a epic lvl scout idea

[Kimras]

so ive had this idea for a back up character for epic lvl campaign no epic magic. The character is a pixie half dragon wujen shugenja void disciple. Do you see anything wrong with the basic idea?

[MilesTiden]

... To be honest, what don't I see wrong with it. You're taking 7 level adjustment, with two caster classes based on different stats, going into a PrC that loses caster level and doesn't even progress both of your classes. I... I honestly don't know what to say. *shrug* You would have to be way in to epic levels for this to even be vaguely viable, like, at least level 40. 7 level adjustment, Wu Jen or Shugenja 17, the other one 9, Void Disciple 13. That's level 46 when you hit 9s with both your classes, unless you just want one of them to be a dip?

[Kimras]

i was thinking of just a lvl dip for elemental sences with shugenja as a back up in case i fail the check with the void

[MilesTiden]

To be honest, at epic levels, you will never fail the check. Spellcraft DC 25 is pathetically easy, hell, by level 21 you automatically succeed on it just by ranks, not even counting your Int modifier! You don't automatically fail a skill check on a natural one, so you should be in no danger.

[Red Fel]

Furthermore, unless you're starting at epic levels, LAs hurt. A lot. There is a great deal of difference between a level 20 PC and a level 21 PC; even moreso when you're crippled by +4 LA from Pixie, and another +3 from Half-Dragon. You'll be level 14 when the rest of the PCs are level 21; they'll be going toe-to-toe with epic threats, while you'll be cowering behind a rock, praying for a swift death. Unless you are starting at epic levels - and I mean 20+ class levels, not counting LA (which would suggest that the rest of the party is light years ahead of you) - you are going to be worse than useless.

[Urpriest]

It also isn't really interesting fluffwise. You've got two casting classes with very similar concepts, that probably shouldn't exist in the same setting most of the time (Wu Jen and Shugenja), and Pixie Half-Dragon only really makes sense aesthetically if you're Half-Green, and even then it's pretty unnecessarily garish.

[Zaq]

Also, the Shugenja's Sense Elements ability is beyond horrible. It's way too slow, it has way too short a range, and it would have way too few uses per day if it even worked well (which it doesn't, so the few uses per day doesn't really matter, but it's still there). Hell, even in the example they give in the book, they basically admit that it takes way too long to get any useful information out of it.

[icefractal]

Neither of those templates would be useful for power-reasons at epic level. If you really like the flavor, go for it, but if you just want the cool abilities, those are easily available via items/spells by this level. Especially for a caster.

On the other hand, depending what type of spells you're focusing on, improving casting past 20th level might not be that important. Enough Wu Jen to get 9ths and qualify for any feats you need and the rest into classes/templates that get features you want could be a workable strategy.

That's assuming you're going for buffs or BFC though. If you want to do blasting at epic level, you need high CL and a crapload of metamagic.

[Karl Aegis]

You multi-classed bad hygiene wizard with good hygiene wizard. Why wouldn't you just go straight wizard?

[ExLibrisMortis]

Necropolitan human Scout X/[arcane caster] Y/Unseen Seer Z/Mindbender 1/Divine Oracle 1/Void Disciple 13+

You can have basically everything there is to get at level 30 (scout 1/[caster] 4/seer 10/mind 1/oracle 1/void 13). Able Learner to have Spot and Listen at max ranks fairly easily, Mindbender for telepathy to use with Mindsight, Necropolitan for Lifesense, use Darkstalker + Unseen Seer's Mind Blank to remain undetected. With the right spell selection, you can scout fairly well, and you get to be a Void Disciple. Divine Oracle simply boosts CL for divinations by 2 (Oracle domain granted power), and the save DC by 1, plus adding some thematically appropriate cleric divination spells you can pick up later. It costs one feat.

Of course, this assumes you don't mind losing caster levels - you have 24th level casting at level 30, but only CL 21, or 29 for divinations. You can bump your base CL up with feats, but you'll still not be the greatest battlefield caster, so avoid SR:yes spells (many spells will still have capped damage, at epic levels). You should be able to get 15*5d6 skirmish damage if you use Telekinesis to throw items (get some to-hit buffs going, and bypass immunities with the relevant spells), which is SR:no and no save, although it suffers badly against DR, which almost everything has.

[Kimras]

Okay two questions. what do you mean by bad hygiene and good hygiene wizards? second what does BFC mean? other than that I get what you guys are saying I just don't have access to my books right now.

[Karl Aegis]

Okay two questions. what do you mean by bad hygiene and good hygiene wizards? second what does BFC mean? other than that I get what you guys are saying I just don't have access to my books right now.

A Wu Jen is a wizard with bad hygiene. They can take a taboo that prevents them from bathing.

A Shugenja is a wizard that has good hygiene because they were raised in an environment that required good hygiene.