PDA

View Full Version : Pixie PC



Hario
2007-11-08, 10:45 PM
Ok tonight I couldn't make it to my groups DnD session because my boss scheduled me yesterday w/o my knowing, and I have a sneaking suspicion my current character could have died given we were in the middle of a tough dungeon. To pass the time away I'm thinking if he does die to make a pixie character, we are ECL 8 right now, so I was thinking Pixie Rogue 2/Marshall 2, I don't think my DM minds cross classing. I think with the pixie's high charisma and dex a marshall is a good 2 or 3 level dip for the PC giving me huge potential as being the party face. I am wondering, when I hear of the marshall aura's I only read it as applying them to your allies and not you, but when I read the list of diplomancers they always add a level of marshall for motivate charisma. Is this build fairly good or should would a normal 0LA character do better? Too bad there is no way this character can't go chameleon. Any suggestions for feats/builds/possibilities or what-not to take.

Seffbasilisk
2007-11-08, 11:10 PM
More information on what you want, and what books are OK'd would be good. LA +4 is never fun for a skill-focused creature (as party faces often are.) I'd go pure rogue, but that's just me.

Marshalls auras apply to you as well, as you count as an ally of yourself.

SadisticFishing
2007-11-08, 11:15 PM
Haha, do you count yourself as an ally for White Raven things in the ToB? Namely the charging stance.

Errr... thread hijack

Pixie have too much of an LA to be all that awesome, having 4 less hit dice than your party will make you unbelievably easy to kill :(

Mewtarthio
2007-11-08, 11:16 PM
Try and get LA buyback in as well. It'll mitigate your problems somewhat.

13_CBS
2007-11-08, 11:17 PM
Warlock is a good choice for pixies, apparently. Small size, excellent Dex for Eldritch Blast, etc.

According to a certain handbook at Gleemax...


Pixie (Monster Manual 1) by mjung
I personally like the pixie warlock. Sure, you pay 4 LA, but you more than make up with it with versatility and utter ridiculousness.

Pixie gives you:
- +8 dex and +6 cha (amongst other stat adjustments)
- Small size. Harder to hit and easier to hit others
- 60 foot (good) fly speed
- Dodge as a bonus feat
- +1 natural armor
- DR 10/cold iron, Spell resistance 15+levels and persistent (suppressible) greater invisibility.
- Some nice SLAs.

This race was made for warlocks. You can fly around, invisible and hurl little eldritch blasts at your enemies. Best thing is, you are virtually guaranteed damage and you are virtually untouchable.

- Because Eldritch Blast is a ranged touch attack, your target gets no armor or natural armor bonuses to their AC.
- Unless your target can see invis, they further get no dex or dodge bonus to AC and you get a +2 on your attacks against sighted targets.

So let's see...they don't get dodge, dex, armor or natural armor bonuses...they still get um...size...and um...deflection. With +8 to your dex, some BAB, +2 for being invis and +1 for being small, you can virtually guarantee a hit EVERY TIME.

So what about when they strike back? Oh well, first they have to find you (invisible). Then they have to reach you somehow (flying). Then they have to hit you (small size and high dex). Then they have to overcome either your spell resistance or your damage reduction. Not very likely they'll be hitting you much.

You can see where all this is going. Sure, a fighter could dish out more damage in one round. But your steady once per round 7d6 and nigh untouchability will certainly make you a force to be reckoned with. With the right feat selection and items, I truly believe this character would be just about invincible unless the DM specifically is trying to take you down. You can outlast just about anything in the game.

Temp
2007-11-08, 11:19 PM
Pixie have too much of an LA to be all that awesome, having 4 less hit dice than your party will make you unbelievably easy to kill :(Greater Invisibility, High Dex and Tiny size do quite a bit to counteract this.

And Marshal Auras do apply to the Marshal itself:

Unless otherwise noted, a marshal's aura affects all allies within 60 feet (including himself)...


Link (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/ex/20030906b)

SadisticFishing
2007-11-08, 11:24 PM
That doesn't answer the White Raven quesiton, I knew Marshals did but.. yeah.

I personally also thought of Warlock when I read pixie - then I realized, they already get Greater Invisibility, on top of very good chance to hit and being very hard to kill. Why waste 4 levels?

Temp
2007-11-08, 11:32 PM
That doesn't answer the White Raven quesiton, I knew Marshals did but.. yeah.
Oh, sorry about that, I was trying to respond to:

I am wondering, when I hear of the marshall aura's I only read it as applying them to your allies and not you

For ToB, I don't think there's been an official ruling yet. Ruling that you aren't your own ally would be less than unfair, given maneuvers like White Raven Tactics and War Master's Charge.

SadisticFishing
2007-11-08, 11:36 PM
The +init damage on charge stance seems worded to not include yourself, but other than that I'd agree.

Errr, actually, I don't know what you mean by "less than unfair". Less than unfair, like, very unfair? Or like, mostly fair?

The ToB is such a cool book, I wish they'd notice it was the most influencial book to making melee characters playable, and actually proof-read it and posted their damn erratas =\

Dalboz of Gurth
2007-11-08, 11:38 PM
Pixies would rule. Make a Ninja Pixie that'd rock :D They are already pretty freakin small and unnoticeable.

I have a Brownie Paladin in my 2nd edition rules, as long as he avoids crushing damage from being stepped on, he can kick serious booty (low HP and all) :D

tyckspoon
2007-11-09, 12:22 AM
I'd probably go straight Rogue. Marshall is nice with the Pixie's Cha bonus, but the LA means that you're far enough behind in levels that splitting your focus by multiclassing will hurt quite a bit. Hmm.. Rogue 3/Marshall 1? That'll give you a second sneak attack die, which is how you're going to be getting most of your damage. If you're concerned about being a face, well, Rogue skill points and a Pixie's Cha bonus are going to give you an excellent Diplomacy check anyway. Adding a Marshall aura to that is going to be improving on something that is already quite functional, and the Marshall level probably won't be giving you much else useful.

Temp
2007-11-09, 12:29 AM
Marshall level probably won't be giving you much else useful.Multiclass penalties don't help either...

Doresain
2007-11-09, 12:43 AM
for flavor, you should try a pixie dread necromancer...you dont see too many fairies running/flying around animating hordes of zombies nowadays

TheOOB
2007-11-09, 01:14 AM
Rogue is always a good bet with pixies. Their greater invisibility, high dex, and small size means you will be getting a lot of sneak attacks, and because they are not a spellcaster the LA doesn't hurt as much, however the rogue doesn't do much to help the frail pixie not die. Sure invisibility and DR is nice, but if you fight an opponent who can beat those you are screwed.

To that end a pixie makes a great warblade. Their invisibility combined with their dex bonus(and a finessable weapon) ensures their attacks will usually hit, even with their lessened BAB, and the d12 hit die and the defensive manuvers and stances go a long way twords keeping you alive. A few levels of swordsage don't hurt(the sneak attack stance is a good idea), but the hp is really important for that build.

Fishy
2007-11-09, 01:20 AM
for flavor, you should try a pixie dread necromancer...you dont see too many fairies running/flying around animating hordes of zombies nowadays

I'm imagining Tinkerbelle perched on the rotting shoulder of a shambling zombie.

Yes.

I think I have a new BBEG now.

Doresain
2007-11-09, 01:23 AM
I'm imagining Tinkerbelle perched on the rotting shoulder of a shambling zombie.

Yes.

I think I have a new BBEG now.

your welcome?

brian c
2007-11-09, 01:28 AM
Try and get LA buyback in as well. It'll mitigate your problems somewhat.

Even then, the way LA buyback works he can't start it until lvl12 :-/

MCerberus
2007-11-09, 01:33 AM
Actually that pixie is too great to pass up and I needed a sub-boss for a dungeon. Won't the PCs be surprised.

Reel On, Love
2007-11-09, 01:38 AM
Pixies make HORRIBLE warlocks, actually. The LA further nerfs the Warlock's very lackluster damage, and the main draws of the pixie are flight and invisibility... which the Warlock will eventually pick up anyway!

Doresain
2007-11-09, 01:41 AM
Pixies make HORRIBLE warlocks, actually. The LA further nerfs the Warlock's very lackluster damage, and the main draws of the pixie are flight and invisibility... which the Warlock will eventually pick up anyway!

all the more reason not to waste the invocations on them, and pick up something better

Reel On, Love
2007-11-09, 02:08 AM
all the more reason not to waste the invocations on them, and pick up something better

If you think trading 4 class levels for 2 invocations is a good deal, I've got a bridge in space I'd like to sell you.

Doresain
2007-11-09, 02:11 AM
well if youre going to be playing a warlock in the first place, better to be saving your invocations for something else if you can use said abilities at will (and potentially better)

Reel On, Love
2007-11-09, 02:14 AM
well if youre going to be playing a warlock in the first place, better to be saving your invocations for something else if you can use said abilities at will (and potentially better)

...therefore, you should get some LA to delay your invocation level and progression?

No. Pixies make crappy Warlocks. Sure, they won't die, but no one will care because they contribute, like, 2d6 a round when everyone else is doing stuff.

Kaelik
2007-11-09, 02:25 AM
Even then, the way LA buyback works he can't start it until lvl12 :-/

Actually, he can't buy back the first LA until ECL 16. And the second buyoff is epic.

A Pixie Warlock really is pretty suboptimal, at higher levels you could have those abilities plus some, At lower you aren't doing enough damage to really be helping your party.

Since you are always invisible, rogue works much better. First of all, evasion helps. Secondly, you can add a little bit of Str damage, weapon damage, and enhancement damage. (Not much, but better then nothing.) And secondly, you can Rapid Shot, and eventually get extra attacks. Sure you aren't hitting touch AC. But you are getting multiple attacks that all do more damage then a Warlocks blasts.

Khanderas
2007-11-09, 02:45 AM
for flavor, you should try a pixie dread necromancer...you dont see too many fairies running/flying around animating hordes of zombies nowadays
There must be a reason for that. But I can't think of one. If he gets tired of flying, he could furnish out some animated large creature and be carried in style (in skull)

tyckspoon
2007-11-09, 02:57 AM
There must be a reason for that. But I can't think of one. If he gets tired of flying, he could furnish out some animated large creature and be carried in style (in skull)

For PCs, it's probably because LA are horribly damaging, especially for a casting class like Dread Necromancer. For NPCs, it's cause Pixies are always Good, and incompatible with being Necromancers of any sort (thanks to the decision of Wizards to make Animate Dead and similar spells [Evil].) Doesn't make the image any less cool, but you have to have a pretty twisted Pixie to make it a necromancer.

Lord Lorac Silvanos
2007-11-09, 03:32 AM
Rogue (or other sneak attacking class) is the obvious choice, which can be combined with a level of sorcerer or wizard to qualify for Arcane Trickster.

Just stay far away from Spirit Shamans! :smallamused:

deadseashoals
2007-11-09, 04:28 AM
well if youre going to be playing a warlock in the first place, better to be saving your invocations for something else if you can use said abilities at will (and potentially better)

Wow, seriously? I mean, +4 LA will lose you those two invocations (and more). Your two highest-level invocations. Seems bad.

Actually, I recommend against playing a pixie. It's no fun. Every encounter basically comes down to one of two options:

Aww man, they have see invisibility/blindsight/true seeing/whatever? I lose. This +4 LA character sucks.

OR

Party: They can't see/reach the pixie? What the hell are we doing here? We leave and let the pixie deal with it.

Pixie: I slaughter them all mercilessly. They can't hope to retaliate, can we fast forward this combat?

At least, this is my experience in playing a pixie.

JellyPooga
2007-11-09, 04:40 AM
Pixie PC's are, generally speaking, a bad idea...as has been mentioned, they're either too good or too bad...win or lose, no middle ground...my advice, if you wanted to play a Sprite would be to play one of the "Pixie-Lites", either a Nixie or a Grig...both get some cool SLA's and abilities, but neither has that 'win-or-lose' aspect that the Pixie has...true, they're both somewhat more challenging than a Pixie to play, but surely that can only be a good thing...

Duke of URL
2007-11-09, 03:45 PM
Pixies make HORRIBLE warlocks, actually. The LA further nerfs the Warlock's very lackluster damage, and the main draws of the pixie are flight and invisibility... which the Warlock will eventually pick up anyway!

Pixies make great Gestalt Warlocks, though, if you put the LA on the non-Warlock side. (refer to: Pixie Warlock 15 // LA +4 / Marshal 1 / Rogue 10 (http://www.thetangledweb.net/addon.php?addon=Profiler&page=view_char&cid=4032))

Plus, don't forget that you're getting more than just the greater invisibility and the (non-dispellable) flight, you also get impressive spell resistance (15 + HD), good across-the-board stat increases (except for -4 STR), damage reduction 10/cold iron, and some skill bonuses.

Eldritch Glaive + Sneak Attack + Combat Reflexes + Weapon Finesse = pretty impressive damage potential. Even a non-gestalt pure Warlock of that build does OK at level 11 (ECL 15) -- 2 near auto-hit touch attacks per round for 5d6 damage + eldritch essence effect, plus threaten 10' for AoOs, and potentially a lot of them, high SR, good DR (unless the opponent happens to have cold iron), decent AC with good items and high DEX.

The only thing you'd really have to worry about is spell resistance (the gestalt version doesn't, that's what the Marshal level is for). And, of course, it only works at higher ECLs.

Kaelik
2007-11-09, 04:00 PM
Eldritch Glaive + Sneak Attack + Combat Reflexes + Weapon Finesse = pretty impressive damage potential. Even a non-gestalt pure Warlock of that build does OK at level 11 (ECL 15) -- 2 near auto-hit touch attacks per round for 5d6 damage + eldritch essence effect, plus threaten 10' for AoOs, and potentially a lot of them, high SR, good DR (unless the opponent happens to have cold iron), decent AC with good items and high DEX.

A) You are still doing less damage then a Straight Rogue Pixie.
B) Eldritch Glaive attacks as a Glaive, which uses Str to hit. Oh crap, you miss half the time.

Leon
2007-11-09, 08:18 PM
Something hits pixie, pixie blacks out, rest of party can spend all day looking for the lil bugger

Doresain
2007-11-09, 10:09 PM
Doesn't make the image any less cool, but you have to have a pretty twisted Pixie to make it a necromancer.
play fable...fairies are pretty demented there

dyslexicfaser
2007-11-09, 10:18 PM
play fable...fairies are pretty demented there
They hang out in swamps with trolls and lycanthropes, for one thing.

MCerberus
2007-11-09, 10:38 PM
So progress has been made on my evil Pixie encounter. He's got wizard class levels (spec: necromancy) and a list of horrible phrases and lines to say during and before the encounter. He pretty much hides behind his zombie horde that have traps inside them. When the zombie gets hit to 0 HP it sets of a 2d4 Burning Hands from the zombie. The encounter is set in a laboratory with an inactive and partially completed Flesh Golem in the center. The PCs have to be careful not to get the box of glass vials near the golem smashed because they are specially treated to be able to take water from the special fountain down from a trap door a couple levels back (which they will have to purify by defeating the Hell Hounds).

Doresain
2007-11-10, 01:30 AM
So progress has been made on my evil Pixie encounter. He's got wizard class levels (spec: necromancy) and a list of horrible phrases and lines to say during and before the encounter. He pretty much hides behind his zombie horde that have traps inside them. When the zombie gets hit to 0 HP it sets of a 2d4 Burning Hands from the zombie. The encounter is set in a laboratory with an inactive and partially completed Flesh Golem in the center. The PCs have to be careful not to get the box of glass vials near the golem smashed because they are specially treated to be able to take water from the special fountain down from a trap door a couple levels back (which they will have to purify by defeating the Hell Hounds).

or better yet, change the wizard necro into a dread necro, and change the "traps" into the Nd6 (N=every 2 HD) negative energy damage from the destruction retribution feat...that way when a zombie gets ganked, they heal all their buddies around them

dyslexicfaser
2007-11-10, 05:01 AM
I'm liking the idea of evil pixies more and more.

It reminds me of stories I read of evil Sidhe, the Winter Fae. Cute, delicate-looking little buggers... until they do something like pull the wings off their enemies and eat them, or 'sport' with mortals until they die, or whatever.

MCerberus
2007-11-10, 10:50 AM
or better yet, change the wizard necro into a dread necro, and change the "traps" into the Nd6 (N=every 2 HD) negative energy damage from the destruction retribution feat...that way when a zombie gets ganked, they heal all their buddies around them

deliciously evil but that might make the fight a little too difficult, especially with with dungeon boss right up next, plus I wanted to make it so that you could use the zombies to hurt the pixie if it goes invisible.

SoD
2007-11-10, 02:33 PM
Wow, this is unbeleiveable, a friend of mine wants his current character to have a split personality (CN/xE)...and wants his next character to be a pixie, and there's threads for both!

Anyway, no a +4 LA isn't pleasane, but all the abilities do balance out a bit, and after reading the stuff for warlocks...I am instantly attracted to the idea of playing an evil pixie warlock some time...

Duke of URL
2007-11-10, 03:53 PM
A) You are still doing less damage then a Straight Rogue Pixie.
B) Eldritch Glaive attacks as a Glaive, which uses Str to hit. Oh crap, you miss half the time.
A) Only if the rogue can hit, see B
B) Eldritch Glaive attacks as a melee touch attack (which is finessable), and therefore you pretty much only miss on a natural "1".

Kaelik
2007-11-10, 04:49 PM
B) Eldritch Glaive attacks as a melee touch attack (which is finessable), and therefore you pretty much only miss on a natural "1".

It attacks as a Touch attack, but that doesn't mean it is finessable. It attacks as a Glaive. Glaives are not finessable. Therefore it is not finessable.

The wording for Eldritch Glaive is very unclear about many things, that especially among them. But you can't really say that anyone should start from the assumption of it being finessable.

Either way, a Rogue Pixie shouldn't have much trouble at all hitting with their arrows. They also have the advantage of full attacking every round and using Rapid Shot for an extra attack, as opposed to a reach attack which involves closing to the range of most opponents, and full attacking much less often.

Doresain
2007-11-10, 11:15 PM
deliciously evil but that might make the fight a little too difficult, especially with with dungeon boss right up next, plus I wanted to make it so that you could use the zombies to hurt the pixie if it goes invisible.

the negative energy hurts the pixie...and if youre really worried about a balance issue, make the zombies the standard human commoner zombies...

Duke of URL
2007-11-13, 09:56 AM
It attacks as a Touch attack, but that doesn't mean it is finessable. It attacks as a Glaive. Glaives are not finessable. Therefore it is not finessable.

The wording for Eldritch Glaive is very unclear about many things, that especially among them. But you can't really say that anyone should start from the assumption of it being finessable.

Either way, a Rogue Pixie shouldn't have much trouble at all hitting with their arrows. They also have the advantage of full attacking every round and using Rapid Shot for an extra attack, as opposed to a reach attack which involves closing to the range of most opponents, and full attacking much less often.

The wording is completely clear. It appears like a glaive, has reach like a glaive, but is a melee touch attack (and melee touch attacks are finessable). It also specifically points out that you cannot combine the damage with that of a hand-held weapon (ala Hideous waste of invocation Blow), which means that you do not even have to have a hand free to use Eldritch Glaive.

Even things with ridiculously high AC typically have low touch AC. Touch attacks also work against every creature, and are not negated by the target being undead, a construct, fortified, having uncanny dodge and high enough level, etc. The Warlock does have to worry about spell resistance, but in general that poses fewer problems than immunity to sneak attacks do. If spell resistance is a problem, take Vitriolic Blast at 13th level.

In short, I'll take the 11th level Pixie's Eldritch Glaive at 2 near-guaranteed hits per round at 6d6 (all doubled on a confirmed critical) plus 2d6 elemental damage or additional status effects each, vs. a 15th-level Halfling Rogue's three "maybe" hits at 8d6 (not doubled on a critical hit) plus base weapon damage if the target isn't immune to sneak attacks.