Illidatch
2019-11-14, 05:07 AM
Hello Playground!
Strangely, in the many many years of playing d&d and browsing this forum, this seems to be my first ever post. Oh well, here it goes:
I'm about to play in a party consisting of 3 Players plus the DM. The other two players are more or less new to the 3.5 ruleset, but chose pretty (VERY) powerful builds:
- DM's GF. She's playing her first real d&d campaign, and wanted to go as a Wizard. I jokingly suggested Incantatrix, and the DM accepted it, albeit under a gentlemen's (and ladies') agreement to not break the encounters TOO much.
- My GF. Pretty new to 3.5 but played for a couple months already. She's going as a Druid adherent to the Way of the Bat (credit: @Eggynack) with an Exalted, Vow of Poverty'd companion. Currently discussing whether to dip a level into that pile of OP that is Hathran or not.
- Finally, me. Surrounded by female incarnations of the apocalypse, I'm going as a Vanara (pre-nerf) WS Mystic Ranger with Sword of the Arcane Order -> Daggerspell Shaper.
I kind of planned a Build as follows:
Stats (rolled, after adjustment): STR 8, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 15, WIS 15, CHA 9.
Build: Mystic Ranger 5, Swordsage 1, DsS 4, Nature's Warrior 1 (Serpent Coils), DsS 6.
Feats: 2WF, Endurance (to retrain into SotAO at lv 4), Natural Spell, Exalted Wild Shape, Savage Grapple, Swift Wild Shape.
Ability +1s: CON, SAG, INT, CON, CON
We're starting at lv 3, with 6k GP to spend on whatever.
Anything first party is allowed if we run it past the DM first
Now, some notes (DM approvals):
2WF even though I don't have enough DEX,
Retraining the class given Endurance into Sword of the Arcane Order if I take End at lv.3,
Assassin Stance and Swordsage's weapon focus-like ability to satisfy prereqs for Daggerspell Shaper,
DsS's Fast Wild Shape as prereq for the feat Swift Wild Shape.
Wizard Grimoire with SC and PHB spells has been given to me by joining the equivalent Order of the Shooting Star. The spells are readable as if I wrote them in. (DM likes that we're able to strategize a lot with our spell list. TBH his encounters are hard as nuts)
OOC I should be the party scout and skillmonkey, while in combat my role should be as follows:
Levels 1-4: kinda-caster with BFC and the occasional Quick Potion of Bite of the Wererat to go into melee.
Levels 5-10: same plus some more cat-themed WS action, plus sneak attack (hunter's eye galore).
Levels 11-?: grappling and dealing rake + SA damage becomes kinda viable. Bigger cats now.
Final thoughts: I would like help on optimizing this build, or suggestions for builds with a similar structure. I know that this may not be a very optimization friendly build, but I really like the flavor of it and I would like to not feel like I'm completely and utterly carried in every fght scenario.
Thanks to everybody for your time spent reading and answering this!
Strangely, in the many many years of playing d&d and browsing this forum, this seems to be my first ever post. Oh well, here it goes:
I'm about to play in a party consisting of 3 Players plus the DM. The other two players are more or less new to the 3.5 ruleset, but chose pretty (VERY) powerful builds:
- DM's GF. She's playing her first real d&d campaign, and wanted to go as a Wizard. I jokingly suggested Incantatrix, and the DM accepted it, albeit under a gentlemen's (and ladies') agreement to not break the encounters TOO much.
- My GF. Pretty new to 3.5 but played for a couple months already. She's going as a Druid adherent to the Way of the Bat (credit: @Eggynack) with an Exalted, Vow of Poverty'd companion. Currently discussing whether to dip a level into that pile of OP that is Hathran or not.
- Finally, me. Surrounded by female incarnations of the apocalypse, I'm going as a Vanara (pre-nerf) WS Mystic Ranger with Sword of the Arcane Order -> Daggerspell Shaper.
I kind of planned a Build as follows:
Stats (rolled, after adjustment): STR 8, DEX 12, CON 13, INT 15, WIS 15, CHA 9.
Build: Mystic Ranger 5, Swordsage 1, DsS 4, Nature's Warrior 1 (Serpent Coils), DsS 6.
Feats: 2WF, Endurance (to retrain into SotAO at lv 4), Natural Spell, Exalted Wild Shape, Savage Grapple, Swift Wild Shape.
Ability +1s: CON, SAG, INT, CON, CON
We're starting at lv 3, with 6k GP to spend on whatever.
Anything first party is allowed if we run it past the DM first
Now, some notes (DM approvals):
2WF even though I don't have enough DEX,
Retraining the class given Endurance into Sword of the Arcane Order if I take End at lv.3,
Assassin Stance and Swordsage's weapon focus-like ability to satisfy prereqs for Daggerspell Shaper,
DsS's Fast Wild Shape as prereq for the feat Swift Wild Shape.
Wizard Grimoire with SC and PHB spells has been given to me by joining the equivalent Order of the Shooting Star. The spells are readable as if I wrote them in. (DM likes that we're able to strategize a lot with our spell list. TBH his encounters are hard as nuts)
OOC I should be the party scout and skillmonkey, while in combat my role should be as follows:
Levels 1-4: kinda-caster with BFC and the occasional Quick Potion of Bite of the Wererat to go into melee.
Levels 5-10: same plus some more cat-themed WS action, plus sneak attack (hunter's eye galore).
Levels 11-?: grappling and dealing rake + SA damage becomes kinda viable. Bigger cats now.
Final thoughts: I would like help on optimizing this build, or suggestions for builds with a similar structure. I know that this may not be a very optimization friendly build, but I really like the flavor of it and I would like to not feel like I'm completely and utterly carried in every fght scenario.
Thanks to everybody for your time spent reading and answering this!