Help with Sword Guy build

[Catarang]

I am currently trying to create a martial adept/iajutsu master in a more RP heavy 3.X campaign. The concept is he’s the kind of sword master who collects the weapons of rival swordsmen he’s defeated. It’s a mid to high level campaign, we’re thinking of starting at about 10-12, so he’s collected quite a few weapons over his career. Not a particularly original concept, but I’ve had it for a while and I now get to play it so I’m excited.

The thing I need help with is I was hoping to have one sword that I never use because it will kill me to use. I’m thinking I’ll RP it as I haven’t mastered/bonded with its spirit yet, or it’s part of the cost of weilding it that it takes my life after combat is over. But it can’t be just some sword that kills me, it needs to be extremely powerful and thus worth killing myself over. Also I’m fine with getting what I need via abilities and fluffing it that I get it from the sword.

More specifically what I need are as follows:

1. Some way of killing/hurting myself mechanically, preferably in trade for extra damage/speed/accuracy. This can be something like rage where it lasts for a certain amount of time, or an Ex. or Su. ability that takes a standard action to harm someone as well as myself. Preferably without an area of effect, so something like walking up to someone and dropping a fireball at my feet wouldn’t cut it. Doesn’t have to be strictly martial/a maneuver. Also a cursed sword that hurts myself equal to how much I hurt my opponent would work too.

2. Anything that increases the damage of a single hit, that would work with Iajutsu focus, sneak attack, and the Factotum’s ability that mimics sneak attack.

3. Methods of getting an alignmentless Smite Evil, if that’s possible.

All of 1st party 3.X is available upon review by the DM. I don’t really have a build yet but the only non-negotiable thing is I must be human. Thank you for everything!

[Venger]

the vicious (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#vicious) property is a good start. you may also, since it sounds like you're making a custom magic item, look at holy/unholy as a jumping off point. perhaps something like the shadow sun disciple's capstone disability: when you hit an enemy, you give them 2 negative levels, but take one yourself (assuming you're vulnerable to energy drain) that way you could still use the thing in moderation in extreme situations but your guy could lose control and kill himself, fulfilling the trope you're going for.

you might also look into intelligent item rules. perhaps the brilliant nybor (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mb/20041215a) can help you out with nybor's psychic imprint and the guy you killed has his spirit in the sword and he hates you, and the negative levels (or whatever consequences you and your gm work out) are him siphoning your energy to try to kill you

[AnimeTheCat]

1) You could try talking to your DM to bend the concept of masochism from Book of Vile Darkness (under Fetishes and Addictions on pg 10) to be more aligned with what you're looking for.

2/3) while not alignmentless, the Soulborn has "Smite Opposition" that can apply to either side of your alignment (i.e. Lawful Good can smite either evil or chaotic creatures) which increases damage to a single hit. Also, if you're allowed to charge, the Cobalt Charge feat allows you to add the invested essentia to attack and damage rolls when making a charge, the Cobalt Power feat grants invested essentia to power attack damage, bull rush attempts, sunder attempts, and overrun attempts. Indigo Strike adds twice the invested essentia to sneak attack, skirmish, and/or sudden strike damage.

There's also the X Stat to Y Bonus (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?125732-3-x-X-stat-to-Y-bonus) thread from awhile ago that you can reference for more options.

[Arael666]

The paladin spell divine sacrifice sounds like a good choice, +5d6 of untyped damage and you sacrifice 10 hp each hit, only works once every round.

There is also the Exalted Fury sanctified spell, it deals 50 damage plus your current HP to all evil creatures in an a 40ft area, the downside is taht you die. But it would be a great tool to have as a last resort if I understood your character description, something like you breaking the blade or stabing yourself and creating a large effect (explosions, light, burst of sakura petals), sure is great for drama :smallbiggrin:

[RaiKirah]

Get yourself a familiar or animal companion with an elemental subtype and have it take Final Strike. Polymorph it into an inanimate object and use as an improvised weapon. There's a one in four chance it shatters, triggering Final Strike. Probably wouldn't kill you, but would do damage

[Falontani]

If your good get yourself an ancestral relic. Take a few levels in anointed knight. Give your weapon sentience, but have the sentience be evil. This blade purely hungers for destruction. Enchant it with unholy, vicious, and several others. I think there is one that deals negative levels on critical hit. But the biggest one you should give is the enchantment from Eberron that when it kills something it traps it's soul until the blade is destroyed. But if you wield it when you die it traps your soul. Ask the dm for help with it.
You got yourself a powerful sentient blade that would rather kill you than help you.
Also see Charon's Claw. I believe it is an artifact from one of the forgotten Realm's books

[DrMotives]

That's easily doable since mephits are choices for improved familiar. The thing is how to get a familiar on a martial. Maybe a bit of (fixed) hexblade? The curses fit in with the idea of a too deadly sword to wield.

[Piggy Knowles]

It won’t be available until ECL 15, but the crusader maneuver Greater Divine Surge seems to be exactly what you’re looking for. You sacrifice Constitution damage in exchange for +1 to attack and +2d8 damage per point sacrificed. Dump all your Con into that, use the attack bonuses to fuel Power Attack, and you’ll be doing more than enough damage to drop most foes... but you certainly won’t be standing when the attack concludes.

For this build I’d recommend warblade/iaijutsu master/eternal blade. I posted a build stub for this in another thread but in general warblade fits the “sword guy” theme well, while eternal blade gives you the devoted spirit access you need. You can even use your blade guide’s eternal training ability to grant Greater Divine Surge to your cursed blade, which seems to fit the flavor well.

EDIT: here’s the build I was referencing, may want a somewhat different maneuver and late game feat layout:

I decided to turn my earlier thoughts into a build, and I think it's pretty decent. Here's what I've got:

Elf, Warblade 8/Iaijutsu Master 2/Eternal Blade 10

1. Warblade1- Aereni Focus (iaijutsu focus)
Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Moment of Perfect Mind, Wolf Fang Strike, Leading the Charges
2. Warblade2-
Sudden Leap
3. Warblade3- Quick Draw
Mountain Hammer
4. Warblade4-
Hunter's Senses, Wolf Fang Strike -> Emerald Razor
5. Warblade5- Improved Initiative
White Raven Tactics
6. Warblade6- Weapon Focus (katana)
7. Iaijutsu Master1-
8. Iaijutsu Master2-
9. Warblade7- Power Attack
Death from Above
10. Warblade8-
Emerald Razor -> Bounding Assault
11. Eternal Blade1-
Crusader's Strike
12. Eternal Blade2- Martial Stance (Thicket of Blades)
13. Eternal Blade3-
Moment of Alacrity
14. Eternal Blade4-
15. Eternal Blade5- Defensive Sweep
Clarion Call, Aura of Perfect Orders
16. Eternal Blade6-
17. Eternal Blade7-
Diamond Nightmare Blade
18. Eternal Blade8- Adaptive Style
19. Eternal Blade9-
Time Stands Still
20. Eternal Blade10-

Lots of maneuvers to make your oppo flat-footed to trigger iaijutsu focus, Int to defense both from Iaijutsu Master and Eternal Blade's defensive insight ability, the usual brokenness of eternal training giving you extra maneuvers as needed (useful for stuff like Quicksilver Motion or Strike of Righteous Vitality) and the absolutely insane island in time capstone. Probably in early levels it's strictly better to have some light armor, but from level 7 onwards you're better off running armorless.

This does sort of rely on you being allowed to qualify for Weapon Focus (katana) without actually taking EWP (katana). I'm a bit rusty on my RAW these days, but if a katana is treated just as a bastard sword then I think this should work based on the description of bastard sword, which states that if you're using it two-handed it is considered a martial weapon. If this doesn't work you can shift the build around a bit to account for it (Warblade 9/Iaijutsu Master 1/Eternal Blade 10, using the bonus feat you get at Warblade 9 to make up for the extra feat cost of EWP), but it means you don't become particularly good at being unarmed until ECL 10 and that's kind of a drag.

Worth noting that the later feats are easy to mess around with. I nabbed Thicket of Blades mostly so that I could qualify for Aura of Perfect Order, which in turn led me to grabbing Defensive Sweep as my level 15 feat, but both Defensive Sweep and Adaptive Style aren't actually required.

[RaiKirah]

Continuing the Final Strike idea. If you're comfortable with 'A Wizard Did It' as your explanation for where the weapon comes from, you can pay said wizard for a bunch of spells.

In order:
Summon Monster 8 - 1200gp
Embrace the Dark Chaos - 2450gp
Shun the Dark Chaos - 2450gp
2x Polymorph Any Object - 2400gp
Total - 8500gp

This summons a 21HD Greater Elemental, swaps one of it's feats for Final Strike (which caps the damage at 20d6 with HD), polymorphs it into something similar to whatever your final desired form is for some duration less than 1 week and greater than 20 minutes, which gives you time to polymorph it again into it's final form with a duration bonus great enough to make the PAO permanent. If you make it into an Aurorum item it will repair itself after the explosion. If you make it an Aurorum Gnome Quickrazor, you can enchant it as a weapon (arguably can for any shape made out of aurorum if you specify a masterwork quality when you PAO it, as an improvised weapon is still technically a weapon) and use it as intended to trigger Iaijutsu Focus every turn (maybe every attack depending on the reading of a Gnome Quickrazor). If you intentionally misuse it the Gnome Quickrazor explicitly is treated as an improvised weapon with an attack penalty of only -2, and then would be liable to break and explode with a one in four chance.

You can get to this point with just PAOs starting with a weapon, or even a Legacy Weapon as others have suggested.

[Catarang]

It won’t be available until ECL 15, but the crusader maneuver Greater Divine Surge seems to be exactly what you’re looking for. You sacrifice Constitution damage in exchange for +1 to attack and +2d8 damage per point sacrificed. Dump all your Con into that, use the attack bonuses to fuel Power Attack, and you’ll be doing more than enough damage to drop most foes... but you certainly won’t be standing when the attack concludes.

For this build I’d recommend warblade/iaijutsu master/eternal blade. I posted a build stub for this in another thread but in general warblade fits the “sword guy” theme well, while eternal blade gives you the devoted spirit access you need. You can even use your blade guide’s eternal training ability to grant Greater Divine Surge to your cursed blade, which seems to fit the flavor well.


All great suggestions (thanks everyone!) but I think I like the quote above for the solution to number one. I was exploring Weapons of Legacy and Legacy Champion for a method to get maneuvers early, I might be able to get 8th level maneuvers despite some dipping rather early in the campaign. We’ll have to see how that pans out.

Eternal blade requires being an elf though so I can’t take it unfortunately.