Advice for Pixie PC

[danielxcutter]

Not really for XPeditious Retreat,, just wanted to see what funny/creative/broken builds or ideas you guys get. I already know about the infamous Pixie Warlock build(Greater Invisibility + Eldritch Blast + flight = fun), Pixie Swordsage could be okay with Shadow Blade(Dex to damage when using Shadow Hand weapons), and by RAW, a Pixie with the Greater Titan Bloodline allows you to use a Gargantuan Warhammer. With no penalty.

Anything else? Assume LA-buyoff is allowed.

[Hollysword]

My party actually had a pixie spellthief once. Together with a half-elf cleric, a succubus ranger and an elf swashbuckler. It was fun, specially since the pixie is pretty much always invisible, so when the enemy tries to use a buff spell... yoink!

Then the party met a pixie fighter... so have at you.

[dspeyer]

Greater Invisibility and Sneak Attack are always a fun combination, especially with Ambush feats.

Flyby Attack is nice, and has no prerequisites. Great Flyby Attack is awesome against a mob, but Savage Species may be banned at your table.

[John Longarrow]

Combat Reflexes + spiked chain is a fantastically fun thing to do. Pixie stays 10' ahead and 5' up from your parties tank. Wait for mooks to try to close, then blender of death kicks in.

Really fun build is to go Cleric. Once you can enlarge yourself you open a whole new world of fun possibilities. Alternately a Bard build can totally rock.

[danielxcutter]

My party actually had a pixie spellthief once. Together with a half-elf cleric, a succubus ranger and an elf swashbuckler. It was fun, specially since the pixie is pretty much always invisible, so when the enemy tries to use a buff spell... yoink!

Then the party met a pixie fighter... so have at you.

Spellthief... ooh, that could be nice since Pixies get large bonuses to the important stats. Problem's the +4 LA, though, since class features and spells outstrip stat bonuses at high levels by a considerable amount...


Greater Invisibility and Sneak Attack are always a fun combination, especially with Ambush feats.

Flyby Attack is nice, and has no prerequisites. Great Flyby Attack is awesome against a mob, but Savage Species may be banned at your table.

I'm not sure about Ambush feats(which aren't really powerful on a Pixie due to the LA), but yes, Greater Invisibility + Sneak Attack results in quite a lot of fun. Flyby Attack and Great Flyby Attack are also worth considering too, I guess, although dealing enough damage to be useful might be a problem.


Combat Reflexes + spiked chain is a fantastically fun thing to do. Pixie stays 10' ahead and 5' up from your parties tank. Wait for mooks to try to close, then blender of death kicks in.

Really fun build is to go Cleric. Once you can enlarge yourself you open a whole new world of fun possibilities. Alternately a Bard build can totally rock.

Ouch! Combat Reflexes are absolutely nasty with a Pixie's +8 Dex bonus. Considering that AoO builds tend to pump their Dex anyways, that could easily result in a +6 or higher Dex modifier right from the start. And a spiked chain is a Shadow Hand weapon too, now that I think about it...

Not sure about Cleric, since full casters are severely weakened by LA. Bard could be pretty sweet though, thanks to a good Cha bonus.

[John Longarrow]

Cleric is for DMM-persistent fun. Even at low levels you get LOTS of turning attempts with their high charisma

[FreddyNoNose]

Not really for XPeditious Retreat,, just wanted to see what funny/creative/broken builds or ideas you guys get. I already know about the infamous Pixie Warlock build(Greater Invisibility + Eldritch Blast + flight = fun), Pixie Swordsage could be okay with Shadow Blade(Dex to damage when using Shadow Hand weapons), and by RAW, a Pixie with the Greater Titan Bloodline allows you to use a Gargantuan Warhammer. With no penalty.

Anything else? Assume LA-buyoff is allowed.

I had a pixie courtesan in an Arduin Grimoire campaign back in the 70s. You can imagine the trouble you can get into with that!

[danielxcutter]

Cleric is for DMM-persistent fun. Even at low levels you get LOTS of turning attempts with their high charisma

Ah, I thought I smelled cheddar. :smallbiggrin: Still weaker than most other Clerics with DMM, though.


I had a pixie courtesan in an Arduin Grimoire campaign back in the 70s. You can imagine the trouble you can get into with that!

Hmmm... I'm interested. Any specific misadventures that you'd like to bring up?

[John Longarrow]

The kind of build I was thinking of involves some pre-planning and doesn't really get going good till mid levels.

The bonus feat Pixies get is Dodge, a feat that is pretty much wasted on them. That said, the main feats were looking for are;

1) Weapon Finesse. +8 to dex pretty much requires this. Can get it by taking a level is Swashbuckler.
2) EWP Spiked Chain. Probably take it as the 1st level feat to get this ball rolling.
3) Combat Reflexes. If level 2 is Fighter-1 we can grab it as a FBF.
4) Shadow Blade. Level 3 is in Sword Sage to qualify.
5) 1st part of total cheese. level 4 is the 2nd level in sword sage to add Wisdom to our sick Dex, DR, NA, and invisibility.

At this point 4 class levels in we've got a BAB of 3 and are looking for more fun ways to add to the pain. This is a basic start and I'll let some other posters think of how to improve from here.

Items to get are (hopefully) insightful strike to go with Shadow Blade (get Str, Dex, and Int to damage, what fun!) and some divine casting to exploit the high Charisma OR sorcerer for the same reason. Course sorcerer can lead to abjurant champion while Cleric can lead to Ruby Knight Vindicator.

[danielxcutter]

The kind of build I was thinking of involves some pre-planning and doesn't really get going good till mid levels.

The bonus feat Pixies get is Dodge, a feat that is pretty much wasted on them. That said, the main feats were looking for are;

1) Weapon Finesse. +8 to dex pretty much requires this. Can get it by taking a level is Swashbuckler.
2) EWP Spiked Chain. Probably take it as the 1st level feat to get this ball rolling.
3) Combat Reflexes. If level 2 is Fighter-1 we can grab it as a FBF.
4) Shadow Blade. Level 3 is in Sword Sage to qualify.
5) 1st part of total cheese. level 4 is the 2nd level in sword sage to add Wisdom to our sick Dex, DR, NA, and invisibility.

At this point 4 class levels in we've got a BAB of 3 and are looking for more fun ways to add to the pain. This is a basic start and I'll let some other posters think of how to improve from here.

Items to get are (hopefully) insightful strike to go with Shadow Blade (get Str, Dex, and Int to damage, what fun!) and some divine casting to exploit the high Charisma OR sorcerer for the same reason. Course sorcerer can lead to abjurant champion while Cleric can lead to Ruby Knight Vindicator.

I don't really like tacking on more than three base classes on a build, and I usually stick with the favored class rules. Swordsage all the way is nice, though, since it gets everything except Insightful Strike. It's probably one of the best melee Pixie builds.

[John Longarrow]

Swordsage is pretty awesome on a pixie, but I was looking to get some feats very early in their career that really let them shine.

Course favored class is sorcerer, so that opens a bunch of cheese in and of it self!

[Troacctid]

I'd probably take artificer over cleric for persistomancy. It's less feat-intensive, which matters when you're low on HD. (If you're not familiar with artificer persistomancy, which isn't as well-known as DMM, you use the metamagic item infusion with a wand or other spell trigger item, and there are various tricky ways to get wands of whatever spell you want and use them without expending charges.)

[FreddyNoNose]

Ah, I thought I smelled cheddar. :smallbiggrin: Still weaker than most other Clerics with DMM, though.



Hmmm... I'm interested. Any specific misadventures that you'd like to bring up?
Well my pixie one time with a storm giant.....

[danielxcutter]

Swordsage is pretty awesome on a pixie, but I was looking to get some feats very early in their career that really let them shine.

Course favored class is sorcerer, so that opens a bunch of cheese in and of it self!

Alter Self is cheddar; Shapechange is just plain Gouda. :smallbiggrin:


I'd probably take artificer over cleric for persistomancy. It's less feat-intensive, which matters when you're low on HD. (If you're not familiar with artificer persistomancy, which isn't as well-known as DMM, you use the metamagic item infusion with a wand or other spell trigger item, and there are various tricky ways to get wands of whatever spell you want and use them without expending charges.)

Ah, Artificer. Just as cheesy as the Spell-to-Power variant Erudite or the Archivist. Doesn't sound half bad, however. How does using UMD to craft magic items work again?

[danielxcutter]

Well my pixie one time with a storm giant.....

May I ask what gender each side was? :smallwink:

[John Longarrow]

May I ask what gender each side was? :smallwink:

Between Alter Self and polymorph this question becomes fairly moot... Would probably require BOTH to get closer in size to each other though.

[danielxcutter]

Between Alter Self and polymorph this question becomes fairly moot... Would probably require BOTH to get closer in size to each other though.

Actually serious question: Then you really can use those spells to change your physical? I'm not kidding, someone who's transexual or genderfluid might really find them useful.

[John Longarrow]

From the spell Alter self

"You can freely designate the new form’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new form’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new form’s kind."

So you are free to be whom ever you wish! Course turning into Dolly Parton may not fall within "the norms for the new form's kind"...

[danielxcutter]

From the spell Alter self

"You can freely designate the new form’s minor physical qualities (such as hair color, hair texture, and skin color) within the normal ranges for a creature of that kind. The new form’s significant physical qualities (such as height, weight, and gender) are also under your control, but they must fall within the norms for the new form’s kind."

So you are free to be whom ever you wish! Course turning into Dolly Parton may not fall within "the norms for the new form's kind"...

Even if you ignore the obvious plastic surgery replacement usages, it could be useful for someone who greatly dislikes his or her current form, such as the ones I suggested earlier. I'm not joking.

[John Longarrow]

Down side is as a 2nd level spell a continual item would run about 12,00 gp. Other wise its 10 minutes/lvl for alter self.

Really good for some things, not so good for others.

[FreddyNoNose]

May I ask what gender each side was? :smallwink:

The pixie courtesan is female the cloud giant a male.

[PacMan2247]

Well my pixie one time with a storm giant.....

Interesting. I was once in a campaign playing a pixie Shaper; our party was trying to get some giants to ally with us, and there were various tests set before us, so we could show that our group shared values with them. Since my pixie had the highest constitution in the party (which included a brass dragon...), he ended up taking the 'drinking contest' challenge. I don't remember if he won or lost, but he ended the night lounging in the cleavage of a giantess. A later game run in the setting included descendants of that pixie and giantess.

[Endarire]

My only PC Pixie experience was a Pixie Rogue2 in Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. There was a random encounter with a dragon somewhere in the world (probably not near the temple). I saw a DRAGON and flew 120' away. I was exactly outside its breath weapon's cone effect.

Another time, in a major city in the same campaign, I flew around town and lightning bolts just kept flying at me. (I learned later they were from anti-air city towers.) Evasion and high Reflex results meant 0 damage! Alleluia! I also learned to walk,