Help! Before I PK! (d&d 3.5 character build help needed)

[Ser Magikarp]

Okay so let me lay out the setting real quick. This party is currently 6th level, (or more accurately we just hit sixth) and we currently reside in Dambrath, part of the shining south of Faerun. My character is a Half Drow noble, Lawful Neutral with Evil tendencies among a party of neutral good and chaotic good characters.

For the most part my character leads the party as she has a charisma of 18 and has been focusing on leadership and charisma skills. However when it comes to diving up the loot after battle my party has a tendency not to respect the fact that magical items should go to those they would most benefit. This has caused some resentment in the Half Drow towards the party and she is currently plotting to get back at her follow adventurers for these slighst. (she has gone without any major magical items).

What I ask of you great and powerful forum readers. (this is my first time posting) Is helping me to build my Half Drow into a character that could actually roll (in one manner or another) the party in time.

Malhavoc of House Ciscarne is currently a Fighter 2 Cleric 3 and is wielding Thanifex with the first ritual not unlocked but known of. What classes and or class should I go into? I would like to lean more heavily towards my use of chaisma and the like as it is my best stat.

Str 12
Dex 16
Con 10
Int 10
Will 10
Cha 18

Feats are currently as such: Drow Eyes, Exalted Turning, Extra Turning, Improved Initiative, and Nymphs Kiss.

What else do y'all need to know and what suggestions do you have? Also, my GM has totally approved my slowly turning evil and plans on it being a major plot point. the Chaotic Neutral Sorcerer in the party will probably be my major is only ally.

Many thanks-
Ser Magikarp

[lycantrope]

What is yoir exact intent? Do you want to actually kill them, or just rob and embarass them?

[Ser Magikarp]

At the moment my character hasn't gotten to the point of wanted to roll the party though I am sure that will happen soon enough if things continue the way they are. Chances are at the very least the Neutral Good Fighter will have to die, as well as the Neutral Good Scout. The Ranger and Warlock will probably be able to see reason as they are weaker than me (both playing LA3 races).

Currently what I want help with is selecting a good 6th level for my Half Drow, and finding out what I should lean into to become a nasty dueling powerhouse.

-edit- The culling won't happen for at least a few levels I have no doubt.

[Pilo]

Why doesn't your character leave the group instead and you reroll something that fits the group mentality? Killing other PCs is usually bad for the group cohesion, even with their rerolls.

I know it is not the obvious choice and your DM has to agree with but I think robbing and killing people is forbidden in Dambrath and as you are lawful you might want to respect the law.
Furthermore, an equal share of the treasure is often what happens in not friendly linked group. Maybe you can save some money and try to buy or trade items you want from your teamates.

Do you houserule the casting stat used for of your cleric?
If you want to fill the cleric role, as you have no wisdom and a lot of charisma, Shugenja (Complete Divine) might be a interesting class choice.
If you want to assume your evil part, Dread Necromancer might interress you.

How do you get benefits from exalted feats if you are evil? You should have lost them without any compensation.

[EyethatBinds]

If you're looking for power you've already messed up pretty badly with the character. Being a multiclass character hamstrings both your casting and your fighting prowess at low-mid levels. With your feats you are also less likely to survive a direct conflict with the party (also your Exalted feat will become vestigial when you go evil), so you're better served by placing the character in the hands of the DM and making a new one.

Your average Con and lower Reflex save makes you an easy target for Fireball and other attacks, and at best you'd be sitting at 44hp so far. Putting a level into barbarian would bring on the experience penalties, and at best would add on another 12 hp (plus 12 more raging) but you wouldn't be able to cast spells in rage.

Even a party with moderate optimization could bring you down in one or two rounds in a direct fight. You're basically screwed.

[Khedrac]

You say that the party hasn't been giving magic items to the person who can benefit the most - so who have they been giving items to?

Also, the person who can benefit the most is not always the person that benefits the party the most! Especially if one person has very few items compared to the others they may not benefit the most from something whilst still benefitting the party more if they get it.*
If they are going with an fairly even distrbution then either you are getting more items than you would otherwise, or you feel that more than a fair share of the drops would benefit your character the most (probably a very reasonable attitude for a L(E) drow). If it is the latter then a good starting point is to discuss treasure usability distribution with the party and DM. IF the DM is expecting the party to sell found items to buy more useful ones then you definitely need to go with an even distribution.

*Example:
Suppose a +2 greatsword drops when the party's main fighter has a +1 greatword. As the only person who can wield martial weapons it is of more use to the fighter, however, giving it to the rogue (no magic weapon) so they can sell it and buy one benefits the party more than giving it to the fighter...

Also regardess of chracter alignment it is always better to talk to the players before kicking off inter-party conflict. Even if they agree it made sense, anyone whose character dies is likely to resent it and may well build a new character specifically to get revenge (threads on building such characters are quite common round here).

[Khedrac]

... Lawful Neutral with Evil tendencies...

Feats are currently as such: Drow Eyes, Exalted Turning, Extra Turning, Improved Initiative, and Nymphs Kiss.
Hang on - Exalted feats and you have "evil tendencies"? Expect those feats to pack up and leave for even considering attacking the party.

[lycantrope]

If you're looking for power you've already messed up pretty badly with the character. Being a multiclass character hamstrings both your casting and your fighting prowess at low-mid levels. With your feats you are also less likely to survive a direct conflict with the party (also your Exalted feat will become vestigial when you go evil), so you're better served by placing the character in the hands of the DM and making a new one.

Your average Con and lower Reflex save makes you an easy target for Fireball and other attacks, and at best you'd be sitting at 44hp so far. Putting a level into barbarian would bring on the experience penalties, and at best would add on another 12 hp (plus 12 more raging) but you wouldn't be able to cast spells in rage.

Even a party with moderate optimization could bring you down in one or two rounds in a direct fight. You're basically screwed.

Unless he takes leadership, which no doubt the dm would be okay with since hes on the path to being an npc. But yeah, this is probably your best bet. Your current build isnt really optimized for killing.

[Menzath]

You know there are other ways to "get back" at your party. You are a lawful character in a lawful city....
You brought up with your group the biased distribution of goods gained from adventuring thinking they were just being derp, and after mentioning this they ignored you still.
That sounds like theft.
You can file an injunction with local authorities to have them tried/arrested for theft of goods. Now at that point if they want to pay you what you have been an equal distribution of gold with the cost of the items included, No harm no foul and from then on hopefully everyone is on the same page. If they choose not to give anything... It depends on how the DM plays the officials.

Edit: And be prepared to hire some one who can cast Zone Of Truth if you cannot. Because in D&D magic is admissible.

[Immabozo]

Addict them to a drug in their sleep. Seems rather evil to me. Once they fail their addiction save and have no clue what they are jonsing for, offer to give them their fix, for a proper share in the loot, plus a little extra for the troubles imposed upon you. Dont tell them which drug, or even that it is a drug. Even better, cast "Extract drug" from BoVD and extract the drugs from something they cant track down which drug it is.

If the refuse, they take serious withdraw damage if they fail their fort save. 1D6 to each mental stat?

[SparowCrow]

If it comes to fighting and your using a house rule for cleric spells to use charisma. Both the scout and fighter have bad will saves, so using hold person or some other spell to make them helpless, then coup-de grace them.

[Immabozo]

If it comes to fighting and your using a house rule for cleric spells to use charisma. Both the scout and fighter have bad will saves, so using hold person or some other spell to make them helpless, then coup-de grace them.

He'd still loose an outright fight. It would, at that point, have to be a sneaky thing. Perhaps while everyone is asleeping

[SparowCrow]

He'd still loose an outright fight. It would, at that point, have to be a sneaky thing. Perhaps while everyone is asleeping

Hmm, Using silence On the area the party is sleeping then coup-de grace The scout and fighter might work

[Immabozo]

Hmm, Using silence On the area the party is sleeping then coup-de grace The scout and fighter might work

I love it! That seems like it would work nicely!

[Ser Magikarp]

First I'd like to thank you all for your input. I understand that this character is -extremely- far from being optimized but I may have used the term powerhouse a bit loosely. Its a simple fact that I will never be able to take on one, if not more than one party member in single combat. However, though plenty of OOC chatter, and a few GM approved diplomacy rolls My Half Drow just secured the alliances of the Sorcerer, the Bard, The Warlock and the Ranger. Leaving only the Fighter and the Scout.

As for optimization, I think I won't be bothered really, its been such a long time since i have power gamed that I forgot that it takes prep from level 1.

I'll leave you with one more question - no strike that two more questions.

1.) Do I kill the Fighter and Scout eventually (by I, I mean the party, as the Ranger has already asked to kill the fighter, apparently in character inter party animosity already existed). Or! Do I attempt to diplomacy them into the ground. (GM is allowing the use of Diplomacy on PC)

2.) My **** built character in mind, what is the best way to ramp up a diplomacy check?

Again thanks-
Ser Magikarp



Ps. I really need to get back into power gaming. Its been far too long and my group are all first timers (hence my crap build ` it keeps us in the same power levelish).

[Menzath]

Best way for a cleric to get insane Diplomacy checks is with... SPELLS!
But you have a wisdom of 10. So you can only cast 0 level spells since you need a score of 10+spell level to cast said spells.
Oh why did you take cleric and not bard or sorc?
I mean if you ever wanted to lie, Glibness is almost a must.
Feats that help you with diplomacy are only a minor boost (+2 or 3)
And items can be costly early on but can be a very good bonus.
Spells are #1 the best way. The durations might be short for some of them, but can give an easy +10 or more bonus, some of which stack.

[Maginomicon]

There are "bidding" rules for dividing up loot. Perhaps you can strongly request your GM start to enforce them. That way at least you can bid for the powerful stuff you actually need.

[SparowCrow]

There are "bidding" rules for dividing up loot. Perhaps you can strongly request your GM start to enforce them. That way at least you can bid for the powerful stuff you actually need.

Like some type of item that boosts wisdom

[HalfQuart]

Generally I hate it when people respond to "Help me do X" posts with "You don't want to do X, you should do Y", rather than just helping with what was asked, but I really must agree with other commenters that killing other PCs is a really bad idea. It seems like it's all just fun in-character role playing, but it inevitably leads to hurt feelings amongst the other players... and it seems like a particularly bad idea with a bunch of new players.

I played an evil campaign a few years ago with some folks that had been friends for 10+ years -- all mature 30-40 year old adults and experienced players -- that ended up deteriorating into PC on PC fighting "all in good fun". But it didn't end well and lead to real-life conflict.

So perhaps your group's experience will be better, but I'd really recommend that your LAWFUL almost-evil character just leave, rather than dividing and subverting the party.