I have a new player who...

[gogogome]

wants to play:
1. A female ninja who is all stealthy. Doesn't have to be combat capable, just stealthy.
2. When she has to fight she transforms into a huge fully armored juggernaut for a limited time. Has to be a fully armored humanoid, not a monster.
3. Uses a onehanded weapon and bow as auxillary when the juggernaut form is not available. Pea shooter damage is fine, her ninja form is not supposed to fight.
4. When she "dies", she turns into some floating glowing female elemental-like being that annihilates everything with direct damage magic. Most enemies know this so they try to knock her out or capture her instead of killing her.

Basically she enjoys 3 fighting styles. She likes being a stealthy ninja who is weak at direct combat and has to use ingenuity to win, she likes being a heavily armored juggernaut bulldozing everything, and she likes being a powerful magical goddess that annihilates everything. This character of hers is an attempt to get all 3 styles in one. She sneaks around like a ninja most of her time, turns into a bulldozer for a limited time per day when she has to fight, when it runs out she tries to run away or last as long as possible with her weak ninja form, and when she finally gets KO'd she becomes at her strongest blasting everything to smithereens (she likes the glowing female elemental look).

So... is such a character possible? I know I'll probably have to house rule a couple stuff and maybe force her to change some of the criteria...

How close can you guys make a character that fits this criteria? The best I got is a stealthy elf druid with elemental wildshape who uses a scimitar and shortbow, and change condition #4 to "almost dead" at which point she turns herself into an elemental, but that still leaves the armored humanoid part untouched. If I persuade her that the earth elemental can be shaped into that juggernaut she's thinking of, then she's got nothing for her goddess form. Maybe there's another class I haven't heard of yet that can help me?

edit:Added more details

[(Un)Inspired]

lol this player sounds awesome.

[Ursus Spelaeus]

I guess maybe...

Gestault swordsage/psychic warriors?
Go swordsage for all the shadow hand ninja-style stuff.
Go psychic warrior for the buffing psionic powers including expansion to grow large.

I have no idea about #4 though. Do you know this person really well? She sounds like the kind of player that will give you problems. I've had problems with players like that in the past.

[gogogome]

I guess maybe...

Gestault swordsage/psychic warriors?
Go swordsage for all the shadow hand ninja-style stuff.
Go psychic warrior for the buffing psionic powers including expansion to grow large.

I have no idea about #4 though. Do you know this person really well? She sounds like the kind of player that will give you problems. I've had problems with players like that in the past.

We're good friends, trying to get her to play d&d. She plays games like skyrim with self-imposed rules and limitations, and said she wanted to try other games where she could play her character.

[Amphetryon]

I suppose you could fluff #4 as some sort of 'cursed by the gods' Contingent Retribution, but having it as a negative that the PC would actively want to rid herself of may be too far afield from her concept.

[MisterKaws]

4 is impossible unless you specifically try to cheese the game just so she can play tales of grandeur about her while other players fade into the background.

For the others:

Psychic rogue with expanded knowledge for astral construct, use the astral construct power armor trick, basically creating astral construct with a hollow interior and manifesting it around yourself, then just control it normally. Also, by attempting a craft(sculpting) check, which presumably auto succeeds as long as she has a +5 modifier, in which case she can just take 10, she can manifest it in the shape of anything she wants, as long as it fits the current abilities she used for the construct.

And don't forget to play mighty morphin's soundtrack when the fight starts.

[icefractal]

Is this Pathfinder or 3.5? If the former, then perhaps Synthesist Summoner. Take a trait to add Stealth, sneak around as a ninja (conceptually, not literally the Ninja class), and then turn into a big hulking armored humanoid (merged form) for combat. You'll need to be a 8th level to turn Large, IIRC, but this doesn't really sound like a 1st-level concept anyway.

In 3.5, perhaps something like Wildshape Ranger 5/Master of Many Forms 3? That gives you giants and monstrous humanoids, which should provide an appropriate form.

For the last point, that's not something that would be really do-able by the rules until high level, so I'd just homebrew something up. If the important part is "KO'd after losing instead of dead", that's doable though. For instance:
1) Troll-Blooded feat (gives Regeneration 1/fire or acid)
2) Ritual to give the [Fire] subtype (see Savage Species)
3) Ring of Acid Resistance.
It doesn't make you completely immune to death, but it turns most deaths into KO'd instead.

[Terrador]

Depending on the level, assuming you want to accommodate the fairly reasonable 1, 2, 3 with minimal effort...

-Take away the Psychic Warrior bonus feats, give it 6+INT skill points per level and Hide/Move Silently/Spot/Listen, maybe Sudden Strike too (it ain't as good as Sneak Attack by half, and really only helps when she's gimped by lack of Expansion ability anyway).
-Get her some called armor appropriate to her size after Expansion.
-She can be bad at swords/archery when she's out of power points, but they're entirely available.
-Don't accommodate "godmode on death", and let her know that it is taking some houseruling to give her what she wants. Everyone's there to have fun, and while you're willing to bend the occasional rule to facilitate that, you can't do everything and that's part of the game.

[GilesTheCleric]

-Don't accommodate "godmode on death", and let her know that it is taking some houseruling to give her what she wants. Everyone's there to have fun, and while you're willing to bend the occasional rule to facilitate that, you can't do everything and that's part of the game.

If you're starting at level one, it might be important to emphasize to your player that the PC is only slightly stronger than a town guard. Once they get to level 15+, then they can start having world-shattering powers. D&D, like most games, is about the hero's journey, and about getting to the part of the story where you have all the cool powers and legends about you. If you started with all that, there wouldn't be much left to do in the game!

[TheifofZ]

wants to play:
1. A female ninja who is all stealthy
2. When she has to fight she transforms into a huge fully armored juggernaut for a limited time. Has to be a fully armored humanoid, not a monster.
3. Uses a onehanded weapon and bow as auxillary when the juggernaut form is not available.
4. When she "dies", she turns into a naked goddess of magic that annihilates everything. All enemies know this so they try to knock her out instead.

So... is such a character possible? I know I'll probably have to house rule a couple stuff and maybe force her to change some of the criteria...

How close can you guys make a character that fits this criteria? The best I got is a stealthy elf druid with elemental wildshape who uses a scimitar and shortbow, and change condition #4 to "almost dead" at which point she turns herself into an elemental, but that still leaves the armored humanoid part untouched. If I persuade her that the earth elemental can be shaped into that juggernaut she's thinking of, then she's got nothing for her goddess form. Maybe there's another class I haven't heard of yet that can help me?

Condition 4...
Let me guess, the DM's Girlfriend (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DungeonmastersGirlfriend)?

While, as the others mentioned, 1,2, and 3 are all easily doable #4 is largely impossible, and shouldn't actually be included for a couple big reasons.
First: D&D is a cooperative game. For the whole group. If a single one of the group has something as overwhelmingly powerful as a 'when I die I come back as a god and then win forever' ability, but none of the others do... it's just a power trip for that single player, and will be boring and unpleasant for the rest of the group.
Second: If every one in the group has a #4 to balance it out, then there's no real risk or challenge. Instead, it's just 'oh hey a fight. let's all ritually commit suicide and win, because screw power balance.'.
Third: God-mode on Death is going to take any challenge out of the game, and any joy in completing it. It'd be like playing through a video game with all the enemies and challenges set to 'wussy' level difficulty, where instead of attacking, monsters give you cookies and run away, and all the traps and challenges have been boarded up with signs pointing you along the path that say 'this way to the end of the game. Good job. You are such a good player'.

... To be honest, either throw caution to the wind and start the game in epic levels, with all the players having ranks in Divinity to make that power-fantasy an option, or take that player to a game of SCION instead. Where you play Gods amongst mortals already anyway, and get to live that particular power fantasy in a game designed and balanced for it.

Or say 'no, no you don't get to be the invincible Mary Sue; you're stuck playing on roughly the same level as the rest of the group.'
Edit: Or you could let her have this stupidly powerful god-mode on death thing at level 1, and instead of any challenges or battles, set the game to Wussy mode, and have every monster just give the player a plate of her favorite food and then run off, and all the traps and challenges boarded up with signs pointing the way to various piles of gold, with all the signs saying "This way to fabulous wealth. Good job. You are such a good player. Very impressive. Go you." or variations on that theme. After all, everyone is terrified of her being killed, right? So this would be the obvious solution.
Seriously. I dunno about you, but if I knew someone that would turn into an immortal goddess that would kill everything was coming to fight me, I wouldn't try to fight at all. Too many ways it could go horribly wrong. Oh, no. I'd just bribe her, make sure there was no traps that would kill her, and then flee.

[Caudex Capite]

To be honest, #4 sounds most like Wu Jen into Jade Phoenix Mage to me. Wu Jen 5/Swordsage 1/JPM 10/X 4. It's effective enough through the whole build. Have to build the stealth capability into it, but it's not super hard to buff with magic if you're willing to invest wealth and feats (Darkstalker, for one) into it. That bit is active the whole way through. 3 is simple enough. 2 comes online at... 16? Giant Size is a fantastic spell for that sort of thing, and Called armor, as previously suggested, is handy there. The last is the reason we're combining Wu Jen and JPM, because of the lovely spell Transcend Mortality. It grants near invulnerability for CL rounds, and is usable as an immediate action, but kills you when it ends. Jade Phoenix Mage's capstone allows you to burst into flames, die, and be reborn once a day - and can be activated at the end of Transcend Mortality, so that you've got that near-invulnerable uber-mode 1/day. Need level 20 to get both at the same time, but it's the best fit I know of within the rules, and is somewhat limited. Alternately, play a Cleric with the Time Domain. At 17, you can cast Miracle to duplicate Giant Size and Time Stop to lay down several major buff spells. Or play a Wizard, use Craft Contingent Spell to get massive buffs at low health (though that will be costly) and do the other bit with various Polymorph Spells - just turn into a convenient Giant/Troll/etc. That probably comes online the soonest.

[Sian]

refluff the Giants The Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9623431&postcount=9) and feed it a couple of Rogue Levels?

[Âmesang]

Honestly my first thought in reading #4 was some sort of re-flavored, nymph-like blinding beauty/wail of the banshee — i.e. her juggernaut armor cracks open, revealing this goddess form… which subsequently glows and explodes, attacking everything within range. Including herself.

…actually this is sort of reminding me of when I tried to create epic spells based on the summons from Golden Sun: The Lost Age (which, in my case, were just really fancy illusions :smalltongue:).

[nedz]

#4
Healing Devotion + Contingent Blinding Beauty or Contingent Unearthly Beauty

Healing Devotion automatically triggers when you hit 0 HP, and the Contingency should fire at this point

Blinding Beauty will make her stunningly attractive and blind people whilst Unearthly Beauty makes her fatally attractive.

It's not quite what she asked for, and she can still be killed out-right, but it's possibly as close as you will get without home-brew or Rule 0.

[zergling.exe]

She likes to role play? Have her encounter the god of magic or god of light and try to earn thier blessing to be granted a balor's death throes ability. Similar to what they want and gives incentive (and a baseline for others) to roleplay for unique abilities.


…actually this is sort of reminding me of when I tried to create epic spells based on the summons from Golden Sun: The Lost Age (which, in my case, were just really fancy illusions :smalltongue:).

This intrigues me. Were you successful?

[Hiro Quester]

#4 could be achieved with a really good bluff. This just has to be something everyone believes about her.

So have a few bards go around the area telling the story of how she has the protection of a god, who will slay anyone within 60 feet of her when she dies.

[Âmesang]

Come to think of it this also (sort of) reminds me of wanting to recreate the weavers from Loom™, just being stuck on that whole "peering beneath a weaver's hood brings instant, agonizing death" part.


This intrigues me. Were you successful?
Kind of? I only got around to writing up two of 'em:

Iris: Goddess of Rainbows, Guide of Souls
Conjuration (Healing) (Figment) [Fire] [Teleportation]
Spellcraft DC 76
Components DF, XP
Casting Time 1 free action
Range 300 ft.
Area 100-ft.-radius hemisphere
Duration Instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Will negates; see text
Spell Resistance Yes; see text
DESCRIPTIONAn explosion of light summons a beautiful, robed woman above the enemy, ascending into the heavens and straight into the sun, taking 2,000 lb. of the caster's enemies with her for 40d6 fire damage. A successful Will save negates the teleportation (thus, negating the fire damage). As the enemies return to earth, the caster and her allies are cured of all diseases, blindness, deafness, hit point damage, temporary ability damage, permanent ability drain, poisons, feeblemindedness, mental disorders caused by spells or injury to the brain, dispells all magical effects penalizing abilities, and dispels all negative levels afflicting the target. Deceased allies are returned to life with one level lost, or one point of Constitution damage if at 1st-level. Finally, a fiery glow briefly engulfs the caster as she gains fire resistance 20 for 5 rounds.

XP Cost: 20,000 XP
SPELLCRAFTING REQUIREMENTSSeeds life (DC 27), heal (DC 25), delude (DC 14), transport (DC 27), fortify (DC 17); Factors restore permanently drained ability score points (+6 DC), dispel all negative levels afflicting target (+2 DC), include audible, olfactory, tactile, taste, and thermal aspects (+10 DC), transport unwilling creatures (+4 DC), shifts the transportation medium to another medium (DC +2), additional +1,000 lb. to transportation weight (+40 DC), interplanar travel (+4 DC), additional +19 to fire resistance (+38 DC), change fire resistance duration from instantaneous to five rounds (ad hoc +10 DC), change touch to area of 20-ft. hemisphere (+14 DC), increase area by 400% (+16 DC), Quicken spell (+28 DC), no somatic component (+2 DC), no verbal component (+2 DC); Mitigating factors return enemies to their original position at the end of the round (ad hoc -10 DC), change fire resistance range from area to personal (-2 DC), burn 20,000 XP (-200 DC); Cost 684,000 gp, 27,360 XP, 14 days
Charon: Boatsman of the river Styx
Conjuration (Healing) (Figment) [Cold]
Spellcraft DC 70
Components DF, XP
Casting Time 1 free action
Range 300 ft.
Area 100-ft.-radius hemisphere
Duration Instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Fortitude negates; see text
Spell Resistance Yes; see text
DESCRIPTIONFrom the grey wastes a swirl of violet-black negative energy creates an archaic seal releasing a sphere of crimson power. From this sphere emerges a shadowy puppet of darkness, summoning another archaic seal that releases a massive ball of negative energy, flying towards, consuming, and exploding upon the caster's foes. Those effected must make a Fortitude save or suffer 20 negative levels. These levels persist for 24 hours, at which time those still afflicted must make another Fortitude save or permanently lose 20 levels. If those afflicted gain as many negative levels as they have Hit Die, they die instantly. An icy glow briefly engulfs the caster as he gains cold resistance 20 for 5 rounds.

XP Cost: 20,000 XP
SPELLCRAFTING REQUIREMENTS
Seed heal (DC 25), delude (DC 14), fortify (DC 17); Factors inflict an additional +16 negative levels (+64 DC), negative levels persist an addtional +16 hours (+32 DC), include audible, oflactory, tactile, taste, and thermal aspects (+10 DC), additional +19 cold resistance (+38 DC), change cold resistance duration from instantaneous to five rounds (ad hoc +10 DC), change touch to area of 20-ft. hemisphere (+14 DC), increase area by 400% (+16 DC), Quicken spell (+28 DC), no somatic component (+2 DC), no verbal component (+2 DC); Mitigating factors change cold resistance range from area to personal (-2 DC), burn 20,000 XP (-200 DC); Cost 630,000 gp, 25,200 XP, 13 days

[Grod_The_Giant]

Is this Pathfinder or 3.5? If the former, then perhaps Synthesist Summoner. Take a trait to add Stealth, sneak around as a ninja (conceptually, not literally the Ninja class), and then turn into a big hulking armored humanoid (merged form) for combat. You'll need to be a 8th level to turn Large, IIRC, but this doesn't really sound like a 1st-level concept anyway.
I second this- by far the most elegant way to do the two forms thing, I think. Pathfinder material is pretty easy to import into 3.5. If the casting doesn't appeal, I wrote a 3.5 warrior class with a similar base mechanic (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?396248-The-Endocist-Synthesist-Summoner-as-a-Base-Class-%283-5-PEACH%29)

I second not allowing #4. It's just... Not conducive to game balance. You should be able to explain why it doesn't work for a group game. A solo game might be different... But in that case I'd say she has no control over what happens, so she wakes up a little while later in some new **** with no idea how she got there.

[ZamielVanWeber]

Fluff wise #4 is a bad idea. A low level character is unlikely to attract undue notice. A nascent godling however? People are going to take notice quickly and she is going to be challenged by high level casters who have ways of ending her without killing her.

[Firest Kathon]

For #1, #2 and #3, she could play a Soulknife (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife) with the Armored (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/armored-blade)Blade(for the Armor) and Cutthroat (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/soulknife/archetypes/dreamscarred-press/cutthroat) (for the Stealth part) archetypes. Alternatively a Soulknife/Aegis (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/aegis)/Metaforge (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/psionic-prestige-classes/metaforge).
For #4, I agree with my fellow posters that this is not a good idea. Especially if it is well-known, she would be a prime target for kidnapping or one of the many ways to capture or disable someone without killing them. It seems to me that she wants this to make sure her character is not killed.

[Bronk]

wants to play:

4. When she "dies", she turns into a naked goddess of magic that annihilates everything. All enemies know this so they try to knock her out instead.



Lots of people have weighed in on 1-3 (my idea would have been just a regular druid or psychic warrior with expansion), but I think 4 is pretty cool too. Granted, the concept would be easier to swallow if she was playing as a lone player, or in a newish world of your devising, just generally, but I think it's cool that you want to get a new player involved.

How about this: her character's soul is actually the reincarnated soul of Pandorym? In this case, the elder evil in question nearly escaped as per the Elder Evils book, but the method to defeat it was to reincarnate the psyche part in her body. In this case, if she dies violently, Pandorym reawakens and destroys the multiverse, but if she lives out her natural days, her soul is translated into the local afterlife and is made safe. She might not know of this in character at first, but you can have fun with sending people to try to imprison her to keep her 'safe from harm'. The idea here is that very few people are in the know... maybe her elder evil soul interferes with divinations into it's nature (like Bink from Xanth?). She can find out in character the first time someone who does know comes a callin'.

As for what happens then? Well, I guess it depends on how lethal your games are, and if she's the sole player. If she's a sole player, she could eventually end up in a brinksmanship contest with the gods... if she dies, the game's pretty much over anyway. If she's part of a group, if she does die, maybe there's set time period for the psyche to travel and merge with Pandorym's body during which her players have to rush to get her raised, instead of multiversal destruction being immediate.

[Andezzar]

4. When she "dies", she turns into a naked goddess of magic that annihilates everything. All enemies know this so they try to knock her out instead.If this is known, powerful individuals would also know this. There are plenty of ways of making that problem go away permanently. Send her to a timeless plane for example. At level 1 she wont get back, maybe add additional safe guards.

Another option would be to make her immortal.

I wonder what would happen If you put her in a portable hole and added a bag of holding. She is lost but we cannot ever observe if she is dead.

If she literally annihilates everything, there may even be some crazy people that want to bring about the end of everything.

[nedz]

You could sell #4 as an aspiration — assuming you are starting at low levels.

i.e. this is something she has to work towards — if she can find a way to do it.

Most likely, after she has actually played the game, she will move onto other aspirations.

[J-H]

Don't cater to her every whim just to get her to play. It'll make the rest of the group mad and she won't respect you. If she complains, agree & amplify: "Okay, but if I make you turn into a goddess of magic then I have to make the rest of your party members half-Kryptonians. Your next enemy will be General Zod's army."

The best I really see is going with the Giant's avatar class, or a lycanthrope, but that's about it. If she has to be a special snowflake and can't play by the rules of the game, she'll just keep being a problem player.

[gogogome]

Thanks for your input everyone. I think I exaggerated #4 slightly (my bad).

Basically she enjoys 3 fighting styles. She likes being a stealthy ninja who is weak at direct combat and has to use ingenuity to win, she likes being a heavily armored juggernaut bulldozing everything, and she likes being a powerful magical blaster that annihilates everything. This character of hers is an attempt to get all 3 styles in one. So she sneaks around like a ninja most of her time, turns into a bulldozer for a limited time per day when she has to fight, when it runs out she tries to run away or last as long as possible with her weak ninja form, and when she finally gets KO'd she becomes at her strongest blasting everything to smithereens (she likes the glowing female elemental look).

Honestly it's a huge pain especially because she doesn't want to play 3 characters.

One of my players suggested she makes three characters and swap between them based on her rules, and their HP percentage is retained when she switches, but it will still make her significantly more powerful than a legal character, which is why he also suggested those three characters be weakened someway, like less BAB and spells per day.

For #4 she said she'd be happy with becoming a fire elemental with an at-will fireball, so still killable. Contingency+Polymorph seems to partially achieve this since polymorph gives a full heal but it doesn't let her become a "glowing female" thing.

Her "ninja" form doesn't have to be a rogue, or combat capable at all. Other than stealth, she said that form should no be more powerful than an "emergency pistol".

Honestly it's a huge pain especially because she doesn't want to play 3 characters. One of my players suggested she makes three characters and swap between them based on her rules, and their HP percentage is retained when she switches, but it will still make her significantly more powerful than a legal character, which is why he also suggested those three characters be weakened someway, like less BAB and spells per day.

I like to keep things legal though, 0 homebrew.

Anyways time to start digging through the books to look up all the classes you guys suggested.

[zergling.exe]

I would say put your foot down and force her to choose one of those three to specialize in. As she gains levels let her work towards the others, making sure to keep one as the primary.

On a more kind note, Master of Masks from Complete Scoundrel could be used as a basis for changing between forms via masks. You might have to homebrew some masks however.

[Mr.Moron]

That's pretty specific. In your shoes, I'd homebrew something custom for the player.

EDIT: Though "Dies" should be Dies on #4

EDIT (Again, after reading beyond the OP):



I like to keep things legal though, 0 homebrew.

Anyways time to start digging through the books to look up all the classes you guys suggested.

Probably best to put a kibosh on the whole thing. The best you're going to get out of is a half-functional franken character that doesn't quite do anything in the concept right. A "No" here is better than a tortured yes, imo.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Okay. So we need stealth, giant size, and blasting options?

Gish work. A good gish is probably the easiest option, though not 100% perfect. You can take spells/powers to suit all three options. Master of Many Forms could also work, with a stealthy form, brute form, and breath weapon form... But it also gives you about ten thousand other forms, so meh.

There's probably a way to use Rage for the big armored brute thing. Goliath seems like it has potential, what with the Mountain Rage ACF (become Large when raging). The Bear Warrior PrC might be even better with a bit of refluffing - you get real strong and armored and big (eventually) whenever you rage.

The blasting business is trickier. A breath weapon is probably your best bet for something that'll scale well with ECL without needing a big investment. Dragonborn, maybe?

[RoboEmperor]

Actually I think your Druid idea is spot on
1. Build a stealth druid. Anyone can do stealth with the right gear and iirc druids have stealth boosting spells.
2. Earth Elemental herself.
3. Elf Stealth Druid has scimitar and shortbow like you said.
4. SHAPECHANGE. Fully heals her, and fill all her spell slots of blasting options.

She likes self-imposed restrictions so make her not cast any spells until she "dies". Also make her "die" with less hp. If she has 100hp, say she will "die" when she hits 20hp and that she has to cast shapechange the next turn. This makes her a legal character and she can fulfill her fantasy.

[Angelmaker]

wants to play
4. When she "dies", she turns into some floating glowing female elemental-like being that annihilates everything with direct damage magic. Most enemies know this so they try to knock her out or capture her instead of killing her.



If i were the mayor of a town, i'd be hard pressed to find a reason to allow a bilogical weapon of mass destruction that can be triggered by asphyxiation on a chicken stick in the local tavern enter the town.

[Telonius]

Away from my books (and my online source seems to have an expired domain name) - but some of that sounds a bit Binder-ish. Savnok (I think?) gets the ability to summon up some heavy armor.

[RoamingSorcerer]

If she is willing to wait several levels before gaining access to all three, you could start her off with just #s 1 and 3 and create quests that would either:
a) allow her to unlock some hidden ability within her that would be close enough to what she wants (with power constraints, of course), or
b) give her the new abilities through magical artifacts.

Perhaps starting off as a rogue or scout and then allowing a druidic ability that can only be accessed under duress once the macguffin is found.

The downside to this idea is that it takes time for her and some work on your part to create the new abilities.

The benefit is that it allows for easier-to-control power scaling and allows other members of the party to be involved/get things out of her request.

Just my two cents.

[LoyalPaladin]

lol this player sounds awesome.
Hahaha. My thoughts exactly.

[Finkmilkana]

How about a battle sorcerer with (maybe predefined) stealth spells (just somehow get the skills on her list, there are many ways for that after all).

For combat buff yourself up + called armor (too bad Tranformation is such a bad spell).

Also somehow get her a Contingent Revivify (triggered on death) and a Contingent Elemental Body (Fire, triggered upon receiving Revivify), to be all in flames for some time.
During that time use the Fiery Burst Reserve Feat for at-will mini-fireballs (+ maybe some normal fireballs).

[Âmesang]

Why I enjoy the idea of a contingent revivify, I'm wondering if, perhaps, a contingent heal might not work better?

(Assuming the contingency worded in a flavorful way similar to the spirit shaman's favored of the spirits ability.)

[nedz]

The new #4 is easy
Wizard, Sorcerer, Druid, Spirit Shaman, etc with Primal Form (level 3 SpC) can turn into a Fire Elemental.
Stack on Fiery Burst Reserve feat and your good to go.

[Prime32]

The chameleon (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/iw/20041210b) prestige class would let her switch between styles, as would an incarnate or totemist from Magic of Incarnum, or a binder from Tome of Magic. IIRC there's a binder vestige that lets you summon a bird for scouting and see through its eyes - something like that, or a familiar, might satisfy her "ninja with low attack power" urges.

Or consider this build: Whisper gnome Rogue 2/Stoneblessed (Goliath) 3/Barbarian 2/War Hulk X
Whisper gnomes are Small, specialise in stealth and can create magical silence. After 3 levels in Stoneblessed you count as a member of the goliath race, meaning you can take the goliath barbarian Racial Substitution Level which increases your size to Large while raging. War Hulk is a PrC which provides tons of brute strength at the cost of disabling your skills... but you need to be Large to qualify for it, meaning that only happens while you're raging.

[Flickerdart]

Or consider this build: Whisper gnome Rogue 2/Stoneblessed (Goliath) 3/Barbarian 2/War Hulk X

Why not kobold? They get Slight Build, which lets them count as Tiny in many ways.

[stanprollyright]

Basically, any Bard build will be stealthy and have the potential for limited periods of melee excellence. That's 2 out of 3 already, and it shouldn't be too hard to get some direct magic damage. Dragon Disciple synergizes well, has breath weapon as well as dragon forms. A dip into Warblade or Crusader is always good for melee. Bard/Crusader/Sublime Chord/Jade Phoenix Mage would be able to fulfill all these roles quite nicely.

[ATHATH]

If you can cram some levels of Thaumaturge into her build, she can create a Contingent spell that summons a fire elemental.

[Randomguy]

refluff the Giants The Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9623431&postcount=9) and feed it a couple of Rogue Levels?

I'm seconding this one. You'd just need to find a way to get hide and move silently on the champion's class list (human paragon? able learner and a rogue level?), and grab a magic item that lets you swap in and out of armour. (I think there's a ring in MIC that lets you switch between a pair of outfits).

[MasterFu]

Pathfinder bloodrager or alchemist might be what she's looking for. Either of them has access to a lot of self-buffs.

Contingency might be the easiest way to get the "explodes on death" ability.

[Crake]

Why I enjoy the idea of a contingent revivify, I'm wondering if, perhaps, a contingent heal might not work better?

(Assuming the contingency worded in a flavorful way similar to the spirit shaman's favored of the spirits ability.)

Why not both, via craft contingent spell? I mean, if you drop below -10, heal isn't going to save you, so you'd NEED a revivify to bring you back to -1, then a heal to bring you back up to full.

There's also a spell that calls an outsider to possess a recently deceased body, that could work instead? An outsider is called to possess her body and wreak havok, but that would be out of her control.