Fear based gish

[Adalid]

Hello friends! I'm going to be in a 3.5/p game next week where almost anything goes. I want to make a fear based gish (gish is just my favorite kind of character to play) to team up with a friend who will be a fear type werewolf (uber charger as well I believe). Our party is very high op so feel free to go almost as hard as possible. Our DM has allowed just about everything so far including item familiar persist for one of our wizards. Would prefer a Wizard base, I don't really want to play bard but I'm open to it. I'm familiar with fear handbook but I was wondering if someone can start pointing me in a direction. Thank you in advance!

[Falcon X]

Dread Necromancer?
Does decent fighting and minionmancy, but is beautiful at fear effects and debuff spells.

Do a Scarecrobuild like listed here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?214212-Reanimated-Dread-Necromancer-Handbook

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Check out the Fear Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?389244-Caedrus-Art-of-War-vol-1-Fear-Handbook)

What level are you starting at, and what level do you reasonably expect to reach?

[Adalid]

Check out the Fear Handbook (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?389244-Caedrus-Art-of-War-vol-1-Fear-Handbook)

What level are you starting at, and what level do you reasonably expect to reach?

Starting at 5, and I expect maybe 14-15? Our last game lasted about a year or so.

[Adalid]

Dread Necromancer?
Does decent fighting and minionmancy, but is beautiful at fear effects and debuff spells.

Do a Scarecrobuild like listed here: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?214212-Reanimated-Dread-Necromancer-Handbook
Ah yea, originally i was thinking like an arthas type character with necromancy, but we have a party member who will be necromancy based.

[Rebel7284]

Illumian (Naenhoon) Dread Necromancer 8/Dread Witch 5/whatever

Feats:
1. Extend Spell
3. Persistent Spell
6. Arcane Disciple(Competition)
9. Imperious Command (+Never Outnumbered Skill Trick)
12. Arcane Strike? Skill Focus Intimidate? Spell focus necromancy? Power Attack?

Use Naenhoon to Persist Divine Power and Righteous Might to actually be good at fighting.
You get Greater Master of Terror to be able to scare creatures normally immune to fear.

Dread Necromancer 8 is also a good cutoff point as you get Undead Mastery, which is one of its best abilities.

If you have another necromancer in your group, there will be some overlap, but you are also fairly specialized, so it should be okay.

Edit: You could do a similar build with sorcerer or wizard, of course, and ultimately, they will be more powerful due to knowing more gamebreaking spells in the long run. However, you lose out on a bunch of thematic abilities like the fear aura and Damage Reduction.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

How much gish vs how much fear do you want? Here's something for max fear that should still be able to fight reasonably well:

Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 to count as Humanoid (Human) instead of Humanoid (Orc).

Go Bard 4/ Dread Witch 1/ Nightmare Spinner 1/ Bard 4/ Sublime Chord 2/ Dread Witch 4/ Nightmare Spinner 4 in that order, Savage Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) optional. Use Inspire Awe in Dragon Magic, trade Suggestion for Haunting Melody per ECS Bard, I'd also get Spellbreaker Song (CM) and Healing Hymn (CC), and consider the Planar Bard 3 substitution level.

Say you visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Menacing Demeanor without spending a feat on it. Start with the feat Dreadful Wrath in PGtF, since you count as Human you can qualify. Put max ranks in Intimidate, keeping in mind you can use your prestige class levels to catch up since it's a class skill for both of them. Take Imperious Command in Drow of the Underdark, and the Never Outnumbered skill trick in CS. Also get Melodic Casting (CM), and consider taking Fell Frighten Spell (LM). Obtain Familiar (CA) and Improved Familiar (CW) can also be useful, get a Krenshar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/krenshar.htm) as it can use your Intimidate ranks and its Scare DC scales with your character level (DC 10 + 1/2 level + its Cha mod).

Start with or make it your first priority to get armor with the Fearsome property in Drow of the Underdark, that was published more recently than MIC so that version of the armor property is the most current. Also plan to get Sudden Stunning in DMG2 on your weapon, a Mask of the Matriarch in DotU, and an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Hound of Doom (CW) since anyone who can cast arcane spells can use any eternal wand.

Some of that stuff isn't available at your starting level but should be obtainable shortly (Imperious Command at 6th). Other things may not be useful until the higher levels (Fell Frighten Spell and Eternal Wand of Hound of Doom) so there's no need to pick them up earlier. Take two traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm) if available, Abrasive and Unnatural Aura (Dragon 356 p89) are probably your best choices. Take two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) if available to get two extra feats, such as Skulker and maybe City Slicker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30) (requires Savage Bard), since Skulker can trigger your Dread Witch abilities and Nightmare Spinner 1 removes the drawback, otherwise Bravado or Love of Nature or even Weak Will would probably have the least impactful drawbacks.

Max out UMD and get an Elvencraft Composite Longbow (RotW) that's Masterwork three times and has three Wand Chambers. You can use that as a Quarterstaff or a Composite Longbow (not proficient), you can use the Quarterstaff portion as a two-handed weapon and still benefit from passive enchantments on the offhand end and the bow portion, such as Defending. You can get Ancestral Relic (BoED) for that, and freely determine what magical properties it has each time you upgrade it, up to the value stored or the max value for your current level. Whenever your party finds junk loot they would sell for half price, you can buy it from the party for that amount, get back a cut of that when cash is split, and sacrifice the full value of those items into your Relic. You can make it a magic staff with charges of spells, or even a custom Runestaff (MIC p224) which allows you to get around your otherwise limited number of spells known. You can even put non-Bard spells on that and make a UMD check when you attune to it to use those spells as though they were on your class list. For the wand chambers, get wands of Wraithstrike and Wings of Cover, and probably Nerveskitter or Benign Transposition for the last one. Per the Rules Compendium, activating spell trigger or spell completion items takes the same action as the casting time of the spell being activated.

You can get Power Attack and eventually Leap Attack (it competes with Imperious Command at 6th), and use the above weapon two-handed with Wraithstrike to fulfill your Gishing needs. Get Armbands of Might (MIC) which gets increased by Leap Attack since it's additional Power Attack damage. Make the main hand end of the staff Valorous (UE) so it doubles your charging damage. You can get a Wand of Rhino's Rush for when you don't need to Wraithstrike, or get a Wand of Extended Wraithstrike so you can use that every other round and still have it active when using Rhino's Rush. It doesn't get the BAB of a true Gish, but it can still put out some damage and it makes tons of fear effects.

In case you lost count of the fear effects: Inspire Awe (standard action, Shaken, 1), Haunting Melody (part of another action, Shaken, 2), Dreadful Wrath (free action, Shaken, 3), Intimidate + Never Outnumbered + Imperious Command (move action, cower one round and then Shaken, 4), which is all possible on the first round of combat. Possibly follow up with a Fell Frighten spell (full round action, Shaken, 5), the Krenshar familiar can Scare (standard action, Frightened, or Shaken on a successful save, 6), it can also Intimidate (standard action, or move action with Fearsome barding, Shaken, 7), plus all the class features you'll eventually get from Dread Witch and Nightmare Spinner.

[Manyasone]

I'm a simple man, i see fear based gish. I recommend maybe taking a look at the 'dread' base class from ultimate psionics. Dreamscarred press material for PF. Much less convoluted than most builds suggested so far.

[Adalid]

How much gish vs how much fear do you want? Here's something for max fear that should still be able to fight reasonably well:

Desert Half-Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/environmentalRacialVariants.htm#desertHalfOrcs), use the Half-Humans and Humanlike Races variant in Races of Destiny p150 to count as Humanoid (Human) instead of Humanoid (Orc).

Go Bard 4/ Dread Witch 1/ Nightmare Spinner 1/ Bard 4/ Sublime Chord 2/ Dread Witch 4/ Nightmare Spinner 4 in that order, Savage Bard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) optional. Use Inspire Awe in Dragon Magic, trade Suggestion for Haunting Melody per ECS Bard, I'd also get Spellbreaker Song (CM) and Healing Hymn (CC), and consider the Planar Bard 3 substitution level.

Say you visited the Otyugh Hole in CS to get Menacing Demeanor without spending a feat on it. Start with the feat Dreadful Wrath in PGtF, since you count as Human you can qualify. Put max ranks in Intimidate, keeping in mind you can use your prestige class levels to catch up since it's a class skill for both of them. Take Imperious Command in Drow of the Underdark, and the Never Outnumbered skill trick in CS. Also get Melodic Casting (CM), and consider taking Fell Frighten Spell (LM). Obtain Familiar (CA) and Improved Familiar (CW) can also be useful, get a Krenshar (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/monsters/krenshar.htm) as it can use your Intimidate ranks and its Scare DC scales with your character level (DC 10 + 1/2 level + its Cha mod).

Start with or make it your first priority to get armor with the Fearsome property in Drow of the Underdark, that was published more recently than MIC so that version of the armor property is the most current. Also plan to get Sudden Stunning in DMG2 on your weapon, a Mask of the Matriarch in DotU, and an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Hound of Doom (CW) since anyone who can cast arcane spells can use any eternal wand.

Some of that stuff isn't available at your starting level but should be obtainable shortly (Imperious Command at 6th). Other things may not be useful until the higher levels (Fell Frighten Spell and Eternal Wand of Hound of Doom) so there's no need to pick them up earlier. Take two traits (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterTraits.htm) if available, Abrasive and Unnatural Aura (Dragon 356 p89) are probably your best choices. Take two flaws (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/buildingCharacters/characterFlaws.htm) if available to get two extra feats, such as Skulker and maybe City Slicker (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?258440-The-quot-Best-quot-Flaws#30) (requires Savage Bard), since Skulker can trigger your Dread Witch abilities and Nightmare Spinner 1 removes the drawback, otherwise Bravado or Love of Nature or even Weak Will would probably have the least impactful drawbacks.

Max out UMD and get an Elvencraft Composite Longbow (RotW) that's Masterwork three times and has three Wand Chambers. You can use that as a Quarterstaff or a Composite Longbow (not proficient), you can use the Quarterstaff portion as a two-handed weapon and still benefit from passive enchantments on the offhand end and the bow portion, such as Defending. You can get Ancestral Relic (BoED) for that, and freely determine what magical properties it has each time you upgrade it, up to the value stored or the max value for your current level. Whenever your party finds junk loot they would sell for half price, you can buy it from the party for that amount, get back a cut of that when cash is split, and sacrifice the full value of those items into your Relic. You can make it a magic staff with charges of spells, or even a custom Runestaff (MIC p224) which allows you to get around your otherwise limited number of spells known. You can even put non-Bard spells on that and make a UMD check when you attune to it to use those spells as though they were on your class list. For the wand chambers, get wands of Wraithstrike and Wings of Cover, and probably Nerveskitter or Benign Transposition for the last one. Per the Rules Compendium, activating spell trigger or spell completion items takes the same action as the casting time of the spell being activated.

You can get Power Attack and eventually Leap Attack (it competes with Imperious Command at 6th), and use the above weapon two-handed with Wraithstrike to fulfill your Gishing needs. Get Armbands of Might (MIC) which gets increased by Leap Attack since it's additional Power Attack damage. Make the main hand end of the staff Valorous (UE) so it doubles your charging damage. You can get a Wand of Rhino's Rush for when you don't need to Wraithstrike, or get a Wand of Extended Wraithstrike so you can use that every other round and still have it active when using Rhino's Rush. It doesn't get the BAB of a true Gish, but it can still put out some damage and it makes tons of fear effects.

In case you lost count of the fear effects: Inspire Awe (standard action, Shaken, 1), Haunting Melody (part of another action, Shaken, 2), Dreadful Wrath (free action, Shaken, 3), Intimidate + Never Outnumbered + Imperious Command (move action, cower one round and then Shaken, 4), which is all possible on the first round of combat. Possibly follow up with a Fell Frighten spell (full round action, Shaken, 5), the Krenshar familiar can Scare (standard action, Frightened, or Shaken on a successful save, 6), it can also Intimidate (standard action, or move action with Fearsome barding, Shaken, 7), plus all the class features you'll eventually get from Dread Witch and Nightmare Spinner.

I wish text could convey how much I appreciate the effort you put into that response.

[Adalid]

I'm a simple man, i see fear based gish. I recommend maybe taking a look at the 'dread' base class from ultimate psionics. Dreamscarred press material for PF. Much less convoluted than most builds suggested so far.

Had a friend show me this class a few hours ago haha, I got really interested when I saw they had a initiator archtype.

[Manyasone]

Had a friend show me this class a few hours ago haha, I got really interested when I saw they had a initiator archtype.
Also an akashic archetype, makes you a living swarm. Interesting, to say the least

[Kurald Galain]

Hello friends! I'm going to be in a 3.5/p game next week where almost anything goes. I want to make a fear based gish (gish is just my favorite kind of character to play) to team up with a friend who will be a fear type werewolf (uber charger as well I believe). Our party is very high op so feel free to go almost as hard as possible. Our DM has allowed just about everything so far including item familiar persist for one of our wizards. Would prefer a Wizard base, I don't really want to play bard but I'm open to it. I'm familiar with fear handbook but I was wondering if someone can start pointing me in a direction. Thank you in advance!

Since Pathfinder is available, at these levels there's no better gish than the Magus.

Go for the following combo: Frostbite (fatigued) + Enforcer feat (shaken) + Rime Spell feat (entangled) + Cruel weapon (sickened) + Chilling Amplification feat (can't 5' step), on every hit and without requiring additional rounds to set up.

[Andreaz]

Since Pathfinder is available, at these levels there's no better gish than the Magus.

Go for the following combo: Frostbite (fatigued) + Enforcer feat (shaken) + Rime Spell feat (entangled) + Cruel weapon (sickened) + Chilling Amplification feat (can't 5' step), on every hit and without requiring additional rounds to set up.

The Dread is a psionic gish based on fear. As early as level 5 you already outright bypass fear immunity, so you can worry about having fun with being nasty.