[3.5] What would you prefer for Solo campaign?

[Frosty]

I may be playing in a 5 or 6 solo campaign soon. 32 pt buy, standard WBL. Dunno what the DM will throw at me. I was thinking of a Factotum for maximum flexibility (but I dunno whether to go for Chameleon or not). What other characters are good for a Solo adventure and won't be useless in a social situation?

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Factotum.
SFW Bard.
Warlock.
Druid.

[Frosty]

SFW? Not sure what that stands for.

[Stupendous_Man]

What other characters are good for a Solo adventure and won't be useless in a social situation?

Probably some sort of sorcerer with a penchant for stabbing people and blowing up things.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

SFW? Not sure what that stands for.

Snowflake Wardance, for the melee ability and a use for bardic Music when you lack allies to buff.

[monty]

I'd have to go with a stupendously superior sorcerer.

[Emperor Tippy]

Factotum unless homebrew is allowed, in which case I have an Assassin that you might want to take a look at (although it doesn't really solo super well until higher levels).

[Frosty]

Snowflake Wardance, for the melee ability and a use for bardic Music when you lack allies to buff.

Hmm...I have no idea how to build one. Tips?

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Druid, druid, druid. If for nothing else, the action advantage that having an animal companion gives you (not to mention the ability to summon allies). Having only one action against multiple enemies is asking to get hurt. Druids are a 1-man party, and then some. Best option, hands down.

Crusader is another viable option, especially if you use Imp Trip/Stand Still to keep groups away while you take them out one by one. Self-healing is a big plus, as is access to Diplomacy.

Warlock if you'd like to avoid melee entirely (or attempt to). Go invisible or snipe enemies at long range whenever possible, shatter their weapons if needed (also pesky doors), spider climb/fly around obstacles, and buff your social skills with an invocation. Use UMD liberally.

Wizard/Malconvoker would be interesting, but at level 6 I'd look elsewhere.

Alternatively, Leadership.

D&D (3.5 or 4e) isn't really suited to solo campaigns the way some other systems are. If you're willing to try another system, Spirit of the Century works well for solo play--and is the best RPG I've played yet (also, it's not hard to adapt to a fantasy bent).

[Frosty]

Hmm...what about Swordsage?

[ClericofPhwarrr]

Hmm...what about Swordsage?

Should work, especially with the 20% miss chance stance and the various "don't hit me" counters. I'd still make sure to get some Healing Belts for when your DM gets sick of you dodging everything and sends something a good notch above your CR against you.

And Leadership still wouldn't hurt.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Either Druid or Dread Necromancer. If Druid, it's fairly self-explanatory, just get Augment Summoning and Natural Bond with a Fleshraker companion, with Natural Spell at 6, maybe Companion Spellbond if you can get a flaw. For a Dread Necromancer get Versatile Spellcaster so you can create skeleton/zombie companions starting at level 6. Be a Necropolitan or take Tomb-Tainted Soul (LM) and you can use your at-will negative energy touch to heal yourself and your minons. Take Dreadful Wrath (PGtF) and Frightful Presence (DCN) and be sure to get a Ghostly Visage familiar at 7, since it can constantly possess you using its paralyzing fear gaze and your undead minions/summons will be immune. Use Advanced Learning to get Animate Dread Warrior (UE) at 12 and you can make an entire adventuring party of capable undead minions, otherwise get Awaken Undead at 12 to use on things like Cave Troll and Razor Boar skeletons.

[Eldariel]

Druid. If you fear you'll have to actually deal with traps you can't just summon-trigger, Ninja 1/Druid X. It's the least painful one-level dip for Trapfinding, since it grants Wis to AC without hassle too. Of course, you could just pick Planar Touchstone: Catalogues of Enlightement (Kobold), but by RAW that doesn't add Search and Disable Device to your class skills for Druid (RAW adds them to Cleric only), which would make it useless.

Alternatively, you could consider Apprentice: Thief and persuade your DM to give you Trapfinding to go with Search and Disable Device. Failing both, you could pick up the combination of the two, which at least works, but is damn expensive for one class feature (a Druid really likes his feats). It's a real pity stuff like Divine Insight isn't on the Druid-list; would allow you to skimp on the Int/skills a bit.

[Philistine]

Natural Bond seems to be geared toward multi-class druids, what with the whole "This bonus can never make your effective druid level exceed your character level" thing. Does it actually do anything for a single-class druid?

[kamikasei]

Does it actually do anything for a single-class druid?

Depending on interpretation you can take a high-level animal companion, take the penalty to your effective druid level for calcuting its bonuses, add in the bonus from Natural Bond, and get a high-level companion with no penalty.

And yeah, we need a better acronym for Snowflake Wardance. I was left wondering for a minute what the NSFW bard looked like.

[Philistine]

Depending on interpretation you can take a high-level animal companion, take the penalty to your effective druid level for calcuting its bonuses, add in the bonus from Natural Bond, and get a high-level companion with no penalty.

Wow. I would never have read that sentence to mean that. That's really... remarkable.

[KKL]

I was thinking of a Factotum for maximum flexibility (but I dunno whether to go for Chameleon or not).

asdfg

FACTOTUM 8/CHAMELEON 10/WHATEVER 2
GET 18 INT AND KEEP PUMPING IT
GET NOTHING BUT FONT OF INSPIRATION
???
VICTORY

Seriously, Factotum and Chameleon were made for each other in so many ways. And to top it off once you're a Chameleon, the sheer amount of hilarity you could unleash is hilarious.

Or, nothing but Druid levels.

I was left wondering for a minute what the NSFW bard looked like.

Some sort of Bard/Factotum Gestalt that uses Suggestion, lots of bluff/diplomacy and other shenanigans to graphically have sex with every attractive female he finds.

Easily.

[Bayar]

Druid and start ripping faces.

[Tempest Fennac]

If I'm honest, I thought that feat only applied to multi-class Druids due to considering your Companion's LA to be irrelevant for this sort of thing. I'd agree with Druid, but Beguiller could be interresting if you wanted to try playing a character who avoids combat. Please could I have a link for Emperor Tippy's Assassin?

[Roderick_BR]

If you want God of War style kickassery, I second one of the TOB classes.
I would actually avoid druid or wizard, as it would only make the game boring, or fatally short.
Factotum is a good option for solo, as you are good at several things (more than bard, at least), making you a more solo adventurer type (Link from Legend of Zelda, anyone?).
And yeah, Factotum/Chameleon means you don't have to choose a single class

[Emperor Tippy]

Please could I have a link for Emperor Tippy's Assassin?

I haven't posted it yet. It's still in play testing. I'll PM you a copy later though.

[Keld Denar]

I'd say Warlock, Crusader, Factotum, or possible the above mentioned bard would be ok. Possibly even a Bardblade or Bardsader hybred using Song of the White Raven for synergistic pwnage. Bard4/Warblade16 or Bard4/Crusader16 would probably be your best builds there, taking Song of the Heart and Song of the White Raven asap, and grab Dragonfire Inspiration for the Warblade build. I'd avoid SFWD for these builds, simply because you'll only have 4 music attempts per day unless you burn a lot of feats on extra music.

[Stupendous_Man]

Depending on interpretation you can take a high-level animal companion, take the penalty to your effective druid level for calcuting its bonuses, add in the bonus from Natural Bond, and get a high-level companion with no penalty.

And yeah, we need a better acronym for Snowflake Wardance. I was left wondering for a minute what the NSFW bard looked like.

Vow of Nudity (BoEF)

[PurinaDragonCho]

Vow of Nudity (BoEF)

Much preferable to the BoVD version, which requires CHA of 6 or lower.

[ericgrau]

Depends. If your DM is going easy on you and not expecting you to beat everything a party would face, then just pick any strong class and go with it. Heck, even a fighter with cc ranks in social skills could pull off repetitive bashing and not suck at social stuff. He'd do especially well at low levels.

On the opposite end is the bard which will cover your social, your misc. skillmonkeying (especially with a 1 level rogue dip) but will suck against most solo encounters.

Or you could dip a single level into rogue then put the rest into something powerful and cover the misc. stuff that way. Or you and your DM are familiar with the skill rules then a rogue or ranger could avoid encounters altogether; often a good option for a solo player.

I think we need more specifics on the adventure. City? Wilderness? Hack-n-slash Dungeon crawl??

[valadil]

What type of game is it? Are you expected to fight or is circumventing the fights good enough? If avoiding combat through other means is an option, I vote Beguiler.

[Ricky S]

HI

Well if you ask me I would probably say either a Cleric with certain domains to give some more skill flexibility. or a rogue/ Assassin if you doing the 6th lvl campaign. Assassin would be perfectly suited because they are soloers anyway. Ninjas would be even better as they are specifically designed to be soloers. The cleric could do multiple things. Heal, Buff, Fight close combat and ranged, and depending on which domains you use u could get some useful skills. Ie Olidimmara with I think bluff and hide as part of your skills. They are generally the most self sufficient class that there is. Although the fights tend to take longer as you dont do as much damage as other classes. But the high ac helps heaps. well those are my opinions. ask you dm whether he will construct a campiagn around your character rather than you construct a character around his campiagn?

[Frosty]

If you want God of War style kickassery, I second one of the TOB classes.
I would actually avoid druid or wizard, as it would only make the game boring, or fatally short.
Factotum is a good option for solo, as you are good at several things (more than bard, at least), making you a more solo adventurer type (Link from Legend of Zelda, anyone?).
And yeah, Factotum/Chameleon means you don't have to choose a single class

Dude, I totally think Kratos can be a Warblade.

Hmm...I think it'll have a bit of everything. The campaign will likely start out on the edge of civilation, but this being a Solo gamne, I can take it to many different places. I definitely want to NOT have to run away from all fights however.

Is there ACTUALLY a Vow of Nudity in BoEF?

[The Glyphstone]

No, the Vow of Nudity was homebrewed by someone on these boards.

[ClericofPhwarrr]

No, the Vow of Nudity was homebrewed by someone on these boards.

Tayla, in fact.