Junkyard Wars XLIII - Natural Weapons + Spellcasting - Druid

[pabelfly]

A. Jade

Spoiler: Story

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"Miss Green? We're going to need you to come with us."

The six man-strong guard patrol stood tensely in line, weapons at the ready. None of them had spoken: that had been the newly-appointed witchfinder, dressed in his plain black suit with golden sash, unarmed but for the cane that Anna knew contained a hidden blade.

The jaebrin comfortably leaned back in the very best chair the inn had to offer, showing no inclination to obey the order given. She reached for her half-empty mug of ale, tossed most of it back, and only then deigned to glance over her shoulder.

"Whatsh the matter, offisherses?" lisped the wildly grinning woman as she reclined a little further. Her clothes were a wild motley of greens and orange, decorated with rainbow-colored gemstone brooches, sewn-on pockets, and medals she almost certainly hadn't earned herself. At the sight of her smile, the closest soldiers took a step back: her teeth were decidedly nonhuman, almost needle-like. Anna just knew that images of exsanguinated corpses were already playing through their minds.

"This isn't the time to play dumb, miss. You may conduct yourself as a hedonistic fool, but the city guard can no longer avoid the obvious truth: you are the vampire that has been plaguing this town for the past months. Your killing spree is over: come quietly and we'll make the staking quick and painless."

"Oh? And what makesh you think it'sh me?"

"There's the matter of your teeth, for one. But in addition, several citizens have come forward and accused you of bewitching them, you've repeatedly gone out at night despite the ongoing danger, and you have repeatedly spoken of events in the distant past as if you were present there. Do you have anything to say in your defense before you're taken in?"

By way of response, Anna called out to the bartender for another drink. Her addressee pointedly ignored her, instead choosing to redouble his ongoing efforts to banish every last spot from an already-clean glass. The witchfinder gave a curt nod, and one guard stepped forward and firmly put his hand on Anna's shoulder.

She spun around, eyes wild, mouth spread open impossibly far, pointed teeth shining white, and bit down on the hand. The tough leather glove was no impediment, as evidenced by the guard's cry, and the other soldiers jumped to action. Anna herself was already launching herself out of her chair, shouting strange syllables as she did so, and took cover below a nearby table.

The guards fell into position, only for the one that'd been bitten to let out a cry and jump-tackle his nearest companion, sending the pair crashing into a third soldier and throwing the formation in disarray. Seconds later, Anna vaulted over the table, sped past the prone guards, and leapt straight towards the witchfinder, impossibly bright fire flaring around her teeth as she did so. The wide-eyed man fumbled with his cane; too little, too late. Already, Anna's teeth clamped down on his unprotected neck. With a savage twist of her head, she ripped out a sizeable chunk of meat, staining her mottled cloak with a spray of warm, red... nothing?

The witchfinder, an unreadable expression on his face, finally pulled the sword from his cane. The gaping wound in his neck, which did not seem to hamper him in the slightest, slowly began to knit itself back together, and the guards turned in slow, dawning realization. Anna smiled smugly and spit out the ragged chunk of flesh - it was pale, dry, and stiff, not like the bodies of the living at all. She quickly flicked her head towards the dumbfounded guards.

"Hey guyshes, sorry about that trick there, have a free bit of advice to make up for it: you shtay back and let me handle him!"

With a roar, the vampire leapt forward; Anna laughed uproariously, sidestepped the first blow, twisted past another, slipped past the undead's defense with a quick feint, and bit down through his suit. Flames burst from the wound, and the vampire slid back with narrowed eyes, bruised but hardly beaten. Anna stuck out her tongue.

It was going to be a tough battle, but who cared? Fighting was dangerous, dirty, thankless work, but she'd be damned if it wasn't fun.

Spoiler: Discussion

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Natural weapons and casting? Sounds like the perfect time to pull out MMV's Jaebrin; human-sized fey with ridiculous personalities, a +1 luck bonus to AC, complete immunity to a very nasty school of magic, several neat skill bonuses, and a natural bite attack that applies a -4 penalty to Will.

(also, beguiler as a favored class)

...of course, having a bite and being a good user of it are two different things. The Will debuff only applies if the target fails a Will save in the first place, so unless you're really worried about conserving spell slots, you don't gain much from including the bite in your routine... normally, that is.

Maneuvers and JPM to the rescue! Not only can we now easily bite multiple foes a round (and then follow up with a save-or-lose targeting whoever failed the save to resist), we eventually get an 1/encounter free quickened spell to follow up on our maneuvers. Plus, swordsage into JPM doesn't need to worry about base damage or iteratives much, making our bite a very viable primary weapon.

Spoiler: Abilities

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Pointbuy: 12 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis, 10 cha
Racial: 10 str, 16 dex, 14 con, 16 int, 8 wis, 12 cha
ASIs: 4 and 8 into intelligence, 12 and 16 into dexterity

Spoiler: Build Table

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CG Jaebrin Beguiler 7 / Swordsage 1 / Jade Phoenix Mage 10 / Paragnostic Apostle 1

Level	Class	Base Attack Bonus	Fort Save	Ref Save	Will Save	Skills	Feats	Class Features
2nd	Beguiler 1	+0	+0	+0	+2	36: Bluff +4 (4), Concentration +4 (4), Disable Device +4 (4), Knowledge (Arc) +4 (4), Knowledge (History) +2 (2), Knowledge (Religion) +4 (4), Knowledge (The Planes) +2 (2), Search +4 (4), Tumble +4 (4), UMD +4 (4)	Education (Arcana, the Planes)	Armored Mage, Spellcasting, Trapfinding
3rd	Beguiler 2	+1	+0	+0	+3	9: Bluff +1 (5), Concentration +1 (5), Disable Device +1 (5), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (5), Knowledge (History) 2, (2) Knowledge (Religion) +1 (5), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (3), Search +1 (5), Tumble +1 (5), UMD +1 (5)	-	Cloaked Casting (+1 DC), Surprise Casting
4th	Beguiler 3	+1	+1	+1	+3	9: Bluff +1 (6), Concentration +1 (6), Disable Device +1 (6), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (6), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (6), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (4), Search +1 (6), Tumble +1 (6), UMD +1 (6)	Versatile Spellcaster	Advanced Learning (Net of Shadows)
5th	Beguiler 4	+2	+1	+1	+4	9: Bluff +1 (7), Concentration +1 (7), Disable Device +1 (7), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (7), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (7), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (5), Search +1 (7), Tumble +1 (7), UMD +1 (7)	-	Clever Wording (Dead Levels)
6th	Beguiler 5	+2	+1	+1	+4	9: Bluff +1 (8), Concentration +1 (8), Disable Device +1 (8), Knowledge (Arc) +1 (8), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (8), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (6), Search +1 (8), Tumble +1 (8), UMD +1 (8)	Silent Spell	Silent Spell
7th	Swordsage 1	+2	+1	+3	+6	9: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (9), Disable Device +2cc (9), Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (9), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) +1 (9), Knowledge (Planes) +1 (7), Search +2cc (9), Tumble +1 (9), UMD 8	Weapon Finesse	Quick To Act +1, Discipline Focus (Diamond Mind)
8th	Jade Phoenix Mage 1	+3	+3	+3	+6	5: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (10), Diplomacy +2 (2), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (8), Search 9, Tumble +1 (10), UMD 8	-	Arcane Wrath, Rite of Waking
9th	Jade Phoenix Mage 2	+4	+4	+3	+6	6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (11), Diplomacy +3 (5), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (9), Search 9, Tumble +1 (11), UMD 8	-	Mystic Phoenix Stance
10th	Jade Phoenix Mage 3	+5	+4	+4	+7	6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (12), Diplomacy +2 (7), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) 9, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 9, Search 9, Tumble +1 (12), UMD 8, Collector of Stories	Knowledge Devotion	-
11th	Jade Phoenix Mage 4	+6	+5	+4	+7	6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (13), Diplomacy +2 (9), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (10), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (10), Search 9, Tumble +1 (13), UMD 8	-	Empowering Strike
12th	Jade Phoenix Mage 5	+7	+5	+4	+7	6: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (14), Diplomacy +2 (11), Disable Device 9, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (11), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (11), Search 9, Tumble +1 (14), UMD 8	-	-
13th	Beguiler 6	+8	+6	+5	+8	10: Bluff 8, Concentration +1 (15), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device +5 (14), Knowledge (Arcana) 11, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 11, Search +1 (10), Tumble +1 (15), UMD +2 (10)	Ability Focus (Will Sapper)	Surprise Casting (Move Action)
14th	Jade Phoenix Mage 6	+9	+7	+6	+9	6: Bluff +2cc (9), Concentration +1 (16), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (12), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (12), Search 10, Tumble +1 (16), UMD 10	-	Firebird Stance, Jade Phoenix Master
15th	Jade Phoenix Mage 7	+10	+7	+6	+9	6: Bluff +2cc (10), Concentration +1 (17), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (13), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (13), Search 10, Tumble +1 (17), UMD 10	-	-
16th	Jade Phoenix Mage 8	+11	+8	+6	+9	6: Bluff +2cc (11), Concentration +1 (18), Diplomacy 11, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +1 (14), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +1 (14), Search 10, Tumble +1 (18), UMD 10	Spell Focus (Enchantment)	Quickening Strike
17th	Jade Phoenix Mage 9	+12	+8	+7	+10	6: Bluff +2cc (12), Concentration +1 (19), Diplomacy +2 (13), Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 14, Search 10, Tumble +1 (19), UMD 10	-	-
18th	Jade Phoenix Mage 10	+13	+9	+7	+10	6: Bluff +2cc (13), Concentration +1 (20), Diplomacy +3 (16), Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) 14, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 14, Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD 10	-	Emerald Immolation
19th	Paragnostic Apostle 1	+13	+9	+7	+12	8: Bluff +2cc (14), Concentration +1 (21), Diplomacy 16, Disable Device 14, Knowledge (Arcana) +3 (17), Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) +3 (17), Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD 10	Unsettling Enchantment	Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power (Backhanded Attack), Lore
20th	Beguiler 7	+13	+9	+7	+12	10: Bluff 14, Concentration +1 (22), Diplomacy 16, Disable Device +8 (22), Knowledge (Arcana) 17, Knowledge (History) 2, Knowledge (Religion) 9, Knowledge (Planes) 17, Search 10, Tumble 19, UMD +1 (11)	-	Advanced Learning (Maddening Whispers)

Spoiler: Casting and Maneuvers

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Casting:
Spells per Day/Spells Known

Level	0lvl	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th
2nd	5	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
3rd	6	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
4th	6	6	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
5th	6	7	4	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
6th	6	7	5	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
9th	6	7	6	4	-	-	-	-	-	-
10th	6	7	7	5	-	-	-	-	-	-
11th	6	7	7	6	4	-	-	-	-	-
12th	6	7	7	7	5	-	-	-	-	-
13th	6	7	7	7	6	3	-	-	-	-
15th	6	7	7	7	7	4	-	-	-	-
16th	6	7	7	7	7	5	3	-	-	-
17th	6	7	7	7	7	6	4	-	-	-
18th	6	7	7	7	7	6	5	3	-	-
19th	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	4	-	-
20th	6	7	7	7	7	6	6	5	3	-

Maneuvers known:
7: Action Before Thought, Burning Blade, Cloak of Deception, Emerald Razor, Moment of Perfect Mind, Mountain Hammer
8: Flashing Sun
10: Crusader's Strike
12: Searing Charge
15: Radiant Charge
17: Desert Tempest

Stances:
7: Flame's Blessing
12: Thicket of Blades

Maneuvers Readied:
7: 4
10: 5
14: 6
17: 7

Typical readied maneuvers (level 17+): Action Before Thought, Cloak of Deception, Desert Tempest, Emerald Razor, Moment of Perfect Mind, Searing Charge, Radiant Charge

Spoiler: Spotlights

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ECL 5
You're a beguiler with Versatile Spellcasting: enjoy spells like Glitterdust and Color Spray while they're at their strongest, cast utility spells, find traps, use your racial Bluff/Diplomacy bonuses to navigate social situations. Any enchantments we cast have +1 to their save DC as well, courtesy of jaebrin; most other racial traits I already mentioned earlier.

Net of Shadows is a pretty nasty debuff that hampers the vision of multiple foes for multiple rounds, and in a pinch it can be used to enable a stealthy party member or slap some quick miss chances on your allies.

ECL 10
With a swordsage dip and our entry in Jade Phoenix Mage, we're ready to venture into melee a bit more. Our damage largely derives from maneuvers and Arcane Strike, which don't care much about the weapon used to deliver them, so in spite of our weak base damage we're keeping up very well with other JPMs! Though we're not doing anything insane quite yet, we are mitigating the beguiler's infamous inefficacy against anything with high SR or immunity to mind-affecting effects.

(and speaking of direct damage, we also just got Knowledge Devotion and can roll pretty well against most common enemies, especially with JPM's Rite of Waking bonus)

The maneuvers themselves are pretty cool too: getting to apply our maxed-because-caster Concentration to our saves is quite nice, as are invisibility, free touch attacks, lockpicking, and Burning Blade with its scaling fire damage. Flashing Sun notably lets us make two bite attacks in one round, distributing Will drops faster and more reliably than we otherwise could, and Flame's Blessing grants scaling resistance to the most common energy type.

Now, sceptical readers might ask whether we really want to be using our 1d3 bite for all that. And the answer is yes, we actually do.

Like nearly all swordsages, we're a finesse-based fighter, so our best alternative is something like a rapier. A rapier deals 1d6 and gets Weapon Focus, so +1 to hit and +1.5 more damage per hit. However, consider that we're a gish without darkvision or in-class light spells: we'll need one hand to cast spells and one to hold a light source, leaving no room for a weapon. Fighting with our teeth would make sense even if we didn't have Will Sapper: but we do, so it's unquestionably superior.

On top of all that, our bite is a natural weapon, so we can pre-cast a touch spell (like Touch of Idiocy, or at higher levels Overwhelm), hold the charge, and get the effect for free the first time we hit someone in battle. I'll gladly take a slight nerf to my damage if it lets me rob Bob Cleric of his highest-level slots!

ECL 15
If we find ourselves with a spare move action (and initiators commonly do), we now get to use our not-insignificant jaebrin-boosted Bluff to make a feint attempt, possibly getting some extra to-hit out of the bargain. Feinting was always one of the more awkward parts of the beguiler to me, and getting to actually use it in a fitting context is really exciting! Our Search gets boosted to the point where we can detect 9th-level magic traps as long as we take 20, which are the highest DCs listed in the PHB.

Thicket of Blades might be a bit of a weird stance to see on an arcane skillmonkey, but we're really just getting it because anything that gives more bite attacks is good, and we have the illusions to make ourselves too risky a target to attack. Besides, it's not like we have all too many stances to pick from, and fire resistance (soon to be immunity) won't always be useful.

Empower is a bit of an awkward metamagic to get for free on a beguiler, but we make decent use of it. Touch of Idiocy appreciates having its impact boosted, Net of Shadows gets a bit more reliable with its duration lengthened, the Whelm line becomes somewhat less bad. Note that if you finish an encounter without much need for post-combat healing, you can save the ability for the last round of combat, cast an Empowered Touch of Idiocy, and hold the charge all the way until your first bite attack during the next encounter.

ECL 20
We delay the final beguiler level to get our second Advanced Learning as we get 8th-level spells, granting us access to Maddening Whispers (SComp), a very powerful multi-target save-or-lose with some flexibility in how our foes lose on top of that. It works great as a follow-up to a flurry of bites, in addition to benefitting from our new Spell Focus and Unsettling Enchantment (which adds a notable debuff to all our enchantment spells whether they succeed or not). The Enchantment half of the beguiler list was always the one we were more incentivized to deploy, and especially at higher levels we're comfortable specializing in it.

We can now deal a ton of damage with Radiant Charge against evil targets (like the fiends that are prevalent at high level, plus nearly all undead), or soften up an entire battlefield's Will saves by using Desert Tempest to bite as many foes as we can move past (possibly dropping an Overwhelm or Touch of Idiocy on the first of those). Immediate after, we use the free 1/encounter Quicken granted by Jade Phoenix Mage to drop a swift action Dominate Person, Feeblemind, or Friend to Foe.

The JPM capstone is as awesome as it ever is, and helps compensate for our relative frailty: if we ever get really close to death, just explode, take some foes with you, and reappear a few rounds later. Paragnostic Apostle, one level later, grants Lore and a +1 to every save DC against a secondary effect of our attack... like every single Will Sapper bite, which is now up to DC 24 before items. Assuming modest ability-boosting equipment, even high-level high-will foes struggle to reliably make that, and once they fail, we're off to the races.

We also max out Disable Device, letting us take 20 with a masterwork tool and avoid mishaps on any PHB trap (aside from 9th-level magic traps, and any intelligence or skill boost takes care of those too).

Spoiler: Epilogue

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"And so, Anna slew that vampire, and went on to fight many other mighty foes before her eventual death in battle... but that's a story for another time. Now, as I recall, some of you have schoolwork to do: isn't Magister Pedro's Phytology exam tomorrow? And though my memory might worsen with age, I also recall a certain old killjoy assigning you kids a ten-page essay on the fall of the Lomenian Empire..."

The pupils slunk away, grumbling at their sorry fates, leaving the wizened old storyteller alone with his wall-spanning bookshelves and ornately carved desk. He drew a pen from the folds of his garish purple robe ready to jot down some comments in the margins of a tome, when a small voice came from the door; a lingering young student, tone betraying insecurity and embarassment.

"Magister? I have a question."

The old man smiled kindly and made a little 'go on, then' gesture.

"That story... was that real? Like... I know there was a vampire plague in Brenport in the 840s, but that was nine hundred years ago and half a continent away, and there were a lot of little details in your telling. Did someone write this down, or did we use magic to figure out what happened exactly?"

The magister scratched his beard while composing his answer, then at last spoke in a soft, restrained voice:

"Ah, no. Historians simply love to make up little stories like this; it helps bring those bygone ages to life, makes it a bit more memorable than some dry tables of dates in your textbook. Magic doesn't easily look back that far, and we certainly don't have many surviving books or letters from that period."

The child nodded and left, satisfied with the explanation, and closed the door.

And inside, Magister Andrei returned to his book, smiling with pointed teeth.

Spoiler: Sources

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Jaebrin - MMV
Beguiler - PHBII (dead level)
Swordsage and Jade Phoenix Mage - ToB
Paragnostic Apostle - CChamp

Education - ECS
Versatile Spellcaster - RotD
Unsettling Enchantment - CMage