Mongrel
2018-01-29, 05:47 PM
So one of my favorite DMs is starting a new game of 3.x DnD. I've played plenty of 3.x in the day, but have lately been playing lots of 5th instead, so I'm a little rusty. I was hoping you guys could give me some recommendations on prestige classes that fit my character concept since there are too many of them to easily sift through.
Brief Campaign Overview --> It's going to be an "explore the new world" campaign in which the main continent is sending people out to as-yet-uncharted land for various reasons. The DM encourages evil alignment for this game (I believe an evil knightly order is largely spearheading the exploration efforts), and it will probably be fairly sandbox-ey since that's how his past games tended to be run. I have no idea what my fellow players will be playing (though we're all pretty good friends; this playgroup is not one where evil is likely to be a problem). I'm not sure exactly what we start with, but I don't think we're getting any NPC underlings or bases of operations or anything like that.
Character Concept --> I will be playing Vasius, a lawful evil human and devout servant of Hextor. Vasius is a fanatical member of the evil knightly order mentioned above, and his goal is to establish an empire in the new world for which he is ruler. This empire will focus on industry and (naturally) war with the intent of conquering the region in his name (or allying with forces too strong to conquer) and establishing a new zone of influence for his knightly order. Vasius is not subtle; he is ruthless, commanding, and intolerant of failure. He's also very much a "humans first" type guy, if not blatantly racist/xenophobic. Here are the things I want for the character:
High charisma. Early on I expect it will be just me and the party. Vasius will need to subjugate the locals to start his war machine. He is not one to use Bluff, instead focusing on Diplomacy and (especially) Intimidate. Ideally he will have a high enough Intimidate score to bully weaklings into servitude and a high enough Diplomacy to convince stronger creatures/factions to join him (or at least leave him be). He will probably go for the Leadership feat eventually as well.
Likely dump stats include Intelligence, Wisdom, and/or Dexterity depending on what class(es) I go. We roll for stats though, so it's possible I won't really need to dump anything if I get lucky.
A focus on martial weaponry. Vasius should be able to hold his own in melee combat. Some spellcasting is fine, but I don't want him to be a primary spellcaster. He will likely wield Hextor's holy weapon (flail or morningstar, I forget) with a shield, probably also possessing a whip (not for use in combat) and a flintlock pistol (DM made weapon which is quite powerful, but which Vasius probably won't have the dex to use reliably)
Any special abilities that allow for making allies, preferably by force or coercion (dominating magics, religious conversion, blackmail, empowered threats, etc.)
Any special abilities focused on battlefield command and/or supporting allies. Buffs, healing, etc.
That's the long and short of it. A few other things of note:
The GM is lenient with class-based alignment restrictions (i.e. he'd let you play a lawful barbarian, or non-neutral druid)
This character does not need to be optimized; I'm fine with using a sub-par class with a cool ability that fits. We're not really powergamers, so I'd actually prefer it if Vasius wasn't absurdly powerful.
From what I can remember about 3.xe DnD, my current plan is for Vasius to be a Bard/Evangelist with perhaps a sprinkling of fighter, rogue, or some other martial class. I feel like there's probably a few other options to build this character though, so hopefully you guys can help! =D
Brief Campaign Overview --> It's going to be an "explore the new world" campaign in which the main continent is sending people out to as-yet-uncharted land for various reasons. The DM encourages evil alignment for this game (I believe an evil knightly order is largely spearheading the exploration efforts), and it will probably be fairly sandbox-ey since that's how his past games tended to be run. I have no idea what my fellow players will be playing (though we're all pretty good friends; this playgroup is not one where evil is likely to be a problem). I'm not sure exactly what we start with, but I don't think we're getting any NPC underlings or bases of operations or anything like that.
Character Concept --> I will be playing Vasius, a lawful evil human and devout servant of Hextor. Vasius is a fanatical member of the evil knightly order mentioned above, and his goal is to establish an empire in the new world for which he is ruler. This empire will focus on industry and (naturally) war with the intent of conquering the region in his name (or allying with forces too strong to conquer) and establishing a new zone of influence for his knightly order. Vasius is not subtle; he is ruthless, commanding, and intolerant of failure. He's also very much a "humans first" type guy, if not blatantly racist/xenophobic. Here are the things I want for the character:
High charisma. Early on I expect it will be just me and the party. Vasius will need to subjugate the locals to start his war machine. He is not one to use Bluff, instead focusing on Diplomacy and (especially) Intimidate. Ideally he will have a high enough Intimidate score to bully weaklings into servitude and a high enough Diplomacy to convince stronger creatures/factions to join him (or at least leave him be). He will probably go for the Leadership feat eventually as well.
Likely dump stats include Intelligence, Wisdom, and/or Dexterity depending on what class(es) I go. We roll for stats though, so it's possible I won't really need to dump anything if I get lucky.
A focus on martial weaponry. Vasius should be able to hold his own in melee combat. Some spellcasting is fine, but I don't want him to be a primary spellcaster. He will likely wield Hextor's holy weapon (flail or morningstar, I forget) with a shield, probably also possessing a whip (not for use in combat) and a flintlock pistol (DM made weapon which is quite powerful, but which Vasius probably won't have the dex to use reliably)
Any special abilities that allow for making allies, preferably by force or coercion (dominating magics, religious conversion, blackmail, empowered threats, etc.)
Any special abilities focused on battlefield command and/or supporting allies. Buffs, healing, etc.
That's the long and short of it. A few other things of note:
The GM is lenient with class-based alignment restrictions (i.e. he'd let you play a lawful barbarian, or non-neutral druid)
This character does not need to be optimized; I'm fine with using a sub-par class with a cool ability that fits. We're not really powergamers, so I'd actually prefer it if Vasius wasn't absurdly powerful.
From what I can remember about 3.xe DnD, my current plan is for Vasius to be a Bard/Evangelist with perhaps a sprinkling of fighter, rogue, or some other martial class. I feel like there's probably a few other options to build this character though, so hopefully you guys can help! =D