Simultaneously excited and terrified (DM setting up an Elder Evil)

[Iron Angel]

So long story short, after a few run ins with necromancers and recovery of cryptic notes from an Ur-priest, the dead have started raising spontaneously. All signs point to Atropus. On one hand, I'm totally stoked, because I get to participate in, and hopefully avert, the apocalypse, but at the same time, I am terrified, because the entire concept of Atropus itself deeply unsettles me. We're level 6 at the moment, and it looks like we're trucking all the way to 20.

I have a few questions, some general, some more specific to this scenario. First off, I want to say I am a Warforged with 4 levels in Barbarian and 2 in Fighter (For Dungeoncrasher).

1: Should I go to Fighter 6 with the intention of picking up the roided out version of the Dungeoncrasher benefits, or should I do my original plan and go right back to Barbarian?

2: What is a good way to deal with undead? I have a Maul and I'll probably pick up a Truedeath Crystal for a super cheap extra D6 to undead but is there anything else?

3: How do I beef myself up against Negative Energy, especially the sheer amount we're going to have to start dealing with, ultimately culminating in a moonwalk on Atropus itself?

Also, red alert to everyone, we have neither a divine spellcaster nor an arcane one. We have myself, a Fighter, a Warlock, a Spellthief, and a Knight. Divine spellcasters are neutered by Atropus anyway so no spectacular loss there, but lacking the heavy artillery of a wizard or sorcerer later on is going to hurt a lot. Is there any good way to shore up this weakness without the Leadership ability or luring in people who play wizards with a trail of oreos that leads to a box propped open with a stick? Do you think we'll be alright without it? Because I was joking with the others, that if we had 5 wizards, atropus would get here, see 5 level 20 wizards, go "lol no" and fly away before we could open a portal to the positive energy plane and punt it in.

[Venger]

you're already perfectly situated for warforged juggernaut, which I insist you take. it beefs up what a dungeoncrashing brute is already good at, plus it gives you a variety of construct immunities that will be extremely helpful in this kind of campaign.

your party is very high-tier, so I figure your DM will be pulling his punches if he knows what he's doing. elder evils are notoriously difficult, so either way, it sounds like you'll have a blast.

[Iron Angel]

I took mithril body because barbarians and heavy armor refuse to play together. I didnt even know that class existed. BRB going to go cry in a corner.

Maybe I can talk my DM out of the requirement...

Also, assuming I can get it past him, how would I heal? Right now I depend on copious amounts of health potions as we have no artificer. At third level in that class I become IMMUNE to healing effects from the Healing subschool.

[Venger]

I took mithril body because barbarians and heavy armor refuse to play together. I didnt even know that class existed. BRB going to go cry in a corner.

Maybe I can talk my DM out of the requirement...

just ask him to let you retrain. there's no reason for him to say no, you didn't know any better. plus you're a robot, just fluff it as going to the blacksmith and getting some better armor welded onto your body. it's like going to the dentist.

warforged juggernaut is located in eberron campaign setting on page 83.

barbarians don't have any problem with heavy armor. the only thing that it affects is fast movement, and you traded that for pounce at 1st level so you'd actually be effective in combat.

[Iron Angel]

You just said a lot of words that made me very sad. I didnt even know I could swap out fast movement for pounce.

Just skyped the DM and he's completely OK with it. I said we could just have the dwarven master armorer assist me in removal of my mithril exoskeleton and replace it with some adamantine we intercepted. He gets to keep the mithril as payment, so its effectively free. The DM thought that was fine.

Now, as for this "pounce".

[atemu1234]

You just said a lot of words that made me very sad. I didnt even know I could swap out fast movement for pounce.

Just skyped the DM and he's completely OK with it. I said we could just have the dwarven master armorer assist me in removal of my mithril exoskeleton and replace it with some adamantine we intercepted. He gets to keep the mithril as payment, so its effectively free. The DM thought that was fine.

Now, as for this "pounce".

Complete Champion Lion Totem variant.

[Rubik]

A couple of levels in chaos variant monk and some item optimization, and all of this could be yours. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15474863#post15474863)

Note that that monk was built explicitly for soloing every single one of the Elder Evils. Make sure you take that thinaun poison ring so you can suck the EEs' souls out.

[Venger]

You just said a lot of words that made me very sad. I didnt even know I could swap out fast movement for pounce.

Just skyped the DM and he's completely OK with it. I said we could just have the dwarven master armorer assist me in removal of my mithril exoskeleton and replace it with some adamantine we intercepted. He gets to keep the mithril as payment, so its effectively free. The DM thought that was fine.

Now, as for this "pounce".

it's an ACF in complete champion on page 46. it trades your fast movement for the pounce ability. it's supernatural, so don't go charging into AMFs unless you can kill the guy who's casting it in one full attack.

you can easily make up for the speed reduction from adamantine plating via boots of striding and springing, so it all balances out.

it's basically mandatory for all melee characters in order to be effective, especially if you're trying to put down atropos. have fun pouncing and beating up bad guys. let us know how it goes.

[Iron Angel]

The healing problem has still not been addressed, however. No artificer, meaning I rely solely on my 8 hours of repair a night. Warforged Juggernaut means I cant use potions or healing spells at all. The immunity to necromancy is nice but I'm still going to get punched in the face by zombie giants and skeletal dragons.

[Dread_Head]

The Spellthief(It's a Trans spell so on the spellthiefs spell list so they can use a wand of it) or Warlock(Use Magic Device) can use a wand of Repair Light Damage(SC) on you.

[Brookshw]

Note that that monk was built explicitly for soloing every single one of the Elder Evils. Make sure you take that thinaun poison ring so you can suck the EEs' souls out.
Now I'm wondering if moons have souls.......

[Rubik]

Now I'm wondering if moons have souls.......The man in the moon does.

And that man is Atropus.

Also, a level in crusader could grant the OP unlimited in-combat healing.

At higher levels, a psychoactive skin of proteus would also grant unlimited healing, since you can become a living creature with a Con score.

[nedz]

2: What is a good way to deal with undead? I have a Maul and I'll probably pick up a Truedeath Crystal for a super cheap extra D6 to undead but is there anything else?

Clerics. Clerics are a good way to deal with Undead, well that assumes that they haven't spent all of their turning attempts on DMM already.

But you don't have one of those.

Ranger, Favoured Enemy (Undead) plus the Nemesis feat (BoeD), would give you some damage bonus and also allow you to detect them — even the annoying incorporeal ones who hide in the floor.

OK, you don't have one of those either — but a 1 level dip and a feat will buy you this.

[Rubik]

Might I suggest investing in a shirt of wraith stalking (MIC) to hide from anything with the undead type, with no save?

May I also suggest a rod of construct control (A&EG) to abscond with all the constructs you can find? They're immune to just about anything undead can do to them, beyond direct damage.