A Nazgûl and his Ring - Character Desing

[TheG]

Hi! i'm trying to build a ringwraith for a new camping in dnd 3.5.. 1to20th level, with a good playability from low levels and with strong theme coerhence, would you help me?

This is my base idea.

Human 32 pb STR: 16 DEX: 12 CON: 8 INT: 12 WIS: 12 CHA: 16



Level
Class
Feat
Features


LA+1
Ghost Savage Progression

Ethereal, fly, ghostly equipment, ghost skills +2, manifestation, undeath


1st
Fighter1

Ghostly Grasp

Feat 1st

Bonus Feat



2nd
Fighter2

Bonus Feat



3rd
HexBlade 1+ 1La Buyoff

Item Familiar (Ring)
Hexblade’s curse 1/day


4th
HexBlade 2

Arcane resistance


5th
Paladin of Tyranny 1

*Least Legacy (Ritual Feat)
Aura of evil, detect good, smite good 1/day


6th
Paladin of Tyranny 2

Feat 6th
Divine grace, deadly touch


7th
Paladin of Tyranny 3


Aura of despair, divine health


8th
Lurking Terror 1

Deathly power


9th
Lurking Terror 2
Feat 9th
Improved Darkvision


10th
Lurking Terror 3

Hide in Plain Sight


11th
Legacy Champion 1
*Lesser Legacy (Ritual Feat)
Reduced ritual cost (lesser), bond of lore



12th
Legacy Champion 2
Feat 12th
Replace legacy ability (least), +1 level of existing class features (Ghost)


13th
Legacy Champion 3

Extra legacy ability use (least), +1 level of existing class features (Ghost)


14th
Legacy Champion 4
Bonus legacy feat
+1 level of existing class features (Ghost)


15th
Legacy Champion 5
Feat 15th
Replace legacy ability (lesser), +1 level of existing class features (Haunting Ghost* LM151)


16th
Legacy Champion 6

Extra legacy ability use (lesser), +1 level of existing class features (Lurking Terror)


17th
Legacy Champion 7
*Greater Legacy (Ritual Feat)
Reduced ritual cost (greater)


18th
Legacy Champion 8
Bonus legacy feat
+1 level of existing class features (Lurking Terror)


19th
Legacy Champion 9

Extra legacy ability use (Greater), +1 level of existing class features (Lurking Terror)


20th
Legacy Champion 10

Replace legacy ability (Greater), +1 level of existing class features (Lurking Terror)



As you can see i use Savage progression + Legacy Champion for acquiring full template without crippling the build with +4la and Labuyoff and Item Familiar to gain enough ex to advance Weapon of Legacy and repay the LA buyoff and get to the 20th level. The build mimics the shift to the dark side, but one of my biggest concerns is the Lurking Terror Prc. Yes, after gaining full ghost abilities and Haunting Ghost (LM151) abilities +7 to all saves dc is a huge boost (thx to "virtual levels" from Legacy Champion) but when i take L.T. levels i gain very little benefits... they are almost dead levels.

Mechanically speaking i'm interested in a melee (2handed?) build (i have to assign feat yet) with some (Su) and (Sp) goodies from the template to increase variety, the weapon of legacy (obv. the ring) that's also the item familiar can help this too, but i'm not very experienced with WoL, so i ask you for an effective build for a uber magical ring.

if another base build comes in mind to you feel free to share it, i'm open to evrey change/advice ;)

Thx

[Eldan]

Why Ghost, if I may ask? They seem quite corporeal to me.

I'd consider some corporeal undead with a way of coming back, but I can't think of any really useful ones without giant LA.

[Telonius]

The Death Knight template (from Forgotten Realms) is usually suggested as good at modeling Nazgul. It's LA+5, but it does just about what you'd expect a Nazgul to be able to do. So something like Paladin of TyrannyX with Battle Blessing and a bunch of the feats to Demoralize foes on a charge, or CrusaderX, would work pretty well.

Are you more concerned about the level adjustment, or whether you'd want to be an incorporeal thing animating a suit of armor? Necropolitan (from Libris Mortis) could help. Not even really a level adjustment, just a loss of character level.

[Grim Portent]

Why Ghost, if I may ask? They seem quite corporeal to me.

I'd consider some corporeal undead with a way of coming back, but I can't think of any really useful ones without giant LA.

I'd need to dig out my copy of the book to check but I'm pretty sure they had no actual physical form.

The Witch King pulls down his hood after riding through the sundered gates of Minas Tirith and he's got no head, just two floating red lights for eyes and an iron crown that hovers roughly where his brow would be.

I don't know if they needed the armour + robes to interact with the world or not, but they certainly weren't corporeal beings, at least not in the traditional sense.

EDIT: Considering the nature of spirits in LotR it might be better to represent a Nazgul using the LA +0 ghost template from Ghostwalk, the line between evil spirits and undead is rather blurred and ringwraiths seem similar to Sauron and Morgoth in many respects.

[Telonius]

A lot of things in regular D&D wouldn't translate all that well to Tolkien, but whenever Frodo has on the Ring, it's described as almost being on something like the Shadow or Ethereal Plane. IIRC, at one point he can see the Nazgul's true forms while he's there. You might want to look in that direction as well.

[Eldan]

Hmm. True. They were riding corporeal horses, though.

[Inevitability]

Hmm. True. They were riding corporeal horses, though.

I think Ghostly Grasp should allow that.

[ZamielVanWeber]

The Death Knight template (from Forgotten Realms) is usually suggested as good at modeling Nazgul. It's LA+5, but it does just about what you'd expect a Nazgul to be able to do. So something like Paladin of TyrannyX with Battle Blessing and a bunch of the feats to Demoralize foes on a charge, or CrusaderX, would work pretty well.

IIRC that one was a little weak. The one from Dragonlance has the same LA and gets a bunch of extra stuff at higher HD.

[TheG]

thx for the answers!

I think too that ringwraiths are some kind of ethereal/incorporeal things, ghost template seems to be the fittest, maybe i should go with something different with the classical Telekinesis + Malevolence selection.

Ghostwalk's ghost are only incorporeal and activating ghost abilies is feat heavy.. however i could fit easily 2 levels of eidolon in place of Lurking Terror, forcing the dm to extend the L.T's Deathly Power on ghost feats. in this case the build would be

Fighter2/Hexblade2/Eidolon2/Paladin of Tiranny3/Lurking Terror1/Legacy Champion10[Ghost Template+4/Lurking Terror+4]


Any Guess for the Weapon(Ring) of Legacy?? I really liked the AxeCasting ability (page 113 WoL) but i have a few question about it:
Axe casting 1/day (3rd level) is a Least Ability with the cost of 3 slots and Axe casting 1/day (6th level) it's a Lesser abiltiy with also 3 slot cost... nothing strange till now... but then @16th level Lorestealer gains another use of Axe casting (6th level). Can i assume that you can choose this ability more then one time and increase the uses/day?

[atemu1234]

Look into Ghostwalk, because you could probably use some of the feats from there. The one that allows you to manifest more quickly probably applies here.