Rakshasa Fighter/Sorcerer/Argent Savent/Abjurant Champion gish?

[danielxcutter]

Note: When I say "Rakshasa", think a normal SRD Rakshasa with the appropriate class levels added.

Yet again another question for the comic XPeditious Retreat I'm trying to make.

Rakshasa have a +7 LA, but they also get seven effective levels of Sorcerer(which stacks with other Sorcerer levels), plus they get one of the best HD in the game - Outsider HD, which give d8s, full BAB, martial proficiency, and good saves. Since it would be unlikely that a Rakshasa would be Good-aligned, and even if one was, taking Luminous Armor or Greater Luminous Armor would be a waste of spells known by then, boosting Shield and Repelling Shield with Argent Savent seems a like a decent substitution. I'm thinking of (Rakshasa 7 /) Fighter 1 / Sorcerer 2 / Abjurant Champion 5 / Argent Savent 5, which would get +16 BAB and CL 18 Sorcerer casting - more than enough for a decent gish.

I still have a few questions, though.

-Do Rakshasas lose their DR and SR when shapechanged into a humanoid form? That would suck, since the character I'm making would be shapechanged almost 24/7.

-Any good spells? I already know about Thunderlance, and (Greater) Luminous Armor won't be used.

-What forms would be good for the character? I'd like to avoid using Polymorph cheese too much, but not using the innate Shapechange ability would be stupid.

-Would this build get enough spells to get away with learning at least a couple of blasting spells like Orb of Force?

[The Glyphstone]

The only problem is that you've made a 27th ECL character - the +7 LA is in addition to the 7 racial hit dice, not alongside it. Other than that, yeah, it's a decent gish.

[danielxcutter]

The only problem is that you've made a 27th ECL character - the +7 LA is in addition to the 7 racial hit dice, not alongside it. Other than that, yeah, it's a decent gish.

Okay, what? You count LA like that? So does that mean racial HD effectively doubles your ECL?!

Man... that sucks. Maybe I'll houserule that away or something.

[Troacctid]

Starting ECL 14 is not really reasonable.

If you want to mess around with racial casting, I'd have a look at this (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=1582.0) index of monsters with innate spellcasting.

[Nifft]

Okay, what? You count LA like that? So does that mean racial HD effectively doubles your ECL?!

Man... that sucks.

There's a reason you don't see a lot of Rakshasa PCs in the optimization builds.

It's because LA really sucks.

[danielxcutter]

There's a reason you don't see a lot of Rakshasa PCs in the optimization builds.

It's because LA really sucks.

Yeah, I wondered why people weren't using something that had full BAB and full Sorcerer casting straight out of the box.

How would you houserule that? +7 is way too high, but +0 actually seems way too low since the entire frickin' race is better than an entire prestige class.

[Troacctid]

Our own Dire_Stirge has been working on a project to that end. It's over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?485938-The-LA-assignment-thread). Personally, I'd probably say +4-ish.

[danielxcutter]

Our own Dire_Stirge has been working on a project to that end. It's over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?485938-The-LA-assignment-thread). Personally, I'd probably say +4-ish.

Ah, thank you! Btw, I think you've replied to more than one of my threads for the comic, but I can't remember which...

[The Glyphstone]

Okay, what? You count LA like that? So does that mean racial HD effectively doubles your ECL?!

Man... that sucks. Maybe I'll houserule that away or something.

When your RHD and your LA are the same, yeah. But RHD and LA are actually very rarely identical, generally only if the creature has innate casting abilities like a rakshasa or mind flayer.

[DrKerosene]

If the Rakshasa worships a diety with the War Domain, it can immediately enter the Divine Crusader prc with a single feat-swap (Weapon Focus (diety's favored weapon)). You'll get the Divine Power spell from the domain.

To optimize it a bit more, one level of Sorcerer and one level of Divine Crusader with the Mad Faith feat, and you should be able to fit 4 levels of Mystic Theurge on the end.

As a PC, that would be ECL 20, casting a 12th level Sorc, and a few divine spells, all tied to Charisma for casting. But your BAB is only 13 in any case.

This would be better on an NPC where you can add 4 more levels and Versatile Spellcaster for (technically) double 9s.

[The Glyphstone]

This would be better on an NPC where you can add 4 more levels and Versatile Spellcaster for (technically) double 9s.

How do you justify that? Versatile Spellcaster explicitly boosts caster level, which is an entire different variable from effective class level. The only example where CL (technically ML)=class level is the Erudite that I know of.

[SirNibbles]

You can slowly eliminate that pesky LA with the system from UA which allows you to pay exp (1000 * [ECL -1]) every time you gain class levels equal to 3x your current LA to reduce your LA by 1. In order to get your +7 LA to +0 with this system, you would have to reach class level 84.

[Deox]

IIRC, the Rakshasa automatically can qualify for the Swiftblade PrC.

[Thurbane]

Can I ask what the Fighter level is for - is it a feat? If not, as an outsider, the Rakshasa is already proficient in all martial weapons. If it's for BAB or armor proficiency, you're probably better off with a dip in a ToB class.

[Nifft]

Can I ask what the Fighter level is for - is it a feat? If not, as an outsider, the Rakshasa is already proficient in all martial weapons. If it's for BAB or armor proficiency, you're probably better off with a dip in a ToB class.

... or one level of the Dragonslayer PrC, if you can afford the feat tax.

(Potentially followed by one level of the Spellsword PrC.)

[danielxcutter]

Can I ask what the Fighter level is for - is it a feat? If not, as an outsider, the Rakshasa is already proficient in all martial weapons. If it's for BAB or armor proficiency, you're probably better off with a dip in a ToB class.

Simple: Initiator classes are really regional in the Retreat world. That is, most warblades, crusaders, and swordsages are in a specific region, so it's difficult to have levels in those classes without at least paying a visit to there. Even harder for a Rakshasa, since one true seeing blows his cover. And that's not counting the fact since the comic takes place in a OotS-style world(as in everyone knows what skill points and classes are and so on), the Bluff check related to his ECL is actually higher than a normal campaign.

I am humbled that the great and mighty Thurbane has noticed me, btw.


... or one level of the Dragonslayer PrC, if you can afford the feat tax.

(Potentially followed by one level of the Spellsword PrC.)

Maaaaaaybe(I've never heard of Dragonslayer before), but the fact that yes, HD and LA stack, has already thrown a huge spanner in the works. I'll probably take Troacctid's advice and reduce that LA to a +4 or so, but even if I do that there's barely room for Abjurant Champion. Spellsword 1 is good, to the point that it's been nicknamed "Abjurant Champion 0", but adding a Rakshasa at all just got much more difficult than I've planned, so I'll have to fix the story quite a bit whether I use that or not. Maybe I'll just do a Swiftblade Rakshasa - if I houserule Rakshasas as only having a LA +4, would that at least be T3 up to ECL 20?