Looking for a fun low level build 3.5

[Skullruss]

In a level 6 campaign and my DM is doing a lot of questionable ****, more riddles and puzzles than combat, epic level saves and stuff like that. I want to do something that'll actually let me have fun, combat encounters seem far and few between, and when it DOES happen, they're OP AF, epic level saves, making US do epic level saves. I want something to bring in that'll either survive the rest of the campaign, hold its own, or just be too fun to play to pass up. no La's no templates, no dragon mag.

[Falontani]

Dragonfire inspiration bard, make your group do huge elemental damages with no save to enemies, while also being a skill monkey, and in combat when your not performing (or with Lyric Spell) use illusions in combat. An enemy doesn't usually get to save against an illusion unless they interact with the illusion. There are many ways past the illusions, but your shtick is boosting your allies, being a skill monkey, and a charlatan.

[Nifft]

Are you starting at level 6?

Or are you starting at level 1 and going up to level 6?

If you're starting at level 1, then consider a Dragonfire Adept with the feat Entangling Exhalation (from Races of the Dragon).

[TalonOfAnathrax]

I suggest playing a social and stealth-focused Beguiler (master of illusion and enchantment spells - enchantment is great and illusions often allow no saves if you're clever with them). Take Power Word Pain as your first Advanced Learning spell (it has good damage and allows no save), then take one level of Mindbender at level 6 so that you can take the Mindsight Feat. In that kind of campaign the unpreventable ability to detect foes within 100m and to communicate stealthily with allies seems invaluable!
Any halfway decently built Beguiler is great pretty much all the time outside of combat.

The only real weakness of Beguilers is that they are useless if facing Constructs (they can hide or try to bypass them without a fight (especially if they have the Darkstalker feat), but they can't really attack them directly). To mitigate that, I suggest taking 2 flaws at level one (try the ones reducing your attack rolls, you should never be doing any anyway) and taking the Educated Feat to get 4 ranks in Knowledge (Religion) to qualify for the Arcane Disciple feat - it's the single best way to expand your spell list! It lets you add all spells from a cleric domain to your list of spells known as long as you have the Wisdom to cast them. I suggest things like Inquisition, Destiny, Fire, Travel or even Renewal depending on what the rest of your team can do.
This build is a little MAD though: Int for spells and skills, Cha for socials, Dex for Stealth and now Wis for spells. If you can't get a Wis of at least 13-15, then I suggest dropping the Cleric Domains and putting all your feats into raising your spells DCs. Then take Spellcasting Prodigy and get Charm Monster at level 6, and play an illusionist beastmaster!



If you're really dead-set on being potentially useful all the time, my other suggestion would be playing an optimized Factotum. Never done it myself but they should theoretically be able to do something at any time.

[Skullruss]

Are you starting at level 6?

Or are you starting at level 1 and going up to level 6?

If you're starting at level 1, then consider a Dragonfire Adept with the feat Entangling Exhalation (from Races of the Dragon).

Yes, i'm starting at level 6, going to God knows what.

[RoboEmperor]

1. Neraphim (or lesser aasimar/tiefling) Cleric with Alteration Domain and Planning Domian.
2. Grab Persistent Spell, Divine Metamagic:Persistent Spell, and Assume Supernautral Ability:Ravid's Animate Objects (su)
3. Create a Gargantuan object. A house would do, but something with legs or wheels is more preferable.
4. Persistent Alter Self into a Ravid with an at-will CL 20 Animate Object Aura to perpetually animated your Gargantuan Object and play as a giant freaking robot.

If Alteration Domain is not allowed...
1.Changeling Cleric with Transformation Domain and Diabolic Domain
2. Grab Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, Divine Metamagic:Persistent Spell, and Assume Supernautral Ability:Ravid's Animate Objects (su) (need 1 flaw)
3. Create a Gargantuan object. A house would do, but something with legs or wheels is more preferable.
4. Cast Devil's Ego to become an outsider
5. Persistent Alter Self into a Ravid with an at-will CL 20 Animate Object Aura to perpetually animated your Gargantuan Object and play as a giant freaking robot.

If you don't mind waiting until level 7, you can forgo the Diabolic Domain and cast Lesser Holy Transformation for the outsider type and grab Time Domain for haste.

Or Artificer6
1. Create an Eternal Wand of Magic Circle Against Evil, Lesser Planar Binding (Demonologist 3), and Lesser Geas (Bard3)
2. Bind a Ravid and a Rejkar, enslave them with Lesser Geas.
3. Rejkar's at-will fabricate to create a gargantuan object
4. Ravid to bring it to life.
5. Rejkar drills gargantuan holes in dungeons so the animated object can fit.

These are the builds I'd do if i was starting at level 6 :P. Of course my tastes are different than yours...

To keep it relevant at high high levels, bind more than 1 and grapple every monster in the encounter, or put spell turrets on them with awesome spells.

Craft Construct Artificer for a Hydra Effigy also works. Effigies aren't expendable like Animated Objects, but 8 attacks a round gotta make up for that. At 10th level build your 12hd hydra effigy, and then build like a stone golem, iron golem, or a shadesteel golem at higher levels.

[Nifft]

Yes, i'm starting at level 6, going to God knows what.

Oh, nice!

To me that's kinda the beginning of mid-level.

Starting at level 6, you'd do well with...

Druid 6 -- your level 6 feat is Natural Spell, for obvious reasons.

Wizard 5 / PrC 1 -- at level 5, take Spontaneous Divination; for a PrC, consider Incantatrix (Extend Spell + Persistent Spell are recommended).

Cloistered Cleric 6 -- you want Knowledge Devotion, and you should consider Extend Spell + Persistent Spell + Divine Metamagic (Persistent Spell); a Human can get all 4 feats without any sacrifices, but for less cheese you could just go with a [Reserve] feat for all-day action.

Beguiler 1 / Totemist 2 / Binder 2 / Chameleon 1 (then up to Chameleon 10) -- or any other 5-level prefix which gets you the skills you need. You will have a LOT of tricks at your disposal; be ready to read a lot of books to ensure you get full value from your class features.

Binder 1 / Wizard 3 / Anima Mage 2 (then up to Anima Mage 10) -- This is a fun variant Wizard, with almost full casting, but also a bunch of wonky special abilities. Extend Spell + Persistent Spell are recommended here, too. As a Wizard, you have the best encounter-solving spells; as a Binder, you have weird all-day abilities & resistances which give you strategic versatility.

Psion (Telepath) 5 / Thrallherd 1 (then up to Thrallherd 10) -- Psions are good at unloading heavy in infrequent, difficult encounters. The Thrallherd class gives you a disposable minion which renews automatically if your old one dies -- "Hold them off while we escape!" -- "YES MASTER."

Totemist 2 / Psion (Egoist) 3 / Soul Manifester 1 (then up to Soul Manifester 10) -- A nice mix of all-day utility vs. burst-spike power. Unlike the Telepath, the Egoist is more about turning yourself into a monster, and the Totemist's powers all work with (many) monster forms.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Whisper Gnome, Beguiler 5/ Mindbender 1, plan to take nothing but Beguiler levels for the rest of your career. Or pick up Shadowcraft Mage but otherwise just stick to Beguiler.

Max out Hide and Move Silently, and take Darkstalker. Max out Bluff and don't forget to use Glibness.

Take Versatile Spellcaster, which should give you early access to the next higher level Beguiler spells, but you may need to also take Heighten Spell (and may need to use flaws for extra feats). This allows your first Advanced Learning to be a 2nd level spell, get Ray of Stupidity. Take Mindsight and you'll know exactly what any opponent's Int score is, and you'll know whether it's worth using Ray of Stupidity on them, as a target reduced to Int 0 is incapacitated and comatose.

Your higher level Advanced Learning spells can be up to 5th, 7th, 9th, and 9th level, I'd get Shadow Form, Greater Shadow Conjuration, Greater Shadow Evocation, and Superior Invisibility. Future feats should include Split Ray and Invisible Spell.

Your gear should include as many of the Necessary Magic Item (www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?187851-3-5-Lists-of-Necessary-Magic-Items) effects as you can get that your spells can't do for you. Also pick up an Eternal Wand (MIC) of Command Undead, anyone who can cast arcane spells can use any eternal wand. Only use it on mindless undead since they don't get a saving throw.

Outside of combat your spell list and skills will allow you to solve nearly any problem that game mechanics will work on. Always be sneaking so that when combat starts you're already hidden. Use Ray of Stupidity to outright disable an opponent with low Int, since you're hidden they shouldn't get any Dex or Dodge bonuses to their touch AC. Use Invisibility to sneak away if needed.

Be sure to get at least a few Spellcraft ranks, if you're against an enemy spellcaster you can ready an action to cast Silence if they cast a spell with a verbal component. Target that on a point in space near the enemy caster, they're automatically affected by the Silence spell with no saving throw and no SR check. They can't complete the verbal component of the spell they already started casting, they automatically fail to finish casting the spell and it's lost as though it was spent.

Note that I've recommended methods of attacking that automatically succeed: Command Undead on mindless undead, readying to cast Silence on a point in space near an enemy caster, and Ray of Stupidity (no save) against creatures whose Int scores you're aware of in a way that attacks their lowest possible AC. I've recommended using skills that you'll have a decent to absurd bonus to: +8 Hide from race and size, +4 Move Silently from race, +30 Bluff from Glibness, plus you get +2 to Spot and Listen with both Darkvision and Low-Light Vision. Opponents can't attack you if they can't find you, so it doesn't really matter how hard their attacks are to resist.