Dragonfire Inspiration/Manticore Belt Archer

[Grod_The_Giant]

Manticore Belt just screams out to be combined with Skirmish. A standard-action attack with multiple shots? Yes please! Unfortunately, the Rules Compendium was cruel enough to rule against "volley damage." But surely we can come up with some other way to throw out lots of d6's? How about... Dragonfire Inspiration? Can we make that work? (Updated 11/14)

Silverbrow Human (or Azurin, with flaws) Totemist 2/Divine Bard 1/Fighter 2/Bard +3/Human Paragon 2/Incarnate 2/Bard+4/anything 4)

Abilities: Put your best score in Wisdom and your second best in Strength. If your campaign is going to high enough levels and your GM agrees with the "doubles all bonuses" aspect of Words of Creation, you'll want a good enough Int that you can get it up to 15 by 12th level, but if not then it might not be worth it. Con is obvious, and you'll need a bit if you want multiple melds; Dex will help you at low levels and Cha is thematic, but not actually necessary.

Feats:
1: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
1B: Point-Blank Shot.
1F: Dragonblooded
1F: Draconic Heritage
3: Dragonfire Inspiration
4B: Intuitive Attack
5B: Precise Shot
6: Bonus Essentia
9: Obtain Familiar
10B: Share Soulmeld
12: Words of Creation
14B: Song of the Heart (trade for Suggestion)
15: Anything
18: Anything

*If you're building just for 20th, take a level of Contemplative here and pick up the War domain to natively cast Divine Power. Probably not worth it otherwise.
**You could also take Combat Casting at 15th and take your last three levels as Abjurant Champion, which would net you another +2 BAB if you can't come up with a magical replacement.

Key magic items: Badge of Valor, Vest of Legends, Incarnum Focus, and... yeah, probably either a wand of Divine Power or an Amulet of Mighty Fists with the Skillful enchantment. (You could also put Splitting on there if you really want to give someone a heart attack-- pick up a second for your familiar and throw around 42 attacks/round at more than 13d6 damage a pop. You'll probably deal over 2000 damage if they all hit.)

If you do everything right, you wind up with 6th level spells at CL 13, +11 BAB, +12 Inspire Courage, 10 essentia, five spare soulmelds, and a partridge in a pear tree*-- that works out to a lovely 182d6 damage, plus three and a half times your strength and three and a half times your familiar's strength, assuming everything hits. And if you don't feel like shooting, you're quite capable of melee work as well, thanks to the a secondary Str focus and the ability to use your sky-high Wis to make melee attack rolls. It should be playable from level 1 (albeit probably as a melee fighter for the first few levels), fully assembled by level 6, and downright abusive by 12th.

Level 1-3: The Rough Start
I'm not going to lie: At low levels you're a melee fighter. Luckily that's not hard, since you can survive with a longspear at 1st and rock out your choice of totem meld at 2nd. You should have enough Strength to make that tolerable, and enough spare melds to have fun. (Blink Shirt for at-will level 2 teleports is hard to argue with). At 3rd, Divine Bard gives you DFI once a day, and your power starts to climb [I'd use the Lore Song, Healing Hymn, and Spellbreaker Song ACFs, but they're not necessary— just minor upgrades to things you aren't using). I highly recommend Landshark Boots here— four attacks (with DFI!) with pseudo-pounce at level 3 is brutal.

Level 4-6: I Love It When a Build Comes Together
At level 4 and 5 you can pick up the second to last pieces of your build: Intuitive Attack and Precise Shot. Now your abilities scores make sense. Dex is irrelevant in heavy armor (and heck, carry a tower shield too! It's not like you were using your hands for anything), and Wisdom is used for both attacks and casting. Deliciously, since DFI will let you make up for any damage difference, this lets you stay a switch-hitter for your entire career. Caught in melee? Mace them in the face and keep going! Don't feel like shooting for a day? Pick up Girallon Arms or Landshark Boots instead! Hopping back to Bard gives you Inspirational Boost as your first 1st-level spell, and by now you should have a Badge of Valor. Can you say "twelve d6's of flaming death a round?" You're a tank. Literally a tank— you're wrapped in layers of metal and firing bursts of fiery death at anything that crosses your path.

Level 7-12: Exploring and Developing
Two more levels of bard give you enough music uses to make it through the day. Your casting isn't fantastic, but it's enough for our purposes and a little utility besides— your CL stinks, but your spells/day and save DCs shouldn't be horrendous. Two levels of Human Paragon give you the last major piece of the build: a familiar and Share Soulmeld. Congradulations, your damage/round just doubled. I recommend a dog, incidentally— it has great Dex and as high a Str as you can expect to find in a familiar. (Bonus points if it's something innocuous looking like a basset hound). Then back to Incarnate for some more essentia, which between the level-based increase and a now-affordable Incarnum Focus you'll be needing around now. A Vest of Legends will hopefully also make an appearance in this range. And if you can get it, a Necklace of +1 Splitting Natural Attacks is probably not reasonable but absolutely insane.

Level 13-16: Don't Stop the Music
More bard, more bard. We're really just trying to get to Inspire Courage +2 here.

Level 17-20: Open
Anything goes!

Azurin Totemist 2/Bard 5/Warblade 13

Feats:
1- Point-Blank Shot
1B- Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
1 (flaw)- Precise Shot
1 (flaw)- Dragonblooded
3-Dragonfire Inspiration
6-Bonus Essentia
9-Song of the White Raven
12- Words of Creation
14B- Imp. Ini
15-Cobalt Precision
16B- Ironheart
18- Sapphire Sprint

(if flaws aren't allowed, be a Silverbrow Human and take a level of Fighter at ECL 4 to pick up Point-Blank Shot).

Take Inspirational Boost as your first 1st-level bard spell; buy the usual Badge of Valor and Vest of Legends, an Incarnate Focus, Splitting on a Necklace of Natural Attacks if your GM will go for it, and shoot all the flaming spikes. Augment your hail of death with a handful of bard spells and maneuvers. It should be functional from level 1 (or level 4 if you can't use a flaw). Thoughts? Suggestions?'

EDIT: No wait, disregard. You should go Totemist/Paladin with Song to Smite and Share Soulmeld. That's a lot more spikes... but also a lot more feat intensive. Hmm...

[Troacctid]

It is a travesty that your Bard does not have Obtain Familiar and Share Soulmeld.

[Grod_The_Giant]

The hard part is feats... I need so many feats for the archery to function, so many for the music, so many for the melds...

[Talionis]

I think you have the right idea take two Fighter levels for the Archery feats. I don't think it will hurt your Inspire Courage that much.

I don't think the limited choices of Warblade feats help much. You only need 10 levels of initiator to qualify for 8th level maneuvers, but 14 to qualify for 9 the level maneuvers at level 20. There aren't many maneuvers that help with ranged attacks, you might consider Crusader for furious counter strike bonus to attack and damage.

I maybe missing something but you may want more Bard levels for the spells, just to find the best break points.

Another thought is a level of Cloistered Cleric. Knowledge Devotion is a nice bonus, especially for Bards high number of skill points, Elf domain picks up an Archery feat. If you can find the right Domains it can be like getting three feats. Azurin Cleric can even trade turn undead for channeling Incarnum to get bonus essentia for a round .

[Darrin]

The hard part is feats... I need so many feats for the archery to function, so many for the music, so many for the melds...

Is Precise Shot a prereq for anything? Assuming your spikes count as natural weapons (MoI never identifies them as such), you might be able to add the Precision property via Necklace of Natural Attacks.

I presume you mean the Dragontouched feat, although you can get the dragonblood subtype via Dragonborn of Bahamut and still keep the Azurin bonus feat if you lose some other feat instead. The Warblade bonus feat, for example. Or if you do the fighter dip, swap Tower Shield for Exotic Shield Proficiency and lose that. Or write into your backstory that your bard is from Salkiria, and he starts with Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Bola Flail (Ghostwalk p. 141).

You can also swap Bardic Music for feats via the Music of Creation rules in Eberron. Soothe the Beast can be had at Bard 3, but you likely want to keep inspire competence and get Song of the Heart at Bard 6.

What is Sapphire Sprint for? Just the +1 essentia? Incarnum Spellshaping might work better there... adds at least one spell, possibly more with UMD.

[animewatcha]

What about less warblade and more toward the bard? Bard 3rd level spell. Creaking Cacophony. Lyric thaumaturge 5th level. Expend bardic music for 1d6 sonic damage per spell level added to sonic spell that is cast. Creaking Cacophony is a sonic spell.

How would creaking cacophony work with that ability? 3d6 sonic ( plus vulnerability ) every round or 3d6 sonic ( plus vulnerability ) added to every time that mob gets hit by sonic damage ( that is also modified by vulnerability )?

Cause thinking of dragonfire inspire + manticore belt + creaking cacophony + spell might...

[Talionis]

What about less warblade and more toward the bard? Bard 3rd level spell. Creaking Cacophony. Lyric thaumaturge 5th level. Expend bardic music for 1d6 sonic damage per spell level added to sonic spell that is cast. Creaking Cacophony is a sonic spell.

How would creaking cacophony work with that ability? 3d6 sonic ( plus vulnerability ) every round or 3d6 sonic ( plus vulnerability ) added to every time that mob gets hit by sonic damage ( that is also modified by vulnerability )?

Cause thinking of dragonfire inspire + manticore belt + creaking cacophony + spell might...
Along with this, I think there is a way to change the damage type of Dragonfire Inspiration to Sonic, it requires being Dragon blooded of a dragon with a Sonic breathe weapon. Edited in: if you have the Draconic Heritage feat or are a half dragon you get the type of damage of the dragon of your heritage.

I also agree that the number of Warblade levels seemed arbitrarially geared towards getting Warblade bonus feats that were of little obvious use to this build.

[Rubik]

A grig's master fiddle and some UMD grants you the bardic music of a 9th level bard. One level in ardent, a high Wis, and some StP erudite/Psychic Chirurgery abuse can net you plenty of bard spells, as well as a fighter feat from Heroism. DCFSing most of your classes' armor and shield proficiency feats (and weapon proficiency feats, depending on race; kobolds have two and are dragonblooded) will net you quite a few feats, as well. A level in warrior skald, from Races of Faerun, will grant you pretty much all of a bard's bardic music, which you get automatically as soon as you qualify via Perform ranks.

That should free you up some levels to work with.

[Grod_The_Giant]

So secondary goals here:

Be playable from as low a level as possible, with the main trick coming online as soon as possible. I want the build to be useable in a normal game.
Involve as little cheese as possible, and as few sketchy readings-- it should be accepted without much argument. So I don't much want to count on DCFS, much less claiming that class proficiencies are valid feats to remove.

The Warblade was in there mostly for the full BAB, and Sapphire Smite was indeed for the Essentia. Right now, though, I'm thinking that I need to either grab a familiar, or do a Song to Smite Paladin for the mount-- that would get me better Str behind the spikes, but less music/day...

[Darrin]

Along with this, I think there is a way to change the damage type of Dragonfire Inspiration to Sonic, it requires being Dragon blooded of a dragon with a Sonic breathe weapon.


Dragontouched allows you to take Draconic feats as if you were a sorcerer, so you can follow that up with Draconic Heritage (Emerald Dragon) for [sonic] damage. Takes up two feat slots, though.



I also agree that the number of Warblade levels seemed arbitrarially geared towards getting Warblade bonus feats that were of little obvious use to this build.

Typical Bardblade is Bard 4/Warblade 16. If you want to skip Dragontouched and keep the Azurin/Human bonus feat, losing the first Warblade bonus feat might be worth it. You're stuck with [fire] damage, but that's still better than a poke in the eye. In this case, I'd really recommend sticking with at least six levels of Bard, which lets you trade suggestion for Song of the Heart.


So secondary goals here:
Right now, though, I'm thinking that I need to either grab a familiar, or do a Song to Smite Paladin for the mount-- that would get me better Str behind the spikes, but less music/day...

If you mean the "From Smite to Song" feat from Champions of Valor, it actually gives you more Inspire Courage, not less.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you mean the "From Smite to Song" feat from Champions of Valor, it actually gives you more Inspire Courage, not less.
How so? You get one bardic music per bard level, whereas with Smite to Song you have to rely on smites, which are only 1/5 levels.

[Darrin]

How so? You get one bardic music per bard level, whereas with Smite to Song you have to rely on smites, which are only 1/5 levels.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you were taking Paladin levels as well as Bard levels, not replacing Bard with Paladin. That being said... some other things to consider:

Divine Bard + Prestige Paladin + Devoted Performer or Initiate of Milil? Mythic Exemplar 2 can also stack with bardic music, or give Inspire Courage to a non-bard Paladin.

[Taveena]

For what little it's worth, someone with Pyroclastic Dragon heritage, War Chanter levels, and Seeker of the Song levels, can play Inspire Courage, Dragonfire Inspiration (Fire) and Dragonfire Inspiration (Sonic) all at the same time. With Words of Creation, that can be +16 morale bonus to damage, +16d6 fire damage, and +16d6 sonic damage.

[Rubik]

Involve as little cheese as possible, and as few sketchy readings-- it should be accepted without much argument. So I don't much want to count on DCFS, much less claiming that class proficiencies are valid feats to remove.Armor and shield proficiencies are explicitly granted as feats. Go check the Armor and Shield Proficiency feats in the SRD.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Armor and shield proficiencies are explicitly granted as feats. Go check the Armor and Shield Proficiency feats in the SRD.
Oh, huh. Never noticed that before. I still don't think DCFS would fly at most tables, but it's a neat trick to know.

[animewatcha]

If Dark chaos shuffle, can always ask if willing to spend WBL via retraining them away.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Hmm... okay, revised build, now 50% more intense:

Azurin Totemist 2/Bard 1/Fighter 2/Bard +2/Human Paragon 2/Incarnate 3/Bard+5/Anything 3

1: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
1B: Dragonblooded
3: DFI
4B: Point-Blank
5B: Precise
6: Bonus Essentia
8B:Obtain Familiar (Dog)
9: Share Soulmeld
12: Words of Creation
15: Song of the Heart
18:Improved Familiar? Open Greater Chakra?

If flaws are allowed, you can cut out the fighter level altogether, pick up Draconic Heritage, and/or just move all your feats forward a bit.


At 3rd level, when your schtick first appears, you can pump out 3 spikes, each doing 2d6+1/2 Str. You aren't much of an archer yet, but you should have enough Strength and music to fight hand-to-hand your enemies are all in melee.
By 6th level, with Inspirational Boost and a Badge of Valor, we're talking 4 spikes at 4d6+1/2 Str each. This is usually my default level-- I assume most campaigns will wind up around here, one way or another.
At 9th we get a big boost with Share Soulmeld, doubling our spike count to 8. Somewhere around here you can probably pick up a Vest of Legends, bringing your damage/round up to 8x5d6. A dog offers the best mix of positive strength and dexterity I could find. Since it needs to stick close to you for Share Soulmeld, bonus points for having it be something utterly innocuous. (Yorkie? Basset Hound?)
You hit endgame around 18th level, when your essentia capacity tops out. With 7 spikes each and +12d6 DFI bonus damage, we're talking almost 200d6 damage (182d6, to be precise). You're only at about a medium BAB, but all your attacks are at the full value. Plus, you have up to 12th level bard casting and a fair chunk of skill points, plus a couple soulmelds and plenty of essentia to power them. Invest some of your cash in an eternal wand of Open Least Chakra at the very least, and beg your party casters to whip out Open Lesser and Greater Chakras every now and again.


How's that for ranged damage?

[Vhaidara]

I had a combo a while back that threw together Heart of Fire with Manticore Belt on a Totemist 20 build. Double Bind to totem, and use Belt of Battle. Gets you 32 attacks in a single round, each dealing (before feats/items) 1d6+16d4 fire each.

[xyianth]

Some tips for consideration:

You can save a feat by taking 1 level of dragonfire adept, it grants dragontouched as a bonus feat. Lets you pick up a least invocation and a breath weapon as well. If you don't need the extra feat, take this level as your first level and pick up entangling exhalation in place of dragontouched. That will easily carry you several levels while you build the foundation of your build.

A level of binder can also let you snag precise shot + ricochet by binding leraje. (also grants access to naberius and all of his wonderful uses)

If all you care about is dragonfire inspiration and inspire courage, you can swap any bardsong after inspire competence for song of the heart instead.

A level of dragonblooded sorcerer can get you the dragon heritage feat as a bonus feat, letting you change the bonus damage from DFI to something other than fire.

When it comes to bonus fighter feats, other options to consider are:

combat wizard: gets you a free familiar(scales on wizard level though, so you might want to trade it anyway) and 1st level spells
martial rogue: trapfinding, skill points
mariner: +1 BAB, and a skill bonus to sea-themed things (from dragonlance Legend of the Twins)

Finally, bardsong based builds perform much better with the subsonics and/or lingering song feats.

[Darrin]

Azurin Totemist 2/Bard 1/Fighter 1/Bard +2/Human Paragon 2/Incarnate 3/Bard+5/Anything 4


Incarnate gives you Sighting Gloves, so that puts the equivalent of Precise Shot back in the build. I think you can share that with your familiar as well.

Hmm... I was wondering if we can give Manticore Belt to a Soulspark Familiar, but it's amorphous so it only has a heart and soul chakra. So that won't work.

But ideally, you want a familiar, animal companion, and a special mount for 28 spike attacks. There's a variant bard in UA that gets an animal companion, but loses bardic music... so that won't work. A Wild Cohort might... but you can't share spells with it unless you have 5 levels of Silverwood Arcanist. Maybe dip 1 level of Druid or Beastmaster?

Hmm... I can find a couple PrCs that grant a special mount outside of paladin, but the requirements don't work with the rest of the build.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You can save a feat by taking 1 level of dragonfire adept, it grants dragontouched as a bonus feat. Lets you pick up a least invocation and a breath weapon as well. If you don't need the extra feat, take this level as your first level and pick up entangling exhalation in place of dragontouched. That will easily carry you several levels while you build the foundation of your build.
...
A level of binder can also let you snag precise shot + ricochet by binding leraje. (also grants access to naberius and all of his wonderful uses)
...
A level of dragonblooded sorcerer can get you the dragon heritage feat as a bonus feat, letting you change the bonus damage from DFI to something other than fire.

Good thoughts, to be sure, though each does add yet another weird flavor bit to an already odd and dip-tastic build... It's not impossible, but... hmm. A level of DFA isn't that bad, since we already have to be a little bit draconic for DFI. Plus I can pick up Beguiling Influence or See the Unseen or something for a little more utility.


If all you care about is dragonfire inspiration and inspire courage, you can swap any bardsong after inspire competence for song of the heart instead.
You can? Where are the rules for that, because I would love to do it.


When it comes to bonus fighter feats, other options to consider are:

combat wizard: gets you a free familiar(scales on wizard level though, so you might want to trade it anyway) and 1st level spells
martial rogue: trapfinding, skill points
mariner: +1 BAB, and a skill bonus to sea-themed things (from dragonlance Legend of the Twins)
The Martial Rogue would certainly be better if you're using fractional BAB; without that, I don't want to dip too many lower-BAB classes or I'll lose all ability to hit anything.


Finally, bardsong based builds perform much better with the subsonics and/or lingering song feats.[/QUOTE]
Meh, I can sing and shoot just fine. It's a low priority.


Incarnate gives you Sighting Gloves, so that puts the equivalent of Precise Shot back in the build. I think you can share that with your familiar as well.
I'd have to bind it to my hands, though, which means either a 4th level of Incarnate or a 6th+ level feat, both of which are in short supply. I mean, I could throw in another Incarnate level, but I don't want to have to wait so long to get things rolling. (Or a 4th level Eternal Wand, but I dislike builds that don't function without very specific items. Especially expensive ones)


Hmm... I was wondering if we can give Manticore Belt to a Soulspark Familiar, but it's amorphous so it only has a heart and soul chakra. So that won't work.
I'm also not 100% sure that Share Soulmeld works with them.


But ideally, you want a familiar, animal companion, and a special mount for 28 spike attacks. There's a variant bard in UA that gets an animal companion, but loses bardic music... so that won't work. A Wild Cohort might... but you can't share spells with it unless you have 5 levels of Silverwood Arcanist. Maybe dip 1 level of Druid or Beastmaster?
Hmm...

[Troacctid]

I'm also not 100% sure that Share Soulmeld works with them.

They're not a familiar, mount, or animal companion, so it 100% does not work with them.

[xyianth]

You can? Where are the rules for that, because I would love to do it.

Eberron Campaign Setting, page 34; under the Music of Creation section. The only reason you can't swap inspire competence is that it is a prerequisite for the song of the heart feat itself.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Okay... if we bind Lerage and use the ECS rules (thanks, xyianth!) we can get the whole thing off the ground by 6th, with DFI getting its big boosts out of the way by 12th.

Silverbrow human (Savage?) Bard 1/Totemist 2/Binder 1/Bard +2/Incarnate 2/Bard +5/Sublime Chord 2/Abjuration Champion 5

1: DFI
1b: Obtain Familiar
3: Share Soulmeld
6: Bonus Essentia
9: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
11b: Song of the Heart (in exchange for Suggestion)
12: Words of Creation
15: Combat Casting
18: Your choice of crappy +1 essentia feats

If you do everything right, you wind up with 7th level spells at CL 15, +14 BAB, +12 Inspire Courage, 7 essentia, four spare soulmelds, and a partridge in a pear tree*-- that works out to a lovely 182d6 damage, plus three and a half times your strength and your familiar's strength. +3.5 times you Str +3.5 times your familiar's strength as a standard action by 20th level, assuming everything hits.

Pro: You can do reliable, heavy damage from somewhere around 5th level and up. (By then you have all your basic feats, enough bardic music to make it through the day, and your first two Inspire Courage boosters are in play). You're not a one-trick pony either-- you've got plenty of skill points thanks to all your bard levels, access to a wide range of soulmelds, and a pretty solid amount of magic, which upticks dramatically at higher levels when you really need it. The build also scales down surprisingly well-- a less permissive reading (or absence) of Words of Creation drops your damage significantly, as does not taking a familiar, and dropping Sublime Chord pulls you down to only 5th level spells-- making it accessible at a wider range of optimization levels.
Con: You're pretty MAD, since you need 15 Int for Words of Creation, Dex for ranged attacks and light armor, Str for damage, and Cha for casting. Your BAB starts off pretty poorly as well, which only increases your need for high stats-- beg for fractional BAB rules. You also dip more and mix more flavor than some groups are likely comfortable with.


The last 7 levels aren't really important to the build, though. If you wanted to throw in a bunch of glass cannons, you could replace those final few levels with Paladin 5/Druid 1/Beastmaster 1 for another three spike-throwers, )although they're unlike to hit anything). You could also veer into Seeker of the Song for two levels to double up on Inspire Courage and DFI. If you abandon Abjurant Champion, you can use Improved Familiar to pick up something

If flaws are on the table, things get better:

You can cut the difficult-to-flavor Binder level and just take Point-Blank and Precise Shot at 1st level using flaws.
You can take Draconic Heritage as a Silverbrow, or take Dragonblooded as an Azurin. (Or both! The two races are really just a feat apart)
You could pick up some more essentia via crappy feats
You can grab Combat Casting at 1st and Improved Familiar at 15th.
If you can persuade your GM to make some mildly permissive readings, a Dragonborn Killoren can pick up Obtain Familiar and Charming the Arrow with flaws, reducing your MAD.

Unfortunately, you can't get the key build feats any sooner, since two require you to be a bard (DFI and Obtain Familiar), two require meldshaping (Share Soulmeld and Expanded Capacity), and two have level requirements (Bonus Essentia and Song of the Heart).

One possible variant is to go Paladin instead of Bard, taking From Smite to Song at level 1 instead of Obtain Familiar-- though be sure that your GM will let you multiclass back. (You might also need a Harmonious Bard substitution level to qualify for DFI, depending on GM rulings). If you do, I'd shift the order of levels a bit to get your 5th Paladin level (and mount) ahead of the Incarnate levels, and switch Expanded Soulmeld Capacity and Share Soulmeld around in the feat order. This one gets MUCH better on the MAD front if flaws are allowed-- grab Serenity and either Intuitive Attack (Manticore Belt is prooobably a natural attack) or Brutal Throw, if you can persuade your GM that way instead. Doing so drops your stat requirements to just Str, Wis, and the Int for Words of Creation. You could try fitting in Battle Blessing and/or Sword of the Arcane Order as well (Human Paragon 2?), though that's probably pushing the build to the limit. In the end, you wind up with a lot less flexibility (due to the weaker casting and fewer skill points) but more offensive power (thanks to higher BAB and potentially lack of MAD).


*Assuming proper familiar selection.

[Troacctid]

Obtain Familiar requires 3rd level.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Obtain Familiar requires 3rd level.
Wait, what? <checks> son of a crap, you're right. Umm...damn. That makes this much harder again.

[Troacctid]

The following prestige classes grant familiars, mounts, or animal companions that are compatible with Share Soulmeld, if that helps.

Beastmaster
Celebrant of Sharess
Demonologist
Diabolist
Gatekeeper Mystagogue
Harper Paragon
Knight of the Blue Moon
Mystic Wanderer
Nar Demonbinder
Peregrine Runner
Prestige Paladin
Prestige Ranger
Triadic Knight

[Grod_The_Giant]

Mmm... Azurin Totemist 2/Bard 1/Binder 1/Bard +3/Human Paragon 2/Bard+2/Incarnate 1/Bard +2/Sublime Chord 1/Abjurant Champion 5.

1- Expanded Soulmeld Capacity and Dragonblooded.
3- DFI
6- Bonus Essentia.
9- Obtain Familiar and Share Soulmeld (Human Paragon)
11- Song of the Heart (trade in Suggestion)
12- Words of Creation
15- Combat Casting
18- any +1 Essence feat

You still wind up with CL 15 and 7th level spells, but only +13 BAB. (Unless fractional rules are in effect, in which case you get +16 and have a much easier time at low levels). It still works at around the same levels, but your damage doesn't start to spike until 9-12, where it goes waaay up almost every level.

[Troacctid]

I think Soulcaster would make a lot more sense topping out the build than Abjurant Champion. The numbers on it are just better. Remember that each extra point of essentia can be translated into a +1 insight bonus on ranged attack rolls via Incarnate Avatar (Chaos). Plus you save a feat.

At the very least, the third level of Human Paragon is strictly better than the fifth level of Abjurant Champion.

[xyianth]

I think Soulcaster would make a lot more sense topping out the build than Abjurant Champion. The numbers on it are just better. Remember that each extra point of essentia can be translated into a +1 insight bonus on ranged attack rolls via Incarnate Avatar (Chaos). Plus you save a feat.

At the very least, the third level of Human Paragon is strictly better than the fifth level of Abjurant Champion.

Doesn't work with his build. Incarnates must be neutral in one component and words of creation requires good alignment. This build only works as a neutral good character, which means incarnate avatar is a bonus to AC not ranged attack rolls. You can still go with soulcaster, but you can't use that particular combo.

[Talionis]

Doesn't work with his build. Incarnates must be neutral in one component and words of creation requires good alignment. This build only works as a neutral good character, which means incarnate avatar is a bonus to AC not ranged attack rolls. You can still go with soulcaster, but you can't use that particular combo.

Of course three levels of Soulcaster opens up the hands chakra for Sighting Gloves granting precise shot feet, more essentia and Damage.

Also the more melds you have with offensive bonuses the more stuff you are passing onto your Familiar.

[Zombulian]

While you have already moved on to the inspiration focus of this build, I've always thought that a reading of Greater Manyshot (maybe picked up from a level of Martial Monk) could get past the issue of skirmish on every spike.

[Rubik]

While you have already moved on to the inspiration focus of this build, I've always thought that a reading of Greater Manyshot (maybe picked up from a level of Martial Monk) could get past the issue of skirmish on every spike.Is it still considered a volley if you roll to hit with each spike anyway?

[Zombulian]

Is it still considered a volley if you roll to hit with each spike anyway?


"As a standard action, you can snap your tail to loose a volley of spikes..."

It's not the best defense but it's what I could find.

[Darrin]

While you have already moved on to the inspiration focus of this build, I've always thought that a reading of Greater Manyshot (maybe picked up from a level of Martial Monk) could get past the issue of skirmish on every spike.

Greater Manyshot only works with arrows. It won't work with tail spikes.


Is it still considered a volley if you roll to hit with each spike anyway?

The "Volley" attack has never actually been enshrined in the rules, or at least not how you're thinking about it (10 or more archers can make an "Arrow Volley" attack, as per Complete Warrior/Heroes of Battle). It may have been in the 3.0 FAQ at some point, but the Volley rule you're probably thinking of actually comes from "Rules of the Game: All About Sneak Attacks (Part Four) (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/rg/20040309a)". As far as the rules hierarchy goes, this was never written into a sourcebook or errata, so it counts as one of Skip's house rules. It's been extrapolated from the Manyshot entry in the 3.5 PHB, which states:

"Regardless of the number of arrows you fire, you apply precision-based damage (such as sneak attack damage) only once."

You'll notice that the rules don't define what counts as precision-based damage outside of sneak attack, nor does it identify when this limitation applies outside of sneak attacking with arrows. Something else you'll want to notice is even if you have multiple attack rolls, Skip only allows precision damage on the first attack:

"With spell effects that allow you to make multiple attack rolls, such as the energy orb spells or the Split Ray feat from Tome and Blood, you must treat the effect like a volley -- only the first attack can be a sneak attack."

After XPH was published with Greater Manyshot, there was an exception, although rules-wise this is just "specific trumps general" when using that particular feat. But many people extrapolated that "multiple attack rolls = multiple precision damage", and generalized that to any ability/effect that made multiple attacks with multiple attack rolls. It's still a house rule, but easy to remember and adjudicate quickly:

One attack roll = only first attack gets precision damage. Multiple attack rolls = every attack gets precision damage.

But the Rules Compendium put the kibosh on this, restricting multiple precision damage by the action type rather than the number of attack rolls:

"A form of attack that enables an attacker to make multiple attacks during an action other than a full-round action, such as the Manyshot feat (standard action) or a quickened scorching ray (swift action), allows precision damage to be applied only to the first attack in the group."

This creates a quirk to the rules where a Sorcerer casting scorching ray with a metamagic feat (increasing the casting time to a full-round action) gets precision damage on each ray, where most spellcasters don't.

Dragonfire Inspiration gets around these issues because it's never identified as precision damage. Thus, it applies to every attack that hits, regardless of the action type that produced the attack.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Alternate option:
Azurin Paladin (Harmonious Knight) 1/Totemist 2/Binder 1/Paladin +4/Totemist +2/Paladin +3/anything 7* (though you probably want another two levels of Totemist before ECL 18, so you have enough essence to max out your belt).
1: Dragonblooded, DFI. (With Flaws: Serenity and Intuitive Attack (if your GM agrees that Manticore Belt is a natural weapon) or Zen Archery (if not)
3: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
6: Bonus Essential
9: Share Soulmeld
12: Words of Creation
15: Song to Smite (It takes until about now for your Smite-inspiration to grant a higher bonus than +1)
18: Song of the Heart

While it doesn't have the Bard's superior skills or casting, it DOES have much better BAB and low-level game... And better yet, it can be MUCH less MAD by taking Intuitive Attack (Ideally) or Zen Archery to replace Dex, and Serenity to make the Paladin's features work of Wisdom as well. Then you wear plate and ride a Griffin while both of you pepper everything you see with spikes. But, you know, wisely.

The biggest weakness that I can see is that paladins don't get Inspirational Boost, which drops their comparative damage considerably. (-28d6 by the time things cap off, though better strength from you and your mount might help). It would probably be worth a 2-level Bard dip eventually (you'd need to be a Paladin of Freedom, but you'd probably want to be one anyway), but if someone can figure out how to get it on the Paladin list I'd love to hear it.


*You'll need to ignore the paladin's multiclassing restriction, but I don't think most groups stick to that.

[Grod_The_Giant]

So... the big problems with the build at the present are:

Severely MAD-- you need Str, Dex, Int, and Cha.
BAB is too low, particularly at low issues.
Thematically difficult-- Totemist is about magical beasts, but then we add dragon stuff, and then we add soulbinding-- which, even if we restrict ourselves to only the one we care about, is all about elves-- and human paragon-- which is all about humans... it's a mess. You have 5 different classes pulling in different directions. In some ways, I feel like this is the biggest issue for a lot of people out there.


But! Fear not, for I believe I have found salvation in two unlikely places: the divine bard and intuitive attack. Suddenly our attack and casting stats are the same! We're casting divine spells, so we can wear heavy armor and forget about Dex completely! How do we fit the extra feat in, though? Well, it turns out it's a fighter bonus feat... and if we're taking one level of fighter, we might as well get a second... and look at that, our BAB is looking up, and we can rock out platemail and a tower shield, if we should so choose.

So ultimately, we get:

Silverbrow Human Totemist 2/Divine Bard* 1/Fighter 2/Bard +3/Human Paragon 2/Incarnate 2/Bard+4/Sublime Chord 1**/Soulcaster 3***

1: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
1B: Point-Blank Shot.
1F: Draconic Heritage
1F: +1 Essentia feat of your choice-- I recommend Sapphire Sprint. (Or switch to Azurin and take Dragonblooded; the benefits will ultimately be slightly better since you won't actually use the feat)
3: Dragonfire Inspiration
4B: Intuitive Attack
5B: Precise Shot
6: Bonus Essentia
9: Obtain Familiar
10B: Share Soulmeld
12: Words of Creation
14B: Song of the Heart (trade for Suggestion)
15: Incarnum Spellshaping
18: Anything

Key magic items: Badge of Valor, Vest of Legends, Incarnum Focus, and... yeah, probably either an Eternal Wand of Divine Power or an Amulet of Mighty Fists with the Skillful enchantment. (You could also put Splitting on there if you really want to give someone a heart attack-- pick up a second for your familiar and throw around 42 attacks/round at more than 13d6 damage a pop. You'll probably deal over 2000 damage if they all hit.)

*Grab the Lore Song [DS], Healing Hymn, and Spellbreaker Song ACFs while you're at it. They don't actually matter, but they're better than the alternative.
**If you're building just for 20th, take a level of Contemplative here and pick up the War domain to natively cast Divine Power. Probably not worth it otherwise.
***You could also take Combat Casting at 15th and take your last three levels as Abjurant Champion, which would net you another +2 BAB if you can't come up with a magical replacement.

[Troacctid]

Of course, Divine Bard no longer qualifies for Sublime Chord or Soulcaster without adaptation.

[torrasque666]

1: Expanded Soulmeld Capacity
1B: Point-Blank Shot.
1F: Draconic Heritage
1F: +1 Essentia feat of your choice-- I recommend Sapphire Sprint. (Or switch to Azurin and take Dragonblooded; the benefits will ultimately be slightly better since you won't actually use the feat)
3: Dragonfire Inspiration
4B: Intuitive Attack
5B: Precise Shot
6: Bonus Essentia
9: Obtain Familiar
10B: Share Soulmeld
12: Words of Creation
14B: Song of the Heart (trade for Suggestion)
15: Incarnum Spellshaping
18: Anything

Key magic items: Badge of Valor, Vest of Legends, Incarnum Focus, and... yeah, probably either an Eternal Wand of Divine Power or an Amulet of Mighty Fists with the Skillful enchantment. (You could also put Splitting on there if you really want to give someone a heart attack-- pick up a second for your familiar and throw around 42 attacks/round at more than 13d6 damage a pop. You'll probably deal over 2000 damage if they all hit.)


Two things, Draconic Heritage requires Sorcerer 1 (Or Dragontouched to qualify) and you'll need to go out of your way to find an Arcane version of Divine Power to cram it into an Eternal Wand.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Herpaderp. The loss of SC... kind of hurts, but not in a place that's likely to matter? Any thoughts on how best to end the build?

[Troacctid]

If you switched Bard with Enchanter, you could improve your feat economy by shunting all the Inspire Courage feats onto your cohort.

[Grod_The_Giant]

If you switched Bard with Enchanter, you could improve your feat economy by shunting all the Inspire Courage feats onto your cohort.
I could also take Leadership and play a Totemist 20 and a Bard 17. Offloading half my build to another character kind of defeats the point of having a combo.

[Talionis]

Here's an idea that may or may not help, what about Fochlucan Lyrist? It's full BAB, progresses songs and casting.

It's hard to qualify for, but Soulspeaker Soulmeld, etc might count towards knowing Duidic and it's easy enough to pick up Evasion with soulmelds.

Alternatively, Master Thrower 2 offers evasion and some of the Throwing Tricks might be helpful.

[Rubik]

Herpaderp. The loss of SC... kind of hurts, but not in a place that's likely to matter? Any thoughts on how best to end the build?Rogue with Craven? +1d6+20 sneak attack isn't too shabby.