Unkillable PC for one-shot birthday to my DM, ECL 35, D&D 3.5

[EdenNotRaven]

Dear users...
I want to create a character ECL 35 Unkillable, that can destroy everything that the DM maybe prepare.

Books I cannot use:
Tome of Battle \ Magic.
All the psionic ones.

Ok, So... I must use:
1.5Million Gold.
ECL 35, with an Additional 15,000 EXP for spells.

I lack ideas...
But I got only one thing to be sure about it, The character is Unkillable.
Also, I wanna kill his boss \ bosses \ Monsters.
Thank you!

[pabelfly]

You want a character that's unkillable and can defeat all the monsters your DM throws at you?

Without any further context or backstory, I'd question the healthiness of this attitude to your DM's game. DMs work hard planning, preparing and running a game, often with little to no gratitude, and planning to trivialize all of that effort with a broken character doesn't seem fair to your DM.

I'd also opine that beating the person who adjudicates the rules is a losing proposition. Your DM can easily contrive a scenario where your character dies, no matter how unfair or how against RAW you think it is, and this seems like a great way to make that happen.

[EdenNotRaven]

You want an unkillable character that can defeat all the monsters your DM throws at you?

Without any further context or backstory, I'd question the healthiness of this attitude to your DM's game. DMs work hard planning, preparing, and running a game, often with little to no gratitude, and planning to trivialize all of that effort with a broken character doesn't seem fair to your DM.

I'd also opine that beating the person who adjudicates the rules is a losing proposition. Your DM can easily contrive a scenario where your character dies, no matter how unfair or how against RAW you think it is, and this seems like a great way to make that happen.

Hey!
I know, I know he's working on planning, preparing, and running the game.
Trust me, We're very good friends.
I must get this help because...
I'm running 3 campaigns on Warcraft World 3.5 and it's not the same.
I want to be able to survive any of those tricks.
and there's no Unkillable character, But from what I know, there's also a chance someone knows a good build for that.
I can look over the internet, but this is a one-shot, and I don't like one-shots because this character will live only one season, and that's it.
I want something to survive because this one-shot is related to the main campaign I play in, which he's running for us.
I've asked for some cool things like Atheist Paladin... but he disapproves.
Did you get any idea?
I also bought for him an amazing present, Adult Emerald Dragon Premium Figure...
But I still want to win this fight, along with another 5 players.

[Crake]

Hey!
I know, I know he's working on planning, preparing, and running the game.
Trust me, We're very good friends.

I mean, you say this, then also say you want to just beat everything. Are you expecting him to try and murder you all? Doesn't sound like you trust him to run a fun game.


I must get this help because...

NYPA. You have plenty of options to go for, and most builds you'll find online only go to level 20, because almost nobody plays epic, as it's just a convoluted mess.


I'm running 3 campaigns on Warcraft World 3.5 and it's not the same.
I want to be able to survive any of those tricks.

What tricks?


and there's no Unkillable character, But from what I know, there's also a chance someone knows a good build for that.

There's no unkillable character, but there's unkillable characters? I mean, the first statement is the correct one, the DM can kill you no matter what, there's a reason the saying goes "if it has stats, we can kill it".


I can look over the internet

Better get started then!


but this is a one-shot, and I don't like one-shots because this character will live only one season, and that's it.

If you don't like one-shots then... And stick with me on this, I know it might sound crazy... Just don't play?


I want something to survive because this one-shot is related to the main campaign I play in, which he's running for us.

Why are you assuming you WON'T survive? Also, sometimes a heroic death makes for a more interesting story than the expected survival of an immortal character.


I've asked for some cool things like Atheist Paladin... but he disapproves.

Probably because an atheist paladin is an oxymoron? That's not a cool idea, it makes no sense.


Did you get any idea?

You have 35 levels, and a whole internet worth of inspiration, it's not up to us to tell you what to play.


But I still want to win this fight, along with another 5 players.

Again, why are you going into this like it's you vs the DM. It's a cooperative game, and the DM is there to facilitate fun, not try and kill you.

[Doctor Despair]

Here you go:

https://forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?639455-The-Swarmshaper-a-Revised-Ikea-Terrasque

Add some levels to that.

[Maat Mons]

I feel like any DM that runs a level-35 one-shot is intending the players to come with bonkers-powerful characters. So I don’t think there’s anything unhealthy about this request. Also, what’s wrong with an atheist Paladin? It says right in the Player’s Handbook that a Paladin doesn’t need to be devoted to a deity. They just need “devotion to righteousness.”

[Crake]

I feel like any DM that runs a level-35 one-shot is intending the players to come with bonkers-powerful characters. So I don’t think there’s anything unhealthy about this request. Also, what’s wrong with an atheist Paladin? It says right in the Player’s Handbook that a Paladin doesn’t need to be devoted to a deity. They just need “devotion to righteousness.”

Atheism is the lack of belief in any higher power. In a setting where higher powers literally grant people spells, being an atheist is like being a flat earther in modern society. Also, depending on the setting, not following a god may simply not be an option looks at forgotten realms

[Maat Mons]

While Forgotten Realms is indeed punishing to those who don’t worship deities, that doesn’t have any relevance to a campaign not set in the Forgotten Realms. Furthermore, even if it were true that all divine spellcasting is granted by deities (which is not necessarily the case in every campaign setting) it would still be quite possible for a divine spellcaster to believe his power came from himself.

[Particle_Man]

I say go subtle. Young Copper Dragon with 20 levels of Beguiller. If the bad guy doesn't know who or what you are then they may not kill you. You can cling, both invisible and hidden, to a wall somewhere while an illusion of "you" pretends to "cast the spells". You can even overcome SR, which is handy.

[Metastachydium]

Okay, so you can do it the simple way or the absolutely demented way. Let's start with the latter: you just go half-copper dragon war troll arcane spellcaster 1/green star adept 10/whatever 3 for ECL 35 (12 RHD, 14 class levels, LA +9). A war troll with immunity to acid is immune to death by hit point damage via Regeneration. As a construct, this unholy abomination is also immune to death by old age, drowning, suffocation, coup de grace, massive damage, ability damage/drain (not that it has a CON score), energy drain, death and anything requiring a Fort save. There.

Or, um, a ghost. You can just do a ghost. Rejuvenation and all that.

[Wichi]

The only thing I can think of is to chose an armor with the soulfire enchantment.

and then walk 7 cleric lv with some decent prestige class, choose the feats extend spell, persistent spell (metamagic), divine metamagic (persistent).

throw at you delay death and vigor combine it with persistent metamagic and you're done.

[MutantDragon]

*Laughs in Pun-Pun*

[King of Nowhere]

I mean, you say this, then also say you want to just beat everything. Are you expecting him to try and murder you all? Doesn't sound like you trust him to run a fun game.


why not? i try to kill my pcs when i dm, and i expect the other dm will try to kill me when i'm a player. kill fairly, of course; but when i establish a scenario and stat the npc opponents, i don't pull any punches, nor would i want to; it's part of the fun in the sport.
just in the same way that when I play chess against my friends we both try our best to win, and when I play basket with friends we all try hard to win, and when I play... well, you got the concept.
playing with somebody who let you win is not fun. fun comes in the clash of wits, and this requires that the other guy is doing his best to defeat you.

admittedly, this works better for symmetric sports where everyone is in the same situation, while d&d is different in that the dm and players have different roles. and so there's quite a lot of established table practices that come to determine, for every group of players, what is fair game and what isn't. but within those agreed boundaries, I totally expect my dm to try to kill me.
and if he actually succeeds and it was a long term character I was fond of, well, that's what resurrection spells are for.


Atheism is the lack of belief in any higher power. In a setting where higher powers literally grant people spells, being an atheist is like being a flat earther in modern society. Also, depending on the setting, not following a god may simply not be an option looks at forgotten realms

i believe atheist is the wrong term in the context. more appropriate to fantasy is naytheism, where the character acknowledges the exhistance of the gods, but does not worship them. an attitude like "the gods use us as pawns in their power games and don't care about our suffering. I do, and I'll fight for this"

[Troacctid]

Take the Epic Destiny feat and you should be good to go in regards to being unkillable. As an Eternal Hero, you automatically come back to life for free after dying. It's unlimited 1up mushrooms. Works for any class of your choice. https://web.archive.org/web/20100916093852/http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Article.aspx?x=dnd/drfe/20080428

Personally, in a high epic game like this, I would build a single-class warlock, just to get the chance to use all the cool epic warlock feats. http://web.archive.org/web/20210613120456/http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd%2Fei%2F20061027a With Eldritch Sculptor and Lord of All Essences, you can probably output a lot of damage, and then with Dark Transient, Master of the Elements, Paragon Visionary, and/or Shadowmaster, you'll have a ton of other really powerful and versatile effects at your disposal.

[Crake]

why not? i try to kill my pcs when i dm, and i expect the other dm will try to kill me when i'm a player. kill fairly, of course; but when i establish a scenario and stat the npc opponents, i don't pull any punches, nor would i want to; it's part of the fun in the sport.
just in the same way that when I play chess against my friends we both try our best to win, and when I play basket with friends we all try hard to win, and when I play... well, you got the concept.
playing with somebody who let you win is not fun. fun comes in the clash of wits, and this requires that the other guy is doing his best to defeat you.

admittedly, this works better for symmetric sports where everyone is in the same situation, while d&d is different in that the dm and players have different roles. and so there's quite a lot of established table practices that come to determine, for every group of players, what is fair game and what isn't. but within those agreed boundaries, I totally expect my dm to try to kill me.
and if he actually succeeds and it was a long term character I was fond of, well, that's what resurrection spells are for.

Even in a "Combat as sport" game environment, the DM's goal shouldn't be to kill the players, it should be to provide them with a fun and engaging experience. Death should be on the table, but it shouldn't be the DM's end goal. If a player fears dying to the point that they come to an online forum in search of an "unkillable" character, then it doesn't sound too much like good sportsmanship in that regard. It's the ttrpg equivalent of going and downloading hacks for the game you and your friends are playing. Either the game becomes trivial to you, and potentially unfun for the rest of the party because of it, or the DM has to adjust, and make the game harder for everyone else.

[AvatarVecna]

Monk 35, make him feel so bad about crushing you he shifts everything easier. T0 monk gg ez

[ShurikVch]

Curst Anarchic Voidmind with Spellblades of Remove Curse, Break Enchantment, Greater Dispel Magic, and Undeath to Death
Unkillable (Ex) ensures you wouldn't stay dead - as long as you curse isn't removed, and your body isn't destroyed all at once (leaving nothing behind)
Voidmind gives immunity to acid, and Anarchic - to polymorphing effects (i. e. Disintegrate)

[Crake]

Curst Anarchic Voidmind with Spellblades of Remove Curse, Break Enchantment, Greater Dispel Magic, and Undeath to Death

Daily reminder that spellblades are a consumable enchantment, and only function a single time.

[ShurikVch]

Daily reminder that spellblades are a consumable enchantment, and only function a single time.
Just use more spellblades - Armor Spikes, Braid Blade, Boot Blade, etc

[daremetoidareyo]

Acolyte of peace on a super high charisma race, throw on some emissary of barachiel on top? You're unkillable, nigh unattackable, you have oodles of turn undeads and you can turn bad guys into good guys

[Maat Mons]

Note that Green Star Adept 10 removes your Constitution score, which prevents you from being able to benefit from Regeneration. Neither Bone Knight nor Pale Master offer quite as comprehensive a list of immunities as Green Star Adept, but they both let you keep your Constitution score, and the immunities they provide are still pretty darn good.

For something a little weirder, you could try Warforged Juggernaut. It’s normally not well-liked, because “thou shalt not sacrifice caster levels,” but a level 35 game gives you plenty of room to work with to lose a few caster levels and still get 9th-level spells. It could even be compatible with Troll Blooded, but you’d need to also have 10 levels in Renegade Mastermaker.

Since this is an Epic game, you should ask your DM if he’s allowing Epic Spellcasting, and what sort of epic spells are on the table for creation.

[Rebel7284]

Eternal Hero epic destiny has this:


Continual Resurrection: At 21st level, you gain the ability to return
from the dead. At dawn each day, if you are dead, you are
restored to life (as true resurrection). You can set a place where
you want to be resurrected. (You must be standing in that place
when you make the choice.) When you are resurrected, you can
choose to be resurrected in the place you choose or in the place
you died. You can choose a new location for your place of
resurrection once per level.


There are also a few non-epic class features that can return from the dead after a while. Telflamar Shadowlord, Jade Phoenix Mage, and Sand Shaper have similar abilities.

So becoming unkillable isn't that big of a deal, the bigger problem is becoming immune to all the ways of disposing of you without killing you. Trap the soul, Imprisonment, being held in a coma in a dead magic zone, etc.

[Beni-Kujaku]

Eternal Hero epic destiny has this:

"Find the secret place where the BBEG keeps resurrecting then encase it in force and drown it in lava so that killing them will just bring them back to an eternal doom" seems like the correct way to end a campaign, while still leaving the possibility for later campaigns to have any kind of evil cult drain the lava and have the BBEG rise litterally from their own ashes, rendered mad in all meanings of the word by hundreds of years of continuous resurrections and immediate death by burning.

[Troacctid]

"Find the secret place where the BBEG keeps resurrecting then encase it in force and drown it in lava so that killing them will just bring them back to an eternal doom" seems like the correct way to end a campaign, while still leaving the possibility for later campaigns to have any kind of evil cult drain the lava and have the BBEG rise litterally from their own ashes, rendered mad in all meanings of the word by hundreds of years of continuous resurrections and immediate death by burning.
If you correctly chose limited wish as your arcane spell, this shouldn't be an issue. Just use it to teleport away and set a new respawn point.

[Batcathat]

"Find the secret place where the BBEG keeps resurrecting then encase it in force and drown it in lava so that killing them will just bring them back to an eternal doom" seems like the correct way to end a campaign, while still leaving the possibility for later campaigns to have any kind of evil cult drain the lava and have the BBEG rise litterally from their own ashes, rendered mad in all meanings of the word by hundreds of years of continuous resurrections and immediate death by burning.

This reminds me of an early Minecraft game where I managed to flood my respawn point with lava. I think that might mean I'm my own big bad. :smalltongue:

[King of Nowhere]

Even in a "Combat as sport" game environment, the DM's goal shouldn't be to kill the players, it should be to provide them with a fun and engaging experience. Death should be on the table, but it shouldn't be the DM's end goal. If a player fears dying to the point that they come to an online forum in search of an "unkillable" character, then it doesn't sound too much like good sportsmanship in that regard. It's the ttrpg equivalent of going and downloading hacks for the game you and your friends are playing. Either the game becomes trivial to you, and potentially unfun for the rest of the party because of it, or the DM has to adjust, and make the game harder for everyone else.

Ok, i guess we are just reading the op differently. My take was that he just wanted a tanky build to survive hard encounters, while you read him more literally as trying to break the game.

[Crake]

Ok, i guess we are just reading the op differently. My take was that he just wanted a tanky build to survive hard encounters, while you read him more literally as trying to break the game.

I mean, he said it pretty plain and clear, he wants a build that cannot die, and that can destroy anything the DM might throw at him. Sounds like he's trying to engage in rocket tag, and I know I personally wouldn't be very interested in playing at a table where one of the characters was just playing on easy mode.

[Gavinfoxx]

Atheism doesn't make sense in a D&D setting.

You want Misotheism or Dystheism instead.

[Doctor Despair]

Atheism doesn't make sense in a D&D setting.

You want Misotheism or Dystheism instead.

Reminds me of a Pratchett quote about how a character (Vimes?) will begrudgingly concede that the gods exist, but that it doesn't do to go about believing in them

[Batcathat]

Reminds me of a Pratchett quote about how a character (Vimes?) will begrudgingly concede that the gods exist, but that it doesn't do to go about believing in them

Discworld also has an example of an outspoken atheist in a world with fairly active (and trigger-happy, but fortunately he's lightning-proof) gods, though someone like Dorfl would admittedly probably work less well in a more serious setting.

[Metastachydium]

Note that Green Star Adept 10 removes your Constitution score, which prevents you from being able to benefit from Regeneration. Neither Bone Knight nor Pale Master offer quite as comprehensive a list of immunities as Green Star Adept, but they both let you keep your Constitution score, and the immunities they provide are still pretty darn good.

Hrm. Voidmind Troll arcane caster 5/elemental savant 10? That's just ECL 29, so it leaves room for 6 levels of stuff. Not immune to death effects and Fort save stuff, but otherwise it gets the whole package (plus three meddlesome illithids to worry about, but hey, they can't kill the damn thing either!).

[King of Nowhere]

I mean, he said it pretty plain and clear, he wants a build that cannot die, and that can destroy anything the DM might throw at him. Sounds like he's trying to engage in rocket tag, and I know I personally wouldn't be very interested in playing at a table where one of the characters was just playing on easy mode.

on the other hand, the fact that this is a one-shot at level 35 make me think it will be more of a joke character to show off once, rather than something meant to derail a campaign or break the power level of the table.

of course, i may be inferring too much from a partial context

[Anthrowhale]

This isn't unkillable, but it is a fine puzzle for most.


Be an Initiate of Mystra. This is most easily done via levels in Cleric although Favored Soul or Archivist + Hathran can work.
Create a dead magic (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm#deadMagic) static (https://www.d20srd.org/srd/planes.htm#static) plane via the Genesis spell.
Cast Pact of Return [suicide] to work in a Dead Magic zone and plane shift to the plane.
Suicide and free resurrection yourself. As a precast effect Pact of Return explicitly works. As a creature whose life starts on the plane, you are now a living resident.
Cast Planar Bubble to keep yourself effectively on/in the dead magic static plane, then plane shift wherever you want to go.

At this point,

...Visitors cannot affect living residents of the plane, nor objects that the denizens possess. Any spells that would affect those on the plane have no effect... and dispelling or suppressing the planer bubble is not easy given the dead magic trait.

[Quertus]

Huh. Despite all the attention the thread has gotten, I’ve not seen much close to what I was going to suggest: Lich (for immunities and auto-recovery) using Astral Projection (so who cares what happens to what you’re projecting) with phylactery on a fast Time plane (so you come back in 1-10 rounds instead of 1-10 days if something does somehow get you).

Use Reserves of Strength to uncap things with dice, so you’re actually dealing level-appropriate damage (even if you do also damage yourself), able to Dispel level-appropriate effects, etc.

Get Epic Spells (get with group wrt what is appropriate here, but the ability to Resurrect others seems appropriate for a “survivor” build).

Spend the other 9 Epic feats to get enough free actions to buff the party with Quickened spells, and auto-Quicken as many levels of spells as you can (up to 5th, iirc). Or use those other actions for attacks or BFC.

Or spend those Epic feats on metamagic reduction and extra Spell slots. Hide with Extended Persistent Improved Invisibility, use illusions, throw your Twinned Repeating Disintegrate (or whatever).


Daily reminder that spellblades are a consumable enchantment, and only function a single time.

What?! Ouch. I guess that’s a change from 2e that I missed.

[Metastachydium]

Huh. Despite all the attention the thread has gotten, I’ve not seen much close to what I was going to suggest: Lich

If all you want is to be very definitely immune to death and destruction, ghost is strictly better. Rejuvenation easily beats the phylactery method.

[ShurikVch]

Daily reminder that spellblades are a consumable enchantment, and only function a single time.
Now, when I re-checking it - where it said so?

[Quertus]

If all you want is to be very definitely immune to death and destruction, ghost is strictly better. Rejuvenation easily beats the phylactery method.

Huh. Most of my objections are moot: with Astral Protection, the Lich will be warded out of about as many areas as the ghost; at level 35, the extra 3 levels don’t mean as much (2 Epic fears vs 1-2 lost Spell levels). Yeah, I guess ghost is an equivalent suggestion.

[Dynneroth]

*Laughs in Pun-Pun*

I was waiting for this comment. Pun-Pun is RAW-legal and broken. DM will probably nope it right out the door.

[Crake]

Now, when I re-checking it - where it said so?

The description of spellblade specifies “the next time you are targeted by the spell”, not each time, not every time, not whenever, only the next time.

[ShurikVch]

The description of spellblade specifies “the next time you are targeted by the spell”, not each time, not every time, not whenever, only the next time.
Let me quote from the old argument about the subject:

"The next time" applies to the next spell you're subjected to, yes.

But let's say you're subjected to that spell, and it basically bounces off. You're still holding the weapon, which still has the spellblade enhancement (not enchantment; it's not mind-affecting), which means the next time you're subjected to the spell after subjected to it the first time, it bounces off again. And you're still holding the weapon, which still has the spellblade enhancement, so the next time you're subjected to the spell, it bounces off. Again. And again. And again.

There's really no way to parse the enhancement text to justify it running out or being a one-time use effect, or whatever.

Also, Is the spellblade weapon property permanent? (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/129308/is-the-spellblade-weapon-property-permanent) - while the OP question originated from Italian translation, plenty of participants agreed the English text in PGF is written really badly, and it's completely possible to rule it any way, but to rule it as 1-time:
1) is completely against how it was in all the previous editions (including 3.0!)
2) would be the only of weapon special abilities which can actually disappear after the use - without even mentioning "charges used" or something like that

[Crake]

Let me quote from the old argument about the subject:


Also, Is the spellblade weapon property permanent? (https://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/129308/is-the-spellblade-weapon-property-permanent) - while the OP question originated from Italian translation, plenty of participants agreed the English text in PGF is written really badly, and it's completely possible to rule it any way, but to rule it as 1-time:
1) is completely against how it was in all the previous editions (including 3.0!)
2) would be the only of weapon special abilities which can actually disappear after the use - without even mentioning "charges used" or something like that

*Shrug* Seems like a weird addition to the description from magic of faerun to players guide, seems like they nerfed it to me. If it wasnt an intentional change, then why would they add that word to the description which is otherwise left verbatim?

[EdenNotRaven]

Okay, so you can do it the simple way or the absolutely demented way. Let's start with the latter: you just go half-copper dragon war troll arcane spellcaster 1/green star adept 10/whatever 3 for ECL 35 (12 RHD, 14 class levels, LA +9). A war troll with immunity to acid is immune to death by hit point damage via Regeneration. As a construct, this unholy abomination is also immune to death by old age, drowning, suffocation, coup de grace, massive damage, ability damage/drain (not that it has a CON score), energy drain, death and anything requiring a Fort save. There.

Or, um, a ghost. You can just do a ghost. Rejuvenation and all that.

Amazing,
Thank you.

Best regards,
Eden

[ShurikVch]

One more variant: play as anarchic animated riverine armor Entropomancer:
You are completely physically invulnerable;
Being a Construct, you're immune to various nasty stuff (death effects, poisons, necromancy, etc);
Anarchic protects you from being Disintegrated;
Entropomancer capstone prevents from being hit by the Sphere of Annihilation.
Thus, the only thing which can affect you at all is the Rod of Cancellation - thus, stay out of melee (and invest in miss chances - just in case)

[Beni-Kujaku]

One more variant: play as anarchic animated riverine armor Entropomancer:
You are completely physically invulnerable;
Being a Construct, you're immune to various nasty stuff (death effects, poisons, necromancy, etc);
Anarchic protects you from being Disintegrated;
Entropomancer capstone prevents from being hit by the Sphere of Annihilation.
Thus, the only thing which can affect you at all is the Rod of Cancellation - thus, stay out of melee (and invest in miss chances - just in case)

Does immunity to polymorph work against Disintegrate? Or does it only work against the "if it reduces you to 0HP" part of Disintegrate, which isn't referenced by the weakness of riverine to disintegration? Also, Anarchic doesn't apply to constructs. And since the only template that applies to constructs that changes its type is Incarnate Construct, you're kinda out of luck. I guess you could be ... No, I really don't have anything to make that work. As far as I know, no Construct-legal template or spell gives immunity to polymorph.

[ShurikVch]

Does immunity to polymorph work against Disintegrate? Or does it only work against the "if it reduces you to 0HP" part of Disintegrate, which isn't referenced by the weakness of riverine to disintegration? Also, Anarchic doesn't apply to constructs. And since the only template that applies to constructs that changes its type is Incarnate Construct, you're kinda out of luck. I guess you could be ... No, I really don't have anything to make that work. As far as I know, no Construct-legal template or spell gives immunity to polymorph.
I think it's still possible to slap Anarchic on a Construct, but otherwise - all good points

So, then - Amulet of Inviolate Form, and Proof Against Transmutation?