Opinions on a Thought Bottle trick

[Emperor Tippy]

The Thought Bottle (Complete Arcane page 150) has the ability to store a characters XP total (less 500 XP) at the time and then return the character to that XP total at a future point in time.

Well let's say you hit level 20 and store your XP but you have taken some class levels or made some design choices that really weren't ideal. Now you kill yourself and use Raise Dead to come back 19 times, dropping you back to level 1. Now you use the thought bottle and get the XP.

Do you get to totally rebuild your character or do you just get your old levels back?

[Ravens_cry]

XP is class androgynous, so I don't see why not. Still, if you want to rebuild ones character, just ask your DM. Most respond well to bribes.
They give a +2 circumstance bonus on Profession: DM Wrangler checks.
The feat DM's girlfriend/boyfriend gives +20 and a reroll.

[JadePhoenix]

You could also use rebuilding or retraining from the PHB2. Sounds unnecessary. Unless there are Clone shenanigans going on as well.

[Emperor Tippy]

More so that you can totally rebuild your character in a few minutes. Want to go from a fighter to a master of arcane magic? It can be done with a few minutes investment. Or perhaps you are going adventuring on a plane where magic doesn't work by psionics does; a few minutes work and you are no longer a wizard, now you are a psion. Or perhaps you need to infiltrate the Church of Pelor but you are a rogue, a few minutes work and you have a stronger connection to Pelor's divine power than even his high priest.

Want to try out a different PrC? Well here you go.

[JadePhoenix]

A few minutes and 95000 gp worth of diamond dust.

[Emperor Tippy]

A few minutes and 95000 gp worth of diamond dust.

Bah, it's just gold. Shapechange into a Zodar and drop 4 Wish's.

[GilesTheCleric]

Gates of Dawn in FR will do the trick. There might also be some ill effect that does this in something like a Deck of Many Things or Rod of Wonder knockoff.

[IncoherentEssay]

A thought bottle undoes level loss ("a thought bottle can be used to offset level loss as a restoration spell can, but is effective against level loss that even restoration can't undo." "negating any levels lost in the interim.")
So i'd say it directly restores you to [where and what] you were, therefore not allowing a rebuild as [negated level loss] =/= [level gain].
Even if the restored xp total could be read as ordinary xp gain, you'd run into the rule that prevents multiple simultaneous levelups (PHB. p.58) and waste most of the xp.

[Vaz]

Bah, it's just gold. Shapechange into a Zodar and drop 4 Wish's.

Why go through all that though? Is it simply a "thought experiment", when you can do exactly that for cheaper?

[Socratov]

I think it works, you could also be one of these guys:

strongest duo alive (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/The_Wish_and_the_Word_(3.5e_Optimized_Character_Bu ild))

[only1doug]

The Thought Bottle (Complete Arcane page 150) has the ability to store a characters XP total (less 500 XP) at the time and then return the character to that XP total at a future point in time.

Well let's say you hit level 20 and store your XP but you have taken some class levels or made some design choices that really weren't ideal. Now you kill yourself and use Raise Dead to come back 19 times, dropping you back to level 1. Now you use the thought bottle and get the XP.

Do you get to totally rebuild your character or do you just get your old levels back?

As IncoherentEssay said, you can only gain enough Xp to level up once (limited at one point less than levelling up twice) so multiple thought bottles (one for each level) would be the key to de-levelling and re-levelling in this fashion if this was how the thought bottle worked.

Unfortunately I must agree with IncoherentEssay's other statement that the Thought bottle doesn't operate in that fashion, instead it returns you to the exact character build and level that you had before you "saved" at the thought bottle.

[qwertyu63]

Unfortunately I must agree with IncoherentEssay's other statement that the Thought bottle doesn't operate in that fashion, instead it returns you to the exact character build and level that you had before you "saved" at the thought bottle.

(Assuming it works like that) What if you saved in one bottle, went through rebuilding some other way, saved in another, then used the first? Could you use that to have two builds saved?

[only1doug]

(Assuming it works like that) What if you saved in one bottle, went through rebuilding some other way, saved in another, then used the first? Could you use that to have two builds saved?

IMO yes, you could have that setup for an instant change of character build.

Note that it is impossible to change your 1st class level in this fashion.