Advice on a Soul Eater build

[Doctor Awkward]

I'm currently toying around with possible E6 builds using the Soul Eater PrC and I'm looking for suggestions to add a little bit more "oomph" to them. Just about anything is on the table.


Basically my problems stem from Soul Eaters requirements. +5 Base Attack Bonus requires only full BAB classes for the first 5 levels. And non-humanoid requires specific races to gain entry without the use of templates.

So far I've been looking at:

Race: Elan or Duskling
1. City Brawler Whirling Frenzy Lion Totem Barbarian 1- Alertness (1)
2. Fighter 1- Weapon Focus: Improved Unarmed Strike (B)
3. Fighter 2- Improved Natural Attack: Unarmed Strike
4. Fighter 3-
5. Fighter 4- Superior Unarmed Strike (B)
6. Soul Eater- Snap Kick

The City Brawler barbarian variant (Dragon Magazine #349, pg. 92) trades out martial weapon, medium armor, and shield proficiency for the Improved Unarmed Strike feat, and you are considered to have Two-Weapon Fighting when unarmed (???). Whirling Frenzy gives an extra attack during Rage as the haste spell, and Lion Totem from Complete Champion grants Pounce. With Snap Kick, that would be 5 attacks per round. Dusklings additionally can invest Essentia in their racial ability to improve their base land speed, making Incarnum feats a good target for the epic feats. In particular, Mauling Gauntlets with the Open Least Chakra and Bonus Essentia feats would grant up to a +8 morale damage on unarmed attacks.

My main issue here is the low weapon damage. 1d8 isn't exactly anything to write home about. And he basically doesn't function any place where mobility is an issue.


On the other hand:

Race: Daelky Half-Blood
1. Battle Dancer 1- Alertness
2. Ranger 1-
3. Ranger 2- Two Weapon Fighting(B), Weapon Focus: Improved Unarmed Strike
4. Paladin of Slaughter 1
5. Paladin of Slaughter 2
6. Soul Eater- Improved Two Weapon Fighting

This build utilizes the Tentacle Whip symbiont weapon from Eberron Campaign Setting, using the Channel Touch feature to deliver the Soul Eater's Energy Drain to enemies up to 15 feet away. Battle Dancer, from the Dragon Compendium, is a full BAB class that receives the unarmed damage progression and AC bonuses of monk, except it's keyed off of Charisma instead of Wisdom. Thus an evil Paladin dip will allow him to utilize a favorable Charisma score to improve his chances against spells. By focusing on Dexterity instead of Strength, he can become a walking BFC by taking Improved Trip as an Epic feat. The Energy Drain feat chain in Libris Mortis also becomes a much more option for him to spend his Epic feats on. The ability score drains for using two tentacle whips can be alleviated by taking the Faster Healing feat out of Complete Warrior.

The cons of this approach are that he focuses almost exclusively on Energy Drain, so Death Ward is a problem. And it also assumes most favorable interpretation of Soul Eater's Energy Drain, which is draining 1 level per hit. If that ability is instead ruled to work like a vampire (1 level per round), then he doesn't even have moderately impressive damage to fall back on like the first build does.

What else could I be utilizing to facilitate this prestige class in an E6 game?

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

It doesn't matter how many attacks you get per round, the Soul Eater's Energy Drain ability is Supernatural, which means it always requires a standard action to manually activate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#supernaturalAbilities) each time you want to use it since the ability itself doesn't say otherwise. You can't combine a standard action ability with a full attack, so if you're going to drain levels, you won't get to make a full attack anyway.

[Doctor Awkward]

It doesn't matter how many attacks you get per round, the Soul Eater's Energy Drain ability is Supernatural, which means it always requires a standard action to manually activate (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#supernaturalAbilities) each time you want to use it since the ability itself doesn't say otherwise. You can't combine a standard action ability with a full attack, so if you're going to drain levels, you won't get to make a full attack anyway.

Energy Drain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#energyDrainAndNegativeLevels)

Energy drain is part of a creatures melee attack rolls unless otherwise noted. Soul Eater does not otherwise note.
The unofficial 3.5 update (Leaflets of Triel) added only the usual 3.5 addendum at the end of the Soul Eater class feature: "After 24 hours, make a Fort save to remove the negative level (DC 10 + class level + Cha modifier)."

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Energy Drain (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/specialAbilities.htm#energyDrainAndNegativeLevels)

Energy drain is part of a creatures melee attack rolls unless otherwise noted. Soul Eater does not otherwise note.
The unofficial 3.5 update (Leaflets of Triel) added only the usual 3.5 addendum at the end of the Soul Eater class feature: "After 24 hours, make a Fort save to remove the negative level (DC 10 + class level + Cha modifier)."

The description of Energy Drain that you linked does not state or even imply that it's automatically added onto any melee attack. It says that most energy drain attacks require a melee attack roll to deliver, rather than simple physical contact, but it doesn't say that this is the default unless stated otherwise.

The RAW on energy drain attacks specifically does not in any way conflict with or override the general rules on supernatural abilities. It doesn't add any exceptions to those general rules, it doesn't provide any alternate norms for this type of attack.

I checked my 3.0 Monster Manual to see if anything's changed since Soul Eater was printed, and it has almost exactly the same verbiage as 3.5's Supernatural ability rules and Energy Drain special attack description. Thus Soul Eater has always been limited to just one energy drain attack per round as a manually activated standard action.

[Doctor Awkward]

The description of Energy Drain that you linked does not state or even imply that it's automatically added onto any melee attack. It says that most energy drain attacks require a melee attack roll to deliver, rather than simple physical contact, but it doesn't say that this is the default unless stated otherwise.

The RAW on energy drain attacks specifically does not in any way conflict with or override the general rules on supernatural abilities. It doesn't add any exceptions to those general rules, it doesn't provide any alternate norms for this type of attack.

I checked my 3.0 Monster Manual to see if anything's changed since Soul Eater was printed, and it has almost exactly the same verbiage as 3.5's Supernatural ability rules and Energy Drain special attack description. Thus Soul Eater has always been limited to just one energy drain attack per round as a manually activated standard action.


*sigh*

I'm really not interested in discussing rules minutiae in this thread, so let's just assume this thread is operating under the delusion that a Soul Eater's Energy Drain functions on top of melee attacks. Just like every other instance of Energy Drain on the SRD.

I am welcome to anything you might add to the thread based on that delusion.

[Falontani]

Warforged Fighter 4/Fist of the Forest 1/Souleater 1
1) Adamantine Body
1F) Improved Unarmed Strike
2F) Weapon Focus Slam
3) Great Fortitude
4F) Power Attack
6) Improved Natural Attack: Unarmed Strike
7) Superior Unarmed Strike
8) Improved Natural Attack: Slam
9) Second Slam
10) Jaws of Death
11) Multiattack
12) Shocking Fist
13) Improved Natural Attack: Bite
whatever you want afterwards


Your attack sequence looks like: 2 Unarmed strikes at 2d8, 2 Slams at 1d6, 1 Bite at 1d8, and you can still benefit from haste.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

A Half-Goristro (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a) gets two slam attacks that each add 1.5x Str to damage, and with a size increase from medium to large gets Str +16, Dex -2, Con +12, and +7 total natural armor, along with DR and SR. It's a +4 LA so you'd have all 8's for your base stats, but on a Water Orc (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater) that would be Str 28, Dex 6, Con 22, Int 6, Wis 6, Cha 6, and your physical base damage as well as your melee attack bonus would be extremely decent.

With TWF you don't need to attack with a weapon in each hand, the feat is beneficial any time you're attacking with two weapons, for example a two-handed weapon and armor spikes. You can use (Improved) TWF to make four unarmed strikes with two parts of your body (kick and headbutt), make two slam attacks as secondary natural attacks, and still use Snap Kick and Whirling Frenzy for two more attacks. Note that Whirling Frenzy's extra attack doesn't say it overlaps with Haste, it applies a -2 to hit so it's more like Flurry of Blows or Rapid Shot, so it will stack with the extra attack granted by Haste and similar effects.

If you just want to add on natural attacks, Draconic Creature is +1 LA and gets two claws with some decent ability score bonuses.

[The Viscount]

Another option to consider is to invest more heavily into Wildshape Ranger to turn into a Fleshraker for many natural attacks, and still use IUS for iteratives.

There is also the option of the old CE Soulborn Tibbit. You'd only need 2 levels for Incarnum Defense, and then you've got 3 natural attacks all the time, IUS could still be useful.

If you're dragonblooded, Shape Soulmeld for claws of the wyrm or for dragon tail might be worth looking into. The Dragon tail feat is also an option.

If you're fine with really going evil, Deformity (Teeth) can nab you a bite attack.

A bit costly, but Deepspawn will give you two tentacle attacks.