Endurance Characters

[Green Leviathan]

Not the Feat. I was wondering what are some good builds that allow someone/thing to combat pretty much forever. Say guarding a small gate from endless waves of minor demons/devils. Preferably not undead, and likely around lvl 10 or so.

Some requirements that i think it should have are:
Some form of HP recovery, regen or fast healing seem easest.
Constant Attack method. So something other then spells.
Does not need to Sleep.

So i was pretty much thinking a warforged dragonfire adept with the healing aura (only heals up to 1/2 hp). I also hear crusaders would be good for this sort of thing but i am pretty unfamiliar with that book. Any other thoughts?

[Vortenger]

Are there any penalties for not sleeping? I'm aware that arcane casters and/or sleeping in med/heavy armor causes issues, but I'm pretty sure thats the whole list. Flavor any character an insomniac and fuhgeddaboudit.

Crusader's are famous for longevity due to free healz whilst attacking, though honestly anyone with UMD and a wand of Vigor:lesser probably has more endurance via HP than they need. Any warlock with a wand now meets all your criteria.

Tl;dr: Almost any T3 and below with access to UMD and just decide you don't sleep.

[Ellowryn]

Define "endless waves of minor demons/devils".

For characters that dont need to sleep, warforged is indeed the best bet. Toss dragonborn of bahamat for some more con + breath weapon and you can deal with a bunch of low level mooks every 1d4 rounds. Being a (whatever)good crusader with revitalizing strike + stone power + martial spirit stance = 3d6+12 Hp healing with 10 temporary per round makes you very very tanky. Also take the adamantite body feat for free adamantite full plate, along with cleave and shape breath (to make your line breath weapon into a cone) and you become very hard to hit along with respectable aoe.

[ddude987]

Are there any penalties for not sleeping? I'm aware that arcane casters and/or sleeping in med/heavy armor causes issues, but I'm pretty sure thats the whole list. Flavor any character an insomniac and fuhgeddaboudit.

Crusader's are famous for longevity due to free healz whilst attacking, though honestly anyone with UMD and a wand of Vigor:lesser probably has more endurance via HP than they need. Any warlock with a wand now meets all your criteria.

Tl;dr: Almost any T3 and below with access to UMD and just decide you don't sleep.

You need sleep. The penalties are detailed in Elders of Evil. You become under the effect of the insanity spell IIRC.

[Segev]

If you go the dragonfire adept route, make sure one of his breath effects is slow breath. The weaker mooks will be slowed for 2 rounds, buying him time to use damaging abilities on stronger things (which are slowed for only one). Slow means most of them can't actually get to him to attack, and even if they can, they had to move one round then attack the next. It will help.

An alternative might be a Warforged with a permanent Enlarge effect on him going into War Hulk. Persisted Righteous Might will get the Large size, while Divine Favor gives a full BAB. Use a Spiked Chain for the reach in combination with the War Hulk's Massive Swing which lets his every attack strike every creature in melee reach of him. Add a periodic casting of or a persistant Consumptive Field.

An item of 1/day schism and a specialized microcosm could enable a portion of his mind to have that hour of quiet contemplation required to pray for spells each day while the body keeps fighting. Alternatively, a pearl of power works once per day, regardless of whether the caster has rested to refresh spells. Get a pearl of power of appropriate level for each spell he needs to renew each day. His turn/rebuke abilities should return without need for rest, also on a daily basis.

[torrasque666]

You need sleep. The penalties are detailed in Elders of Evil. You become under the effect of the insanity spell IIRC.

Simple solution. Be Warforged/get the Wakeful Mind graft. No more need for sleep.

[shadow_archmagi]

Not the Feat. I was wondering what are some good builds that allow someone/thing to combat pretty much forever. Say guarding a small gate from endless waves of minor demons/devils. Preferably not undead, and likely around lvl 10 or so.

Some requirements that i think it should have are:
Some form of HP recovery, regen or fast healing seem easest.
Constant Attack method. So something other then spells.
Does not need to Sleep.

So i was pretty much thinking a warforged dragonfire adept with the healing aura (only heals up to 1/2 hp). I also hear crusaders would be good for this sort of thing but i am pretty unfamiliar with that book. Any other thoughts?

Tome of Battle allows "manuevers" which are special attacks that require refreshing before they can be used again. Some crusader manuevers (in fact, MANY of them) allow the crusader to deal damage to enemies and distribute healing.

Crusaders are special in that they don't actually need to take an action to gain new maneuvers, only wait long enough. Thus, a crusader with many healing attacks would be able to cycle through; using Healpunch 1, then Healpunch 2, then Greater Healpunch, and then oh look they're all back.

Crusaders also have, subject to DM interpretation, the ability to "double" DR. (Crusaders can divert a small amount of damage taken each round into a special pool, delaying that damage until next round, and gaining bonuses based on the size of the pool; it's essentially a counterattack sort of thing. However, this does create a situation where a crusader with DR 5 who takes 10 damage could choose to take 5 damage now (which the DR negates) and keep 5 in his pool, then take that 5 next round (and the DR negates it too)

This is particularly relevant because Warforged can have Adamantine Bodies, so even low-level Warforged Crusaders could perform quite well as eternal fighting machines.

[Lans]

Binder with the summoning vestige

[Vortenger]

You need sleep. The penalties are detailed in Elders of Evil. You become under the effect of the insanity spell IIRC.

It took them until Elder Evils (one of the least purchased 3.5 books) to put the rules in? That's...pretty sad.

[Adverb]

You need sleep. The penalties are detailed in Elders of Evil. You become under the effect of the insanity spell IIRC.


It took them until Elder Evils (one of the least purchased 3.5 books) to put the rules in? That's...pretty sad.

This isn't quite right. DMG contains this:
"Using the example situations above, staying awake might be a Constitution check (DC 12, +4 for every previous night without sleep), with an elf character gaining a +2 bonus on her check because an elf is only giving up 4 hours of trance instead of 8 hours of sleep."

So far as I know, that's the only general-case rule for going without sleep in 3.5. The Elder Evils thing about sleeplessness is not "ho hum I don't want to sleep" but what happens when an eldritch Cthulhoid horror jams ten pounds of life into every five-pound bag and people twitch too much to sleep and everyone slowly goes mad. Eventually they become SO ALIVE that they explode in a shower of gore, which IIRC is not a state normally associated with sleep deprivation.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Level 11:
Warforged, Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5; two flaws: Bravado and Insomniac; Adamantine Body, Stone Power, Shield Specialization, Shield Ward, Extra Granted Maneuver, Imperious Command.
Con > Str > Cha > Wis > Dex > Int, make sure his Con score is an odd number, Cha needs to be at least 15.
Max ranks in Intimidate, he needs Knowledge: The Planes 4 ranks prior to 7th level. Balance and Sense Motive are useful skills to drop extra points into, possibly get skill tricks like Never Outnumbered if he gets multiple encounters, but not if encounters last for an extremely long time.

Stances Known: Martial Spirit, Stonefoot Stance.
Maneuvers Known: Crusader's Strike, Stone Bones, Leading the Attack, Douse the Flames, Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Revitalizing Strike.
Maneuvers Readied: Crusader's Strike, Revitalizing Strike, Foehammer, Mountain Hammer, Stone Bones.
Replace Foehammer with Shield Block and Martial Spirit with Iron Guard's Glare if there will be multiple defenders.

Bind Naberius for Fast Ability Healing 1, among other benefits.

Holy Fury makes his melee attacks count as good-aligned weapons, makes him immune to fear effects, and gives him a pool of holy fury points used to activate other abilities. This can be activated at the start of any encounter and lasts the duration of the encounter.
Divine Succor allows him to spend a swift action and one holy fury point to heal himself or another good-aligned creature within 20 ft. for 20 hp.
Heroic Sacrifice allows him to spend a swift action to take 2 Con damage and fully replenish his pool of holy fury points. The Fast Ability Healing from Naberius will instantly heal one point of that, and then heal the other point of it the following round, so with an odd numbered Con score his HP pool won't change because of this Con damage.

His Warforged slam attack adds 1.5 Str to damage if it's the only weapon he uses in a given round. His Adamantine Body should be enchanted as +1 Fearsome armor, using the most recent version of Fearsome from Drow of the Underdark. Get a Greater Magic Fang with Permanency both at caster level 20 to give his slam a +5 enhancement bonus. Other gear should be for necessary effects (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) that his type/subtype and class features don't already cover, preferably avoiding any items with a daily limit to their uses. A resistance bonus to saves is also highly recommended. A masterwork tool (+2, 50 gp) for Intimidate plus ideally an item that grants a Competence bonus to Intimidate are also highly recommended.

In any given round he should do the following:
Swift Action: Activate Divine Succor to heal himself or someone else for 20 points, or Heroic Sacrifice to recover his holy fury points if he's run out. Skip this if he used one of his immediate action abilities between his last turn and this one.
Move Action: Intimidate check to demoralize an opponent he threatens, which cowers for one round and is still shaken on the following round (-2 to its next check) thanks to Imperious Command.
Standard Action: Make a single slam attack and activate Stone Power, or use a Stone Dragon strike and activate Stone Power, or use a Devoted Spirit strike.

Considering these guys can be manufactured, you could have a whole bunch of them standing at a bottleneck like Spartans.

[torrasque666]

Level 11:
Warforged, Crusader 5/ Binder 1/ Hellreaver 5; two flaws: Bravado and Insomniac; Adamantine Body, Stone Power, Shield Specialization, Shield Ward, Extra Granted Maneuver, Imperious Command.


I dunno man. Seems kinda cheap to take a flaw that has absolutely no effect on your character. That's basically gaming the system for a free feat. I mean flaws are supposed to be just that, flaws.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

I dunno man. Seems kinda cheap to take a flaw that has absolutely no effect on your character. That's basically gaming the system for a free feat. I mean flaws are supposed to be just that, flaws.

Fine then, give him Shaky or Slow instead, but the build still works.

[Green Leviathan]

Thanks Guys! This was exactly what i was looking for. And special thanks to Biffoniacus_Furiou for posting a wicked build (though i generally frown at flaws, still great without).