Hordeficer Help

[bootzin]

Hi Guys!

Today I came across the Artificer class, and I realized it could be a really fun build to play. I saw they have some "build variants" and amongst them there is the Hordeficer (aka Golemficer). Basically, it consists on an Artificer that focuses on creating Homunculi, Golems and Effigies.

Now, I know that this is a very expensive and vulnerable build, but it sounds like fun and I wanna try it anyway.

What I've decided up to now is to take Artificer 14 as class levels. I haven't decided the other 6 yet.

The feats that I have in mind are, besides the crafting ones I get from the Artificer: Craft Construct, Apprentice (Craftsman), Improved Homunculus, Graft Creation Feat, Legendary Artisan, Magical Artisan, Extraordinary Artisan, Metamagic (Extend, Reach, Persist, Quicken), Item Familiar, Leadership and Etch Schema.

Now, regarding the base race is my main doubt. Which race should I pick for this build?
1 - Warforged for the 1 and 4 substitution levels? This would take Craft Homunculus out, and although Craft Construct can replace it, it doesn't add the ability to improve existing homunculi's hit die
2 - Duergar for having twice my class level as caster level (minimun 3)? This would allow me to get Crafting feats earlier, and also increase the HD of Homunculi, Constructs and Effigies I'd be able to create
3 - Human due to his bonus feat? This is a feat starved build after all.
4 - Gnome fo his bonuses regarding Craft (Alchemy) and small size?
5 - Other? Please comment which and why

ANY help would be much appreciated. I'm having some hard time to find help with these. :smallfrown:

[MilesTiden]

2 - Duergar for having twice my class level as caster level (minimun 3)? This would allow me to get Crafting feats earlier, and also increase the HD of Homunculi, Constructs and Effigies I'd be able to create

I'm sorry for having nothing to add to this, but... what? That caster level is for his spell like abilities, not his actual class level. That makes literally no sense. :smallconfused:

[Dysart]

For me Warforged might be the best option even if you don't take the sub-levels because their ability to heal themselves with the Infusions and directly being able to enhance themselves is brilliant either way.

[WeaselGuy]

Strongheart Halfling can be a pretty strong choice of race. Bonus feat as a Human, small size for all those benefits. It's not like you're going to be in melee anyways...

For the other 6 levels, there is an Effigy Master PrC in Complete Arcane. 4/5 casting, entry as early as level 8 (requires 10 ranks in craft), grants you Craft Effigy, Improved Effigy, and Effigy Link at 1, 4, & 5 respectively.

Also requires Simulacrum to be on your class's spell list, even if you can't cast it yet. Don't know how that will work with Artificer though, now that I think about it...

[bootzin]

I'm sorry for having nothing to add to this, but... what? That caster level is for his spell like abilities, not his actual class level. That makes literally no sense. :smallconfused:
I know, it's only for his SLA, but it does count when fulfilling prereqs anyway, so you can take craft wonderous item at first level, for exemple.

@Dysart: I know, I thought it is awesome to be able to enhance myself, and spending 1 point for 2 from my craft reserve is also pretty cool, but as WeaselGuy said, it's not like I'm gonna be in melee anyways. I'm basically not gonna have any feat to enhance my melee capabilities, and I can enhance my ranged weapons without being a Warforged. The only difference it would really make is that I'd be able to heal myself, but there are other ways of doing that, so I'm not sure up to what point is it worth doing. It'd be good that I wouldn't depend on my creations, but I wouldn't do that much without them.

@WeaselGuy: I haven't thought about him, he really does seem to be a pretty strong race. Definitely better than human. So, I guess I'm between Duergar and Strongheart Haffling, let me make a smal comparision.



Strongheart Halfling
They get a bonus feat in a feat starved build, and have small size, bonus to DEX and penalty toa dump stat


(Lesser) Duergar
The only advantage of the lesser one is having a caster level equal to twice his class level. The normal one has LA +1, but gets the bonus on crafting, a few immunities, the caster level, and almost all the other dwarf traits, except for the proficiency. The light sensivity doesn't really make a difference since we won't be upfront in combat. Tha CHA penalty hurts though, as it affects UMD



After making this comparrisson I'd put it like this: Strongherat Halfling=Duergar>>>>>>>>>>>>Lesser Duergar

I'd have to buy the Duergar's LA off, so I guess Strongheart Halfling is slightly better......

Damn, I do wanted that double caster level D:
You guys know any way of increasing caster level? The max HD of the effigy is equal to my caster level.


For the other 6 levels, there is an Effigy Master PrC in Complete Arcane. 4/5 casting, entry as early as level 8 (requires 10 ranks in craft), grants you Craft Effigy, Improved Effigy, and Effigy Link at 1, 4, & 5 respectively.

I've looked at this class, but after some time I've discovered that it is not worth it. 2 dead levels, or even 3 if you consider that I can craft effigies with craft construct feat. And the bonuses I get to the effigies are not that good (Only +1). The only good ability is the last one, but not worth 5 class levels into it.

What seemed reasonable to me: Actually going all the way to Artificer 20, not much benefits though, but at least a good increase in the craft reserve. Or maybe going cleric 1 to get access to every magic (Bye UMD regarding wands) and 5 levels of something else.

Other good thing about the warforged that I've forgotten is that they qualify for the Spellcarved Soldier PrC. They have some pretty good bonuses and it is a 5 level class, which would fit nicely in the the build.

[Surpriser]

I know, it's only for his SLA, but it does count when fulfilling prereqs anyway, so you can take craft wonderous item at first level, for exemple.

You get this anyway as a bonus feat on 3rd level. Meeting the prerequisites sooner does not make you gain the bonus feat at an earlier level.
The SLAs are really not worth the +1 LA - especially as you can emulate them anyway using items.

[ace rooster]

You get this anyway as a bonus feat on 3rd level. Meeting the prerequisites sooner does not make you gain the bonus feat at an earlier level.
The SLAs are really not worth the +1 LA - especially as you can emulate them anyway using items.

Usually getting a feat from a class that you already have permits you to replace it with a feat that you qualify for. What this means is that you could take craft wonderous at first level, craft arms and armour at 3rd, and when you get craft arms as a bonus feat replace the one you took with craft construct at level 5. Being able to take the feats early effectively lets you defer taking other feats, letting you take more feats that have higher prerequisites.

The other thing to consider is that the craft feats are powered by your casters level. Having a caster level twice your actual level permits you to make items or constructs that are far more powerful than you otherwise could. Being able to build a 10 headed hydra effigy at level 5 is very strong. Less chessy would be a red dragon effigy, but that is still powerful for that level.

The actual abilities are mostly irrelevant.

[Doctor Awkward]

I would absolutely take Artificer to 20. UMD, like most skill checks, are pathetically easy to optimize, especially for Artificer's who can always choose to Take 10.

You're already starting at level 14, so I don't think the advanced caster level from Druegar is going to be quite as useful now as it would be at lower levels. Extra feats are always useful.
Also getting early access to crafting feats is dubious, since the artificer class description says that "The artificer gains item creations feats at or about the level they become available to spellcasters." but says nothing about what to do if the character already has those feats.

[ExLibrisMortis]

If you're a dwarf, you can take levels in Ironsoul Forgemaster to boost your caster level, or if you're a gnome, a single level in Maester halves the time it takes to craft items.

[bootzin]

@ace rooster: That's exactly what I'm talking about. I don't know if I'd be able to afford the costs (1kgp per HD + size price), but even one single 10HD hydra at 5th level would do some damage. Or better: a Runic Shield at 8th level (Which, considering a very big cost reduction, is viable for ~21kgp). It is a little cheesy, but considering costs and creatin times, it's all I'll be doing for the whole campaign, and constructs easily outdates themselves late game. Only a few keep it up. So, let us make a decision: StrongHeart Halfling or Duergar?


I would absolutely take Artificer to 20. UMD, like most skill checks, are pathetically easy to optimize, especially for Artificer's who can always choose to Take 10.

You're already starting at level 14, so I don't think the advanced caster level from Druegar is going to be quite as useful now as it would be at lower levels. Extra feats are always useful.
Also getting early access to crafting feats is dubious, since the artificer class description says that "The artificer gains item creations feats at or about the level they become available to spellcasters." but says nothing about what to do if the character already has those feats.

I'm starting at level 3, I'm just making my build some levels foward. And we can retrain feats as per PHB II, so it would be viable to swap feats. That's why I've considered a duergar. Taking Artificer up to 20 though seems pretty temptating, but having 4 dead levels out of 6 (15th to 20th) is a big drawback. I think that 1 level of Cleric wouldn't harm, and would grant me some pretty nice bonuses, specially taking out the need of UMD to use wands.

@ExLibrisMortis: Doesn't Forgemaster boosts your soulmeld class? And being a Gnome would be very nice for item creating, but since I'll be focusing on construct making, I think it is not worth it, specially reagarding the Extra feat.

One thing that came to my mind right now: Artificers have quite some trouble fighting when they're surprised, right? I mean, you can't use not even a single infusion because their cast times are huge for battle. You'd need plenty of wands, scrolls and schemas, right? And they require somewhat a high UMD check (at least for low levels), which makes them just a crossbower in this case. Or there are feats/abilities to surround this? (Action Points are not really an option in our campaign)

[phlidwsn]

Usually getting a feat from a class that you already have permits you to replace it with a feat that you qualify for.

That happens because there is specific language often present indicating you can choose another feat. Artificer does not have that language, so you'd be stuck.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Yes, Ironsoul Forgemaster boosts your meldshaping level, but that is separate from your caster level for the purpose of crafting arms and armour. Artificer 14/Incarnate 1/Ironsoul Forgemaster 5 has a caster level of 31 (16 artificer, 3*5 ISFM) for the purpose of crafting magic weapons and armour. It doesn't have that many advantages, since basically stuff you make is hard to dispel and great versus SR, but it's one of the few crafting-oriented classes. And maybe your constructs can be animated super-enchanted armour or something. You also get some DR/- and energy resistance by investing essentia into self-made equipment you're using, although your limit won't be very high - up to DR 4/- and energy resistance 20 (acid, cold, electricity, fire, sonic) at level 18+.

There aren't that many classes that specifically focus on minionmancy, and not that many crafting-based classes either, so you get this :P. Though if you can convince your DM that ISFM should really really increase artificer infusioning, you could have fun replacing the essentia abilities with something infusion-related.

[Doctor Awkward]

I'm starting at level 3, I'm just making my build some levels foward. And we can retrain feats as per PHB II, so it would be viable to swap feats. That's why I've considered a duergar. Taking Artificer up to 20 though seems pretty temptating, but having 4 dead levels out of 6 (15th to 20th) is a big drawback. I think that 1 level of Cleric wouldn't harm, and would grant me some pretty nice bonuses, specially taking out the need of UMD to use wands.

Oh whoops, I misread that I guess.
At every level, an Artificer gets bonus craft reserve and extra infusions per day, so I'd be hard pressed to call them "dead levels". 16 is especially important since that bonus feat is used for Extra Rings (or another free metamagic feat, if you picked it up at 15). If for some reason you are on that fence about that one, consider that it's an Epic feat for a character to wear a single extra ring. And that feat gives you two. And for Artificer's it's basically free.

Also consider that activating a wand is a flat DC 20.
Artificer's get Skill Mastery for UMD at level 13, at which point just max ranks in the skill gives you a 26 (not counting CHA) on all UMD checks without rolling.
Even at level 3, with say a reasonable 16 CHA, you have 7 Ranks + 5 from a competence skill boosting magic item (you can craft one yourself that's only usable by Artificers with at least 4 Ranks in a skill you have for, at most 750 gp, see DMG pg. 285) + 3 CHA Mod + 2 circumstance from a UMD tool (PHB pg. 130) gives you a +17 to your check. It's impossible for you to blow it up in your face, and fail only on a 1 or a 2 (80% chance of succeeding on activation). Now at level 6 you get Craft Wand, and your Artisan Bonus ability will grant you another +2 untyped bonus to UMD checks for wands. So at that point, without doing anything else, you auto-succeed when activating wands.
So if the only reason you want to dip cleric is because you are worried about wands, my advice is to stop worrying. Now if you want a particular domain ability, or access to a Turn Undead pool for some reason... I'd still recommend going Artificer 20.




One thing that came to my mind right now: Artificers have quite some trouble fighting when they're surprised, right? I mean, you can't use not even a single infusion because their cast times are huge for battle. You'd need plenty of wands, scrolls and schemas, right? And they require somewhat a high UMD check (at least for low levels), which makes them just a crossbower in this case. Or there are feats/abilities to surround this? (Action Points are not really an option in our campaign)

Since the Magic Item compendium tells us that magic items are activated at the same speed as the spell they contain, you really aren't any more helpless than any other spellcaster of your level, provided you have the right tool in your hand. Simply carry around something appropriate if you are expecting an ambush.
This is skipping ahead to late game a bit but, once you have access to the spell Foresight, you are immune to being flat-footed, so keeping an immediate action "Save me" spell in your staff will suit you just fine.
Also, see above for any UMD concerns you might have.
Yes, trying to apply metamagic feats to spell completion items jacks up the DC by quite a lot, but you have a 3rd level infusion for that. Or a Wand of Divine Insight or Guidance of the Avatar. And that's not counting the synergy bonuses to UMD for any checks involving scrolls.

EDIT: And being a Hordeficer is all about choosing the rights constructs to build. A Shield Guarding is expensive as hell, but it makes a nifty bodyguard. The nimblewright is one of the best constructs you can buy for it's price range. An arbalest that sits on your shoulder plinking away at enemies is handy as well.

[bootzin]

@ExLibrisMortis: The biggest difference that a caster level would make is that the HD of the constructs that I make are limited by my caster level, and not by my character level.

@Tonymitsu: Extra Rings is indeed a pretty good feat, specially pre-epic.
About my UMD, I have a 14 CHA (It was from a 28 point buy, so kinda hard to keep INT and CHA high) but I got your point. It really isn't necessary to dip in cleric. Artificer 20 seems pretty good himself (But damn, what a har character to make)

Also, I've had some ideas: I was thinking, I'll be a guy who crafts Homunculus (And constructs). Why not be a bad guy? It is allowed in our campaign, so if I was a Lawful/Evil character, I could be that fake good guy who turns out to be the biggest baddie. That would also give me access to Dark Crafts. Which means I'd be using human (and other species) lifes to create all my stuff and Homunculus (I know it's only a small benefit). So basically, I'd create anything out of souls, which, fluff-wise, could be attached to some sort of stone or something. And my homunculus could call me "Father". Wouldn't that be awesome? :smallbiggrin:

Also, as there is no "Homunculus" template (And I believe that it wouldn't fit my needs if there was one) I'll be getting the Necropolitan template, which not only allows me to work full time in my craftings, but also grants me some quite nice immunities.

Any advices on how to get closer to the "Father" idea from Fullmetal Alchemist?

[Doctor Awkward]

Artificer 20 seems pretty good himself (But damn, what a har character to make)

Oh yes. The hardest thing about an optimized artificer is the paperwork. They require more bookkeeping that a wizard, cleric, and druid combined.


Also, I've had some ideas: I was thinking, I'll be a guy who crafts Homunculus (And constructs). Why not be a bad guy? It is allowed in our campaign, so if I was a Lawful/Evil character, I could be that fake good guy who turns out to be the biggest baddie. That would also give me access to Dark Crafts. Which means I'd be using human (and other species) lifes to create all my stuff and Homunculus (I know it's only a small benefit). So basically, I'd create anything out of souls, which, fluff-wise, could be attached to some sort of stone or something. And my homunculus could call me "Father". Wouldn't that be awesome? :smallbiggrin:

Also, as there is no "Homunculus" template (And I believe that it wouldn't fit my needs if there was one) I'll be getting the Necropolitan template, which not only allows me to work full time in my craftings, but also grants me some quite nice immunities.

Any advices on how to get closer to the "Father" idea from Fullmetal Alchemist?

:biggrin:

I was once in a round robin style campaign, where we each had a character but we rotated who ran the session every week. It was all worked out in advance what kind of stories each person want to be involved in, but the actual mechanics and encounters of each session were up to us when running it, and we each had our own plots that we would run concurrently, and each session the party would deal that that DM's threat.

I played a chaotic neutral human Artificer 20, Alexander Bolghan Bindo. Once we resolved the plots of everyone else, it fell to me to run what would be the last session. For my plot I had been using Atropus out of the Elder Evils book. During the time I was playing, I had built an airship for the party with a planar helm from Stormwrack attached, and, running Bindo as an NPC, offered to fly the party to Atropus itself when it started to descend towards the campaign world. Once there, Bindo stayed behind to man the ship defenses so they would be able to leave in an emergency if they had to. I had taken Craft Construct as my 20th level bonus feat, so I had a couple of golems manning defenses.

After a brutal, horrible, difficult and devastating fight...
The entire party was killed by the Aspect of Atropus. Bindo, in a fearful panic, activated the planar helm, and shifted the airship to the Astral Plane, and could only watch in horror as Atropus descended, and scourged the planet of all life. It was something of a shocker, but everyone more or less agreed that, "yeah we didn't prepare for a 20th level encounter as well as we could have."

So afterwards I started to go into my Weird Planning ModeTM, and I considered that Bindo was already a tad unbalanced before, and to see this just sent him over the edge. So now here is a mentally unstable 20th level Artificer, with an entire campaign's worth of resources, a dimension hopping airship that's armed to the teeth with exploding ballistae and spell turrets, and a crew of golems. The first thing I decided was that he developed a neurotic phobia towards undead, and concluded that constructs were the best way to combat them. Not only were they immortal, unrelenting bastions of vigilance and defense, they were immune to most of the undead's worst abilities, and they couldn't be recruited to their side once destroyed. I also decided that he grew to hate the gods as well, blamed them for allowing Atropus to destroy his world, and thus came up with a plan to save it and get revenge on them at the same time.

By tinkering with the planar helm, he managed to bring his ship to an alternate Material Plane (the new campaign world) that hadn't been destroyed. The first thing he did was to track down a psion, and pay him to get a Psychic Reformation used on himself, to retool his feats into a more effective "hordeficer". The next part of his plan was to obtain a Book of Vile Darkness, and learn from it the secret to using souls to power spells and the creation of items. While hunting for the book, he constructed a flying castle, Götterdämmerung (using the rules in the Stronghold Builder's Guide), complete with a dock for the airship, as a mobile fortress to carry out his plan. He would then planeshift the entire thing (with an appropriate epic level spell) to the outer positive plans (Arcadia, Elysium, etc) set his construct army, and whatever other allies he could gather, loose on the defenses while he used the arcane mechanisms in the castle to harvest every soul he could find. He would then take the castle back to his world, and channel the positive energy he gathered into a spell that would eradicate the undead and restore the entire world to life at the same time. He would then hunt down Atropus and destroy it, and, just to make sure, start looking for a way to collapse the entire negative energy plane as well, possibly using some variation on the old trick of dropping a Sphere of Annihilation into a Well of Many Worlds.

His secondary goal was to find a way to turn himself into a construct as well and allay his paranoid fears of becoming the thing he wanted most to destroy. Thus I statted him to level thirty as an Artificer 20/Renegade Mastermaker 10. The thing I loved most about this is he was a chaotic evil mastermind, which is a rare alignment for the big bad of a story.

I never did get to run this campaign, because it would have involved starting the group at or around level 15, which is already much higher than they normally like to go.

A lot of the foreshadowing would involve the Half-golem template from Monster Manual II, which were things created by him as experiments while he perfected the method he would eventually use on himself.

[bootzin]

Oh yes. The hardest thing about an optimized artificer is the paperwork. They require more bookkeeping that a wizard, cleric, and druid combined.



:biggrin:

I was once in a round robin style campaign, where we each had a character but we rotated who ran the session every week. It was all worked out in advance what kind of stories each person want to be involved in, but the actual mechanics and encounters of each session were up to us when running it, and we each had our own plots that we would run concurrently, and each session the party would deal that that DM's threat.

I played a chaotic neutral human Artificer 20, Alexander Bolghan Bindo. Once we resolved the plots of everyone else, it fell to me to run what would be the last session. For my plot I had been using Atropus out of the Elder Evils book. During the time I was playing, I had built an airship for the party with a planar helm from Stormwrack attached, and, running Bindo as an NPC, offered to fly the party to Atropus itself when it started to descend towards the campaign world. Once there, Bindo stayed behind to man the ship defenses so they would be able to leave in an emergency if they had to. I had taken Craft Construct as my 20th level bonus feat, so I had a couple of golems manning defenses.

After a brutal, horrible, difficult and devastating fight...
The entire party was killed by the Aspect of Atropus. Bindo, in a fearful panic, activated the planar helm, and shifted the airship to the Astral Plane, and could only watch in horror as Atropus descended, and scourged the planet of all life. It was something of a shocker, but everyone more or less agreed that, "yeah we didn't prepare for a 20th level encounter as well as we could have."

So afterwards I started to go into my Weird Planning ModeTM, and I considered that Bindo was already a tad unbalanced before, and to see this just sent him over the edge. So now here is a mentally unstable 20th level Artificer, with an entire campaign's worth of resources, a dimension hopping airship that's armed to the teeth with exploding ballistae and spell turrets, and a crew of golems. The first thing I decided was that he developed a neurotic phobia towards undead, and concluded that constructs were the best way to combat them. Not only were they immortal, unrelenting bastions of vigilance and defense, they were immune to most of the undead's worst abilities, and they couldn't be recruited to their side once destroyed. I also decided that he grew to hate the gods as well, blamed them for allowing Atropus to destroy his world, and thus came up with a plan to save it and get revenge on them at the same time.

By tinkering with the planar helm, he managed to bring his ship to an alternate Material Plane (the new campaign world) that hadn't been destroyed. The first thing he did was to track down a psion, and pay him to get a Psychic Reformation used on himself, to retool his feats into a more effective "hordeficer". The next part of his plan was to obtain a Book of Vile Darkness, and learn from it the secret to using souls to power spells and the creation of items. While hunting for the book, he constructed a flying castle, Götterdämmerung (using the rules in the Stronghold Builder's Guide), complete with a dock for the airship, as a mobile fortress to carry out his plan. He would then planeshift the entire thing (with an appropriate epic level spell) to the outer positive plans (Arcadia, Elysium, etc) set his construct army, and whatever other allies he could gather, loose on the defenses while he used the arcane mechanisms in the castle to harvest every soul he could find. He would then take the castle back to his world, and channel the positive energy he gathered into a spell that would eradicate the undead and restore the entire world to life at the same time. He would then hunt down Atropus and destroy it, and, just to make sure, start looking for a way to collapse the entire negative energy plane as well, possibly using some variation on the old trick of dropping a Sphere of Annihilation into a Well of Many Worlds.

His secondary goal was to find a way to turn himself into a construct as well and allay his paranoid fears of becoming the thing he wanted most to destroy. Thus I statted him to level thirty as an Artificer 20/Renegade Mastermaker 10. The thing I loved most about this is he was a chaotic evil mastermind, which is a rare alignment for the big bad of a story.

I never did get to run this campaign, because it would have involved starting the group at or around level 15, which is already much higher than they normally like to go.

A lot of the foreshadowing would involve the Half-golem template from Monster Manual II, which were things created by him as experiments while he perfected the method he would eventually use on himself.

OMG dude! This is so awesome! I mean, wow! Your story is really well made, and I bet you're a good Master :O

Anyway, I really loved the way you conducted things, and this is pretty much what I want to do, with two major differences:

1 - I can't be afraid of undead as I am one myself (And I paid to be like that)
2 - I want to be a Hordeficer from the beggining

Can you give me some advices on how to make a build like this? I mean, feats and stuff.
We played our first campaign already, so now I'm level 5.

I worship an Elder Evil, so I've got Willing Deformity and Willing Deformity (Gaunt) as my evil feats
I'm a Strongheart Halfling, so I have Apprentice (Craftsman) and Mercantile Background as my 1st level feats
For 3rd level I've got Item Familiar, my 4th bonus feat was Extraordinary Artisan and my 5th level feat (We have PF feat progression) was Legendary Artisan.
For my 7th I'm thinking about leadership, and 9th will be elemental bind
My 8th bonus feat I though about being Craft Construct

I have a dedicated wrigth (which is my item familiar) to craft inside a Enveloping pit for me

Do you think I should change anything? I mean, I don't have any metamagical feats, and I don't know if I'm going to do well in combat... I do have a lot of items though, and I really want to build a flying stronghold/aircraft, could you help me? :smallfrown:

-----EDIT-----
I belive this could help:
My Character Sheet (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1109346)

[Doctor Awkward]

Doing better in combat all depends on how much more you want to pay for your toys.

Personally I don't find Mercantile Background very useful and that'd be the first thing to go. I would probably ditch Apprentice as well, and pick up Extend as one of your first level feats and Chain as the other, allowing you to hit your entire horde with a single casting of a defensive buff spell. Then probably Twin Spell for the dual-function of buffing two allies or blasting an enemy. Invest in Ring's of Counterspelling, and load them up with Dispel Magic. Your biggest weakness will be someone stripping the buffs from your horde.

I'd link the entire build stub I made but I'll be darned if I can find it. =\

I would probably skip Leadership, since I hate it and think it's broken, but also because it doesn't really do much to benefit your horde. It would just be another character to accompany them.

Item Familiar isn't a bad feat, but I personally think you could do without it. If you are looking for things to cut to pick up more Metamagic, that'd be first on my list.

Everything you need to know about airships is found here: Airship Handbook. (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=14914.0)

The Stronghold Builder's Guidebook was a source book printed back in 2002. I'm making special mention of it because if you are serious about using it then you need to take the Landlord feat from that book.
That feat does two things: first, it gives you an allowance of gold that can only be used on your stronghold. This amount starts at 25,000 gold at level 9, and gives you more money each time you level up. By the time you hit level 20, it will give you 1.4 million gold.
The second thing it does is match any money that you pay on your stronghold out of your own pocket. As an example, if you spend 25,000 gold at level 9, and then an extra 10,000 out of the party's funds, you will instantly gain another 10,000 gold you can spend on something else. Pretty much this means once you exceed your allowance from the feat, the price for everything else you buy for your stronghold is cut in half.
I know that sounds like a ton of money, but building a suitably defensive fortress (that FLIES no less) and protecting it from epic level threats costs a TON of money. Even with all possible cost reducers I still had things I wasn't able to afford on 20th level starting money with the Landlord feat.

Building it is only Step 1. Keeping it safe is a whole other bag of cats.

The spell turrets are discussed in DMGII, and as far as ballistae go, just treat them as gargantuan-sized crossbows and enchant them like weapons. They will confer their bonuses (like Splitting) onto oversized bolts, which can be similarly priced with effects like the one that turns them into a Lightning Bolt, or makes them explode on impact like a fireball.

After that, Mage's Private Sanctum (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magesPrivateSanctum.htm) is your first stop. That will pretty effectively stop anyone from spying on you with divinations. Prying Eyes (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/pryingEyes.htm) and the Greater version can be used to function as security cameras. Control Weather (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/controlWeather.htm) can keep the skies clear for you, and let you and your eye spells see a greater distance away. And Forbiddance (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/forbiddance.htm) stops any and all unwanted extraplanar intrusions.
And that's all Core.