Level 2 Hack & Slash Characters

[NeeL]

I need help. I've got 4 hours to make a couple of 'broken' level 2 characters for a Hack & Slash game.

Rules:
- Every 3.5 book
- Start at CL 2
- starting gold 900 gp
- Point buy 30
- No role-playing, just getting random monster encounters, one after another
- Rewards for encounters are only XP and GP
- After every 3 encounters, there's "a pause" to spend GP in an infinite-of-everything shop and for casters to regain spells
- All is allowed which in a normal game would be veto'd by the DM because "it would ruin the game" or "you would have too big an advantage on the other players".

Every skill, item, feat or ability which won't be useful in combat, is a wasted one.
I've already found the Flaws and Traits of Unearthed Arcana for min-maxing, but I'm at a lost of where to start with combining races and classes, so I'm asking this big pool of knowledge.

It can be every thing, but I'm thinking of 1 heavy hitter and 1 ranged unit.

Edit: Night of fun cancelled for now, but will occur in the near future and possibly more after that, so all the input is still appreciated.

[NeeL]

Of course, it is still too early for America to be online...

I'm now working on a Whisper Gnome (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20040807a&page=3) Rogue.

Any ideas to min-max are welcome.

[Gemini476]

The best character at level one is probably a Whirling Frenzy Pouncing Barbarian, since charging and hitting twice for 2d6+1.5*STR damage will kill everything with two HD.

No, really. 2*7 damage is nasty enough as it is, but 2*4 (16str) makes that 22 damage, which is equal to having 2d12 HD and 18 Con. And then you just have 21 HP if you're an NPC, while a PC would have 26 HP.

It's pretty good at killing stuff.

Of course, a Focused Wizard has enough spells to last the day and (if a Conjurer) has Abrupt Jaunt to stop the WhilPounceBarbarians. And enough SoS to make an Orc nervous.

Speaking of which, never get in fights with Orcs. Their main attack with a Rapier does 2d4+4/18-20. That's an average of 9 on a non-crit, and 18 on a crit. For CR 1/2.


Of course, if you really want to optimise a low-level character, play as a Kobold Psion 1 and ascend into Pun-Punhood.

[NeeL]

Thanks, this is helpful!

I was already destroying my Whispering Gnome Rogue, because I suck at this. I normally only make characters for long-play role-play.

[Osiris]

Whisper gnome, Abrupt jaunt, Punpun, so much stuff that's banned in my games.

That barbarian idea is genius, but add on Mage Slayer feat, maybe a reach weapon and improved trip, and you're a caster slayer!

[Callin]

Whirling Frenzy Lion Pounce Barb 1/Savage Savage Progression Vampire 1. Savage is in Libris Mortis and Savage Progression is a web article. Enjoy the mass amounts of Strength. Move on to ToB and rock house

[sideswipe]

for help with your whisper gnome as a sniper specialist.

at level 2 you can get a whisper gnome with 2 flaws to...

5 ranks =5
20 dex =5
small =4
racial =4
skill focus=3
stealthy =2

= 23 in hide.

able sniper makes shooting from hiding -16 not -20

so you average 33 on your check and get - 16, so your hide is 17 average.

most fighting classes wont spot you but rangers/ rogues have a chance.

if you take 1 level in rogue 1 level in fighter you can then get point blank shot or another shooting feat and you have a whisper gnome who at level 2 hides, shoots and almost always gets his extra damage.

if you do have a positive strength you can get a masterwork composite longbow.

example +1 str +5 dex

to hit. +7 you will be hitting their flat footed as long as they don't spot you.
your damage would be D6+2+D6 sneak attack.

[NeeL]

for help with your whisper gnome as a sniper specialist.

at level 2 you can get a whisper gnome with 2 flaws to...

5 ranks =5
20 dex =5
small =4
racial =4
skill focus=3
stealthy =2

= 23 in hide.


+1 for the illiterate Trait. :)

Thanks, that is a nice sniper! I'll make that one too.

[sideswipe]

+1 for the illiterate Trait. :)

Thanks, that is a nice sniper! I'll make that one too.

dont forget to also have enough in move silently else they will hear you.

5 ranks
2 steathy
5 dex
4 racial
1 silent shoes (arms and equipment guide)

17 without committing more than 10 gold more and a few skill points

[Socratov]

remember that you must make sneak attacks within 30 ft, or take crossbow sniper (might want to take strongheart halfling)

[Piggy Knowles]

Kobold, using the Races of the Dragon web enhancement to start with three natural attacks.

Bard 2
FEATS: Dragonfire Inspiration
RELEVANT SPELLS: Inspirational Boost

Cast inspirational boost as a swift action and start singin' for +2d6 fire damage on all your attacks (and the attacks of all your allies). Next round, start making three attacks, each with +2d6 bonus damage on top. Rogues, eat your heart out.

[Socratov]

Kobold, using the Races of the Dragon web enhancement to start with three natural attacks.

Bard 2
FEATS: Dragonfire Inspiration
RELEVANT SPELLS: Inspirational Boost

Cast inspirational boost as a swift action and start singin' for +2d6 fire damage on all your attacks (and the attacks of all your allies). Next round, start making three attacks, each with +2d6 bonus damage on top. Rogues, eat your heart out.

we have a winner it seems. so a team of decked out barbarian, dfi kobold and a crossbowsniper would wipe out a lot as long as they go first

[Dread_Head]

Take Extra Rage on the WhirlPounceBarbarian so it can do it's thing in each of the three encounters and then retrain it later when you have more Rages / Day. Take Wolf Totem at level 2 for Improved Trip instead of Uncanny Dodge. Head out of Barbarian after that, not much more to gain by staying in longer. ToB classes or Totemist or something would be the way to go. A good race is Water Orc for +4 Str and +2 Con, Theres sunglasses in a book somewhere which cost 10gp and negate the light sensitivity,

Or in fact Totemist itself is just pretty brutal from level 2. Be a Warforged and take the feats Jaws of Death and Second Slam and bind Girallon Arms for a claw / claw / claw / claw / bite / slam / slam routine. Or go Dragonborn Darfellan as race and bind Girallon Arms and shape the draconic soulmelds Dracoic Tail and Chaos Rocs Span. This would have an attack routine of claw / claw / claw / claw / bite / tail / wing / wing.

Wizard 2 with Abrupt Jaunt ACF will be nigh on unkillable. Go Focused Specialist Conjurer and max out on battlefield control spells such as Grease & Wall of Smoke. At third level you'll add Glitterdust & Web to your repertoire although I suppose you could start with one of these using Precocious Apprentice.

Druid 2 with a Riding Dog companion and loading up spell slots with entangle will be pretty decent at this level. Can use a wand of Lesser Vigor as well for all your healing needs.

With flaws or the right domain choices you can have a DMM: Persist Cleric up and running at this point although what you'd persist I have no idea. Can again use wands for all your curing needs. Archivist might be a better choice actually, with more choice of low level spells that are actually useful in combat and dark knowledge contributing to the party.

An IC optimised Bard won't quite be in his element yet but at third level with a Badge of Valor, Inspirational Boost and Song of the Heart he can be adding +4 to hit and damage in each of the three encounters and provide back up spell casting as well. If the right race is chosen could take Dragon Fire Inspiration as well for +4d6 fire damage rather than +4 to hit/damage.

Hope this is useful.

[NeeL]

That's the most bad ass Bard I've ever seen. I'll look in to it.

Nice, now I have a fire slashing kobold, a sniping whisper gnome and a Whirling Frenzy Savage Pouncing Savage Progression Barbarian Vampire.

I'll go and work those out! Thanks everybody!

[NeeL]

I've found an error.

Flaws can only be taken at level 1, therefore all the feats has to be taken at level 1. Therefore any feat with prerequest '5 ranks' can't be taken until level 3.

For instance, Able Sniper.

[sideswipe]

I've found an error.

Flaws can only be taken at level 1, therefore all the feats has to be taken at level 1. Therefore any feat with prerequest '5 ranks' can't be taken until level 3.

For instance, Able Sniper.

then take another shooting feat at level 1 and with your level 3 feat take able sniper.
take point blank shot and precise shot so when your pouncing barbarian etc barge in you can still hit well.

rogue 1/ fighter 2

1 stealthy
Flaw 1 skill focus hide
Flaw 2 point blank shot
Fighter 1 precise shot
as your start.

level 3
3. able sniper
Fighter 2 rapid shot.

then no more levels in fighter and take more levels in rogue.

when you can afford it get a cloak of elven kind 2500g for +5 hide

the nice thing about this build is you are rarely seen and therefore rarely hit at all. and nearly always get your sneak attack.

[NeeL]

Thanks! That will do the trick. I really like the sniper the most.

Unfortunately, the event has just been canceled. But the DM still wants to do the Hack and Slash some other night in the near future and maybe make it a biweekly night of fun, so I'll keep this thread close at hart.

The upside of that is, this thread is still useful for weeks and weeks! :smallbiggrin:

[Gemini476]

Kobold, using the Races of the Dragon web enhancement to start with three natural attacks.

Bard 2
FEATS: Dragonfire Inspiration
RELEVANT SPELLS: Inspirational Boost

Cast inspirational boost as a swift action and start singin' for +2d6 fire damage on all your attacks (and the attacks of all your allies). Next round, start making three attacks, each with +2d6 bonus damage on top. Rogues, eat your heart out.

Oh yeah, that reminds me! If you want to be horribly, horribly cheesy?
Take a Kobold with Dragon wrought as your first feat. For level one, take the Dragonblood Cleric 9 Racial Substitution Level. You auto-qualify due to some bad wording regarding Dragons and Dragonblood subtype requirements. That level will give you +6 BAB, +6 Fort, +3 Ref, and +6 Will. You'll also get the ability to spend Turn Undead uses to heal 1/3 of damage you would take from an attack, but you don't have Turn Undead since you never took Cleric 1. You also only have 1st level spellcasting since the table for the DB cleric tells you to reference Cleric.

You also lose 1 prepared 5th level spell per day, but you're not high enough level to care.

Now, if you were to take another level of Cleric your BAB and saves would be awful again. Don't do that.

Luckily, there's a full progression prestige class in Races of the Dragon that requires being dragonblooded.
So your second level is Singer of Concordance 1, making you end up with:
+3 to all mental stats (Dragonwrought)
+6/+1 BAB
+6 Fort
+5 Ref
+8 Will
2nd level Cleric spellcasting
Immunity to the first magical Compulsion effect that would affect you each day, and +4 morale bonus to further saves vs. Compulsion effects
All allies within 10ft gain +4 morale bonus to saves vs. Compulsion effects.

A simple build would be DBCleric 9/SoC 4 so that you get enough skill points to jump into some neat enter-by-level-6 class.
Or you could grab two flaws for Heighten and Versatile Spell, grab Dragonblood Sorcerer 7 for +3 BAB, +2 Fort and Ref, and +5 Will, get four extra spells known for Sorc, and get +6 Insight bonus on Knowledge(Arcana) checks. Then, with this handy little build:

DBClr 9/SoC 1/DBSrc 1/Mystic Theurge 1
You get, as a fourth level character:
+9 BAB
+8 Fort
+7 Ref
+15 Will
2nd level Sorcerer casting (+4 spells known, taking Good for Fly seems like a good bet)
3rd level Cleric casting (-1 spell/day for 5th level spells)
Aspect of Peace (Singer of Concordance)
Arcane Insight +6 (DBSorc 7)
Energy Sustenance (DBClr 9)

You know, just throwing some build out there. You could always make something more optimised, but I figured that sticking to Core+Races of the Dragon and avoiding vague rules (e.g. Are Kobolds True Dragons?) seemed like a good idea.

Still, it's an OK Gish.

[Socratov]

Oh yeah, that reminds me! If you want to be horribly, horribly cheesy?
Take a Kobold with Dragon wrought as your first feat. For level one, take the Dragonblood Cleric 9 Racial Substitution Level. You auto-qualify due to some bad wording regarding Dragons and Dragonblood subtype requirements. That level will give you +6 BAB, +6 Fort, +3 Ref, and +6 Will. You'll also get the ability to spend Turn Undead uses to heal 1/3 of damage you would take from an attack, but you don't have Turn Undead since you never took Cleric 1. You also only have 1st level spellcasting since the table for the DB cleric tells you to reference Cleric.

You also lose 1 prepared 5th level spell per day, but you're not high enough level to care.

Now, if you were to take another level of Cleric your BAB and saves would be awful again. Don't do that.

Luckily, there's a full progression prestige class in Races of the Dragon that requires being dragonblooded.
So your second level is Singer of Concordance 1, making you end up with:
+3 to all mental stats (Dragonwrought)
+6/+1 BAB
+6 Fort
+5 Ref
+8 Will
2nd level Cleric spellcasting
Immunity to the first magical Compulsion effect that would affect you each day, and +4 morale bonus to further saves vs. Compulsion effects
All allies within 10ft gain +4 morale bonus to saves vs. Compulsion effects.

A simple build would be DBCleric 9/SoC 4 so that you get enough skill points to jump into some neat enter-by-level-6 class.
Or you could grab two flaws for Heighten and Versatile Spell, grab Dragonblood Sorcerer 7 for +3 BAB, +2 Fort and Ref, and +5 Will, get four extra spells known for Sorc, and get +6 Insight bonus on Knowledge(Arcana) checks. Then, with this handy little build:

DBClr 9/SoC 1/DBSrc 1/Mystic Theurge 1
You get, as a fourth level character:
+9 BAB
+8 Fort
+7 Ref
+15 Will
2nd level Sorcerer casting (+4 spells known, taking Good for Fly seems like a good bet)
3rd level Cleric casting (-1 spell/day for 5th level spells)
Aspect of Peace (Singer of Concordance)
Arcane Insight +6 (DBSorc 7)
Energy Sustenance (DBClr 9)

You know, just throwing some build out there. You could always make something more optimised, but I figured that sticking to Core+Races of the Dragon and avoiding vague rules (e.g. Are Kobolds True Dragons?) seemed like a good idea.

Still, it's an OK Gish.

I would not do this even if I had defences against thrown books. This stinks not only of just cheese, but of overripe Casu Marzu.