All day PC

[tricktroller]

Alright folks, I will be playing in a game that is almost constant combat. Besides ToB characters, what is the best all day combat character? I was thinking a gish that can fight without magic would be good but he probably won't be all day. Any optimization level is allowed, I prefer not to be super borked, but if you think a DM would allow it then show it to me! Thanks for your time everyone.

[Thorvaldr]

Warlock isn't bad for this. Infinite Eldritch Blasts and infinite castings of any essences known. With UMD, he could even use a wand of CLW to heal himself, and at mid-higher levels he has some innate healing ability as well.

[Gabrosin]

ToB characters would probably be the right answer here, but beyond that, you could consider a druid focusing on wild shape. You'd have access to powerful spells when you need them, but you could simply shift into an effective combat form and maintain that for most of the day with just 1-2 uses, depending on your level.

Another option would be something (e.g. changeling) that lets you take Warshaper. Immunity to stunning and critical hits, attribute buffs, reach, and most importantly fast healing. Fast healing is really what you need to shrug off injuries and keep fighting all day without wasting spell slots on restoring your HP. Note that this can be easily combined with ToB classes, or with the druid idea.

One more option to look at is a mounted character where the mount is unusual and powerful and would do most of the fighting for you, while you sit back and refresh it when needed. Dragons can fight all day, right?

[John Longarrow]

What level will your character be? Some spell casting gets excessive durations at mid levels (extended Luminous Armor anyone?)

[OldTrees1]

Fighter(with muliticlass dips) can be with proper feat selection and ACF use.

Example BFC Fighter:
Barbarian (Spirit Lion, Wolf Totem) 2 / Fighter (Dungeoncrasher, Thug, Zhentarim Soldier) 6 / Warblade 1 / Fighter 3 / Rogue 1 / Scarlet Corsair 7

[JeminiZero]

Binder can also work well. Some abilities usable at will, some with a short cooldown. Can fill multiple roles, depending on what they have binded.

[Urpriest]

I think a Changeling Totemist/Warshaper should fit the bill. Warshaper as mentioned gives you fast healing, Totemist gives you versatile but all-day abilities.

[Slipperychicken]

If you mean constant combat, not even allowing you to rest, then Warforged might be a good bet. You'll be a literal killing-machine, able to keep up the slaughter at all hours of day and night. Combine it with a way to heal reliably, like a Wrathful Healing (+3 enchant from Enemies and Allies) weapon.

Also, what level are you starting at?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It depends on your level.

By 7th level, a Druid can be Wild Shaped all day, plus you'll get plenty of (Lesser Rod of Extended) hour/level buffs and an always-useful animal companion.

A Cleric with DMM: Persistent can have at least one buff active all day, usually two with a few items. Mass Lesser Vigor and Elation on the whole party is pretty good, or get Divine Power to be a powerhouse. This also gets (Lesser Rod of Extended) hour/level buffs.

An arcane gish who's high enough level to get Incantatrix or Spelldancer with 5th level spells for Draconic Polymorph is one of your strongest choices. Once again, use (Lesser Rod of Extended) hour/level buffs.

For a very unique character, make a Cloistered Cleric 1/ Archivist X with TWF, Gloves of the Balanced Hand, and DMM: Persistent plus Fell Drain or Fell Frighten (or both) with Flame Blade and Ice Axe. By this point (Lesser Rod of Extended) hour/level buffs should go without saying.

A Bard can keep a single use of Inspire Courage going all day long, though you'll basically be announcing your arrival anywhere you go with that. Standard IC optimization plus DFI plus a Wild Cohort probably. Get Ancestral Relic for a custom Runestaff.

[Deadline]

ToB classes, Warlock, Dragonfire Adept, Incarnum classes, and Binders have at-will, all-day or "always on" abilities, so these would be your go-to options. Mundanes from the PHB are also a potentially viable option, depending on optimization level. Warforged are a solid racial choice, as they have no need to sleep so they can go all day. The only real issue you'll run into is a way to heal yourself reliably. Changeling Warshaper was mentioned, but there's also Devoted Spirit maneuvers and the Healing Touch reserve feat.

[John Longarrow]

If your game is going to be at least 10th level, I'd suggest 1/2 troll mongrelfolk warblade-5.

You continuously heal, get to reset your maneuvers easily, and you will do a LOT of damage. Toss in a tower shield (hey, no problem with weight and the -2 to hit isn't too bad at that point) and go to town.

[Baroknik]

One to consider that is not that strong, but could be a lot of fun is the dragon shaman. You get fast healing one when under 50% health which is good for long days, possibly, and you could see it specialize in your breath weapon with meta-breath feats.

DFA could also spam his breath weapon even more, but no meta-breath feats/healing then.

[tricktroller]

We will be at 10th level. anything less will die apparently lol

[John Longarrow]

If your DM is OK with class adaptation,
Cleric 4 / Crusader 2 / Abjurant Champion 4
Feats 1-Combat Casting Human-Extend Spell 3-Persistent Spell 6-DMM Persistent 9-Extra turning.

Normal defenses should be shield of faith and greater luminous armor.

Your AC should keep you safe from most normal attacks. Area of effect will be a problem, but you should be able to heal in combat well enought to survive a lot.
Your will save will be a monster, so a lot of the save of suck situations should be avoided.

[Callin]

Archivist with the Vitality Spellcasting Variant. Cast Second Wind (Sp Comp Pal 1) to remove Fatigue and give you back up to 2/3rds of your Spell Point Max. Cast all day long or heal all day long or just do whatever. Just make sure you have 1 Spell Point or you cant do it.

[The Viscount]

The Hellreaver PrC makes for a pretty solid all-day fighter, as it gets a number of per-encounter abilities.

[Aerlock]

Soulknife (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/classes/soulknife.htm) is another all-day class. And if you use the Pathfinder (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) version its even actually kinda good. There's also the Aegis (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis) from Pathfinder that's pretty near all-day.

-Aerlock

[tricktroller]

No pathfinder allowed.

[VoxRationis]

Do you mean a near-continual, Helm's Deep slog of a day-long fight, or do you mean a lot of encounters per day without a chance to recover?

[tricktroller]

I think some of both. there is a rest period for each day but it is not guaranteed.

[Rubik]

A shaper psion/constructor would be good, if you want a primary caster-type. Focus hard on using your low-level powers effectively, and it's not terribly difficult to last all day. Psionic Minor Creation is a great way to produce huge amounts of poison for 10 hours at a time, astral constructs end up lasting quite awhile, too (especially Extended), and effects such as Energy Wall can make a major dent in large numbers of low-level minions (especially if Empowered). Plus, you can use one of the myriad ways of pp-regeneration so you can extend your stamina even further.

You'll have to play carefully, but lasting all day with a shaper is doable, especially if you're a warforged and use PMC-poisons as best you can.

[tricktroller]

RANGED THREAT [GENERAL, FIGHTER]
You are so fast and accurate with a ranged weapon that
you threaten a greater area around you.
Prerequisites: Dex 13+, Combat Reflexes, Point Blank
Shot, Rapid Shot, base attack bonus +5 or higher.
Benefit: You threaten an area up to 20 ft. away as if he
had reach,being able to make attacks of opportunity to
opponents within that area with a readied ranged weapon.
You do not threaten this area for the purposes of flanking,
however.

So this is a feat from the AEG feat book that I was thinking about utilizing on a high dex elven fighter archer. THe way I have him setup currently on paper he gets 4 attacks a round and then up to 7 AoOs per round.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

We will be at 10th level. anything less will die apparently lol

Human Paragon 1/ Fighter 1/ Wizard 2/ Human Paragon 2/ Spellsword 1/ Incantatrix 3, future levels Incantatrix +1/ Abjurant Champion 5/ Eldritch Knight 4.
Two flaws: City Slicker and Love of Nature (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30); flaws must be taken when creating a character but not necessarily at 1st level. Gain Iron Will from the Otyugh Hole (CS) for 3,000 gp.
Feats: Practiced Spellcaster (1), Combat Casting (H), EWP: Greathorn Minotaur Greathammer (F1), Power Attack (W1), Item Familiar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/magic/itemFamiliars.htm) (3), Arcane Disciple: War (HP), Extend Spell (6), Persistent Spell (I1), Spell Focus: Transmutation (F), Ability Enhancer (F), Minor Shapeshift (9)

Item Familiar begins as a Ring of Protection +1 (2,000 gp). You upgrade it yourself to a Ring of Enduring Arcana (CM, 3,000 gp, 240 xp) plus a Ring of Sustenance (DMG p282, 1,875 gp, 150 xp) plus a +5 Competence bonus to Spellcraft (DMG p285, 1,875 gp, 150 xp) plus a +1 Deflection bonus to AC (MIC p234, 0 gp, 0 xp). Invest every skill point you get into your item familiar once you have it, which means every skill point you get from 4th level up. Put the largest bonus as possible toward Spellcraft from this, which at 10th level should be +13. With this you should be able to always succeed when taking ten on your Spellcraft checks when using Cooperative Metamagic and Metamagic Effect from Incantatrix to add Persistent Spell to your current highest-level spells at any given level. You can use Cooperative Metamagic on your own spells when outside of combat since the action economy system only exists during initiative.

You'll have (3+Int)x2 Persistent spells/day, which should include the following: Divine Power, Friendly Fire or Ray Deflection, Greater Invisibility, Bite of the Wererat, Magic Circle Against Evil, Wraithstrike, Swift Fly, Death Armor, Alter Self: Crucian, Shield, Expeditious Retreat, Nightshield, etc. Additionally, you should have the following hour/level spells (Lesser Rod of) Extended: Greater Magic Weapon, Greater Mighty Wallop, Heart of Air, Heart of Water, Luminous Armor. If you have the available spell slot, keep Polymorph prepared but don't cast it, this is so you can use your Minor Shapeshift reserve feat every round. Note that Ability Enhancer causes any transmutation spell that grants an enhancement bonus to an ability score to grant a bonus two points higher, so Divine Power is +8 Str, Bite of the Wererat is +8 Dex and +4 Con, Fox's Cunning will be +6 if you need additional uses of your Incantatrix abilities, etc.

If you want to make it completely silly, say your character originally had the feats Snowcasting, Flash Frost Spell, Sudden Widen, Explosive Spell, Heighten Spell, Earth Sense, Earth Spell, Energy Substitution: Electric, and Born of the Three Thunders. Say he cast a Detect Magic with Snowcasting, Flash Frost Spell, Sudden Widen, Energy Substitution: Electric, and Born of the Three Thunders, then hired an NPC spellcaster to cast Permanency at caster level 20 (3,500 gp at standard rates) to make it permanent. You then used Metamagic Effect to add Explosive Spell and Heighten (9th) to it; Earth Spell makes it count as a 10th level spell and increases the caster level by nine, so it's at a caster level of 19. You then hired an NPC Psion to use Psychic Reformation on you to repick two feats to get Fell Drain and Fell Frighten, and added those to it via Metamagic Effect. You had him give you another Psychic Reformation and repicked all those feats to the above build. Both Psychic Reformations together cost 2,185 gp and 325 xp at the standard rates. Whenever you concentrate on this Detect Magic spell (standard action), you make a 120-ft. cone that deals 10 electric damage, 10 sonic damage, covers the area in ice forcing a Balance check vs falling prone, creatures damaged automatically gain a negative level and become Shaken for 10 rounds, and must make a Fort save or be stunned, then stunned opponents must make a Reflex save or fall prone, and anyone failing the Reflex save is knocked outside the nearest edge of the spell's area and take 1d6 damage per 10 ft. moved, and if they're stopped by an obstacle they take an additional 1d6 damage, plus they get knocked prone again. All save DCs for this spell are 20 + your Int, and if you get the Swift Concentration skill trick in CS you can use this as a swift action. Skill tricks can only be used once per encounter, but if you start concentrating on it and never stop it's a swift action every round as long as you maintain it, but be careful of structural damage and friendly fire. Just refer to it as your super power.

[Kennisiou]

Past about level 6 the Wildshape Ranger > Master of Many forms has pretty much all of its power all day, assuming you take the extra wildshapes feat at level 6. You can wildshape for extra healing and you can use a CLW wand since it's on your spell list (just have to be in a form with hands iirc, but since you'll be spending most of your time as a flind gnoll level 6 onward that's fine). You don't have to worry about spells as a resource, your main actions all day long will be combat, and you don't even need to worry about weapons if you just have a wilding clasped monk's belt (and a clasped vestige of many styles, ideally with a handy haversack effect added later to store potions/wands/scrolls as needed). If I recall correctly you don't even have to worry about your gear getting sundered or rusted since you're relying on gear that "melds" into you while wildshaped, even while providing its benefit (odd in the case of the vestige, since its benefit is "being clothes" but you can't sunder a clasped vestige by RAW iirc even though by RAW it can also make you not naked).

Factotum does a fairly good job of being mostly resourcless. Nab yourself a CLW wand and you're good (or just a spell component pouch trapped with permanent resetting etc trap of CLW, depending on cheese tolerance).

If you're able to template stack to absurd levels Sorceror is practically resourceless. Tons of spells per day innately and stack templates to pump cha. It can reach astronomical levels of spells pretty quickly.

The one real advantage that theurge builds have is not in flexibility but in total number of spells per day. Theurge something like sorc/shugenja or wizard/archivist and you basically have enough spells per day that you shouldn't run out. You won't be any more flexible or powerful than a single class caster, but in total number of spells you can cast before running out you'll usually double them -- or better than double.

Swift Hunter, Daring Outlaw, and various fighter builds can be resourceless and can actually be pretty solid in campaigns where there's basically nothing but combat (seriously, that's, like, the only thing fighter is good at and while he's not the best at it you can do some cheesy builds that make him at least "better than everything at his CR in the monster manual" at various levels. You'll just hit some odd low points where there are a few monsters that spike in power while the fighter hasn't hit any of his spikes. If you're looking for fighter builds like that, check "Jack Be Nimble" which is kinda absurdly good against foes that melee attack, but not really that good against anything else.)

Theurging any actually resourceless class with a non-resourceless class to improve power and versatility is also an option. Binder into anima mage is a pretty strong option, and there are some warlock theurge builds that work nicely as well. Monk may not be an impressive class on its own, but mix it with cleric, wizard, or druid through Sacred Fist, Enlightened Fist, or Fist of the Forest and you get a class that can do anything as long as spells remain and if it's out of spells can at least punch things really hard and usually have some nice combat tricks thrown in with tripping/stunning/grappling.

[Xerlith]

ToB? Warlock? Why not both?

Human Dread Necromancer 1/Warlock3/Warblade1/Warlock+1/Jade Phoenix Mage10/Warlock+5/Warblade1

Feats: Versatile Spellcaster and Tomb-Tainted Soul at 1st, 3rd Improved Unarmed Strike, 6th is Eldritch Claws.

You lose on pretty much all the JPM features except the chassis, but...
Unlimited healing, 8th level maneuvers and a Dark invocation. Could be worse.
EDIT: Oh, grab a Divine feat to burn the Rebuke attempts on during the day. Divine Vigor offstets your low hit dice.

Alternatively, stacking on Pearls of Power with Versatile Spellcaster means that even a full-caster can get a lot of mileage from low-level spell slots.

[PsyBomb]

Although not the most impressive things in the book, Reserve feats can be useful for extending your staying power by conserving your good stuff during fights with trash.

However, I second Druid into MoMF4 with Natural Spell. Go Warforged to make it not need to sleep, with Darkwood Armor 9so that you don't break your Vows). Given even 30 seconds to buff once or twice during the day, and nothing you're likely to meet is going to take you down. Wildling Clasp some decent equipment, and the Fast Healing 1 will cover the incidentals.

[Adverb]

Will this game take five sessions to cover one game day, or what? I'm fascinated.

[Flickerdart]

There are a couple of things that change with "constant" combat (though how your DM plans to justify even 8 hours of back to back fighting is certainly hard to imagine) from the default assumptions of what lets a character last "all day."

1) Healing. Conventional wisdom is that healing in combat is a waste of time, and you should use many applications of a cheap, weak heal between combats to get back on your feet. If combat is constant, healing in combat is still a waste of time, but now you don't have the option of gradual recovery. At least one character in your party will have to be built to heal simultaneously with doing other, useful things. Alternatively, you need a way to "pause" combat while people patch themselves up.

2) Actions in general: Anything that takes more than one standard action to cast is now a luxury. Invest in anything you can that speeds up how quickly spells can be cast.

3) Turtling and AC: By the current CR system, broken as it is, you are expected to face 4-5 CR-equal encounters per day. Each one depletes ~20% of your daily resources (HP, spells, whatever). Given that the average combat lasts about 4 rounds, if your DM throws CR-equivalent monsters at you, you will run out of daily resources in under 3 minutes (and because that includes HP, you will then die). Against a stream of weak enemies, shoring up your defense is vastly more important than offense - a swing of your sword will kill exactly one guy, but if there are ten others, you want to be able to get the opportunity to swing for a second time. For the same reason, mobs

So an ideal all-day character needs to be able to do a lot every round, give his allies breathing room, and prioritize defense over offense. A standard tripper build can probably manage this quite well - grab the Horizon Tripper, swap out the 1/day Rage for something that isn't on a use timer (if you like being angry, Berserker Rage is the ACF for you), and get your reach as high as it goes. Then just beat down everything that comes at you. Your allies will hide behind you when they need a break to use a healing ability, and you yourself can spend actions on your turn doing something else while still being useful by having AoOs on anything that moves.

[Rubik]

There are a couple of things that change with "constant" combat (though how your DM plans to justify even 8 hours of back to back fighting is certainly hard to imagine) from the default assumptions of what lets a character last "all day."

1) Healing. Conventional wisdom is that healing in combat is a waste of time, and you should use many applications of a cheap, weak heal between combats to get back on your feet. If combat is constant, healing in combat is still a waste of time, but now you don't have the option of gradual recovery. At least one character in your party will have to be built to heal simultaneously with doing other, useful things. Alternatively, you need a way to "pause" combat while people patch themselves up.

2) Actions in general: Anything that takes more than one standard action to cast is now a luxury. Invest in anything you can that speeds up how quickly spells can be cast.

3) Turtling and AC: By the current CR system, broken as it is, you are expected to face 4-5 CR-equal encounters per day. Each one depletes ~20% of your daily resources (HP, spells, whatever). Given that the average combat lasts about 4 rounds, if your DM throws CR-equivalent monsters at you, you will run out of daily resources in under 3 minutes (and because that includes HP, you will then die). Against a stream of weak enemies, shoring up your defense is vastly more important than offense - a swing of your sword will kill exactly one guy, but if there are ten others, you want to be able to get the opportunity to swing for a second time. For the same reason, mobs

So an ideal all-day character needs to be able to do a lot every round, give his allies breathing room, and prioritize defense over offense. A standard tripper build can probably manage this quite well - grab the Horizon Tripper, swap out the 1/day Rage for something that isn't on a use timer (if you like being angry, Berserker Rage is the ACF for you), and get your reach as high as it goes. Then just beat down everything that comes at you. Your allies will hide behind you when they need a break to use a healing ability, and you yourself can spend actions on your turn doing something else while still being useful by having AoOs on anything that moves.Grab as much reach as physically possible. Use the Human Heritage feat to qualify for this (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?132294-Tiny-Von-BigMcLargeHuge) and use that to your advantage? Counting as Gargantuan at level 1 is pretty fantastic, I think.

Also, your whole group may want to consider burning +1 LA for the divine minion template. Unlimited wild shape means that not only do you gain potential utility forms, but you also gain infinite healing abilities.

Also also, minionmancy. Dread necromancer is especially good in this case, due to infinite healing via carnal touch and the Tomb Tainted Soul feat. Why waste spells blasting or something when you can just raise the corpses of your foes to attack your other foes? A wall of necrotic flesh between your enemies and your friends can do a lot to turn the tide. Just invest in lots and lots of onyx.

[Slipperychicken]

Also also, minionmancy. Dread necromancer is especially good in this case, due to infinite healing via carnal touch and the Tomb Tainted Soul feat. Why waste spells blasting or something when you can just raise the corpses of your foes to attack your other foes? A wall of necrotic flesh between your enemies and your friends can do a lot to turn the tide. Just invest in lots and lots of onyx.

Inb4 Necropolitan Dread Necromancer spellstitched with Animate Dread Warrior.


Also, it's "charnel touch" (which means something like "touch of death"). Carnal touch would just mean "meaty/fleshy touch", which seems increasingly disturbing the more I think about it.

[Rubik]

Inb4 Necropolitan Dread Necromancer spellstitched with Animate Dread Warrior.

Also, it's "charnel touch" (which means something like "touch of death"). Carnal touch would just mean "meaty/fleshy touch", which seems increasingly disturbing the more I think about it.We're all meat in the end. Which end, I'll leave to your imagination.

Also, psions have access to Psianimate Dead, from Hyperconscious. Combine with Undead Leadership, thrallherd and Psionic Dominate for fun times.