Looking for Character Concepts. You bring 'em, I build 'em. #2

[Rizban]

I originally posted this thread almost two years ago, just before I got married. I, of course, quickly ran out of time to spend on the forums to participate. However, I'm back and really want to revive the thread and give it another go. So that said, onward to the insanity.

As the title says, I'm looking for some interesting character concepts. Not builds, concepts. I've become rather overly comfortable with building only one or two particular types of characters and would like some prompts to build new, interesting characters. To that end, I'm turning to the Playground for their ideas. I'd like some challenging character that aren't just a straightforward idea, but I'm mostly interested in developing quirky, unique characters.

So, here's the deal. Post up a fairly basic character idea, and I'll build it in 3.5, flesh out the character and its background, and post it here. I'll build with specific effort towards making a character that has good character depth, is fun to play, and is effective in a moderately optimized group. Give as much information as you want, but please leave me a fair amount of room to play with the build. I'd prefer not to have actual class/feat suggestions, but if your concept is for a particular prestige class, then that's fine. Also, please don't suggest D&D versions of characters from books or movies or ask for build suggestions on a build you're already using. I reserve the right to only flesh out characters that I find interesting and/or challenging to create. Essentially, I'm looking for short creative writing prompts that lead to viable D&D 3.5 characters.

Notes:
Unless specified otherwise, I will usually assume 28 point buy, flaws and traits are allowed, and all official sources are available (books, errata, WotC web articles, adventures, etc.).
Most characters will probably ignore or repurpose fluff-only requirements of prestige classes, feats, and other options, such as needing to worship a specific deity, belong to a specific organization, or be born in a specific region.
I tend to make fairly liberal use of alternate class features and substitution levels and always assume that they are compatible with one another as long as they exchange different features. However, I will never chain alternate class features. This means that I will never trade class feature A for B then trade class feature B for C.
For example, I might make use of the Elf Paladin, Harmonious Knight, Lion Legionnaire, and Ruby Rose Knight substitution levels for Paladin on the same character, at least at the levels where they don't conflict.
I use the official Adaptation sections of many prestige classes if it fits the character concept to do so. This is technically homebrew, even if officially sanctioned, so I will always make note of it.
I avoid other homebrew, but I will include it at my discretion if I deem its use reasonable and/or necessary, generally limited to such things as "This specifies only Situation X; however Situation Y is from a different/later source book, is virtually identical, and really should be covered." I will always note such inclusions as needing to be DM approved before using. Most often, I will use an official option and suggest a homebrew alternative in the description.
An example of this is Ral'Tik-Deja'raluk (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=20683556&postcount=6) where I update the Improved Multiweapon Fighting prerequisites to match the ITWF prereqs in 3.5, because IMWF was never officially updated.
Finally, I tend to constrain myself to the build restrictions given in the Aldhaven Consolidated Rules (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?402514) thread, but I don't do so very strictly. It's really more guidelines than rules.



Example
Character Name: Doran Galbitter
Brief Concept: Doran is fascinated by alchemy and natural philosophy. A former member of a naturalist guild, he was kicked out for just generally being a nasty old man that none of them could stand.
Abilities: Can craft wide range of potions and alchemical items. Has several strong animal allies.
Limitations: Charisma <10, no social skills, and limited spellcasting.

[Rizban]

Completed Characters

The following are complete characters with backgrounds and complete or mostly complete mechanical builds with some level of explanation or break down of the build, what it can do, and the reasons behind it. The full entries for these characters and more can be found at Rizban's Character Repository (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484502)



Radislav Pasternak the Inebriated
A lazy drunken dwarf with a chip on his shoulder inherits his father's cursed sword and uses it to get free beer.Radislav Pasternak the Inebriated (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484502#post20652937)
Gold Dwarf Commoner 1/Barbarian (Bear Totem/City Brawler) 5/Battlerager 4/Legacy Champion 10

Character Name: Radislav
Brief Concept: Radislav is a simple man. Even though one of his ancestors was a wizard, he is a farmer and a humble servant of the Gods, as was his father, his grandfather and many others before them. Radislav also owns a sword, a cursed sword that has been passed down for generations since the aforementioned wizard cursed his own legacy for unknown reasons, and befriended a big female bear (named Nesti) when he was just a little kid.
Abilities: Has phenomenal Commoner power and at least an animal ally.
Limitations: Int 14+, 1+ Commoner levels, -2 cursed sword, no spellcasting.


EDIT: I'm sorry for editing a pending request, but I figured that a smart Commoner would be more enjoyable to play due to the better tactics he could employ than a dull and dumb Commoner. :smallsmile:
Alvin Buckle
Alvin Buckle is a former slave who escaped, trained, and returned to free his kin. He now woks to undermine his former masters' society and release the slaves, by any means at his disposal.Alvin Buckle (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484502#post20654005)
Whisper Gnome Psychic Rogue 4/Fighter (Hit and Run Tactics) 1/Elocator 4/Shadowmind 3/Mindbender (psionic) 1
Character Name: Alvin Buckle
Brief Concept: Alvin is a former slave who escaped, trained, and returned to free his family. He now belongs to an organization which undermines slave-owning societies and releases the slaves, by any means at their disposal.
Abilities: Long cons and false-facing for recon and infiltration; safely leading (large?) parties of noncombatants through cities and wilderness when being tracked; wuxia when stealth and bluffing fails.
Limitations: Halfling, or other Small race; not reliant on spellcasting, and no primary casting class levels.
Mirala
A goblin druid priestess in tune with her inner beast.Mirala (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?484502#post21711178)
Forestkith Goblin Druid 5/TotemistMoI 3/Totem RagerMoI 10/Level Adjustment 1

Note that I had Mirala pretty well finished before I saw the edit that added the 4 arms and dual greatswords... So, just ignore that part of the request. :smalltongue:
Character name: Mirala
Brief Concept: Mirala lives isolated in a dense forest since birth, she barely knows any common. Throughout her life, she developed a strong spiritual connection to the forest, becoming her guardian and fighting with nails and teeths if necessary to defend it. But what highlights Mirala is her weapons of choice: two greatswords with she wields with 4 hands.
Abilities: Brute force and resilience
Limitations: Zero social skills, not very smart
Shrift the Mighty
A little kobold who can give his friends and enemies a helping hand.Shrift the Mighty (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?513324-Looking-for-Character-Concepts-You-bring-em-I-build-em-2&p=21794655#post21794655)
Earth Kobold Monk 1/Psychic Warrior 6/Fighter 2
An old concept I never could get to work well enough to be viable.

Character Name: Shrift the Mighty
Brief Concept: A small Kobold who wields oversize gauntlets. He's strong enough to hold a passage or a door against larger or more numerous foes.
Abilities: Knockback would be nice. Triggering saves against massive damage would be sweet.
Limitations: Small creature. Large or larger creature's gauntlets as primary weapon.

Just love the idea of a small normally insignificant creature who, without enlarging magic, can pummel the knees and ankles of larger enemies and topple them.

[Rizban]

Build Stubs

The following are incomplete rough build stubs for characters made either at the behest of the person making the request, made for an existing character with an existing story, or for a requested concept I did not fully understand and was hesitant to complete. These stubs may or may not eventually grow into full characters and moved to the above post
In'Dreg Trueblood
Sometype Shifter Wilder 5/Cerebral Rager 10 [Hyperconscious]/Master of the Unseen Hand X (reworked for psionics) or
Dreamsight Shifter Barbarian (Ferocity) 1/Psychic Warrior 7/Cerebral Rager 10/Master of the Unseen Hand X (reworked for psionics)
Character Name: In'Dreg Trueblood
Brief Concept: He's from a book. He's not human, but appears to be. He's of a race (actually, a hybrid of two races) which ages slowly. Looks ~20, really ~90. He has the ability to use magic, but hasn't learned how. He's not very serious, but is big on protecting people. Keeps several swords on his person, fights with two at a time, pretty much all longswords. Kind of strong, but more dextrous/skillful.
Abilities: Good at TWF. Due to lots of training, can seem to slow time. Due to being a hybrid of two races, can berserk, and when he does so, can use magic. Can also use telekinesis but only with his swords, and can teleport himself short distances, like within sight (actually, there are 3 levels of his berserking, but that's a bit much). Also resilient to offensive magic which he's already been exposed to. Oh, and the magic is lightning-themed.
Limitations: Nothing crunchy, but has a weak mind. Like... he's gotten amnesia twice due to injuries, then more times due to people magically wiping his mind.
Well, he's one of the protagonists of a story I'm writing.
Ah, in that case, I'm sure you've got a pretty solid idea for your character concept already. I wouldn't feel right doing a full write up for him as I did for Radislav. I was initially thinking of something along the lines of refluffed Dreamsight Shifter (gets +2 Wis while shifting) Barbarian (Ferocity ACF) 1-2/Wilder 2-3 then going into Cerebral Rager (3rd party book Hyperconscious, but widely accepted due to being written by Bruce R. Cordell, the same guy who made the official XPH and generally just being a darn good book). Top it off with a few levels in Master of the Unseen Hand modified for psionics for telekinetic weapons. Pick telekinetic powers and energy powers, using the electric damage versions.Psychic Rogue 1 (TWF)/Scout 1/Cl. Cleric 1 (Knowledge Devotion+Travel Dev.)/Scout +2/Psychic Rogue +1 (Swift Ambusher)
Maybe you can help.
One of my players has a Hadozee Scout. He wants to specialize in high mobility for skirmish and Two Weapon fighting with Thrown weapons... I cant really make it work without him falling behind to the ranger, psiwar and barbarian, let alone the blaster sorceres...

We are experimenting some with swift hunter and ranger dips. Swift ambusher and martial rogue for more feats, but i just cant figure out something satisfying. Do you have any ideas for this? or am i using this thread wrong now?
Hadozee doesn't really have much unique going for it, so that's not much of an inspiration point for a build.
The biggest problem I'm seeing is Swift Ambusher and Martial Rogue. The two may or may not work together well, since Martial Rogue gives up Sneak Attack, and precision damage is basically your main shtick. Also +1d6 SA is needed just to take the feat.

You're already using psionics in your campaign, so I would suggest Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b). The powers aren't as flashy as a psywar, but they're incredibly useful to a sneaky character. It also opens up a lot of psionic tricks.

He'll be gaining trapfinding twice, which is a waste, so I highly recommend using an ACF like Poison UseDotU or MimicEoE. Mimic is really nice, as it makes you kind of a mini changeling. Disruptive AttackPHB2 is also very, very useful for a TWF build, as he can use his first attack to impose an AC penalty against the target for his follow up attacks.

Finally, I'd suggest a one level Cloistered ClericUA dip. Trade the bonus Knowledge domain for Knowledge DevotionCC. He'll have the skill points to support the knowledge checks, and the extra bonuses it grants are great. Also, take Travel Devotion, which gives the ability to move as a swift action, allowing for a full attack when he reaches his target. Each activation lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds), and he'll have the turn undead uses to make use of the feat multiple times per day. Alternatively, he could take a dip in Barbarian with the Lion Totem ACFCC to just gain pounce. Personally, I prefer the cleric method, as you can full attack before or after moving, and pounce requires a charge. Either way works, and Barb has superior HD and BAB plus other nice features (maybe Whirling Frenzy ACFUA for extra attack).

As a build stub, I'd suggest Psychic Rogue 1 (TWF)/Scout 1/Cl. Cleric 1 (Knowledge Devotion+Travel Dev.)/Scout +2/Psychic Rogue +1 (Swift Ambusher). That gets you up to level 6. From there, just keep leveling in Psychic Rogue. Imp.TWF can be picked up with an item (Gloves of the Balanced HandMIC), so don't let him waste a feat slot on it, and GTWF isn't really worth taking for this type of build.

For psionic powers, I suggest things like Entangling Ectoplasm and Force Screen, which will always be useful, and (Greater) Concealing Amorpha is priceless, granting you concealment for a miss chance and easy Hide checks for more sneak attack chances.

Just remember that this type of build is always going to be a support character. Have him focus his character's extra skill points on skills useful outside of combat and give him opportunities to use them so he has a time to shine too.
Concept suggestion:

A young lad with strong mental abilities who is determined to learn how to shapeshift, but is determined to learn it his own way. (He won't take a druidic oath, follow the ranger's path, or learn spellcasting of any kind for certain reasons - should i provide backstory, or did you want to have fun with that too).

In effect, he wants his profession (character class) to BE shapeshifter, primarily; so he will need a method of acquiring wild shape without being a druid or ranger or high ECL race. I would like to stick with races without ECL or with only a very low ECL. The more capable and flexible the shape shifting, the better.
This is move of a build stub than anything... I've been really busy and not had a lot of time to get much done on this, but I wanted to get something posted.Kobold Rogue 7/ShapeshifterOA 1/Master of Many FormsCAd 10

Alternate Class Feature: MimicEoE – Gain disguise self as SLA, lose trapfinding. CL = class level.
CL5 is needed to qualify for the Alternate Form feat, which grants access to the Shapeshifter PrC. (You did say he wanted "Shapeshifter" to be his class. :smallwink:)Archimedes (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?513324&p=21798849#post21798849)
Human ArtificerECS 5/Renegade MastermakerMoE 10
So, I see you have a lot on your plate already, but i'd be happy if you could whip something up for me:

Character Name: Archimedes

Brief Concept: He is the leader of a small world-building project i've been working on: Camp Archimedes, which you can find in my sig.

You can read the whole thing if you want, but here is a short version: Archimedes is an engineer/artificer/mad scientist type, I peg him as Evil (LE?) and around CR 15, but these aren't strict. Race and age are also up in the air, but my first guess would be Old Human.

When he was young (perhaps after being rejected from society/the engineer guild/???) he entered in contact with a disorganised and ragtag band of bandits.
Through his engineering genius/tactical mind/charisma he was able to become the leader and organise them into a powerful mercenary army, outfitted with lots of equipment he invented: Gloves that shoot fire, grenade/smokebomb launchers, Steam golems. (Again, everything is in my sig)
Has no problem doing evil things to further his research (enslaved fire elemental = free furnace!)

Abilities: has to be able to craft a lot of stuff. Not a fighter, not meant to be good at it.

[Rizban]

[Extra reserved post, just in case.]

[Blu]

Character name: Mirala
Brief Concept: Mirala lives isolated in a dense forest since birth, she barely knows any common. Throughout her life, she developed a strong spiritual connection to the forest, becoming her guardian and fighting with nails and teeths if necessary to defend it. But what highlights Mirala is her weapons of choice: two greatswords with she wields with 4 hands.
Abilities: Brute force and resilience
Limitations: Zero social skills, not very smart

Hope you liked it :)

[GilesTheCleric]

What a neat idea! Thank you for reintroducing the thread. I'll try pitching one for you:

Name: Lance
Brief Concept: Ever inquisitive, Lance always intrudes where he's not wanted in order to learn more about people and the world. His youth led him to think himself quite good at learning things, until one day while (literally) eavesdropping, he fell from his perch, mangling both his legs. The embarassment, heightened by his fragile adolescent ego, led him to improve himself physically as best he could, despite his impediment.
Abilities: A great climber and researcher
Limitations: No casting classes, no mount. He's too proud for that.

Lance is a character I feature in many of my games (Each of the members of one particular faction in my games has a severe limitation -- broken legs, blindness, sun allergy, missing arm, etc), and I'd like to see how someone else thinks he might have made it through the world.

Anyway, if that's not interesting for you to build, no worries.

[Uncle Pine]

Hey Rizban! I don't actually have a character concept on hand right now, but I wanted to say that I loved this thread at the time and that I'm glad to see it back. Hope you spent two lovely years, too.

[Rizban]

Character name: Mirala
Brief Concept: Mirala lives isolated in a dense forest since birth, she barely knows any common. Throughout her life, she developed a strong spiritual connection to the forest, becoming her guardian and fighting with nails and teeths if necessary to defend it. But what highlights Mirala is her weapons of choice: two greatswords with she wields with 4 hands.
Abilities: Brute force and resilience
Limitations: Zero social skills, not very smart

Hope you liked it :)I've got an idea for this already. Got the build finished, except for a few feat choices, and will get the write up finished ASAP.


What a neat idea! Thank you for reintroducing the thread. I'll try pitching one for you:

Name: Lance
Brief Concept: Ever inquisitive, Lance always intrudes where he's not wanted in order to learn more about people and the world. His youth led him to think himself quite good at learning things, until one day while (literally) eavesdropping, he fell from his perch, mangling both his legs. The embarassment, heightened by his fragile adolescent ego, led him to improve himself physically as best he could, despite his impediment.
Abilities: A great climber and researcher
Limitations: No casting classes, no mount. He's too proud for that.

Lance is a character I feature in many of my games (Each of the members of one particular faction in my games has a severe limitation -- broken legs, blindness, sun allergy, missing arm, etc), and I'd like to see how someone else thinks he might have made it through the world.

Anyway, if that's not interesting for you to build, no worries.Interesting. My one concern is that I'm not entirely certain how to represent crippled legs mechanically. Any suggestions?


Hey Rizban! I don't actually have a character concept on hand right now, but I wanted to say that I loved this thread at the time and that I'm glad to see it back. Hope you spent two lovely years, too.Hey! It's good to see you.

Thanks, they've been some of the best years of my life. Married life has been absolutely wonderful. :smallbiggrin:

[Uncle Pine]

The Slow flaw halves your speed, which is harsh enough as a penalty that it could work.

[GilesTheCleric]

Interesting. My one concern is that I'm not entirely certain how to represent crippled legs mechanically. Any suggestions?

I run him with a 5' base speed myself, no running allowed.


The Slow flaw halves your speed, which is harsh enough as a penalty that it could work.

Yup, that's a good (mechanically-supported) idea.

[Rizban]

Mirala
A goblin priestess in tune with her inner beast.
Female Forestkith GoblinMM3 Druid 5/TotemistMoI 3/Totem RagerMoI 10/Level Adjustment 1CN Small Humanoid (goblin)Initiative +3; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +2; Spot +2
Languages Goblin
AC 17 T 15 FF 14; Fort +18 Ref +14 Will +15
hp 167 (18 HD)
DR 5/—
50% fortification, 50% chance to ignore stunSpeed 45 ft.
BAB +12 Grp +15
Attack Options Discordant frenzy, Totem Rage 4/day†, Favored Enemy (Elves) +4, Favored Enemy (Humans) +2
† This ability is currently active.
Special Actions Wild Empathy, Voice of the CityCity (web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a))
Combat Gear Strength 22 (+6)
Dexterity 16 (+3)
Constitution 18 (+4)
Intelligence 6 (-2)
Wisdom 14 (+2)
Charisma 10 (+0)Special Qualities Light sensitivity, tree shape, resist nature's lure, totem’s protection
Feats HD1 – Cobalt RageMoI, Dru1 – Track, HD3 – Intimidating RageCW, HD6 – ???, HD9 – Elemental GrafterMoE, HD12 – ???, HD15 – ???, HD18 – ???
Possessions combat gear plus Earth Grafts: earth glider, elemental flesh (earth), stony plating, tremor graft
SkillTotalRanks
Climb+140
Hide+110
Intimidate+1818
Jump+120
Listen+20
Move Silently+70
Spot+20
Survival+1210
Unspent Skill Points-16Deep in the Baladron Wood live the Zdateg, a primitive tribe of forestkith goblins. Though naturally skittish, they are well known for their feral lifestyle and violent reactions when their territory is invaded. One summer night, when a portentous moon was in the sky and the planes were aligned with the stars, a small kith girl was born to the chief of the tribe. Her faintly glowing blue eyes set her apart from the rest of her tribe from the moment she first looked upon the world.

Blessed from an early age, Mirala as she was named, was raised in the druidic ways of a priestess of the tribe; however, she did not readily take to the passive ways common to the druids of her tribe. Mirala had a great love and admiration of her father, the chief by virtue of being the biggest, strongest goblin in the tribe, and she desired greatly to be like him. Taking the teachings of the druids, she learned to harness the power of nature into a mighty fury, much like that of her barbaric father.

Though she loved the ways of the druids, she couldn't ignore her respect for her father and desire to follow in his path, despite the anger it caused her mentor. Abandoned by her druidic instructor as hopeless, Mirala began to try to each herself the magics druids that had been so tantalizingly waved before her to little avail. Though she spent many hours wandering the woods or transformed into a small tree, she grew no closer to the raw power of nature than she already was, having mastered only the most basic of cantrips. This held true until the day she stumbled into her true power.

Accompanying her father's hunting party as it left to track a pride of krenshar, Mirala could hardly contain her excitement. The pride had been harassing the kith for several weeks, and it was time to put down the predators to protect their people. The hunt went well enough, for they lost but a single warrior, and that to carelessness on his part, but slew several of the krenshar. Surely this would teach them not to hunt goblin. Mirala approached one of the krenshar as it lay dying, fascinated as it gasped its last in the throes of death. As its spirit wrenched free of its mortal form, it flew toward Mirala and bound itself to her face, forming a gruesome mask. Mirala had formed her first soulmeld.

Mirala starts as a druid/totemist. Honestly, I think 3rd level is where she'd be the most fun to play. She's got some neat tricks going and is rather potent with the ability to bring a few different abilities to bear. Of course, I usually tend to enjoy low-level play better than higher level.

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial1Druid 1+0
+2
+0
+2HD1 – Cobalt RageMoI
Dru1 – TrackAC bonus, Fast movement (barb), 1st favored enemy, nature sense, rage 1/day, Track, voice of the city
2Totemist 1+0
+4
+2
+2Wild empathy, illiteracy
3Totemist 2+1
+5
+3
+2HD3 – Intimidating RageCWTotem chakra bind (+1 capacity)

Mirala begins play as a druid, but not your average druid. She takes three alternate class features: Druidic Avenger, Deadly Hunter, and Voice of the City. Druidic AvengerSRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druidVariantDruidicAve nger) trades away her animal companion and spontaneous summoning to gain barbarian rage and fast movement.
Deadly HunterSRD (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#druid) trades away wild shape for AC bonus and fast movement as a monk and the favored enemy, swift tracker, and Track feat of a Ranger.
Voice of the CityCity (web (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20070228a)) trades away wild empathy for the ability to communicate with people who don't speak your language. Since Mirala only speaks goblin, this is going to be helpful for her later.

At second level, Mirala goes into totemist, picking up the wild empathy she just traded away and the ability to shape soulmelds. At 3rd level, she gets her totem bind, which gives her plenty of fun options. Recommended soulmelds for this level are the Kruthik Claws for the Hide/Move Silently bonuses, Ankheg Breastplate for the AC bonus, and either Sphinx Claws or Girallon Arms (bound to totem) for the natural claw attacks.

Cobalt Rage is taken at 1st, because it's convenient and the +1 to damage and Will saves it gives is actually useful at this level. It's also a prerequisite for her PrC later.

Intimidating Rage isn't wonderful, but it seemed appropriate to her character. Another alternative would be Azure Enmity for additional bonuses against favored enemies and another point of essentia.
Her newfound power coursing through her very soul, Mirala returned triumphant to her tribe, the hunting party following behind her in awe of the unknown magics. Seeking out to the mentor that once cast her aside, Mirala unsheathed her powerful sphinx claws and struck her down, declaring herself the new spiritual leader for the tribe.

Fearful for their lives and in awe of her seemingly unique powers, the two acolytes under the former priestess did all they could to teach Mirala the secrets of their druidic heritage. Though Mirala never mastered all the arts they tried to teach her, for even they did not know all the secrets, she learned what she could while following her own spiritual path.

Mirala picks up another level of totemist and then takes several more levels of druid.

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial4Totemist 3+2
+5
+3
+3Totem’s protection
5Druid 2+3
+6
+3
+4Woodland stride
6Druid 3+4
+6
+4
+4HD6 – ???Fast movement (monk), trackless step
7Druid 4+5
+7
+4
+5Resist nature's lure
8Druid 5+5
+7
+4
+52nd favored enemy, rage 2/day

These levels give Mirala a few more defensive bonuses, some movement stuff, and a 2nd favored enemy and use of rage. I primarily chose 5 levels of druid, because the monster entry for forestkith goblins in MM3 specifies that the elder of the tribe is a 5th-level druid.

The 6th-level feat is wide open to anything that you think would be good; however, I strongly recommend Bonus Essentia for the 2 extra essentia it grants. It will be less vital in a few levels, but more essentia is always important.
Learning to combine the raging spirit within her and the powerful soul magic she was beginning to master, Mirala takes a new step seeking a new path. To accomplish this, she takes a journey through the Wood alone. On this journey she encounters a powerful earth spirit.

Though she approaches it reverently, mostly out of fear, the spirit becomes hostile and attacks. After a brief battle, Mirala is defeated, but the earth spirit is appeased and takes pity on her. Though unable to speak, Mirala uses her crude communication abilities to find common ground, and the spirit teaches her how to call upon it and its ilk for power and guidance in ways similar to the way she calls upon the souls of magical beasts. Taking the powers of earth spirits into herself, Mirala returns to her tribe and challenges her father for leadership of the tribe.

Mirala's father's final words as he lay her feet were only of pride in his daughter, dying in a pool of blood, a smile of contentment on his face. That day, Mirala became chief and priestess of her tribe, a feat none had ever before achieved.

From here, Mirala goes into Totem Rager and finishes it out. She does have a +1 LA, so she's got one free level to play with at 20th. If you play with LA buy off, then she's got 2 open levels.

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial9Totem Rager 1+5
+9
+6
+5HD9 – Elemental GrafterMoETotem rage, wild empathy
10Totem Rager 2+6+1
+10
+7
+5Extra rage +1 level of existing meldshaping class
11Totem Rager 3+7+2
+10
+7
+6Damage reduction 1/— +1 level of existing meldshaping class
12Totem Rager 4+8+3
+11
+8
+6HD12 – ???Chakra binds (crown, feet, hands) +1 level of existing meldshaping class
13Totem Rager 5+8+3
+11
+8
+6Extended rage +1 level of existing meldshaping class
14Totem Rager 6+9+4
+12
+9
+7—
15Totem Rager 7+10+5
+12
+9
+7HD15 – ???Damage reduction 2/— +1 level of existing meldshaping class
16Totem Rager 8+11+6+1
+13
+10
+7Extra rage +1 level of existing meldshaping class
17Totem Rager 9+11+6+1
+13
+10
+8Chakra binds (arms, brow, shoulders) +1 level of existing meldshaping class
18Totem Rager 10+12+7+2
+14
+11
+8HD18 – ???Totem chakra bind (+2 capacity) +1 level of existing meldshaping class

Totem Rager gives Mirala a number of nice options. She gets additional rage uses, longer rages, and bonus essentia when raging, all of which are essential to her build. She also progresses her meldshaping, gaining some additional chakra binds that she's been sorely missing until now.

The damage reduction is pretty minor, but the earth elemental grafts boost that a little as well as giving her some other nice options. However, since both sources of her DR explicitly stack with other DR of the same type, getting some additional DR X/— to boost it up should be a priority. If you can get it to 10 or higher, then it'll actually have a bit of an impact.

I also didn't fill in her feats, because they're pretty well open. There are some things that are definitely nice, but nothing is particularly necessary. This is one of the few builds I've made that isn't extremely feat intensive. I do suggest Multiattack and Power Attack slotted in somewhere, but they aren't strictly necessary.

All in all, this is going to be weaker than a straight druid, but I like the way she turned out. I feel like it would be an almost ideal leader for a goblin tribe, particularly the forestkith goblins. Since that was my design goal, I'm pretty happy with the result. :smallsmile:

[Rizban]

Note that I had Mirala pretty well finished before I saw the edit that added the 4 arms and dual greatswords... So, I'm just going to ignore that part of the request... *shrug*

[danielxcutter]

Hmmm... How about this?

Name: Johan

Brief concept: In his youth, Johan wished to become a great swordsman. However, while he was by no means frail, it was clear to everyone who knew him that the strength of his body was far weaker than that of his mind.

However, Johan eventually found a way around this.

One day, a pack of Dire Wolves attacked the village, as their usual prey was scarce at that time of year. Those who were capable of fighting the beasts grabbed their tools - or weapons - and joined the village guards in driving them off, Johan included. A cloaked traveler who was passing by also offered his services, although not that of sword and shield.

Unfortunately, the wolves were ravenous and fought back bitterly. The combatants as a whole were holding their ground, but Johan was not as tough as the others, and the wolf he was fighting was one of the largest and ferocious of the pack. While frantically dodging or blocking the beast's assault, Johan tripped over a rock and dropped his weapon.

However, before the savage wolf could rip out the defenseless Johan's throat, a large boulder slammed into the side of it's head.

Bewildered, Johan looked around and saw the traveler, who was looking in his direction. The cloaked man smiled at Johan, pointed at the blade Johan had dropped in his fumble, and mouthed 'watch this'. With a flick of his wrist, the sword suddenly rose up in the air and decapitated the wolf, as if - no, in truth it *had* been thrown by an invisible force.

The next day, when the cloaked traveler left the village, he had a companion with him.

Five years later, Johan parted ways with his master. As a gift, the man who had saved Johan's life back then gave his student five blades. Johan took his teacher's present, and after some heartfelt words, went to make his way in the world.

And so begins the tale of Johan Steelstorm.

Abilities: uses Telekinetic Thrust or other similar methods to manipulate his swords, though he is capable of wielding them himself.

Limits: while not too squishy, somewhat physically weaker than one would expect from a warrior.


Just an idea I came up with.

[Uncle Pine]

Both Girallon's Blessing (3rd level Druid spell) and the Girallon Arm soulmeld (bound to the totem chakra) are available to Mirala, so she can have her 4 arms just fine.

[EndocrineBandit]

This. This is wonderful. I could probably post things all day here. Actually, I might drop a couple of concepts after I get some more tea in my veins.

[Rizban]

Both Girallon's Blessing (3rd level Druid spell) and the Girallon Arm soulmeld (bound to the totem chakra) are available to Mirala, so she can have her 4 arms just fine.
The soulmeld doesn't let you use the extra arms for wielding weapons. It just gives you extra claw attacks. That said, the main issue is the dual wielding great swords. Not only is she not proficient with them, but the build doesn't do anything to support that playstyle. You'd need the TWF line of feats in there, and most often, you'd be making fewer attacks for less damage than if you just used your natural weapons.


Hmmm... How about this?

Name: Johan

Brief concept: In his youth, Johan wished to become a great swordsman. However, while he was by no means frail, it was clear to everyone who knew him that the strength of his body was far weaker than that of his mind.

However, Johan eventually found a way around this.

One day, a pack of Dire Wolves attacked the village, as their usual prey was scarce at that time of year. Those who were capable of fighting the beasts grabbed their tools - or weapons - and joined the village guards in driving them off, Johan included. A cloaked traveler who was passing by also offered his services, although not that of sword and shield.

Unfortunately, the wolves were ravenous and fought back bitterly. The combatants as a whole were holding their ground, but Johan was not as tough as the others, and the wolf he was fighting was one of the largest and ferocious of the pack. While frantically dodging or blocking the beast's assault, Johan tripped over a rock and dropped his weapon.

However, before the savage wolf could rip out the defenseless Johan's throat, a large boulder slammed into the side of it's head.

Bewildered, Johan looked around and saw the traveler, who was looking in his direction. The cloaked man smiled at Johan, pointed at the blade Johan had dropped in his fumble, and mouthed 'watch this'. With a flick of his wrist, the sword suddenly rose up in the air and decapitated the wolf, as if - no, in truth it *had* been thrown by an invisible force.

The next day, when the cloaked traveler left the village, he had a companion with him.

Five years later, Johan parted ways with his master. As a gift, the man who had saved Johan's life back then gave his student five blades. Johan took his teacher's present, and after some heartfelt words, went to make his way in the world.

And so begins the tale of Johan Steelstorm.

Abilities: uses Telekinetic Thrust or other similar methods to manipulate his swords, though he is capable of wielding them himself.

Limits: while not too squishy, somewhat physically weaker than one would expect from a warrior.


Just an idea I came up with.That's a bit more developed than I was really hoping for
Also, it seems like it would end up similar to the In'Dreg Trueblood build stub above, as they use the same tactics to accomplish the same goals.

[LordOfCain]

Character Name: Xavier Silverst
Brief Concept: Xavier is a master of manipulating magic, he is capable of stopping almost any attack, magical or mundane, that comes towards him.
Abilities: Lots of counterspelling, typically buffed familiar
Limitations: No crafting ability, Charisma 8 or below, specialized in abjuration

[Uncle Pine]

The soulmeld doesn't let you use the extra arms for wielding weapons. It just gives you extra claw attacks. That said, the main issue is the dual wielding great swords. Not only is she not proficient with them, but the build doesn't do anything to support that playstyle. You'd need the TWF line of feats in there, and most often, you'd be making fewer attacks for less damage than if you just used your natural weapons.
She'd still be running around with four arms. That ought to add some flavour points. :smalltongue:

OR she could use both. Would that give Mirala six arms (and therefore six claw attacks)? Talk about being in tune with your inner beast.

[danielxcutter]

The soulmeld doesn't let you use the extra arms for wielding weapons. It just gives you extra claw attacks. That said, the main issue is the dual wielding great swords. Not only is she not proficient with them, but the build doesn't do anything to support that playstyle. You'd need the TWF line of feats in there, and most often, you'd be making fewer attacks for less damage than if you just used your natural weapons.

That's a bit more developed than I was really hoping for
Also, it seems like it would end up similar to the In'Dreg Trueblood build stub above, as they use the same tactics to accomplish the same goals.

Uh, is developed good or bad here? Also I hadn't read the In'Dreg stub yet when I posted Johan :smallredface: I was thinking about building around the "telekinetic swords" thing primarily though.

[Uncle Pine]

D&D adventures and stories in general are great because they're filled with the wildest characters and creatures. Few things are cooler than ninjas, pirates, zombies, robots or any combination thereof. Or dinosaurs. Let's focus on the last one...

Character name: Bob I can't come up with a good halfling name, so I'll leave this up to you.
Brief concept: One of the faithful servants/followers/slaves/cultists of Lord Juraxxus (a fiendish phrenic half-goristro tyrannosaurus), Bob is a halfling that doesn't bother asking questions when a "problem" arises. He is strongly in touch with the more abhorrent powers of this world. Bob also hates gnome spellcasters just as much as his own boss.
Abilities: Some sort of "fiendish" powers, a strong connection with dinosaurs (either a dinosaur mount, a were-dinosaur template, dinosaur-related spells/powers or something else). The hate for gnomes needs not to be mechanically represented.
Limitations: Halfling as a base race, CE alignment.

[Buufreak]

1: Thebus, the holy knight of a deity with the general rule of "things should stay dead, avoid animate dead and/or resurrection spells," but has a bad tendency of dying and being rezzed anyway.

2: As inspired by another thread, a "were-gypsy." Extrapolate whatever you see fit from that, I'm in no way picky. I seriously plan on playing whatever (or whoever) you produce in my next game.

[lylsyly]

Character name: Lylsyly (lil'syly) Female 1/2 Pixie 1/2 Faerie Dragon Full Gestalt (Racial levels on one side)

Brief concept: Played like her name sounds. Played like a true ditz. Comes back from scouting and talks about the flowers, squirrels, ect. and "oh, by the way, there is a war party of ogres coming this way" ... (About the same time the Ogre war party crests the hill).

Abilities: Rogue/ranger swift ambusher with all the powers/abilities of both the pixie and faerie

Limitations: 14 levels of racial class on one side

Played this character but the DM and I had never done the monster class thing and we butchered it pretty badly.

[SoraWolf7]

Character name: Elario Solitayr (Pronounced Solitaire)

Brief concept: A Divine-powered Roguish character who worships Olidammara and prefers to "prank" people to teach them a lesson following Olidammara's "sometimes possessions make you bad" ideal and other tenants, usually though curses or other "gifts" given to those who would want his aid. Much like his deity, he loves his wine and women.

Abilities: Divine magic used to properly "prank" people, as well as rogue-like abilities (stealth, bluff, etc).

Limitations: Chaotic Alignment (bonus points for CN), no gestalt

[bean illus]

Character name: Phoxzcsmapfsox - The Zoo Keeper

Brief concept: Beyond the mountain and over the river, across the valley, in the great forest, it is known that a small man lives in the shadows of the trees. Tales go back for generations of this mysterious person and the numerous times he has saved this small town on the edge of the wilderness. He lives with the animals of the wood, and rarely talks to people. Though the rangers say they occasionally glimpse him, he hasn't been seen in public for 20 years, and many young folks believe that the tales are just stories.

Abilities: Extra Familiar (Dragon 280), Extra Familiar, Improved Familiar, any other animal companion you can squeeze in, and lots of pets. High in Skill Monkey.

Limitations: Probably not enough feats to go around. No armor and likely rather limited in melee, and possibly in Dam. Probably no 9th level spells.

Ps: I know you asked for "no feats", but that's what this concept is. If you don't care to do it because of that, it's fine of course.
The problem with this build, as i see it, is that it's hard to make the thing do anything but limp around. I couldn't quite pull it off.

[TheBrassDuke]

Character name: MeadowSong

Brief concept: Think "the First Dark Faerie" sprung from the Hollows alongside her lighter kin, and over the course of years (after abandoning her home) honed her wicked powers; she essentially goes from being a simple dark faerie to a full-blown Maleficent!

(No, really. But not Angelina Jolie's 'Maley'. I'm talking Mistress of All Evil Maleficent here...)

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/CainePorter/IMG_2836_zpsctylyhuz.jpg

I imagine MeadowSong would learn under some wizard/sorcerer (or something) before ultimately killing the master and taking up their mantle on the Forbidden Mountain. Maybe he taught her the power to transform into that dragon..?

Abilities: Fey power; spellcasting; shadow magic; and obviously the power to eventually transform into a dragon!

Oh, and that staff our favorite MoAE usually carries, I've taken to referring to as Faeries' Wrath...

And of course, she's gotta have her trusty sidekick, Diablo.

Limitations: Well she's a fey, and basically Maleficent. Cold Iron vulnerability, her extreme narcissism, she relies heavily on her companion Diablo, etc...

Note: I'm only half-awake, hence the half-***ed concept.

[Morphic tide]

Is Pathfinder okay? Because I have a vague outline of a build, just the core classes and archetypes, and one thing they do with one of those classes beyond the utterly obvious. I will wait for your response to post the idea.

[Rizban]

I've come down with the flu, so I won't be doing this for a few days. I'll be back as soon as I'm feeling better.


Is Pathfinder okay? Because I have a vague outline of a build, just the core classes and archetypes, and one thing they do with one of those classes beyond the utterly obvious. I will wait for your response to post the idea.I'm really not very familiar with Pathfinder.

[Morphic tide]

I'm really not very familiar with Pathfinder.

Okay then. The setup is heavily rooted in Golarion's setting and almost requires a Pathfinder exclusive class to function, so it literally can't work properly in 3.5 alone.

[TorsteinTheRed]

Excellent thread idea! I've got ideas for these, but I'm curious what your take might be:

Character Name: The Tower
Brief Concept: After being powerless to stop the deaths of those close to him, he devoted his sword training to the protection of those less fortunate. He is very averse to killing, preferring to knock enemies out and bring them to the authorities if at all possible. The single best guy to cover a group's retreat.
Abilities: Heavy focus on wielding a single sword, defending allies from attacks both melee and ranged.
Limitations: Human, good aligned. Gish is fine, but his main tactics should involve the sword.

Character Name: The Huntmaster
Brief Concept: This pirate's god-given task is to bring back beer to the lands of the free! After being sentenced to die in the depths of the pit, he sailed up from the bowels of hell to continue his duty.
Abilities: Wields a tankard of freshly brewed ale, for with the power of ale, he cannot fail.
Limitations: Ale must be a factor, non-evil.
Recommend Listening - Huntmaster by Alestorm

[Uncle Pine]

Rest in peace Awesome Thread #2.

[Rizban]

It's not dead. I'm just not quite over being sick. I lost my voice over a week ago and am just now starting to get it back and can't manage much without violent coughing fits. I'll jump right back into this once I'm physically up to doing it.

[Buufreak]

It's not dead. I'm just not quite over being sick. I lost my voice over a week ago and am just now starting to get it back and can't manage much without violent coughing fits. I'll jump right back into this once I'm physically up to doing it.

Crazy local redneck medicine woman cure: Whiskey, honey, and a stick of mint. Let the booze dissolve the later two and down it.

[lylsyly]

Crazy local redneck medicine woman cure: Whiskey, honey, and a stick of mint. Let the booze dissolve the later two and down it.

I can vouch for this, but I use lemon cough drops instead of mint, works like a cure disease spell ;)

[Rizban]

What a neat idea! Thank you for reintroducing the thread. I'll try pitching one for you:

Name: Lance
Brief Concept: Ever inquisitive, Lance always intrudes where he's not wanted in order to learn more about people and the world. His youth led him to think himself quite good at learning things, until one day while (literally) eavesdropping, he fell from his perch, mangling both his legs. The embarassment, heightened by his fragile adolescent ego, led him to improve himself physically as best he could, despite his impediment.
Abilities: A great climber and researcher
Limitations: No casting classes, no mount. He's too proud for that.

Lance is a character I feature in many of my games (Each of the members of one particular faction in my games has a severe limitation -- broken legs, blindness, sun allergy, missing arm, etc), and I'd like to see how someone else thinks he might have made it through the world.

Anyway, if that's not interesting for you to build, no worries.I've played around with this some, but I can't seem to come up with much other than an ubercharger style build that focuses on climbing and dropping on enemies. So, basically, focused on Climb instead of Jump. Additionally, the character concept itself just didn't speak to me much. I kept thinking of Bran from Game of Thrones.

For race, I was looking at Merfolk or ShalarinMonf due to the 5ft or 0ft land speed respectively and good ability bonuses. Unfortunately, most non-spell sources of climb speed base it off of base land speed. I ended up deciding on Mountain Spirit FolkUE as the best base race for the concept based on their natural high climb speed, which is unaffected by the Slow flaw/trait.

For classes, I wanted go to Factotum, as that seemed likely to apply, but it really didn't fit the character I was seeing. Mostly, I've just run out of ideas that I felt would do the concept justice.


Character Name: Xavier Silverst
Brief Concept: Xavier is a master of manipulating magic, he is capable of stopping almost any attack, magical or mundane, that comes towards him.
Abilities: Lots of counterspelling, typically buffed familiar
Limitations: No crafting ability, Charisma 8 or below, specialized in abjurationBasically, what I'm seeing is a request for an optimized Wizard (Abjurer). Right?


D&D adventures and stories in general are great because they're filled with the wildest characters and creatures. Few things are cooler than ninjas, pirates, zombies, robots or any combination thereof. Or dinosaurs. Let's focus on the last one...

Character name: Bob I can't come up with a good halfling name, so I'll leave this up to you.
Brief concept: One of the faithful servants/followers/slaves/cultists of Lord Juraxxus (a fiendish phrenic half-goristro tyrannosaurus), Bob is a halfling that doesn't bother asking questions when a "problem" arises. He is strongly in touch with the more abhorrent powers of this world. Bob also hates gnome spellcasters just as much as his own boss.
Abilities: Some sort of "fiendish" powers, a strong connection with dinosaurs (either a dinosaur mount, a were-dinosaur template, dinosaur-related spells/powers or something else). The hate for gnomes needs not to be mechanically represented.
Limitations: Halfling as a base race, CE alignment.Yeah, reading this, I've already got an interesting idea... This is likely the next one I'll build.


1: Thebus, the holy knight of a deity with the general rule of "things should stay dead, avoid animate dead and/or resurrection spells," but has a bad tendency of dying and being rezzed anyway.

2: As inspired by another thread, a "were-gypsy." Extrapolate whatever you see fit from that, I'm in no way picky. I seriously plan on playing whatever (or whoever) you produce in my next game.Hmm... I've got an inkling of an idea on the second one. I'll think about it a bit and see what I come up with.


Character name: Lylsyly (lil'syly) Female 1/2 Pixie 1/2 Faerie Dragon Full Gestalt (Racial levels on one side)

Brief concept: Played like her name sounds. Played like a true ditz. Comes back from scouting and talks about the flowers, squirrels, ect. and "oh, by the way, there is a war party of ogres coming this way" ... (About the same time the Ogre war party crests the hill).

Abilities: Rogue/ranger swift ambusher with all the powers/abilities of both the pixie and faerie

Limitations: 14 levels of racial class on one side

Played this character but the DM and I had never done the monster class thing and we butchered it pretty badly.So, you want a half-dragon pixie with a custom monster level class? Just use the Pixie monster class from Savage Species and throw in levels of the Half-Dragon template class (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/sp/20030912a). Maybe bend the rules a bit to get some of the Half-Dragon levels in before finishing out Pixie since it's supposed to be an inherited template. You're going to have to play with it a bit to get it to work for a Faerie Dragon, since that's not supported by default with the template.

That will give you 8 "levels" on one side of the gestalt. Rather, it will give you 1 Hit Die and a +7 Level Adjustment. So, you'll start taking class levels on that side at level 9.

Also, take a look at Urpriest's Monstrous Monster Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?207928-Urpriest-s-Monstrous-Monster-Handbook) to help you with this.


Character name: Elario Solitayr (Pronounced Solitaire)

Brief concept: A Divine-powered Roguish character who worships Olidammara and prefers to "prank" people to teach them a lesson following Olidammara's "sometimes possessions make you bad" ideal and other tenants, usually though curses or other "gifts" given to those who would want his aid. Much like his deity, he loves his wine and women.

Abilities: Divine magic used to properly "prank" people, as well as rogue-like abilities (stealth, bluff, etc).

Limitations: Chaotic Alignment (bonus points for CN), no gestaltHmm... I have an idea for this one too. I might make he and Bob together as allies friends acquaintances. Oh, the possibilities... :smallamused:


Character name: Phoxzcsmapfsox - The Zoo Keeper

Brief concept: Beyond the mountain and over the river, across the valley, in the great forest, it is known that a small man lives in the shadows of the trees. Tales go back for generations of this mysterious person and the numerous times he has saved this small town on the edge of the wilderness. He lives with the animals of the wood, and rarely talks to people. Though the rangers say they occasionally glimpse him, he hasn't been seen in public for 20 years, and many young folks believe that the tales are just stories.

Abilities: Extra Familiar (Dragon 280), Extra Familiar, Improved Familiar, any other animal companion you can squeeze in, and lots of pets. High in Skill Monkey.

Limitations: Probably not enough feats to go around. No armor and likely rather limited in melee, and possibly in Dam. Probably no 9th level spells.

Ps: I know you asked for "no feats", but that's what this concept is. If you don't care to do it because of that, it's fine of course.
The problem with this build, as i see it, is that it's hard to make the thing do anything but limp around. I couldn't quite pull it off.It seems a Druid might be better for this play style and might thematically fit better with a guy living in the woods who is friends with animals. Druid/Beastmaster seems somewhat obvious. Your thoughts?


Character name: MeadowSong

Brief concept: Think "the First Dark Faerie" sprung from the Hollows alongside her lighter kin, and over the course of years (after abandoning her home) honed her wicked powers; she essentially goes from being a simple dark faerie to a full-blown Maleficent!

(No, really. But not Angelina Jolie's 'Maley'. I'm talking Mistress of All Evil Maleficent here...)

http://i636.photobucket.com/albums/uu87/CainePorter/IMG_2836_zpsctylyhuz.jpg

I imagine MeadowSong would learn under some wizard/sorcerer (or something) before ultimately killing the master and taking up their mantle on the Forbidden Mountain. Maybe he taught her the power to transform into that dragon..?

Abilities: Fey power; spellcasting; shadow magic; and obviously the power to eventually transform into a dragon!

Oh, and that staff our favorite MoAE usually carries, I've taken to referring to as Faeries' Wrath...

And of course, she's gotta have her trusty sidekick, Diablo.

Limitations: Well she's a fey, and basically Maleficent. Cold Iron vulnerability, her extreme narcissism, she relies heavily on her companion Diablo, etc...

Note: I'm only half-awake, hence the half-***ed concept.So, you want original animated cartoon Maleficent in D&D only more evil? Strangely, this concept now appeals to me more than Bob. I think I'm going to have to do this one first...


Excellent thread idea! I've got ideas for these, but I'm curious what your take might be:

Character Name: The Tower
Brief Concept: After being powerless to stop the deaths of those close to him, he devoted his sword training to the protection of those less fortunate. He is very averse to killing, preferring to knock enemies out and bring them to the authorities if at all possible. The single best guy to cover a group's retreat.
Abilities: Heavy focus on wielding a single sword, defending allies from attacks both melee and ranged.
Limitations: Human, good aligned. Gish is fine, but his main tactics should involve the sword.Seems pretty straightforward. I'll consider it.


Character Name: The Huntmaster
Brief Concept: This pirate's god-given task is to bring back beer to the lands of the free! After being sentenced to die in the depths of the pit, he sailed up from the bowels of hell to continue his duty.
Abilities: Wields a tankard of freshly brewed ale, for with the power of ale, he cannot fail.
Limitations: Ale must be a factor, non-evil.
Recommend Listening - Huntmaster by AlestormNon-evil, undead pirate who is a rumrunner blasting through British House Lyrandar blockades? Hmm... I can see that.

[Swaoeaeieu]

Maybe you can help.
One of my players has a Hadozee Scout. He wants to specialize in high mobility for skirmish and Two Weapon fighting with Thrown weapons... I cant really make it work without him falling behind to the ranger, psiwar and barbarian, let alone the blaster sorceres...

We are experimenting some with swift hunter and ranger dips. Swift ambusher and martial rogue for more feats, but i just cant figure out something satisfying. Do you have any ideas for this? or am i using this thread wrong now?

[TheBrassDuke]

So, you want original animated cartoon Maleficent in D&D only more evil? Strangely, this concept now appeals to me more than Bob. I think I'm going to have to do this one first...

Heck yeah! She was always pretty terrifying (before they mellowed her out 😓😒), and I've always wondered what could be done to make her better.

[lylsyly]

Also, take a look at Urpriest's Monstrous Monster Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?207928-Urpriest-s-Monstrous-Monster-Handbook) to help you with this.

Thanks for this, I didn't know it was out there :smallsmile:

[GilesTheCleric]

I've played around with this some, but I can't seem to come up with much other than an ubercharger style build that focuses on climbing and dropping on enemies. So, basically, focused on Climb instead of Jump. Additionally, the character concept itself just didn't speak to me much. I kept thinking of Bran from Game of Thrones.

For race, I was looking at Merfolk or ShalarinMonf due to the 5ft or 0ft land speed respectively and good ability bonuses. Unfortunately, most non-spell sources of climb speed base it off of base land speed. I ended up deciding on Mountain Spirit FolkUE as the best base race for the concept based on their natural high climb speed, which is unaffected by the Slow flaw/trait.

For classes, I wanted go to Factotum, as that seemed likely to apply, but it really didn't fit the character I was seeing. Mostly, I've just run out of ideas that I felt would do the concept justice.

No worries! Thank you very much for your insight and time spent with the concept.

[Oryan77]

Are NPC requests ok? Here are a few NPC encounters that I intend to eventually use in my game if you are inspired to create any of these characters. Each is a worshiper of Vecna that belongs to a group called the Eye of Eight. Any ideas to spice these characters up and give them more flavor to roleplay with would be greatly appreciated.

Character Name: Valanth'Skraxitalan (aka "V")
Race: Spell Weaver
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, has gouged out his left eye to prove his loyalty.
Abilities: A few class levels of something to put him around CR 12-13. In the left eye socket is an eye graft. I was thinking an Undead Eye of Flame from Libris Mortis pg 80 but anything will work.

Character Name: Kin'jai Yetto "the Nightstriker"
Race: Skulk
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, lost his left arm or left hand in a situation gone bad when he was younger. Works as a lone "hired killer". I imagine he resembles some sort of asian themed concept but that is not a necessity. I just thought that might be a unique mix for a worshiper of Vecna.
Abilities: A few class levels to put him at around CR 12. I was thinking Ninja / Ghost-Faced Killer, but again, that's just a suggestion.

Character Name: The Cancer
Race: Plague Blight
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, obese and disgusting. It keeps a troupe of Tomb Motes around him that pick at his scabs and cleans his sores. It fancies itself as a sort of "prince" of the grotesque.
Abilities: Was thinking he could be enhanced to large size and given some class levels to put him around CR 14-15?

[Rizban]

Maybe you can help.
One of my players has a Hadozee Scout. He wants to specialize in high mobility for skirmish and Two Weapon fighting with Thrown weapons... I cant really make it work without him falling behind to the ranger, psiwar and barbarian, let alone the blaster sorceres...

We are experimenting some with swift hunter and ranger dips. Swift ambusher and martial rogue for more feats, but i just cant figure out something satisfying. Do you have any ideas for this? or am i using this thread wrong now?I like to be able to create the character as well as the build, which is the main purpose of this thread. However, as most 3.5 players, I enjoy just doing the build work quite a bit too. :smalltongue:

Hadozee doesn't really have much unique going for it, so that's not much of an inspiration point for a build.
The biggest problem I'm seeing is Swift Ambusher and Martial Rogue. The two may or may not work together well, since Martial Rogue gives up Sneak Attack, and precision damage is basically your main shtick. Also +1d6 SA is needed just to take the feat.

You're already using psionics in your campaign, so I would suggest Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b). The powers aren't as flashy as a psywar, but they're incredibly useful to a sneaky character. It also opens up a lot of psionic tricks.

He'll be gaining trapfinding twice, which is a waste, so I highly recommend using an ACF like Poison UseDotU or MimicEoE. Mimic is really nice, as it makes you kind of a mini changeling. Disruptive AttackPHB2 is also very, very useful for a TWF build, as he can use his first attack to impose an AC penalty against the target for his follow up attacks.

Finally, I'd suggest a one level Cloistered ClericUA dip. Trade the bonus Knowledge domain for Knowledge DevotionCC. He'll have the skill points to support the knowledge checks, and the extra bonuses it grants are great. Also, take Travel Devotion, which gives the ability to move as a swift action, allowing for a full attack when he reaches his target. Each activation lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds), and he'll have the turn undead uses to make use of the feat multiple times per day. Alternatively, he could take a dip in Barbarian with the Lion Totem ACFCC to just gain pounce. Personally, I prefer the cleric method, as you can full attack before or after moving, and pounce requires a charge. Either way works, and Barb has superior HD and BAB plus other nice features (maybe Whirling Frenzy ACFUA for extra attack).

As a build stub, I'd suggest Psychic Rogue 1 (TWF)/Scout 1/Cl. Cleric 1 (Knowledge Devotion+Travel Dev.)/Scout +2/Psychic Rogue +1 (Swift Ambusher). That gets you up to level 6. From there, just keep leveling in Psychic Rogue. Imp.TWF can be picked up with an item (Gloves of the Balanced HandMIC), so don't let him waste a feat slot on it, and GTWF isn't really worth taking for this type of build.

For psionic powers, I suggest things like Entangling Ectoplasm and Force Screen, which will always be useful, and (Greater) Concealing Amorpha is priceless, granting you concealment for a miss chance and easy Hide checks for more sneak attack chances.

Just remember that this type of build is always going to be a support character. Have him focus his character's extra skill points on skills useful outside of combat and give him opportunities to use them so he has a time to shine too.


Heck yeah! She was always pretty terrifying (before they mellowed her out 😓😒), and I've always wondered what could be done to make her better.Great! I haven't had a chance to work on anything except... well, work. But this is definitely the first character I'll be building when I get home. Rather than just trying to copy her though, I'm going to do a character that's inspired by Maleficent and some other evil fairies.


Thanks for this, I didn't know it was out there :smallsmile:It's a great resource for learning the basics. Glad to be able to link it to you. :smallsmile:


No worries! Thank you very much for your insight and time spent with the concept.Sorry I couldn't do more. If you have any other ideas, I'm glad to hear them though.


Are NPC requests ok? Here are a few NPC encounters that I intend to eventually use in my game if you are inspired to create any of these characters. Each is a worshiper of Vecna that belongs to a group called the Eye of Eight. Any ideas to spice these characters up and give them more flavor to roleplay with would be greatly appreciated.NPCs are characters too... just don't tell the players that. :smallwink:


Character Name: Valanth'Skraxitalan (aka "V")
Race: Spell Weaver
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, has gouged out his left eye to prove his loyalty.
Abilities: A few class levels of something to put him around CR 12-13. In the left eye socket is an eye graft. I was thinking an Undead Eye of Flame from Libris Mortis pg 80 but anything will work.

Character Name: Kin'jai Yetto "the Nightstriker"
Race: Skulk
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, lost his left arm or left hand in a situation gone bad when he was younger. Works as a lone "hired killer". I imagine he resembles some sort of asian themed concept but that is not a necessity. I just thought that might be a unique mix for a worshiper of Vecna.
Abilities: A few class levels to put him at around CR 12. I was thinking Ninja / Ghost-Faced Killer, but again, that's just a suggestion.

Character Name: The Cancer
Race: Plague Blight
Brief Concept: Serves Vecna, obese and disgusting. It keeps a troupe of Tomb Motes around him that pick at his scabs and cleans his sores. It fancies itself as a sort of "prince" of the grotesque.
Abilities: Was thinking he could be enhanced to large size and given some class levels to put him around CR 14-15?Looks interesting. I've got some experience with skulks... I'll definitely tackle these three.

[Breakman]

Well, let's see if I've got anything in my "Unused concepts" folder that might pique your interest.
I'll post the first four on the list, take a look if you like.

-Character Name: Horace Fairfax
Brief Concept: Horace is an incredibly slothful man, working only so he can rest, with a very "Do I have to?" attitude to everything. Otherwise enjoys reading and watching small animals/insects go about their lives.
Abilities: Probably a caster of some kind, spontaneous or pact-based, cause that takes less effort.
Limitations: Low physical stats, No class that requires physical activity to master, flavor points for access to the Sloth domain somehow.

-Character Name: Alyssa Al'Astos
Brief Concept: Ran away from home after dispute with her family. They expect great villainy from their children, and she could no longer handle the pressure. Now lives in the woods, trying to seek a life with less expectations.
Abilities: basic necromancy, fear effects, something the Addams family would teach their kids.
Limitations: Something evil-themed as a starting class

-Character Name: Morgan
Brief Concept: Street urchin, seeing that everything can be bought and sold, believes she can pay new people to be her friends/family, has been saving up and paying people to hang out with her/teach her small tricks.
Abilities: lots of varied tricks learned from people she got close to. jack of all trades.
Limitations: skill ranks in profession or craft from getting lessons from bakers etc.

-Character Name: Karl Qaan
Brief Concept: A calculating assassin, Karl is a neat-freak that dislikes getting his hands dirty, using traps or remote magic to deal with enemies. Prefers using methods that leave as little evidence as possible (no body).
Abilities: Good at stealth and getting into places, explosive traps or something like symbol spells.
Limitations: NEVER enters melee combat.

[TheBrassDuke]

Great! I haven't had a chance to work on anything except... well, work. But this is definitely the first character I'll be building when I get home. Rather than just trying to copy her though, I'm going to do a character that's inspired by Maleficent and some other evil fairies.

I really can't wait to see what you come up with! And feel free to use the image in a spoiler, if you like! (But please be sure to mention the artist, Shaira Rivera, aka ElliasMaidenhowl)

[bean illus]

Character name: Phoxzcsmapfsox - The Zoo Keeper

Brief concept: Beyond the mountain and over the river, across the valley, in the great forest, it is known that a small man lives in the shadows of the trees. Tales go back for generations of this mysterious person and the numerous times he has saved this small town on the edge of the wilderness. He lives with the animals of the wood, and rarely talks to people. Though the rangers say they occasionally glimpse him, he hasn't been seen in public for 20 years, and many young folks believe that the tales are just stories.

Abilities: Extra Familiar (Dragon 280), Extra Familiar, Improved Familiar, any other animal companion you can squeeze in, and lots of pets. High in Skill Monkey.

Limitations: Probably not enough feats to go around. No armor and likely rather limited in melee, and possibly in Dam. Probably no 9th level spells.

Ps: I know you asked for "no feats", but that's what this concept is. If you don't care to do it because of that, it's fine of course.
The problem with this build, as i see it, is that it's hard to make the thing do anything but limp around. I couldn't quite pull it off.



It seems a Druid might be better for this play style and might thematically fit better with a guy living in the woods who is friends with animals. Druid/Beastmaster seems somewhat obvious. Your thoughts?


Well certainly Druid can do ....everything?
The exercise i was an exploration if Extra Familiar, and if it could be made to work for 1, or 2 extras. I had never seen anyone make it work, and thought it would be fun to look at. It was. I wondered what someone else might explore with it.

lol, if your instincts tell you it's a waste of time, it likely is.

[Rizban]

I really can't wait to see what you come up with! And feel free to use the image in a spoiler, if you like! (But please be sure to mention the artist, Shaira Rivera, aka ElliasMaidenhowl)Okay, so I have an absolutely wacky and potentially brilliant idea for the character. I'm not entirely sure if I hate it or love it, but either way, I'm sure enjoying building it. Might take me a bit to get it polished to the point where I'm ready to post it, so I might end up posting another character or two in the meantime. I kind of jump around when building characters as different inspiration strikes at different times.


Well certainly Druid can do ....everything?
The exercise i was an exploration if Extra Familiar, and if it could be made to work for 1, or 2 extras. I had never seen anyone make it work, and thought it would be fun to look at. It was. I wondered what someone else might explore with it.

lol, if your instincts tell you it's a waste of time, it likely is.I wouldn't call it a waste of time at all. It's just that the character description reads like a stereotypical druid, so I wanted to clarify what it was you were requesting before putting any work into it.

[TheBrassDuke]

Okay, so I have an absolutely wacky and potentially brilliant idea for the character. I'm not entirely sure if I hate it or love it, but either way, I'm sure enjoying building it. Might take me a bit to get it polished to the point where I'm ready to post it, so I might end up posting another character or two in the meantime. I kind of jump around when building characters as different inspiration strikes at different times.

"Wacky" and "[potentially] brilliant" sounds promising! I'm pretty curious (and scared! Haha) to see what devilish fey you've brought to life!

And whenever you post it, I'll be there to check it out! I'm so excited! :D

[Swaoeaeieu]

I like to be able to create the character as well as the build, which is the main purpose of this thread. However, as most 3.5 players, I enjoy just doing the build work quite a bit too. :smalltongue:

Hadozee doesn't really have much unique going for it, so that's not much of an inspiration point for a build.
The biggest problem I'm seeing is Swift Ambusher and Martial Rogue. The two may or may not work together well, since Martial Rogue gives up Sneak Attack, and precision damage is basically your main shtick. Also +1d6 SA is needed just to take the feat.

You're already using psionics in your campaign, so I would suggest Psychic Rogue (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b). The powers aren't as flashy as a psywar, but they're incredibly useful to a sneaky character. It also opens up a lot of psionic tricks.

He'll be gaining trapfinding twice, which is a waste, so I highly recommend using an ACF like Poison UseDotU or MimicEoE. Mimic is really nice, as it makes you kind of a mini changeling. Disruptive AttackPHB2 is also very, very useful for a TWF build, as he can use his first attack to impose an AC penalty against the target for his follow up attacks.

Finally, I'd suggest a one level Cloistered ClericUA dip. Trade the bonus Knowledge domain for Knowledge DevotionCC. He'll have the skill points to support the knowledge checks, and the extra bonuses it grants are great. Also, take Travel Devotion, which gives the ability to move as a swift action, allowing for a full attack when he reaches his target. Each activation lasts for 1 minute (10 rounds), and he'll have the turn undead uses to make use of the feat multiple times per day. Alternatively, he could take a dip in Barbarian with the Lion Totem ACFCC to just gain pounce. Personally, I prefer the cleric method, as you can full attack before or after moving, and pounce requires a charge. Either way works, and Barb has superior HD and BAB plus other nice features (maybe Whirling Frenzy ACFUA for extra attack).

As a build stub, I'd suggest Psychic Rogue 1 (TWF)/Scout 1/Cl. Cleric 1 (Knowledge Devotion+Travel Dev.)/Scout +2/Psychic Rogue +1 (Swift Ambusher). That gets you up to level 6. From there, just keep leveling in Psychic Rogue. Imp.TWF can be picked up with an item (Gloves of the Balanced HandMIC), so don't let him waste a feat slot on it, and GTWF isn't really worth taking for this type of build.

For psionic powers, I suggest things like Entangling Ectoplasm and Force Screen, which will always be useful, and (Greater) Concealing Amorpha is priceless, granting you concealment for a miss chance and easy Hide checks for more sneak attack chances.

Just remember that this type of build is always going to be a support character. Have him focus his character's extra skill points on skills useful outside of combat and give him opportunities to use them so he has a time to shine too.


Ill talk to him about it. Thanks for all the great suggestions!

[Buufreak]

Hmm... I've got an inkling of an idea on the second one. I'll think about it a bit and see what I come up with.


Awesome, can't wait to see what you come up with!

[TorsteinTheRed]

Seems pretty straightforward. I'll consider it.

Non-evil, undead pirate who is a rumrunner blasting through British House Lyrandar blockades? Hmm... I can see that.

Looking forward to it! Thanks much, and I hope you're feeling better.

[unseenmage]

An old concept I never could get to work well enough to be viable.

Character Name: Shrift the Mighty
Brief Concept: A small Kobold who wields oversize gauntlets. He's strong enough to hold a passage or a door against larger or more numerous foes.
Abilities: Knockback would be nice. Triggering saves against massive damage would be sweet.
Limitations: Small creature. Large or larger creature's gauntlets as primary weapon.

Just love the idea of a small normally insignificant creature who, without enlarging magic, can pummel the knees and ankles of larger enemies and topple them.

[nijineko]

Concept suggestion:

A young lad with strong mental abilities who is determined to learn how to shapeshift, but is determined to learn it his own way. (He won't take a druidic oath, follow the ranger's path, or learn spellcasting of any kind for certain reasons - should i provide backstory, or did you want to have fun with that too).

In effect, he wants his profession (character class) to BE shapeshifter, primarily; so he will need a method of acquiring wild shape without being a druid or ranger or high ECL race. I would like to stick with races without ECL or with only a very low ECL. The more capable and flexible the shape shifting, the better.

[Felyndiira]

This sounds pretty interesting!

Character Name: Angelica Weissand

Brief Concept: An angel-blooded descendant of a family of mythical swordsmen (think wuxia). She was quite haughty at a young age, and as a result was the target of malicious pranks from her peers that ultimately costed her the use of her legs in an "accident". After being disgraced, she drifted far away from home and found refuge with a humble family, but didn't want to give up her swordsmanship. Thus, she managed to develop a hovering wheelchair of sorts and continued practicing her wuxia sword techniques, eventually incorporating her disability and her wheelchair into her style.

Abilities: Has a magical floating wheelchair. Uses magic swordsmanship that incorporates her disability into it as crazy wheelchair acrobatics.

Limitations: Aasimar or other celestial-touched being. Must be relatively human-like in appearance with a good charisma score. The wheelchair should be durable enough to at least be sustainable in mid-level combat, or be easily summoned or repaired should it break.

[jedipilot24]

Character Name: Jamras Fletcher

Concept: Grew up on a farm in a podunk hamlet with a large family; one day one of his brothers was injured and Jamras, without even realizing what he did, healed him. This, naturally, freaked everyone out and no one understood how it was possible until an adventuring cleric came through the hamlet, sensed the magic in Jamras, and told him that he possessed a rare, innate connection to the divine and that with proper training he learn to cast divine magic. After learning to use his gift, Jamras took to wandering, believing that he had been chosen by some deity for a special destiny but with no clue about who had chosen him or why.

[Gandariel]

So, I see you have a lot on your plate already, but i'd be happy if you could whip something up for me:

Character Name: Archimedes

Brief Concept: He is the leader of a small world-building project i've been working on: Camp Archimedes, which you can find in my sig.

You can read the whole thing if you want, but here is a short version: Archimedes is an engineer/artificer/mad scientist type, I peg him as Evil (LE?) and around CR 15, but these aren't strict. Race and age are also up in the air, but my first guess would be Old Human.

When he was young (perhaps after being rejected from society/the engineer guild/???) he entered in contact with a disorganised and ragtag band of bandits.
Through his engineering genius/tactical mind/charisma he was able to become the leader and organise them into a powerful mercenary army, outfitted with lots of equipment he invented: Gloves that shoot fire, grenade/smokebomb launchers, Steam golems. (Again, everything is in my sig)
Has no problem doing evil things to further his research (enslaved fire elemental = free furnace!)

Abilities: has to be able to craft a lot of stuff. Not a fighter, not meant to be good at it.

[Hiro Quester]

Here's an idea I have had that I thought would be fun to play, but never fleshed out.

A gish (probably human or maybe elf?) who ends up taking a decent amount of Swiftblade. I never worked out race, base classes, backstory, build details, etc.

He's impatient. Like a speed addict, addicted to haste. He wants to go fast. He hates waiting for anything, never wants to plan but rush headlong into situations without overthinking what to do. A lot of build details would go to improving his speed.

If he hasn't been hasted for more than a few hours he feels withdrawal. Becomes stupid and clumsy. But becomes athletic and graceful when hasted.

Could anything in the game make one "strung out" like that? Wisdom damage, until hasted? Could anything have that effect? Thinking about something like drunken master's "drink like a demon" effect (int and wis damage, but increased str or con). I don't know how that might work.

Edit: one idea would be to make him addicted to mundane or magical drugs (e.g. Tempo bloodspikes), initially, but then find magical haste as the next level, then the swiftblade's haste self Su ability as a relief from external or magical dependencies, as his body becomes able to manufacture its own haste, on demand.

Casting should probably be charisma based. Bard, maybe?

[Rizban]

This sounds pretty interesting!

Character Name: Angelica Weissand

Brief Concept: An angel-blooded descendant of a family of mythical swordsmen (think wuxia). She was quite haughty at a young age, and as a result was the target of malicious pranks from her peers that ultimately costed her the use of her legs in an "accident". After being disgraced, she drifted far away from home and found refuge with a humble family, but didn't want to give up her swordsmanship. Thus, she managed to develop a hovering wheelchair of sorts and continued practicing her wuxia sword techniques, eventually incorporating her disability and her wheelchair into her style.

Abilities: Has a magical floating wheelchair. Uses magic swordsmanship that incorporates her disability into it as crazy wheelchair acrobatics.

Limitations: Aasimar or other celestial-touched being. Must be relatively human-like in appearance with a good charisma score. The wheelchair should be durable enough to at least be sustainable in mid-level combat, or be easily summoned or repaired should it break.I'll add it to my list, but the concept isn't particularly interesting to me. So, it might be a bit before I get to it...


So, I see you have a lot on your plate already, but i'd be happy if you could whip something up for me:

Character Name: Archimedes

Brief Concept: He is the leader of a small world-building project i've been working on: Camp Archimedes, which you can find in my sig.

You can read the whole thing if you want, but here is a short version: Archimedes is an engineer/artificer/mad scientist type, I peg him as Evil (LE?) and around CR 15, but these aren't strict. Race and age are also up in the air, but my first guess would be Old Human.

When he was young (perhaps after being rejected from society/the engineer guild/???) he entered in contact with a disorganised and ragtag band of bandits.
Through his engineering genius/tactical mind/charisma he was able to become the leader and organise them into a powerful mercenary army, outfitted with lots of equipment he invented: Gloves that shoot fire, grenade/smokebomb launchers, Steam golems. (Again, everything is in my sig)
Has no problem doing evil things to further his research (enslaved fire elemental = free furnace!)

Abilities: has to be able to craft a lot of stuff. Not a fighter, not meant to be good at it.Sounds almost exactly like my default character when I don't have the creative energy to come up with a new idea. I'll throw together something small with one of the builds I've used in the past that I rather enjoyed and hope you like it as much as I did when I played it.


Here's an idea I have had that I thought would be fun to play, but never fleshed out.

A gish (probably human or maybe elf?) who ends up taking a decent amount of Swiftblade. I never worked out race, base classes, backstory, build details, etc.

He's impatient. Like a speed addict, addicted to haste. He wants to go fast. He hates waiting for anything, never wants to plan but rush headlong into situations without overthinking what to do. A lot of build details would go to improving his speed.

If he hasn't been hasted for more than a few hours he feels withdrawal. Becomes stupid and clumsy. But becomes athletic and graceful when hasted.

Could anything in the game make one "strung out" like that? Wisdom damage, until hasted? Could anything have that effect? Thinking about something like drunken master's "drink like a demon" effect (int and wis damage, but increased str or con). I don't know how that might work.

Edit: one idea would be to make him addicted to mundane or magical drugs (e.g. Tempo bloodspikes), initially, but then find magical haste as the next level, then the swiftblade's haste self Su ability as a relief from external or magical dependencies, as his body becomes able to manufacture its own haste, on demand.

Casting should probably be charisma based. Bard, maybe?To be completely honest, I'm probably never going to do this one. The whole concept of drug abuse/addiction just doesn't appeal to me and isn't something I want to explore with this project.


An old concept I never could get to work well enough to be viable.

Character Name: Shrift the Mighty
Brief Concept: A small Kobold who wields oversize gauntlets. He's strong enough to hold a passage or a door against larger or more numerous foes.
Abilities: Knockback would be nice. Triggering saves against massive damage would be sweet.
Limitations: Small creature. Large or larger creature's gauntlets as primary weapon.

Just love the idea of a small normally insignificant creature who, without enlarging magic, can pummel the knees and ankles of larger enemies and topple them.Oh! I know exactly how to make this one work. I'm going to bump this one up near the top, because the entire build pretty much just put itself together in my mind as I read the request.


Concept suggestion:

A young lad with strong mental abilities who is determined to learn how to shapeshift, but is determined to learn it his own way. (He won't take a druidic oath, follow the ranger's path, or learn spellcasting of any kind for certain reasons - should i provide backstory, or did you want to have fun with that too).

In effect, he wants his profession (character class) to BE shapeshifter, primarily; so he will need a method of acquiring wild shape without being a druid or ranger or high ECL race. I would like to stick with races without ECL or with only a very low ECL. The more capable and flexible the shape shifting, the better.Hey, buddy! Long time, no see! We haven't really had a chance to chat since I stopped helping out with the Gametable development.

By "strong mental abilities," do you mean psionics is acceptable, or does the no spellcasting restriction also limit alternate casting systems?
Honestly, I've got the build from 7th+ figured out and am just trying to pin down the first six levels. Based on the description, I'm drawn towards either some type of psionics or Factotum, but both have some form of casting that isn't strictly spellcasting. If those aren't permitted, I've got a few other options. Just looking for a little clarification before putting it all together.


Character Name: Jamras Fletcher

Concept: Grew up on a farm in a podunk hamlet with a large family; one day one of his brothers was injured and Jamras, without even realizing what he did, healed him. This, naturally, freaked everyone out and no one understood how it was possible until an adventuring cleric came through the hamlet, sensed the magic in Jamras, and told him that he possessed a rare, innate connection to the divine and that with proper training he learn to cast divine magic. After learning to use his gift, Jamras took to wandering, believing that he had been chosen by some deity for a special destiny but with no clue about who had chosen him or why.I'll add it to my list.

[Gandariel]

Sounds almost exactly like my default character when I don't have the creative energy to come up with a new idea. I'll throw together something small with one of the builds I've used in the past that I rather enjoyed and hope you like it as much as I did when I played it.


Thanks!
If you check the link in my sig now i've just now made the last large change to the whole thing.
As soon as you send me the build i'll be happy to add that in and officially "launch" the whole idea again!

[Hiro Quester]

To be completely honest, I'm probably never going to do this one. The whole concept of drug abuse/addiction just doesn't appeal to me and isn't something I want to explore with this project.


Fair enough. Thanks anyway.

But if you are at all interested, the addiction side isn't essential.

The main idea of a swiftblade gish character who has focused a lot of his life on being fast (faster than everyone else), who is rather rash and impatient, still sounds like fun to play. Any suggestions for an interesting way to fill out that character's build and backstory would be appreciated, still.

The rest might as well come from roleplaying, anyway.

[nijineko]

Hey, buddy! Long time, no see! We haven't really had a chance to chat since I stopped helping out with the Gametable development.

By "strong mental abilities," do you mean psionics is acceptable, or does the no spellcasting restriction also limit alternate casting systems?
Honestly, I've got the build from 7th+ figured out and am just trying to pin down the first six levels. Based on the description, I'm drawn towards either some type of psionics or Factotum, but both have some form of casting that isn't strictly spellcasting. If those aren't permitted, I've got a few other options. Just looking for a little clarification before putting it all together.

I'll add it to my list.

Indeed, long time no chat! I hope things are going well with you. I still hold the keys to Gametable-or whatever it should be called now, but I'm letting it lie fallow for now. Still have some future plans, but I'm focusing on other projects at the moment. Hope we can chat in general and catch up sometime - pm me whenever you have some time.

As for the character, my version of it uses psionics, but I wanted to see what other people come up with. To be honest, I'd love to see both versions you mention if you have the time, just so I can see how you pull things off both ways. I have two versions that have seen playtime, both are psionic (my favorite, I only rp psionics these days).

The most optimized version of this concept can fully change their shape from 1st level, the other doesn't really kick in until 10th level or so - yet can do minor changing from 1st, but both still draw from the default player races available throughout various sourcebooks. They also steadily gain almost every non-arcane form of changing shape available to characters across their levels and neither make use of druid or wildshaping ranger - depending on which character of the two, they are 10th level and 14th level, iirc. As such, I don't think either of them have picked up elemental wildshaping - though that it just a matter of time and levels for both.

Anyway, have at it, don't let my methods limit you, and hope to hear from you again soon!

[Rizban]

The most optimized version of this concept can fully change their shape from 1st level, the other doesn't really kick in until 10th level or so - yet can do minor changing from 1st, but both still draw from the default player races available throughout various sourcebooks. They also steadily gain almost every non-arcane form of changing shape available to characters across their levels and neither make use of druid or wildshaping ranger - depending on which character of the two, they are 10th level and 14th level, iirc. As such, I don't think either of them have picked up elemental wildshaping - though that it just a matter of time and levels for both.My version doesn't have quite that much flexibility, but it grabs wild shape around level 7. I try to make builds in this project that aren't significantly overpowered. I make characters that I think I could get my real life DM to approve. :smalltongue:

[Rizban]

This is move of a build stub than anything... I've been really busy and not had a lot of time to get much done on this, but I wanted to get something posted.


Concept suggestion:

A young lad with strong mental abilities who is determined to learn how to shapeshift, but is determined to learn it his own way. (He won't take a druidic oath, follow the ranger's path, or learn spellcasting of any kind for certain reasons - should i provide backstory, or did you want to have fun with that too).

In effect, he wants his profession (character class) to BE shapeshifter, primarily; so he will need a method of acquiring wild shape without being a druid or ranger or high ECL race. I would like to stick with races without ECL or with only a very low ECL. The more capable and flexible the shape shifting, the better.Middle Age Kobold Rogue 7/ShapeshifterOA 1/Master of Many FormsCAd 10N Small Dragon (Reptilian)Initiative +0; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Listen +3; Spot +3
Languages
AC 11 T 11 FF 11; Fort +10 Ref +15 Will +11
Speed 30 ft.
BAB +12 Grp +6
Attack Options Wild Shape 13/day
Combat Gear hp 41 (18 HD)

Strength 4 (-3)
Dexterity 10 (+0)
Constitution 6 (-2)
Intelligence 22 (+6)
Wisdom 16 (+3)
Charisma 13 (+1)Feats HD1 – Dragonwrought [RotD], HD3 – Martial Study (Moment of Perfect Mind) [ToB], HD6 – Alternate Form [Dragons of Krynn], HD9 – , HD12 – , HD15 – , HD18 –
Possessions combat gear plus
SkillTotalRanks
Listen+30
Spot+30
Concentration+810
Unspent Skill Points-212

Alternate Class Feature: MimicEoE – Gain disguise self as SLA, lose trapfinding. CL = class level.
CL5 is needed to qualify for the Alternate Form feat, which grants access to the Shapeshifter PrC. (You did say he wanted "Shapeshifter" to be his class. :smallwink:)

Starting Ability Scores: (28 pt. buy)
Str 5, Dex 11, Con 7, Int 17, Wis 15, Cha 12

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial1Rogue 1+0
+0
+2
+0HD1 – Dragonwrought [RotD]Mimic 1/day, sneak attack +1d6
2Rogue 2+1
+0
+3
+0Evasion
3Rogue 3+2
+1
+3
+1HD3 – Martial Study (Moment of Perfect Mind) [ToB]Mimic 2/day, sneak attack +2d6
4Rogue 4+3
+1
+4
+1Uncanny dodge
5Rogue 5+3
+1
+4
+1Sneak attack +3d6
6Rogue 6+4
+2
+5
+2HD6 – Alternate Form [Dragons of Krynn]Mimic 3/day
7Rogue 7+5
+2
+5
+2Sneak Attack +4d6
8Shapeshifter 1+5
+4
+7
+4Wild shape (3/day), extra shifting
9Master of Many Forms 1+5
+6
+9
+4HD9 – Shifter’s speech, improved wild shape (humanoid)
10Master of Many Forms 2+6/+1
+7
+10
+4Improved wild shape (giant; Large)
11Master of Many Forms 3+7/+2
+7
+10
+5Fast wild shape, improved wild shape (monstrous humanoid)
12Master of Many Forms 4+8/+3
+8
+11
+5HD12 – Improved wild shape (fey; Tiny)
13Master of Many Forms 5+8/+3
+8
+11
+5Improved wild shape (vermin)
14Master of Many Forms 6+9/+4
+9
+12
+6Improved wild shape (aberration; Huge)
15Master of Many Forms 7+10/+5
+9
+12
+6HD15 – Extraordinary wild shape, improved wild shape (plant)
16Master of Many Forms 8+11/+6/+1
+10
+13
+6Improved wild shape (ooze; Diminutive)
17Master of Many Forms 9+11/+6/+1
+10
+13
+7Improved wild shape (elemental)
18Master of Many Forms 10+12/+7/+2
+11
+14
+7HD18 – Evershifting form, improved wild shape (dragon; Gargantuan)

[jdizzlean]

make this obviously homebrewed class legit in 3.5

this version of samurai actually sounds fun to play, unlike the oriental or CW versions..

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Samurai,_Races_of_War_(3.5e_Class)

[nijineko]

My version doesn't have quite that much flexibility, but it grabs wild shape around level 7. I try to make builds in this project that aren't significantly overpowered. I make characters that I think I could get my real life DM to approve. :smalltongue:


Heheh. Both of my real life DMs approved the versions I brought to their respective tables (one version for each DM). ;D

For the record, in play, neither proves over-powered. Flexible, yes, but that just barely makes up for the loss of power level required by the focus on obtaining the shape changing abilities causes - sub-optimal level picks to get needed stuff and what not. I actually end up underpowered compared to the rest of the party in either group.

Unlike your excellent build, I didn't use rogue and thus don't have quite the sneakiness or skills (hide, disguise, bluff, etc) to make up for it. I have to rely on player cunning and careful setups to pull it off.

(my one character is never allowed to participate during diplomatic party interactions again, something about a high-flying animal suddenly turning into a cow and taking a dump, before flying away; even though there was no proof that it was my character. just because the slimy grease-ball diplomat had previously seriously irked my character with his highly inappropriate comments and attempted behavior is no reason to suspect my shape-shifting character when the diplomat gets [completely randomly, i might add] shat upon... in public... during a function.)


(PS: early entry optimization could net you that Shapeshifter class from OA at level 6, btw.
PPS: the Hengeyokai, also from OA [and updated for 3.5 in a dragon mag losing the +1ecl... 319, was it?], can change shape from level 1 - combined with a psion with that ACF that nets it the minor shape change ability of a changeling - which was my method for starting with 'full' shape changing right off the bat.)

[Rizban]

Heheh. Both of my real life DMs approved the versions I brought to their respective tables (one version for each DM). ;D

For the record, in play, neither proves over-powered. Flexible, yes, but that just barely makes up for the loss of power level required by the focus on obtaining the shape changing abilities causes - sub-optimal level picks to get needed stuff and what not. I actually end up underpowered compared to the rest of the party in either group.

Unlike your excellent build, I didn't use rogue and thus don't have quite the sneakiness or skills (hide, disguise, bluff, etc) to make up for it. I have to rely on player cunning and careful setups to pull it off.

(my one character is never allowed to participate during diplomatic party interactions again, something about a high-flying animal suddenly turning into a cow and taking a dump, before flying away; even though there was no proof that it was my character. just because the slimy grease-ball diplomat had previously seriously irked my character with his highly inappropriate comments and attempted behavior is no reason to suspect my shape-shifting character when the diplomat gets [completely randomly, i might add] shat upon... in public... during a function.)


(PS: early entry optimization could net you that Shapeshifter class from OA at level 6, btw.
PPS: the Hengeyokai, also from OA [and updated for 3.5 in a dragon mag losing the +1ecl... 319, was it?], can change shape from level 1 - combined with a psion with that ACF that nets it the minor shape change ability of a changeling - which was my method for starting with 'full' shape changing right off the bat.)
True, but I didn't feel like using two feats was worth it on this build just to get in a level earlier. :smalltongue:

Yep, but I decided to go with rogue over psionic because it fit the character concept I was working from a bit better. I'm playing a hebgeyokai sparrow incarnate into a game at the moment. Flyby attack dissolving spittle and a psi crystal with share soulmeld is fun.

[TheBrassDuke]

This is a great thread! So many cool ideas, Rizban! And all of you, really! :)

[IIzak]

Hey, I have a couple of NPC's that may be interesting:

-Character Name: The Lady of the Lake
Brief Concept: Entrusted with the protection of a powerful magical sword, the Lady of the Lake never leaves her lake, and without fighting manages to turn away all who would attempt to gain the sword she protects. She does this through a combination of her silver tongue and ability to stone-facedly lie to anyone. She talks people into taking fake versions of the sword and gets off on sending would-be adventurers into extremely dangerous situations and messing with anyone who tries to take the sword from her.
Abilities: Very convincing, good liar, possibly has the ability to use some type of either enchantment or illusion magic
Limitations: She never fights and cannot leave the lake that she calls her home

-Character Name: Krissa Ebonfire
Brief Concept: A member of a secret family that are all descended from some ancient black dragon. The family itself searches for and kidnaps people who are descended from this dragon and attempt to draw out their latent abilities for some unknown purpose. These children are brainwashed to follow the orders of the leader of the family. Krissa is one such child, and she now spends her time as a main intelligence gatherer for the Ebonfire Family. She scouts for the enemies of the family and is normally tasked with either killing them or bringing them back into the family in order to increase the power of the group as a whole.
Abilities: Dragon-like traits, good information gathering skills, able to track and hunt her prey and engage them in combat
Limitations: Brainwashing likely caused some sort of psychological damage to her; since she usually needs to sneak up on people without them noticing, her dragonlike features kind of give her away.

If either of these seem interesting, please feel free to do them and take them in any direction you so choose. Thanks.

[Rizban]

Okay, so I have builds for another few characters essentially finished and notes started on at least another five. I haven't posted any of them though, because I've been so drained mentally that I haven't had a chance to write anything coherent on the actual character side... I hope to recoup some this weekend and churn a few of these out next week.

[TheBrassDuke]

Okay, so I have builds for another few characters essentially finished and notes started on at least another five. I haven't posted any of them though, because I've been so drained mentally that I haven't had a chance to write anything coherent on the actual character side... I hope to recoup some this weekend and churn a few of these out next week.

Take your time, we don't mind! :)

[Dromuthra]

I'll throw one out.


Name: Therin Whitehall
Concept: A servant of Asmodeuos (or some other evil force) who masquerades as Good and grants wishes/favors in return for favors for his master/god. Obviously doesn't need to be literal wish-granting, but the general concept.
Abilities: Is able to form binding contracts of some nature (through items, class abilities, or contact with evil force to act as intermediary; doesn't need to be strictly mechanical).
Limitations: Must have at least some form of spellcasting. Must have relatively high social skills, Evil alignment.

[nijineko]

True, but I didn't feel like using two feats was worth it on this build just to get in a level earlier. :smalltongue:

Yep, but I decided to go with rogue over psionic because it fit the character concept I was working from a bit better. I'm playing a hebgeyokai sparrow incarnate into a game at the moment. Flyby attack dissolving spittle and a psi crystal with share soulmeld is fun.

Very nice! and sneaky!

i usually have to try to pass myself off as a random bird nearby, a pet, or a familiar. suppressing the displays on the powers can yield some effectively sneaky attacks if the power in question doesn't have an obvious secondary display. Once the wildshape kicks in, that helps a lot, especially when combined with warshaper and master of many forms, among others.

What about psychic rogue?

[Rizban]

Shrift the Mighty
This little kobold can give a big helping hand to friends and enemies alike.Venerable Male Earth KoboldMM+UA Monk 1/Psychic Warrior 6/Fighter 2LE Medium Dragon (Reptilian)Initiative +2; Senses Darkvision 60 ft.; Light Sensitivity; Listen +7; Spot +7
Languages Draconic, Common
AC 14 T 14 FF 14; Fort +9 Ref +4 Will +7
–-2 saves vs [air] creaturesSpeed 30 ft.
BAB +6 Grapple +12
–+1 Battlefist [+14 (6d6+7+2d6(claw) | x2)] (Brutal Surge)
– Claws of the Beast [+7 (2d6+3 | x2)] (Secondary)
– Slam [+7 (1d4+3 | x2)]
Attack Options +1 attack vs [air] creatures, Bull Rush (+14), Dungeon Crasher, Power Attack
–Brutal Surge – Bull Rush as swift action after melee attack.
–Decisive Strike – Full-round action, attack at -1 for double damage.
–––+1 Battlefist [+13 (12d6+14+4d6(claw) | x2)]

Power Points/Day: 20; Powers Known (ML 6):
1st – Call Weaponry, Claws of the Beast†, Expansion†
2nd – Animal Affinity†, Hustle, Strength of My Enemy
Spell-Like Abilities: Mighty Wallop 3/day†hp 71 (9 HD)

Strength 22 (+6)
Dexterity 10 (+0)
Constitution 14 (+2)
Intelligence 12 (+1)
Wisdom 16 (+3)
Charisma 11 (+0)Special Qualities Slight BuildWeb (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a), Stability +4, Draconic Rite of Passage
Feats HD1 – Dragonwrought (Emerald Dragon)RotD, Flaw – Kobold EnduranceRotD, Monk1 – Improved Unarmed Strike
Monk1 – Monastic Training (Psychic Warrior)ECS, PW1 – Power Attack, PW1 – Weapon Focus (Battlefist), HD3 – TashalatoraSoS, Ftr1 – Improved Bull Rush, HD6 – Draconic ReservoirWeb (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a), PW5 – Beast StrikeDragon#355, HD9 – Shock TrooperCW, Item – Improved Natural Attack (unarmed strike)
(Flaws: Meager Fortitude)Possessions combat gear plus Strongarm BracersMIC, Mighty ArmsFoe, +2 Wisdom item, Fanged RingDrM, 6300 gp
SkillTotalRanks
Listen+74
Spot+74
Autohypnosis+105
Concentration+75
Tumble+1010
Unspent Skill Points-49Born and raised high in the mountains, Shrift lived out his early years in a monastery built by kobolds descended from an emerald gem dragon said to live in the nearby volcano. Though more myth and legend than fact, the elder took the occasional rumblings of the volcano as proof that their patron dragon was alive and well and guarding over them. The kobold monks lived in peace, perfecting their minds and bodies and most devious traps... for physical training purposes, of course.

As Shrift grew up, he knew he was different from the other monks. He had a bit more spark than they did, a bit more emerald to his scales. True, all the kobolds here were dragonwrought, but he felt he was even more dragon than that. He was quite certain he was stronger, tougher, and psionicer than his peers. His one love in life? Hitting things. And he could hit things. Hard!

At 1st level, Shrift is a Monk. He punches things and dreams small dreams of being big. He really wants to punch big, so he takes the alternate class feature Decisive StrikePHB2 – Trade flurry of blows for making a single attack that deals double damage. Eventually, he'll be able to make two attacks at double damage, but not for awhile. If he's less concerned with big numbers, he might stick with flurry to make multiple hits, but that's just crazy talk!

2nd and 3rd levels are Psychic Warrior with the ACF Soulbound WeaponWeb (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) – Lose 2nd level bonus feat, forced choice of 1st-level power. Gain Weapon Focus and a summoned weapon that scales with level.

Soulbound Weapon is an interesting ACF in that you trade away your second level bonus feat and gain an extra bonus feat at 1st-level. It makes dipping one level for two bonus feats a viable option, assuming you want Weapon Focus, but we're not actually doing that here...

While not immediately that useful at this level, it will definitely help Shrift out later. His favorite trick is summoning a weapon with Brutal Surge for extra uses of swift action bull rush. For now, it just ensures that he has a weapon on hand when needed. Mostly, he still just uses his fists and saves his power points for other things.

Starting Ability Scores: (28 pt. buy)
Str 14, Dex 12, Con 14, Int 9, Wis 11, Cha 8

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial1Monk 1+0
+2
+2
+2HD1 – Dragonwrought (Emerald Dragon)RotD
Flaw – Kobold EnduranceRotD
Monk1 – Improved Unarmed Strike
Monk1 – Monastic Training (Psychic Warrior)ECSBonus Feat, AC bonus, decisive strike (-2), unarmed strike
2Psychic Warrior 1+0
+4
+2
+2PW1 – Power Attack
PW1 – Weapon Focus (Battlefist)Bonus Feat, Weapon Focus
3Psychic Warrior 2+1
+5
+2
+2HD3 – TashalatoraSoSSoulbound weapon

When playing this character, beg to start at a higher level than first. Six or higher is best, but starting below 3rd is just painful.

That said, Shrift's main focus is punching things. He's decent at it for a little guy. He deals a measly 1d4 damage with his unarmed strike, but he's got tricks!

By third level, he's picked up the Mighty Arms graft from Faiths of Eberron. This gives him a 1d4 slam attack, which he can use as a secondary attack at -5 if he wants, but he's much more likely to use that full round action for Decisive Strike to do double damage. The main purpose of the graft is to be able to use a battlefist. If you haven't picked up a bttlefist for him at this point, you can call one with Call Weaponry, albeit without its usual +1 enhancement.

The best part of the battlefist is that it lets a monk deal unarmed damage at +1 size. So, with a decisive strike, Shrift can deal 2d6+2xStr damage. That's still not wonderful, but it's a start and not terrible for 3rd level. But we're not done yet!

Shrift also picks up Expansion as a power known at 3rd level, so with that active, his damage increases to 2d8+2xStr.

He also performs the Draconic Rite of PassageRotD sometime after 2nd level, picking up Mighty Wallop as a 1/day SLA. So, for a few rounds a day, that decisive strike damage further increases to 4d6+2xStr. Now we're talking. He saves this ability for fighting big boss monsters and uses his smaller punches for everything else.

He's also got Power Attack at this level, but it's not really useful due to the -2 penalty from decisive strike and only having +1 BAB. He won't use the two together, but he might power attack for 1 to blow through mooks a little faster.

Tashalatora lets Psychic Warrior and Monk stack for a few things, including unarmed damage. So, other than a quick dip in Fighter coming up, Shrift is probably going to stay in Psychic Warrior from here on out.

As an alternative to Mighty Wallop, Shrift might choose Blood WindSpC so that he can throw his fists at range. Yeah, it costs him a little damage, but it gives him range. If there's a wizard in the party, he should be casting (greater) mighty wallop of Shrift anyway... at least if that wizard doesn't want to get thwacked!
As he grew, Shirft started to become something of a bully, knocking the other young kobolds around as he pleased. Hearing the squeaks of fear and occasional crunching bones filled his dark little heart with mirth as he sent his training partners tumbling along the ground. Known for his massive metal fist of fury, the other kobolds gave him a wide berth when they could and prayed for a quick recovery when they couldn't. Shrift ruled the monastery with a iron fist, well, steel fist, at least among the younglings. The elders still had a few tricks up their sleeves to keep him in place when he got too out of hand, but he was learning quickly.

Then one day a traveler arrived at the monastery. Bedraggled, burnt, and suffering from exposure, the man-thing was taken inside. After a brief interrogation, the head monks killed him and tossed his gangrenous corpse outside their walls. Tales of a red dragon rampaging across the human lands in the valleys below was of no concern to them. After all, they had their own patron dragon to protect them. No lesser dragon, no mere red could harm them or their guardian.

Shrift knew different. Their patron wasn't going to protect them. Shrift was. He could handle any threat that came his way. After all, he was the dragonest thing around these parts, and he was determined to prove it!

4th and 5th level are both in Fighter. He likes the idea of shoving people around, so he takes Improved Bull Rush as his bonus feat. At 5th level, he takes Dungeon CrasherDun for a bonus to saves/AC vs traps, a bonus to breaking down barriers, and a very nice damage bonus of 4d6+2xStr when he knocks someone into a wall.

At 6th level, he hops back into Psychic Warrior and picks up Claws of the Beast as his power and Draconic Reservoir as his feat. Draconic Reservoir Gives him another 2 daily uses of Mighty Wallop, and Claws of the Beast gives him some other secondary attacks for when he doesn't want to use decisive strike. It also will give him a nice combo in a few levels.

Kobold Endurance that we took at 1st-level might have seemed like an odd feat choice, I mean, it's basically Endurance. Blegh. However, it gives a few other miscellaneous bonuses over normal Endurance, including a +4 bonus to Str checks. Bull Rush is a Strength check. Combined with Improved Bull Rush, that's an extra +8 to the check. Combined with Stability of an Earth Kobold, that's an extra +8 to resist bull rushes. Combined with dungeon crasher, that's an extra +8 to break things. Seems like that's worth a feat to me, and that doesn't even touch on the other things it does.

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial4Fighter 1+2
+7
+2
+2Ftr1 – Improved Bull RushBonus Feat, Hit-and-Run Tactics
5Fighter 2+3
+8
+2
+2Dungeon crasher
6Psychic Warrior 3+4
+8
+3
+3HD6 – Draconic ReservoirWeb (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a)—

Tactics at these levels aren't really any different. Punch things when you can.

One difference is that by this level, Shrift has picked up a pair of Strongarm Bracers, allowing him to wield larger weapons as though he had Powerful Build. This gives him a Medium battlefist, which should give him an additional size increase to damage (but ask your DM). Additionally, battlefists specifically look as if they were made for a size larger creature, so we have our small kobold dragging around a giant metal fist nearly as large as he is, swinging it around wildly in battle.

Unarmed strike damage has gone up to a base of 1d6→1d82d6(battlefist)→3d6(expansion)→4d6(mighty wallop)→8d6(decisive strike).
The monastery was burning. Shrift was dying. His "friends" were dead. Dragons cheat! They can freakin' fly! How was he supposed to punch it if it was up in the stupid sky?! It wasn't fair!

With one last desperate effort of psionic might, Shrift managed to stabilize his wounds, drifting away into a self-induced psionic coma. He awoke a few days later with just enough energy to draw the last of his reserves into knitting his wounds enough to keep his intestines where they belonged. Pulling himself into a sitting position, he looked around. The monastery was devastated, the kobolds slaughtered, and their patron dragon's volcano merrily erupting with no signs of their patron in sight.

With the elders dead, Shrift decided that is was his duty to rebuild. He would become the new master of the few survivors and create a new order of psionic monks, an order capable of defending itself against even the cheating dragons!

Levels 7 to 9 are when Shrift starts to really get his act together. We see the powers Animal Affinity, granting him a +4 bonus to the ability score of his choice, Hustle for more move actions, and Strength of My Enemy to drain Str from targets and add it to his own.

The biggest boons though are the reduction in the penalty to decisive strike and the Beast Strike and Shock Trooper feats. Shock Trooper has been covered to death, and it's pretty easy to figure out. Beast Strike lets Shrift stack his claw damage with his fist.
He's also picked up a Fanged Ring for Improved Natural Attack (unarmed strike).

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial7Psychic Warrior 4+5
+9
+3
+3Decisive strike (-1)
8Psychic Warrior 5+5
+9
+3
+3PW5 – Beast StrikeDragon#355Bonus Feat
9Psychic Warrior 6+6+1
+10
+4
+4HD9 – Shock TrooperCW—

More of the same, really. He's really only got one trick, but he's not totally useless when he can't put everything together. He's got enough skill points to do something else on the side too, but I haven't really explored that with this build... I leave that up to you.

Now, onto the fun parts.

Beast strike is a fun little toy that lets Shrift add his claw damage to his unarmed strike. Claws of the beast gives him claws that scale with his level. His unarmed strike scales with his level. The two stack. So, his damage scales with his level twice over. Gotta love that.

So, we have a base of 1d6→1d82d6(battlefist)→3d6(Improved Natural Attack)→4d6(expansion)→6d6(mighty wallop).
So, we have 6d6+Str+2d6 from our claws. We make this a decisive strike for 12d6+2xStr+4d6. (Note that claw damage may or may not double depending on DM interpretation. The one time I used it, the DM ruled that it doubled for decisive strike but not for critical hits. So... *shrug* ask your DM. Even without doubling at all, it's good extra damage from the feat.)

With all of his buffs active, a light tap from Shrift deals an average of 70 damage, threatening death by massive damage. If his target survives that, he activates Brutal Surge, throwing his target back into a wall for an additional 4d6+2xStr damage. On an average hit with bull rush, Shrift is dealing 84 damage.

Unarmed strike and claws of the beast only improve from there, the penalty from decisive strike fades away, and he eventually does two hits instead of one. While 84 damage per hit at 9th level isn't phenomenal, it's certainly respectable. If he takes Psychic Warrior all the way to 20, he'll be doing serious damage, even without decisive strike by stacking his unarmed strike and fully augmented claws of the beast. The additional powers he gains can give him added power or flexibility (claws of the vampire for healing is good), and he has an additional seven feats to select.

As a final note on items, if you purchase a permanent battlefist (which I do in this build) try to get a wand chamberDun built into it. Also try to get a wand sheathECS in your mighty arms, two if you can. Stick dorjes of useful powers in these so you have them on hand and can't drop them or be disarmed of them. It's like picking up a few extra powers known at the cost of a little gold. Some very useful powers that you would want that aren't included in the build are inertial armor and force screen (especially with the abjurant champion adaptation), vigor, detect hostile intent (better as a continuous item...), concealing amorpha, prowess.


Levels 10 to 20 are just lots of Psychic Warrior. Lots of it. Shrift needs to take PsyWar at least to level 10 so he can get the double decisive strike for two attacks when making a decisive strike. He might consider picking up Snap KickToB to make a third attack.

Beyond that, I might suggest Abjurant ChampionCM with the suggested psionic adaptation (which I stat out here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18924792&postcount=4)) is also quite good, though I think only 2 levels rather than the full 5. Abjurant Champion would help out with getting the most out of his psionic powers, but it halts monk progression for each level he takes. He doesn't really have the spare power points to power the psionc version of arcane boost, and the capstone is useless to him, since his ML is already higher than his BAB.

ClassBABFortRefWillFeatsSpecial10Psychic Warrior 7+7+2
+10
+4
+4—
11Psychic Warrior 8+8+3
+11
+4
+4PW8 – Bonus Feat, decisive strike (-0)
12Psychic Warrior 9+8+3
+11
+5
+5HD12 – —
13Psychic Warrior 10+9+4
+12
+5
+5Double decisive strike
14Psychic Warrior 11+10+5
+12
+5
+5PW11 – Bonus Feat
15Psychic Warrior 12+11+6+1
+13
+6
+6HD15 – —
16Psychic Warrior 13+11+6+1
+13
+6
+6—
17Psychic Warrior 14+12+7+2
+14
+6
+6PW14 – Bonus Feat
18Psychic Warrior 15+13+8+3
+14
+7
+7HD18 – —
19Psychic Warrior 16+14+9+4
+15
+7
+7—
20Psychic Warrior 17+14+9+4
+15
+7
+7PW17 – Bonus Feat

[TheBrassDuke]

Very neat, I can only imagine what you've done with MeadowSong/"Maleficent"! 😃

[unseenmage]

...

Very cool! I like it! Thank you. :smallsmile:

[lucky9]

Ahh, a post to pull me out of another deep lurk!

Here's one that I can never seem build smoothly.

CHARACTER NAME: Leinad Half-Dwarven
BRIEF CONCEPT: A man of passion; when he performs, his songs are beautiful. When he fights, his anger is untameable. When he prays, his petitions are fervent. His true desire is to experience life in all its forms; great joy, deep sorrow. Every song worth singing, every path worth traveling, every tale worth sharing. Every life worth living, at least for a season or two...
ABILITIES: A smattering of arcane and divine spells. Possible feline companion. Enjoys raging with dwarven war-axe and shield. Can operate any apparatus that facilitates travel. Pursues wisdom and the subtle power of song.
LIMITATIONS: A little clumsy. And a bit of an addictive personality when various passions take hold.

[Uncle Pine]

KOBOLDSSSSS!

Nice job with the last one, I especially love the way you flesh out the entire build and then create a statblock at a reasonable "sweet level" that contains all the necessary information to run the various characters as interesting NPCs in a campaign. It's an incredibly nice touch!

[Rerednaw]

Sho, wuxia style wandering swordsman from Thunderbolt Fantasy (puppet theatre + cgi anime -style).

Channels Qi/Chi for a variety of effects including healing, exploding enemies by touch, vorpal style cut everything in a wide swath...and he can do this with a stick, a scarf, or a strand of hair. Though for the series mostly he does this with a wooden bokken painted silver so others think its a metal sword.

Thinking Psychic Warrior and/or ToB Nine Swords may be a good foundation. I suppose in mechanics DMM persisent DP may work but it doesn't have the right feel as he isn't a cleric.

[Calthropstu]

Let's see what you do with this. I have only used this guy to 5th level, but I will only post rhe concept.

Ludok the mad. As a child, his family was slaughtered by werewolves. He watched them slaughter his family, turn from huan, to hybrid, to wolf. Taken in by a druid, he learned their ways... until he saw his mentor use shapeshift to turn into a wolf.
Believing himself to be tricked by "the puppy people," he killed his mentor believing himself to be taking revenge.
Any hybrid man/animal combination unleashes a panicked response. Those obviously weaker he will kill, stronger he will attempt any means at his disposal to flee. He is paranoid that "puppy people" could be lurking anywhere, waiting to finish the job. All of his enemies are assumed to be working with them.
He may gain shapeshifting, but ONLY into outsiders such as elementals no animals or magical beasts.
He may have an animal companion, but not canine in nature. Great cats, being natural enemies of wolves, would be a great complement.


make this obviously homebrewed class legit in 3.5

this version of samurai actually sounds fun to play, unlike the oriental or CW versions..

https://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Samurai,_Races_of_War_(3.5e_Class)

That class is so homebrew, it would probably be rejected at homebrew tables.

[Rizban]

Very neat, I can only imagine what you've done with MeadowSong/"Maleficent"! 😃I'm still working on her. Some of the ideas weren't working just like I wanted, so I'm tweaking and fixing. I really like the idea, so I want to perfect the build to do exactly what I want. It's taking a bit to do right.


Very cool! I like it! Thank you. :smallsmile:Glad you do and that I could get it to work right. :smalltongue:


Ahh, a post to pull me out of another deep lurk!

Here's one that I can never seem build smoothly.

CHARACTER NAME: Leinad Half-Dwarven
BRIEF CONCEPT: A man of passion; when he performs, his songs are beautiful. When he fights, his anger is untameable. When he prays, his petitions are fervent. His true desire is to experience life in all its forms; great joy, deep sorrow. Every song worth singing, every path worth traveling, every tale worth sharing. Every life worth living, at least for a season or two...
ABILITIES: A smattering of arcane and divine spells. Possible feline companion. Enjoys raging with dwarven war-axe and shield. Can operate any apparatus that facilitates travel. Pursues wisdom and the subtle power of song.
LIMITATIONS: A little clumsy. And a bit of an addictive personality when various passions take hold.Interesting. I'll add it to my ever-growing list.


KOBOLDSSSSS!

Nice job with the last one, I especially love the way you flesh out the entire build and then create a statblock at a reasonable "sweet level" that contains all the necessary information to run the various characters as interesting NPCs in a campaign. It's an incredibly nice touch!You've caught me! Half the reason I'm doing this is to have a list of convenient, interesting, fleshed-out NPCs to grab and throw into campaigns without having to make them on the spot. I'm putting these and some of my own ideas/builds in the thread in my sig.


Sho, wuxia style wandering swordsman from Thunderbolt Fantasy (puppet theatre + cgi anime -style).

Channels Qi/Chi for a variety of effects including healing, exploding enemies by touch, vorpal style cut everything in a wide swath...and he can do this with a stick, a scarf, or a strand of hair. Though for the series mostly he does this with a wooden bokken painted silver so others think its a metal sword.

Thinking Psychic Warrior and/or ToB Nine Swords may be a good foundation. I suppose in mechanics DMM persisent DP may work but it doesn't have the right feel as he isn't a cleric.Hmm. I might have an idea or two for this...


Let's see what you do with this. I have only used this guy to 5th level, but I will only post rhe concept.

Ludok the mad. As a child, his family was slaughtered by werewolves. He watched them slaughter his family, turn from huan, to hybrid, to wolf. Taken in by a druid, he learned their ways... until he saw his mentor use shapeshift to turn into a wolf.
Believing himself to be tricked by "the puppy people," he killed his mentor believing himself to be taking revenge.
Any hybrid man/animal combination unleashes a panicked response. Those obviously weaker he will kill, stronger he will attempt any means at his disposal to flee. He is paranoid that "puppy people" could be lurking anywhere, waiting to finish the job. All of his enemies are assumed to be working with them.
He may gain shapeshifting, but ONLY into outsiders such as elementals no animals or magical beasts.
He may have an animal companion, but not canine in nature. Great cats, being natural enemies of wolves, would be a great complement.Hmm... I'll add it to my list.

[Rizban]

Archimedes
Old Age Human ArtificerECS 5/Renegade MastermakerMoE 10LE Medium Construct (living)Initiative -2; Senses Listen +0; Spot +0
Languages
AC 13 T 8 FF 13; Fort +11 Ref +5 Will +14
– Adamantine Skin light fortification (+5) Speed 30 ft.
BAB +10 Grapple +8
–+3 Battlefist [+11 (1d6+1 | x2)]
– Slam [+8 (1d4-2 | x2)]hp 64 (15 HD)
DR 9/adamantine
Immune poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain
Weakness half effect from healing subschool

Strength 6 (-2)
Dexterity 6 (-2)
Constitution 10 (+0)
Intelligence 22 (+6)
Wisdom 10 (+0)
Charisma 16 (+3)
Special Qualities -2 on all Knowledge checks
Feats HD1 – Apprentice (Craftsman)DMG2, Art1 – Scribe Scroll, Art2 – Brew Potion, HD3 – Legendary ArtisanECS, Art3 – Craft Wondrous Item, Art4 – Extraordinary ArtisanECS, Art5 – Craft Magic Arms and Armor, HD6 – Craft Construct, HD9 – Construct GrafterFoE, HD12 – Bind ElementalECS, HD15 – (Open), RM10 – Improved Damage ReductionECS
Possessions combat gear plus five Warforged Grafts Adamantine SkinFoE, Heart of SteelFoE, Heavy LegsFoE, Mighty ArmsFoE, Wakeful MindFoE
SkillTotalRanks
Listen+00
Spot+00
Craft (armorsmithing)+2610
Swim-100
Unspent Skill Points-62Another build only, because that's what was requested on an already existing character.

There's nothing really special here. It's a pretty bog standard Artificer into Renegade Mastermaker. He has all the feats you really need to do what you want for the character. It uses 28 point buy rather than the elite array, which I think is fine for a final boss. Maybe up his abilities a bit if you feel the need.

The only gear I gave him, other than what is directly provided by his class features, is his multiple warforged grafts. These are neat, because they grant DR/adamantine which specifically stacks with DR/adamantine from other sources. So, grafts, plus class features, plus bonus feat gives him DR 9/adamantine. Not fantastic at ECL15, but it's still something neat to add. Throwing on a stoneskin or something would boost that higher, but the 2 from the class features does not stack. So, it'd be whatever effect +7/adamantine. Just something to note.

You'll definitely want to come up with some neat custom gear for him. Really, you can give him anything (non-epic) you want, and he can afford it. He's got enough craft cost reductions and the ACF that lets him drain XP from items he doesn't want that he can get whatever he needs, and he can send his minions out raiding to get anything else without difficulty. I'd definitely recommend enchanting up his armor, giving him some magic ability score boosts, and whatever else looks interesting to you. Go wild.

[digiman619]

I'd be very appreciative if you could make Harry Dresden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dresden#Magic),

[Rizban]

I'd be very appreciative if you could make Harry Dresden (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Dresden#Magic),

Sorry, but no. I stated in the opening post that I would not be doing this.

[Gandariel]

Archimedes
Old Age Human ArtificerECS 5/Renegade MastermakerMoE 10LE Medium Construct (living)Initiative -2; Senses Listen +0; Spot +0
Languages
AC 13 T 8 FF 13; Fort +11 Ref +5 Will +14
– Adamantine Skin light fortification (+5) Speed 30 ft.
BAB +10 Grapple +8
–+3 Battlefist [+11 (1d6+1 | x2)]
– Slam [+8 (1d4-2 | x2)]hp 64 (15 HD)
DR 9/adamantine
Immune poison, sleep effects, paralysis, stunning, disease, nausea, fatigue, exhaustion, effects that cause the sickened condition, and energy drain
Weakness half effect from healing subschool

Strength 6 (-2)
Dexterity 6 (-2)
Constitution 10 (+0)
Intelligence 22 (+6)
Wisdom 10 (+0)
Charisma 16 (+3)
Special Qualities -2 on all Knowledge checks
Feats HD1 – Apprentice (Craftsman)DMG2, Art1 – Scribe Scroll, Art2 – Brew Potion, HD3 – Legendary ArtisanECS, Art3 – Craft Wondrous Item, Art4 – Extraordinary ArtisanECS, Art5 – Craft Magic Arms and Armor, HD6 – Craft Construct, HD9 – Construct GrafterFoE, HD12 – Bind ElementalECS, HD15 – (Open), RM10 – Improved Damage ReductionECS
Possessions combat gear plus five Warforged Grafts Adamantine SkinFoE, Heart of SteelFoE, Heavy LegsFoE, Mighty ArmsFoE, Wakeful MindFoE
SkillTotalRanks
Listen+00
Spot+00
Craft (armorsmithing)+2610
Swim-100
Unspent Skill Points-62Another build only, because that's what was requested on an already existing character.

There's nothing really special here. It's a pretty bog standard Artificer into Renegade Mastermaker. He has all the feats you really need to do what you want for the character. It uses 28 point buy rather than the elite array, which I think is fine for a final boss. Maybe up his abilities a bit if you feel the need.

The only gear I gave him, other than what is directly provided by his class features, is his multiple warforged grafts. These are neat, because they grant DR/adamantine which specifically stacks with DR/adamantine from other sources. So, grafts, plus class features, plus bonus feat gives him DR 9/adamantine. Not fantastic at ECL15, but it's still something neat to add. Throwing on a stoneskin or something would boost that higher, but the 2 from the class features does not stack. So, it'd be whatever effect +7/adamantine. Just something to note.

You'll definitely want to come up with some neat custom gear for him. Really, you can give him anything (non-epic) you want, and he can afford it. He's got enough craft cost reductions and the ACF that lets him drain XP from items he doesn't want that he can get whatever he needs, and he can send his minions out raiding to get anything else without difficulty. I'd definitely recommend enchanting up his armor, giving him some magic ability score boosts, and whatever else looks interesting to you. Go wild.

Thanks! That's perfect!

I'll just think of some random items to give him and call it a day.

Other than random defenses and stat boosts, I was considering giving him four elemental-themed rods (made by trapping an Elemental inside).

Each would give him a few uses/day of some appropriate spells, and breaking the rod would release the elemental to fight for him.
(Yes I know there are artifacts that do a similar thing :P )
Other than that, I'll just think of whatever I want him to be able to do.

Thanks again!

[TheBrassDuke]

I'm still working on her. Some of the ideas weren't working just like I wanted, so I'm tweaking and fixing. I really like the idea, so I want to perfect the build to do exactly what I want. It's taking a bit to do right.

That's no big deal, after seeing what you've come up with thus far, I'm very excited about what you'll make of her!

[fishyfishyfishy]

I was directed to this thread due to another that I made seeking help with building a NPC. original linked here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?518985-Will-you-build-a-NPC-for-me&p=21831348#post21831348)



I need to have an encounter ready for one of my players, and I am hoping the Playground will help me with building something interesting.

The player has agreed to a duel to the death. The duel takes place on a bridge suspended over a pool of magma in the center of a volcano. There is a platform about 20 feet in diameter in the center of the bridge. A pedestal in the center of the platform has a box containing a key that will open either of the doors at the end of the bridge. The duelists have three minutes to fight over the key before the bridge rotates and drops them into the magma below. The opponent is a female Drow. I was thinking of making her a summoner to put Elementals are the like in the way of the player and disrupt movement. So some kind of Drow spellcaster with a CR of 12-14, preferably on the lower end of that spectrum. CR 13-ish is ideal.

System is D&d 3.5, only setting specific sources allowed are Eberron and we are using Gestalt rules from UA.

So, do you think you can help? :smallsmile:

[tadkins]

Cool thread, thanks for doing this sort of thing. :)

I'm actually playing this character in Pathfinder right now, as a Winter Oracle/VMC Magus. I'm curious to see how it could be translated to 3.5 though.

Character Name: Kreivos Wintershard
Brief Concept: A wanderer and explorer fascinated by all things winter. His love of the cold mysteriously manifested into actual power over it. Kreivos travels the world seeking to hone his power, unravel the mystery behind it, and revel in the aftermath of the frost he unleashes upon his enemies.
Abilities: Possesses powerful spellcasting, particularly in ice magic, with a minor focus in necromancy and spells that aid in travel, like teleportation and flight. Somewhat competent in melee with a short sword and a staff.
Limitations: Despite a willingness to enter melee combat, Kreivos is not particularly fast or strong. He makes up for this with his magic; imbuing his weapon with the power of winter to deal damage, and surrounding himself with an ice storm that protects him and impedes his enemies.

[TheBrassDuke]

Hey, did you ever finish that Maleficent build?

Edit: Sorry for the Thread Necromancy!