Building a soul reaper? (from bleach)

[Seer_of_Heart]

I've been reading bleach because of the influence of a couple of friends and I was wondering what the best build to simulate a soul reaper. I've never personally gone in depth with ToB but it sounds like a ToB character could simply do it on its own so please don't primarily use a ToB character. I was thinking that they seem like gishes but I'm interested in seeing other opinions.

[TimeWizard]

do you mean from Bleach? Play a Soulblade in the Psionics Handbook. You can fluff the psychic spells as kido and the class lets you shape your soul into a weapon. theres a feat a few levels in that let you change the weapon type or even dual wield.

[Seer_of_Heart]

Do you mean soulknife? Or is it from the 3.0 psionics book(psionics handbook is the 3.0 book right)?

[CRtwenty]

Pretty much any powerful Gish build should suffice. If you really want to go for the whole using your soul as a weapon type thing they've got you could look at the Kensai prestige class, or the Item Familiar rules from UA.

[Wings of Peace]

Something involving the Soulbound Weapon (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) acf for Psychic Warrior is the easiest thing I can think of. I don't know if it's the best way but it's the easiest way.

[RoyVG]

I dkn't know much about Bleach, but I'll see.

Wanted to say swordsage, but yeah...

Maybe Kensai from Complete Warrior? Otherwise the Ancestral Weapon feat from BoED?

[Snowbluff]

Alternatively, play a Duskblade, and grab Leadership. Have a Fiend of Possession as your Cohort, and have it possess your weapon for additional bonuses.

... I like the Psywarrior ACF better, too... :smalltongue:

EDIT: Ghostwalk Ghost.

[Diarmuid]

The trouble I see with the idea is that "Soul Reaper" ends up being a fairly generic term for people with vastly different powers.

The only real commonality is that they all wield some kind of weapon, but many times the type of weapon has very little to do with the powerset.

[dysprosium]

IIRC there was a homebrew set here in the playground that had classes, feats, etc based on Bleach.

The base classes were like Soul Reaper, Quincy, etc and there were prestige classes like Vizard and Captain. The classes themselves had a zanpaktou progression built into their class features. Level 8ish unlocked the shikai power and level 15ish unlokced the bankai power.

If that isn't viable (or rediscovered) then I would use some kind of ToB character with a weapon of legacy or ancestral relic for the zanpaktou, especially for an Ichigo style character. I would use Duskblade, Hexblade or even Psychic Warrior to emulate those with more kido like Rukia along with a weapon of legacy or ancestral relic.

[Waker]

Depending on the specific type of shinigami that you are trying to emulate, your best bet is to use some combination of ToB, Incarnum and Psionics. Zaraki Kenpachi for instance I would build using Crusader and Incarnate.

[Fearan]

Depending on the specific type of shinigami that you are trying to emulate, your best bet is to use some combination of ToB, Incarnum and Psionics. Zaraki Kenpachi for instance I would build using Crusader and Incarnate.

Hell, no. Zaraki Kenpachi is fighter 20 and is AWESOME while being fighter 20

[Waker]

Hell, no. Zaraki Kenpachi is fighter 20 and is AWESOME while being fighter 20

How do you figure? Fighter 20 is not really impressive. I suggested Crusader because you heal yourself everytime you hit the enemy, ignore little distractions like DR, hit harder whenever the enemy hits you. Incarnate was there to grant access to some immunities and a few other little boosts. Chaotic Neutral is the alignment of choice for Kenpachi.

[Malroth]

only problem is they need access to air walk, dimension door, gentle repose, and planeshift.

[Feralventas]

Warlock with dips in Warblade, particularly the Charging maneuvers of White Raven and acrobatic ones of Tiger Claw, with a touch of Iron Heart for defense and resilience. Use Eldritch Blast for whatever flavor of energy bolts you want (Getsuga Tenshou for example) and your maneuvers for other techniques (Flee the Scene for flash-step).

Soulknife looks like it should fit this; it doesn't. Soul Reapers have a few too many actually useful abilities to be a class that's nothing but a sword and a sub-par one at that.

I love Ghostwalk's Eidalon, and I'd say it'd work for some of the spirits which come from the series, but not many of the SR's specifically.

Warlock with a blaster focus can also work for the Quincies if needed, though that's off of old content I know of them; not sure if it'd fit the new ones. Soul-knife into Soul-bow while only taking a minimum level count of soul-knife then dipping Fighter and Warblade before hitting the 1st PrC and then going into Complete Warrior's Kensai might also suffice, but just barely.

[ShurikVch]

I think you all overlooked something.
There is one thing which define a shinigami - Zanpakuto.
Zanpakuto not just a class feature, like soulknife's mindblade.
It's a very real item, and if accidentally get sundered, it will be very sad.
So character must (at least partially) be focused on wielding particular weapon.
I suggest Item Familiar, Ancestral Relic and PrC Legacy Champion or/and Battle Scion