Sorcerer Walker in the Waste

[DementedFellow]

For years I've wanted to mix my two favorite things of D&D together. And I think I finally found a way. Walker in the Waste gives you neato abilities and makes you undead, and while that normally would be enough to go into, it also allows your CHA bonus to be added to your HD when you turn undead.

Through liberal use of ACFs, I believe I've found a completely RAW way of entry into Walker in the Waste. The entry requirements are: being non-good, having the Heat Endurance feat, and the ability to cast spells from the Sand or Thirst domain as divine spells.

First off, let's take the Metamagic Specialist ACF, Familiars can often be a liability. Next we look at Complete Champion, Domain Sorcerer, you essentially trade a spell known per level for a Domain of your choosing, this happens at level 5. We choose Thirst Domain.

Now lets look at feat selection for our sorcerer. We are going to use a Mulan Human. Our human feat will be Heat Endurance. And our 6th level feat will be Southern Magician. Southern Magician allows us to cast an arcane spell as divine. Since we are 6th level, we would get to use this ability 3 times per day.

There we have it folks. Once we are done we have scary DCs, powerful spell-like abilities, the ability to command oozes, undead immunities and the ability to come back like a lich, but way better. You even have 3 levels left to play around in Ruathar if you felt so moved.


Okay, here is what I want you all to do. Poke holes in this. I'm very excited about this build. Tear it down and show me what I did wrong.

[Malimar]

Pick any three of desiccate, parching touch, tormenting thirst, and haboob. Those are Sorc/Wiz spells in the Sand or Thirst domains that are 3rd level or lower. You can only learn the third one you need at 6th level, but your build doesn't qualify until after then anyway. Domain Access is unnecessary, though thematically appropriate.

[DementedFellow]

I chose the Thirst domain because it gives the ability to turn or rebuke oozes. And if someone was persuasive enough, a case could be made that it qualifies for uses in Divine Metamagic.

[lycantrope]

Asherati (bonus feat: Heat Endurance)

1 Sorcerer 1
feat: Precocious apprentice (dessicate), flaw [whatever], feat: southern magician
2 Cleric of Ethos 1 (sand, thirst)
3 Walker in the Waste

Benefit: you trade one level of sorcerer casting for the (ab)use of divine metamagic. Even if the DM rules that ooze turning doesn't count, the natural turn/rebuking of the cleric does.

[DementedFellow]

You can't take Southern Magician at that level and you must be a human.

You're already losing 2 levels of spellcasting, losing another for a dip outside of sorcerer hurts.

[lycantrope]

Oh dang, I forgot that walker doesn't have a full progression!

How about:

mulan human

1Sorcerer 1:
Heat endurance, southern magician, flaw[x2], arcane disciple (sand), precocious apprentice (desiccate)
2Walker in the Waste

[Spuddles]

How are you meeting feat pre-reqs for know: religion with one level of sorc?

[lycantrope]

Wishful thinking and selective misreading :( Well, with level 1 entry out of the question, surely there's a way in at 4? Maybe swap arcane disciple for Apprentice, if the DM allows it, to gain religon as a class skill, then take disciple at 3?

alternatively: if DragonMag is allowed, Bronze Solaris Member from DR 334 p93 could replace Apprentice for the purpose of gaining knowledge (religion) as a class skill.

[DementedFellow]

I just realized that an Amulet of Ooze Riding would negate the Dry Lich's vulnerability to water, provided he stay within the ooze. A lava ooze or a gelatinous cube would be sufficient to keep danger water away. Text in the Arms & Equipment Guide says that the gelatinous cube is air-permeable, but it doesn't mention water.

My only stumbling block now is to either train or find a DM to let me play this.

[Jeff the Green]

Consider the generic spellcaster (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/genericClasses.htm), as that allows you to enter starting at level 2. Be a human Charisma-based spellcaster with Fortitude as your good save. Choose Heat Endurance, Southern Magician, and Precocious Apprentice as feats. Pick parching touch (sorcerer/wizard 1), waste strider (druid 1), and desiccate (cleric 2, druid 2, sorcerer/wizard 2) as spells known. You now meet all the prereqs and can enter starting level 2.

[DementedFellow]

You cannot. You need to be able to cast 2nd level spells to get Southern Magician.

[Jeff the Green]

You cannot. You need to be able to cast 2nd level spells to get Southern Magician.

Which Precocious Apprentice allows you to do.

[DementedFellow]

Oh that's good, but the other part of Southern Magician is that you can only use the ability to cast arcane as divine level/2 times per day. So at 2nd level, you can use it once, I'm not a rules lawyering man, but I could see how the argument could go either way. Whether WitW would need you to be able to cast those spells in a the same day or just cast those spells is something greater to debate.

I'm all for early entry, but taking Southern Magician at 6th level cuts out most of the hassle in convincing people.

[NeoPhoenix0]

Raw, there is no minimum so at level one you can't cast divine spells. So you could start to take Walker in the Waste at 3rd level, Which is pretty good.