In 3.5 D&D powergaming campaign, is this too much or too little? [Melee build]

[Skrzynek]

[I'm not a native speaker, sorry for any misspellings in advance]

So recently my pal hit me with an idea of making a fun little experiment of a campaign. You know how min/maxing characters in D&D 3.5 could break the game balance completely, melee fighters are useless next to spellcasters, etc? Well, he thought it'll be fun to try min/maxing EVERY character while he, as a DM, does the same to the encounters. I decided to play the muscle of the group, made the character, came up with a backstory and so did others, so far so good.

But I'm here to ask you, dear GitP'ians if this build is done well mechanically. If it's too weak, too strong, or maybe I did a horrible mistake somewhere?

First off, a warning: the DM is a terrifyingly good powergamer himself, so while I'm worried about group balance, I'm mostly concerned in SURVIVING LONG ENOUGH.

Also, few important notes:
1. As a house rule, LEVEL ADJUSTMENT AND RACIAL HD COUNT AS HALF NORMAL (rounded down). So while my cute little beast by RAW has ECL 11 (+5LA, 4HD, 2 class levels) she is actually ECL 6 in this session.
2. DM is absolutely not above being persuaded into new house rules, but he notes that EVERYTHING WE DO, HE CAN DO AS WELL to the enemies. So yeah... We're screwed
3. One of the other characters is a Dragonwrought Kobold with Loredrake (Dragons of Eberron) and Spellhoarding (psychosis from Dragon Magazine) templates, and it's multiclassing into Ultimate Magus, so it should have access to 9-th level spells at 12-th level with Effective Caster Level of 17, and at 15-th character level this thing will cast like 23-th level wizard with ECL 28-th. And did I mention it makes magic items? So yeah, THE PRIME OBJECTIVE FOR ME IS TO NOT LAG BEHIND... too much. Or at least, to be able to do some moments of awesome next to THAT.
4. DM sometimes (intentionally or not) mixes rules between 3.0 and 3.5, but like 90% is from 3.5. He also allowed using 2 third-party equipment books (Ultimate Equipment Guide, Arms & Armor) next to official content and even Dragon Magazine Stuff - within reason, of course, and he doesn't like illogical stuff (and allows powerful stuff if logical, but no ****ing pun-pun).

So, to the character sheet!

Name: Tanni.
Gender: Female
Race(and templates): Arctic Feral Half-Minotaur Shapechanger(Natural, custom Werebat) Raptoran.
Levels: LA+4, Totemist 2 (in plans: Warshaper 2)

Appearance: LARGE MONSTROUS HUMANOID (3m tall). I would post a reference picture, but I'm not sure if I could post nude woman here, even if drawn. In Base Form she looks like a human teenager but with slightly furred body, big ears, hawk-like feet and talons, black claws, black feathered wings, and weird cow-like tail with feathers at the end. he hybrid werebat form and totemist soulmelds (especially Trifold Chimera Mask bound to totem) makes her into an abomination that REQUIRES Hat of disguise.

Alignment: CHAOTIC EVIL. She's not concerned with how strangers feel and cares only about her flock and close friends. But she craves belonging and love, so she'll do a lot to please others and feel at home. She has been recently exiled because of aggressive impulses and lack of morals, though, so the alignment is rather justified... I think. If discussions arise, she's leaning strongly towards CHAOTIC NEUTRAL and might end up as that.

ABILITIES:
(Some change when she's in her hybrid werebat form (based on Desmodu Guard Bat from Monster Manual II), which is pretty much always thanks to the hat of disguise. That's why I'm going to list her hybrid form stats everywhere,)

STR: 29+6=35
DEX: 11+12=23
CON:24+6=30
INT: 6
WIS: 17
CHA: 8 (+2 circumstance bonus on all checks - Nymph's Kiss)

HP: 100
DAMAGE REDUCTION: 10/silver (when in hybrid/animal form)
AC (for hybrid): 8(base)+ 8(Natural)+6(Dex)+8(Armor)+1(enhancement)=31
Speed: 50ft land/ 50ft fly (good)
Carrying Capacity: 2132 lb is the limit of LIGHT LOAD (she can fly with that)
FORT:13
REF: 12
WILL: 11 (+1 bonus on all saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities- Nymph's Kiss)
INITIATIVE: +8 = +6(DEX)+2(Belt of Battle)
BAB: 5
Melee: +16 (+20 when doing a dive attack, since it's +2 from Dive and +2 from higher ground)
Ranged: +8
Grapple: +21

Languages: Common, Tuilvilanuue (Raptoran tongue)
Skill points: 20 (next 2 levels will gain only 2/level because Warshaper)
Noteworthy Skill Bonuses:
Spot: +24 (racial, +9 RANKS)
Jump: +30 (bunch of racial stuff and strength)
Listen: +15 (racial, +2 RANKS)
Intimidate: +12 (based on STR, will be more if dealing with smaller creatures)
Survival: +14 (+3WIS, +2racial, +9 RANKS)
Move Silently: +6 (only Dex, but a class skill thanks to Werebat. Should I invest?)

FEATS:
Racial: Scent, Track, Glide, Flying, Illiteracy, Darkvision:60ft, Low-light Vision, Fast Healing 3, Improved Grab, Pounce, Blindsight, Mobility, Iron Will, Spring Attack(which DM might count as Fly-by Attack because it's just airbourne Spring Attack anyway).
From levels and flaws: Improved Flight (Good Maneuverability), Multiattack, Nymph's Kiss (for ANY skill points ;_;)

Flaws: Vulnerable (-1AC, already counted above), Shaky (-2 ranged attack roll),
Traits: Detatched(+1 Will, -1 Reflex), Plucky (-1 Fort, +1 Will)
Minotaur Cunning (Ex): Half-minotaurs gain much of the innate cunning of their minotaur parent. This gives the half-minotaur a +4 bonus on Intelligence checks to escape maze spells and the ability to determine which direction is north automatically.

EQUIPMENT:
First of, a note- the kobold has item creation feats, and due to some shenanigans with Spellhording template and burning the spell runes it scribes on it's scales to gain 100gp/50gp per spell level, and then copying the spells for 50gp into the scales (repeat) it has ridiculously low creation costs AND NO EXP COST FOR CREATING ITEMS. This means I could get those incredibly cheap. To top that, she has a druid able to cast 4-th level spells to aid her in case she doesn't have something on her wiz/sorc spell list. I won't bother you with exact math, just know it's more than a little complicated and DM accepted it (after a long, long laugh...)

- Makeshift Armor that I compiled of few stackable armor pieces found in the two aforementioned equipment books:
+8 armor to AC, +1enhancement to AC, +7 Max Dex, 0 check penalty, 5% Arcane Failure Chance, 49 lbs. ~2600gp
- Ring of Freedom of Movement (for chaotic totemists with at least 4 ranks in Spot - limitations that lower the cost of the item even further, as with next magic items) - 6172 gp (yes, the market price is 40000gp. DM already told me it's so great villians will use my methods as well)
- Hat of Disguise - 286,65 gp
- Belt of Battle - 1852,2gp
- Amulet of Mighty Fists - 926.1 gp

ATTACKS:
My full attack during a dive (with Threefold Mask of the Chimera) should look more or less like that:
+20 Bite(2d6+12)/+20 Bite (1d8+12)/+20 Gore (1d8+12)/+18 Gore(2d6+6)/+18 Bite (1d8+6)/+18 claw (2d6+6)/+18 Claw (2d6+6)/+18 Claw (1d8+6)/ +18 Claw (1d8+6).
=162+(26 ~ 176) with 45% chance for scoring at least one crit.
All of the above also have enhancement bonus +1 from the Amulet of Mighty Fists, and ALL OF THIS DAMAGE GETS DOUBLED ON A DIVE ATTACK (because all of those NW do piercing damage). Which means that if all attacks hit, I deal =162+(26 ~ 176) with 45% chance for scoring at least one crit. With Dread Carapace soulmeld and 1 essencia invested into it, I deal additional +48 damage.

In two levels and with Tail of the Dragon soulmeld, I could easily jump to 11/13 attacks, depending on if the DM will allow me to grow only third pair of horns or that + pair of tentacles, and with +2 enhancement on strength from a magic item all those secondary attacks will do +8 instead of +6.

Overall, I think I could sucessfully be relevant in combat up to when that damned Kobold gets to casting wish at 12 level (she could make the 5000EXP cost be 12500gp cost instead). I'll have 40 strength (and 34 constitution for totemist DC) at 8 ECL not counting enhencement bonuses and spells, so with that I could easily reach 50, my current damage doubling or even trippling. Adding immunities (+1 buckler of soulfire), getting some stealth-enhancing items (like Skin of the Chameleon in MIC that adds +10 competence on Hide) and getting even more mobile should help as well.

But do I even have a chance to provide reasonable aid next to that powrful caster?
Is it enough?
Is it overdoing it?

Or should I just stop worrying and be done with that character sheet tinkering? :P

[noob]

You build have a huge problem: not enough immunity at all(you should get immune to a whole lot of nasty things to survive in regular encounters with normal monsters from the monster manual). you might want to be a necropolitan(dump con and use charisma instead and get back the health with the dragon magazine feat that does that) for the immunities
Get more or you will randomly stop working for no good reason.
Also get more saves for avoiding to just be defeated by the classical level 6 wizard that optimize dcs(he can easily have dcs around 25 or more at level 6)(the necropolitan thing might help you since getting cha to saves is not that hard)
Can you tell at which speed that character moves?
You might probably want a ring of continuous expeditious retreat.(custom magical item that is purely awesome)
Also which damage does it deals on a single attack?(that is quite important since you can not necessarily always charge or do a full round attack)

[Eldariel]

With the houserule for halving LA and HD cost, high HD races become quite desirable enabling you to do plenty of stuff before they normally come online. E.g. Sylph [MMII] Sorc casting would way outpace normal Sorcs, Ethergaunts [FF] would outpace Wizards and so on. In this kind of a settings I'd definitely go for a monstrous spellcaster; while you can become quite potent in melee, caster options are going to way outpace non-caster options and power is all about having the right kind of a key to solve all the different types of obstacles while still packing enough raw power to smash the ones that don't quite fit.

For pure melee, your build would be more than sufficient, though you could further stack Lolth-Touched [MM4] and Mineral Warrior for further power; the rule exists to be abused. However, next to superadvanced casting I think you'll be lacking behind anyways. You'll smash encounters you can hit but in high optimization, immediate action movement and avoiding being hit are the big thing and you don't really have the tools to even play that game. Thus I'd recommend a Cleric base instead, perhaps going Ruby Knight Vindicator if you want to melee smash. You could play a Drider for 6th level Cleric casting at 5 levels (by these rules), or Jackal Lord [Fiend Folio] for 8th level casting by ECL 6. Jackal Lord is probably better; you get 5th level spells next level and you also have +8 BAB and 8th level Cleric spells. You should take a level in Cleric next for Domains, Turning and such and then you could go Crusader, PRCs, more Cleric, or whatever. This would give you access to all sorts of sweet stuff like Cleric self-buffs, shapechanging magic (make sure to pick Spell-domain for arcane buffs), immediate action movement (Celerity & Lesser Celerity [Player's Handbook II] - combine with Favor of the Martyr [Spell Compendium] for Daze-free turns, or Quick Recovery feat [Lords of Madness] for getting outta Daze immediately) and all the good stuff.


For comparison, I built a level 11 Cleric Charger here (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?314454-3-5-Cleric-Charger). You're not that far off from being able to one-round Hecatoncheireses with your buffs. Still maintains enough casting (full) to also play the caster game of Dispels, Celerities, Contingencies and company (though you need to look for most of those spells from domains).

[noob]

Yes obviously a cleric is better at melee than a non caster.
But here he was trying to do a casting-less build(else it is always 100% better to take a dip in cleric(or be a full spellcaster) if you do not forbid yourself casting(the two domains are purely awesome and nearly any melee build benefits from a dip in cleric even if it just for travel devotion))

[Eldariel]

Yes obviously a cleric is better at melee than a non caster.
But here he was trying to do a casting-less build(else it is always 100% better to take a dip in cleric if you do not forbid yourself casting(the two domains are purely awesome and nearly any melee build benefits from a dip in cleric even if it just for travel devotion))

The thing is, he also wants to keep up with a Loredrake DWKobold Ultimate Magus, which is going to be 3 spell levels ahead of the curve, not to mention survive what he described as an experienced optimizer pulling out all the stops in the gameworld optimizing enemies to the max as well. That's an either-or kind of deal when pulling the optimization levers to the max. As a melee build, it is quite...well, practically impossible to compete with casters in high optimization since anything a non-caster can do, a caster can do better. And this looks like a small party trying to most importantly survive the DM's world so cooperative, additive spellcasting seems to be about the best option. Anyone can have enough offense to one-round anyone in high optimization; it's the multilayered, complex defense that's the key to survival (immunity to damage, immunities to various effects, immunity to magic, difficulty of targeting, etc.). Thus I'd rather recommend a martially minded caster build than try to force a round block into the square hole.

[noob]

The thing is, he also wants to keep up with a Loredrake DWKobold Ultimate Magus, which is going to be 3 spell levels ahead of the curve, not to mention survive what he described as an experienced optimizer pulling out all the stops in the gameworld optimizing enemies to the max as well. That's an either-or kind of deal when pulling the optimization levers to the max. As a melee build, it is quite...well, practically impossible to compete with casters in high optimization since anything a non-caster can do, a caster can do better. And this looks like a small party trying to most importantly survive the DM's world so cooperative, additive spellcasting seems to be about the best option. Anyone can have enough offense to one-round anyone in high optimization; it's the multilayered, complex defense that's the key to survival (immunity to damage, immunities to various effects, immunity to magic, difficulty of targeting, etc.). Thus I'd rather recommend a martially minded caster build than try to force a round block into the square hole.

Immunities are important indeed.
That is even why I suggested necropolitan(yay for immunities that can not be disjuncted.)
Cleric with initiate of mystra helps a lot with disjunctions when you get antimagic zone.
I think getting the best ethergaunt you can afford is a good idea(or take savage species levels in black ethergaunt and ask the gm if you can have them count as half levels for your ecl).

[Skrzynek]

Edited the main post to fix some typos and make the formatting better, added her speed (50 land/ 50 fly).

I see it's settled that I should take a dip into a cleric, then? Maybe I will. Cheater of Mystra with Celerity sounds good, but to take the feat I need to worship Mystra which is difficult for two reasons:
1. We play in Greyhawk (not as much of a barrier, but still)
2. My character is and WILL be chaotic, and I need to be lawful to worship Mystra.

Immunity to Daze is rather hard, it requires either a rather expensive item of Favor of the Martyr (and a paladin to help the chaotic evil kobold to create it, which could be hard to achieve...) or feat-heavy Eberron-specific Dragonmarks... that appear only on races she's not one of (Raptoran).

*Goes to read what Favor of the Martyr actually does.*
... Okay, I'm sold, where can I buy a high-level Paladin? :D

Regarding Race, I wanted her to stay what she is (I already started text-based "get to know each other" roleplay with the bard in the team), and adding Mineral Warrior would be a shoot to the knee, since I already have low INT and needed to get Nymp's kiss to have ANY skill points. But that Lolth-Touched Template is preeeetty :3 I'm going to ask the DM (very) nicely if he'll allow me to drop benefits of one werebat HD in order to get that.

Taking undead templates or racial levels (something that strikes me as kind of absurd in and of itself - how can you try to pretend to be something you aren't and do anything but embarass yourself?) in some aberration outsider mages is... not something I'm eager to do.

Warshaper 1 also gives me, among new natural attacks, immunity to stun and to critical hits, so there's that.
Blindsight she got from Werebat negates SOME things.

Hmm... By RAW lycantropes get modes of locomotion of the base creature while in hybrid form, not combined modes of locomotion. But if i could convince the DM that her wings change to that of a bat anyway (and that bat has good manoverability) then I should be able to spare on feat. Honestly, most urgent thing I wanted to spend it on is combat reflexes (having 6 more attacks of opportunity is nice, isn't it?), but maybe you could advice something more broken useful in it's place? Let's say I'll take a cleric dip in the future (after getting at least one level of warshaper) worshipping some chaotic god. Preferably native to Greyhawk and having something to do with wilderness, beasts and or/powerful mutants.

And in case if it wasn't clear why I'm so stubborn on having more skill points, we only have 3 characters and no one else is wis-based, or even has Spot/Listen/Survival as class skills. And it's my only hope for being relevant out of combat and smashing things (at least up until I do that cleric dip).

[Eldariel]

If you want casting on your current chassis, it's probably the best to go Ur-Priest instead to speed up your casting progression. 4 levels to reach level 4 spells instead of 7 as a Cleric.

[flappeercraft]

You want to survive as a beatstick in a campaign like this? Take the Gheden template (Dragon Mag 313) and a level in Pugilist (Dragon Mag 310). This makes you effectively immune to damage. There are a couple of ways to counter it though, but this should help a lot.

[Eldariel]

You want to survive as a beatstick in a campaign like this? Take the Gheden template (Dragon Mag 313) and a level in Pugilist (Dragon Mag 310). This makes you effectively immune to damage. There are a couple of ways to counter it though, but this should help a lot.

Troll-blooded is cheaper than Pugilist and works quite well as well. Fire and acid immunity can easily be acquired.

[flappeercraft]

Troll-blooded is cheaper than Pugilist and works quite well as well. Fire and acid immunity can easily be acquired.

Fair enough, the reason I didn't mention Troll Blooded though is because stuff like Searing spell can bypass the immunity to fire if you have one and regeneration can be supressed with Graymantle or just ignored via Trollbane. Pugilist might be a class level instead of a feat, but it protects you way more.

There are still ways to bypass Pugilist's Shake it off and kill by damage, but the only way to do so that I am aware of is Bestow Greater Curse and taking a Dragon Magazine alternative curse, but that can also be used to stop troll blooded.

[Skrzynek]

Gheden? Half-Undead? Just becaus you slap "half" in theere doesn't mean it won't change the roleplay DRASTICALLY.

Also, Troll-blooded makes you fatigued in sunlight. Being unable to charge during the day seems like a giant vulnerability, don't you think?

Hm. But the other options still could make the character pretty much unkillable.

- Warshaper 1 gives (Ex) immunity to critical hits and stun while in were-form (and I just asked my DM - she would stay in her hybrid form while in Anti-Magic field, but she obviously couldn't change back and make use of other Warshaper features)
- Blindsight (Ex) she has in were-form is a nice anti-invisibility and anti-darkness tool.
- Buckler of Soulflame makes for perfect immunity to death effects, ability drain, ability damage, and negative levels. (25000 market price. Seems like I'll get my hands on it soon since I managed to buy 40000gp item as of now. Speaking of...)
- Ring of Freedom of Movement for grapple and paralysis
- Will try to negotiate her getting Loth-touched template for immunity to fear (especially since it would match her character brilliantly)
- Careful roleplaying and justifying it with Warshaper abilities could possibly mean limited regeneration already (I mean, growing new natural weapons and moving your internal organs around seems like she should have some form of it already, by logic. Not sute about the eye loss though...)
- Next thing on the list is that Favor of the Martyr item... Just look what it could do!

The subject gains immunity to nonlethal damage, charm and compulsion effects, and attacks that function specifically by causing pain, such as the wrack spell. It is further immune to effects that would cause it to be dazed, exhausted, fatigued, nauseated, sickened, staggered, or stunned. The subject remains conscious at –1 to –9 hit points and can take a single action each round while in that state, and does not lose hit points for acting.

With all that on her, she'd be only vulnerable to ability damage and anti-magic fields (Again, worshipping Mystra might be off limits due to alignment and setting)... Aaaand maybe sudenly dying from taking >50 HP damage at once, because Soulfire enchantment only works for spells. And also scrying, but there are items specifically for that purpose as well.

Would you have remedies for the immunities I'm missing?

Could you suggest any gods that my wilderness-loving airborne machine of death could worship in Greyhawk that have some nice domain combos and match that character?

Background note: The fact that she's Lolth-touched doesn't mean it was her choice. I consider making hr mother (Werebat raptoran) some kind of cultist that was eventually slain. My character escaped from the onslaught to the surface and then living there for a few years before, half-dead, she was found by a normal raptoran and adopted (The adoptive father was a pretty quirky and lonely widower... And optimistic too :V)

I mean, her backstory could be cliche or edgy, but I want it to be at least moderately plausible, and her personality fun to roleplay. I'm making a character, after all, not just the hipothetical build. So that's why I try to avoid becoming too mindless or inhuman. Voidmind is something I have considered, but decided that having almost no brain is too icky as well (I mention this in case someone suggests it as possible immunity to ability damage).

[Goaty14]

Note that if the campaign isn't going to level up, you could consider (if you want to risk the DM doing the same thing) having a caster with Polymorph Any Object cast it on you to change yourself...

Into yourself and all your templates that don't change type. Paragon and Pseudonatual from ELH actually don't have a listed LA, so those are personal favorites.

OR, if you wanna go WAY UP THERE with cheese, you could (when the kobold gets wish) use Wish as per the Savage Species rules for it as a ritual (which are stupidly broken) to get changed into a creature with superior physical stats, as in ANY CREATURE.

For example, I'm in a cheese campaign like yours right now, and I (ab)used that to now become a...
Paragon Pseudonatural Multiheaded Lernean Tauric (Gloom/Tarrasque), and you would probably want to add winged so you can use your other things.

My (new) ability scores are 82 31 118 41 50 45

EDIT: I know that's a bit much, but what you choose is up to you.

[Gruftzwerg]

While you need to cover your weaknesses as melee, you don't need to rely to much on your WBL for that since you have a powerful caster teammate for the needed defensive buffs (death ward, see invis, displacement..).

Further I would either stick to full-tank (massive immunities + crowd control) with some dmg or go pure dmg. A halfway tank build ain't reliable and will be just wasted potential.

Imho, I would stick with a pure dmg build which aims to 1shot (per single attack) anything it hits. Cause that's the most reliable thing to do as melee imho.
Have a look at my clawlock concept. You have high dmg, mobility (to apply the high dmg every turn to anyone you want), deception and perception skills.
Don't let the enemy find your presence and kill em out of the dark. Fast & silent without any time to react. Ignore all mundane lowlife enemies in an encounter with a single DC 15 tumble check and go straight for the big boss to kill him in an instant. Than the remaining may start to beg for mercy ;)

If you really want to go tank, I would stack immunities and ranged trip (Bloodstorm Blade 4) or maybe even get "Quake" from Hammer of Moradin prc (cone AoE trip on Reflex save) to remain useful. Cause if you aren't a threat of any kind and just only tanky, the enemies will ignore you. Why they should attack someone immune/superTanky? They will not unless you annoy em enough (with ranged trip/quake). Or you need magic to hide your immunities ( e.g. a Hat of Disguise that let's you look wounded and half dead). Any good bait to attack you will do^^.