Stormlight archive. Build a wind runner?

[gawwy]

Have just finished reading the second book of the storm-light archive. Have been thinking about the best way to build a wind runner in dnd but tend to get stuck at some form of sorcerer. has any one else got any ideas?

[Douglas]

Let's see, you need high base combat ability, self buffing (especially speed), self healing, and the Lashings. The first three are fairly straightforward - a cleric with the right domains could be a good base - but finding spells to match the Lashings may be tricky. Perhaps the biggest problem for building an accurate portrayal is that pretty much everything I can think of in D&D 3.5 to duplicate any meaningful portion of a Windrunner's abilities goes far beyond the target, with far fewer limitations and more versatility. For example, almost all healing abilities can be used on allies, and Haste is a mass party buff.

[shaikujin]

Lashings with regards to oneself can be approximated with a planar bubble to a plane with subjective gravity. Or perhaps the boots of gravity.

Once per round, at-will, the character can make himeself halfweight, weightless, change gravity so that walls and ceilings becomes the floor and run on them.

Not sure how to make the lashings affect objects other than the character.



Shard blades I think would be best approximated by a Soulknife's Mindblade. (Plus that mindblade legacy weapon which name escapes me atm). It'll probably be manifested faster than 10 heartbeats though, not sure if that's a plus or minus to the OP.

Not sure how to simulate the separation of souls...but for bypassing armour, there's a WSA for that (Brilliant Energy?)

Shardplate could be a Called, Riverine Clockwork Armour. Clockwork for the STR boost, maybe add in +6 STR enhancement.
Though the Called property may not be needed, I think in the books, they have to wear Shardplates normally.

The armour augment crystal in MIC that absorbs damage (or was it granting temp HP?) could be used to simulate gems being cracked as the armour absorbs damage. Not a very good simulation though. Unless you use MIC's guidelines to add the properties of 1 item to another (say 1 augment crystal enhanced with the properties of 10 similar damage absorbing crystals. But in D&D, similar effects from similar items don't stack)

If anyone has more ideas to share, I'd really like to hear them.

[Necrovosh]

Start with monk. Pick up Up The Walls, then go Fist of Zuoken. Expanded Knowledge for Telekinetic Maneuver and such. Perhaps one of those Eberron PrCs, I don't know them too well. Maybe the soulknife/monk combo feat to emulate a shardblade, like shaikujin said, but the lashings are within the Fist's purview, mostly.

[gawwy]

Hmm if i were to do the lashings as psionics then i could use things with that enchantment that stores power points as gem stones filled with storm light. having an minor deity go round and fill all the gems with pp would have to be a home brew setting thing. but i think that gets pretty close to an analog for the setting? might have to stop psionics users from regenerating their power points by themselves.

how would you do the link with the spren?

[Necrovosh]

That's more a roleplay, setting sort of thing than a character build. A refluffed psycrystal might help, but it's mostly whether or not the spren in question feels like you're important. As a DM, I'd have it be a recurring npc. As a player... maybe a cohort? Non-broken leadership can do lots of fun things.

[gawwy]

A cohort could really work huh. im gonna spoiler the rest as it seems from how some people are talking about shard blades they might not have read the second book all the way through.


Ok so in the books it turns out that the spren are the shardblades. The shardblades that non surge binders have are dead spren so they can only turn into swords and take 10 heartbeats to summon.

living spren can manifest instantly and can turn into any weapon (including Shields) that the binder wants.

so what we want is a cohort that can transform itself into inanimate objects. I have no idea how to do this.

[Segev]

A cohort could really work huh. im gonna spoiler the rest as it seems from how some people are talking about shard blades they might not have read the second book all the way through.


Ok so in the books it turns out that the spren are the shardblades. The shardblades that non surge binders have are dead spren so they can only turn into swords and take 10 heartbeats to summon.

living spren can manifest instantly and can turn into any weapon (including Shields) that the binder wants.

so what we want is a cohort that can transform itself into inanimate objects. I have no idea how to do this.



Fiend of Possession might be a good start.

[Necrovosh]

Item familiar / sentient weapon of legacy made of shapesand? I'm actually building that for a player in one of my games right now. It could gain brilliant energy fairly quickly, or bestow the feat Deep Impact.

[Seerow]

The shardblade probably needs to be a persisted wraithstrike rather than brilliant energy. I mean the Shardblades are kind of designed for going through ridiculous amounts of natural armor, not just through man-made armor, so Brilliant Energy doesn't fit it at all.

[shaikujin]

I've not read book 2 yet, but I couldn't resist clicking on the spoiler :p

Don't read spolier if you want to read the book first.


Didn't know that live spren could form shardblades instantly, but I did read from Coppermind about the Kaladin's Honor spren Slyph being able to change into a shield and spear.

And the possibility of dual wielding! Woot! (Dual wielding isn't that great under 3.5 mechanics, but the image is still very cool)



If we use the cohort idea, it could be a pixie urban druid with Fiend of Possesion levels.

Use urban druid acf to wildshape into any inanimate object.

Or maybe use morphing + sizing to swap between different forms. There's a shield or sword that can change into the other, and enhancement bonus will be changed along with changing forms (can't remember where it is, perhaps in AE&G)

Shapesand idea sounds really cool as well.

As pointed out, Brilliant Energy doesn't work on natural AC, but the fluff fits so well...cuts through non-living matter.

In the books, the kind of damage it does to living things (the chasmfiends would likely be the ones with with NAC) is a bit different though. It doesn't cut, but separates the soul/connection. Are there any effects like this in DnD? Level or ability drain sounds close, but still feels off mechanically. Is there a way to simulate rendering limbs useless after a shardblade goes through it?