we're starting a new "epic" campaign... where epic mostly means we're going to die.

[dehro]

... and I could use some opinions /suggestions with a few aspects of the character creation.

It starts at 17th level and will boldly go over the 20th level mark (well.. my mortality rate suggests I will have a new character by then, but that's besides the point).


The setting is based on Forgotten Realms but not necessarily limited to it, what with some of us soon acquiring reality shaping level spells.
Class selection limitation: 1 class and 1 prestige class, unless a class combo is prerequisite to the chosen PrC, in which case multi-classing towards it is allowed. The level of power playing should be minimal if any, and the classes chosen should reflect this. Also, classes and PrCs picked should be fully embraced in game (meaning I can't just add a dip or two in certain classes to optimise the build and then not play those elements of the character, in fact, I can't altogether).
Spells allowed: Core books, Spell Compendium, exalted deeds, vile darkness
Feats: Core books, , Complete series, official WotC manuals (no dragon magazines or obscure manuals/webedits except as stated in the 5 point system below). No third party.
starting coin: 200k GP, single item cap: 50.000 GP. Relics, complete item sets or intelligent items are banned from the starting items list but can be pursued ingame. we're allowed to save money for later ingame purchase (but very expensive items will be suitably rare and hard to come by).
Allowed sources for items: core books and magic item compendium. Custom items or other sources fall in the below 5 point system


5 point buy system... we can spend up to 5 points in character creation fishing for things that are from other (WotC) sources.
In other words, if I want to play a class or feat or pick an item or spell that are not included in the relevant approved sources, I can, but at a cost.
The cost for those items, feats, races or whatever is detailed as follows and cannot exceed a total of 5 points
-templates: 3 points
-races: 2,5 points
-classes: 2 points
-Prestige Classes: 2 points
-feats: 1 point (3 feats maximum)
-spells and spell-like abilities: 0,1xlevel
-Magic items: 0,0001xMO
we rolled dice for stats and I rolled somewhat poorly:
18, 12, 12, 11, 8, 7 (rerolls would have come with severe penalties so I didn't press my luck but kept the 18 instead)

My intention is to play a NE rakshasa sorcerer (which would cost 2.5/5 points).
A few elements of the character: he hides his lineage by always staying in human form (which is why his party members don't know what he actually is).
He may have a custom item enabling him to defeat true seeing as to his true physical form.
He is vain, a womaniser and something of a coward with a tendency to claim credit wherever he can for any action he may have contributed to, however minimal his contribution.
In fact, his biggest secret beyond that of his true race, is that his reputation for being the hero fo the battle of insertnameofbattle, which he milks at every occasion, is in fact entirely undeserved; the true hero having died from his wounds. Some of the Rakshasa people know of this shameful act but actively hide it to spare themselves the humiliation by association and for political reasons. As a result however, the character is an outcast who can only return to the lands/plane where Rakshasa live if he manages to find an ancient relic they have lost. Until such a time, threats of exposure make the character liable to blackmail, through which selected other Rakshasas in the know may force him to work for them.
http://images.8tracks.com/cover/i/002/711/293/magicalmoi_-2888.png?rect=0,0,500,500&q=98&fm=jpg&fit=max&w=320&h=320
I am looking for help with feat and spell selection that reflect this character's inclinations for being a sneaky SOB with low sense of morality compensated by great ability in appearing much tougher and more capable than he really is... the trick being his ability to sustain this pretense consistently.
I reckon he should have high bluff ranks and feats, items and spells that allow him to avoid battle whenever he can but still be somewhat relevant/useful enough (especially out of battle) to keep around despite his arrogance and penchant for exagerating his merits.
Evocations maybe? Dominating spells? Useful buffs/debuffs?
Yes, I am perfectly aware that losing 3 levels of spells accessibility is very unoptimised, but that's not something that will stop me from trying to play the character... as long as I can make the feat and spell selection work for me as best as possible.

any help that goes beyond "pick something else/ pick this whole range of things that do the same thing but better" will be appreciated.

[BearonVonMu]

A sneaky sorcerer at high level who wants to be useful in and out of battle, has relatively low stats, but has access to the Spell Compendium.
It would not take very many spell choices to make a basic Mailman build: Arcane Fusion, Greater Arcane Fusion, Magic Missile, Orb of Force. That, with a metamagic feat or two, would cover basic damage dealing. Superior Invisibility would mean you were targeting flat-footed touch AC, so your lack of dexterity would be okay.
Is the rest of your party heavy on dealing physical damage? If so, it might be worth your while to plan on buffing your party in combat most of the time. Again, Arcane Fusion would allow you to drop two buffs per round.
For stealth, Greater Invisibility, Overland Flight, and Greater Dispel Magic (to get rid of enemies' True Seeing) would be nice and useful out of combat as well.
You have enough spell selections and slots to be able to be useful almost all of the time.
You also have virtually no money for a 17th level character. 20,000 gold implies that you will be given a stack of items right out the gate. Perhaps you meant 200,000? Either way, you would probably want mostly standard items (+CON, +CHA, +saves, Belt of Battle, Handy Haversack), but don't be shy about buying a stack of scrolls for those fringe utility abilities, especially if you think you will die sooner rather than later.
You definitely have enough to get you through, and a sneaky buffer tends to not be the first person targeted in a fight. Benign Transposition can help with that, swapping you for a meat shield if they get to you. You'll appreciate being far from the enemy, and the meat shield will appreciate being close to them.

[dehro]

A sneaky sorcerer at high level who wants to be useful in and out of battle, has relatively low stats, but has access to the Spell Compendium.
It would not take very many spell choices to make a basic Mailman build: Arcane Fusion, Greater Arcane Fusion, Magic Missile, Orb of Force. That, with a metamagic feat or two, would cover basic damage dealing. Superior Invisibility would mean you were targeting flat-footed touch AC, so your lack of dexterity would be okay.
Is the rest of your party heavy on dealing physical damage? If so, it might be worth your while to plan on buffing your party in combat most of the time. Again, Arcane Fusion would allow you to drop two buffs per round.
I don't know.. we're starting this campaign with new characters and we're explicitly told not to divulge crucial aspects of the characters such as race (if relevant such as in my case) or class. in fact, trying to conceal these elements even after play begins may be a crucial factor for a few of the characters.. it probably is true for mine.


For stealth, Greater Invisibility, Overland Flight, and Greater Dispel Magic (to get rid of enemies' True Seeing) would be nice and useful out of combat as well.
You have enough spell selections and slots to be able to be useful almost all of the time.
You also have virtually no money for a 17th level character. 20,000 gold implies that you will be given a stack of items right out the gate. Perhaps you meant 200,000? Either way, you would probably want mostly standard items (+CON, +CHA, +saves, Belt of Battle, Handy Haversack), but don't be shy about buying a stack of scrolls for those fringe utility abilities, especially if you think you will die sooner rather than later.
You definitely have enough to get you through, and a sneaky buffer tends to not be the first person targeted in a fight. Benign Transposition can help with that, swapping you for a meat shield if they get to you. You'll appreciate being far from the enemy, and the meat shield will appreciate being close to them.

derp... I did indeed mean 200.000.. I'll amend the post.
greater dispel magic is 6th level.. and if I have things right, I only have 5th level spells, for the first 2 levels of play.

[Gildedragon]

Shadowcraft Mage
It says right there it can work for nongnomes and it fits a rakshasa sorcerer to a T
Maybe reflavor the shadows to glitter and sparkle as to your theme.
But having superreal illusions feels like the sort of thing a cowardly type would have.

[Demidos]

Forgive me if this is what you weren't looking for, but I'm pretty sure LA buyoff is a thing in the mentioned books. Perhaps you should consider it? The first time you could buy-off is level 21, but if you go as far as you say you will, I think that you will find it to be worth your time.
Correction, that doesn't count RHD, so you'd have to wait till level 28 to buy off your first LA.....that's...kinda crazy.

P.S. Rakshakas are in core, so I am unsure why you would buy it.


However....Lets look at what you DO have going for you.

--Extremely high Charisma
-----Lots of low level spells (bonus), good face skills, great bonuses to some spells (Check out ruin delver's fortune and other charisma based spells), average DCs (Since you're so many spell levels behind, the high charisma and low spell levels negate).

--Extremely low caster level
-----Probably want to invest at least nominally in dispelling resistant items/gear, to ensure your spells aren't dispelled on a 1, though its unlikely you'll be able to make them fully undispellable. Also, boosting caster level is important to be able to get more relevant spell-based boosts, such as more damage on wings of flurry, better polymorph forms, etc.

--Spell resistance (very high -- 37), which is likely to block non-invested casters

--Sorcerer -- sorcerers get many "sorcerer only" spells, especially in races of the dragon, most of which are quite good.

--Good Constitution -- Honestly, you'd probably make a decent gish, if you focused on it, due to your ability to shrug off spells and access to good spells like draconic polymorph. By stacking bite of the x (e.g. weretiger or were____) you could pull off a pretty decent thing there, though that might be contrary to your view of him as a coward, you could always say something like polymorph partially replaces him mentally with the creature or some other fluff so he's not technically fighting. Up to you.

-- the DR/15 is cute but mostly irrelevant as this level.

--You should have slightly more feats than usual, due to the interaction of feats and your RHD

--On prestige classes
-----Perhaps consider something like sacred exorcist for the DMM abilities it provides, although I agree shadow mage is a great idea too. Do note that you are effectively a level 10 caster in a party of level 17s, so you'll want to get as much out of that PRC as possible. Due to the sorcerer's lack of class features, it is generally ideal to get out as quickly as possible, and this goes triple considering how far behind you are. Given the 1 PRC rule, you are ideally also looking for a 10 level PRC rather than a 5 level one. The point being, don't be scared to pick a PRC that is generally considered cheesy, since you'll be able to use it to full effect without breaking the game. Anima mage could be fairly interesting, given that you can enter it with the cost of two feats, technically, for a decent gain in versatility. The build would be

Rakshaka RHD 7/LA 7/Anima Mage 3

and an investment of 3 feats would allow you to summon monster 8 at will once you hit level 25, which assuming you don't use epic spellcasting should still be surprisingly relevant. Is it unintended to be able to do this? Probably, but you're missing out on 3 feats and other binder level benefits, and it's far from cheesy power-wise (almost strictly worse than taking any casting class T3 and up straight).

[Rebel7284]

Being 7 levels behind is... tough. Very tough. You're playing a level 10 character when a boring human core cleric 17 can start pulling off Miracle right off the bat.
Having low HD also opens you up to a host of other issues such as being particularly vulnerable to Holy Word, level drain effects, having low saves, etc.
In addition, correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe LA counts toward you being epic, so that's 7 more levels until you can take any of the fun epic feats.

Really your one advantage is reasonable Spell Resistance, but note that RAW this means that you need a standard action to lower it if you ever want to be buffed or healed by your allies. That can be awkward.

If it's at all possible, I would consider if your character idea can be done with a different race. Alternatively, talk to your DM about cutting the LA to something manageable like 3.

Here is a fun monster based charisma build for you that fits your simplicity requirements:
(Devious) Gloura: http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20031003e
LA +2
Fey HD 7/Bard 3/Sublime Chord 5

Benefits:
+10 Dex, +4 Con, +2 Wis, +6 Cha
Charisma to all saves.
7th level spells from a combined Sorcerer/Wizard/Bard list.
Only 2 LA with the possibly to buy ALL of it off before epic if LA buyoff is allowed.
Some extra bardic music abilities.

[dehro]

I think I'll stay away from the gish side of things and not ever go melee if I can avoid it.
the entire concept here is that his rakshasa background should stay a secret for as long as possible, until the inevitable big reveal, so biting someone's throat out, however appealing, is off the menu.
I'm pretty committed to the Rakshasa thing, and Sorcerer seems to be the best option for the concept of character I have in mind.
A dash of bard might possibly also fit in nicely, flavour-wise, but I only have 3 levels to play with, beyond the compulsory LA... which I don't think I can haggle to a smaller number. We tend to be very by the book, even counting multiclassing penalties and, if anything, playing an epic campaign only has made the DM's restrictions more stringent.
I'm thinking I should take the metamagic specialist path and ignore the familiar.
I'm also somewhat confused as to how many talents I should have..:smallconfused:

[DarkSonic1337]

If you want to get really cheesy, you can get yourself level drained (permanently) to get rid of the racial hit dice

[dehro]

If you want to get really cheesy, you can get yourself level drained (permanently) to get rid of the racial hit dice

that would land me trailing even more behind the other teammates.. and my DM is not the kind of guy who'd play along with such a meta-request.. if I were to fall prey to a level draining monster and none of my buddies helped me out in time, I'd be drained of every hp, not just levels.. and some of my buddies would sit in the sidelines laughing their asses off instead of helping.

[Gildedragon]

that would land me trailing even more behind the other teammates.. and my DM is not the kind of guy who'd play along with such a meta-request.. if I were to fall prey to a level draining monster and none of my buddies helped me out in time, I'd be drained of every hp, not just levels.. and some of my buddies would sit in the sidelines laughing their asses off instead of helping.

Alternatively: pitch the Rakshasa idea to your DM and show them the (homebrew) improved rakshasa racial class

Or go catfolk + sorcerer

[dehro]

after talking with the DM, I've gone with a by the book rakshasa sorcerer with the metamagic specialist variant.

Since the custom ring that allows me to hide my true form even from true seeing and suchlike requires me to bathe the ring in the freshly tapped blood of the person (human, as that is my main alternate form) I wish to look likewhen "truly looked at", I'm saddled with a contract for this servant/hireling.
Basically, every 15 days I must tap fresh blood from his veins and renew the magic that keeps my true form hidden even from potent magic.
In exchange I am supposed to pay fairly handsomely for his upkeep. Since I know my fellow players and it would not be unheard of for our trips to last longer than the 2 weeks, I have resolved to hire the guy as my personal servant/occasional stand-in/body double.
He is a mere servant whom I am not going to be able to ask for anything other than to stay alive, keep up with our movements and be at hand once at least every 2 weeks. I doubt I'll be able to have use for him beyond as a porter or personal butler. I need him to stay out of harms way, because the ritual that brought the ring into existence is super complicated (and worth more than his sorry behind) and I would have to go find a replacement for him with the same people who provided the ritual in the first place... so having him anywhere near combat zone is out of the question. Basically I plan on giving him standing orders to stay behind, not enter the dungeons, empty the chamberpot, fetch some kindling and otherwise just make himself useful in minor tasks.. in the hope that that will do enough to keep him alive.
Meals are provided, I've given him a healing belt for when I "milk" him, and we both have a hat of disguise in order to not look so similar (although I'm much better attired and pampered than that peasant, of course :smallamused:). Are there other small/ non resources-draining things I could do to keep him out of harms way?
Also, what would you think I should pay the bugger for his services and his bi-weekly blood offering?
I've got the charisma to haggle him down a bit, but don't want to risk him walking out on me and having to fetch him back/murder his entire clan.
The DM has clarified that the contract and its secrecy don't come exactly cheap, but otherwise I have not been given indications as to what would be an appropriate sum. I'm thinking somewhere in between 50 and 100 GP a day, which seems a lot but.. hey.. I'm a hero with access and a certain standing. It wouldn't do to have Baldrick spread tales about my stingyness.

[Rebel7284]

Just plain sorcere has no class features after level 1. Do consider entering a prestige class after that. Shadowcraft Mage has already been mentioned and adds flexibility. Also consider the Initiate of the Seventhfold Veil as the veils are super useful at ensuring your survival and the dispel bonuses help offset your LA a bit. Incantatrix is always amazing on a metamagic focused character, even if you have to ban a school. Hell, Abjurant Champion for a better chasis and free extend/quicken on abjurantion spells would work nicely.

[Edit]
Besided that, I really dig the detailed storyline and the opportunities you have for roleplaying this. For paying your peasant, you may want to check the guidelines for hiring NPCs and add a suitable secrecy multiplier. 100 gold per day seems a bit high, that's an annual salary of 36500, more after expenses. That's a lot of money for a peasant.

Usually NPC followers follow some craft in order to use skill checks to make money and sell their spellcasting services if they are spellcasters. Not sure how applicable that is here. There are a few guidelines in DMG2 about running a business, but I don't know if they are any good. You can consider cloning him later for extra insurance.

[dehro]

uhm.. how much would it cost to have tongues made permanent (I assume with 2 adequate scrolls)?
edit: and what would it take, dispell/saves against dispell-wise to keep this from being dispelled?

[Endarire]

What about being a Human who uses magic to transform him into or give him the appearance of a Rakshasa? Y'all are level 17. Determining the fundamentals of each character should be easy. And y'all will need to work together.

I am very in favor of being a Wizard or Sor who goes Incantatrix10 (Player's Guide to Faerun) and does lots of arcane things. It's simple in build and can be quite effective depending on spell selection/loadout.

If you want to be an exotic race, what about being a Pixie? Though, if you're being offered level 9 spells right out of the gate, a Grey Elf Wizard5/Incantatrix10/Wizard+X is very tempting.

[dehro]

Well... Two hours, a perfect storm of circumstances, crit fails and one crit from the DM later, Gilderoy Decoy, master of magic extraordinaire, hero of the battle of Twin Peaks, falls on the field of glory, leaving behind scores of mourning women and his somewhat befuddled manservant Baldrick.

I'm not so much annoyed about him dying somewhat stupidly (not by any shortcoming of character design) ... As I am saddened by the missed opportunity of playing a character who, by characterisation and backstory had turned out rather great and showing great opportunity of fun times. I never really got a chance to make him shine.
Alas, such are the ways of fate. The dice rolled unfavourably.
Back to the drawing board it is... With many thanks to all who have helped me.

[Rebel7284]

Sorry to hear!

[Gildedragon]

Rakshasas are famous for reincarnating
Give the fella a other goround

[dehro]

No can do... The circumstances of his demise make it pretty much impossible without a wish... And since this happened during what is pretty a pitched battle occurring before any of us introduced himself to the others, there's no reason for any of the others to make such a wish, if they were even inclined and able to, which I doubt.
I'm going to preserve the sheet for another occasion. Time to make a new character