[3.5] Revisiting a silly build: The Runner

[overduegalaxy]

Not too long ago I made a topic about trying to throw a build together for an Eberron campaign that was essentially a freerunner, inspired by Zenos's Parkour feat. I eventually got a build put together, but was never really satisfied. It felt clunky and awkwardly put together, since I was grabbing levels in different classes and swapping out class features left and right. The final build was Lion Spirit Totem Barbarian 1/Dungeon Specialist Scout 3/Urban Ranger 3 (with a handful of class features swapped out from the Cityscape Web Enhancement).

So, I'm here looking for a more finessed build. Something that feels like it works well together (and, ideally, does work well together), doesn't require a bunch of levels in a bunch of different classes (although some MCing is alright, as are PrCs), and achieves the build goal of being an extremely dexterous, mobile fighter who can get past just about any obstacle without even thinking about beginning to break a sweat.

I plan on putting this into whatever 3.5 game I end up in next (that it'll make sense in), so I don't have any particular level in mind currently. All official books are allowed EXCEPT the Tomes. I don't care how good a swordsage could achieve my build goal, or how perfect it would be, our group doesn't use Tome of Battle. No, I won't be able to convince my DM to let me do it. No, I don't want to discuss how this is unfairly impeding melee characters. So don't even mention it. Also, no homebrew classes or PrCs (but feats are okay, luckily!).

Now that that's out of the way...actually, I guess that's everything.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

First off, get your DM drunk and talk him into Swordsage. Maybe threaten his loved ones or something. Failing that, I think you could accomplish it with a straight scout. Just focus on the speed boosts, max Jump, Tumble, et al, maybe dip a level of Barb for Pounce, and just make full use of your skills, skill tricks, and never sit still. At low levels you're fine, it's when you get higher that Fly kills you and takes your stuff.

As a 3rd alternative, PsyWar could be used for a martial-feel on a very mobile, adaptive, base. Just think of it as Monk-esque 'inner power' rather than magic.

[Tyrmatt]

I'll watch this concept with interest, largely because after reading the 4th Edition Monk playtests, the concept of highly mobile, high flyin' daredevillin' character greatly appeals to me.

[Hat-Trick]

Monk or Scout for speed and head into Thief-Acrobat? Lots of skill tricks via Rogue?

[Sinfire Titan]

Duskling Totemist X with the Sapphire Sprint feat. Say hello to a base land speed of 140ft, and more claws than your body has room for.

Move through urban terrain? Try any terrain that isn't covered by a Force effect or the stuff from Dungeonscape that prevents ghosts from entering the wall. Phase Cloak+Whatever soulmelds you want=You are getting anywhere you want to be.

The only thing faster than you is Chuck, the Ruby Knight Windicator. His base land speed required Scientific Notation when expressed in miles/Swift Action, and he had somewhere around 12 Swift actions per turn without equipment. this was before Errata killed the original, but it's still possible to make Chuck (he just moves a lot slower than he used to).

[Haven]

Psychic Warrior is what I would go with, for Speed of Thought and Up the Walls, as well as powers like Hustle. Maybe some Rogue levels too, for Tumble. You could also go into Elocater for a teleporting traceur.

[RagnaroksChosen]

Well making a runner type character may i sugest eaither

goliath- ranger3/Barbarian(lion totem) 2/Peregrine runner10/ prcx

Runner and goliath are from races of stone


or

Elven
Ranger (ranger sub 4) (for the hound)\Psi warrior 1\ Wildrunner 10
Wildrunner is out of races of the wild.


some sugestions

[woodenbandman]

Duskling Totemist X with the Sapphire Sprint feat. Say hello to a base land speed of 140ft, and more claws than your body has room for.

Move through urban terrain? Try any terrain that isn't covered by a Force effect or the stuff from Dungeonscape that prevents ghosts from entering the wall. Phase Cloak+Whatever soulmelds you want=You are getting anywhere you want to be.

I fully support this. The Totemist gets a lot of cool boosts to the acrobatic skills in-class, along with a lot of other stuff. Girallon Arms are your favorite, because they'll help you climb a lot.

[Keld Denar]

Duskling Totemist X with the Sapphire Sprint feat. Say hello to a base land speed of 140ft, and more claws than your body has room for.

Power rending, power tearing, power clawing, power gnawing, power kicking, power scratching, power biting, power smacking, power slashing, power stabbing, power goring!

SNAKE EYES!!!!

The only thing faster than you is Chuck, the Ruby Knight Windicator. His base land speed required Scientific Notation when expressed in miles/Swift Action, and he had somewhere around 12 Swift actions per turn without equipment. this was before Errata killed the original, but it's still possible to make Chuck (he just moves a lot slower than he used to).

The terminology is "Chuck Unit" which is something like 3 times the circumferance of the earth.

I never understood why they didn't use Travel Devotion. The Infinite Staff of Greater Celerity seemed kinda....cheaty. With TD, you'd have a direct conversion of turn attempts to swift actions to move actions.

[Sinfire Titan]

The terminology is "Chuck Unit" which is something like 3 times the circumferance of the earth.

I never understood why they didn't use Travel Devotion. The Infinite Staff of Greater Celerity seemed kinda....cheaty. With TD, you'd have a direct conversion of turn attempts to swift actions to move actions.

I agree with you on this, but it works either way (it just gets faster if you use Travel Devotion).

[Chronos]

I never understood why they didn't use Travel Devotion. The Infinite Staff of Greater Celerity seemed kinda....cheaty. With TD, you'd have a direct conversion of turn attempts to swift actions to move actions.

Travel Devotion uses up Turn Undead uses, and I think they wanted to save all of those for Ruby Knight Vindicator's extra swift actions.

[Keld Denar]

Your first activation of TD is free. Once you activate, you can make move actions as a swift action for the whole next minute. So....he'd just have to have activated Travel Devotion a round or 2 before he novas, and he'd get to go.

The results with the staff are 5x what the results with TD are, given that Greater Celerity gives you a full round action that you can use a run action for (5x move), while TD only gives you a move action, which you can't combine in any way to get more than just a move action.

But really...whats the difference between 1,000,000,000,000 damage and 5,000,000,000,000 damage in the long run?

:P

[Sinfire Titan]

Travel Devotion uses up Turn Undead uses, and I think they wanted to save all of those for Ruby Knight Vindicator's extra swift actions.

Actually, the first use requires only a Swift action. So they go Swift: Activate Travel Devotion. Burn Turn Attempt: Get another Swift. Expend Footsteps of the Deity (or whatever that spell was): Burn second Swift to use Travel Devotion to move. Burn another turn Attempt: Get a 3rd Swift. Burn 3rd Swift to use Travel Devotion's movement again. Rinse, repeat ad absurdum. Initiate Tornado Throw.

You end up saving 2 turn attempts per use of Travel Devotion instead of Quicksilver Motion. If you wanted to use Travel Devotion a second time that day, then it does cost you Turning. But the first time is always free.

Edit: 2 minute ninja. Damn.

[Human Paragon 3]

Back on topic...

You could take Ape Totem Barbarian for a climb speed. Then go into Monk with a few variants tagged on. I believe there's one that gives up Flurry of Blows for Skirmish, which I would consider very balanced. That one is in races of the wild, and requires you to be a halfling, but as a DM I would just allow the trade. The Cobra Strike fighting style for Monk gives you Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack as bonus feats.

Trade rage for either the ferocity variant in cityscape or the whirling frenzy variant found here. You can also trade fast movement (since you'll be getting a crap load of fast movement from monk) for roof dweller, located on the same page, or just take the feats.

The cityscape web enhancement also lets you trade out skills like ride and handle animal for stuff like tumble and sense motive, if you want to be city-savvy.

After that, Thief Acrobat is a wonderful mobility-based prestige class. Skill tricks from complete scoundrel are also your friend.

In the end, the build looks like this:

Ape Totem Barbarian 1/Skirmish + Cobra Strike Monk 9/Thief Acrobat 5/something-else-probably-more-barbarian 5.

Land Speed is 60, Climb Speed is 30. More barbarian would give you a climb speed of 60 as well.

Skirmish: +3d6, +2AC
Ferocity: +4 STR, +4Dex
Evasion, Improved Evasion, fast acrobatics, steady stance, kip-up, agile fighting, slow fall 70 feet, Skill Mastery (take 10 on jump, balance and tumble), and agile fighting.

Between all your class features, you'll get a +7 dodge bonus to AC PLUS your wisdom, so even unarmored you'll be fairly hard to hit. Skirimish gives you a good reason to move around and use your skills, but leap attack would give you even better reason to do so, especially teamed up with roof jumper.

Feats:
Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Roof Walker, Roof Jumper and otherwise build to taste. Improved Skirmish is great. Travel Devotion is great. Snap Kick is great. Elusive target is AMAZING especially since you get the prereqs as bonus feats. Run, too. Can't forget Run.

Skill tricks:
Corner Perch, Leaping Climber, Nimble Charge, Speedy Ascent, Walk the Walls. A few others might be nice, too.

An alternate route is to go through PsyWar, or take the hidden talent feat to qualify for the Up the Walls and Speed of Thought feats. Psiwar gives you some great powers like hustle, psionic lions charge... you have a lot of ways to go with this.

EDIT: Also, check out wall walker in Dungeonscape. Trades slow fall for the ability to run up walls.

EDIT EDIT: You don't really need up the walls since you have a climb speed, but what ev.

[overduegalaxy]

I'm thinking my best bet is probably scout, monk, or psychic warrior (or some combination of the three that isn't exceedingly MAD). I'd like to avoid levels in barbarian if possible, as I don't feel the rage mechanic (or any of it's substitutions) fit the build well.

Thief-Acrobat is an excellent choice, but the Evasion requirement makes it a little harder to get into.

Are there any items, mundane or otherwise, that will make my job a little easier? A Rod of Ropes was my last character's best friend.

[Sinfire Titan]

I'm thinking my best bet is probably scout, monk, or psychic warrior (or some combination of the three that isn't exceedingly MAD). I'd like to avoid levels in barbarian if possible, as I don't feel the rage mechanic (or any of it's substitutions) fit the build well.

Thief-Acrobat is an excellent choice, but the Evasion requirement makes it a little harder to get into.

Are there any items, mundane or otherwise, that will make my job a little easier? A Rod of Ropes was my last character's best friend.

As I said, Totemist 20 for mobility builds. Manticore Belt is some kind of evil. You barely even need items to make that character viable (the major ones are stat boosters/Incarnum Foci).

[overduegalaxy]

As I said, Totemist 20 for mobility builds. Manticore Belt is some kind of evil. You barely even need items to make that character viable (the major ones are stat boosters/Incarnum Foci).

Unfortunately, as I said in the OP (although wasn't entirely clear about it), neither Tome of Battle nor Tome of Magic are allowed.

[Sinfire Titan]

Unfortunately, as I said in the OP (although wasn't entirely clear about it), neither Tome of Battle nor Tome of Magic are allowed.

It isn't from those two. It's from Magic of Incarnum.

[Human Paragon 3]

MoI is clearly not a source he is familiar with. Although it's a good book, it's a bit hard to wrap your head around. So forget it.

Monk grants evasion, by the way, so no worries there. I would still recommend the skirmish variant and cobra strike variant of monk for mucho mobility. Elusive Target Feat (complete warrior) will likewise be an outstanding fit for you.

Oh, and you don't need to take rage, if you are really opposed to it. You can trade it for Combat Style and favored enemy. And then trade favored enemy for favored terrain: urban. And still get your climb speed. And get nice bonuses to boot.

[Heliomance]

It's a third party source (I think), so probably not that helpful, but the Roofrunner from Traps and Treachery is very much like this.

[Godskook]

But really...whats the difference between 1,000,000,000,000 damage and 5,000,000,000,000 damage in the long run?

:P

Please tell me that pun was on purpose