ideas for a few high level builds

[King of Nowhere]

I need some ideas to build seven high level npcs. I could go for generic builds (yet another vanilla wizard - yet another greatsword fighter) but I like to personalize bosses by giving them something special.
those npcs are captured thralls serving the main villain. the main villain will be reluctant to use them in combat, as they can still be freed from their compulsion. but she will call on them if needed, possibly using them to cover her escape. ideally, she'll have a couple of fights where she has to lose her thralls to save herself, and then she'll be out of thralls and she'll finally be defeated for good.
the npcs are divided in two groups, as they were formerly two separate groups of high level adventurers.

the first group is made by
- a wizard or sorceror
- an unspecified fighter type
- a druid
- a rogue built for melee combat
those were captured 60 years before present, so they must be all long-lived races. or maybe not, maybe the wizard could be an octuagenarian; anyway, I would like some opponents that could actually be effective 60 years past his prime.

the second party is made of
- a wizard or sorceror
- a rogue archer
- a fighter type with a greatsword or similar polearm
Those three are all elves. They were the champions of the elven nation that the villain overrun first (with 3 other npcs, who managed to escape by the actions of the pcs). They basically were on the receiving end of the worf effect.

Looking for ideas to make them seem unique and not generic.
thanks.

[Feint's End]

Not sure I can come up with something interesting, but I reckon it would help if you let us know what power level you are looking to create these npcs at. Like how well optimized your group is and how difficult you want the bosses to be.

[RandomPeasant]

- a wizard or sorceror

Is this specifically a Wizard or Sorcerer, or is any arcane spellcaster acceptable?


- an unspecified fighter type

It's stretching "fighter type", but Prestige Paladin + Battle Blessing on a Cleric-type chassis gives you some interesting combat-focused casting. Maybe Favored Soul/Prestige Paladin to avoid just being a Cleric.


- a druid

Worth noting that if you go straight Druid here, you can get the longevity from the class. As far as builds go, I like Vow of Poverty for a Druid, but that's not terribly unique. An easy approach to uniqueness here could be to pick some weird animal for a theme like sloths (though IDK if those have stats). If you want a higher-power option, the Savage Species feat Multitasking and Octopus form allows a Druid to act four times in a round.


- a rogue built for melee combat

Again, literal Rogue class, or something else? If something else, are you looking more for "sneaky character", "precision damage", or "skilled character"?


- a fighter type with a greatsword or similar polearm

A nitpick first: a greatsword isn't a type of polearm, so I don't know what you mean here. But it doesn't really matter, because this is just "two-handed weapon wielder". As an Elf, you could make this guy an Eternal Blade, if you consider that novel enough. You might also try digging through the Combat and Style feats for something that looks interesting.

[pabelfly]

Two suggestions:

First, there's a thread I made about arcane casting in heavy armor, so what about taking inspiration from that? A battle Sorcerer with skin of ectoplasm armor would have the equivalent of heavy armor without worrying about ASF. Or you can go mithral full plate armor and the Battle Casting feat. A loss of spell slots isn't going to matter with only one combat for the character. Combine with Stalwart Sorcerer to make a near full caster with the equivalent of a D12 hit dice.

As for the second spellcaster, you can always do a Truenamer. Their main flaws are fixed when they're an NPC character and they have some interesting tricks, depending on how much cheese you want to bring to the table. Theyre excellent at buffing and debuffing, especially above level 9 with Quicken Utterance, provided you can get their Truespeak check high enough.

[King of Nowhere]

Not sure I can come up with something interesting, but I reckon it would help if you let us know what power level you are looking to create these npcs at. Like how well optimized your group is and how difficult you want the bosses to be.

power level is fairly high. saving throws DCs are expected to be around 30, and to be met with 20+ boosts to saving throws. most people have AC around 40, and the damage dealers are expected to still deal a lot of damage against that.
that said, the main power limit we established is that one cannot destroy a pc of similar level without some sort of counterplay. for casters, this generally means that no-save effects can't be too punitive. For martials, it means they cannot reliably deal more than 200 damage against AC 40; so the most op stuff like no save lose effects for casters and ubercharger and similar builds for martials are not available.
The party is made of an incantatrix wizard (though a severely nerfed incantatrix, because the full power of the class would have been too much) who pumped his save dc up to 40 for his best spell. A planar shepard druid who can maximize his fire storm for free. A rogue with guns pushing the limits of how much damage one can deal before requiring a nerf. A fighter/dervish with 4 arms, dealing 16 attakcs per round. 32 with the dervish dance. with wounding weapons. But most iteratives miss, so it's within the power limits. A cleric who, besides having wisdom 30, doesn't have anything special and may well be the weakest party member - he's certainly the one with the least offensive potential, though now that he just got implosion he has his big gun too.

For the thralls, I am looking at a similar - or slightly lower - power level.

The main villain is a crazy 20th nymph with full 20th level druid casting, a splash of monk for defensive abilities giving her almost unbeatable ac and saving throws, she can cast any spell on the druid spell list for free unlimited times per day, with an additional summon nature ally IX as a free action every round, and she has a bunch of other minor abilities. she has an improved tarrasque as animal companion.
For all her power, though, she'll have to go 1v5 - in her madness, she got convinced that life is bad and she's trying to eradicate it completely, so she doesn't have any allies. The party should be fully capable of facing her, especially after they get a further power boost by absorbing the essence of a dead god.

I didn't initially include the power level, though, because once i have a workable build idea, I can adapt it to the desired power level.

[AnonJr]

- a wizard or sorceror
- an unspecified fighter type
- a druid
- a rogue built for melee combat

those were captured 60 years before present, so they must be all long-lived races. or maybe not, maybe the wizard could be an octuagenarian; anyway, I would like some opponents that could actually be effective 60 years past his prime.

Nice thing about casters is age is less of a problem - the mental stats they need go up, and the physical stats dropping don't matter quite as much. So to that end, your arcane casting type could easily be an 85-year-old human, and still be viable. For that matter, it could be a rather interesting aspect depending on what the goal is for said arcane type. If you want them to blast, you could just go for an aged Warlock - withered from channeling all that baleful energy. That very potent baleful energy now that he's had time to perfect the art...

Or if you'd rather the arcane caster be more supportive, look to borrow an Artificer from the Eberron Campaign Setting (they can easily be re-fluffed to fit any setting). Think of all the wands, staves, and rods a Dwarf could accumulate over 100 years or so...

Either get you away from the more archetypical Wizard/Sorcerer and could give you what you're looking for.

As for the "Fighter Type", you could always look to some of the more combat-oriented partial casters. A Duskblade/Abjurant Champion could be a formidable foe, and definitely a surprise when the Great Hammer wielding scale mail suddenly hits with shocking grasp.

I've had a Savage Bard idea rolling around that I keep meaning to write up - the idea starting with the Savage Bard variant (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#bardVariantSavageBard) , build a custom weapon - a Bronzewood horn or lute - and at the start of combat they open with Inspire Courage, then charge in and go all El Kabong (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quick_Draw_McGraw#El_Kabong) in melee. I was even prepared to RP with some Metallica for Ukulele as my "Inspire Courage". Nothing says "combat is about to begin" quite like the opening riff to Seek 'n Destroy. :smallbiggrin:

While not a good player class, for an NPC a high-level Samurai might not be a bad idea either if you want to keep it strictly martial. Same could be said for a Soul Knife (though I'd still recommend Biscuit's Soulknife Fix (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?636784-Biscuit-s-Straight-Forward-Soulknife-Fix)) or a Psi Warrrior.

Druids are my weak spot, I'm somewhat credibly accused of playing Druids and Clerics like "Divine Wizards" so I'll leave that for others. Though I've definitely been thinking about a Mystic Ranger with the Wildeshape ACF... and maybe a level or two of Barbarian for when they lose their temper.

Not entirely sure what you're looking for with the "rogue but for melee" either, but maybe a Scout or Swashbuckler would be a good starting point? They're good flankers, they've got the precision damage options, and the Scout at least should have some good features for popping in and out of combat.



the second party is made of
- a wizard or sorceror
- a rogue archer
- a fighter type with a greatsword or similar polearm
Those three are all elves. They were the champions of the elven nation that the villain overrun first (with 3 other npcs, who managed to escape by the actions of the pcs). They basically were on the receiving end of the worf effect.

Any of the earlier arcane options could work here too, maybe even the Arcane Disciple variant cleric from Dragon 311.

If you're set on a polearm, you could look back at the Soul Knife - there's a feat that lets you re-shape the mind blade into a Martial Weapon you're proficient in (though again, I'd refer you to Biscut's fix). If you're still looking for something different and memorable, you could try the Pugilist Fighter variant or a Martial Monk/Raging Monk variant.

[daremetoidareyo]

Drag and drop villain, highly suggestible for a crazy nymph

https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=24809441&postcount=40

[Gorthawar]

...
the first group is made by
- a wizard or sorceror
- an unspecified fighter type
- a druid
- a rogue built for melee combat
those were captured 60 years before present, so they must be all long-lived races. or maybe not, maybe the wizard could be an octuagenarian; anyway, I would like some opponents that could actually be effective 60 years past his prime.
....

Just a thought but Primevals regression counters the loss of physical attributes due to age and I like the idea of a grizzled wolf/bear/lion. If you make it a dwarf/deepwarden/fist of the forest with steadfast determination you'll end up with pretty silly ac and saves so you can tune to your liking. There even was an iron chef not too long ago looking at the class as well if you need further inspiration. Hope that helps.

[ben-zayb]

Have you tried checking out the Villainous Competition thread? There's hundreds of entries across dozens of rounds to choose from. Pick a theme, check out the round's entries, and you'll probably find one to your liking. High-OP, high-power characters show up quite frequently there too.

[liquidformat]

Just a thought but Primevals regression counters the loss of physical attributes due to age and I like the idea of a grizzled wolf/bear/lion. If you make it a dwarf/deepwarden/fist of the forest with steadfast determination you'll end up with pretty silly ac and saves so you can tune to your liking. There even was an iron chef not too long ago looking at the class as well if you need further inspiration. Hope that helps.

This was almost what I was thinking, though deepwarden isn't worth it with most forms. My favorite build for a primeval is Bear Totem Barbarian 3/Wildshape Ranger 5/Fist of the Forest 2/Primeval 10. If you are ok with DM content then add city brawler variant to barb to dump martial weapons, medium armor, and shield prof for improved unarmed strike and two weapon fighting. It is a pretty reasonable trade. The two best forms are Dire Lion, Dire Puma, and Dire Phynxkin. You could go with a bit more cheese and thematic with a kobold fleshraker. You can reference this list for forms (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FVG3iPeUlvsB7zF09elYSwGmF5sP0h6J3ZCc2fN1mKs/edit?usp=sharing). FIAT forms go by the idea that form choice was meant to be restricted by the level you enter Primeval so entering at level 10 should open up Smilodon for example. equipment is a bit of a headache but I would get monk's belt, beast claws, Jaws of the Dragon, and Psychoactive Skin; all with wilding clasps.

For your elven fighter maybe go with wild elf Warblade 7/Psychic Warrior 1/Revenant Blade 5/Eternal Blade 7. Or could do a lockdown build something like Wood Elf Wolf Totem Barbarian 2/Psychic Warrior/Warblade taking wolf berserker and knockdown and just smash face.

Melee Rogue can be as simple as Rogue 3/swashbuckler 15/swordsage 2 taking swordsage after level 8 and 11. Its pretty simple but also somewhat of a glass canon.

Unseen Seer makes for a good ranged rogue build so do swift hunters.

[Telonius]

So, these high-level characters are her thralls, and under her compulsion. How did she manage to do that - is it just a regular magical compulsion effect, or is there anything else involved (blackmail, nothing left to lose, feels compelled by an ill-advised oath)? How did the big bad choose these people, specifically, to become her servants? (Or is that part of what you need help determining)?

[King of Nowhere]

So, these high-level characters are her thralls, and under her compulsion. How did she manage to do that - is it just a regular magical compulsion effect, or is there anything else involved (blackmail, nothing left to lose, feels compelled by an ill-advised oath)?

hellwasps.
a refluffed version.




How did the big bad choose these people, specifically, to become her servants? (Or is that part of what you need help determining)?

the villain lives in a large wild magic area. in a single accident, the villain got her powers, control over the area's mutated creatures, and her madness.
nobody knew of her exhistance before she revealed herself; the wild magic blocks any magical transportation, divination, communication.
adventurers explored the area, to find a way to heal it, or just looking for riches. the villain grabbed those she could - those that wandered deep enough, she felt she could capture them safely without revealing herself. in addition to those seven very strong guys, she has a bunch of mid-level people under her control, but the others aren't particularly relevant in a confrontation with the pcs.

Here I talk more about this villain (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25307165&postcount=25)

[ciopo]

wizard/sorcerer : why not just go ultimate magus? without early entry trick, we're talking about wizard 7 / virtuoso 3 / sublime chord 1 / ultimate magus 9, early epic would be ultimate magus 10 and then advancing sublime chord.

you get LOTS of slots, a bunch of metamagic to throw around, and your caster level is mostrously high ( iirc, around 35 for both wizard and sublime chord at level 20), making dispelling him quite the hard thing, and him penetrating spell resistance quite easy

druid: your own player is a planar shepherd, be a planar shepherd yourself, maybe of a fire attuned plane too, that way they "cancel each other out" in regard to fire immunity spread around the party

rogue archer : I'd go rogue/scout with the siwft ambusher feat and some movement related feat like travel devotion, to do full attack while still applying skirmish damage on every attack, or crossbow mastery

fighter type : make a wujen gish of some sort, and use the greater mighty whallop plus that other spell that works like enlarge person but increases by more than one size. bonus points if oyu start out with some large creature tat way it goes up to gargauntuan size. I'd houserule for greater might whallop to NOT stop at colossal, this way you'd have this one dude that once engaged, grows up a couple size and then has the weapon that deals 16d6 or thereabouts. Maybe workshop him to optimize doing a singular big attack, instead of hte usual route of doing full attacks even while moving, or uberchargers. (I got a soft spot for minotaurs for this)

[King of Nowhere]

wizard/sorcerer : why not just go ultimate magus? without early entry trick, we're talking about wizard 7 / virtuoso 3 / sublime chord 1 / ultimate magus 9, early epic would be ultimate magus 10 and then advancing sublime chord.

you get LOTS of slots, a bunch of metamagic to throw around, and your caster level is mostrously high ( iirc, around 35 for both wizard and sublime chord at level 20), making dispelling him quite the hard thing, and him penetrating spell resistance quite easy



let me get this straight - I was about to reply that I don't see the caster level increase, but I just maybe figured it out.
1)ultimate magus always advances sublime chord, because you've got less levels in it; so you cast as sublime chord 10/wizard 16
2)sublime chord says you add the level of another spellcasting class to the SC level to determine caster level; casting as wizard 16, your CL is 16+10, 26.
3) ultimate magus further gives +4 to CL. and sublime chord can get +4 to CL with a perform check, potentially reaching 34.

I have some doubts on the rule legality of 2, since it says that you add your levels in a class, and not your caster levels. anyway, I am the dm and i can decide on rules legality. I also did happen to establish early on some restrictions on stacking of caster level that would depower this combo from ludicrous to acceptably strong, which would make it a good build to use.
There's the problem of MAD, with spellcasting on INT and CHA. This caster should focus on getting the big guns on sublime chord, maximizing charisma, and using the wizard levels for support spells.
again, this build - with the CL partial nerf already houseruled from the beginning - is the right kind of power level for my table

I couldn't understand what the virtuoso levels are doing for this build, though, so I'll convert those to wizard or ultimate magus levels.

I also think I'll take the rogue build as rogue 13/scout 3/fighter 4. the fighter levels are prerequisite for weapon mastery, which solves my problem on how to get the rogue to actually hit - a problem at my table where AC are regularly above 40.

I'm slowly reviewing the various suggestions to see what I can take, thanks to everyone who contributed.

[pabelfly]

I also think I'll take the rogue build as rogue 13/scout 3/fighter 4. the fighter levels are prerequisite for weapon mastery, which solves my problem on how to get the rogue to actually hit - a problem at my table where AC are regularly above 40.

A Rogue can manage Education, Knowledge Devotion and the Skill Trick Collector of Stories with its skill points. If you go high dex you can add Weapon Finesse and a Swordsage dip to get Shadow Blade

[ciopo]

let me get this straight - I was about to reply that I don't see the caster level increase, but I just maybe figured it out.
1)ultimate magus always advances sublime chord, because you've got less levels in it; so you cast as sublime chord 10/wizard 16
2)sublime chord says you add the level of another spellcasting class to the SC level to determine caster level; casting as wizard 16, your CL is 16+10, 26.
3) ultimate magus further gives +4 to CL. and sublime chord can get +4 to CL with a perform check, potentially reaching 34.

I have some doubts on the rule legality of 2, since it says that you add your levels in a class, and not your caster levels. anyway, I am the dm and i can decide on rules legality. I also did happen to establish early on some restrictions on stacking of caster level that would depower this combo from ludicrous to acceptably strong, which would make it a good build to use.
There's the problem of MAD, with spellcasting on INT and CHA. This caster should focus on getting the big guns on sublime chord, maximizing charisma, and using the wizard levels for support spells.
again, this build - with the CL partial nerf already houseruled from the beginning - is the right kind of power level for my table

I couldn't understand what the virtuoso levels are doing for this build, though, so I'll convert those to wizard or ultimate magus levels.

I also think I'll take the rogue build as rogue 13/scout 3/fighter 4. the fighter levels are prerequisite for weapon mastery, which solves my problem on how to get the rogue to actually hit - a problem at my table where AC are regularly above 40.

I'm slowly reviewing the various suggestions to see what I can take, thanks to everyone who contributed.

virtuoso is to get the bardic music prerequisite to qualify for sublime chord, without taking bard levels, because otherwise you would have to put the ultimate magus "increase lowest arcane spellcasting class" on the bard you abandoned at level 1"
Yeah, it's based on the wording of sublime chord that says your caster level for it and another arcane class are the sum of both of them.
1) ultimate magus 1st, 3rd, 7th apply to your class with the lowest caster level, not least amount of levels, so you can decide if you want to advance wizard or sublime chord as you prefer, should be 15/10 without early entry tricks. If you do early entry wizard 7 / virtuoso 2 / sublime chord 1 / ultimate magus 10, you can be wizard 17 / sublime chord 10 as baseline
2) both become 15+10=25 or 17+10 if 21th level, 17+9 if early entry at 20th level. do remember ultimate magus does not grant you the other sublime chord features, so no song of arcane power until you take that second actual SC level, it only increases caster level and spell known and spell slots
3) Arcane spell power feature adds 1 to caster level of your every arcane class, so when it's at +4, it adds 4 to wizard and sublime chord both spel to the caster level(but not spell known/spell slots) , so we're up to 21/14 = 35, no song yet. At 22th with 2nd level of sublime chord it would be 36+4 from the song

Optional 4 which I would personally not allow : practiced spellcaster, potentially two of them ( wizard and sublime chord). If you rule the feat applies before sublime chord adds them together, that's another +8. Personally I don't like that

But yeah, the core of the build is to have only sublime chord and wizard as arcane classes, that way ultimate magus "double dips" getting 2 and sometimes 3 caster level(for numerical effects) every level.


Is their touch AC high too? You could use a brilliance weapon.

Or the follow up feats of mage slayer, those let you ignore the AC that comes from spells.

Sorry if I'm typimg bad, it's difficult to articulate well when posting from the phone

[RandomPeasant]

If you don't want to mess around with Ultimate Magus, you can do a similar build with divine casting and a regular theurge PrC, if you have a trick to meet the casting pre-req for Sublime Chord. Cleric 9/Bard 1/Sublime Chord 1/Mystic Theurge 9 is the simplest version, and gets dual 9ths at 19th level. But you can go Druid (though you don't get good IC, which would be the obvious Druid + Bard combo), or take a PrC before 10th level, or try something like Arcane Hierophant or maybe Fochlucan Lyrist (though the prereqs there are rough).

For the Rogue, I would recommend just going with a Wand Chamber with a wand of wraithstrike to hit touch AC. Then you can stay all in on Rogue-ing rather than taking a bunch of Fighter levels that don't do much for a Rogue.

If you're doing Wu Jen stuff, I think you should go body outside body + random non-spell class, because that lets you get mileage out of stuff that isn't very good otherwise. Also clone no jutsu is cool and you should put it in your game if you can do so in a way that isn't gamebreaking. There's a silly gestalt build that puts Incantatrix, War Weaver, and Warblade in a pile to be a small army of buffed-up beatsticks all day. But that's probably overkill for what you're trying to do.

[liquidformat]

But you can go Druid (though you don't get good IC, which would be the obvious Druid + Bard combo), or take a PrC before 10th level, or try something like Arcane Hierophant or maybe Fochlucan Lyrist (though the prereqs there are rough).

If you really want to go down the Druid Arcane Hierophant route path to power the way to go is. Druid 4/Bard 1/Green Whisperer 3/Arcane Hierophant 2/Sublime Chord 1/Arcane Hierophant 3-10/Green Singer. Though I am guessing there is a feat out there that can give intimidate I can't think of it off the top of my head but then you could do something like Druid 5/Green Whisperer 3/Virtuoso 1/Arcane Heirophant 1/Sublime Chord 1/Arcane Hierophant 9-10. Either way it makes for quite the nasty character, I often just go with Druid 5/Green Whisperer 4/Arcane Hierophant 10/Green Whisperer which is a pretty big drop in power but gets by most DMs without a second look.

For the Elven Rogue Archer I have been milling around with the following Wild Elf Ranger 6(Taking Elf Ranger Substitution levels and Distracting Attack)/Justice of Weald and Woe 10/Swordsage 1/Peerless Archer 3 Swordsage level being taken after ECL 7 and Peerless Archer taken when you have the prereqs so you can snag Power Shot. Though it isn't rogue it still is archery SA focused. If you do want some trapfinding you could add in the Trap Expert ACF though I don't think it is worth it here. If nothing else it is pretty unique and decently powerful Though doesn't really compare to a well built offensive unseen seer...

[King of Nowhere]

brilliance weapons and related effects are banned at my table. the reason being that they make too much of the game moot.
also, if it were allowed, everyone past a certain level would use brilliance weapons - they are just so much stronger than any other effect - everyone would hit all the time, and the damage would ramp up too much. unless there was something else that everyone could use that would counter brilliance, in which case it's just another bit of unnecessary complexity.

normal rogues compensate with homebrew guns, using an homebrew "armor penetration" mechanics that ignores some armor and works mostly like a flat bonus to hit - between +3 and +6, in most cases. normal rogues do hit regularly with their main attacks.
but guns were only perfected in recent decades. So a rogue captured 60 years before wouldn't use guns, as they were still unpractical muzzle-loaded models at the time.
and an elven rogue who's been high level for decades would be too much set in his ways to change, even though he'd be a bit less effective.

giving some figther levels for weapon mastery is not bad, though. you sacrifice 2d6 sneak attack, but with sneak attack and skirmish stacking you get plenty of extra dice anyway (and again, i don't want to overdo this and come up with something stronger than pcs). And in exchange you get +4 damage and +3 to hit, it's a good tradeoff for combat.

arcane hierophant could be a workable idea, but i don't want to overdo that one too. getting a half dozen prestige classes to get also bard casting is excessive.
the idea of a druid octopus getting extra actions with the tentacles is one I'm considering - not casting extra spells, but using smoke bombs and similar tricks would be nice. the party cleric already got tentacles coming out of his ears as a mutation for meddling with wild magic, it would be a nice mirroring.

[liquidformat]

arcane hierophant could be a workable idea, but i don't want to overdo that one too. getting a half dozen prestige classes to get also bard casting is excessive.

yeah that is why I added the third one Druid 5/green whisperer 5/ arcane hierophant 10 gets you bard CL 15 druid 20.

[Maat Mons]

If you want something unique, how about Green Star Adept. I don't recall ever seeing it used, because it's not very good. But has very interesting lore, and could make for a decent villain.

Does your game allow multitarget SoD/SoL effects? If so, those are pretty potent. Mass Hold Person, Mass Hold Monster, and Wail of the Banshee all have a pretty good chance of taking out at least one party member if no one's immune. But if everyone's running around with Mind Blank and Death Ward up all the time, then it's a different story. Maybe Flesh to Stone with Chain Spell applied instead?

Actually, I like that Flesh to Stone idea. Round 1 could be a Chained Flesh to Stone, followed by another one using a Greater Metamagic Rod of Quicken spell. You could work in some other stone-themed stuff too. A Primordial Stone Giant Wizard 17 is CR 18. An Elder Earth Elemental Wizard 18 is CR 20.

[Gruftzwerg]

Is this specifically a Wizard or Sorcerer, or is any arcane spellcaster acceptable?



I wanted to ask the same question.

I've recently made a DWK Master of Flies build with a DFA as base. The caster transforms into a pest/plague themed big swarm that will annoy his enemies to death^^.
Since it is a DWK build, it would perfectly fit into the "60 years past his prime" due to being venerable.
Master of Dragonfire-Flies (https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?639300-Master-of-Dragonfire-Flies)

[JyP]

the first group is made of the old D&D cartoon children, now a bit past their prime :
- a wizard or sorceror : Presto, the Magician, with his signature Hat of Many Spells
- an unspecified fighter type : Diana, the Acrobat (monk), still as young as before.
- a druid : Bobby, the barbarian, shaking grounds as a signature move
- a rogue built for melee combat : Eric, the Cavalier with his big shield, who somehow gained a way to survive longer, through his craven habits.
alas, the other children are now dead.

the second party is made of Power Rangers / Super Sentai heroes / to each one its color.
- a wizard or sorceror : Golden Ranger, aka a Sun Elf or High Elf somewhat otherwordly or faerie type
- a rogue archer : Black Ranger, aka a drow
- a fighter type with a greatsword or similar polearm : Green Ranger. Yes, a green elf, somwhat attuned with forests.

[Bphill561]

Sublime chords are my favorite but I think I will suggest a different path.

Gnome Wizard

Wizard 5/ Incantrix 10/Shadowcraft mage 5/Lore Master 1

L1 Spell Focus Illusion
W1 Arcane Manipulation Loss Familiar
L3 Heighten Spell
O. Hole 5 Ironwill
L6 Extend Spell
I6 Invisible Spell
L9 Earth Sense
I9 Persistent Spell
L12 Residual Magic
I12 Easy Metamagic Persistent
L15 Earth Spell
I15 Sanctum Spell
L18 Diversified Casting Dragon 325
W18 Occular Spell Loss Scribe Scroll
L19 Skill Focus Histor The Frog God's Phane
LM 20 Arcane Thesis Silent Image
L21 Tenacious Spell (EPIC)
L21 Still Spell Metamagic Storm


Get Horseshoes of the Flame from Savage species and run around as a nightmare all the time.

For the druid, just go Druid 20 and turn into a Legendary Horse with another set of Horseshoes of the flame. Both of them can still talk with a Pearl of Speech from the MIC.

While those two through spells around. The crazy melee build

2 Fighter/2 Barb/1 Cleric/7 Soul Eater/ 1 Shaper of Form/ 2 Warshaper/ 1 half-dragon Savage Progression/2 Soul Eater/3 Uncanny Trickster to advance the Half-dragon template class

Now this one is a little hard to follow. Start as a Anthropomorphic Panther with the Otherworldly feat. You are an outsider. Shaper of form lets you change race but keep your stat mods. The race you turn into has to be a +0 LA and the same type. Your type comes from a feat so it never changes. Go with the Lesser Drow as a +0 race. Throw on the Half-dragon (Shadow) later and progress it with Uncanny trickster. Pick up the Create Spectral Spawn feat from the Wyrmshadow web enhancement, and make two more legendary horses spectors with special saddles (savage species ghost touch gear).

Maybe have the rogue be a chitine with multi-weapon fighting for lots of sneak attacks.

So now you have the 4 horseman. The shadowcraft mage can buff the entire party with ray shadow miracles to copy any 8th level spell persistent. The druid and mage can blast away or whatever in combat as nightmares. Then you have your melee bruiser and you sneak attack machine gun which can be backed up with additional spectral creatures as necessary. Two can be lesser drow for long life spans, although there is the spell Kissed by the Ages in one of the dragon magazines. It makes a ring that when worn you don't age, so they would not have to be old.

That is a real quick run down for party 1.

[Morphic tide]

the first group is made by
- a wizard or sorceror
- an unspecified fighter type
- a druid
- a rogue built for melee combat
those were captured 60 years before present, so they must be all long-lived races. or maybe not, maybe the wizard could be an octuagenarian; anyway, I would like some opponents that could actually be effective 60 years past his prime.
Given this was a party, you could have the Wizard or Fighter be the recipient of Reincarnate or Last Breath from the Druid rather than long-lived by default, ending up something that would normally be terribly off-type they later leaned into, such as the Wizard ending up something with a giant Intelligence penalty they get to ignore, or the Fighter ending up Small and figuring out stuff to compensate.

My idea for the Rogue would be going for an Incarnum-heavy Thief of Life leveraging LA and/or Bloodline levels (Dark templated Azurin would be fitting) to reduce the required Hit Dice to make proccing Steal Immortality a lot more reliable, allowing for a play where they finish off a HD-inflated Animal, Vermin, or whatever to get a pile of Essentia. And possibly docking a category of age penalties.

Don't be afraid to do some homebrew "in the lines", as it were, where you work out very similar results for your use-case by different means from usual. Like writing up resources to match things a Psychic Warrior can get up to with the Fighter, particularly in the form of using hilariously oversized weapons to emulate Expansion and Extend Reach. Or adjusting Thief of Life to more cleanly integrate having stuff to do with the temporary Essentia given by the capstone and redact the Ebberon-specific requirements.