"Famous Builds" Rescued from WotC forums

[Telonius]

I'll be going through and reposting a few of the "Famous optimized character builds" mentioned by Rockdeworld in this post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258580-Famous-optimized-character-builds).

First up: Trouserfang Dwarf, originally posted by Chrisasmadi, Oct 25 2006.



Posted a while back on the old forum, due to various reasons(GCSEs and going on holiday), I never actually got around to moving this to the new boards. Thus, I present this to you, the CO board...

The Trouserfang Dwarf
Also known as 'Snakes on a Dwarf'
Original Build by ChrisAsmadi and DragonChild_
Additons made by ChrisAsmadi

Part 1: The Components

Poison Healer(HotA) - this feat allows you to heal your Con mod in hp each time you make a fortitude save vs poison.

Resistance to Poison's effects - to gain the full effect of this plan, you require a method to either negate the ability damage caused by the saves you DO fail, or simply not fail. The following methods work:
-Strongheart Vest(MoI): This reduces ability damage by the ammount of essentia invested +1, and thus, if five essentia is invested(via various methods), it can render one immune to the full effects of the poison.
-Steadfast Determination(PHB2): Don't fail fort saves. 'nuf said.
-Knight 20(PHB2): More not failing of fort saves.

Fort Save +9 - to reliably hit the save DC of a Tiny Viper's method.

Part 2: The Plan

a) Dwarven Incarnate 3
Relevant Stats: Con 18
Relevant Soulmelds: Strongheart Vest with 2 invested essentia.
Feats: Great Fortitude, Poison Healer
Fort Save vs Poison: +3(base) +4(con) +2(feat) +2(racial) = +11

b) Buy a large amount of Tiny Vipers and stuff them down your pants. Each time one bites you, you have a 19 in 20 of gaining 4 hp, or a 1 in 20 chance of being poisoned, which should be reduced by your soulmeld. Later on, this can be reduced to a full 100% chance of being healed.

c) ???

d) Profit!

Sources:
Hordes of the Abyss
Magic of Incarnum
Player's Handbook 2

Also, suggestions of other methods to reduce the ability damage or not fail on a one would be appreciated.

[Telonius]

The Nasty Gentlemen, originally posted by LordofProcrastination, January 5 2006:

Dirty Trick #4: The Nasty Gentlemen

Summary

Symbiont's "Share Spell" ability and capability of taking actions allows for the wild synergetic multiplication of many spells' effects.
Ingredients
Symbionts (creatures) [Magic of Eberron, pg 153-158]
Cerebral Symbionts (creatures) [Fiend Folio, pg 216-218]
Fiendish Symbionts (creatures) [Fiend Folio, pg 218-222]
Impure Prince (prestige class) [Magic of Eberron, pg 73-76]
Symbiont Master (feat) [Magic of Eberron, pg 51]
Spontaneous Summoner (feat) [Complete Divine, pg 85]


The Trick

Symbionts are handy. Err, "tentacle-y." They're entirely portable, have few, if any, formal limitations on the amount that can bond with a single host, and provide a host of minor benefits to careful users, including minor stat boosts, increased hit points, and spell-like abilities. Nice, but hardly impressive.

Now let's go back to an often-overlooked aspect of symbionts: each symbiont has the "symbiont" subtype. Old news. Now add this: the symbiont subtype includes the "Share Spells" ability. Huh, has potential. Let's throw in the fact that this Share Spells ability is better than the familiar ability by the same name AND you can have as many of these buggers as you can find/buy/etc. Getting somewhere. Next, realize that a good portion of the symbionts retain their ability to take independent (though directed) actions, including attacks. Neat, now only if they could do something with all of these actions. Enter spellcasting.

There is a host of powerful spells which give a character some capability which requires action to activate. These spells are shared with all of a character's symbionts, who can use their own actions (attacks, move actions, full-round-actions, standard actions, swift actions, etc) to gain offensive, defensive, or general-utility benefit. The result is that a single casting of a spell intended to be used only once a round can be multiplied hundreds of times over.

The Possibilities

It keeps getting better.

Obtaining Symbionts:
Amazingly easy to do. As Magic of Eberron suggests, players can essentially consider symbionts as treasure for the purpose of wealth calculation. The base prices range from 1,000 to 8,000 gp, reasonably accessible at all levels. For the more economically-minded or particularly outrageous symbiont-using gentleperson, the Impure Prince prestige class allows you to lure symbionts for only 100 gp a pop. If a Princely character is willing to spend all of their cash on becoming a tentacle monster, this translates to 7,600 symbionts by level 20.

Alternately, a riskier manuever would be to Polymorph any Object objects or followers into symbionts for an additional boost in your ranks. Dispelling/disjunctioning would be a real risk, but until then, the sky's the limit.

Gaining Benefit (boring title, crazy implications)
The reason for the title of this Dirty Trick comes from the mental image of a character truly taking advantage of its implications: a perfectly sophisticated and dignified-looking spellcaster who erupts into a mass of churning tentacles, grasping claws, spikes, spewing gouts of fire and brimstone, and striking with uncanny potency at a moment's notice.

Imagery aside, the best spells to pick for this trick are the ones which have a range of "Personal" and/or a target of "You." These spells are the ones easiest to share with your hundreds of glorified tapeworm buddies, and even better, are easily persistified through the usual metamagic routes. Out of this broad category, go for spells which add natural attacks, enable action-activated ranged abilities, enhance existing attack modes, or have a limited number of times which each individual "you" can use the spell. Alternately, if you're not concerned with repeatability, non-personal-range spells are also permitted and can be shared just as easily, if not for all day long.

Remember kids, the surgeon general says that playing with symbionts can be hazardous to your health, so stock up on ability-damage immunity, or at least make certain to befriend at least one divine spellcaster with a bucketfull of restoration handy. Sheltered Vitality from Libris Mortis, the Restoration and Heal chains, Construct Essence, and miscellaneous class/creature abilities are all WotC-approved methods of safe symbiosis.

I've compiled a basic list of good spells to consider below, but I'm wide open for any other options. Remember that if a spell produces negative side-effects (such as limiting spellcasting), you can always choose to have the spell affect your symbionts and not your Nasty Gentleman himself. This makes Nightstalker's Transformation, Tenser's Transformation, and Mental Pinnacle all excellent choices to produce a hyperdeadly, multi-talented mass of options.

Symbiont Synergetic Spells

Ranged Awesome Spells:
Dragon Breath (Wiz, Clr) [the Complete Divine version]
Righteous Glare (Wiz, Clr)
Lightning Ring (Wiz)
Undermaster (Wiz, Druid)
Nimbus of Light (Clr)
Darkfire (Clr)
Skull Eyes (Initiate of Cyric)
Holy Star (Initiate of Mystra)
Stormrage (Clr, Druid)
Produce Flame (Druid)
Blinding Beauty (Druid, Clr)
Unearthly Beauty (Druid)
Cast in Stone (Druid)


Melee-Based Spells:
Fist of Stone (Wiz)
Flame Dagger (Wiz)
Claw of Darkness (Wiz)
Gutsnake (Wiz)
Body Blades (Clr)
Black Talon (Initiate of Cyric)
Death Dragon (Clr)
Snakebite (Druid)
Spore Cloak (Druid)
Toothed Tentacle (Wiz)
Venomfire (Clr, Druid)


Meta-Enhancements:
Critical Strike (Wiz)
Grave Strike (Wiz, Clr)
Vine Strike (Druid)
Nightstalker's Transformation (Wiz)
Mental Pinnacle (Wiz)
Bladeweave (Wiz)
Wraithstrike (Wiz)
Tenser's Transformation (Wiz)
Divine Favor (Clr)
War Cry (Bard)
Kiss of the Vampire (Wiz)
Improvisation (Bard)
Divine Sacrifice (Paladin)
Swift Haste
Touch of Jorasco (Clr)
Dispel Evil/Good/Law/Chaos (Clr)

Arms of Plenty (Wiz)



Sample Builds

The Arcane Nasty Gentleman: Wizard 5/Incantrix 10/Impure Prince 5
This chap sneaks into Impure Prince using Extra Spell to gain Summon Nature's Ally, then Spontaneous Summoner to qualify for Gatekeeper Initiate, the final pre-req. Impure Prince costs a single level of casting progression, but having top-notch metamagic and cheap symbionts is worth the dip.

The Unnatural Gentleman: Druid 14/Master of Radiance 1/Impure Prince 5
Venomfire. Extra Spell: Divine Power. Divine Metamagic. Energy Admixture and Twin. The Tentacle Whip symbiont has a built-in poison attack. 76d6 per attack times 4 attacks per tentacle times 7,600 tentacles. We're averaging 8 million damage a round, and that's not even optimized.

The Double-Aberrent-Ironic Gentleman:
Psychic Warrior 5/Ranger 1/Beholder Mage 1/Impure Prince 5/Ur-Priest 2/Mystic Theurge 6
Lotsa spell options. Lotsa self-hatred. Lotsa awesome.

FAQ

Q: Oh. Em. Eff. Gee. 8 million damage a round. At very least.
A: Damn straight.

Q: Thousands of tentacles? That's just nasty.
A: I know, I know. Don't blame me, blame Keith Baker. And maybe anime.

Q: Um. What about BoB Cloning with this? Or Nanotech?
A: You don't even want to get me started... :D

Q: But doesn't the Impure Prince's "Lure Symbiont" ability limit a character to one symbiont at a time?
A: Nope. The ability specifies that you can obtain a new symbiont whenever your old one "gets killed or lost." It says nothing about your old one staying dead or lost. Thus, a suitably nasty gentleman can kill or maze his original symbiont, only to raise or retrieve the little guy after obtaining a new friend to play with.

Q: What if all of your symbionts don't want to do what you tell them? Wouldn't you need some way to control them to prevent continually having to make Will saves to keep doing the things you want to do?
A: Yep. Gotta keep them in line somehow, unless you're playing a LE Aberration-minded truly Ungentle Nastyman. Here are some good methods of symbiont-taming:
In-Character Role-Playing Jibber-Jabber
Necrotic Tumor
Geas/Quest and Lesser Geas
Planar Ally (Lesser, Standard, Greater)
Planar Binding (Lesser, Standard, Greater)
Custom Summoning Variant + Halaster's Fetch
Polymorph / Polymorph any Object
Undead Control (Rebuking, Spell-Based Control, Direct Raising)

The very last one is new. I noticed that the Zombie and Skeleton templates allow raised creatures to keep their old subtypes. Therefore, the most easily available undead symbionts retain the all-important Share Spells ability. So, lure/purchase a symbiont, kill it, and raise it as a loyal undead minion. Combined with General of Undeath and Undead Lieutenant, being a Nasty Necromancer Gentleman has never been better!

[Telonius]

The Killer Gnome, originally posted by snow_savant, August 10 2004:


Totally killer Wizard build up ahead. Uses these PrC's: Harper Mage (MoF), Shadowcraft Mage (RoS), Shadowcrafter (Und).

Wizard5 / HarperMage2 / ShadowcraftMage5 / Shadowcrafter8

Yeah, you gotta be a Gnome ... but that's a good thing, because you get the +1 DC racial bonus that Gnomes get for Illusion spells. Which is this build's most awesome forte.

And yes, Shadow Conjurations and Shadow Evocations are your bread-&-butter in this build. Which is good because they are extremely versatile spells that even have their own built-in cheese (see Minor/Major Creation Craft: Poisonmaking skill + Black Lotus Extract + 1 standard action casting time = Death a million times over).

By level 19, you get +40% strength intensity added to *ALL* your SC & SE spells. Which means that your 9th level Shades spells are giving you 120% of the strength of the Conj/Evoc spells it is emulating. While your Greater SC/SE spells give you 100% and your normal SC/SE spells give you 60%.

Part of the pre-req.'s for this build ential taking the sucky Spell Focus and GSF feats for Illusion ... which is actually something you want to do with Shadow spells anyway, due to their double save mechanics. Add in your racial save bonus, and that's +3 to your DC's. Add in Shadowcrafter's +4 Shadow Spell Penetration added to your +4 Spell Penetration (you should voluntarily take both SP and GSP feats), and enemy SR won't mean jack squat to your Shadow spells.

Besides having all that amazing versatility, you have a ton of other amazing class abilities from this build.

7 levels of Hide/Move Silently as class skills. 15 levels of Spot ... Stealth/Scout Mage!
Cloak of Shadow = Gives up to a 40% miss chance to attacks due to concealment.
Shadow Mien = +2 to Hide and Disguise Checks.
+2 Saves vs. all Illusions and Effects.
Extend Illusion = All Illusions are automatically doubled. Which is nice with Mass Reflective Disguise (24 hours duration!)[Und Book].
Silent Illusion = All your illusion spells are now castable without verbal components! Yay! More stealth synergy.
Shadow Illusion = Freakin' Amazing. All your Illusion/Figment spells are converted to Illusion/Shadow spells and can damage or effect creatures just as if they had the mechanics of the Shadow Evoc/Conj spells. For you creative types out there, this is some amazing flexibility you can get out of your low level figment spells (Silent & Minor Image, etc.). Which as I've stated before in the past, are pound-for-pound some of the most efficient & scaleable spells in the game.
2 Knowledge Feats from Harper Mage. Always good.


***

In summation, this is about as good as it gets for an Illusionist build that can actually go beyond scaring and confusing your foes ... into actually beating the royal crap out of them. That high level 120% strength mechanic for the Shades spell is just totally fabulous. And the versatility and utility you get from having access to the entire range of evocation and conjuration spells is just staggering.

Mark one up for the Gnomes ... this build rules!

XO,
Snow

P.S. You can also perform Shades/Dragon Ally brokenness as well. Build armies for nothing, blackmail things that shouldn't exist. It's all fun!

[Telonius]

I May Be Tiny, But You're Dead, originally posted by logicninja (wow, that name takes me back...) May 5 2006:


I was flipping through Races of the Wild and Races of Stone today, looking something up, when I thought: my, but there are a lot of anti-giant feats in here. And they're really effective
And then I thought: you know, they're based on size category differences, not on the other creature's actual size.
And, really, how hard it is to buy potions of Reduce Person, or get the party mage to memorize/cast a couple for you? And at higher levels, maybe get an item of reduce person x/day?

Here's the basic idea: you're a gnome. You're Small. You reduce yourself to Tiny. That means that Medium creatures are two size categories bigger than you.
You use the Races of the Wild tactical feats and Blade Bravo class features to utterly tear humans, elves, orcs, and the like apart--not to mention what you can do to creatures who are *already* Large or larger.

The ideal race is, of course, the whisper gnome. If you can't get it, a regular gnome will have to do--but these are the Character Optimization boards, and whisper gnomes are cool, because unlike most gnomes, I don't want to kill every last one of them and hang their corpses from meat hooks. They're *serious* gnomes. They're stylin'.

32-point-buy:
STR: 8 -> 12, -2 racial: 14
DEX: 8 -> 16, +2 racial: 18
CON: 8 -> 12, +2 racial: 14
INT: 8 -> 16
WIS: 8 -> 10
CHA: 8 -> 10, -2 racial: 8
As a whisper gnome, you have a 30-foot land speed. How do these things *not* have no CHA penalty and LA +1? +4 dodge bonus to AC vs. giants.

1) Swashbuckler 1. Weapon Finesse! Feat, take Dodge--it'll come in handy later.

2)Monk 1. Carmendine Monk, Combat Expertise (Passive Way variant monk)

3) Monk 2. Improved Trip (Passive Way variant monk), Evasion. Feat: Carmendine Monk. You're all about the INT & DEX.

4) Monk 3. Speed boost (for when you're shrunken), Still Mind.

5) Swashbuckler 2. Wait for it...

6) Swashbuckler 3. Insightful Strike! Yay! Now we don't need to take Swashbuckler anymore. Oh, and a feat--snag Weapon Focus(rapier), you need it for...

7) ...Blade Bravo 1! You get Flourish and Goad. Flourish lets you add your class level to Bluff to feint--meh, you're no Invisible Blade. Goad lets you, as a move action, force a creature to make a Will save (DC 10 + 12 your character levels + CHA); if it fails, when it starts its next turn, you are the only creature it can make melee attacks against. A lot of things only have melee attacks. Additionally, Bravo gives you +2 to the DC for 5 ranks of Bluff.

8) Blade Bravo 2, "Mobile Fighting" means that moving 5 feet or more (5' step, anyone?) gets you a +1 dodge bonus.

9) Blade Bravo 3 gives you a bonus feat from an excellent list. Take Mobility, in hopes of snagging Elusive Target eventually--when you run out of anti-Big-Things feats. Speaking of which: for your feat this level, take Titan Fighting, Races of Stone. Titan fighting means that you get your dodge bonus vs. giants (+4!) against your Dodge target, as long as they're at least *one* size category larger! You don't even need to shrink to use this.

10) Blade Bravo 4 - Melee Sneak Attack +1d6. Why not?

11) Blade Bravo 5: this level is a tasty, tasty biscuit: Size Advantage gives you +2 dodge AC per size category vs. any larger foe that attacks you. You're fighting a human. You're under the effects of Reduce person, so you're two size categories smaller. You get +4 Dodge AC with them--AND you get another +4 if you smack them with your Dodge bonus, due to Titan Fighting. Take a 5' step that round, and you're getting +9. (+5 of that vs. any medium foe who attacks you). Vs. a Large creature like an ogre, that'd be +11 Dodge AC.

12) Blade Bravo 6. Another bonus feat, and a regular feat. Bonus feat: Improved Critical OR Improved Disarm OR Two-Weapon Fighting. Let's go with Two-Weapon Fighting. For your regular feat, Elusive Target is tempting, but instead, take Underfoot Combat (races of the wild)--you can now move into or through the square of a critter two or more sizes larger than you (humans, if you're shrunk!). If you move into the thing's square (with a 5' step, say... and then use Goad as a move action to make sure it attacks you next round), you get a +4 unnamed bonus to AC from "soft cover", vs. ALL attacks. Remember that +9? It's now +13 AC vs. whoever's square you're in, and +9 vs. everyone else

13) Blade Bravo 7--you're Small but Deadly (good of them to finally recognize it, eh?) and therefore get +4 to confirm criticals on anyone larger than you. Hmm, maybe we should have taken Improved Critical instead of TWF last level!

14) Blade Bravo 8. Melee Sneak Attack, that's +2d6 now. Not a big deal yet, but it will come in handy later.

15) Blade Bravo 9. Bonus feat! Improved TWF (alternatively, they could have been Improved Critical and Improved Disarm, or Imp Crit and Combat Reflexes). Regular feat! Confound the Big Folk tactical feat. Three uses, as all tactical feats:
-Knee Striker--move into the square of a foe 2+ sizes larger. Next round, they're considered flatfooted (remember that sneak attack? Maybe a "Deadly Precision weapon would be a good investment), *and* you get *another* +4 to confirm criticals (maybe a "Keen" enhancement would be a better one).
-Underfoot Defense:same requirement, move into their square. Every round after that, as long as you remain in their square and fight defensively... or activate Combat Expertise for -1 (that's it!)... other creatures attacking you have a 50% chance to strike the creature whose square you're in. Of course, your huge AC bonuses make this kind of moot--but still.
-Unsteady Footing: again, move into their square. You're gonna be doing this a lot. Next round, you can use a standard action to make a special, special trip attack: make a touch attack. You succeed! Make a strength or dex check (your choice--GEE, guess which!) to trip them. Improved Trip helps with this, as it's a trip attack, it's just a better kind of trip attack. They make an opposed check (STR or DEX)... but don't get to add their size modifier. Nifty! You've got Improved Trip, so you get to stab them for free when they go down. With sneak attack--they're flatfooted thanks to the Knee Striker part of this feat!

16) Blade Bravo 10. Boy, we just keep getting better, don't we. This nets you "Lethal Riposte"--once/round, when someone attacks you and misses you, you get to stab them. Oh, and they count as flatfooted, so you get to stab them in their oversized (from your perspective) kidney, spleen, mother-in-law, whichever.

This is where the Other Killer Gnome diverges into two potential paths. One wants more sneak attack damage, the other wants even more feats. Let's call sneak-attacker "Stabbity Killer Gnome" and the featmonger "Smartity Killer Gnome".

STABBITY KILLER GNOME:

17) Rogue 1. It *is* your favorite class. +1d6 sneak!

18) Rogue 2. No sneak, but you get a feat at this level. Sounds like a good time to pick up Elusive Target, but you're already about as Elusive as it's possible to *be*, with your ginormous gnomish... dodge bonuses. So pick up Greater Two-Weapon Fighting, because that lets you stab people in their very-much-necessary but oh-so-magnetic vital organs, Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.

19) Rogue 3. +1d6 sneak! You have +4d6 now, and +INT to damage. A respectable addition, with your many attacks/round on downed bigger foes, even if you aren't an Uber-Chargerer or a Frenzied Power Attack Breaker.

20) Rogue 4. You don't want to be flatfooted. Uncanny Dodge makes you not be flatfooted. Being flatfooted is the thing that will kill this gnome, and this gnome, ma'am, ain't one as takes kindly ta bein' killed, lemme tell ya.

End result: Monk (passive way) 3/Swashbuckler3/Blade Bravo 10/Rogue 4.


Now, the SMARTITY KILLER GNOME:

17) Fighter 1. Feat! Elusive Target is ours!
18) Fighter 2. Feat! Feat! Claim Greater Two-Weapon Fighting in the name of King Ferdinand of Spain. You have plenty of options left: expand your repetoire by taking Silencing Strike (you ARE a whisper gnome), and once/day, stab a mage and make them not spellcast.
19) Fighter 3, Bleh.
20) Fighter 4--I'd say "Take Giantbane", but, funnily enough, Giantbane sucks. So take Improved Disarm. Or Improved Critical, if you didn't get Keen.
Better yet, be both Smart & Stabby (that sounds like a great gnomish band) by taking Rogue 1 here, for that extra d6 sneak attack.

Whether you want to be Smartity or Stabbity is up to you. Stabbity is more offensive; Smartity gives you a few extra options.

I'm *sure* there's other things to do with those four levels. How about Duelist? Four more points of INT to AC, initiative bonus.
If you're evil, try Assassin 3/Rogue 1, for +3d6 Sneak Attack and Uncanny Dodge and Death Attack (int synergy).
If you pick up Spring Attack with a level of Fighter, then three levels of Gnome Giant-Slayer are thematic and useful: at 2nd, another +4 dodge AC vs. giants or +2 vs. any other creature two size categories; at 3rd, a bonus on checks to escape grapples.

Other ideas are welcome--and if there's any way to improve the build (it doesn't get the BEST things 'til 12th-ish), feel free. Maybe by delaying Blade Bravo in favor of taking Underfoot Combat/Confound the Big Folk earlier?

So this build gets +18 or 19 BAB, RIDICULOUS dodge bonuses against just about everything bigger than it (that's what Reduce Person is for!), the ability to totally slaughter big things but make them fight it (Goad), and it's a pretty decent combatant against, say, a small-sized creature like a halfling, too.
Additionally, this build requires no questionable rules interpretations (it'll work just fine without the Passive Way monk variant--in fact, you can start as a rogue/swashbuckler or fighter/swash and bypass monk altogether, but that INT to AC is nice), it uses no dirty tricks, it's playable from 1-20 (5th is a low point, but not very low), and what it needs to do its thing most efficiently (size reduction) is very cheap and plentiful, from spellcaster buddies, potions, and so on.



Edit: it has been pointed out to me that the build needs more sneak attack to really be dangerous. Fair enough--you don't need the Carmendine Monk INT to AC with the kind of giant AC boosts you'll be getting anyway.
So here's an alternate, focused on sneak attack damage while he's got you flatfooted and such:

Whisper Gnome:
1) Swashbuckler 1: Weapon Finesse, Combat Expertise
2) Rogue 1, +1d6 sneak
3) Swashbuckler 2, Dodge
4) Swashbuckler 3, Insightful Strike
5) Rogue 2, Evasion
6) Rogue 3, +2d6 sneak, Weapon Focus: Rapier
7) Rogue 4, Uncanny Dodge
8) Blade Bravo 1, Flourish, Goad
9) Blade Bravo 2, Mobile Fighting, Titan Fighting
10) Blade Bravo 3, Mobility
11) Blade Bravo 4, +1d6 (melee) sneak - 3d6 total
12) Blade Bravo 5, Size Advantage, Underfoot Combat
13) Blade Bravo 6, Two-Weapon Fighting
14) Blade Bravo 7, Small but Deadly
15) Blade Bravo 8, +2d6 (melee) sneak - 4d6 total, Confound the Big Folk
16) Blade Bravo 9, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
17) Blade Bravo 10, Lethal Riposte
18) Rogue 5, +5d6 sneak total, Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
19) Rogue 6
20) Rogue 8, +6d6 sneak total.

In addition to that, get a Deadly Precision enhancement on each weapon: +2d6 sneak attack damage. 8d6 sneak, 7 attacks a round, +INT to damage, from a thing you just can't hit. Scaaaaa-ryyyy! In fact, this is scarier than the monk version. Thanks for the pointing it out, Tleilaxu_Ghola.


Edit2:I just noticed the great synergy of Goad (move action) and Underfoot Combat's "unsteady footing" (standard action). Keep them down and keep them focused on you.

[Telonius]

The King of Smack, originally posted by Zombiegleemax April 25 2004. (The formatting might be weird on this one; I'll fix it when I have a few minutes):


THE KING OF SMACK.

Hey, Frenzied Berserker, you want a piece of this?

IMAGE(https://webspace.utexas.edu/ifmg671/www/wolvie05.jpg)

Fixed versions of the build - edited 6/06/2004

Here are some fixed versions of the build:<br />
<br />
Race: Elan (half-dragon, among others, also works)<br />
Damage scaling (per claw):<br />
5d6 base for medium-size claws<br />
6d6 improved natural attack<br />
8d6 expansion 1<br />
12d6 expansion 2<br />
16d6 morphic weapons (if warshaper is included)<br />
24d6?? if the ring that improves natural attacks from Dragon Mag is included<br />
32d6?? if you metamorphose into a larger size (ie, firbolg)<br />
<br />
Psywar20 build (simplest)<br />
<br />
Feats<br />
1 Overchannel<br />
1 Talented<br />
2 Dodge<br />
3 Combat Expertise<br />
5 Karmic Strike<br />
6 Improved Natural Attack (claw)<br />
8 Combat Reflexes<br />
9 Metamorphic Transfer<br />
11 Expanded Knowledge or free feat<br />
12 Weapon Focus (claw)<br />
14 Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
15 Improved Critical (claw)<br />
17 Expanded Knowledge (Metamorphosis)<br />
18 Expanded Knowledge or free feat<br />
20 Improved Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
<br />
Take a level of warshaper at level 21, then continue with epic psywar.<br />
<br />
<br />
Psywar+IS build (quickest to improved rapidstrike)<br />
<br />
1 Psw1 Track, Overchannel<br />
2 Psw2 Talented<br />
3 Psw3 Combat Expertise<br />
4 Psw4 <br />
5 Psw5 Dodge<br />
6 Psw6 Improved Natural Attack (claw)<br />
7 Psw7 <br />
8 Psw8 Metamorphic Transfer<br />
9 IS1* Karmic Strike<br />
10 IS2<br />
11 IS3<br />
12 IS4 Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
13 IS5<br />
14 IS6<br />
15 IS7 Expanded Knowledge (Metamorphosis)<br />
16 IS8<br />
17 IS9<br />
18 IS10 Improved Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
19 Wsh1** Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons<br />
20 Wsh2 Morphic Body<br />
<br />
Psion/Egoist build (most powerful in the long run IMO)<br />
<br />
1 Rgr1 Track, Overchannel<br />
2 Ego1 Dodge<br />
3 Ego2 Combat Expertise<br />
4 Ego3<br />
5 Ego4<br />
6 Ego5 Expanded Knowledge (Claws of the Beast), Karmic Strike<br />
7 Ego6<br />
8 IS1<br />
9 IS2 Improved Natural Attack (claw)<br />
10 IS3<br />
11 IS4<br />
12 IS5 Expanded Knowledge (Claws of the Vampire)<br />
13 IS6<br />
14 IS7<br />
15 IS8 Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
16 IS9<br />
17 IS10<br />
18 Ego7 Metamorphic Transfer<br />
19 Ego8<br />
20 Wsh1<br />
21 ??? Improved Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
<br />
If expecting to hit epic levels, you can go Wsh3 pre-epic to get the +16 BAB and then continue with Egoist levels.<br />
<br />
Note that this final build gives access to 9th level psionic powers. Epic Expanded Knowledge is your friend.

----original post----

I didn't do much with 3.0 psionics, but I am very pleased with the XPH. I admit I don't have a good frame of reference to understand those that claim the XPH Psychic Warrior has been horribly nerfed because I don't know what the original one was like. I do think, however, that the new Psywar can hang just fine in an adventuring party. I do agree with those that think the Elan is undercosted at LA+0, however. There are a number of reasons for this, one of which will become apparent below.

The key to the new psywar is careful use of the claw powers, IMO. Claws of the Beast and Claws of the Vampire are especially strong. The other claws are neat, but in general, I don't think they are worth spending a round to use. A normal, medium-sized psywar20 can use claws of the beast to do 8d6 damage twice per round (5d6 base, +2 size enhancements from expansion). This is pretty impressive. However, it must be possible to really minmax this, right?

Of course. The two keys to this build are 1) the warshaper PrC and 2) the awesome Rapidstrike feat from Draconomicon. To my knowledge, nobody has attempted to use either of these in a fighting psywar build. Warshaper requires your DM to allow metamorphosis to count for the polymorph requirement of Warshaper, which I think is reasonable. Rapidstrike is normally unavailable to normal characters, but CREATURES OF THE ABERRATION TYPE CAN TAKE IT. (omg) You see, now, why the type-aberration Elan is undercosted at LA+0?

The following build is an attempt at a truly hardcore, minmaxed psychic warrior. I use the Elan race from XPH, which has psionicist as a favored class.

Assumptions made for this build:
25 pt buy (str 14, dex 13, con 14, int 12, wis 14, cha 6, after modifiers)
you can meet and kill an illithid by level 8
your DM lets metamorphosis count as the "polymorph" requirement for Warshaper. (reasonable IMO)


1 Psw1 Improved Natural Attack (claw), Overchannel<br />
2 Psw2 Psionic Meditation***<br />
3 Psw3 Combat Reflexes<br />
4 Psw4 <br />
5 Psw5 Dodge<br />
6 Psw6 WF (claw)***<br />
7 Psw7 <br />
8 Psw8 Metamorphic Transfer<br />
9 IS1* Karmic Strike<br />
10 IS2<br />
11 IS3<br />
12 IS4 Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
13 IS5<br />
14 IS6<br />
15 IS7 Expanded Knowledge (Metamorphosis)<br />
16 IS8<br />
17 IS9<br />
18 IS10 Improved Rapidstrike (claw)<br />
19 Wsh1** Morphic Immunities, Morphic Weapons<br />
20 Wsh2 Morphic Body

*IS - Illithid Slayer.
**Wsh - warshaper.
***Note that I included Psionic Meditation in the build even though there isn't any feat that uses psionic focus. You can easily replace

An alternate build uses Ranger1/Egoist6/IS10/Wsh1/PrC2, where PrC is anything that grants manifester levels. I haven't fully thought this build out, though, and have a feeling there might not be enough feats (you need to use expanded knowledge to get claws of the beast and vampire, but otherwise the build is strong... many more PSPs to work with).

WF (claw) at level 6 with any other feat you like, such as a metapsionic feat or other combat feat, that does require psionic meditation.

What you do with Psimed/WF doesn't really matter to the build - use these feats to tailor your character to your tastes.

Other useful feats: WF (claw), improved crit (claw), mage slayer, sidestep (if you can meet the tumble requirements), expanded knowledge (schism, teleport, any energy power), psionic fist (although I don't think +2d6 once/round is worth it when you are already doing so much damage), unavoidable power (this is more useful than psifist), extend power (never worry about claws or armor turning off), quicken power (if you want to use a lot of claws), talented, up the walls (this is just cool).

As for general combat feats, I feel that power attack is fairly useless since you are already doing so much damage. Cleave could be useful, but with 6 attacks/round, I don't think it's necessary, and definitely not worth the wasted feat in power attack. Important powers: claws of the beast, claws of the vampire, vigor, inertial armor, biofeedback, hustle, form of doom, bite of the wolf, any healing power, any movement power.

Analysis
--------

This character finishes with a base attack of +18 and a manifester level of 17. With overchannel you get to 20. This is enough to get you to 5d6 claws, attacking at +18/+18. Now, add in expansion +2 (6d6, 8d6) and morphic weapons (12d6). Then add in rapidstrike and improved rapidstrike: 6 claws at 12d6 each, +18/+18/+13/+8/+8/+8. Rapidstrike gives you 1 extra natural attack at -5, improved rapidstrike (my interpretation) gives you up to 3 more, each at a further -5. Now add in claws of the vampire, and you have...

THE KING OF SMACK.

Capable of dishing out 72d6 in a single round, and healing half of that back. Use karmic strike with impunity because you are healing 6d6 hp for each hit you score, further cranking up your damage total.

Further abuse: I heard there is an item that increases your natural attacks one step. I don't know what 12d6 increases to, but I imagine it will make your DM cry. Add in an amulet of natural attacks to get whatever additional bonuses you want (+s to hit, energy damage, keen, etc... saves you rounds and PSPs otherwise spent manifesting additional claw powers). To borrow from CompleteSatori's FB build, take an item of sadism to crank your luck bonuses through the roof.

Even more abuse: This build takes advantage of every broken trick you can use with the Elan. With aberration+metamorphosis+metamorphic transfer, you can do a lot of other useful things, such as turning into a beholder or a choker... or a SHARN. Sharns are aberrations, and get 2 standard actions and (with hustle) 2 move actions in a round. They also have 9 arms. Now add in Form of Doom, Bite of the Wolf, and Rapidstrike, and you have a WHOLE LOTTA DAMAGE.

Assuming a strength of 33 (14 base, +4 morphic body, +6 item, +4 huge size from expansion, +5 inherent), a total str mod of +11.

13 claws +29/+29/+29/+29/+29/+29/+29/+29/+29/+24/+19/+19/+19 - 12d6+11 (x13), half returned as healing
1 bite +24 - 4d6+4d8+5
4 tentacles +24/+24/+24/+24 - 4d8+5 (x4)

for fullround damage of 156d6+20d8+168 = 804 damage.

Now assume 2 standard actions + 2 move actions = 2 fullround actions.

1608 damage. Now add in sadism... you get the idea.

THE KING OF SMACK.

Even without the Sharn/sadism abuse (which no sane DM would allow), the psiwar is still hitting pretty hard at 12d6 x6. The best thing about the character is that he's an Elan, and consequently extremely hard to kill. This guy is the ultimate in self-reliance, and a DM's nightmare, even without the damage. Even stripped naked in the middle of the desert, he'll survive. That's the beauty of psionics - psionicists don't need any gear, any spell components, or any other crutches. It doesn't matter if the Weave collapses or my god dies - with a thought, I can move mountains, travel through time, and bend the very fabric of reality. I AM a god. Elans don't even need food. He needs 1 round to set up his inertial armor and his claws, and he's ready to rock. Think about this:

* He can't starve to death.
* He's immortal, so he won't die of old age.
* He's only vulnerable for 4 hours a night, and even that is a trance, not sleep.
* Spot and Listen are class skills for the Illithid Slayer, so he is hard to surprise.
* His saves are decent, and he can add +4 on a critical save anytime.
* He's immune to scrying, so consequently almost impossible to ambush.
* He's immune to mind-affecting effects.
* If you want to kill him, you basically have to do it in one round - if you give him an action, he's going to heal all his damage back
with claws of the vampire. The problem is that you have to do a TON of damage. Anything that gets through his base HP and vigor HP can still be soaked with Elan's racial ability. If he has even 1 HP left, he's going to drain 36d6 from somebody next round. I have a mental image of a giant bashing this guy down to 1 hp with a critical hit - and then next round, this dude leaping at the giant, stabbing into his stomach with his claw, and then climbing his way up the giant's body by sinking his claws into the flesh, draining life all the way.

His only real weakness is death-type effects, and Elan's save bonus helps to deal with that. If you have a choice of magical items, get as much stuff as you can to improve defense and mobility - you have plenty of offense with the claws alone. Also get anything you can to increase your PSPs, as they are the core of your strength. This character is easily powerful enough to solo - he can tank, heal himself, and even blast (with expanded knowledge). Stealth can be a problem, but starting with a ranger level helps (but also gives you an XP penalty). If you get caught in an antimagic zone, well, you still have d8 hit dice and +18 attack bonus, so you can pick up any other good weapon and start bashing people with it.

Now who thinks the Frenzied Berserker has anything on this dude?

[Telonius]

Algernon of the White Lilies, originally posted by dr_rocktopus, March 24 2009. Including "The Joker" (build immediately above it) since Algernon references it:


The Joker
"Let me show you how I got these spells..."

This build is pretty cheesy, and is the work of a collaborative effort between Malkavon and myself. We use Magical Training to sneakily access Precocious Apprentice. This lets us grab an arcane spell to get us into Exalted Arcanist via Sanctum Spell tricks, which gives us a pair of arcane spells permanently added to our list. At this point we retrain Precocious Apprentice out for Combat Casting and proceed to climb up through War Weaver and Spellguard of Silverymoon, advancing our Favored Soul spellcasting because we are now an arcane spellcaster thanks to Exalted Arcanist.

The build hinges on the fact that Favored Soul has an ACF that allows them to add temp. HP to any spell they cast. This lets all of their buffs be turned into touch spells via Spellguard of Silverymoon 4, and from there we spread them via War Weaver to all of our allies at once. The build squeaks in at 18th level Favored Soul spellcasting, getting 9th level spells and is able to share 6th level spells through the tapestry thanks to Sanctum Spell.

Human Favored Soul 4/Church Inquisitor 1/Exalted Arcanist 1/War Weaver 5
Spellguard of Silverymoon 4/Sacred Exorcist 1/Incantatrix 4

1) Sanctum Spell, Magical Training, Precocious Apprentice (retrained to Combat Casting after 6th), Consecrate Spell
3) Purify Spell
6) Enlarge Spell
9) Extend Spell
12) Persistent Spell
15) Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell)
17) Repeat Spell
18) Practiced Spellcaster (Favored Soul)
20) Bonus Metamagic Feat



Algernon Of The White Lillies
"Everything slips away..."
Much like the joker except that it uses a dragon's blood pool to count himself as an arcane caster. Has to come back every twelve months for another drink or his powers fade. Uses favored soul ACF to add a buff to his spells that adds temporary HP. We can now cast any personal spell on an ally with a touch. Okay, fair enough, so now allies are legal targets. That's terribly important. Most GMs will now let you cast into the tapestry, though they should not. Share spell with your familiar, however, and it becomes a ranged touch, split ray it, and target the tapestry with it to store it as a quiescent weaving. It now satisfies all the requirements for using the tapestry.

Human Favored Soul 4/War Weaver 5/Spellguard of Silverymoon 4/XXXXXXX 6

1) Sanctum Spell, split ray, improved initiative, enlarge spell
3) extend spell
6) Obtain familiar, since we are an arcane caster
9) Persistent Spell
12) DMM: Persist

[Telonius]

The Really Big Guy Is With Me. Originally posted by phaedrusxy, March 19 2009:


I'm (hopefully) going to be joining a game soon where I play a combination of this and the "psionic sandwich" (my "character" will be a psion who True Mindswitched with a really expensive airship in Eberron). After looking at just what this setup can do, I am so freakin' psyched. :D I won't abuse it too bady, so no Epic crap, no exponential Leadership/Psicrystal chains, etc. But even without that, it is awesome.

After looking at it for a bit, I realized that Channel Power doesn't actually take any action on the psicrystal's part. So it can continue to make full attacks while I manifest powers on/through it. I think due to its superior physical qualities (hardness, 3/4 BAB, it can take melee feats, etc), that I'm going to focus on buffing it from a distance and letting it melee. Metamorphosis is an obvious choice, but it will lose its hardness, which is a bit of a drawback. I'm still definitely taking that (and Metamorphic Transfer, assuming they're allowed), but what other options should I be looking at?

Psion killer looks like a good "combat form" for metamorphosis, as it has awesome stats and can use equipment. Animated Objects would be nice, also, so it could still have hardness.

Here is what I have right now:

The REALLY BIG guy is with me
(Necropolitan or Bone Creature) Human Psion (Shaper) 10
HD 9d12+36 (Desecrate, Corpse Crafter) +20(Psionic Body)(maximum HP per houserule)(164 hps)
Feats (10): 3 bonus, 1 human, 4 levels, 2 flaws
Psionic Body, Psicrystal Affinity, Improved Psicrystal (x6), EK: Metamorphosis, Metamorphic Transfer
Flaws: pick two
Traits: can pick two
Skills: Use Psionic Device, ?, Swift Concentration skill trick (to maintain Sense Link while manifesting)

Powers known:
1st (5) Psionic Minor Creation, Entangling Ectoplasm?, Synthesete (psicrystal can use this to "see" normal range by "feeling" light), Vigor, Sense Link
2nd (4) Psionic Repair Damage, Damp Power, Control Sound (or Ego Whip)?, Concealing Amorpha
3rd (4) Time Hop, Ectoplasmic Cocoon, ?
4th (4) Fabricate, Telekinetic Maneuver, Quintessence, Wall of Ectoplasm
5th (4) True Seeing, ?

Items: Ectoplasmic Skin of Armor (6,000 gp, +8 armor bonus, light armor), Hand of the Mage, Gloves of Object Reading, ?

Psicrystal stats (as if master is 15th level):
Power Resistance 20, MOve 30 (climb 20), Fly 50 (poor), Sighted, Telepathic Link, Deliver Touch Powers, Channel Power, Telepathic Speech, +7 NA and Int, Improved Evasion, Hardness 8, 6 personalities
HD: 15 (82 hp)

BAB +10 (assuming it's considered to have 15 HD, or +7 if not)

Psicrystal feats: ?
Psicrystal skills: at least 4 ranks in Spot, Listen, Move Silently, and Search, otherwise as master.


The "body switching" trick will be accomplished by this method, I guess:
I know a low-level arcane entry has been found for this, but if you want psionics-only with no help from an arcane cster, take a look at what the SRD says about Astral Seed:

To grow a body, you (in the storage crystal) must spend ten days in uninterrupted solitude. The body’s constituent parts are pulled as ectoplasm from the Astral Plane, then slowly molded and transformed into a living, breathing body that is an exact duplicate of your body at the time you manifested astral seed (the crystal itself breaks down and becomes a part of the new organic body). When the tenth day ends, you completely and totally inhabit the new body. You possess all the abilities you possessed when astral seed was manifested, at one level lower, but you have none of your equipment.

So you could:
1. Metamophose into an obdurium ball, or what have you.
2. Manifest Astral seed
3. change back to your originial form.
4. Die.
5. Grow a new obdurium ball body. Of course, you'd be a "living, breathing" obdurium ball (which would necessitate the Body Adaptation power to breath underwater)

I'll metamorphosis into some large chunk of the "ship-to-be", then follow the rest of it. Then they'll build the rest of the ship "around" me. It will probably take some DM fiat to let me control parts of the ship that were added later, etc. We'll see what he says.

[Telonius]

The Twice-Betrayer of Shar, originally posted by LordofProcrastination August 8 2005 (again with the weird formatting; will fix as I can):



The Twice-Betrayer of Shar, by LordofProcrastination

This thread has two purposes:

1) To showcase and improve upon a particularly nasty class/feat/spell invulnerability combination.
2) To challenge the community to create an ultra-lethal build that can put a dent in this guy.
So, read over the build and challenge, and see what you can add.

Build: The Twice-Betrayer of Shar
1 Cleric 1 Extend Spell, Reach Spell<br />
2 Cleric 2<br />
3 Cleric 3 Divine Metamagic (reach)<br />
4 Human Paragon 1<br />
5 Human Paragon 2 Ocular Spell<br />
6 Human Paragon 3 Shadow Weave Magic<br />
7 Shadow Adept 1 Tenacious Magic, Pernicious Magic, Insidious Magic<br />
8 Ruathar 1<br />
9 Ruathar 2 Initiate of Mystra<br />
10 Ruathar 3<br />
11 Contemplative 1 <br />
12 Divine Disciple 1 Divine Metamagic (ocular)<br />
13 Divine Disciple 2<br />
14 Divine Disciple 3 <br />
15 Divine Disciple 4 Persistent Spell<br />
16 Contemplative 2<br />
17 Contemplative 3<br />
18 Contemplative 4 Divine Metamagic (persistent)<br />
19 Contemplative 5<br />
20 Contemplative 6

Race: Human
Salient Special Abilities: Five Domains (Magic, Knowledge, Illusion, Rune and Spell), Divine Health, Divine Body, Sacred Defense +2, Caster Level Check to use magic in antimagic/dead-magic zones
Spellcasting: Level 9 Divine Spells, CL 19
Key Items: Nightsticks, Ankh of Ascension, Nightsticks, Strand of Prayer Beads, Nightsticks, Pale Green Ioun Stone, Orange Ioun Stone, Nightsticks, more Nightsticks.
Flavor: Having forsaken the clergy of Shar and stolen the secrets the Dark Goddess' eyes, the Twice-Betrayer is now utterly devoted to the pure manifestation of eternal magic, Mystra. This unorthodox upstart dares to siphon the Shadow Weave's power and peerlessly spreads enduring magics of unprecedented variety with his dark gaze. True Neutral and lovin' it.

The Trick:
Peristent Spell can only be used on spells of "fixed or personal range," which excludes an awful lot of extremely handy buffing spells, particularly "touch" spells. However, if you apply the Reach Spell metamagic feat, a touch spell become a ray spell with a range of 30 ft. This is a "fixed range" in that it fits only into the PHB range category of "range expressed in feet." Is it now persistable? Sure thing.

But what about those other spells with non-touch, non-personal, non-fixed ranges you might want persistified? Enter "Ocular Spell" from Lords of Madness. It can grant a fixed range of 60 ft to "ray spells and spells with a target other than personal." Now, you and all of your friends can have Persistent buffs chosen from just about every spell on the books. I'll just let your imaginations run wild with the defensive and offensive ramifications of this build.

The Short and Fast of It: The Twice-Betrayer can persistify nearly any spell.

Sources
Show


The Challenge:

What You Do:
Create an ECL 20 character that can kill the Twice-Betrayer as quickly as possible. Write up a quick summary of how the character does it and how long it takes. You may use all WotC 3.5 material, except Unearthed Arcana, from which only options which do not rework the rules of the game are allowed (i.e. racial paragons and cloistered clerics are fine, Gestalt and Fractional are out). There are only two contextual exceptions. The first is Thought Bottle, which is boringly broken, and thus banned. The second ban is the Initiate of Mystra feat, because it likewise would be boring and unproductive to pit Betrayer/Cheater clones against each other.

I know that with enough dispelling, blasting, and hacking, the Betrayer's defenses will eventually fall, the trick for you will be doing it in a timely fashion. If your character takes repeated actions with a chance of failure (such as Mordenkainen's Disjunction, dispelling without overwhelming caster level, etc), keep track of those percentages to figure out how many iterations elapse before guaranteed success.

What the Twice-Betrayer Does:
The challenge pits you against the Twice-Betrayer as he should be: buffed and well-equipped.

For the purposes of the challenge, the Twice-Betrayer has a slightly less-versatile but invulnerability-empowering class build:

Cleric 3/ Human Paragon 3/ Ruathar 3/ Bone Knight 10/ Contemplative 1

Also, Shadow Weave Magic is traded in for Wild Talent.

Spells Active: Antimagic Field (x4), Delay Death, Beastland Ferocity, Sheltered Vitality, Death Ward, Water Breathing, Freedom of Movement, Ilyykur's Mantle, Greater Heroism, Protection from Spells, Favor of Ilmater, Neutralize Poison, Stone Body, Eladrin Form, Dweomer of Transference.
Additional Challenge-Specific Items: Continuous, Class-Limited Item of Antimagic Field; Continuous Item of Beastland Ferocity; Continuous Class-Limited Item of Delay Death; Item of Resistance +5;
Contingent Spells: Twinned Antimagic Field, All are set to successively activate upon the failure of their corresponding normally-cast version. Insert assorted semantic trickeries to trigger the contingents exactly when most favorable.
Tactical Notes: Unless Delay Death and Beastland Ferocity are somehow removed, the Betrayer will never die from any amount of damage. The other protective spells make the Betrayer immune to just about every conventional form of non-damage death. All the spells active at the start of the challenge are generally cast at CL 28 and due to Tenacious Magic, dispel checks are made at a DC of 15+CL, or 43.

Any time a significant spell is dispelled/suppressed, etc, the Betrayer will spend his round recasting whatever spell if most obviously necessary for survival. The most critical protection spell, Antimagic Field, can be recast about 5 additional times during the challenge. If it becomes clear that more precise spell-loadouts are necessary for a long-haul challenger, I'll take care of that posthaste.


Simplified Stats: I assume bare minimum ability scores with a Wis focus.
---- AC: 12. Arrogantly never bothers, essentially autohit.
---- HP: 82 (102 post-Heroism) SR: 30
---- Fort: +13 unbuffed, +30 buffed; Ref: +10, +27 buffed; Will: +26, +43 buffed;


Helpful List of Immunities:
Immunity ----------------- (Source)<br />
Death from Damage -------- (Delay Death/Beastland Ferocity)<br />
Disease ------------------ (Bone Knight 8, Stone Body)<br />
Critical Hits ------------ (Bone Knight 10, Stone Body)<br />
Sneak Attack ------------- (Bone Knight 10, Stone Body)<br />
Nonlethal Damage --------- (Bone Knight 4, Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Stunning ----------------- (Bone Knight 4, Stone Body)<br />
Energy Drain/Level Loss -- (Bone Knight 8, Death Ward)<br />
Ability Damage/Drain ----- (Bone Knight 8, Sheltered Vitality, Stone Body)<br />
Poison ------------------- (Bone Knight 8, Stone Body)<br />
Suffocation/Drowning ----- (Stone Body)<br />
Antimagic/Dead Magic ----- (Initiate of Mystra)<br />
Pain Effects ------------- (Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Dazing ------------------- (Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Staggering --------------- (Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Nauseation --------------- (Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Fatigue ------------------ (Bone Knight 8, Sheltered Vitality, Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Exhaustion --------------- (Bone Knight 8, Sheltered Vitality, Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Charms/Compulsions ------- (Favor of Ilmater)<br />
Death Effects ------------ (Bone Knight 8, Death Ward)<br />
Grappling ---------------- (Freedom of Movement)<br />
Sleep Effects ------------ (Bone Knight 8)<br />
Fear Effects ------------- (Greater Heroism)<br />
Nonmagical Attacks ------- (Eladrin Form)<br />
Death from Massive Damage - (Bone Knight 8)

Disclaimer: This is going to be an evolving challenge. If someone says, "Hay LoP ur Betrayer can be killd by overeating!," I'm going to add "Protection from Heartburn" to the spell list. This isn't intended to make the Twice-Betrayer an unfair challenge, it is to keep the thread and its builds progressing towards greater optimization and not get hung up on small oversights. I'm all ears for improvements, so let's see where this nigh-invulnerable combo can go!

Variations:
Customization suggestions for adapting this build for non-challenge use.
If you're not interested in the additional spell options opened by either Ocular or Reach, dropped one or the other will clear the way for other feat options.
Likewise, while Shadow Weave Magic is thematically and strategically useful for the invulnerability challenge, it can be replaced without damaging "the trick."
If you're feeling magnanimous, toss in the Chain Spell feat to spread the lovin' more efficiently to large groups.
When wandering about in an Antimagic Field, note that your items won't be viable supplements for in-combat spellcasting. Thus, always pre-buff and load up Ocular spell.
If you expect to be dealing with other antimagic-ready opponents (read: The Betrayer's brother, the Cheater), go Warforged and use the spell "Golem Immunity" from Races of Eberron, which grants magical immunity to all spell-resistance-applicable spells. This variant also lets you continue to use your own items, so this is a pretty solid defensive choice if you're willing to lose the Human feats. Note that the Challenge's invulnerability combo does not work with this option.

[Telonius]

Jack B. Quick, originally posted by caelic, May 30 2006:

"That's him? That's the notorious Jack B. Quick?"
"Indeed, sir. Have a care...you may be a fine swordsman, but he's the fastest sword in the duchy!"

"Bah." Kothos sauntered forward, his greatsword slung casually over one massively-muscled shoulder. He eyed his opponent scornfully. The man didn't look like much. Average height, not particularly muscular, armed with a plain longsword and handaxe. "You, there! They say you're the fastest sword in the duchy."

The unassuming-looking swordsman smiled thinly. "In the world," he replied, quietly.

Kothos sneered. "Let's find out. Come at me!"

As Kothos assumed a fighting stance, Quick stepped in and struck, once...a stinging, insulting blow. Kothos growled. "That's it? So much for the fastest sword in the world. Goodbye!" So saying, he raised his greatsword for a lethal downswing.

A split-second later, Kothos lay sprawled on the ground, bleeding from half a dozen wounds. His opponent nonchalantly considered a small gash on his shoulder--barely a scratch. "Like I said," he addressed the air. "In the world."


In the spirit of Snow Savant's Chain Gatling Tripper, I offer Jack B. Quick.


Human Fighter 20

1. TWF, Dodge, WF (Longsword)
2. Combat Expertise
3. Improved Trip
4. WF (Handaxe)
5.
6. Improved TWF, High Sword Low Axe
7.
8. Combat Reflexes
9. Karmic Strike
10. Double Hit
11.
12. Robilar's Gambit, Mobility
13.
14. Elusive Target
15. Power Attack
16. Overpowering Attack
17.
18. Improved Unarmed Strike, Defensive Throw
19.
20. Sidestep


The basic notion of the character is simple: for every strike of the opponent's, he will get repeated strikes in return. Early in his life, he's a fairly straightforward two-weapon fighter. Once he hits level 9, though, he begins to shift to his trademark fighting style--his opponent hits him, he strikes back with sword and dagger, trips, and hits again with the sword.

By level 12, he's a full-fledged menace. For every hit by the opponent, Jack will get the following attack sequence: sword-axe-trip-sword, sword-axe-trip-sword. Theoretically, this is eight attacks; however, since most DMs won't allow a player to trip an already-tripped opponent, realistically Jack is going to get six hits to his opponent's one.

At level 16, Jack gets the icing on the cake. He takes a single attack per round (at double damage.) Any attack against him provokes the retaliation above, ALSO at double damage.

While I'm quite happy with the rough build, I'm not as happy with the sequence of feats. Some important feats get left until late in the build. I'd especially like to get Elusive Target earlier, to prevent opponents from out-damaging Jack with one massive shot. I'd also like to find a way to squeeze in Deft Opportunist.

Thoughts?

[Telonius]

Song of Death (allegedly the original BardBlade build), posted by JanusJones, Feb 20 2007 (will delete the "hide" stuff; had to expand to copy it):



This is a bardic martial adept build capable of, at 20th level, dealing an extra 12d6 energy damage on all of his attacks - before he adds on martial maneuvers or stances. Better yet, he's a BARD.

I was recently prowling through my ToB when I came across a feat I'd seen, but never really paid any attention to. The feat? Song of the White Raven.

This feat's primary ability is pathetic: it grants you the ability to start bardic music as swift action when in a white raven stance. So what? But that's there primarily to fool you into missing the second part of the feat, where the real juice is: that it lets your Crusader AND Warblade levels stack with bard levels for the purposes of the bonus from Inspire Courage!

So what, I hear you ask. After all, the bonus from Inspire Courage is only +4 by level 20. Bah humbug!

But wait! Due to a lovely little set of feats you can get that bonus up to +12 by 20th. Behold!

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Bard 3, Crusader OR Warblade 17. Either Crusader or Warblade will do just fine, but each will have its own advantages and disadvatages. Crusaders will have healing abilities, but Warblades can take advantage of the high Int necessary for Words of Creation and get bonus feats to boot. More on the pros and cons of each later.
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Int and Cha at least 15. After that, combat stats should have prevalence: Str, Con, and Dex are all important.
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Dragontouched (1st), Dragonfire Inspiration (human), Song of the Heart (3rd), Song of the White Raven (6th), Words of Creation (9th), Two-Weapon Fighting (12th), Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (15th), Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (18th).
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You have two good options here. The first is obvious - human. The second, of course, is Dragonborn, which removes the need for Dragontouched and gives you a number of supplemental abilities. Now the problem with this is that Dragontouched gives you access to sorcerer-based draconic feats, including Draconic Heritage. Draconic Heritage - Battle or Emerald Dragon can convert your Dragonfire Inspiration damage to sonic, which will go a long way towards making it more effective against higher-level enemies. The basic question is whether you'd rather have fire damage on a Dragonborn with Greater Two-Weapon Fighting (with martial maneuvers to cover fire immune and fire resistant enemies) or sonic damage (effecting a whole lot more enemies) on a human with Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (in effect, sacrificing an attack for a better energy type).
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This build is predicated on a couple of feats. The first, of course, is Song of the White Raven, which allows you to, as a Bard 3/Crusader or Warblade 17, count as a Bard 20 for the purposes of Inspire Courage. The bast bonus of +4 to attack and damage from Inspire Courage is then synergized and amplified with a series of feats. First there's Song of the Heart, which adds +1 to the bonus from Inspire Courage. Next there's the swift action 1st level spell Inspirational Boost, which adds yet another +1 (bringing the 20th level total to +6). Finally, there's the very sexy Words of Creation from the Book of Exalted Deeds, which allows you to, for the low, low price of only 3d4 non-lethal damage, DOUBLE the bonus from Inspire Courage. This brings our total to a whopping +12. True, adding a horn from Complete Adventurer could add another +2, but that would require an extra hand - and this is a two-weapon fighting build.

Dragonfire Inspiration is the reason that the build aims for dual-wielding. With Dragonfire Inspiration you can transform the bonus from Inspire Courage from a morale bonus to attack and damage into an equal number of fire damage dice added to attacks. In other words, +12d6 at 20th level. If you have the ability, the Draconic Heritage feat can allow you to transform this damage into a different energy type (acid and sonic being notably nice choices). This can be kind of dicey to get, however, and may cost you Greater Two-Weapon Fighting.

Ultimately, you end up with 9th level maneuvers, a +19 BaB, and the ability to gain either +12d6 energy damage to you and your allies' attacks or +12 to hit and damage three times per day. You also gain a +12 to saves vs. charms and fear when using bardic music.
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Both of these classes can be quite impressive at 17th level. Crusader packs some early punch, allowing you access to healing maneuvers and stances that will not only make you the party buffer but the party healer as well. Moreover, your 15 Cha will go to work shoring up your Will save, and furious counterstrike and steely resolve will make you an impressive tank. At higher levels, Aura of Triumph will make a two-weapon fighter capable of huge amounts of healing each round - up to 4x7 = 28 HP while damaging the enemy! For straight-up damage, Aura of Chaos allows each of your damage dice to "explode," re-rolling on a max result. With 12d6 added to each attack, a run of 6's can add up to an impressive amount of whomp.

Warblade, however, wins the straight damage competition. With gems like Raging Mongoose and Pouncing Charge from the Tiger Claw discipline, a two-weapon fighter can attain even more attacks per round and even make full attacks on a charge. Diamond Mind's Time Stands Still even allows two full attacks in a single round, making your damage output truly unbelievable. Moreover, Iron Heart and Diamond Mind maneuvers like Moment of Perfect Mind, Iron Heart Surge, and Iron Heart Endurance can allow you to withstand almost any assault, making you not only strong but tough. 4 extra bonus feats allow you to shore up your weak points (Blind Fight, Iron Will, Improved Initiative, and Quick Draw can all be very handy additions to yoru repetoire), and the Warblade's ability to add Int mod to various checks can be very handy (after all, Words of Creation requires at least a 15 Int!).

Both are excellent choices. Both have pros and cons. The Crusader will be a better party player and tougher (healing counts for a lot!). The Warblade will be a more versatile fighter and a more effective damage dealer. The choice is yours, and should be based on personal preferences and character style. Go for what your gut tells you would be more fun!
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This is dependent on your build, so I'll address each separately. Both builds assume the following starting stats (based on a 28-point buy):

Str 14
Con 10
Dex 15
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 14

One level-up point into Int, one into Cha, two into Dex, and one into Str. With a +6 enhancement item and +5 from a Tome, the character's final Strength score should be 26. An enhancement item for Dex will get you to where you need to be for the various TWF feats.

CRUSADER:

7 attacks wielding two whips while in the Aura of Chaos stance.

To Hit: +17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2 from BaB and TWF, +8 from Strength, +5 enhancement. Total is +30/+30/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15, with the potential for another +5 from furious counterstrike.

Damage: 1d3+13+12d6 four times, 1d3+9+12d6 three times. Total will be 7d3+79+84d6 on a full attack, or 7d3+114+84d6 with a fully charged furious counterstrike.

Assuming Aura of Chaos, the d3s will blow up 33% of the time and the d6s around 16% of the time. This raises the total to 9d3+79+99d6, or . . .

(9-27) + (99-510) + 79 = 187 - 616 damage

This rises to 222 - 651 if furious counterstrike has been fully charged.

WARBLADE:

7 attacks wielding a longsword and shortsword while in Punishing Stance.

To Hit: +17/+17/+12/+12/+7/+7/+2 from BaB and TWF, +8 from Strength, +5 enhancement. Total is +30/+30/+25/+25/+20/+20/+15. Double this when using Time Stands Still, add 4 attacks when attacking with Raging Mongoose, or use all these attacks at the end of a charge when employing Pouncing Charge.

Time Stands Still Damage: 1d8+13+12d6 eight times, 1d6+9+12d6 six times. Total will be 8d8+158+168d6 on a full attack.

(8-64) + (168-1008) + 158 = 334 - 1230 damage

The clear winner for damage is the Warblade, but the Crusader's style, steely resolve (able to delay 25 points of damage per round!), and healing abilities should not be discounted. Either build is viable and fun!
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You only have three uses of your bardic music per day, so save them for big fights. The rest of the time your martial maneuvers should be more than enough to take care of any and all enemies. Decide on whether to apply your energy dice to damage or the morale bonus to hit and damage based on your opponent's strengths and weaknesses. If you have fire dice and are fighting a red dragon, use your music to gain a morale bonus to hit and damage - you'll need it just to land your martial strikes! If fighting something with a lower AC that's vulnerable to your fire (but is dangerous), pull out your Dragonfire Inspiration and go to town.

Choose maneuvers that help your teammates. Your Dragonfire Inspiration will make other melee characters, summoners, clerics with undead minions, and even mounts and cohorts FAR more dangerous, so try to work tactically and keep them within the range of your music's effect. White Raven strikes and boosts can further aid teammates in closing with enemies, taking multiple actions, and even gaining extra hits, so don't hesitate to coordinate your crew's tactics. The other PCs will come to love you for this, and the synergistic effect of party-boosting maneuvers paired with your bardic music abilities will prove a daunting and effective combo.

If you're a Crusader, make sure to buy a composite longbow (which you'll be able to wield). Use it to land hits against targets you can't approach in melee. Sure, you'll only get 4 attacks per round, but your bardic music will make those hits hurt far more than any other melee-oriented martial adept could. If you're a Warblade you'll have to settle for the shortbow that your Bard levels give you proficiency with, but the loss of range and damage will be, at worst, marginal.

As a Crusader, use your healing aura to keep your teammates healthy and White Raven to keep them tactically efficient. Your strength in battle is based on your ability to take huge hits and keep ticking, bolstering your foes and decimating your enemies.

As a Warblade, look to close the combat quickly. With Tiger Claw maneuvers you'll be able to charge in and make a full attack against the most powerful foes within the first round of combat, leaving your allies to mop up the support forces. Consider Moment of Alacrity to ensure gaining initiative, and use the edge provided to annihilate any truly dangerous enemies right off the bat.
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This character does surprisingly well at low levels, managing a quite decent damage output even before accquiring Two-Weapon Fighting and Words of Creation. At level 1 you can add 2d6 with Inspirational Boost and Dragonfire Inspiration. By 3rd this becomes an extra 3d6 damage. At 4th level Warblades pick up Punishing Stance, for an impressive +4d6 damage when using bardic music. Wield a greatsword and you're swinging a 6d6 pound hammer at 4th level! With Crusaders, the benefit comes from Martial Spirit, which lets you heal 2 HP with every swing. By 8th level your extra fire damage is up to 4d6, which is doubled at 9th by Words of Creation. Meanwhile, you're constantly gaining maneuvers and stances and just generally getting buffer.
Well, I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I've dug writing it! Stay cool, and remember - just 'cause you like singing don't mean you're a pansy!

[Telonius]

The Cheater of Mystra, post was on May 28 2004 by zombiegleemax but the poster attributes it to Neonsamurai and Funny Slaughter (no date given):



The Cheater of Mystra, by Neonsamurai and Funny Slaughter

human Cleric of Mystra 5/ Dweomerkeeper 10/Divine Disciple 5

Dweomerkeeper is from the Complete Divine Web enhancement.
Divine Disciple is from Players Guide to Faerun

1 Cleric1 (Magic/Rune) Magical Training, Extend Spell<br />
2 Cleric2<br />
3 Cleric3 Persistant Spell<br />
4 Cleric4<br />
5 Cleric5<br />
6 Dweomerkeeper1 Divine Metamagic (Persistant)<br />
7 DwK2<br />
8 Divine Disciple1<br />
9 DiD2 Initiate of Mystra<br />
10 DiD3<br />
11 DiD4 (Spell Domain)<br />
12 DiD5 Quicken Spell<br />
13 DwK3<br />
14 DwK4<br />
15 DwK5 Reach Spell<br />
16 DwK6<br />
17 DwK7<br />
18 DwK8 Maximize Spell<br />
19 DwK9<br />
20 DwK10

edited the feats according the change of prerequisites for divine metamagic. removed extra turning as the new item "Nightsticks" from libris mortis give a good amount of turning attempts with little investment

recommended Spells for Mantle of Spells:

6th summon monster III

this one is discussable. i think its quite handy to have some summoning ready all the time.
read my section about aid another in the tactics compendium...

Anyspell would be also nice, of course

13th greater anyspell

you can prepare any arcane spell of up to 5th level.
polymorph self, create magic tatoo, the list is endless

15th greater dispel magic

you never know when you need this one.
counterspell if you want, dispel when you want and never waste a spell-slot on the spell

17th heal

just in case your party thinks a cleric should be an healer. you can prepare combat-, utility and buff-spells and have some spontaneus heal ready nontheless.

19th miracle

just combine this one with your su-ability and after a few days no member of your party will feel the need to read a tome anymore

talk to your gods (read: DM) before if they like all these "miracles" happen every day, maybe its wise to choose something else :D

why is this build called "Cheater of Mystra"?

This build combines nearly all abilities from the new books PGtF and CD.

Spells at lvl 14 for example:
- persistant holy star: spell turning, +10 AC or 7d6 fire damage. the whole day.
- quickened divine favor: +3 to attack and damage
- extended spikes for +10 damage
- extended magic vestment (*2) for +8 AC
- extended greater magic weapon for +4 to attack and damage
- extended shield of faith (only 28 min) +6 AC
- polymorph self (planetar) for +17 AC, Str 25, Dex 19, Con 20, Immunity to acid, cold, and petrification, fly 90 ft. (good), large size
- persistant righteus might, size huge, +4 Str, +4 Con, +4 AC, DR 9/evil (if your DM let it stack with polymorph, otherwise get divine power)

(this list does not claim to be complete)

without magic equipment:
AC: 63 (10 + 12 (fullplate) + 6 (animated shield) + 6 (deflection) + 21 (natural) - 2 (size) + 10 (circumstance))
Attack: +30/+25 ( 9 (BAB) +11 (str) + 6 (divine favor) + 4 (gmw)) [smile into the face of ANY monster]
Damage: 4d6 (huge darkwood greatsword) + 36

this build can be found in the build-FAQ.
please report errors or improvements here


gs
Funny

[Prime32]

The Really Big Guy Is With Me. Originally posted by phaedrusxy, March 19 2009:The original "The Big Guy is With Me" build (http://community.wizards.com/forum/previous-editions-character-optimization/threads/1000846) is four years older than that.

[GilesTheCleric]

Thank you very much, Telonius. I've added all of these to the index of wizards material (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444041-Threads-from-the-Wizards-forums&p=19847657#post19847657).

[Bonzai]

Psycarnum Warrior is a favorite of mine.
http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3541096

[GilesTheCleric]

If anyone has favourite builds or posts, I encourage you to lend a hand and copy it over. It's not difficult to do; there's instructions in the index thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?444041-Threads-from-the-Wizards-forums&p=19847991). There'a also a list of recommended threads to copy in post #2 if you're looking to help out but don't know what needs to be copied.

[martixy]

Might wanna start using the tags feature of the forums to help with SEO once the WotC place goes down under.

[KellKheraptis]

While this may be a three month old thread, would you like me to post the modern version of the Chrono-Legionnaire when I finish it? It will also include a section on killing the Twice-Betrayer, the Heca, and the 10x100.

[GilesTheCleric]

It's technically a thread necro, so it's probably a better idea to start a new thread. I'll link them from the WotC index (in sig).