Okay... how the heck should I build a character with this?

[danielxcutter]

Note: Thought exercise. Not to be used in play anytime soon.

So there's this homebrewed base class by Rich Burlew, aka the Giant, aka the guy who made the site in the first place, etc. It's called the Champion (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9623431&postcount=9), and I must say, the fluff for it is pretty cool.

Unfortunately, the actual class features... seem to be lackluster. I'm sure that in general, it's much better than Monk or Soulknife, but when you're not in Hero Form, you actually might be weaker then those classes due to a lack of class features.

I'm pretty sure that making a good Champion, compared to some of the good Tier 3 classes like martial adepts or gish-in-a-can classes, is much more difficult. However, from what I've seen some people do on this forum... I think you guys could do it.

So, anyone up for the challenge? All official sources plus Dragon Magazine, as well as the 20 additional feats in the post below it (also made by Mr. Burlew) are allowed, but no other homebrew or third party material.

[Stealth Marmot]

Just a thought: Have the avatar be a different gender from the champion.

Then again I might be reading too much El Goonish Shive.

[DreganHiregard]

Well looking things over I don't have a full built but here's a few things to note:

1.) You become a native outsider, and I'm sure there are some excellent abilities that involve creature type shinanigans though I'm not sure what they are off the top of my head.

2.) Adding 4 Points to your ability scores is obviously most effective when you have odd numbered scores, Especially since the class is a bit MAD already

3.) Having 2 sets of feats is amazing. It means you can do all your boring utility stuff AND have your combat specs. The pathfinder feat Master craftsman let's you craft magic items even without spellcasting, if there's a 3.5 equivilant then it would be a huge help. Also Since one set of feats is inactive It's not unreasonable to assume that someone could take a vow of peace, and the rest of the chain in nontransformed state, but then be able to commit righteous violence in their Avatar form.

3.) Also the class has TWO pools of hit points that can soak and absorb damage. This makes things like a persistant vigor, or tons of healing doubly useful, and it means a champion can go from nearly dead to a barbarian's worth of HP.

4.) The Avatar weapon ability lets you get effectively a +13 weapon, look for combinations that work well togather like speed and vorpal, or wounding and speed, or actually just speed is pretty much always the best.

5.) Remember that your spell list let's you use wands and scrolls. Grab some of the bad boys from your spell list as reliable magic items

6.) Even in regular form you're still leagues better than a commoner, but I highly reccomend checking out the commoner handbook anyways, it has tons of options for what to do when you're low powered.


As an aside I've been trying to find this class for 6 months now so you did me a huge favour by making this post, thanks, and I hope this helped!

[Grod_The_Giant]

Yeah, I think you'd be pretty sad at anything below level 6-- then you can take Extra Hero Form for a total of four uses/day, which should be enough to make it through your encounters.

After that... well, your big selling point is playing two characters-- sort of like the Synthesist Summoner, only with crappier spellcasting. I'd build your base form as a socialite skill-y guy; try for stuff like Nymph's Kiss, and maybe some soulmelds. You can afford to let your physical stats drop a bit, since the Avatar form, near as I can tell, gets a +1 boost per class level. For that side of things, I guess any combat style you want-- tripping might be nice, given the stat boosts and the potential for Powerful Form.

I guess another option is to multiclass to something else after hitting Champion 5; if you take one of the stacking feats all you really lose out on is the ability bumps. Shame Ur-Priest doesn't work...I guess you could maybe do something like Champion 7/Divine Crusader 1*/Sovereign Speaker 9/Divine Crusader+3? That would give you a whole bunch of divine casting to work with.

*You'd qualify when in Avatar form, though you wouldn't get any benefits until you hit ECL 9 and took Divine Avatar and/or hit ECL 10 and BAB +7 in base form. Still, seems thematic.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Item crafter by day, vigilante by night. Be Batman with a transformation sequence.

Of course, you don't qualify for item creation feats at lower levels, and your caster level is always low. Practiced Spellcaster can be quite helpful, but that's about it. Maybe a Mystic Fire Knight-equivalent could be created for the champion (their casting is basically paladin casting, after all), which, together with Illumian race and Sword of the Arcane Order, turns you into an acceptable caster.

[The Viscount]

Good lord it's Solar Channeler all over again.

First thing to reduce MADness is to take Dynamic Priest. You don't have spells with saves, so you can dump Wis.

Take Divine Avatar, then use sanctified spells. They aren't from your class, so you should be able to cast them in avatar form. Immunity to ability drain and damage negates the sacrifice for casting them.(Can I just stop and say how insane it is that you can take a feat to cast spells from other classes in avatar form, but nothing to cast from your own list?)

I'm not 100%, but I feel like this combined with bonus spells from sufficiently high Wis/Cha would give you the ability to cast 5ths and up from your domain.