spells that let you reduce casting time to deal with the action economy issues with meta-magic that sorcerers tend to have.

Incantatrix PrC for meta-magic buffs.

Keep the scythe as a trade-mark, make a name for yourself with it as your signature weapon. Do your best to maintain the reputation that you hack and slash things, regularly show off what martial prowess you can, then surprise most intelligent undead by simply asking "Would you kindly disassemble yourself?"

[Blackhawk748]

Im thinking True death Crystal on my Scythe, then i Grab Incantatrix, and them Abjurant Champion to get my BaB back up

[Blackhawk748]

Good news, my DM has allowed me to make Knight of the Raven Arcane instead of Divine, so im goin to take that

[KillingAScarab]

Look up the sorcerer/wizard spells that let you reduce casting time to deal with the action economy issues with meta-magic that sorcerers tend to have.Player's Handbook II offers an alternate class feature called metamagic specialist. It lets you trade your familiar away for the ability to use metamagic without an increase in casting time, as well as use quicken spell. Battle sorcerers still get a familiar, so they can still trade it away for this.

[Blackhawk748]

Anybody got any good feat suggestions?

[KillingAScarab]

Anybody got any good feat suggestions?Well, if this is an accurate description of Knight of the Raven (http://dndtools.eu/classes/knight-of-the-raven/), you have 6 levels of battle sorcerer until you enter. Three levels after that you get turn undead with as a 1st level cleric. You have a feat then, so you could get something which is powered by turn undead attempts. I don't know of anything which can raise your cleric level enough to be competitive with, say, sacred vengeance from Complete Warrior. If I understand that one correctly, and your intent is to use a scythe, even if you make the scythe an undead bane weapon you still get an additional 2d6 damage against them since it is untyped.

Extra smiting (Complete Warrior) is competing for a feat after you gain the smite undead class feature. Two extra attempts per day.

By fourth level of knight of the raven, you have light focus, so it may not be a bad idea to get a reserve spell feat if you do learn some sor/wiz light spells (strangely, searing light from the sun domain doesn't have the light descriptor, but sunbeam and sunburst do). Sunlight eyes from Complete Mage would be available by 6th level and work with the daylight spell or higher to give you some ability to see in even magical darkness. No idea how that interacts with the sight link you get with the raven later on.

From both classes your hit dice are d8. Depending upon spells and your constitution score, you may want to consider improved toughness (Complete Warrior) to give yourself an extra hit point per hit die, or you could rely upon false life to gain at least 11 temporary hit points from level 10 onward, or simply have a fair constitution score to get extra hit points that way. False life is available to you earlier than improved toughness.

Edit: I just noticed burst of vitality. Getting a better turning check result helps you remove more negative levels per use from yourself and your allies. Then again, you could just have the extra turning feat and use it more often, which would also help with something like sacred vengeance.

[Blackhawk748]

I took the Domain Access AcF and i took the Dragnlance Sun domain, so i turn like a cleric and i took Empower spell and Divine metamagic as well as Battle Caster and Medium Armor Prof

[KillingAScarab]

Unless I'm missing something, divine metamagic won't work for you. Last I checked, it was errata'd to only work on divine spells, while this character casts arcane spells (even if some come from divine class lists).

[Blackhawk748]

well damn. well i haven't seen the errata and im pretty sure my DM hasn't either so..... *whistles innocently*

[The Viscount]

If you think you'll be encountering that many vampires, the feat Vampire Hunter from Libris Mortis might be good. It's good, it's just highly specific.