The Big Dipper! 3.5 character idea

[gallagher]

so i was pondering a few minutes back and decided to ask the playground to ponder with me.

what kind of power could someone get from a character that took only 1 level dips from martial classes?

i am planning on being in a level 3 game, where we were asked to make our characters weird for the sake of flavor. so i am playing a character whose attention span is only long enough to take a class for one level.

at the moment, i am playing a Barb/Ranger/Fighter. i am using a greatflail, which is a homebrewed 1d12 19-20x2 that deals both piercing and bludgeoning damage that gives a bonus to sundering (yeah, i am going for improved sunder and combat brute later. i love to sunder!)

so does anyone have ideas of where i can go with this? as far as PRCs go, i was hoping to go with a sunder-build, and this game isnt going much past level 8

i have a 16 str, 14 dex, 14 con, 13 int, 10 wis and cha. and am human

[Dusk Eclipse]

Personally I would ditch ranger in favor of warblade (ToB and online), better HD, less skills, but tasty tasty manouber... be sure to get the one that ignore hardness (to improve sunder)

Also try to get the Spirit Lion Totem ACF in Complete champion that trades fast movement for pounce (full attack on a charge)

[Flickerdart]

You'll want to stick to full-BAB classes, since any 3/4 dip loses you that valuable point. Fighter and Barbarian are good dips for obvious reasons. Ranger is not so much, and neither is Paladin, because their token abilities appear at level 2. Warblade and Crusader will make excellent dips, but make sure to take them as late as possible so you can choose the best maneuvers. Don't neglect your saves, which are going to be awful. You will have easier going when you hit 7th level if you plan well, because many PrCs grant good benefits in their first level.

[DragoonWraith]

I made such a build, though he was more of a caster. 9th level spells on a 20-class character, I think, is reasonably cool, especially since the character actually kind of works from a fluff perspective. I'll see if I can dig that up...

Ah, here it is:

Spoiler

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Here's my answer (finally). It assumes fractional BAB, and it also assumes alignment restrictions are not in force. With alignment restrictions, you'd have to choose somewhat different +1 casting class PrCs (but there are plenty of those to go around so that's not a huge problem):
{table=head]Level|Class|Variant|Requirements|BAB|Features|Norm al Feats|Prep. Sp. Lv.|Spont. Sp. Lv.|Spellcasting of...
Human|||||Bonus Feat and Skill Points|Able Learner
1st|Abjurer|Fighter Feats, Focused Specialist||0.5|Endurance, Familiar|Precocious Apprentice|2nd||Wizard
2nd|Bard||Non-Lawful|1.25|Bardic Music, Bardic Lore, Countersong, Fascinate, Inspire Courage +1||2nd|1st|Bard
3rd|Crusader|||2.25|Furious Counterstrike, Steely Resolve|Chain Spell (or any other MM)|2nd|1st|
4th|Monk|Chaos, Illuminated|Chaotic|3|Skill Focus (Spellcraft)||2nd|1st|
5th|Warblade|||4|Battle Clarity, Weapon Aptitude||2nd|1st|
6th|Fighter|Bodyguard||5|Iron Will|Combat Casting|2nd|1st|
7th|Horizon Walker||Endurance|6|Desert Terrain Mastery||2nd|1st|
8th|Suel Arcanamach||+6 BAB, Iron Will, Combat Casting|7|Ignore Spell Failure 5%, Tenacious Spells||2nd|1st|Suel Arcanamach
9th|Ultimate Magus||Spont. Arc. Spells 1st, Prep. Arc. Spells 2nd, any Metamagic|7.5|Spell Power +1|Spell Focus (Abjuration)|2nd|2nd|Suel Arcanamach
10th|Abjurant Champion||+5 BAB, Combat Casting, Arc. Spells 1st|8.5|Abjurant Armor, Extended Abjuration||2nd|3rd|Suel Arcanamach
11th|Sublime Chord||Spont. Arc. Spells 3rd, Bardic Music|9|Bardic Music, Bardic Lore||2nd|5th|Sublime Chord
12th|Incantatrix||Arc. Spells 3rd, any Metamagic|9.5|Bonus Feat: Cooperative Spell|Practiced Spellcaster (Sublime Chord)|2nd|5th|Sublime Chord
13th|Mage of the Arcane Order||Cooperative Spell, any other Metamagic, Prep. Arc. Spells 2nd|10|Spellpool I||2nd|6th|Sublime Chord
14th|Sacred Exorcist||Good, Cast Dismissal|10.5|Exorcism, Turn Undead||2nd|6th|Sublime Chord
15th|Paragnostic Apostle||Spells 3rd|11|Holy Texts, Knowledge is Power, Lore|Greater Spell Focus (Abjuration)|2nd|7th|Sublime Chord
16th|Initiate of the Sevenfold Veil||Cast five Abjurations, two Abjurations 4th level or higher, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (Abjuration), Greater Spell Focus (Abjuration)|11.5|Warding 1/day, Unimpeachable Abjuration, Red Veil||2nd|7th|Sublime Chord
17th|Fatespinner||Spells 4th|12|Spin Fate||2nd|8th|Sublime Chord
18th|Mindbender||Non-Good, Cast Charm Person|12.5|Telepathy|Spell Focus (Transmutation)|2nd|8th|Sublime Chord
19th|Archmage||Arc. Spells 7th, Skill Focus (Spellcraft), Spell Focus (any school) x2|13|High Arcana||2nd|9th|Sublime Chord
20th|Wayfarer Guide||Cast Teleport|13.5|Enhanced Capacity, Improved Range||2nd|9th|Sublime Chord[/table]
With alignment restrictions, you need to choose between Sacred Exorcist and Mindbender, since they're mutually exclusive, and take some other PrC.

Sublime Chord Caster level is 16, 17 if you take the Spell Power High Arcana. You have 4th through 9th level Arcane Spellcasting from the Bard, Sorcerer, and Wizard spell lists, plus 0th and 1st (2nd for Abjurations) level Wizard spells, 0th and 1st level Bard spells, and 1st through 3rd level spells of the Abjuration, Divination, Illusion, and Transmutation schools from the Wizard and Sorcerer spell list, and the ability to "call" 1st through 3rd level Sorcerer/Wizard spells with the Spellpool ability. You need 12 Int, but that's hardly burdensome. You won't have a ton of extra skill points to throw around, but you will have some. Other than that, well, 19 Cha is necessary to cast those spells, but you'll want more than that anyway.


Without Precocious Apprentice + Focused Specialist, MotAO is impossible (or annoying because you have to devote two levels of what could be Sublime Chord spellcasting to Wizard, losing 9th level spells, or somehow fit Arcane Preparation into this), but without MotAO you can ditch Cooperative Spell, ditch Chain Spell, ditch Incantatrix, and do something else. It would probably free up a lot of feats. You also can't use Ultimate Magus, which is annoying, because the Spell Power bit is so nice. I'm sure there are options for this, though.

A flaw makes some of this quite easy, two makes the entire build trivial, since you could fit Arcane Preparation in there.


I think what I like best about the character is that he's not too all over the place. He definitely has some themes going on there, with the heavy abjuration and the several divine classes (Crusader, Sacred Exorcist, Paragnostic Apostle). I wanted to put Divine Oracle, too, but getting Skill Focus (Knowledge (Religion)) wasn't going to happen. If it did, you could get Loremaster, though, which would be kind of neat, giving you four classes that give Bardic Knowledge/Lore. Might actually fit the theme better, hmm...

You're also a member of the Paragnostic Assembly, the Arcane Order, the Wayfarer's Guild, and the Sevenfold Veil. I don't believe there are any particular conflicts between these factions, though.