E6 Builds

[Bluydee]

In the vein of similar builds, this is for a compendium of E6 builds. To start, I shall post my own character, who I will use in the campaign I am entering soon.

Shang Tsung

Lolth-Touched Elan
After racial points
Str 20
Dex 16
Con 18
Int 8
Wis 13
Cha 6

Whirling Frenzy City Brawler Barbarian 2/Knight 1/Warblade 2/Soul Eater 1

1: Psionic Fist, Speed of Thought, Weapon Focus: Unarmed, Hidden Talent(Prescience, Offensive)
3: Superior Unarmed Strike
6: Improved Two Weapon Fighting
After 6: Psionic Body, Psionic Talent x as many you can or Snap Kick

Five attacks per turn, bestowing a negative level each time. He moves at 50 speed, faster than the average character. You cannot run. His stealth is naturally boosted quite high.

EDIT: Forgot to say Snap Kick. Then, 6 attacks, and thus 6 negative levels. Damage doesn't matter; if they all hit you, you die.

+8/+8/+8/+3/+8/+3, 1d8+10 4 times, 1d8+7 twice

81 damage average per round with no misses, but honestly, they are already dead.

[Cruiser1]

Persistomancers can come online as early as 6th level, as indicated in the E6 build in this recent thread: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?356451

[Gemini476]

Well, let's get some brokenish ones out of the way.

Wildshaping Trap Expert Mystic Ranger w/ the Sword of the Arcane Order feat (3rd level Wizard spells + BAB +6/+1 + trapfinding + wildshape = one PC party)
Loredrake Spellhoarding Desert Kobold Stalwart Battle Sorcerer w/ the Dragonwrought and Draconic Reservoir feat (Effective Wizard Level=9)
Sylph Sorcerer 2 (Effective Sorcerer Level=9)
Dread Necromancer w/ Versatile Spellcaster, Heighten, metamagic stacking on Enervate

Those are the big ones, right?

[Karnith]

Those are the big ones, right?
There's also the standard silly builds that happen to come online at or before level 6 - Spelldancer-based builds were pointed out above, and, say, full caster 5/Tainted Scholar 1 (with Necropolitan, if you rule that it works) is just as silly in E6 as it would be in a normal game.

[amalcon]

There are ways to get pretty insane Astral Constructs in E6. For example, a Shaper 6 with the Midnight Augmentation, Bonus Essentia, and Improved Essentia Capacity feats can make level 5 constructs, which are CR5. Do the same thing as a Wilder with Expanded Knowledge, and you get level 6 constructs, which are CR7. I remember it being possible to hit a level 7 construct using one more trick, but I don't recall how that worked.

What's more, neither of these actually requires more than four levels thanks to Practiced Manifester (the Shaper version can be done with two), so you can be a decent melee threat yourself if you prefer that to all the psionics stuff.

[PsyBomb]

Pixie Warlock is the big one I remember

[Mitchellnotes]

Pixie anything
Master of shrouds
Pally 5/beastmaster super mount

While not broken, duskblades seem pretty solid in an e6 or e8 environment. As for the difference between the two, honestly I think e8 allows a little bit more exploration of prestige classes and gives the medium Bab classes a boost by giving them their 2nd iterative. I'd probably prefer e8 overall.

[Yogibear41]

In e8 there is almost no reason to play a fighter or a barbarian or something similar over a cleric/druid. At least in e6 the full bab classes get 2 attacks and the cleric is still stuck with just 1. (not that it matters for druids wildshaping into bears and things for 3+ attacks)

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

The Soul Eater's Energy Drain (Su) does not specify an action type for its activation, and even in 3.0 when it was printed the default action type to use any supernatural ability was a standard action. Compare that to the Death Touch (Sp) of a Thrall of Orcus from that same book, it also does not specify an action type, instead stating that you can force a living creature hit with a touch attack to attempt a Fortitude save, and if it fails the creature dies. This doesn't say you have to spend an action to activate the ability, and it could mean that anyone you hit with any touch attack, regardless of why you were making a touch attack in the first place, must make a Fort save vs death in addition to whatever else you were touching them for. My point is, much of that book was written under the assumption that your DM knows that abilities such as those take a standard action to activate by default, and that they do not automatically come into effect any time you touch any creature. It's never a good idea to base a character on an ability that will only work the way you want it to work if your DM doesn't know what he's doing.

[Bluydee]

The Soul Eater's Energy Drain (Su) does not specify an action type for its activation, and even in 3.0 when it was printed the default action type to use any supernatural ability was a standard action. Compare that to the Death Touch (Sp) of a Thrall of Orcus from that same book, it also does not specify an action type, instead stating that you can force a living creature hit with a touch attack to attempt a Fortitude save, and if it fails the creature dies. This doesn't say you have to spend an action to activate the ability, and it could mean that anyone you hit with any touch attack, regardless of why you were making a touch attack in the first place, must make a Fort save vs death in addition to whatever else you were touching them for. My point is, much of that book was written under the assumption that your DM knows that abilities such as those take a standard action to activate by default, and that they do not automatically come into effect any time you touch any creature. It's never a good idea to base a character on an ability that will only work the way you want it to work if your DM doesn't know what he's doing.

But judging from the way that it requires Weapon Focus (natural attack), and how the picture literally shows an ilithid using energy drain through his tentacles. I do see your point on how op it is, and I can reasonably see why anyone would say no. In the end, he'll still have 5 attacks and negative levels are a heavy debuff, especially in low levels.

[Person_Man]

In my opinion, the most optimal E6 builds draw upon some combination of Totemist, Incarnate, Crusader, Warblade, Swordsage, and/or Binder.

Totemist and/or Incarnate: Soulmelds, essentia, and (depending on your DM) chakra binds can scale with hit dice and Feats, making Totemist 2 or Incarnate 3 + Whatever 3 or 4 an excellent E6 option. They are "all day" classes that never run out of resources, and you can change out your soulmelds and chakra binds every day, so you're not locked into a single build. Totemist gets a metric ton of extra natural attacks and some fun tactical options. Incarnate gets ridiculously powerful tank abilities, including high DR/magic, Spell Resistance, retributive fire damage, Evasion, infinitely replacable Incarnate Zombie minion, etc. Either can provide a +10 bonus to various Skills, and either also multi-classes well with anything that gives you a Familiar, since you can take the Share Soulmelds Feat, and basically double the power output of some offensive soulmelds.

Binder: Like the Totemist and Incarnate, the Binder gets a suite of "all day" buffs that can fill a huge range of different roles and can be changed out at least once per day. The Improved Binder Feat gives you access to vestiges of a Binder 2 levels higher, which gives you a large range of fairly awesome options for just 1 or 3 levels of Binder.

Crusader, Warblade, and/or Swordsage: Main benefit here is that maneuvers scale well with multi-classing at low level. So Whatever 2/Crusader or Warblade or Swordsage 4 is still going to have access to 3rd level maneuvers.

[Kaeso]

I'll just ask this here instead of making a separate thread: are there any good archery builds for E6? I imagine the lower power level and lower hp for everything in the game world makes archery more viable (as well as the fact that feats are abundant in E6).

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I'll just ask this here instead of making a separate thread: are there any good archery builds for E6? I imagine the lower power level and lower hp for everything in the game world makes archery more viable (as well as the fact that feats are abundant in E6).

Nothing insanely powerful, but if you're only interested in dealing damage there are a few ways you can do it.

You can get one level of Soulbow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20060403a&page=2), but that archer won't come online until 6th level and won't have a +6 BAB. You can use TWF or Multiweapon Fighting with Mind Arrows, so a (nonpsionic) Thri-Kreen can get five attacks/round with Rapid Shot with that. Something like HD 2/ Monk 1/ Soulknife 2/ Soulbow 1 and make Wis as high as possible with Zen Archery can work.


Fighter 6 with the E6 Fighter capstone feat can get Ranged Weapon Mastery in PH2, and with Rapid Shot you'll get three attacks/round. Wood Elf gets +2 Str and Dex, so you can put a 16 or 18 in each of those to end up with an 18 or 20. Assuming 18's, with a +1 composite longbow, weapon focus/specialization and ranged weapon mastery, your full attack will look like +12/+12/+7 for 1d8+9, averaging about 40 damage per round without any misses or critical hits.

The Splitting weapon property from Champions of Ruin costs a +3 and requires Craft Arms/Armor, Precise Shot, and a Ranger 3 spell called Arrowsplit from that same book that can be cast by a Mystic Ranger and learned and cast by Archivists in E6. The default caster level of this property is 7th, which typically excludes it from use in E6, but that's only used for discovered loot, but when crafting magic items the caster level is determined by the creator (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicItemBasics.htm#casterLevel). This alone will double the damage output of any archer.

The Energy Bow (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ask/20061227a) can be crafted by an E6 character, and even has a default caster level of 6th. Based on the xp cost to create, it's priced as a masterwork composite longbow with 22,200 gp worth of magical properties. That's a +2 weapon with +14,200 gp for the energy bow effect, so any additional magical properties (Splitting, Speed, Seeking, Magebane, etc.) would be added to the +2 weapon price.

That Wood Elf Fighter 6 with Str 18 and Dex 18 using a +2 Splitting Energy Bow with Haste cast on him would attack as follows with Rapid Shot but without even using the power shot function:
+13/+13/+13/+8, each shot splits into two hits for 2d6+9 and 2d6+9 (make two attack rolls), average 128 damage per round with no misses or critical hits.

[Bluydee]

Another trick: Bard can qualify for doomspeak in E6. -10 to attack rolls, saves, ability checks, and skill checks for 1 round. Lay down the smack.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Fear effects (http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809.0) are extremely powerful in the lower levels.

A Desert Half-Orc with Half-Orc Paragon 1, Imperious Command, Menacing Demeanor, Skill Focus, Never Outnumbered, the Abrasive trait, and Fearsome armor (DotU version is most recent) gets a +26+Cha Intimidate check as a move action and anyone affected cowers for 1 round, and is shaken on the following round. He can affect every opponent within 10 ft. with that once per encounter. You can use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in RoD p150 to get Dreadful Wrath from PGtF to have a frightful presence as well. Multiple characters can get Dreadful Wrath, considering fear effects stack to create an escalated condition. Throw on Bard with Inspire Awe and Haunting Melody and you've got two save-vs-shaken effects as a standard action, can activate Dreadful Wrath with any swift action spell that targets an opponent (Feather Fall works) to have a third save-vs-shaken, and can actually lead with a move-action intimidate to make everyone within 10 ft. cower for a round and make them shaken so they get a -2 to their saves and the other effects escalate it to frightened and then panicked. Note that per the Rules Compendium any escalated fear condition lasts until the duration of every fear effect that contributed to the escalated condition has run out. Get a reach weapon, combat reflexes, and stand still, and none of your opponents will be doing anything.