Kafros
2019-01-04, 12:18 AM
Hello dear geeks, I know is kinda late to post a 3.5 guide but I guess since people still play it hopefully someone finds it useful. This build occurred to me while I was trying to build Asuna the berserk Healer for a d&d game. Trying to stay true to the anime I made her a gish and I ended up with this. Resources needed: PHN 2, Eberon campaign setting. (works without it though it helps) complete champion, unearthed arcana, and others but those will get you the main tricks going. I will mention the rest as presented. You can also do a similar build with paladins.but your damage output will plummet.
The build is effective from level 6 and comes online on level 9 afterwards you can probably one shot a tarrasque at level 11 with it while still being an effective healer and buffer for your group.
So lets look on the favored soul as a class:
Class features:
spell casting progression based on charisma... that is excellent.
Spell dc progression based on wisdom... that sucks and there is nothing I can do about it.
medium armor proficiency w/e its not bad... is just worse than what clerics get the prcs I suggest fix that anyway
shield proficiency, no tower shields thats just standard
simple weapons. + patron deities weapon familiarity. also standard
limited spell selection... sucks
spontaneous casting... rocks really that was the reason I made this build with favored soul instead of cleric
No turn undead. We need to fix that... asap.
Bab is medium, you gonna get prestige classes with full progression to fix that.
no domains... we need to fix that too.
no class features worth mentioning yeah the wings are cool but fly spell is cooler, and haste is cool but a domain giving it along with 7 other useful spells is also cooler the alternative class feature of deity's favor was great but then they Nerf it so we gonna stick with the weapon focus after that .. we gonna multi class asap as well
In almost every case a cleric is superior except that if you are not going to rely on your save or dies or save or suck spells then the charisma progression can be exploited in various ways to make an effective gish. so this is what we are going to do. What is a gish? a gish is a fighter that adds spells on physical attacks. can clerics do it? yes they can. Paladins can as well. The class is similar to sorcerer in many ways... it is naked so multi classing into prcs as soon as possible is the way to go here as well.
Suggested race human. You are simply feat starved any other race will delay your coming on line from level 9 to 12.
suggested atributes
pt buy weak 25pts: str 14 dex9 con 12, int 10, wis 10 cha 16
pt buy average 28pts: str 13 dex 10 con 12 int 10 wis 10 cha 17
pt buy above average 32 pts: ster 14 dex 10 con 12 int 10 wis 10 cha 18
pt buy strong 36 pts: str:14 dex 10 con 14 int 12 wis 10 cha 18 you can exchange the int with wis with little consequences or dex if you want the ac... but I prefer the skill points. All your extra abilities go to charisma.
Skeleton of the build Favored soul 4, ordained champion 1 prestige paladin 1, ordained champion 2 then you need to choose what you want to focus at. AC? domains? TU attempts? smiting? you can do all those things quite successfully. more so than a paladin. I suggest 10 levels on sacred exorcist cause of the extra domain it grants. alternative war priest deserves a mention and par-agnostic apostle if you can spare the skill points. If you cant go to prestige paladin then favored soul 4 ordained champion 2 and warpriest or ordained champion 3 and then sacred exorcis. In those cases pick smite spell on 6 and divine power on 9
Classes you can conceder instead: fighter5/ soldier of light the paladins might want to stick to pure paladins to get stronger smites, alternatively I would suggest battle blessing for them, sword of the order feat and continue as abjurant champions. Rangers can do the same.
Feats:
level 1 : maximize spell, mastery of day and night, if you can take flaws consider quicken spell here. if you can't take flaws then you will need to get 5 levels to ordained champion instead of 3. if you are not allowed mastery of day and night pick smiting spell now and get divine meta magic maximize spell on 9. what mastery of day and night does is that it automatically maximizes all inflict and cure spells.
level 3: power attack
level 6: divine might
level 9: smiting spell
level 12: divine meta magic quicken spell
level 15: conceder divine shield ( alternative suggestion is sacred healing extra turning or extra smiting. pick whcihever you may like on 18
Spells:
absolutely necessary: in every level up to 6... inflict wounds of corresponding level. you also need magic weapon to qualify for ordained before level 4. your healing spells will always be maximized with mastery of day and night so you might wish to conceder picking some. Don#t forget picking some buffs for yourself and the group. some good spells I suggest are: bless, protection from evil, prayer, removed disease if there is noone wlse to do that, delay poison, restoration, death ward. freedom of movement. heroism greater heroism, heroic feast., divine power. shield other.
Eagle splendor is necessary... until you can get an item at least that does it.
Suggested weapon enchants: spell storing (priority), smiting. keen, secondary boots of speed (priority), cloak of charisma +6, book of charisma+5 (when you can afford those)
your round.
before the combat always fill your spell storing weapon up.
round one: quicken spell an inflict wounds and add smiting spell on it. the spell will automatically be maximized too. charge and attack the target, smite evil, ordain champion smite.the bonuses are untyped so they should stuck if you have boots of speed and can take a move action and a full-round action use channel spell to channel a 3rd spell in your attack. activate divine power too. your to hit bonus should be base attack + str+ weapon enchant+ charisma*3 even with weak stats that should be on level 6 a + 18 to hit your damage should also get another +5
from the divine might and +2 from the smite for a total +10 and another + 21 from the inflict spell in your weapon. on level 8 you get the channel and 3rd level spells increasing your maximum output as such: to hit +25, damage 1d8+94. (again with weak stats) on level 9 you can now cast 3 spells a round and 4rth level spells so your maximum damage becomes: 1d8+147 on level 13 you can cast 2 harms instead and a 3rd level inflict for a 1d8+350 damage. yur to hit at this point will be something ridiculous probably way over +50 or something. on the first attack of the round.
Of course you can always do something else than attacking with your spells ... you are a full fledge caster after all and you will have spells to choose from. depending on the situation. Though I would focus on utility and healing since your save or suck/die spells will have a dc of 10+ spell lvl.
If you want to do something similar with a cleric go for zen archery instead and chain spell smiting on your ammunition then release it with many shot. you probably don't need to quicken spells. but you ll do more damage around 1d8+ 750 though you will come on line much later around level 9. for that build instead of power attack and divine might quicken spell, and divine shield or extra smites you will need point blank shot, rapid shot, manyshot, and zen archery also chain spell and if you can spare the feat divine meta-magic chain spell . you will come completely online on 18 you will do half or less than half of the damage this build does until then, you will still be able to channel a spell on your arrows, however. after that you will do 2 or 3 times the damage.... As I said the inspiration for this was assuna so I thought it out as such. Hopefully it gave you some ideas. The deity's favor wont work anymore cause it was corrected to only give the temporary hitpoints to the spells targets. since you will be targeting the enemies it wont help the group so the weapon focus is better. Hopefully this will give you some ideas
The build is effective from level 6 and comes online on level 9 afterwards you can probably one shot a tarrasque at level 11 with it while still being an effective healer and buffer for your group.
So lets look on the favored soul as a class:
Class features:
spell casting progression based on charisma... that is excellent.
Spell dc progression based on wisdom... that sucks and there is nothing I can do about it.
medium armor proficiency w/e its not bad... is just worse than what clerics get the prcs I suggest fix that anyway
shield proficiency, no tower shields thats just standard
simple weapons. + patron deities weapon familiarity. also standard
limited spell selection... sucks
spontaneous casting... rocks really that was the reason I made this build with favored soul instead of cleric
No turn undead. We need to fix that... asap.
Bab is medium, you gonna get prestige classes with full progression to fix that.
no domains... we need to fix that too.
no class features worth mentioning yeah the wings are cool but fly spell is cooler, and haste is cool but a domain giving it along with 7 other useful spells is also cooler the alternative class feature of deity's favor was great but then they Nerf it so we gonna stick with the weapon focus after that .. we gonna multi class asap as well
In almost every case a cleric is superior except that if you are not going to rely on your save or dies or save or suck spells then the charisma progression can be exploited in various ways to make an effective gish. so this is what we are going to do. What is a gish? a gish is a fighter that adds spells on physical attacks. can clerics do it? yes they can. Paladins can as well. The class is similar to sorcerer in many ways... it is naked so multi classing into prcs as soon as possible is the way to go here as well.
Suggested race human. You are simply feat starved any other race will delay your coming on line from level 9 to 12.
suggested atributes
pt buy weak 25pts: str 14 dex9 con 12, int 10, wis 10 cha 16
pt buy average 28pts: str 13 dex 10 con 12 int 10 wis 10 cha 17
pt buy above average 32 pts: ster 14 dex 10 con 12 int 10 wis 10 cha 18
pt buy strong 36 pts: str:14 dex 10 con 14 int 12 wis 10 cha 18 you can exchange the int with wis with little consequences or dex if you want the ac... but I prefer the skill points. All your extra abilities go to charisma.
Skeleton of the build Favored soul 4, ordained champion 1 prestige paladin 1, ordained champion 2 then you need to choose what you want to focus at. AC? domains? TU attempts? smiting? you can do all those things quite successfully. more so than a paladin. I suggest 10 levels on sacred exorcist cause of the extra domain it grants. alternative war priest deserves a mention and par-agnostic apostle if you can spare the skill points. If you cant go to prestige paladin then favored soul 4 ordained champion 2 and warpriest or ordained champion 3 and then sacred exorcis. In those cases pick smite spell on 6 and divine power on 9
Classes you can conceder instead: fighter5/ soldier of light the paladins might want to stick to pure paladins to get stronger smites, alternatively I would suggest battle blessing for them, sword of the order feat and continue as abjurant champions. Rangers can do the same.
Feats:
level 1 : maximize spell, mastery of day and night, if you can take flaws consider quicken spell here. if you can't take flaws then you will need to get 5 levels to ordained champion instead of 3. if you are not allowed mastery of day and night pick smiting spell now and get divine meta magic maximize spell on 9. what mastery of day and night does is that it automatically maximizes all inflict and cure spells.
level 3: power attack
level 6: divine might
level 9: smiting spell
level 12: divine meta magic quicken spell
level 15: conceder divine shield ( alternative suggestion is sacred healing extra turning or extra smiting. pick whcihever you may like on 18
Spells:
absolutely necessary: in every level up to 6... inflict wounds of corresponding level. you also need magic weapon to qualify for ordained before level 4. your healing spells will always be maximized with mastery of day and night so you might wish to conceder picking some. Don#t forget picking some buffs for yourself and the group. some good spells I suggest are: bless, protection from evil, prayer, removed disease if there is noone wlse to do that, delay poison, restoration, death ward. freedom of movement. heroism greater heroism, heroic feast., divine power. shield other.
Eagle splendor is necessary... until you can get an item at least that does it.
Suggested weapon enchants: spell storing (priority), smiting. keen, secondary boots of speed (priority), cloak of charisma +6, book of charisma+5 (when you can afford those)
your round.
before the combat always fill your spell storing weapon up.
round one: quicken spell an inflict wounds and add smiting spell on it. the spell will automatically be maximized too. charge and attack the target, smite evil, ordain champion smite.the bonuses are untyped so they should stuck if you have boots of speed and can take a move action and a full-round action use channel spell to channel a 3rd spell in your attack. activate divine power too. your to hit bonus should be base attack + str+ weapon enchant+ charisma*3 even with weak stats that should be on level 6 a + 18 to hit your damage should also get another +5
from the divine might and +2 from the smite for a total +10 and another + 21 from the inflict spell in your weapon. on level 8 you get the channel and 3rd level spells increasing your maximum output as such: to hit +25, damage 1d8+94. (again with weak stats) on level 9 you can now cast 3 spells a round and 4rth level spells so your maximum damage becomes: 1d8+147 on level 13 you can cast 2 harms instead and a 3rd level inflict for a 1d8+350 damage. yur to hit at this point will be something ridiculous probably way over +50 or something. on the first attack of the round.
Of course you can always do something else than attacking with your spells ... you are a full fledge caster after all and you will have spells to choose from. depending on the situation. Though I would focus on utility and healing since your save or suck/die spells will have a dc of 10+ spell lvl.
If you want to do something similar with a cleric go for zen archery instead and chain spell smiting on your ammunition then release it with many shot. you probably don't need to quicken spells. but you ll do more damage around 1d8+ 750 though you will come on line much later around level 9. for that build instead of power attack and divine might quicken spell, and divine shield or extra smites you will need point blank shot, rapid shot, manyshot, and zen archery also chain spell and if you can spare the feat divine meta-magic chain spell . you will come completely online on 18 you will do half or less than half of the damage this build does until then, you will still be able to channel a spell on your arrows, however. after that you will do 2 or 3 times the damage.... As I said the inspiration for this was assuna so I thought it out as such. Hopefully it gave you some ideas. The deity's favor wont work anymore cause it was corrected to only give the temporary hitpoints to the spells targets. since you will be targeting the enemies it wont help the group so the weapon focus is better. Hopefully this will give you some ideas