r2d2go
2014-08-03, 10:55 AM
So, this is basically me trying to make League champions I like into D&D characters (I haven't played league in forever, but I'm looking up their abilities and reading through their backstories). There's some level of optimization going on here, but it's second to theme. I'll put each component as a separate thing, and each post as a separate character. Now, without further ado, here's my first (and favorite) league champion :smallbiggrin:
Annie Hastur, The Dark Child
Annie is pretty much my favorite league champion. She's a pyro. She's adorable. And she has Tibbers!
Flavor Details
So, the biggest thing here is her age. I don't think there's official 3.5 rules for children, so let's just say she's a child. You can get a homebrewed rule or use some similar system's rules, whatever you want.
The second detail is that she charmed her shadow bear pet. We'll discuss this in a bit.
Passive Ability (Pyromania)
Annie's passive is that she stuns on every fourth spell cast. Use Energy Substitution named below to turn a spell into a electric or sonic spell and apply Born of Three Thunders, stunning enemies that you damage (though you daze yourself). You can use Favor of the Martyr or Mark of the Dauntless to make yourself immune to dazing, too. Now your spells stun!
However, now your spell is not fire based. One way to get around this is to use Energy Admixture to give it the Sonic descriptor, apply Born of Three Thunders and then use Energy Substitution to turn everything into Fire. If your DM doesn't like this, you'll have to use Energy Substitution first, then Born of Three Thunders, then Energy Admixture to make it only half fire.
Q Ability
Annie's Q damages an enemy, possibly refunding mana and cooldown for killing the enemy. For this, I decided I had two options - one, use actual Disintegrate and then turn it into a fire spell (fits flavor), or two, make a low level spell fiery and spammable (fits mechanically) - for that niche, I found Lava Missile and Magic Missile closest to what I wanted (unless Psionics is used, in which case Energy Missile works well). To make spells fire-based, just use Energy Substitution, and to make non-elemental spells available, you can use Snowcasting to apply the Cold descriptor.
So, our spells here are Disintegrate, Lava Missile and Magic Missile.
W Ability
Annie's W damages enemies in a cone. Luckily there's already two spells that do this for you: Burning Hands at level 1, and Blast of Fire at level 4. Take one of those and you're done. Alternatively, if we're going druid, Frost Breath is basically bigger icy-Burning Hands with Daze: Smack Energy Substitution on and you're done.
E Ability
Annie's E gives her a molten shield, dealing damage to attackers and raising her defenses. This is tricky, though Fire Shield, Fires of Purity, and Wreath of Flames are good approximations. I looked around for a fire-based AC or SR boost. I couldn't find anything that actually increases defenses, sadly, but that doesn't mean you can't have fiery armor - just use Energy Substitution some more. As the Frost is a fun spell that gives DR 10/magic and piercing, as well as immunity to cold and cold damage to those within 15 feet. Perfect!
Then again, with Snowcasting, you can add the cold descriptor to anything and subsequently make that same spell fiery, so whatever you want works.
Ultimate
TIBBERS! This is the most complex part of Annie, so it has a lot of parts. First, let's look at getting a bear - we can go the Druid route, having him as a companion, or we can go with the more flavorful option of Dominating a bear/dire bear. Either way, we've got a bear, so that's solved.
Next, let's look at what we want Tibbers to be, when summoned - essentially, a fire aura and fiery attacks on top of bear or dire bear. We can do the aura with Balor Nimbus or any of the noted molten shield approximations, and we can do fiery attacks with Sakkratar's Triple Strike or an Necklace of Natural Weapons. If you want him bigger, you can Animal Growth him.
Now, let's look at what we want Tibbers to be when not summoned and how to get him there. Basically, we want him as a cute, fuzzy teddy bear - tiny compared to big Tibbers. There's very few ways to do this other than Polymorph Any Other. If you're willing to just have Tibbers up and teleport him in, that's fine but that's also super lame, so I'm making him the dang teddy bear! However, this has a pretty lame duration (even if bear to teddy bear is "related", you're at only 3 hours polymorph any other. Polymorph him into the same size and cast Shrink Item instead, raising the time to 2 days.
Now, getting him back is a bit hard, though doable. If your DM lets you just dismiss Polymorph, that's ideal, but if you can't you're stuck dispelling it (you can lower the caster level to 8, if it helps). Now, you can throw tibbers, dispel the Polymorph, and have him appear in the middle of your enemies. If you've got a nice DM, you can also have him appear in all his buffed glory without any modifications, though if you've got a somewhat less nice DM you can use Persistent Spell to keep buffs up, and if you've got an even less nice DM you'll have to quickly cast the rest of the buffs. One way to cast the rest quickly is to use a rod covered in runes from Runesmith, which activate on touch, and most importantly, can be activated as part of another action. So now you can cast a pile of buffs instantly.
Figuring out the Build
Okay, now that we've got a general idea of what we want, it's pretty clear that we've got spells all over the place. We've got druid spells, wizard spells, cleric spells, paladin spells... how can we get all of this?
Well, there's one easy way: Unearthed Arcana generic spellcaster. This gives you druid, wizard and cleric spell lists at slightly worse than Sorcerer casting, which is frankly awesome. If you're okay with Divine, Prestige Paladin covers Paladin spells, and you can take Divine Metamagic: Persist for Tibbers. If you're not okay with Divine, you'll want Alternative Source Spell so you can use Divine Metamagic, or Incantatrix so you can add Persistent Spell post-casting.
Okay, that's good. Now we just through metamagic on top of all that and a build focused around buffing a bear. Unfortunately, Dominate Creature is a 9th level spell, so we either need to wait a loooong time or just get a bear as a friend. Or, we can take Druid and get a bear at 7th level. Hm. Troubles. So, in the end, your early game choice is Druid with less good stuff, late game UA spellcaster.
Build Stats
Okay! We're ready to build!
9th Level Druid Annie
This Annie is pretty much the lowest level you can get - basically, you get a bear that you set on fire. Generally requires Flaws. You can get this at 7th level with very nice DM rulings and weakened abilities.
Race: Human
Class Level: 9th level Druid
Feats: Snowcasting or Empower Spell, Energy Substitution (Fire), Energy Substitution (Sonic), Energy Admixture (Sonic), Born of Three Thunders, Easy Metamagic.
Animal Companion: Brown Bear, AKA Tibbers!
Spells: Lava Missile (Q), Splinterbolt (Q, optional), Frost Breath (E), Wreath of Flames (W), Treestride? (Tibbers Teleport)
Okay! We've got decent Q, E, and W spells, Tibbers the Brown Bear, and we can cast the W spell on him to set him on fire, and he's wearing a necklace that makes his attacks on fire. Unfortunately, you can't get your spells with Born of Three Thunders and make them fire based and stay castable.
If your DM is nice, he'll let you bring a spell to Sonic, apply Born of Three Thunders, and then bring it back to Fire, arguing that you took two feats and so they're separate metamagic feats. Otherwise, you'll need some some form of metamagic reducer - the easiest one is Easy Metamagic, from Dragon 325. That costs you another feat, though, so you're stuck with a flaw.
Finally, if your DM won't let you use Born of Three Thunders and then Energy Substitution to make the whole spell fire, you'll want to take Energy Admixture (Fire) instead.
Okay! This is mostly a themed build, but let's see what we've got:
Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Lava Missile. 8d4 damage, Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Daze self 1.
Snowcasting, Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Splinterbolt. Two ranged attacks for 8d6 each, crit on 18-20/x2. Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Daze self 1.
Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Frost Breath. 8d4 damage, Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Reflex Save or Daze 1, Daze self 1.
Body of the Sun, dealing 1d6 to anyone within 5 feet and making melee attacks deal +1d6. Applies to Tibbers.
Tibbers! 8d8+32 (68) hp, 18 AC, claws at +14 (1d8+1d6+9), bite at +9 (4d6+4). Deals 1d4+1 to anyone within 5 feet and (if you give him Wreath of Flames)
Annie makes a good support caster, stunning/dazing enemies and having Tibbers flank while dealing and taking damage. She also holds her own pretty well, using Tibbers as a tank. Obviously, this is not very optimized, but she'll hold her own with T2-3s.
To do this at 7th level, you'll either need your DM to rule that you can use Substitution twice, once Sonic and once Fire, and that Born of Three Thunders will still work. Alternatively, you can not have Born of Three Thunders.
High level Annie to come later today.
Annie Hastur, The Dark Child
Annie is pretty much my favorite league champion. She's a pyro. She's adorable. And she has Tibbers!
Flavor Details
So, the biggest thing here is her age. I don't think there's official 3.5 rules for children, so let's just say she's a child. You can get a homebrewed rule or use some similar system's rules, whatever you want.
The second detail is that she charmed her shadow bear pet. We'll discuss this in a bit.
Passive Ability (Pyromania)
Annie's passive is that she stuns on every fourth spell cast. Use Energy Substitution named below to turn a spell into a electric or sonic spell and apply Born of Three Thunders, stunning enemies that you damage (though you daze yourself). You can use Favor of the Martyr or Mark of the Dauntless to make yourself immune to dazing, too. Now your spells stun!
However, now your spell is not fire based. One way to get around this is to use Energy Admixture to give it the Sonic descriptor, apply Born of Three Thunders and then use Energy Substitution to turn everything into Fire. If your DM doesn't like this, you'll have to use Energy Substitution first, then Born of Three Thunders, then Energy Admixture to make it only half fire.
Q Ability
Annie's Q damages an enemy, possibly refunding mana and cooldown for killing the enemy. For this, I decided I had two options - one, use actual Disintegrate and then turn it into a fire spell (fits flavor), or two, make a low level spell fiery and spammable (fits mechanically) - for that niche, I found Lava Missile and Magic Missile closest to what I wanted (unless Psionics is used, in which case Energy Missile works well). To make spells fire-based, just use Energy Substitution, and to make non-elemental spells available, you can use Snowcasting to apply the Cold descriptor.
So, our spells here are Disintegrate, Lava Missile and Magic Missile.
W Ability
Annie's W damages enemies in a cone. Luckily there's already two spells that do this for you: Burning Hands at level 1, and Blast of Fire at level 4. Take one of those and you're done. Alternatively, if we're going druid, Frost Breath is basically bigger icy-Burning Hands with Daze: Smack Energy Substitution on and you're done.
E Ability
Annie's E gives her a molten shield, dealing damage to attackers and raising her defenses. This is tricky, though Fire Shield, Fires of Purity, and Wreath of Flames are good approximations. I looked around for a fire-based AC or SR boost. I couldn't find anything that actually increases defenses, sadly, but that doesn't mean you can't have fiery armor - just use Energy Substitution some more. As the Frost is a fun spell that gives DR 10/magic and piercing, as well as immunity to cold and cold damage to those within 15 feet. Perfect!
Then again, with Snowcasting, you can add the cold descriptor to anything and subsequently make that same spell fiery, so whatever you want works.
Ultimate
TIBBERS! This is the most complex part of Annie, so it has a lot of parts. First, let's look at getting a bear - we can go the Druid route, having him as a companion, or we can go with the more flavorful option of Dominating a bear/dire bear. Either way, we've got a bear, so that's solved.
Next, let's look at what we want Tibbers to be, when summoned - essentially, a fire aura and fiery attacks on top of bear or dire bear. We can do the aura with Balor Nimbus or any of the noted molten shield approximations, and we can do fiery attacks with Sakkratar's Triple Strike or an Necklace of Natural Weapons. If you want him bigger, you can Animal Growth him.
Now, let's look at what we want Tibbers to be when not summoned and how to get him there. Basically, we want him as a cute, fuzzy teddy bear - tiny compared to big Tibbers. There's very few ways to do this other than Polymorph Any Other. If you're willing to just have Tibbers up and teleport him in, that's fine but that's also super lame, so I'm making him the dang teddy bear! However, this has a pretty lame duration (even if bear to teddy bear is "related", you're at only 3 hours polymorph any other. Polymorph him into the same size and cast Shrink Item instead, raising the time to 2 days.
Now, getting him back is a bit hard, though doable. If your DM lets you just dismiss Polymorph, that's ideal, but if you can't you're stuck dispelling it (you can lower the caster level to 8, if it helps). Now, you can throw tibbers, dispel the Polymorph, and have him appear in the middle of your enemies. If you've got a nice DM, you can also have him appear in all his buffed glory without any modifications, though if you've got a somewhat less nice DM you can use Persistent Spell to keep buffs up, and if you've got an even less nice DM you'll have to quickly cast the rest of the buffs. One way to cast the rest quickly is to use a rod covered in runes from Runesmith, which activate on touch, and most importantly, can be activated as part of another action. So now you can cast a pile of buffs instantly.
Figuring out the Build
Okay, now that we've got a general idea of what we want, it's pretty clear that we've got spells all over the place. We've got druid spells, wizard spells, cleric spells, paladin spells... how can we get all of this?
Well, there's one easy way: Unearthed Arcana generic spellcaster. This gives you druid, wizard and cleric spell lists at slightly worse than Sorcerer casting, which is frankly awesome. If you're okay with Divine, Prestige Paladin covers Paladin spells, and you can take Divine Metamagic: Persist for Tibbers. If you're not okay with Divine, you'll want Alternative Source Spell so you can use Divine Metamagic, or Incantatrix so you can add Persistent Spell post-casting.
Okay, that's good. Now we just through metamagic on top of all that and a build focused around buffing a bear. Unfortunately, Dominate Creature is a 9th level spell, so we either need to wait a loooong time or just get a bear as a friend. Or, we can take Druid and get a bear at 7th level. Hm. Troubles. So, in the end, your early game choice is Druid with less good stuff, late game UA spellcaster.
Build Stats
Okay! We're ready to build!
9th Level Druid Annie
This Annie is pretty much the lowest level you can get - basically, you get a bear that you set on fire. Generally requires Flaws. You can get this at 7th level with very nice DM rulings and weakened abilities.
Race: Human
Class Level: 9th level Druid
Feats: Snowcasting or Empower Spell, Energy Substitution (Fire), Energy Substitution (Sonic), Energy Admixture (Sonic), Born of Three Thunders, Easy Metamagic.
Animal Companion: Brown Bear, AKA Tibbers!
Spells: Lava Missile (Q), Splinterbolt (Q, optional), Frost Breath (E), Wreath of Flames (W), Treestride? (Tibbers Teleport)
Okay! We've got decent Q, E, and W spells, Tibbers the Brown Bear, and we can cast the W spell on him to set him on fire, and he's wearing a necklace that makes his attacks on fire. Unfortunately, you can't get your spells with Born of Three Thunders and make them fire based and stay castable.
If your DM is nice, he'll let you bring a spell to Sonic, apply Born of Three Thunders, and then bring it back to Fire, arguing that you took two feats and so they're separate metamagic feats. Otherwise, you'll need some some form of metamagic reducer - the easiest one is Easy Metamagic, from Dragon 325. That costs you another feat, though, so you're stuck with a flaw.
Finally, if your DM won't let you use Born of Three Thunders and then Energy Substitution to make the whole spell fire, you'll want to take Energy Admixture (Fire) instead.
Okay! This is mostly a themed build, but let's see what we've got:
Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Lava Missile. 8d4 damage, Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Daze self 1.
Snowcasting, Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Splinterbolt. Two ranged attacks for 8d6 each, crit on 18-20/x2. Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Daze self 1.
Energy Admixture (Sonic), Energy Substitution (Fire), Born of Three Thunders Frost Breath. 8d4 damage, Fort Save or Stun 1, Reflex Save or knock Prone, Reflex Save or Daze 1, Daze self 1.
Body of the Sun, dealing 1d6 to anyone within 5 feet and making melee attacks deal +1d6. Applies to Tibbers.
Tibbers! 8d8+32 (68) hp, 18 AC, claws at +14 (1d8+1d6+9), bite at +9 (4d6+4). Deals 1d4+1 to anyone within 5 feet and (if you give him Wreath of Flames)
Annie makes a good support caster, stunning/dazing enemies and having Tibbers flank while dealing and taking damage. She also holds her own pretty well, using Tibbers as a tank. Obviously, this is not very optimized, but she'll hold her own with T2-3s.
To do this at 7th level, you'll either need your DM to rule that you can use Substitution twice, once Sonic and once Fire, and that Born of Three Thunders will still work. Alternatively, you can not have Born of Three Thunders.
High level Annie to come later today.