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ocato
2008-08-29, 09:03 PM
So, I'm working on this idea for a character who is effectively a master of death and destruction-- a knight in blackened scary armor. What that boils down to is a character capable of the following main points:

-Melee Powerhousing
-Poison/debuffing enemies
-Self buffing/mild to moderate unkillableness
-Area spells (including "if you get into melee with me, X is going to happen every round")
-Heath gain/healing, preferably at the expense of his enemies

What I've drummed up is a Cleric of Wee Jas (Death/Magic)/Ruby Knight Vindicator. Grab Snap kick(and imp unarmed/superior unarmed) for throwing touch debuffs (Curses, diseases, etc) and hurts (inflicts) in with Maneuvers, use 2 feats to get into RKV, and come out with a decent (not epic) spread of martial and 9th level cleric spells. Sprinkle in the right selection of cleric spells for most of what I'm looking for magically without any pesky ASF.

My main questions are about ways to drain life from my enemies. It occurs to me that as a RKV I can use stances/maneuvers that deal damage and heal me, and that as a cleric I can just heal myself, but I was wondering what my options for direct life leech are? So far the only thing that really pops into my head is Profane Life Leech, and that's A) going to cost a turn/rebuke attempt, (which may be scarce) and B) really only going to make a difference if I'm fighting a swarm (not to mention it can't kill or even disable my foe(s), setting me up for Consumptive field, it just skims off the top). Any thoughts on how to drink my enemy's life (or anything else on the build, spell combos or whatever that I may not've considered) would be greatly appreciated.

Arbitrarity
2008-08-29, 09:07 PM
Vampiric Touch, if you can find it somehow.

Actually, if you have psionics, psychic warrior sounds perfect for that sort of thing. Hostile Empathic Transfer is the epitome of "heals me, harms you", and a variety of mobility, buff, and other powers are quite potent. Vigor, for example, is awesome for tanking. However, you lack "damage for standing near".

ocato
2008-08-29, 09:11 PM
I just remembered that as a Cleric with the magic domain, I have access to scrolls/wands/staves of wizard spells. at Cleric 10/RKV 10 (probably not in that order mind you) that means L5 wizarding scrolls, or 3rd level spells... maybe I'll check the other domains again...

Jack_Simth
2008-08-29, 09:16 PM
My main questions are about ways to drain life from my enemies. It occurs to me that as a RKV I can use stances/maneuvers that deal damage and heal me, and that as a cleric I can just heal myself, but I was wondering what my options for direct life leech are?
Vampric weapon property, Magic item compendium; +2 equivalent. Deals an extra 1d6 damage on every hit vs. living targets, and heals you by that amount.

Goes well (if annoying to DM's in certain thought-patterns) with the Elemental Summoning Reserve Feat (so you always have living targets to hit out of battle, for infinite non-combat healing).

Sstoopidtallkid
2008-08-29, 09:17 PM
Vampric weapon property, Magic item compendium; +2 equivalent. Deals an extra 1d6 damage on every hit vs. living targets, and heals you by that amount.

Goes well (if annoying to DM's in certain thought-patterns) with the Elemental Summoning Reserve Feat (so you always have living targets to hit out of battle, for infinite non-combat healing).It also works with the Merciful enhancement, I think. Not sure, but would be humorous fluff.

Winged One
2008-08-29, 09:21 PM
It takes no great stretch of the imagination to flavor the Devoted Spirit healing maneuvers as stealing life from the enemy.

Occasional Sage
2008-08-29, 09:39 PM
As a caster and melee beast, enchant your weapon with Death Knell (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/deathKnell.htm) as a touch-activated ability. You gain HP, strength, and a caster level for every foe you cut down (although they get a save).

Since I was looking at the book recently, see if you can talk your DM into allowing you a weapon enchantment out of Magic of Rokugan, a 3.0 OA splatbook. It's called Bloodthirsty: you inflict one negative level every time you hit (in addition to normal damage), which grants you 5 temporary HP. It's a +4 adjustment.

It's also uber-broken stinky cheese and has a creator requirement that is setting specific. If your DM isn't thinking too hard he might waive that, or change it in a way that lets you get the enchantment generically. Good luck!

ocato
2008-08-29, 10:32 PM
It takes no great stretch of the imagination to flavor the Devoted Spirit healing maneuvers as stealing life from the enemy.

This is both true and my effective Plan B.

Siegel
2008-08-30, 01:09 AM
LEvel in Blackguard could help too

Douglas
2008-08-30, 01:27 AM
Enemies and Allies page 20 has the most broken weapon enhancement ever for this purpose. Wrathful Healing heals you for half the damage you deal every time you hit someone - for only a +3 cost. Shock Trooper Frenzied Berzerker getting hit after he charges because his AC is negative? Hit back with Karmic Strike for 150+ damage and 75+ healing to both turn the fool into paste and completely eliminate his damage.

Jack_Simth
2008-08-30, 09:11 AM
Enemies and Allies page 20 has the most broken weapon enhancement ever for this purpose. Wrathful Healing heals you for half the damage you deal every time you hit someone - for only a +3 cost. Shock Trooper Frenzied Berzerker getting hit after he charges because his AC is negative? Hit back with Karmic Strike for 150+ damage and 75+ healing to both turn the fool into paste and completely eliminate his damage.
Thanks for specifying the page - sidebars don't generally show up in either the index nor the table of contents.

As for it being broken - it's mostly only overpowered when combined with ubercharger builds like the one you mentioned - which, incidentally, is using, what, three or four different non-core books? If you're limited to the weapon in question + core, it's maybe a bit on the strong side, but not broken. It's when you're mixing with multiple sources that it gets overly strong - and even at that, it just cheapens healing.