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Topics - Stratovarius

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General Discussion / Five Necromancer Variants

« on: June 08, 2009, 11:26:49 AM »

Since its well known just how much I love the undead (Being one and all), there are Five Necro Variant base classes (NOT designed by me, but rather someone's conversions of a 2e kit from the book of Necromancers). I'll come back and fix the formatting issues later today. The book can be found online here.

Archetypal Necromancer

Stereotypical necromancers are consummate villains, foul-hearted wizards of the basest sort. As a result of their violently unrelenting and unrepentant evil, these wizards are either promptly stamped out of existence by the righteous arm of society, or they are eventually driven out of civilization into the wilderness. Most tend to be short-sighted, petty scoundrels with few ambitions save to capture unwary travelers, kill them in gruesome tortures, and later animate them as a form of sick amusement. Others plot in seclusion to gain the coveted boon of lichdom so they can prolong their depravity beyond the grave. The most dangerous ones harbor secret, long-range plans to subvert or destroy the society that exiled them.
The Archetype is an unsympathetic villain, and Abi-Dalzim of the Wastes, Szass Tam of Thay and Kartak of the Twisted Rune provide the DM with examples of such a dastardly character.
The Archetypal necromancer was perhaps best captured in the short stories of dark Ashton Smith. The terrifying Sauron from ?The Lord of the Rings?, decadent Mmatmuor and Sodosma from "The Empire of the Necromancers", powerful Vacharn, and his treacherous sons Vokal and Uldulla from "Necromancy in Naat", the vengeful Nathaire from "the Colossus of Ylourgne", and finally the perverted Abnon-Tha with his timid assistants, Narghai and Vemba-Tsith, from "The Charnel God? are all archetypal necromancers. All these vile and repugnant personalities serve to clearly illustrate the Archetype at its lowest form.

Alignment: The Archetype is the classic malevolent wizard and may be of any evil alignment.
Hit Dice: d4
Patron: Popular patron deities among archetypes are Afflux, Chemosh, Kiaransalee, Myrkul, Nerull and Velsharoon, among others. An archetype must have a patron (regardless of origin), though veneration of an ideal is also acceptable.

Class Skills
The Archetype?s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Bluff (Cha), Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Decipher Script (Int), Heal (Wis), Intimidate (Cha), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int).
Skill Points at 1st Level: (2 + Int modifier) x4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.

Code:Level BAB Fort Ref Will Special
1st +0 +0 +0 +2 Summon familiar, Scribe Scroll, Venom Handling, Netherworld Insight +2
2nd +1 +0 +0 +3
3rd +1 +1 +1 +3
4th +2 +1 +1 +4
5th +2 +1 +1 +4 Dark Gift
6th +3 +2 +2 +5
7th +3 +2 +2 +5
8th +4 +2 +2 +6
9th +4 +3 +3 +6
10th +5 +3 +3 +7 Dark Gift, Netherworld Insight +4
11th +5 +3 +3 +7
12th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8
13th +6/+1 +4 +4 +8
14th +7/+2 +4 +4 +9
15th +7/+2 +5 +5 +9 Dark Gift
16th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10
17th +8/+3 +5 +5 +10
18th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11
19th +9/+4 +6 +6 +11
20th +10/+5 +6 +6 +12 Dark Gift, Netherworld Insight +6

Code:

? Spells per Day

0 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th
3 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 3 2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 4 3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 4 3 2 ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 4 4 3 ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 5 4 3 2 ? ? ? ? ?
4 5 4 4 3 ? ? ? ? ?
4 5 5 4 3 2 ? ? ? ?
4 5 5 4 4 3 ? ? ? ?
4 5 5 5 4 3 2 ? ? ?
4 5 5 5 4 4 3 ? ? ?
4 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 ? ?
4 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 ? ?
4 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2 ?
4 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3 ?
4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 3 2
4 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4 3
4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 4 4
4 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5

Class Features
All of the following are class features of the archetype.
Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Archetypes are proficient with the club, dagger, heavy crossbow, light crossbow, and quarterstaff, but not with any type of armor or shield. An archetype is also proficient with one bladed weapon of his choice. Armor of any type interferes with an archetype?s movements, which can cause his spells with somatic components to fail.
Spells: An archetype casts arcane spells which are drawn from the sorcerer/ wizard spell list. An archetype must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time (see below).
To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the archetype must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against an archetype?s spell is 10 + the spell level + the archetype?s Intelligence modifier.
Like other spellcasters, an archetype can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. His base daily spell allotment is given on Table: The Archetype. In addition, he receives bonus spells per day if he has a high Intelligence score.
Bonus Languages: An archetype may substitute Nekleos for one of the bonus languages available to the character because of his race.
Familiar: Because of his devotion to the dark arts, an archetype is limited in his choice of familiars. He may only call one of the following familiars: bat, cat, owl, rat, raven, snake (must be poisonous), toad, weasel. The archetype also has access to any other evil familiar approved by the DM.
Patron: Unlike most mages, an archetype requires a patron from whom he owes certain powers to. An archetype is not required to have a divine or fiendish patron; worship of a concept (such as death) works too.
Venom Handling: Archetypes are skilled in the use of poison and never risk accidentally poisoning themselves when applying poison to an item. They also have a +1 bonus to all Craft (poisonmaking) checks which increases by +1 every five levels.
Dark Gift (Ex/Sp/Su): At 5th level and after every five levels thereafter, an archetype may choose a dark gift as defined in the ?Vile Pacts and Dark Gifts? article. An archetype may not select the same dark gift twice.
Netherworld Insight (Ex): The archetype?s devotion to the necromantic arts has endowed him with an unholy insight into his trade. He gains a +2 bonus to the DCs of his Necromancy spells, as well as a +2 bonus to caster level checks to penetrate Spell Resistance with a Necromancy spell. This bonus also applies to all skill checks made involving the Lower Planes, necromancy and undeath. This increases to +4 at 10th level and +6 at 20th level. This bonus does not stack with itself but stacks with Spell Focus and related feats.
Spell List: Unlike most wizards, the archetype?s spell list reflects his mastery of all evil and necromantic colleges. An archetype has access to the following additional spells (excluding those from schools he has forsaken through specialization).
Cantrips ? inflict minor wounds.
1st level spells ? angry ache, deathwatch, hemorrhage, inflict light wounds.
2nd level spells ? boneblast, curse of ill-fortune, desecrate, inflict moderate wounds, living undeath.
3rd level spells ? boneblade, inflict serious wounds, speak with dead, unliving weapon.
4th level spells ? consumptive field, delay death, inflict critical wounds, negative energy aura, poison.
5th level spells ? charnel fire, mass inflict light wounds, slay living, soul scour, touch of the pharaoh.
6th level spells ? harm, mass inflict moderate wounds.
7th level spells ? blood to water, greater consumptive field, imprison soul, mass inflict serious wounds, ravage, withering palm.
8th level spells ? bestow greater curse, bodak?s glare, death dragon, greater harm, mass inflict critical wounds, pestilence, unholy aura.
9th level spells ? mass harm, vile death.
The archetype also gains th spells accessible only to his patron's clergy. For example, an archetype of Velsharoon's faith would have access to Velsharoon's Death Pact.

EPIC ARCHETYPAL NECROMANCER.
The epic archetypal necromancer continues on his dark path, delving deeper and deeper into the dark secrets of necromancy. His powers also grow, granting him abilities far more terrible than anything possessed by most magi.

Hit Die: d4.
Skill Points at Each Additional Level: 2 + Int modifier.
Spells: The necromancer?s caster level is equal to her class level. The necromancer?s number of spells per day does not increase after 20th level. Each time the necromancer achieves a new level, he or she learns two new spells of any spell levels that he or she can cast (according to his or her new level).
Dark Gift (Ex/Sp/Su): The necromancer may choose an extra dark gift every five levels above 20th.
Familiar: The necromancer?s familiar continues to increase in power. Every two levels beyond 20th the familiar?s natural armor and Intelligence each increase by +1. The familiar?s spell resistance is equal to the master?s class level + 5. At 21st level and again every ten levels higher than 21st, the familiar gains the benefit of the Familiar Spell epic feat for a spell of its master?s choice.
Netherworld Insight (Ex): The bonus granted by this ability increases by +2 every ten levels from 20th.
Venom Handling: The bonus granted by this ability increases by +1 every five levels from 20th.
Bonus Feats: The epic necromancer gains a bonus feat (selected from the list of epic necromancer feats) every three levels after 20th.
Epic Archetypal Necromancer Bonus Feat List: Augmented Alchemy, Automatic Quicken Spell, Automatic Silent Spell, Automatic Still Spell, Combat Casting, Craft Epic Magic Arms and Armor, Craft Epic Rod, Craft Epic Staff, Craft Epic Wondrous Item, Efficient Item Creation, Enhance Spell, Epic Skill Focus (Knowledge [necrology] or Spellcraft), Epic Poisoncrafter, Epic Spell Focus, Epic Spell Penetration, Epic Spellcasting, Extra Dark Gift*, Familiar Spell, Forge Epic Ring, Ignore Material Components, Improved Combat Casting, Improved Heighten Spell, Improved Metamagic, Improved Spell Capacity, Intensify Spell, Master Necromancer*, Multispell, Permanent Emanation, Scribe Epic Scroll, Spell Focus, Spell Knowledge, Spell Mastery, Spell Penetration Spell Stowaway, Spell Opportunity, Spontaneous Spell, Tenacious Magic. In addition to the feats on this list, the wizard may select any item creation feat or metamagic feat not listed here. Additionally, he may select any other feat for which he has met the prerequisites.
Table: The Epic Archetypal Necromancer
Code:Archetypal Necromancer Level Special
21st ?
22nd ?
23rd Bonus feat
24th ?
25th Dark Gift
26th Bonus feat
27th ?
28th ?
29th Bonus feat
30th Dark Gift, Netherworld Insight +8

NEW FEATS

EXTRA DARK GIFT [EPIC]
Your repertoire of dark gifts increases.
Prerequisite: At least five dark gifts.
Benefit: The character may select an additional dark gift for which the character meets the prerequisites.
Special: A character can gain this feat multiple times, acquiring a different dark gift each time.

MASTER NECROMANCER [EPIC]
Your insight into the dark arts increases.
Prerequisite: At least four dark gifts, Epic Spell Focus (Necromancy), netherworld insight +6, three metamagic feats (one of which must be Black Lore of Moil, Enervate Spell or Taint Spell).
Benefit: The character acquires a +2 bonus to his Netherworld Insight ability. Additionally, the DCs of his dark gifts increase by +2.
Special: A character can gain this feat multiple times. Its effects stack.

Base Classes / Dragonfire Adept - My Thoughts

« on: June 08, 2009, 11:17:28 AM »

Along with the warlock, PRC 3.2 also saw the debut of the breath-wielding dragonfire adept.

In order to ensure that I would see the greatest range of the dragonfire adpet's abilities, I opted to take one through Endless Nights VI. While it does offer occasional high-end rewards, most rewards are of the low-magic, low-gold variety; while it is a bit annoying at times, it does force you to rely more on your character's abilities- and gives you the chance to really explore all possibilities.

The DFA is, in general, a fun new class for NWN. Like warlocks, they have access to a small number of invocations which can be used an unlimited number of times per day. As noted in the invocations thread, this means that, like the warlock, the DFA need not rest nearly as often as his other spellcasting siblings must do (at least not to regain his powers, anyway- more on that later). While I won't repeat my findings on each DFA invocation here, I will note that the DFA's invocations are generally best used as defensive options, for covering his vulnerabilities, forcing his opponents to take damage if they hit him, providing desired resistances/invulnerabilities, dispelling the work of enemy spellcasters, etc. All of these functions serve as great compliments to his primary offensive ability, another unlimited-use power: his breath weapon.

The DFA breath weapon is one of the most fascinating offensive abilities I've ever seen, on par with the warlock's eldritch blast. First, for all of the aiming problems I've had with eldritch cone in NWN2, I never had any trouble with the DFA's breath here in NWN; just click and boom- you're breathing on the enemy. (Admittedly, I generally click on one opponent at a time for a breath, rather than try to aim a non-existent cone; that may have something to do with my greater success here.)

I also found it something of a novelty for a (more or less) arcane spellcaster to have a magic attack for which the DC is based on Constitution, rather than one of the standard spellcasting stats (Wisdom, Intelligence or Charisma). Since I consider his breath to be his primary weapon, I subsequently saw fit to devote all of my stat increases to Constitution. Because he uses a d8 for hit dice, the DFA is already far ahead of the game versus other arcane spellcasters where hit points are concerned. As such, apart from boosting the effectiveness of his breath weapon, the extra Constitution also granted him far more hit points than typical for an arcane spellcaster. (There is a danger of stat fatigue here: the DFA's invocations use his Charisma to determine their DC. My solution: The only offensive invocation I really used- instill vulnerability- doesn't use DC, so I felt justified in concentrating all my stat gains on Con.)

One thing about the DFA's breath that I had to keep in mind when using it was that the same exact breath cannot be used twice in succession. For instance, while it is possible to alternate between the fire breath cone and line, you can't simply use only the cone, or only the line. While it wasn't difficult to adapt my DFA's breath attacks so that I wasn't using the same breath attack in two consecutive rounds, I must admit that I still found myself forgetting this caution on occasion.

Here, I'll muse on my favorite- and not-so-favorite- breath effects. The ones I actually chose for my DFA are in bold and italics; effects I didn't take are in italics only:

- Fire, electric, acid, frost and thunder breath: While I didn't go in that direction, it is possible to have all five of these breaths in your collection by the time your DFA reaches the 12th level. (As it happened, I had selected all of these breaths for my DFA once I reached the 25th level.) It isn't strictly necessary to have all of these breaths at your disposal; however, I liked the idea of my DFA having access to all five of the basic energy types for his breath attacks. (In my mind, this quintet measures up quite favorably against the offensive spell ability of other arcane and divine spellcasters. Admittedly, he lacks access to certain energy types enjoyed by other classes [e. g., divine or negative energy]; on the other hand, as an unlimited use power, he never needs to abandon a certain energy type due to running out of spells.) These five breaths are particularly effective when paired with the instill vulnerability invocation (especially against single opponents; admittedly, using these breaths alone may not be the best strategy against crowds, especially of the rogue-type persuasion).

The DFA starts with the fire breath line and cone effects; it is certainly possible to go through an entire module using just these two breaths alone, especially if they are supported by instill vulnerability and perhaps aura of flame (a favorite strategy of mine). I grabbed lightning breath as my 2nd level power; as I envisioned my DFA being descended from bronze dragons, gaining lightning breath seemed to be a logical progression. (At lower levels, it also proved useful to have an energy attack not involving fire, as occasionally I would run into enemies with fire resistance.) However, looking back, I may have been better off getting frost breath here instead (as it is, I picked this up during my epic levels); as with fire, I found that certain enemies were particularly vulnerable to cold effects on their own (e. g., fire giants). While acid breath wasn't essential for completing EN6, I found myself using it often enough once I picked it up during my epic levels; since arcane spellcasters rarely entered into hand-to-hand combat with me- thus negating the usefulness of my aura of flame- I found that acid breath combined with the acidic version of instill vulnerability proved to be an effective combination against them. My biggest problem throughout EN6 was dealing with rogue-types (and gods) with access to Evasion or its improved cousin, which allowed them to escape damage from the first four breath types (all Reflex-based); as such, the DFA's thunder breath- which requires a Fortitude save, and therefore is immune to being negated by any kind of Evasion- was a true godsend for me.

- Slow breath: I took this as my 5th level breath effect. It proved to be a nice effect for me to throw in amongst my various damaging breaths. At that level- and for some time beyond- I found it to be of some use against non-Will enemies (especially crowds of Reflex-based rogue types) in- well, slowing them down. Eventually, though, I pretty much retired this effect, in favor of...

- Sleep breath: My 10th level pick. One of my favorite non-damaging breaths, this proved invaluable in handling both the Fortitude-heavy warrior types and sneaky Reflex-type rogues intent on damaging my poor DFA body. This was especially useful against single enemies (though it also serves well as a Fortitude- or Reflex-type crowd control); I could alternate between putting my enemy to sleep and hitting him with a damaging effect. (This was admittedly a little trickier with the rogue-types, at least until I picked up thunder breath at 12th level.)

- Cloud breath: Unfortunately, I was forced to pass on this effect, as I discovered it was not functioning at all when I tried to take it as my 10th level effect. I'll enjoy trying it out with my next DFA, as I understand this has been fixed in PRC 3.3.

- Paralyzation breath: I believe I took this as my 15th level effect- and found myself wishing I could have taken this well before 15th level. Between this effect and its Will-save cousin, sleep breath, crowd control issues- especially with rogue-type opponents- became a problem of the past for my DFA. As a Fortitude-save ability, it was especially effective in convincing all the spellcasters in EN6 to stand still for my various damaging breaths (after occasional softening by devour magic).

- Force breath: Magic missiles, DFA style. My 20th level effect pick, I found the magical damage caused by this breath to be useful on multiple occasions, especially against opponents resistant to one or more of the energy weapons I had at my disposal at the time.

- Discorporating breath of Bahamut: Rarely used by me- and recommended with reservations. I didn't pick this effect up until 30th level, largely because I was wary of an effect that also damaged me as I used it (damage equal to twice my level, since my DFA was good; neutral DFA's would suffer damage equal to four times their level). The one time I remember using this ability, the breath ended up doing more damage to me than to my opponent. Even with the boost to hit points my DFA receives from increasing his Constitution, I found myself disinclined to use this effect very often, for this reason. On the plus side: an unusual damage type (magical), the damage amount (double damage when using this breath), and a different save required (Fortitude rather than Reflex- handy for dealing with enemies sporting any type of Evasion ability). If you have easy access to high regeneration items, this breath might be worth considering more often.

- Sickness breath, weakening breath: Truthfully, I've never been all that impressed by the sickness effect, so I wasn't inclined to take this effect for my DFA. While I can see the possibilities of the weakening breath, I acquired this effect well into my epic levels, and rarely used it. At this point in my character's career, the enemies I was facing wouldn't even have blinked upon suffering either breath's effects. (For that reason, I've concluded that if you plan to take these effects at all, better sooner than later. In your early levels, I can see both effects being more useful in controlling a group of enemies- or at least their damage potential.)

- Enduring effect: I grabbed this effect so late in my DFA's career (35th level) that I didn't really have a chance to test it out. I can see it being useful in modules where a majority of your enemies are either especially susceptible to- or otherwise are not resistant to- fire. (I believe this might have been of some use in EN6, though there are enough fire-resistant foes out there to keep you honest.)

- Fivefold breath of Tiamat: The evil counterpart to the discorporating breath of Bahamut, my DFA's alignment rendered him ineligible for this effect. It has definite possibilities, as it breathes five different breath effects at your enemy- and each one causes normal damage. Caveats: it, too, causes damage to you when you use it (double your level, or quadruple your level if you are of a neutral alignment); you cannot breathe at all during the next combat round; opponents with Evasion or Improved Evasion can walk away unscathed (each of the fivefold attacks requires a Reflex save). Overall, keeping these things in mind, I can see using this effect at selected times- if you're not good, of course.

Again, the unlimited nature of his invocations and breath weapon is a huge advantage for the DFA, meaning he will not require as many resting periods as his spellcasting siblings. Without a decent regenerative item on hand, though, he may well need to rest often to restore lost hit points and/or remove undesirable conditions (disease, poison, etc.). Despite his impressive hit point totals gained toward the end of his career, my DFA in his early career found himself in need of his fair share of resting periods, largely due to his miserable martial prowess. His access to only simple weapons doesn't really hurt him that much; indeed, this is a significant boon putting him on par with the warlock and sorcerer (and ahead of the wizard)- though in any case his best weapon under normal circumstances is his breath weapon. However, his inability to use even light armor (or shields) resulted in a fairly low AC throughout his career. As such, even in fights where he appeared to be in control, he ended up taking a fair amount of damage. This problem was even more pronounced going against multiple opponents in my early levels; even a large group of so-so power could bring me down to "near death" hit points (or worse- I had to do my fair share of reloading), due to that miserably low AC. (Fortunately, once he reached the main city in EN6, I found my DFA was eligible for receiving a magic item which granted me useful abilities throughout the rest of his career; I believe that a regeneration effect was available as my DFA's first pick. Once I had that in place, I didn't need to worry as much about resting after a fight- just winning it.)

As with the warlock, the DFA has a slightly different array of class skills at his disposal. As usual, I kept Lore, Concentration and Spellcraft at maximum levels. Because social skill use is nonexistent in EN6, I didn't invest heavily in them- though in a different module, I'd greatly enjoy trying out the DFA's access to all three social skills (including Persuade, my personal favorite). Again, like my warlock, my DFA invested heavily in Use Magic Device (allowing him a much larger range of items at his disposal- rather useful, as EN6 is pretty stingy in the rewards department). A greater novelty for me: the DFA also has Appraise as a class skill; while I didn't max it out like I did with other skills, I did put several points here (more useful here than in most mods- EN6 is a relatively cash-poor mod).

Of the DFA's class abilities, the one I probably appreciate the most is his adept scales; with zero access to armor, he needs any boost to AC he can get. I was also intrigued by his damage reduction feature- and unlike what he would likely experience in most modules, I found that his DR was actually useful in EN6, throughout his career. (At level 38, I'm walking around Nova City with the equivalent of a stoneskin spell, only my effect never wears off- what's not to like?) While I can't remember any of the enemies being particularly disposed to pelting me with paralyzing magic, I appreciated the fact that upon hitting level 19, I was no longer affected by such magic in any case.) Finally, while the dragontouched feat granted at 1st was easily the least flashiest of his class abilities, I still appreciated the skill boost- and access to draconic feats- it provided. (As nearly as I could tell, though, I did not receive the 3 HP bonus given in the feat description.)

Ah, yes- that brings us very nicely to the subject of feats. Where my warlock found few regular feats to be of interest to him- while enjoying an extraordinarily large number of epic feats fighting for his attention- with the DFA, it's the other way around. I mentioned in my warlock thread that I often find feat selection in the initial levels to be something of a headache, due to all of the various feats and descriptions to wade through. For my DFA- immediately besieged by a fair number of feats with the words "breath", "dragon" or "draconic" in their title- the headache doubled. Even so, I did eventually find it worthwhile to endure swimming through all the feat descriptions out there, as I ended up running into a fair number of feats useful for my DFA. (Caveat: Conversely, I learned that since his breath weapon does not have a recharge time- at least in the traditional sense- the DFA is not thereby eligible for the various "metabreath" feats; the DFA is forced to relevel if he tries to take such a feat.) By the same token, I found that few epic feats appeared to be keyed to the DFA; the only one that might have been of interest to me was epic extra invocation- which was not that useful to me, as I already had both of the available DFA dark invocations before reaching my epic levels.

As frequently happens with my arcane characters, I chose toughness as one of his 1st level feats. Apart from this one feat, I found myself exploring feats that were completely new to me:

- Dragon heritage: Each of the possible dragon heritage feats grants him a small bonus to one skill, as well as granting him access to other draconic feats. I chose the bronze version, which granted a +2 to Search checks. While the skill bonus itself didn't seem to help my DFA that much (I lost count of how many traps I just blundered into), the feat nonetheless fit into the concept I had in mind for my DFA- as well as unlocking the draconic feats.
- Draconic claw, knowledge, resistance and senses: Working out which draconic feats are actually useful to a DFA required a bit of research; ultimately, I realized that many such feats require a discharge of sorcery (arcane spells- and invocations don't count for this purpose) in order to be effective. As such, my visions of loading my DFA with draconic feats were cut down- or, really, in half, as there remained quite a few draconic feats that would be useful to him. Because he rarely engaged in hand-to-hand combat- and was better off using a magic weapon when he did- I regret choosing draconic claws for my DFA, even though they appeared to work fine. (Looking back, I would probably swap this out for draconic skin- a "no frills" feat, to be sure, but fairly effective.) I found the other feats listed here to be quite useful, though, each in its own way. Draconic knowledge- the feat- supplemented the Lore boost I received from my invocation of the same name, and draconic resistance provided me with lightning resistance, which proved handy when used in concert with my energy resistance and energy immunity invocations- while at its maximum level, draconic senses allowed me to target my enemies in my field of darkness unhindered while still being concealed myself. I'm especially fascinated by the way they "feed" off of each other, i. e., the power of each is dependent on the number of draconic feats you have (and both dragon heritage and, yes, even draconic claws count for this purpose...)
- Extra invocation: Again, eight invocations for a DFA just aren't enough for me, so I found myself taking this a few times- though not as many times as my warlock did, since DFA's have far fewer invocations to choose from.
- Exhale barrier, entangling exhalation: While I didn't really use either of these breath channeling feats extensively (having gained them rather late in my DFA's career), I did appreciate the versatility they brought to the DFA portfolio. The wall created by exhale barrier seems fragile compared to the warlock's wall of perilous flame (and seems to always do fire damage regardless of the energy type used- this bears further research)- but I think such a maneuver could prove useful in the right environment. On reflection, I honestly don't remember using the entangling exhalation at all in my EN6 travels- but I can envision it as a form of crowd control, perhaps before you gain access to sleep or paralyzation breath.
- Draconic aura (cold resistance): Normally the domain of the dragon shaman, I discovered that my DFA also had access to many of these auras. While I did miss the possibility of taking the damage shield aura (I didn't see this as an option while trying to select an aura feat), I was quite happy to take the cold resistance version instead. With this feat in place, combined with my draconic lightning resistance and energy resisting/immunity invocations, I found myself able to soundly resist or ignore four of the five main energy elements (and able to adjust the elements covered with only a couple of quick castings).
- Epic damage reduction: I must admit that I found a certain novelty in an arcane-type qualifying for this feat. I couldn't help but try taking this once, at my final level-up in EN6 (and would have taken it again at my next level had I reached it). I considered it a nice "insurance" feat that appears to work nicely in tandem with DFA's class-based DR. Of course, coming at my final level-up, I didn't really get to see how useful it actually was for my DFA; I can definitely see trying to take this earlier for my next DFA....

The bottom line? Taking a dragonfire adept through EN6 was a total blast. I would definitely consider taking a new DFA through a different module, or series of modules. (In particular, I'd be curious to see how well one would do in the MTS series...) You can definitely add the dragonfire adept to my roster of favorite base and prestige classes (which now includes the warlock, wizard, PnP and Bioware shifters, and psion. Geez- my roster seems to be pretty crowded now, doesn't it?).

With that, I am now finally ready to fade away into the Astral Plane, sitting on the sidelines, with nary a thought for the Prime Material Plane. [At least until I try out a Tome of Battle class or two. Or perhaps a Truenamer... Maybe a Troll Archmage? Oh, dear...]

Alternate Magic Systems / Tome of Battle Public Thread

« on: June 08, 2009, 11:15:49 AM »

Anything marked in Bold still needs to be completed. I apologize for the lost formatting.

[size=28]Tome of Battle Content[/size]

[size=20]Base Classes[/size]

* Crusader
* SwordSage
* Warblade

[size=20]Prestige Classes[/size]

* Bloodclaw Master
* Bloodstorm Blade
* Deepstone Sentinel
* Eternal Blade
* Jade Phoenix Mage
* Master of Nine
* Ruby Knight Vindicator
* Shadow Sun Ninja

[size=20]Skills[/size]

* Martial Lore

[size=20]Feats[/size]

* Adaptive Style
* Avenging Strike
* Blade Meditation
* Desert Fire
* Desert Wind Dodge
* Devoted Bulwark
* Divine Spirit
* Evasive Reflexes
* Extra Granted Maneuver
* Extra Readied Maneuver
* Falling Sun Attack
* Instant Clarity
* Ironheart Aura
* Martial Stance
* Martial Study
* Psychic Renewal
* Rapid Assault
* Scribe Martial Script
* Shadow Blade
* Shadow Trickster
* Song of the White Raven
* Snap Kick
* Stone Power
* Sudden Recovery
* Superior Unarmed Strike
* Tiger Blooded
* Unnerving Calm
* Vital Recovery
* White Raven Defense

[size=20]Disciplines[/size]

* Desert Wind - Swordsage
* Devoted Spirit - Crusader
* Diamond Mind - Swordsage, Warblade
* Iron Heart - Warblade
* Setting Sun - Swordsage
* Shadow Hand - Swordsage
* Stone Dragon - Crusader, Swordsage, Warblade
* Tiger Claw - Swordsage, Warblade
* White Raven - Crusader, Warblade

[size=20]Maneuvers[/size]

* [size=16]Level 1[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Blistering Flourish - Dazzle Creatures around you.
+ Burning Blade - 1d6 + level fire damage
+ Distracting Ember - Target flanked for one round
+ Flame's Blessing - Fire Res based on Tumble
+ Wind Stride - +10 ft speed
o Devoted Spirit
+ Crusader's Strike - Heal 1d6 + level
+ Iron Guard's Glare - Enemies take -4 Atk pen vs allies
+ Martial Spirit - Heal 2 points per successful attack
+ Vanguard Strike - Allies gain +4 vs target
o Diamond Mind
+ Moment of Perfect Mind - Conc check for Will save
+ Sapphire Nightmare Blade - Opponent Flatfooted, +1d6 damage with Conc check
+ Stance of Clarity - +2 AC vs one foe, -2 AC vs others
o Iron Heart
+ Punishing Stance - +1d6 damage, -2 AC
+ Steel Wind - Attack two opponents
+ Steely Strike - +4 to attack, Enemies get +4 vs you
o Setting Sun
+ Counter Charge - Force charging foe to move away
+ Mighty Throw - Throw foe 10'
+ Step of the Wind - Ignore difficult terrain, bonus in that terrain
o Shadow Hand
+ Child of Shadow - Concealment while moving
+ Clinging Shadow Strike - Foe suffers 20% miss chance
+ Island of Blades - you and allies flank all foes
+ Shadow Blade Technique - Roll two attacks, use lower to deal bonus cold damage
o Stone Dragon
+ Charging Minotaur - Bull Rush deals damage, ignore AoO
+ Stone Bones - Gain DR 5/Adam
+ Stonefoot Stance - +2 Bonus on Str checks, +2 AC vs larger foes
o Tiger Claw
+ Blood in the Water - +1 Attack/Dam per Crit
+ Hunter's Sense - Gain scent
+ Sudden Leap - Swift action Jump
+ Wolf Fang Strike - Attack with two weapons
o White Raven
+ Bolstering Voice - Allies get +2 Will, +4 Fear saves
+ Douse the Flames - Target cannot AoO
+ Leading the Attack - Allies get +4 bonus vs foe you hit
+ Leading the Charge - Allies gain +1 damage/level on charges

* [size=16]Level 2[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Burning Brand - +5 foot reach, fire damage
+ Fire Riposte - Counter foes attack with touch for 4d6 fire
+ Flashing Sun - extra attack
+ Hatchling's Flame - Cone of 2d6 fire
o Devoted Spirit
+ Foehammer - Ignore DR, deal +2d6
+ Shield Block - Grant ally +4 shield AC
o Diamond Mind
+ Action Before Thought - Conc Check in place of Ref Save
+ Emerald Razor - Melee attack as touch
o Iron Heart
+ Disarming Strike - Attempt to disarm foe
+ Wall of Blades - Replace AC with attack roll result
o Setting Sun
+ Baffling Defense - Sense Motive check to dodge attack
+ Clever Positioning - Swap spaces with target
o Shadow Hand
+ Cloak of Deception - Invis for 1 round
+ Drain Vitality - 2 points Con damage
+ Shadow Jaunt - Teleport 50'
o Stone Dragon
+ Moutain Hammer - +2d6, overcome DR
+ Stone Vise - deal +1d6 damage, immobilize target
o Tiger Claw
+ Claw at the Moon - Jump check, deal +2d6
+ Rabid Wolf Strike - +4 Atk, +2d6 damage, -4 AC for 1 round
o White Raven
+ Battle Leader's Charge - No AoO, deal +10 damage
+ Tactical Strike - +2d6, allies move 5'

* [size=16]Level 3[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Death Mark - Target takes extra fire damage and explodes in spread
+ Fan the Flames - RTA 6d6 fire
+ Holocaust Cloak - Damage shield 5 fire
+ Zephyr Dance - +4 AC vs one attack
o Devoted Spirit
+ Defensive Rebuke - Foes you strike must attack you or take AoO
+ Revitalizing Strike - heal 3d6 + level
+ Thicket of Blades - 5' steps provoke AoO
o Diamond Mind
+ Insightful Strike - Conc Check determines damage
+ Mind over Body - Conc Check in place of Fort save
+ Pearl of Black Doubt - Gain +2 AC each time foe misses
o Iron Heart
+ Absolute Steel Stance - +10' speed, +2 AC while moving.
+ Exorcism of Steel - Strike opponents weapon, it deals -4 dam
+ Iron Heart Surge - Remove negative effect, gain +2 attack
o Setting Sun
+ Devastating Throw - Throw foe
+ Feigned Opening - Provoke attack, then counter
+ Giant Killing Style - +2 Atk/+4 damage vs larger foes
o Shadow Hand
+ Assassin's Stance - +2d6 Sneak
+ Dance of the Spider - Spider Climb
+ Shadow Garrote - RTA 5d6
+ Strength Draining Strike - 4 points Str damage
o Stone Dragon
+ Bonecrusher - +4d6 damage, +10 to confirm crit
+ Crushing Weight of the Mountain - Constrict for 2d6 + 1/2 Str when grappling
+ Roots of the Mountain - +10 bonus vs bull rush, trip, DR 2/-
+ Stone Dragon Fury +4d6 vs objects/constructs
o Tiger Claw
+ Flesh Ripper - Foe has -4 AC/Atk
+ Leaping Dragon Stance - +10 Jump checks, always running
+ Soaring Raptor Strike - Attack from above, +4 Atk, +6d6 damage
+ Wolverine Stance - use any weapon while grappled
o White Raven
+ Lion's Roar - defeat enemy, allies deal +5 dam
+ Tactics of the Wolf - You and allies deal +1/2 levels dam vs flanked enemies
+ White Raven Tactics - Ally's Init changes, he can act again

* [size=16]Level 4[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Firesnake - Fire that twists and turns
+ Searing Blade - +2d6 + level fire
+ Searing Charge - Fly while charging, +5d6 fire
o Devoted Spirit
+ Divine Surge - Deal +8d8
+ Entangling Blade - Deal +2d6, target has -20' speed
o Diamond Mind
+ Bounding Assault - Double Move and attack
+ Mind Strike - 1d4 Wis dam
+ Ruby Nightmare Blade - double damage with Conc check
o Iron Heart
+ Lightning Recovery - Reroll a missed attack with +2 bonus
+ Mithral Tornado - Make attacks against adjacent foe, each with +2
o Setting Sun
+ Comet Throw - Throw foe
+ Strike of the Broken Shield - +4d6, make target flatfooted
o Shadow Hand
+ Hand of Death - Paralyze for 1d3 rounds
+ Obscuring Shadow Veil - +5d6 and target has 50% miss chance for one round
o Stone Dragon
+ Bonesplitting Strike - 2 Con damage
+ Boulder Roll - +4 on overrun
+ Overwhelming Mountain Strike - +2d6 damage, target loses move action
o Tiger Claw
+ Death from Above - Leap into air, deal +4d6
+ Fountain of Blood - Defeat foe, cause fear in enemies
o White Raven
+ Covering Strike - every foe you strike can't take AoOs for 3 rounds
+ White Raven Strike - +4d6, target flatfooted

* [size=16]Level 5[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Dragon's Flame - Cone deals 6d6 fire
+ Leaping Flame - Teleport next to foe attacking you
+ Lingering Inferno - +2d6 fire, and 2d6 fire for 3 more rounds
o Devoted Spirit
+ Daunting Strike - Target becomes shaken
+ Doom Charge - extra damage vs good, DR 10/-
+ Law Bearer - +4d6, +8 Atk against Chaotic, +5 Saves/AC
+ Radiant Charge - +6d6 vs Evil, DR 10/-
+ Tide of Chaos - Charge deals extra damage vs law, grants conceal
o Diamond Mind
+ Disrupting Blow - Foe cannot act for 1 round
+ Hearing the Air - Blindsense 30', +5 listen
+ Rapid Counter - Strike foe provokes attack from you
o Iron Heart
+ Dancing Blade Form - +5 reach
+ Dazing Strike - Daze opponent
+ Iron Heart Focus - Reroll 1 save
o Setting Sun
+ Mirrored Pursuit - Match opponent's move
+ Shifting Defense - 5' step with each miss against you
+ Soaring Throw - Throw enemy
+ Stalking Shadow - Move into foe's space as he tries to retreat
o Shadow Hand
+ Bloodletting Strike - 4 Con dam
+ Shadow Stride - Teleport 50' as Move Action
+ Step of the Dancing Moth - Ignore terrain, walk on water
o Stone Dragon
+ Elder Mountain Hammer - +6d6, ignore DR
+ Giant's Stance - Size Category +1
+ Mountain Avalanche - Trample foes.
o Tiger Claw
+ Dancing Mongoose - 1 extra attack per weapon
+ Pouncing Charge - Gain pounce on charge attack
o White Raven
+ Flanking Maneuver - Hit flanked foe, allies gain extra attack vs foe
+ Press the Advantage - +5 feet on 5' step, move in difficult terrain

* [size=16]Level 6[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Desert Tempest - Attack as you move
+ Fiery Assault - Melee Attacks deal +1d6 Fire
+ Ring of Fire - Surround foes with fire
o Devoted Spirit
+ Aura of Chaos - Reroll and add max dice
+ Aura of Perfect Order - Treat d20 as 11
+ Aura of Triumph - You and allies heal 4 points per attack against evil
+ Aura of Tyranny - Drain HP from allies
+ Rallying Strike - heals +3d6 + level in 30' burst.
o Diamond Mind
+ Greater Insightful Strike - Use Double Conc Check to determine damage
+ Moment of Alacrity - Gain +20 Init
o Iron Heart
+ Iron Heart Endurance - Heal hp 2 * level
+ Manticore Parry - Deflect attack, redirect at foe
o Setting Sun
+ Ballista Throw - Throw foe 60' line, deal 6d6 to all in area
+ Scorpion Parry - Parry attack into second opponent
o Shadow Hand
+ Ghost Blade - Target flatfooted
+ Shadow Noose - RTA 8d6 dam, chance of Stun
+ Stalker in the Night - Move and Attack while hidden
o Stone Dragon
+ Crushing Vise - +4d6 dam, immobilize creature
+ Iron Bones - Gain DR 10/Adam
+ Irresistable Mountain Strike - +4d6, target loses Standard Action
o Tiger Claw
+ Rabid Bear Strike - +4 Attack, +10d6, -4 AC
+ Wolf Climbs the Mountain - Enter square of larger foe, +5d6, gain Conceal from foe
o White Raven
+ Order Forged from Chaos - Allies move their speed during your turn
+ War Leader's Charge - No AoO while charging, +35 dam

* [size=16]Level 7[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Inferno Blade - +3d6 + Level fire damage
+ Salamander Charge - Charge and leave wall of fire
o Devoted Spirit
+ Castigating Strike - Deal +8d6, Area Burst
+ Shield Counter - Shield bash blocks foe attack
o Diamond Mind
+ Avalanche of Blades - Each attack that hits, make another at an increased pen.
+ Quicksilver Motion - Use swift Action for move action
o Iron Heart
+ Finishing Move - Extra damage vs weakened foe
+ Scything Blade - Strike one foe, free attack against another
o Setting Sun
+ Hydra Slaying Strike - Foe unable to use full attack action
o Shadow Hand
+ Death in the Dark - +15d6 to surprised target
+ Shadow Blink - Teleport 50' as swift action
o Stone Dragon
+ Ancient Mountain Hammer - +12d6, ignore DR
+ Colossus Strike - +6d6, foe knocked backwards
o Tiger Claw
+ Hamstring Attack - 1d8 Dex dam, -10' speed
+ Prey on the Weak - AoO for each foe that dies
+ Swooping Dragon Strike - Jump over foe, deal +10d6, Stun
o White Raven
+ Clarion Call - If you drop a foe, allies get free attack or move action
+ Swarming Assault - Allies make a free attack against foe you strike

* [size=16]Level 8[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Rising Phoenix - Hover on column of air
+ Wyrm's Flame - Cone 10d6 fire
o Devoted Spirit
+ Greater Divine Surge - +6d8, also gain +1 attack/+2d8 damage per point of Con damage you take
+ Immortal Fortitude - Cannot die from HP damage
o Diamond Mind
+ Diamond Defense - Save bonus equal to level
+ Diamond Nightmare Blade - 4x damage with Conc Check
+ Stance of Alacrity - +1 Attack per round
o Iron Heart
+ Adamantine Hurricane - 2 attack vs each adjacent foe, +4 Atk on each
+ Lightning Throw - Use melee attack as a line attack
+ Supreme Blade Parry - Gain DR 5/-
o Setting Sun
+ Fool's Strike - Redirect foe's attack
+ Ghostly Defense -- Foe's hit target of your choice while you have conceal
o Shadow Hand
+ Balance on the Sky - Walk on air
+ Enervating Shadow Strike - 1d4 negative levels
+ One with Shadow - Incorporeal, 1 round
o Stone Dragon
+ Adamantine Bones - DR 20/Adam
+ Earthstrike Quake - Knock enemies prone
+ Strength of Stone - Immune to Crits
o Tiger Claw
+ Girallon Windmill Flesh Rip - Gain ability to Rend foe
+ Raging Mongoose - 2 extra attacks with each weapon
+ Wolf Pack Tactics - Free 5' step with each attack
o White Raven
+ Swarm Tactics - Allies gain +5 Attack vs adjacent foes
+ White Raven Hammer - +6d6, Stun

* [size=16]Level 9[/size]
o Desert Wind
+ Inferno Blast - Burst, 100 fire damage
o Devoted Spirit
+ Strike of Righteous Vitality - Heal self
o Diamond Mind
+ Time Stands Still - Full attack action twice
o Iron Heart
+ Strike of Perfect Clarity - +100 damage
o Setting Sun
+ Tornado Throw - Move and throw repeatedly
o Shadow Hand
+ Five-Shadow Creeping Ice Enervation Strike - Cause HP, ability, other damage/effects
o Stone Dragon
+ Mountain Tombstone Strike - 2d6 con damage
o Tiger Claw
+ Feral Death Blow - Leap on foe, slay foe
o White Raven
+ War Master's Charge - You and allies charge, deal extra damage, stun, no AoO

Alternate Magic Systems / List of all Psionic Powers

« on: June 08, 2009, 11:00:44 AM »

Total list of all Psionic powers made so far. At the moment these are all from the Expanded Psionics Handbook.[ulist=disc]Animal Affinity
Assimilate
Astral Construct
Astral Seed
Aversion
Baleful Teleport
Banishment, Psionic
Bestow Power
Biofeedback
Bite of the Wolf
Body Adjustment
Body Equilibrium
Body Purification
Bolt
Brain Lock
Breath of the Black Dragon
Burst
Call Weaponry
Call to Mind
Catapsi
Chameleon
Charm, Psionic
Claw of Energy
Claws of the Beast
Claws of the Vampire
Compression
Conceal Thoughts
Concealing Amorpha
Concealing Amorpha, Greater
Concussion Blast
Control Air
Control Object
Control Sound
Create Sound
Crisis of Breath
Crisis of Life
Crystal Shard
Crystallize
Danger Sense
Darkvision, Psionic
Daze, Psionic
Deceleration
Decerebrate
Demoralize
Destiny Dissonance
Dimension Door, Psionic
Dimension Slide
Dimensional Anchor, Psionic
Dimensional Swap
Disable
Disintegrate, Psionic
Dismissal, Psionic
Dispel Psionics
Dispelling Buffer
Dissipating Touch
Dissolving Touch
Dissolving Weapon
Distract
Dominate, Psionic
Duodimensional Claw
Ectoplasmic Cocoon
Ectoplasmic Cocoon, Mass
Ectoplasmic Form
Ectoplasmic Shambler
Ectoplasmic Sheen
Ego Whip
Elf Sight
Empathic Feedback
Empathic Transfer
Empathic Transfer, Hostile
Empathy
Empty Mind
Energy Adaptation
Energy Adaptation, Specified
Energy Ball
Energy Bolt
Energy Burst
Energy Cone
Energy Current
Energy Missile
Energy Push
Energy Ray
Energy Retort
Energy Stun
Energy Wall
Energy Wave
Entangling Ectoplasm
Eradicate Invisibility
Ethereal Jaunt, Psionic
Evade Burst
Exhalation of the Black Dragon
Expansion
Far Hand
Fate Link
Force Screen
Form of Doom
Freedom of Movement, Psionic
Fuse Flesh
Genesis
Hail of Crystals
Hammer
Hustle
Hypercognition
Id Insinuation
Identify, Psionic
Immovability
Inertial Armour
Inertial Barrier
Inflict Pain
Insanity
Intellect Fortress
Iron Body, Psionic
Keen Edge, Psionic
Knock, Psionic
Matter Agitation
Mental Barrier
Mental Disruption
Metaphysical Claw
Metaphysical Weapon
Mind Blank, Personal
Mind Blank, Psionic
Mind Thrust
Mind Trap
Mindwipe
Moment of Prescience, Psionic
My Light
Null Psionics Field
Oak Body
Painful Strike
Power Leech
Power Resistance
Precognition
Precognition, Defensive
Precognition, Greater
Precognition, Offensive
Prescience, Offensive
Prevenom
Prevenom Weapon
Psionic Blast
Psionic Lock
Psionic Repair Damage
Psionic Revivify
Psychic Chirurgery
Psychic Crush
Psychic Reformation
Psychic Vampire
Psychofeedback
Recall Agony
Recall Death
Reddopsi
Restoration, Psionic
Retrieve
Second Chance
Shadow Body
Share Pain
Share Pain, Forced
Shatter Mind Blank
Skate
Steadfast Perception
Stomp
Strength of my Enemy
Swarm of Crystals
Synesthete
Telekinetic Maneuver
Telempathic Projection
Teleport, Psionic
Teleportation Circle, Psionic
Temporal Acceleration
Thicken Skin
Thought Shield
Time Hop
Time Hop, Mass
Tornado Blast
Touchsight
Tower of Iron Will
True Metabolism
True Seeing, Psionic
Truevenom
Truevenom Weapon
Ubiquitous Vision
Ultrablast
Vampiric Weapon
Vigor
Weapon of Energy[/ulist]

Alternate Magic Systems / Invocations: My Thoughts

« on: June 08, 2009, 10:57:51 AM »

I finally had the chance to take a look at the two invocation classes introduced in PRC 3.2: the warlock and the dragonfire adept.

I took a DFA through Endless Nights VI, starting at level 1 and finishing at level 38. (This is my second try with EN6, and I have yet to make it to level 40; I must still be missing an area or two...) For my warlock, I departed from the norm and dusted off Q's Mines of Twin Summit series (the first of the three modules can be found here). Actually intended as a multiplayer mod for two to four players, MTS can also be played in single mode. My warlock started the series at level 17; I actually have yet to complete my run through the series, but I reached level 40 roughly midway through the final module, MTS3: The Final Sunset.

While I did run into an issue or two (more on that later), the invocation system overall is wonderfully straightforward. The 36 quickslots offered in NWN are more than enough to accomodate the invocations and eldritch blast effects of the warlock, or the invocations and breath attacks of the dragonfire adept. After level-up, you need only add your new invocation to a quickslot in the usual way, and boom- you're good to go.

The DFA's breath weapon attacks are likewise similarly easy to set up, and generally work well. One notable exception is the cloud breath shape- though I understand that this has been fixed for PRC 3.3. While I will admit that losing access to cloud breath cramped my style a bit in EN6, I managed to do well enough with the other breaths at my disposal.

The warlock's essence and shape invocations (for modifying his eldritch blast), while similarly easy to set up on the quickslot bar, take some getting used to. I'm used to the way the warlock's abilities are handled in NWN2- where a shape slot and an essence slot can be merged together, thereby creating a new combo slot. This allows me to use different essence types each round in NWN2 (which is useful, as the unique secondary aspect of certain essence invocations [e. g., vitriolic acid damage] appears to be reset each round in NWN2, rather than being cumulative). By contrast, the PRC essence slots "mark" how the base eldritch blast (and, later, subsequently acquired shapes) should affect its target(s). I was concerned that this system would not allow me to change my essence type as quickly as I can in NWN2- but my fears were proven largely unfounded. The essence changing slots work fairly quickly (they appear to be an instant action as opposed to a round action), so changing my essence midattack isn't a problem. Moreover, I've found that I don't necessarily need to change my essence during a fight in order to damage my targets effectively- or survive a fight. (Let's face it- if I know my target takes double damage from acid, I'm unlikely to stop using anything but vitriolic blast on him...)

Strangely, while I have always had trouble aiming the eldritch cone in NWN2 (and it highlights your potential path for you), I didn't have any trouble managing either the eldritch line (warlock) or various dragon cloud and line breaths (DFA) here in NWN. Even better, eldritch doom appears around you (rather than NWN2's ranged circle attack), as indicated in PnP. Granted, staying alive while targeting enemies with doom (and eventually with the DFA's cloud breath) is a dicey proposition, but my warlock managed to stay alive to conduct such attacks without much trouble (well, mostly).

With respect to leveling up, the "conversation" system used to provide warlocks and DFAs with their invocations works like a dream. Unlike NWN2's spell-slot system (which requires you to take exactly three least, lesser, greater and dark invocations each during your first twenty levels), the conversation system allows for far more flexibility in choosing your powers, just like PnP. (If you want to, you can take all least invocations.) One feature of both the warlock and DFA classes I miss here, though, is the ability to replace an unneeded invocation with one of equal or lesser power (at each level in which a new invocation is granted); for instance, once my DFA had learned devour magic, I would have liked being able to replace voracious dispelling with a new invocation. While I can live without this feature (I gather this would be a pain to code?), it does mean that invocation selection requires more thought than normal: once you've chosen an invocation, you need to plan to live with it.

On the other hand, I greatly enjoy the major advantage of the invocation system: unlimited casting, which translates to fewer resting periods required. Both the warlock and DFA only need rest either to restore their few daily usage powers (e. g., warlock fiendish resilience) or to regain health. (Nab a decent regeneration item, and you don't even need to worry about that!) This proved especially handy in the MTS series, which uses a bedroll and rations system for resting.

The warlock and dragonfire adept are sufficiently different (in their approach to invocations, feats, weapons, etc.) that each really deserves its own topic; I plan to add my thoughts on each class in the Classes forum in the next few days. Here, I'll try to recall my thoughts on my favorite invocations, other powers I found to be useful, and those which were either not as interesting to me or otherwise problematic. (As is the case with any opinion, your mileage- or kilometerage [yes, that's a word now], for metric system folk- may vary.)

Let's start with my favorite warlock invocations:

- Honestly, I was pretty happy with each of the eldritch blast shape invocations my character chose: eldritch spear (combat at a distance), eldritch chain (sharing the "wealth" in an orderly fashion), eldritch line (again, the cone from NWN2 still stumps me a bit- but I could handle the line here just fine) and eldritch doom (raining death around me- as it should be). While I might enjoy seeing a more visual manifestation of the line and doom powers, I'm more than satisfied seeing the string of numbers hovering over the heads of my enemies, showing my blast has found its mark.

- Likewise, I greatly enjoy taking and using eldritch essence invocations. I'm especially partial to the various energy-based essences: brimstone blast (fire), hellrime blast (cold), vitriolic blast (acid) and utterdark blast (negative energy).
Many of the enemies in MTS were particularly vulnerable to one of these alternative energy types- or, for the more powerful enemies, were less invulnerable to one. I especially favor vitriolic blast, since it allows for additional damage in subsequent rounds AND ignores spell resistance. Brimstone blast, with its potential for subsequent damage, likewise appeals to me. I'm not quite as enthralled with the hellrime blast secondary effect (Dex penalty), though I dare say even it can be exploited effectively (perhaps by a sudden switch to weapon strikes). Of the four energy essences I tried, I was probably least enthused by utterdark blast. Because of the secondary effect (two negative levels), I have determined that this is a power best taken early in a warlock's career, if at all. (I grabbed it very late in my career- level 38; at that stage, many enemies in my power range won't be affected as badly by the two-level drop; as many such enemies will have high Fortitude saves, they won't be affected very often by this effect, either.) Nevertheless, utterdark is useful as an alternative energy type.

Of the three non-energy essences I chose (sickening blast, beshadowing blast and binding blast), my favorite by far was binding blast (the warlock's answer to Power Word Stun). When a different energy type wasn't indicated, I found it greatly satisfying to pelt my enemies with binding blast, watching them stand still... and still... until they dropped. (Unless their will save was too good, that is...) Neither sickening blast nor beshadowing blast's effects were exactly exciting to me, though I found that each is still preferable (usually) to the vanilla eldritch blast. (I'll concede that beshadowing blast's blinding ability in particular could really help cut back on attacks from swarms of enemies. I actually chose it for another reason- more on that in my warlock thread...)

Of the non-eldritch blast affecting invocations, my favorites include:
- Darkness and breath of the night. Sometimes, simple is better. Even starting at level 17, my warlock was saved more than once by the application of one of these invocations (or both, simultaneously- yes, I'm crazy) during my run through MTS. (For pure cheesiness, I found that I could apply the breath in a safe location, then march onward; thus, while my enemies would be confounded by the breath's concealment on me, I would have no such problem.) Eventually, these invocations gave way to...
- Retributive invisibility. Take the invisibility and concealment granted by greater invisibility, add a dash of sonic power and stunning (upon a successful dispel), and what do you get? One of my favorite invocations, period. You may need to try to "help" enemy spellcasters by dispelling this yourself, though; for some reason, the enemy spellcasters in MTS either didn't think to try dispelling this off of me- or weren't very good at doing so.
- Chilling tentacles: With all of the various essence and shape invocations, plus regular powers, at my disposal, it was easy to forget that I had this one available to me. Eventually, I found myself using it fairly frequently, as it was my only source of cold damage for some time (I believe I was in epic levels when I finally picked up hellrime blast).
- Wall of perilous flame: Although I sometimes had trouble placing my wall effectively, this ended up saving me more than once when I was overwhelmed by the sheer power- or number- of enemies I was facing. While it is, of course, more effective on enemies affected by fire, it's easy to forget that half of the wall's damage is magical in nature (and therefore useful even against fireproof foes). One of my favorite invocations overall, and perhaps my best offensive power.
- Path of shadow: The ultimate teleport spell, with a heal effect thrown in. What's not to like? (More cheesiness: Set a teleporter point at the front door of your current dungeon/space, then use path as needed to heal quickly if you get in a jam...)

Also, there was one invocation I didn't get a chance to take during my MTS run, but hope to try out when I install PRC 3.3: word of changing. ("Yes, evil Sun God, I did just tell you to cluck like a chicken...")

Now for the warlock invocations I found of use- albeit with reservations:
- Beguiling influence: After spending most of my NWN career playing wizards (who have no particular social skill), I must admit to having enjoyed the novelty of claiming competence in all three social skills during my run as a warlock in NWN2. I like the idea in NWN as well, and the invocation itself works perfectly. My caveat: the social skills are rarely used in NWN, at least in any modules I've encountered. (Neither EN4 nor EN6 feature their use at all; the MTS series only has a couple of instances where social skills are useful, though not essential.) In the right module, this would be a solid pick; otherwise, you're better off looking elsewhere.
- Hideous blow: I tried taking this rather late in my career (level 38). I had imagined that my improved BAB would help me to connect with this more often; instead, I found that I was receiving "too many instructions" (TMI) errors when I tried to use it- and that it had no effect whatsoever. However, when I tried using hideous blow with an 18th level version of my character, it worked perfectly. My concerns with hideous blow during this run may well be unfounded, though, as I have yet to try it out in PRC 3.3a...
- Dark discorporation: Don't get me wrong- I don't think I could have even finished MTS without this invocation. Its immunity to weapon damage and critical hits saved my bacon more times than I can count. However, the discorporation appears to be a bit more powerful than expected in its current form- and I'm not entirely clear on what I should be able to do. In addition to the 4d6 swarm attack indicated in the manual description (I just determined that such an attack was in fact happening; it was also being resisted, but that's neither here nor there), I have found that I have full use of my eldritch blast powers, including all shapes (is this normal?). Moreover, I receive an eldritch glaive when I transform; rather than delivering my eldritch blast, though, it does only 3 + Str bonus in damage when it hits (which I assume... I shouldn't be doing?).

Finally, the warlock invocations that weren't as appealing to me:
- Flee the scene: Arguably the greatest change Obsidian made for NWN2 was changing flee the scene from a personal dimension door (with illusory component) to a mass haste spell (and a borked one at that- the caster himself only received the equivalent of expeditious retreat). As such, I was looking forward to the PRC implementation of the invocation. Unfortunately, the "selection" version of flee the scene is hampered by a rather short range (an engine limitation of some sort, I gather?), limiting its usefulness to me. As for the "distance and direction" version, this may be the least intuitive invocation offered in the PRC, at least for me. Admittedly, I'm not used to a spell that both cannot be cast from a quick slot (it requires an enemy to target when you try) AND requires use of the NWN talking interface to provide the distance- in meters. (That takes a bit of thought to figure out- the range is given in NWN in feet- and a calculator, since I'm of the English measurement system. For the record, a meter is about 3.28 feet.) [Incidentally, when I do use the distance/direction version- yes, I do use it, though not as often as some of the other powers- my duplicate appears next to me, instead of the spot I just left. Is this normal?]
- Stony grasp: While I had another reason to take this invocation (more on that in the warlock thread), I must admit that I didn't use this very often. While it does seem to be a bit sturdier than its cousin, earthen grasp, it never seemed to serve as more than a temporary distraction on my behalf. While that is sometimes enough, I found that it didn't generally last long enough to justify casting it very often.
- Enervating shadow: Again, this is one of those powers whose end result just didn't justify its casting very often. While it might be useful against a band of rogues, it didn't even slow down many of my foes in MTS- and it doesn't really last long enough in any case (and doesn't affect a given foe once subjected to it for 24 hours- hopefully, he'll no longer be a problem by then, but still...).

Now I'll look at my thoughts on the dragonfire adept's invocations. Since they aren't strictly invocations, I'll leave details on his breath attacks for his section in the Classes forum. With that said, since his breath attacks form the core of his best offensive ability, I generally found myself leaning away from offensive invocations for my DFA (e. g., the two roars, scalding gust). While sound in theory, this did reduce the potential list of invocations I had at my disposal- and the DFA's list is (due to engine limitations) rather small as it is. Even so, I managed to find at least two invocations per grade that were of interest to me.

Let's start with my DFA's least invocation picks:
- Again, breath of the night and darkness were my early picks for this grade; separately or together, they proved to be just as effective in keeping my DFA alive as they were for my warlock. Unlike the warlock, though, the DFA doesn't have a greater invisibility invocation waiting for him in later grades; as such, my DFA continued to use this combo throughout his career to great effect.
- Given the choice between magic insight (the equivalent of an identify spell) and draconic knowledge. I opted for the latter. Its Lore boost proved to be sufficient for identifying the various magic items I found in EN6 (which, to be honest, were fairly rare in any case), while the Spellcasting boost allowed me to identify more enemy spellcaster's spells than I otherwise might have. Best of all: its duration (24 hours).
- See the unseen: Normally, in the course of a high-level module, you would expect to be tripping over magic items with the true sight effect. However, EN6 proved to be especially stingy in that regard, so I ended up picking this invocation up rather later in my DFA's career. I found myself wishing I had taken this sooner, as the ability to pick out invisible spellcaster's locations immediately- without blind breathing- proved invaluable.

Lesser grade picks for my DFA were tricky; there were only three powers at this grade that even interested me at first (and one of them turned out to be non-functional):
- Energy resistance: Probably the best pick for this grade. Having access to damage resistance for five different energy types meant that I would rarely take damage from any of them. (Of course, the story gets better- but more on that later...)
- Voracious dispelling: Recommended, with reservations. If you find yourself really in need of a dispel (and I'll admit, I like the novelty of a dispel that actually damages your target, albeit for little damage), it's probably worth grabbing as soon you can. However, I found that once I had acquired devour magic, I never used this one again. So, again: if you need it, and can't wait for devour magic, this will do fine.
- Humanoid shape: Looking back, I must admit that I'm not sure what good this invocation would have done me. I can see it making for an effective disguise, though I suspect few modules would ever take that into consideration. I imagine some potential humanoids would have superior physical stats for the DFA to rely on (a la the shifter). In any case, though, like someone else before me, I couldn't get this to work at all for me- though I understand this has been fixed in PRC 3.3.
- Charm: I didn't actually take this invocation; EN6's quest system generally requires all enemies for a given quest to be killed off, so I saw little point in taking it here. In a different module, though, this would definitely be worth considering.

Pickings became even slimmer at the greater grade level. By dismissing the terrifying roar effect (which, now that I'm taking a closer look at it, does have definite crowd control potential), I found myself left with four invocation choices. Of those four, two were absolute must-haves, one was a solid pick, and the last one... has intriguing potential:
- Aura of flame: The only damage shield invocation that I'm aware of- and what an invocation it is! One of my favorite invocations period, and my favorite DFA defensive power. While it is true that many enemies may be fire resistant, most will not. (And, of course, there are ways to make an enemy vulnerable to fire- more on that later...)
- Devour magic: If you can wait until you start gaining greater invocations for a dispel power, this is the one to get. The dispelling itself is more effective (d20 plus level [maximum of 20, as opposed to ten for voracious dispelling])- and the bonus HP you receive for a successful dispel don't hurt, either.
- Draconic toughness: Admittedly, since a DFA will normally be boosting his Constitution throughout his career, he should have HP coming out of his ears by the end of his career, making the temporary gain from this invocation seem modest by comparison. Even so, this is a basic, "no-nonsense" power- and certainly a solid choice for meeting a DFA's defensive needs.
- Chilling fog: My DFA grabbed this power fairly early in his career, but only ended up using it a few times. I ran into some of the same issues reported in this thread (i. e., unable to use again for full duration of power, even if dispelled via power or rest). I'll look forward to trying this out again now that this has been fixed in PRC 3.3.

Finally, I had a chance to check out the dark DFA invocations- all two of them. But what invocations they are:
- Energy immunity: Arguably the best defensive invocation possessed by the DFA. Again, as with energy resistance, you have five potential immunities at your disposal. I used the fire version almost exclusively in EN6, as the spellcasters there had this unfortunate habit of bombarding me with delayed blast and regular fireballs, incendiary clouds and meteor swarms; with the fire immunity in effect, my DFA walked through all of these without suffering a scratch. (Indeed, between this invocation, energy resistance and the resistances I was able to gain through draconic feats and auras [more on that in my DFA thread], I found myself rarely taking elemental energy damage in EN6.)
- Instill vulnerability: Arguably the best offensive invocation available to the DFA, when used in concert with his breath weapon. If my enemy didn't have an elemental vulnerability, I gave him one with this power (typically fire, so that the enemy can damage himself even more on my aura of flame- though on occasion the sonic and acid versions were also useful). If he did already have one, I would give him a second one, then really go to town on him with alternating breath weapons. (Admittedly, this strategy can break down when facing a horde of enemies; however, in EN6 I found that most such hordes had at most one "boss" enemy, and I was able to zap him with my vulnerability to wear him down, while dealing with other horde members simultaneously without it.)

In short: invocations make for an impressive addition to the PRC library. Warlocks and dragonfire adepts everywhere: welcome to the fold.

[Please note that most of this posting was written before the final release of PRC 3.3a; as such, I suspect that many of my concerns may have been addressed in that release. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go- my warlock needs to save a world from its evil Sun God...]

Alternate Magic Systems / Psionics: My Experiences to Date

« on: June 05, 2009, 02:39:45 PM »

I thought I'd pass along my thoughts on the psionics system as I've experienced it so far. Hopefully, you'll bear with my vague recollections on the subject, as it's been some time since I completed my first run using the class.

I've had the chance to try out two different psions. I've successfully taken a human egoist psion through Endless Nights VI (he finished as a psion 4/wizard 6/cerebremancer 28). I'm also currently going through a second run of Endless Nights IV, using an ogre shaper psion (currently at 23rd level).

Overall, I found that the psion system was a generally well-done system. The casting of the psion's various powers never struck me as jerky or awkward; each casting went fairly smoothly for me. Actually, the only times I can recall getting stuck on a screen involved pulling up the inventory screen (and I'm not sure that's a psionics issue, anyway).

I will admit, however, that it took me a while to get used to the augmentation system, as well as metapsionics. It took me some time to decipher just how each power's effects could be modified via augmentation, as well as how to do so. Similarly, I had to play with the metapsionic buttons a bit before realizing that a metapsionic is always on or off- and when on is always applied to a power if appropriate (and the psion can afford the PP cost, and has established psionic focus- whew!). Once I reviewed the PRC manual, things started to make more sense to me- though here, as in many situations, I did better learning by trial and error.

Apart from figuring out how augmentation and metapsionics work, another intimidating aspect of the system was determining how to set up your hot keys (36 in total) to enable a smooth psionic casting experience. Because the PRC in general has so many features added as feats, it can take some time to find the power or feat you're looking for; as such, I considered adding the bulk of my most needed items to the hot bar of utmost importance. Alas, I found rather quickly that even for my pure psion, 36 hot keys simply wasn't quite enough to access all of your powers, meatpsionics and augmentation possibilities. (You can imagine how batty I was going playing my first character- trying to find places for my favorite spells in addition to all of the psionic items...) My pure psion has his hot keys set up fairly well: six or so devoted to augmentation (including one so I can turn it off quickly), four or five for metapsionics, psionic focus, PRC options, and most of the remainder devoted to his favorite/most used powers. My cerebremancer was set up similarly, though he did have a few of his better direct damage spells snuck in there as well.

Which powers were hits for me? Well, let's start with the general powers first (before moving on to the disciplines in which each character has "majored").

My playing style for all of my characters- even the arcane spellcasters- tends to involve having a lot of buffing spells at my disposal; typically, before an encounter, I'll buff myself to the max, make note of what attack spells I have at my disposal- then jump into the fray (within melee range if the strength of the encounter doesn't discourage such a thing). The psion has a great variety of buff powers at its disposal, making it a fun class for me. Indeed, with enough buffs on me, I found that both of my higher-level psions were nearly as effective in hand-to-hand combat as a warrior of equal level. (Admittedly, though, the road to those higher levels is more than a little bumpy; I must admit that both characters died more than once in their respective adventures [yes, I worship the reload button].) I was able to augment my characters' ability to survive the early levels by finding ways to improve both his weapon selection and armor (psionics not being subject to spell failure is a major plus for me). My cerebremancer didn't worry so much about armor, since his classes were already spoken for (otherwise, I'd ahve taken a level in a more martial class); instead, he spent feats on martial weapons. (My pure psion had an easier time beefing himself up, since as an ogre, he knew all about medium armor and simple and martial weapons.)

In general, I found myself seeking out and favoring the general AC buffs (Inertial Armor, Force Screen, Defensive Precognition), Biofeedback (for damage reduction), Vigor and True Metabolism (for increased or maintained HP), Energy Adaptation (far superior to the magic version, since its effects don't expire based on damage absorbed by the power), and many of the offensive buffs available, both those which affect your enemy when he hits you (Energy Retort and Empathic Feedback) and those which increase your ability to- and damage potential when- hitting your enemy (Offensive Precognition, Offensive Prescience, Psionic Keen Edge). Naturally, I didn't have access to all of these powers right away; however, by the time I did have them, I found that casting them on me simultaneously provided me with a fairly impressive combat presence (especially the ogre, who wasn't doing too badly in that regard on his own).

I also took Bolt as an initial power (for both characters), as the bolts created came in handy during my early levels- when you're better off fighting from a distance (or at least with a ranged weapon). The bolts don't disappear, either, even though their bonuses do, leaving a steady stream of such ammunition at your disposal. Again, that's quite useful during your early levels, when you're not sure you can survive simply walking outside.

While I did take some direct damage powers as well, I found that I didn't use them as often as my buffing powers. Because of the way psionics works, the energy powers are only equivalent to an arcane caster's spell of equal level when he first gains it. Where the wizard or sorcerer need only gain more levels to see his spell's powers increase, the psion must in addition expend PP to augment his power to that higher level. Often, I found that a waste of PP that could be used in some other manner, such as renewing a short-lived buff. (This was especially true of my cerebremancer, who was fairly tripping over the plethora of offensive spells at his command.) On the other hand, a well-timed energy power was often of great use to me (especially in EN4- the crowds there can get out of control); it also helps that many of these powers come in four flavors, including one allowing for a saving throw other than Reflex (cold), two with extra damage (cold and fire), and one of an energy type to which few beings will have a natural resistance (sonic). My favorites (aside from the previously mentioned Bolt): Energy Missile, Energy Stun, Energy Burst, Swarm of Crystals, Ectoplasmic Shambler, Breath of the Black Dragon, Psionic Disintegrate, Ultrablast and Energy Wave.

Of the miscellaneous powers available, I really didn't take too many. Neither EN4 nor EN6 have any real use for the various social skills (Bluff, Intimidate, Persuade), so powers that augment such skills (Conceal Thoughts, Empathy, Telempathic Projection) aren't that useful there- which is unfortunate, as I think I would have enjoyed having such options. (They vaguely remind me of the warlock's Beguiling Influence invocation in NWN2.) I did grab both Dispel Psionics and Body Adjustment fairly early, though. Dispel Psionics was essential for dealing with all of the pesky spellcaster types who wanted to pound my poor body with their various, unsanitary attack spells. As for Body Adjustment, even though a character of high enough level should be well enough off to have skads of healing potions at his disposal, I couldn't resist the novelty of an arcane-type (well, sort of) having access to healing magic. (Er, power. Heck, you know what I mean...) I took Psychic Reformation when it first became available as well; it's a nice insurance policy in case you think you may have chosen the wrong power at a given level. Finally, I normally would pass on a power like Psionic Moment of Prescience; since it only lasts one round, it's not an especially attractive combat spell for me. However, I did end up grabbing it fairly early (for both characters), as the skill enhancing version can be quite useful (open locks, anyone?).

Which psionic powers didn't appeal to me as much? Well, the most noticeable thing to me while building my characters was that at higher levels, at a time when I should theoretically have been looking forward to finally gaining access to the seventh through ninth level powers... I generally wasn't. Ironically enough, I determined that for the PP cost of these spells, I was happier augmenting one of my lower level powers instead. To be fair, many of these powers are of the insta-death variety (Crisis of Life, Decerebrate, Recall Death, Assimilate, Microcosm), which generally don't appeal to me in their arcane versions, either (though I'll admit the descriptions for the latter two certainly intrigue me). Powers that require melee or ranged touch attacks (e. g., Dissipating Touch, Energy Ray) to work don't appeal to me, either; as a psion- even with the assistance provided by increasing the target area that a touch attack provides- I have trouble hitting the side of a barn. Many of the powers available last for a single round by default, including the various mental shields (Mental Barrier, Thought Shield, Intellect Fortress, Tower of Iron Will); I wasn't inclined to take these in my earlier levels, though depending on the effect (and whether or not I've found a magic item that does the same thing- EN4 in particular is well known for dungeons that have you literally tripping over no end of magic items and armor), I might take it later in my career (when I can augment the duration to a more respectable period of time). Finally, the various alternate body powers (Ectoplasmic Form, Oak Body, Psionic Iron Body, Shadow Form) either didn't, in my mind, provide benefits on par with their level, or else they came with noteworthy drawbacks (e. g., Iron Body's spell failure is of no concern to a psion- unless he's also a wizard- but the reduced DEX and speed is difficult to ignore, despites the form's otherwise useful benefits).

As for the disciplines, I've been able to play with two so far. First up: my human cerebremancer's pick, psychometabolism.

My favorite egoist power: probably Animal Affinity. Having the capability of boosting my stats in a variety of ways came in quite handy- especially since I didn't have to poach on my second level wizard spells to do so. Also wonderful: Thicken Skin (for more AC goodness- with all of the AC buffs at his disposal, my cerebremancer can hit an AC of 70 or more), Empathic Transfer (at least the idea sounds useful; actually, my Leadership follower was a troll fighter, so I rarely used this one) and Psionic Restoration (with all of the beasts in EN6 able to drain either stats or levels, it was quite handy not having to worry about looking for a potion or scroll to remove such ill effects). On the other hand, I stayed away from powers such as Chameleon (I rarely use the Hide skill), Ectoplasmic Form (immunity to critical hits may have been useful- but easy access to Stoneskin means the damage reduction wasn't as helpful to me), Hustle (haste for one round? True to PnP, but not worth using a power slot; since he was also a wizard, he instead learned the Haste spell, which lasted longer and was easily replaced once he found a magic item with Haste baked into it), Psychic Vampire (in EN6, I'm the only source of PP around; if draining an enemy's mental stat is useful- and I can easily reach him to do so- I can also bash his head in instead) and Psychofeedback (I generally don't pursue powers or spells that can reduce any of my abilities, even if they might also enhance a different one).

I did grab Psionic Revivify (again, the novelty of a sort-of arcane type raising the dead was too much to resist), but found that it wouldn't work on my Leadership follower (he was a troll fighter). I didn't have the chance to try it out on other companions in EN6, either, so it didn't see any real use during the mod. [I just reloaded my last game from EN6 to check on the troll issue some more. I tried killing off or dismissing the troll and summoning cohorts of differing races, killing them, then trying Psionic Revivify. In each case (human, aasimar, goblin and mind flayer), it worked fine- though I found that the original level of my new cohort (38th, like me) had dropped down to 16th after being raised. Weird, that, isn't it? Wonder what I did? ]

(Incidentally, I was curious: neither Metamorphosis nor Greater Metamorphosis were implemented for the psionics system. Any reason why? I ask because the absence of higher level powers for the egoist is quite noticeable...)

My current character is an ogre psion (23rd level), studying the metacreativity discipline. The shaper has a lot of nifty powers at his disposal. My favorite has to be Genesis, the arcane equivalent of Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion; it's worth casting in succession just to see what each of the demiplanes you've brought into existence looks like (though its use as a portable rest area cannot be ignored, either). Because few of the high-level powers appealed to me, I didn't mind Genesis being two levels higher than its arcane counterpart. Other fun powers for me in this discipline include Astral Construct (the psionic Summon Monster- building your construct takes a little while to figure out, but is worth the effort), Greater Concealing Amorpha, Hail of Crystals and Astral Seed (or at least the idea- given the way EN4 handles death, I have at least 20 deaths to go before I see how the Seed actually brings me back to life). The two Ectoplasmic Cocoon powers interest me as well (though I usually don't have the patience to wait for an enemy to stand still before I start my attack).

On the other hand, I haven't bothered selecting Psionic Repair Damage (my constructs don't last long enough for me to worry about my healing them- and other constructs I'm likely to encounter tend to want to beat me up). Also, despite having chosen it, I rarely use Crystallize (essentially a psionic Flesh to Stone- and I'm not that wild about the arcane version, either).

When all is said and done, though? Playing psionics in NWN is a total gas. As I stated previously, it did take me some time to get used to all of its various nuances and individual trademarks. However, doing so is truly worthwhile- and I feel like I haven't even scratched the surface regarding the possibilities available as a psion. (That's certainly true enough: while I've analyzed the general powers to my satisfaction, the disciplines are another matter. Two down, four to go...)

Other Features / Level Adjustment, Races, and You - A Highly Opinionated Piece

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:20:03 AM »

Level Adjustment, Races, and You

-Introduction-
~Written for the NWN1 3.2 PRC from a Single Player Perspective~

I'd been playing with the PRC since around the 2.0 release, maybe earlier. Somewhere between then and 3.0, I was fiddling around with the switches and noticed a bunch of them called "Simple LA". After reading a bit about "Level Adjustment" in a few PnP sources, I decided I liked using it.

With the metric ton of races that were just released in the 3.2 version of the Player Resource Consortium, it can be mind-boggling figuring out what to pick, with all these races that possess so many different abilities ranging from +attribute modifiers to immunities.

However, these fancy new races not only have (mostly) highly beneficial traits, they also have a Level Adjustment to prevent them from being cheesier than they already are.

In response, I started writing up some stuff to use as a self-reference, and it eventually ballooned into something else entirely... Which I'll now show to you guys so you can pick it apart.

-What is Level Adjustment?-

Technically speaking, Level Adjustment increases a character's ECL, or Effective Character Level. If a character that is Level 1 is a Drow, he'll have a Level Adjustment of +2. This +2 LA increases his ECL from Level 1 to Level 3.

Mechanically speaking, he'll be treated as a Level 3 character despite having the stats of a Level 1 Drow. How, you ask? In his experience gain. In effect, he'll be gaining less experience than other Level 1 characters.

For the PRC's Simple LA switch, a character with level adjustment gains experience at a rate of:

(C/(C+LA))x(EXP)

Where C=character level, LA=level adjustment, and EXP=experience points gained.

For our Level 1 Drow, if he kills a creature for 100 exp, he doesn't actually get 100 exp. Instead he gets:

(1/(1+2))x(100)... In other words, 1/3 of 100 experience.

-The Severity of Level Adjustment-

This might look serious to you-- it might not. After all, the reduction per exp gain will become lighter as you gain more levels. A Level 5 Drow would gain experience at a rate of:

(5/(5+2)), or 5/7. Not so bad.

But at lower levels, you might find yourself at a significant disadvantage as a melee class. Any ability boosts you have to attack bonus or HP might be negated by the fact that you're not getting the proper BAB and class hitdie that other characters at similar points of the game would have.

Casters are hit even harder. On +2 LA races alone, every bit of lost experience builds up such that you're probably going to be one spell level behind your peers. You'll find yourself stuck with Fireball while your friends are already throwing out Ice Storm.

Level Adjustment doesn't hurt so bad in hack-and-slash modules where the increasingly difficult enemies give you increasing amounts of experience in proportion to your regular character level rather than your ECL, and hurts more when you've got a quest-heavy module with set amounts of experience rewards.

-Why turn it on in the first place?-

By default, Level Adjustment is off, and from what I've said, there appears to be no practical reason at all to turn on the Level Adjustment options for the PRC. In fact, anyone who predominantly plays casters will probably be even more discouraged from switching LA on. However, reasons DO exist for using it:

1) To be closer to the feel of PnP D&D.
2) To feel far less cheesy. I mean, you're telling me you don't feel guilty wading through the game as a Rakshasa with that DR, SR, and huge CON boost?
3) To have a reason to use some of the "lesser" races. I mean, if you can just pick an Illithid to become a supercaster, why would you ever want to be a Human? With Level Adjustment, you've actually got an incentive to pick someone a bit lower down on the ladder rungs, like the Air Genasi.

-General Guidelines-

Without Level Adjustment, the best races are rather easy to point out.

For Non-Casters:

Troll - Massive Strength, similarly massive Constitution (+12), and high regeneration rate make playing Neverwinter Nights incredibly easy. Seriously, walk up to something, hit it until it's dead, move on. If you take too much damage, rest/wait around until you're up to full HP. These guys are the PRC's Easy Mode.
Zakya Rakshasa - Slightly less Strength and Constitution (+10) than a Troll but still disgustingly overpowered, Zakya make up for it with having no attribute penalties and a host of other abilities, not the least of which is SR and DR.
Naztharune Rakshasa - The Dexterity equivalent of the Zakya, starting with a Sneak Attack and HiPS that makes you the equivalent of a Rogue 6/Shadowdancer 1 from the get-go.
Bralani Eladrin - Equally powerful in Strength and Dexterity (+8), Bralani also have a plethora of at-will spell-like abilities and the typical Outsider qualities including SR and DR.
For Casters:

Illithid - Having the highest Intelligence (+8) of the PRC races alone is enough to make the Illithid one of the kings of casting.
Nymph - Sharing the highest Charisma (+8) bonus with only one other Race, Nymphs also have Unearthly Grace that boosts their AC and saves equal to their Charisma mod.
For Gishes:

Drider - Respectably good bonuses in casting (Int/Wis/Cha +4/+6/+6), Driders also have a large +6 Constitution, SR, and +AC to make them very durable as well. Then there's the +4 Str/Dex that makes them impressive combatants outside of casting.
Rakshasa - High Charisma (+6), high Con (+6) +AC, DR, and the highest Spell Resistance out of all PRC races (27). You'd not only make a good caster, but you're a tank against anything.
With Level Adjustment, though, what's considered a "good" race or not becomes a bit of a blurrier line. I generally follow the guidelines below.

For Non-Casters:

No Level Adjustment - So long as the physical attribute or attributes that affect important sub-abilities are either unaffected or gain a boost, you should be fine here.

+1 Level Adjustment - In general, you want some combination (at least +2) of +Dex, +Str, and +Con. +AC would also be nice. Alternatively, attribute bonuses to stuff like Wisdom or Intelligence or having things like Elemental Resistances with no/few penalties would be nice as well.

Recommended Examples: Scro, Catfolk, Half-Giant.

+2 Level Adjustment - You should go after some serious +Dex/+Str, +Con, +AC, Elemental Resistances, SR, or Immunities to make up for the fragility that comes from being some levels behind.

Recommended Examples: Githyanki, Orog, Flind.

+3 Level Adjustment and above - Races with some incredible combination of enormous +Dex/+Str (at least +6), high +Con, high +AC, great Elemental Resistances, Immunities, Spell Resistance, Spell-Like Abilities, or something else that makes the race stand out are the only ones that are seriously viable-- otherwise, you're might as well be walking glass.

Recommended Examples: Troll, Zakya Rakshasa, Naztharune Rakshasa.
For Casters:

No Level Adjustment - The most preferred amount of Level Adjustment. So long as you don't get a penalty in your main casting attribute, the race works. Though it would be better to have an attribute increase in said casting attribute, a +Con/+Dex/+AC boost that doesn't simultaneously affect that attribute, or something that's distinctly useful. Or maybe a combination of any of that.

Recommended Examples: Deep Imaskari, Neraph, Elan.

+1 Level Adjustment - +1 LA is worth it if you can get at least +2 to your central spellcasting stat, or if the race has stuff that'll help you survive (+AC, +Con, SR) without having a detriment to your spellcasting at the same time.

Recommended Examples: Aasimar, Water Genasi, Viletooth Lizardfolk.

+2 Level Adjustment - +2 LA is what I consider the stopping point before your spells start to suck too much. You either want at least a serious boost in your central spellcasting attribute, or getting significant improvements to your suvivability (high +AC, high +Con, Immunities, etcetera).

Recommended Examples: Volodni, Dragonkin.

+3 Level Adjustment and above - Almost never worth it.
For Gishes:

No Level Adjustment - If you're concerned more about spellcasting or at least keeping casting balanced with physical combat, then at the very least you want a race that does not take a hit in either your central spellcasting attribute or your main physical attribute (Dex or Str).

+1 Level Adjustment - You'll want either improved durability (+Con, +saves, +AC, SR), better attacking (+Dex, +Str), a +2 to your spellcasting attribute, or some combination of those three while not sacrificing anything/too much in any of them.

+2 Level Adjustment - This is pushing it for your spells. You should be looking for high +AC, +Con, +Dex/+Str, +Int/+Cha/+Wis, Resistances, SR, Immunities, or anything else useful while trying to avoid -Con, -Dex/-Str, and -Int/-Cha/-Wis unless it's worth it.

+3 Level Adjustment and above - At this point, your spells are relegated to just buffing. You should be looking for some combination of very large amounts of +Dex/+Str, high +AC, high +Con, SR, Immunities, Spell-Like Abilities, Elemental Resistances, etctera. Once you have this, you can take at most a -2 in your main spellcasting attribute since you're not going to be slinging spells at foes until you start reaching serious Epic levels, and -2 is the cutoff point before your casting becomes seriously hampered in just getting the needed attribute score to use spells.

-Race Comparison-

If you're interested in one person's ranting, then we can get to looking at my opinion of each individual race choice. We'll only be looking at races introduced by the PRC, and each race entry will have this format:

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[Race Name and Type(s)]
[Favored Class]
[Level Adjustment]

[Special Conditions (If any)]
[List of Abilities]: All stat boosts, racial abilities, and such.

[Race as Non-Caster]: An evaluation of the race outside of spellcasting.

[Race as Caster]: An evaluation of the race in terms of spellcasting, emphasizing 9th level spellcasters.

[Race as Gish]: An evaluation of the race as a hybrid melee-caster. Base Class examples include Cleric and Wilder, and Class combination examples include Psion/Sanctified Mind.

[Caveat]: Some [other] things that might be wrong with a race. Usually relates to Racial Hitdie, which I personally leave turned off. Call me a cherrypicker when it comes to PnP options.

[Personal Notes (If any)]

Alright then, let's get to it. In alphabetical order...

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Aasimar - Outsider, Human
Favored Class: Paladin
Level Adjusment - +1

+2 Charisma, +2 Wisdom
Darkvision
Skill Affinity (Spot), Skill Affinity (Listen)
Cold Resistance 5, Acid Resistance 5, Electrical Resistance 5
Level 3 Light - 1/day

Race as Non-Caster: Aasimar make solid Paladins, and the relatively minor level adjustment is not bad for a tradeoff of better stats that help precisely the stats that Paladins' support abilities use, along with darkvision and some elemental resistances-- all of which are against quite common elements.

Race as Caster: Nice stat boosts for casters that use those stats, and again, the level adjustment is relatively minor. However, the early levels can be rough regardless.

Race as Gish: An Aasimar's stat boosts primarily help spellcasting while having no penalties to any physical attribute. I'd say that's pretty good, though there might be more attractive gish options.

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Air Genasi - Outsider, Human
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +1

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, -2 Charisma, -2 Wisdom
Darkvision
+1 Saving Throws against air, sonic, and electricity spells (another +1 every 5 levels)
Immune against Drown

Air Genasi Clerics must have the Air domain

Race as Non-Caster: Dexterity and Intelligence means that the Air Genasi are geared towards Rogues, and they're really not bad at it. Furthermore, the immunity to Drown is not something to scoff at-- Water Elementals may be fought quite early depending on the module, and if you're like me, you'll usually roll a 1 on the saving throw against their Drown. Not having to worry about it at all isn't bad.

Race as Caster: Air Genasi make an interesting caster. The +1 LA on top of Charisma and Wisdom loss discourages plenty of casting types, but the improved AC and spell DCs from Dexterity and Intelligence can help Psions and Wizards immensely in both survival and spellslinging/manifesting.

Race as Gish: Dexterity and Intelligence are on the upper end of stats important to both casters and melee for purposes of Armor Class and spell DC. In that respect, Air Genasi aren't bad as a gish race. Cautious recommendation.

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Aquatic Elf - Elven
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +1

+2 Dexterity, -2 Intelligence
Immune to Sleep-type spells
+2 to saving throws against mind-affecting spells
Immune to Drown
+2 to Listen, +2 to Search, +2 to Spot
Search checks are automatic with no movement penalties
Low-Light Vision

Race as Non-Caster: Aquatic Elves are suited towards dex-based dual wielders, but not necessarily for Rogues. -2 Intelligence hits them in the skill points department. As I've said previously, Drown is not bad if you're expecting Water Elementals. Other than that, these guys aren't anything to write home about.

Race as Caster: No direct benefits to most casting classes, and a -2 Intelligence and a +1 LA that really make this race a horrible choice for the remainder. Regular Elves are a far superior choice.

Race as Gish: Very meh. -2 Intelligence with +2 Dexterity runs contrary to many gish builds I can think of, while the rest of an Aquatic Elf's traits are just unspectacular for the rest of them. However, unlike most Elven races, Aquatics do not take a Constitution hit. This may prove to be better for gish builds that don't use Intelligence-based spellcasting and/or have a greater emphasis on physical fighting.

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Arctic Dwarf - Dwarven
Favored Class: Ranger
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Strength, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma, -4 Dexterity
+2 to Search underground
Darkvision
+2 to saving throws against Poison, +2 to saving throws against Spells
+1 AR against Orcs, +1 AR against Goblinoids
+4 AC against giants
+2 to Lore, +2 to Craft Armor, +2 to Craft Weapon, +2 to Appraise
Immunity to Cold
Small Stature

Race as Non-Caster: No Level Adjustment for +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, and Immunity to Cold? With one negative being in Charisma of all things? Unless you're playing a Roguish/Dex-based character, Arctic Dwarves are definitely an interesting choice to look at.

Race as Caster: The Dexterity loss hurts for most Intelligence/Charisma-based casters, since you're likely going to be forced to wear robes and traditionally have a dependency on Dexterity for your AC woes. Although, Immunity to Cold is really nice... But you might want to go back to regular Dwarves for casting anyway.

Race as Gish: Arctic Dwarves are uniquely suited to becoming armor-wearing casters like Psychic Warriors or Druids. +2 Str, +2 Con, with no loss of Wisdom... Use this to your full advantage.

Caveat: Arctic Dwarves currently have +4 Strength and -2 Dexterity, rather than the much less beneficial stats that they're supposed to have. That might be awesome now, but it's likely to be corrected later.

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Asabi - Reptilian Humanoid
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom
50' base speed
Darkvision
+4 to Jump
+2 to Natural Armor AC
1d4 Bite Attack
Proficiencies: Shield, Simple Weapons, Creature

Race as Non-Caster: Oh-ho, wow. No Level Adjustment for a plethora of useful stat boosts, an armor class boost, and the best movement speed in the game (if you turn on PnP Racial Speed). Plenty of benefits with no drawbacks makes Asabi one of the cheesiest races to pick in the game. Perfectly suited for not just melee, but hit-and-run tactics.

Race as Caster: +2 Intelligence and +2 Wisdom with no LA? That speaks for itself. Then there's the free shield proficiency, which you can use freely on a Psion. Very cheesy stuff.

Race as Gish: Armor, bonus to casting stats, etcetera... Again, speaks for itself.

Caveat: If you turn on Racial Hitdie, Asabi are a LOT worse than how they look, because they're forced to take Monster classes that are not only pretty bad compared to the regular classes, but also go towards the 40 level/3 class limit.

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Athasian Dwarf - Dwarven
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
Darkvision
+2 to saving throws against Poison, +2 to saving throws against Spells

Race as Non-Caster: These guys are like Dwarves, except with less skill boosts. I suppose you'd be forced to use them regardless if you were going for a thematic Dark Sun feel, or playing in a Dark Sun module. The fact that they have a great, all-purpose stat like Constitution that is offset by Charisma still exists... But yeah, I can't think of a reason why you would use them over regular Dwarves.

Race as Caster: See above.

Race as Gish: See above.

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Athasian Elf - Elven
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Dexterity, -2 Constitution
40' base speed
Proficiencies: Shortbow, Longbow
+2 to Listen, +2 to Search, +2 to Spot
Search checks are automatic with no movement penalties
Low-light Vision
Cold Resistance 1, Fire Resistance 1

Race as Non-Caster: I'd say that Athasian Elves are slightly better than Elves. The only loss from going for the Dark Sun version of Elves are the reduced proficiencies-- Longsword and Rapier, which you're likely going to receive in the starting weapon proficiencies of most classes, anyway. The tradeoff for 40' speed and minor resistances is worth it in my opinion.

Race as Caster: Again, Athasian Elves are slightly better Elves. 40' speed and minor resistances are nice to have for casters that get into situations where they need to put some space between themselves and incoming meleers.

Race as Gish: Once more, I reiterate that Athasian Elves are basically Elves except a little better.

Caveat: Athasian Elves lose out on immunity to Sleep. This can be a problem in certain early-level modules, so keep that in mind.

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Athasian Half-Elf - Elven
Favored Class: Any
Level Adjustment: None

+2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma
+1 Listen, +1 Search, +1 Spot, +2 Animal Empathy
Search checks are automatic with no movement penalties
Low-Light Vision

Race as Non-Caster: I like these guys are a LOT better than regular Half-Elves. No Level Adjustment, with a negative in a stat that's unimportant in a lot of non-casting builds, and a Dexterity boost to make up for it? Very nice. The lack of a Favored Class makes them suitable for anything except classes that rely on Charisma, such as Paladins or Marshals.

Race as Caster: Charisma loss is bad for quite a few casting characters, but not so much for Intelligence-based casters. For them, the Dexterity boost is quite welcome.

Race as Gish: They combine the Elves' Dexterity boost with the Dwarves' Charisma loss. Just stay away from Charisma-based casting and they make a solid choice for a hybrid fighter-caster.

Caveat: I list them as having an Elven type, but like Half-Elves and Half-Drow, they likely do NOT qualify for Baelnorn. Also, they're missing Immunity to Sleep, so that might be a problem in low-level modules.

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Athasian Half-GIant - Giant
Favored Class: Barbarian
Level Adjustment: +1

+8 Strength, +4 Constitution, -2 Dexterity, -4 Intelligence, -4 Wisdom, -4 Charisma
40' base speed
Large Creature
+2 Natural Armor
Darkvision
Proficiencies: Simple Weapons, Martial Weapons

Race as Non-Caster: They're somewhat limited in the optimized options that they have-- basically, they've got to go all-out melee if you want the best results. However, if they do, they're damn good at it. +8 Strength means they hit hard, +4 Constitution means they last long despite the AC loss from -2 Dexterity and Large size, and they get 2/3rd's of all weapons in the game available to them without spending a single feat.

Race as Caster: -4 to EVERY traditional casting stat is pretty damn crippling, I'll admit. However, I think you could pull off a Dragonfire Adept (CON as main stat~) reasonably well, and for the lowest of Level Adjustment penalties.

Race as Gish: Hmm. Physical-leaning gishy classes like Psychic Warrior could be pulled off okay, but otherwise, the only reason you'd ever use spells is for buffs rather than anything else.

Caveat: They've got Racial Hitdie, so if you turn that on, you're losing out on two regular class levels and using up part of your 3-class limit... and in return, you're forced to dip into a pretty bad class. Oof.

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Athasian Halfling - Halfling
Favored Class: Ranger
Level Adjustment: None

+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
Small Stature
-2 Persuade, +2 Move Silently, +4 Listen, +2 Jump
+2 to saving throws against spells
+1 to Attack Bonus for Throwing Weapons

Race as Non-Caster: I don't like these guys, since they lose out on the regular Halfling's more general saving throw boosts. On the other hand, because their Favored Class is Ranger, it'll be easier for them to play a Ranger-based build. Overall, though, I prefer regular Halflings.

Race as Caster: Like regular Halflings, they don't make bad casters. The Strength penalty means little compared to the AC boost from Dexterity and being small, but they do lose out on general saving throws, which once again causes me to prefer regular Halflings.

Race as Gish: Again, regular Halflings edge them out, but they're still okay at it.

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Avariel - Elven
Favored Class: Cleric
Level Adjustment: +3

+4 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Constitution
Immunity to Sleep
+2 to saving throws against Mind-Affecting Spells
Proficiencies: Elven
+2 Listen, +2 Search, +2 Jump, +4 Spot
Search checks are automatic with no movement penalties
Special Attacks: Dive (+2 to AB, -2 to AC for one attack)
Low-Light Vision

Race as Non-Caster: I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of elves. Avariel might make for interesting Dex-based builds, roguish characters, and/or scouts. Having that special attack (Dive) also gives them an interesting, but risky attack option that does double damage damage with piercing weapons automatically-- which can be very useful early on. But then, you get such a hefty Level Adjustment, which along with that Constitution loss makes me wonder if, after you get through the troubles of low-level encounters, you'll fare too well even past that.

Race as Caster: Oof. +3 Level Adjustment means you're behind a full level of spells, and then some. Though if you're gonna try to play full-on casters as an Avariel anyway, the +2 Intelligence and +2 Wisdom are certainly better than nothing... But I really would recommend some other type of Elf.

Race as Gish: They make questionable gishes-- the +4 Dexterity is nice, but -2 Constitution with a Level Adjustment that big relegates your spells to support or buffing and makes you very fragile.

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Azer - Outsider
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +4

+2 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Darkvision
Spell Resistance 13 (+1 Per Level)
+6 Natural Armor
+1 Fire Damage per hit
Immunity to Fire
-50% Vulnerability against Cold

Race as Non-Caster: Eh... Unimpressive stats that are too spread out, with an Immunity and Vulnerability that will either make or break them depending on the module. What saves them is the +6 AC and the Spell Resistance, which makes them a problem for enemy casters and non-casters alike.

Race as Caster: +4 Level Adjustment is bad. Like, two levels of spells behind bad. Without any huge boosts to any particular spellcasting stat, playing a caster is an uphill battle for an Azer.

Race as Gish: Hmm... Broad stat boosts is okay. The natural armor and spell resistance are okay. It's a lot more of an accessible route than going full caster with an Azer, at least.

Caveat: Azer have Racial Hitdie, but at least they get it in a monster class that is a cut above the rest; Outsiders get full BAB and saving throws, which may actually help some Non-Caster builds.

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Baaz Draconian - Draconic
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +1

+2 Constitution, -2 Intelligence, -2 Wisdom
Darkvision
Spell Resistance 8 (+1 Per Level)
+2 to Natural Armor AC
1d4 Bite Attack, 1d4 Claw Attack x2
Immunity to Sleep, Paralyzation, Disease
Proficiencies: Simple Weapons

Race as Non-Caster: Hm. They get a lot of nifty stuff that has immediate use in early game as it relates to battles (all the extra attacks, Immunities to cripplingly bad types of attacks like Paralyzation and Disease) but the Intelligence loss does impose limits on the versatility of certain types of Non-Casters (Rogues, for one) which you're going to be feeling later on. Make no mistake though, Baaz Draconians are pretty hardy; +2 Constitution, pre-existing Natural Armor AC, and scaling SR are nothing to scoff at.

Race as Caster: Baaz Draconians would make okay Sorcerers and good Dragonfire Adepts-- otherwise, most casting classes are a bad choice for them because of the loss to Intelligence and Wisdom, which along with the +1 Level Adjustment is horrendous. What spellcasting they can optimize in is therefore pretty limited, but options exist.

Race as Gish: You'll have to compensate for the casting stat in most builds, but otherwise I'd say Baaz Draconians make good gishes-- even more so when you think about the fact that their natural bite/claw weapons can be affected by things like Metaphysical Claw.

Caveat: Racial Hitdice are something the Baaz Draconians have if you switch it on, which will go towards their class limit; BUT, they get the Racial HD in Dragon, which is in the upper tier of Monster classes with full BAB and saving throws. Hurts to have it, but some Non-Caster builds don't suffer too much.

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Bladeling - Outsider
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +1

+2 Dexterity
Darkvision
+4 to Natural Armor AC
Immunity to Acid
Fire Resistance 5, Cold Resistance 5
Damage Reduction 5/+1
Metal Hide (Cannot be damaged by rust attacks, cannot wear armor heavier than light)
Special Ability: Razor Storm 1/day (15' cone that does 2d6 Damage | 10+Con Reflex DC | Natural Armor drops by 2 after use)

Race as Non-Caster: With a cursory glance, it's clear from the wide variety of bonuses that Bladelings look well-suited for a lot of different types of non-casting builds-- Dex-based and roguish builds in particular. However, having the inability to wear armor heavier than light hurts Strength-based builds in mid-magic modules, as the lack of heavier armor means lower AC and the Natural Armor is either similar or outdone by casting or equipment-based Natural Armor boosts.

Race as Caster: +1 Level Adjustment hurts, of course, but the combined resistances, DR, and AC boosts may be worth it. That along with the fact that Bladelings lose nothing in any of the spellcasting stats, and you've got a rather durable casting race on your hands.

Race as Gish: Gish-type builds that have a little bit of a dependence on heavy armor will suffer from not being able to wear them, but otherwise, Bladelings make a fine choice for casters that mix with more Dex-based/roguish classes.

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Bozak Draconian - Draconian
Favored Class: Sorcerer
Level Adjustment - +3

+2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma
Darkvision
Spell Resistance 14 (+1 per level)
+8 to Natural Armor AC
1d6 Bite Attack, 1d5 Claw Attack x2
Immunity to Sleep, Paralyzation, Disease
Proficiencies: Light Armor, Shields, Simple Weapons, Longsword, Longbow, Shortsword

Race as Non-Caster: +2 Strength, +8 Natural Armor, scaling SR with a very nice starting number, and lots of nice (if redundant) proficiencies... +3 LA is quite a price to pay for all of that, but I'd say it's not a bad tradeoff.

Race as Caster: Their favored class is Sorcerer, but you're gonna have a really hard time with that high Level Adjustment, which puts you at a disadvantage of more than one level of spells-- which is too much to even think about multiclassing. You could get away with meleeing because of your Natural Armor and Strength boost, but that drops off as you advance. I don't recommend playing them full-on casting.

Race as Gish: This is a lot better than going straight spellcasting. No reduction of spellcasting stats, nice physical boosts, SR... And the Light Armor and Shield proficiencies benefit any gishes that are starting out as Psion since Psionics doesn't have failure penalties.

Caveat: If you choose to turn it on, these guys have Racial Hitdice, but it's in Dragon-- they get full BAB and good across-the-board saving throws. Having a Monster class taking up part of your class limit is not ideal, but it's a better monster class than most.

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Bralani Eladrin - Outsider
Favored Class: Fighter
Level Adjustment - +5

+8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +4 Wisdom, +4 Charisma
40' base speed
Darkvision
+6 to Natural Armor AC
Damage Reduction 10/cold iron
Immunity to Electricity, Petrification
Spell Resistance 17 (+1 per level)
Spell-like Abilities at Will: Blur, Charm Person, Gust of Wind, Mirror Image
Spell-like Abilities: Cure Serious Wounds 2/day, Lightning Bolt 2/day

Race as Non-Caster: Bralani join the Rakshasa varieties, Trolls, Illithid, and a handful of other races as having some of the most ridiculous stats of races available in the PRC. What they gain for the +5 LA is worth it; the +8 Strength, +8 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, Natural Armor, DR, useful immunities, infinite casts of Blur and Mirror Image (amongst other spells), and SR are incredible-- they make you hard to hit, and hard to touch. There are few non-casting builds with which you can go wrong as a Bralani... The only thing of concern are classes that are dependent on skills, such as Rogues or Ninjas, whose skill levels will lose out from the Level Adjustment. Otherwise, they're outdone only by Trolls in certain types of builds, and then either matched or outdone only by the Rakshasa variants in others. Bralani are definitely one of the better cheesy races introduced through 3.2.

Race as Caster: The Bralani will probably not look too hot once you get past all the stats and realize that most of their benefits focus on physical aspects, and what does go towards casting is not enough to make up for the +5 LA. Although, you COULD get away with "gishing" it out without really trying-- that's just how good their stats are. Considering that's no longer in the realm of spellcasting, I'd skip these guys if you're after pure spellcasting/manifesting.

Race as Gish: Bralani make fine gishes insofar as they'll be mighty warriors with buff spells to supplement their already immense physical capabilities. You can achieve some very serious damage and your enemies will have trouble even landing a hit, always forced to cap out at 80% chance to hit max because of an *at will* Blur-- and this is before non-racial buffs. Just don't expect to be using your spellcasting as anything other than support for the physical aspect of being a gish.

Caveat: Bralani will be forced to take a 6 level dip in Outsider if you turn Racial Hitdie on, which does dull their awesome stats a bit-- though Outsider is a pretty strong "Monster"/"Enemy" class with full BAB and good all-around saves.

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Brownie - Fey
Favored Class: Wizard
Level Adjustment - +4

-6 Strength, +10 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +2 Intelligence, +2 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
+2 Craft Weapon, +2 Craft Armor, +2 Craft Trap, +2 Listen, +2 Spot
Uncanny Dodge
Evasion
Hide in Plain Sight
Spell-Like Abilities: Level 7 Confusion 1/day

Race as Non-Caster: Brownies make awesome Dex-based sneak attackers-- +10 Dexterity along with Uncanny Dodge, Evasion, and HiPS for free? Sign me up. They otherwise make pretty bad combatants since -6 Strength is a significant blow to not just damage, but also most Strength-dependant builds. Don't play a Brownie expecting to be the best Devastating Crit'er in the world, and DO expect to pick up Weapon Finesse.

Race as Caster: +4 LA is a bit rough for any spellcasting class, especially with no high spellcasting boons to match that Level Adjustment. I'd skip Brownie in favor of a different race.

Race as Gish: A gish Brownie will have to focus on ways of damage-dealing to compensate for the damage loss and options resulting from their comparatively low Strength. Otherwise, they've got potential.

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Bugbear - Goblinoid
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment - +1

+4 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
Darkvision
+4 Move Silently
Proficiencies: Simple Weapons, Light Armor, Shields
+3 to Natural Armor AC

Race as Non-Caster: One of the better goblinoid races. Boosts to every physical stats and a boost to AC for only +1 Level Adjustment is too good to pass up. They're well suited to pursuing any class you'd like.

Race as Caster: Almost ditto for this section; -2 Charisma does, of course, hurt the relevant spellcasters, and even +1 Level Adjustment is a hump for any spellcaster. However, they've got worthwhile durability, and the plethora of proficiencies are much appreciated for Psions.

Race as Gish: Again, Bugbears make a fine choice with their almost disadvantageless benefits. Go crazy.

Caveat: Racial Hitdie, if switched on, force Bugbears to take class levels in a rather bad Monster class. Reduces their versatility and effectiveness a LOT.

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Buomman - Outsider
Favored Class: Monk
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Wisdom, -2 Charisma
Low-Light Vision
+2 Listen, +2 Perform
Vow of Silence (Must take Silent Spell to cast spells with a verbal component)

Race as Non-Caster: Buomman certainly have an interesting flavor to them, and their stats are positively slanted while remaining a +0 LA race. +2 Wisdom, besides the improvement to Will saves, is nice for Rangers and other warrior classes with scant spellcasting. Nothing too special overall, but the Charisma isn't a serious penalty unless you're playing something like a Paladin.

Race as Caster: There are an enormous number of spells in NWN that require a verbal component... I'm going to go ahead and say that Silent Spell is a must, and being forced to take a feat for it when you otherwise wouldn't sucks. On top of that, Silenced Spells take a spell slot one level higher... Yeah. Though Buomman make average Psions.

Race as Gish: Buomman make good Psychic Warriors and Druids because of the Wisdom boost, without losing out on physical stats. I'd say they make pretty good gishes, but the -2 Charisma hurts them in other choices, like Wilder.

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Catfolk - Monstrous Humanoid
Favored Class: Ranger
Level Adjustment - +1

+4 Dexterity, +2 Charisma
Low-Light Vision
+2 Listen, +2 Move Silently
+1 to Natural Armor AC

Race as Non-Caster: +4 Dexterity, +1 Natural Armor... Catfolk are well-suited to fulfilling rogueish duties, or playing towards Dex-based builds without being more-or-less restricted to them like Brownies or other races. +1 Level Adjustment isn't too much of a price to pay, all things considered.

Race as Caster: Catfolk have an obvious slant towards Sorcerers with +2 Charisma, and gishier spellcasters like Warlocks and Wilders. However, the AC boosts may or may not be enough to make up for the +1 LA as far as other spellcasters are concerned.

Race as Gish: As I said above, gishier spellcasters like Warlocks and Wilders have the most obvious benefit from a Catfolk's stat increases. Other than that, you can play up to Dex-based gishes or simply use that as a supplement for other things considering you don't suffer any penalties-- in other words, Catfolk make flexible gishes.

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Changeling - Shapeshifter
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment - None

+2 to saves against Mind-affecting Effects
+2 to Bluff, +2 to Intimidate, +2 to Sense Motive
Minor Shape Change

Race as Non-Caster: Oh, I like these guys. Besides the boost to saves against Mind-affecting stuff, the Minor Shape Change allows for some tricks. Since Minor Shape Change allows type changes, you can change into a shape such that you aren't affected by spells. Then, the fact that you have MSC plus the fact that you're a Shapeshifter race means that you qualify for PnP Shifter without needing a polymorphing/shapechanging spell. All you'd need is the casting and relevant feats-- and all of a sudden, you get a lot more options for going into one of the PRC's stronger Prestige Classes.

Race as Caster: Changelings are pretty meh here. No LA and no stat penalties mean they're not exactly bad as a caster, but they aren't good either.

Race as Gish: Again, meh. No LA and no stat penalties mean you won't make a terrible gish, but there's not exactly anything that stands out about them either.

Personal Note: Changelings have Shapeshifter as a type. You might find yourself being unaffected by some spells, which is quite nifty.

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Chaond - Outsider
Favored Class: Any
Level Adjustment - +1

+4 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, -2 Charisma
Darkvision
+2 to Tumble
Acid Resistance 5, Sonic Resistance 5, Cold Resistance 5

Race as Non-Caster: Dexterity AND Constitution? The Resistances and ability to have any Favored Class are just icing on the cake for those. For most builds, the Charisma doesn't hurt that much at all. I'd say they're worth the +1 Level Adjustment, and they don't have too many restrictions-- though the Charisma loss may be bothersome for some classes that have have a use for Charisma, such as Paladins.

Race as Caster: The Charisma loss hurts the relevant casters, but otherwise, the Dexterity and Constitution are quite welcome for making casters more durable, especially as none of the other spellcasting stats take a hit. Still, it's +1 LA, and you don't have an actual advantage in any spellcasting stats except Constitution for DFA, which isn't really a traditional spellcaster. It's a case of whether you want to be better at casting or be more durable.

Race as Gish: I give Chaonds the thumbs-up. Dex, Con, Resistances, Tumbling... Just stay away from Charisma-reliant casting (Warlocks, etc.) and you'll do fine.

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Dark Dwarf - Dwarven
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Constitution, -4 Charisma
+2 to Search in subterranean areas
Darkvision
+2 to saving throws against Poison, +2 to saving throws against Spells
+1 AB against Orcs, +1 AB against Goblinoids, +4 Dodge AC against Giants
+2 to Lore, +2 to Hide, +2 to Move Silently, +2 to Craft Armor, +2 to Craft Weapon, +2 to Appraise, +2 to Listen
Light Sensitivity (-2 AB, Saves, and Skills while in bright light; i.e., sunlight)

Race as Non-Caster: Lots and lots of free skill affinities with a +2 to Constitution make Dark Dwarves rather versatile both in combat and outside of it. However, if you're going to be in modules that involve you being outside in the sun a lot... Dark Dwarves are hurt pretty bad by their Light Sensitivity. Having to deal with that situation might not be enough of a tradeoff.

Race as Caster: The -4 Charisma is crippling for spellcasters reliant on that stat. That along with Light Sensitivity may make Dark Dwarves a very unattractive choice.

Race as Gish: Again, there's Light Sensitivity and the fact that the -4 Charisma essentially removes a lot of gishy spellcaster options like Wilder. If anything, I'd just recommend regular Dwarves unless you like Krynn's flavor.

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Deep Halfling - Halfling
Favored Class: Rogue
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Dexterity, -2 Strength
Small Stature
Darkvision
+2 to Search in subterranean areas
+2 to Listen, +2 to Craft Armor, +2 to Craft Weapon, +2 to Appraise
+1 to all Saving Throws
+2 to saves against Fear
+1 to AB for throwing weapons

Race as Non-Caster: You're a Halfling with a different skillset and Darkvision. Inside combat, treat yourself as a halfling. Outside of it, play to the Deep Halfling's natural strengths as a crafter and haggler and improve the relevant skills. Otherwise, nothing special that a regular Halfling can't do.

Race as Caster: Again, you're just a halfling with a different skillset and Darkvision.

Race as Gish: "Halfling with skill differences and Darkvision", ad nauseum.

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Deep Imaskari - Human
Favored Class: Wizard
Level Adjustment - None

+2 Intelligence, -2 Dexterity
+2 to Hide
+4 to Hide while underground
Low-Light Vision

Race as Non-Caster: One of the few +0 LA races with an Intelligence boost, but the Deep Imaskari pay for it. A loss of Dexterity is pretty bad. Not crippling, but pretty bad-- if you're going to pick any kind of warrior build, go for one that relies on heavy armor. The Intelligence will be welcome in expanding anyone's skillset.

Race as Caster: +2 to Intelligence plays well into the strengths of Psions and Wilders, who'll have solid AC-boosting powers to compensate for the Dexterity hit.

Race as Gish: The Intelligence and Dexterity boosts conflict with each other as far as certain types of gish builds are concerned-- if anything, go with casters that have nice AC-boosting powers (Psionics-based caters) or wear heavy armor, and you should be fine.

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Dragonkin - Reptilian Humanoid
Favored Class: Barbarian
Level Adjustment - +2

+8 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Constitution, +4 Wisdom, +2 Charisma
Large Creature
20' base speed
Darkvision
+7 to Natural Armor AC
Special Attacks: Dive (Make an attack at +2 AB, -2 AC)

Race as Non-Caster: Wow, these guys are powerhouses. +8 Strength with +7 to AC... And only a +2 Level Adjustment. With no stat penalties, Dragonkin aren't necessarily even restricted to Strength-based builds, so they're flexible as well. I'd say these guys need Racial Hitdie to be properly balanced, but I'll leave that for the Caveat section below. ONE thing to note-- if you're going to play a primarily melee character, you'd better have a missile weapon as backup. 20' base speed, if you have PnP Racial Speed switched on, means that you're slow as hell and modules with certain AI patches will allow the enemy to run away or in circles around you.

Race as Caster: +2 LA means you're basically one spellcasting level behind, but you not only get a nice AC boost, but also a +4 to Wisdom. You could make an okay divine spellcaster that trades proper spellcasting scaling for being resilient.

Race as Gish: +8 Strength and +4 Wisdom. You're going to make an excellent Cleric, Druid, etcetera... Even outside of classes with obvious synergies, that high strength alone is a huge boost to your melee capabilities.

Caveat: A 7 level dip in the Dragon monster class, if you switch Racial Hitdie on. Bad if you're planning to be a spellcaster, but not so much if you're going a warrior route-- consider that levels in Dragon net full BAB and good saving throws.

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Drider - Aberration
Favored Class: Sorcerer
Level Adjustment - +4

+4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +4 Intelligence, +6 Wisdom, +6 Charisma
Darkvision
+6 to Natural Armor AC
Spell Resistance 11 (+1 per level)
+4 to Hide, +4 to Move Silently
Special Attacks: Poison Bite (Fortitude DC 18, 1d6 Strength Damage twice over the course of a certain period of time)
Spell-Like Abilities: Level 6 Darkness 1/day, Level 6 Detect Good 1/day, Level 6 Detect Law 1/day, Level 6 Faerie Fire 1/day

Race as Non-Caster: +4 Strength, +4 Dexterity, +6 Constitution, +6 to AC, SR Starting at 11, and ability to use Darkness when you've got Darkvision... Hard to say no to that, even with the hefty +4 Level Adjustment. You're gonna be durable, and regardless of what kind of build you go, you'll be able to hit fine and hit hard.

Race as Caster: +4 LA. Sure, you've got excellent boosts to Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma... ALL the conventional casting stats... But, it's +4 LA. Can't recommend Drider.

Race as Gish: Driders aren't a bad choice, but as is the case with most characters with numerous advantages but a significantly high LA, spells are going to be relegated to buffing yourself or secondary support, while you rely on smashing or stabbing the enemy's face to affect combat.

Caveat: 6 level dip in Aberration if you use Racial Hitdie... In a Monster class that is *very* bad (3/4 BAB with Will as the only good save...).

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Dromite - Monstrous Humanoid
Favored Class: Wilder
Level Adjustment - +1

+2 Charisma, -2 Strength, -2 Wisdom
Small Stature
20' Base Speed
Sonic Resistance 5
+3 to Natural Armor AC
1 Free Power Point
Psi-Like Abilities: Energy Ray 1/day
+2 to Spot
Blind-Fight

Race as Non-Caster: I don't know about these guys. They have some nifty abilities, but I'm not sure if it's worth the penalties. -2 Strength? -2 Wisdom? +1 LA? 20' speed? This is not to say that the +3 AC and Blind-Fight aren't nice. They make Dromites uniquely suited to fighting enemies that have concealment/invisibility without needing the feat investment. Then there's Energy Ray as a nice opener, and the virtual Wild Talent feat opens up some great choices like Warmind and Pyrokintecist... But you're trading away damage and will saves, and taking an LA hit. I'm on the fence for these guys.

Race as Caster: Dromites are one of the few races that have Wilder as a Favored Class. That along with the +2 Charisma and extra power point should make them uniquely suited for the Wilder, but there is the matter of LA. For certain other types of spellcasting, the Wisdom hit hurts. However, everyone benefits from the AC boosts. For the less physically inclined casters, the Blind-Fight feat is far less useful. Basically, if you're gonna play a spellcaster, be inclined more towards the gishy spellcasters that have Charisma as the main stat. Otherwise, Dromites are pretty far down on my list of potential casters.

Race as Non-Caster: +Natural AC, Blind-Fight, Charisma, free PP... Dromites are inclined towards obvious class choices like their Favored Class, but they have solid advantages on both the physical and casting front, even if they do lose Strength. I cautiously recommend them for Wilders, and maybe other Charisma-based spellcasting gishes.

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Drow - Elven
Favored Class (Female): Cleric
Favored Class (Male): Wizard
Level Adjustment - +2

+2 Dexterity, +2 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
Immunity to Sleep
+2 to saves against Mind-Affecting effects
Iron Will (+2 to Will saves)
+2 to Listen, +2 to Search, +2 to Spot
Search checks are automatic with no movement penalties
Darkvision
Spell Resistance 11 (+1 per level)
Light Blindness (1 round of Blindness upon entering bright light such as sunlight | -1 AB, Saves, and Skills while in bright light)
Spell-Like Abilities: Level 3 Darkness 1/day, Faerie Fire 1/day

Race as Non-Caster: Drows make excellent rogues and scouts with their stats and spell-like abilities, while the free Iron Will feat and the scaling SR add nice layers of defense against spells that are balanced towards the Level Adjustment. But of course, the Constitution loss does hurt, especially more so since the Level Adjustment is +2-- you'll be squishier than already-squishy Elves of the same ECL. Otherwise, I think they're okay.

Race as Caster: Intelligence, Charisma... Maybe if these guys had at least a +4 in those stats, I'd recommend them, but that +2 Level Adjustment is pretty harsh.

Race as Non-Caster: +2 Charisma and +2 Dexterity work for certain kinds of gishes, but again... +2 Level Adjustment. Your spells are going to be trailing behind, so you'll be focusing on using spells for buffing.

Continued...

Alternate Magic Systems / Complete PRC Truenaming

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:12:17 AM »

Classes:
[ulist=disc]Truenamer - Base Class
Bereft - Any class 5 level PrC
Brimstone Speaker - Divine Caster PrC[/ulist]
Utterances
There are three Lexicons: Evolving Mind (EM), Crafted Tool (CT), Perfected Map (PM). Evolving Mind utterances affect creatures, usually one at a time. Crafted Tool affects the weapons and other magic items of creatures. Perfected Map affects the land itself, warping it to the Truenamer's wishes. Evolving Mind goes to level 6 Utterances, Crafted Tool to level 5 Utterances, and Perfected Map to level 4 Utterances.

Level 1 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Defensive Edge - EM - AC boost or penalty
Inertial Surge - EM - Freedom of Movement or Hold Target
Knight's Puissance - EM - +2 AB or -2 AB
Universal Aptitude - EM - +5 or -5 all Skills
Word of Nurturing, Minor - EM - +1 Regen for 5 rounds or 1d6/1d6 damage.
Fortify Armour - CT - Immunity to Sneak and Crit
Keen Weapon - CT - Weapon becomes Keen
Fog from the Void - PM - Fog Cloud, or Solid Fog
Shield of the Landscape - PM - Cover against Ranged Attacks
Shockwave - PM - Knockdown targets in Area[/ulist]
Level 2 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Archer's Eye - EM - Ranged Blindfight or Protection from Arrows
Hidden Truth - EM - +10 Lore or Bluff
Perceive the Unseen - EM - BlindFight or Concealment
Silent Caster - EM - Auto-Silent Spell or Silence
Speed of the Zephyr - EM - 20' spped boost or 10' speed penalty
Strike of Might - EM - +10 damage or -5 Damage
Temporal Twist - EM - 1 extra attack or daze 1 creature
Word of Nurturing, Lesser - EM - +3 Regen for 5 rounds or 2d6/2d6 damage.
Agitate Item - CT - Heat or Chill metal.
Analyze Item - CT - Identify Item.
Energy Vortex - PM - 2d6 damage in area
Speak Rock to Mud - PM - Area hampers creatures
Transform the Landscape - PM - Enemies suffer movement penalty[/ulist]
Level 3 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Accelerated Attack - EM - Spring Attack, or Casters gain speed
Energy Negation - EM - Energy Resistance, or Energy Damage
Speed of the Zephyr, Greater - EM - Haste or Slow
Temporal Spiral - EM - Move Action or 3 round Daze
Vision Sharpened - EM - See Invis or Invis
Word of Nurturing, Moderate - EM - +5 Regen for 5 rounds or 4d6/4d6 damage.
Remove Item - CT - Remove item from target's possession for a round
Suppress Weapon - CT - Weapon loses Energy damage properties.
Lore of the World - PM - Lore bonus
Master of the Four Winds - PM - Gust of Wind
Thwart the Traveler - PM - Dimensional Lock[/ulist]
Level 4 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Breath of Cleansing - EM - Remove some negative effects or Nauseate target.
Caster Lens - EM - Caster level +2 or -2.
Confounding Resistance - EM - Give or remove Evasion.
Magical Contraction - EM - Spell Resistance or Empower Spell
Morale Boost - EM - Remove Fear or Frighten creature.
Spell Rebirth - EM - Restore Dispelled Spell, Dispell Spell
Word of Bolstering - EM - Remove Ability Damage or 1d6 Con, Dex, or Str penalty.
Word of Nurturing, Potent - EM - +10 Regen for 5 rounds or 6d6/6d6 damage.
Suppress Item - CT - Remove all properties from an item
Transmute Weapon - CT - Weapon breaks all DR
Anger the Sleeping Earth - PM - Earthquake
Conjunctive Gate - PM - Gate
Deny Passage - PM - Lock creatures in or out of AoE[/ulist]
Level 5 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Eldritch Attraction - EM - Move target 40 feet closer or farther
Energy Negation, Greater - EM - Damage Immunity or Energy Shield
Essence of Lifespark - EM - Remove negative levels or grant them
Preternatural Clarity - EM - +5 to Attack, Saves, or Skills, or Confusion
Sensory Focus - EM - Trueseeing, or Blindness/Deafness
Ward of Peace - EM - Protection from Harm, or Banish an enemy
Word of Nurturing, Critical - EM - +15 Regen for 5 rounds or 8d6/8d6 damage.
Metamagic Catalyst - CT - Grant a Scroll or Potion Empower, Extend or Maximize.
Seize Item - CT - Call an item to hand or disarm a monster[/ulist]
Level 6 Utterances
[ulist=disc]Breath of Recovery - EM - Remove negative conditions or Paralyze
Ether Reforged - EM - Remove or grant Etherealness
Knight's Puissance, Greater - EM - +5 Attack/Damage or -5 Attack/Damage
Mystic Rampart - EM - DR 5 and +5 Saves or -5 AC/Saves
Singular Mind - EM - Remove negative mental effects, or dominate target
Word of Nurturing, Greater - EM - +20 Regen for 5 rounds or 10d6/10d6 damage.[/ulist]
Recitations:
These are special feats that only a Truenamer can know that affect his body in some way through the use of Truespeech. He gets two bonus feats to take these, but can also taken them through normal feat slots.

Recitations
[ulist=disc]Recitation of the Fortified State - Grants AC bonus equal to 1/3rd class level
Recitation of Meditative State - Removes most negative mind effects
Recitation of Mindful State - Grants Skill bonus equal to 1/3rd class level
Recitation of the Sanguine State - Removes poison effects
Recitation of Vital State - Removes disease effects[/ulist]
Feats
[ulist=disc]Focused Lexicon - +1 DC vs Racial Type
Utterance Focus - +1 DC with chosen utterance
Empower Utterance - Duh.
Extend Utterance - Duh.
Quicken Utterance - Duh.
Truenaming Training - Truespeak is a class skill.
Skill Focus (Truespeak) - +3 to Skill check.
Epic Skill Focus (Truespeak) - +10 to Skill check.[/ulist]

Character Builds / Base Class: Soul Knife

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:05:45 AM »

This build is a tank that can use its mindblade abilities to weaken its enemy while also having a good shot at placing a critical hit.
When fighting enemies immune to critical hits, Deep Impact and Psychic Strike will be your main attacks.

Soulknife(30), Fighter(4), Sanctified Mind(6)
Troll
Alignment: non-evil

Starting Stats
STR: 14 + 12 = 26
DEX: 12 + 4 = 16
CON: 14 + 12 = 26
INT: 14 - 4 = 10
WIS: 15 - 2 = 13
CHA: 8 - 4 = 4

01: Soulknife(1): Power Attack
02: Soulknife(2)
03: Soulknife(3): Cleave
04: Soulknife(4): STR+1, (STR=27)
05: Soulknife(5)
06: Soulknife(6): Psionic Meditation
07: Fighter(1): Great Cleave
08: Fighter(2): STR+1, Blind Fight, (STR=28)
09: Fighter(3): Iron Will
10: Fighter(4): Improved Critical: mindblade
11: Sanctified Mind(1)
12: Sanctified Mind(2): STR+1, Psionic Weapon, (STR=29)
13: Sanctified Mind(3)
14: Sanctified Mind(4)
15: Soulknife(7): Deep Impact
16: Soulknife(

: STR+1, (STR=30)
17: Soulknife(9)
18: Soulknife(10): Weapon Specialization: mindblade
19: Soulknife(11)
20: Soulknife(12): STR+1, (STR=31)
21: Soulknife(13): Overwhelming Critical: mindblade
22: Soulknife(14)
23: Soulknife(15)
24: Soulknife(16): STR+1, Devastating Critical: mindblade, (STR=32)
25: Soulknife(17)
26: Soulknife(18)
27: Sanctified Mind(5): Epic Damage Reduction I
28: Soulknife(19): STR+1, (STR=33)
29: Soulknife(20)
30: Soulknife(21): Epic Damage Reduction II
31: Soulknife(22)
32: Soulknife(23): STR+1, Epic Damage Reduction III, (STR=34)
33: Soulknife(24): Epic Weapon Focus: mindblade
34: Soulknife(25)
35: Soulknife(26): Epic Weapon Specialization: mindblade
36: Soulknife(27): STR+1, Epic Prowess, (STR=35)
37: Sanctified Mind(6)
38: Soulknife(28)
39: Soulknife(29): Toughness, Armor Skin
40: Soulknife(30): STR+1, (STR=36)

Ending Stats
STR: 36
DEX: 16
CON: 26
INT: 10
WIS: 13
CHA: 4

Hitpoints: 548
Skillpoints: 164
Saving Throws (Fortitude/Will/Reflex): 30/21/26
BAB: 27
AB (max, naked): 40 (melee), 30 (ranged)
AC (naked): 29
Spell Resistance: 45 (from the Sanctified Mind)

Mind blade: Keen, Mindcrusher, Soulbreaker

Concentration(40), Discipline(37), Spellcraft(40), Tumble(43), Lore(4)

Character Builds / Base Class: Marshal

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:03:08 AM »

This build basically came about from me wanting to play with the 'leadership' family of feats

The world needs more leaders
25-Marshal 8-Tempest 7-Ranger
Alignment: doesn't matter (I went lawful neutral)
Race: used human for the build but any ranger favoring race 'could' work with some fairly major feat adjusting, losing that bonus feat is a killer.
You can focus any weapon, using a light weapon (rapier would be good) would give some pretty hefty attack bonuses by level 40 (I think +5 per swing per round

Starting stats:
STR 14
DEX 14
CON 10
INT 10
WIS 12
CHA 16

Skills are what I used based on my play style, only one you have to follow is the persaudes (need 30 for legendary commander feat), also stat bonus (and Great 'STR/DEX/CHA' feats) can be whatever you'd like ONCE YOU GET 25 CHA(for Epic Leadership and legendary Commander)

level 1 Marshal: Dodge, Power Attack, Watchful eye(Minor)
Listen 4, Persuade 4, Spot 4, Tumble 2(cc), Lore 4

Level 2 Marshal: Motivate Attack(major)
Persuade 1, Spot 1

level 3 Ranger: Weapon focus (Longsword)
Craft Armor 2, Craft Weapon 2, Heal 4

level 4 Marshal: CHA+1 Motivate Dex(minor)
Persuade 1, Tumble 1

level 5 Marshal:
Persuade 1, Tumble 1

level 6 Marshal: Motivate Ardor(major), Hardy Soldiers(major), Mobility
Persuade 1

level 7 Ranger:
Craft Armor 3, Craft Weapon 3, Heal 6

level 8 Ranger: CHA+1
Animal Empathy 5, Heal 1

level 9 Ranger: Leadership
Heal 1, Tumbe 2

level 10 Ranger:
Craft Armor 2, Craft Weapon 2

level 11 Ranger:
Heal 2, Tumble 1

level 12 Marshal: CHA+1, Spring Attack
Persuade 7

level 13 Marshal: Motivate Care
Persuade 1, Tumble 1

level 14 Tempest:
Heal 3, Craft armor 1, Craft weapon 1

level 15 Tempest: Cleave
Tumble 1

level 16 Tempest: CHA+1

level 17 Tempest:
Tumble 1

level 18 Tempest: Great Cleave

level 19 Tempest:
Tumble 1

level 20 Tempest:

level 21 Tempest: Great Charisma
Tumble 1

level 22 Marshal:
Persuade 9

level 23 Marshal: Epic Weapon Focus, Demand Fortitude(minor)
Persuade 1, Tumble 1

level 24 Marshal: CHA+1 Great Charisma II
Persuade 1

level 25 Marshal:
Persuade 1, Tumble 1

level 26 Marshal: Epic Prowess
Persuade 1

level 27 Marshal: Great CHA III
Persuade 1

level 28 Marshal: CON+1, Epic Leadership (need 25 CHA)

level 29 Marshal: Legendary Commander (need 30 Persuade)
Tumble 2

level 30 Marshal: Great Str I

level 31 Marshal:

level 32 Marshal: STR+1

level 33 Ranger: Great Dexterity
Heal 3, Search 25, Tumble 2, Craft Armor 7, Craft Weapon 7, Parry 5

level 34 Marshal: Force of Will

level 35 Marshal: Resillant Troops(Major)
Spot 4, Tumble 1

level 36 Marshal: Toughness
Discipline 2

level 37 Marshal:
Lore 4, Tumble 1

level 38 Marshal : Motivate Wisdom(minor)
Lore 5

level 39 Marshal: Great Charisma IV
Heal 1, Lore 3

level 40 Marshal : DEX+1
Intimidate 5

Final Stats:
STR: 16
DEX: 16
CON: 12
INT: 10
WIS: 12
CHA: 26

Base Attack 28
(no auras active)
Longsword/Longsword
main hand +33/+28/+23/+18
off hand +33/+28
Longsword/Shortsword
main hand +35/+30/+25/+20
off hand +32/+27

Using a light off-hand averages out to +1 attack point per swing per round , (epic) weapon focus makes up for the non light off-hand in longsword/longsword set-up

Saves
Fort: 26
Reflex: 19
Will: 20

AC: 20

Pro's:
Can grant 1 round haste 6 times a day to all allies, can grant DR 5/-, or +5 DMG, ATT, AC, or universal saving throw bonus, also to all allies and for an infinite amount of time('til death or you turn it off) . Can grant +8 to any one saving throw, or can grant +8 to DEX or WIS based skill checks(heal, hide, listen, move silently, parry, spot, and tumble)

Con's:
I refer you 9 lines up to her AC, yeah.... not gonna be dodging much. Not particularly skilled either, Marshal has a pretty poor list of class skills and tumble is a CC skill for all 3 classes. Level 19-23 Cohort will be capped at level 17

Character Builds / Base Class: Favoured Soul

« on: June 05, 2009, 11:01:51 AM »

Starting to enjoy these

Entry #1

Soul Blade/"The Power from Within" - Paladin 1 / Favoured Soul 14 / Shining Blade of Heironeous 5

Race: Aasimar
Alignment: Lawful Good (Chosen Deity's Weapon = Longsword (Torm? Tyr?))

Stats:
STR 14
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 17 (20)
CHA 16 (18)

Skills: Concentration, Heal & Lore - maxed each level

1. Paladin 1 - Nimbus of Light
2. Favoured Soul (FS) 1
3. FS 2 - Holy Radiance
4. FS 3 - WIS +1; Deity's Weapon Focus (Longsword)
5. FS 4 -
6. FS 5 - Energy Resistance (Fire); Combat Casting
7. FS 6
8. FS 7 - CHA +1
9. FS 8 - Extend Spell
10.Shining Blade of Heironeous (SB ) 1 - Shock Blade 2/Day
11.SB 2
12.FS 9 - CHA +1; Improved Critical (Longsword)
13.FS 10 - Energy Resistance (Sonic)
14.SB 3 - Shock Blade 3/day
15.SB 4 - Empower Spell
16.FS 11 - WIS +1
17.FS 12 - Deity's Weapon Specialisation (Longsword)
18.SB 5 - Holy Blade 4/day; Spell Penetration
19.FS 13
20.FS 14 - WIS +1

Final Skills
Concentration: 23 + 2 = 25
Heal: 23 + 5 = 28
Lore: 23 + 1 = 24

BAB = 16
AB (/w Longsword) = +19/+14/+9/+4 (4 attacks)

Saves:
Fort = 15 + 2 + 4 = 21
Ref = 10 - 1 + 4 = 13
Will = 13 + 5 + 4 = 22

PROs
*Strong casting up to lvl 7 spells
*Ability to empower and/or extend spells
*Strong Saves
*Decent martial abilities - 4 attacks; extra power with longsword (dmg, crit, sanc) & Holy Blade
*Resistance of 5 or 10 to all energy types, including Sonic
*Constant damage against undead
*Able to cast buffing/healing/damage spells on the fly in combat

CONs
*Caster Level of only 17 at level 20 due to lack of Practised Spellcaster feat for Favoured Soul (I couldn't find it at least)
*Can only reach lvl 7 spells
*Higher fighting & spell abilities come late
*Low stat spread due to needing CHA + WIS high, and fair melee stats

NOTES:
*Assuming that Practised Spellcaster is not available to Favoured Soul - if it is, then it would be put in at lvl 15 and Spell Penetration taken out
*This can be altered for mods which have little or no undead (removing nimbus of light, Holy Radiance and Sanctify Martial Strike, and replacing with other feats as appropriate...)

Character Builds / Base Class: Ultimate Ranger

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:51:34 AM »

azer
true neutral
24 ultimate ranger (lvl 1-18, 33-37 & 40)
6 telflammar shadowlord (lvl 19-23 & 39)
10 elemental savant of water (lvl 24-32 & 38)

23 strength (15 +1 (3x) @ lvl 28, 32 & 36 + great strength v)
21 dexterity (15 +1 (6x) @ lvl 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 & 24)
14 constitution
16 intelligence (15 +1 @ lvl 40)
8 wisdom
8 charisma

43 discipline (+21 @ lvl 1-18, +19 @ lvl 33-37, +3 @ lvl 40)
43 hide (+26 @ lvl 1-23, +40 @ lvl 33-37, +3 @ lvl 39-40)
23 jump (+26 @ lvl 1-23, +40 @ lvl 33-37, +3 @ lvl 39-40)
8 lore (+8 @ lvl 1-8)
43 move silently (+26 @ lvl 1-23, +40 @ lvl 33-37, +3 @ lvl 39-40)
40 spellcraft (+35 @ lvl 24-32, +5 @ lvl 38)
40 tumble (+26 @ lvl 19-23, +14 @ lvl 39)
42 use magic device (+26 @ lvl 19-23, +14 @ lvl 39)

blindfight (1), dodge (1), favored enemy (abberations) (2), expertise (3), mobility (4), power attack (6), favored enemy (dragon) (7), spring attack (7), cleave (9), sneak attack +3d6 (11), favored power attack (11), favored enemy (elementals) (12), great cleave (12), hide in plain sight (14), improved critical (greatsword) (15), improved favored enemy (15), favored enemy (outsiders) (17), uncanny dodge i (17) whirlwind attack (18), great strength i-v (21, 24, 27, 30 & 33), overwhelming critical (greatsword) (33), dodge favored enemy (34), bane of enemies (36), favored enemy (undead), devastating critical (37), resist favored enemy (37), improved whirlwind attack (39)

Special: A token proving a donation of 10,000 gold to the Telflamm Guild, before lvl 19.

+devastating critical, death attack, improved whirlwind attack, sneak attack, favored (and bane of) enemies
+immunities, bonusses to saves and ac
-mediocre hitpoints and ab

Character Builds / Base Class: OA Samurai

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:40:17 AM »

Akumashokan (Demon General)

Race: Tanarruk
Alignment: Lawful Evil
Classes: Samurai 14/Rogue 20/Telflammar Shadowlord 6.
Initial Statistics: Str 20 Dex 18 Con 10 Int 14 Wis 8 Cha 4
(Final Statistics: Str 24 Dex 26)

Description

With the blood of the Tanarri pumping through his veins,
the Akumashokan fights with his soldiers in the front line,
using his demonic ability of translocation to cut swathes
through the enemy before they can react.

(Samurai)
Lvl 1 Lore 2, Hide 2, Move Silently 2, Disc 4, Conc 2, Spot 2.
Feat: Luck of Heroes.
(Rogue)
Lvl 2 Hide 5, Move Silently 5, Tumble 5, Spot 3.
Daisho: Silent Assassin
Lvl 3: Hide 6, Move Silently 6, Tumble 6, Spot 6.
Feat: Power Attack
Lvl 4: Dex +1->19. Hide 7, Move Silently 7, Tumble 7, Spot 7.
Daisho: Keen
Lvl 5: Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Tumble 8, Spot 8.
(Samurai)
Lvl 6: Disc 9, Conc 9
Feats: Cleave, Great Cleave.
Daisho: Damage Bonus Fire 1d6
Lvl 7: Conc 10, Disc 10
Lvl 8: Dex+1->20. Conc 11, Disc 11.
Daisho: On hit - Slow.
(Rogue)
Lvl 9: Hide 10, Move Silently 10, Disable Trap 5, Search 5, Set Trap 5,
Spot 12, Open Lock 1.
Feats: Weapon Focus Katana.
Lvl 10: Search 10, Spot 13, Tumble 13, UMD 3.
Daisho: Attack +2.
Lvl 11: Tumble 14, Spot 14, Search 11, UMD 10.
Lvl 12: Dex+1->21. Tumble 15, Spot 15, Search 15, Open Lock 5.
Feats: Dodge
Daisho: Attack +4
(Samurai)
Lvl 13: Conc 14, Disc 14
Feats: Mobility
Lvl 14: Conc 17, Disc 17
Daisho: Damage Bonus Fire 2d6
Lvl 15: Conc 18, Disc 18, Lore 6
Feats: Spring Attack
Lvl 16: Dex+1->22. Conc 19, Disc 19.
Feats: Blind Fight
Daisho: On hit - Confusion
(Telflammar Shadowlord)
Lvl 17: Tumble 20.
Lvl 18: Tumble 21.
Feats: Improved Critical Katana
Daisho: On hit - Dispel Magic
(Rogue)
Lvl 19: Tumble 22, Spot 22, Search 20, Open Lock 7.
Lvl 20: Dex+1->23. Tumble 23, Disable Trap 10, Open Lock 10, Search 21.
Feats: Crippling Strike.
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +1
Lvl 21: Tumble 24, Set Trap 14.
Feats: Epic Weapon Focus Katana
Lvl 22: Tumble 25, Set Trap 23.
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +2
Lvl 23: Disable Trap 14, Tumble 26, UMD 20.
Feats: Improved Evasion.
Lvl 24: Dex+1->24, Tumble 27, Disable Trap 20, Open Lock 12, Search 22.
Feats: Lingering Damage.
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +3
Lvl 25: Tumble 28, Open Lock 21
Lvl 26: Tumble 29, Hide 15, Move Silently 14.
Feats: Improved Sneak Attack I
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +4
(Telflammar Shadowlord)
Lvl 27: Tumble 30, Spot 27.
Feats: Great Dex I->25
Lvl 28: Str+1->21. Tumble 31, Spot 31, UMD 21.
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +5
(Rogue)
Lvl 29: Tumble 32, Spot 32, Search 30.
Lvl 30: Hide 20, Move Silently 17, Spot 33, Tumble 33.
Feats: Great Strength I->22
Daisho: Enhancement Bonus +6
Lvl 31: UMD 31.
Feats: Defensive Roll.
(Samurai)
Lvl 32: Str +1->23. Conc 22, Disc 22.
Daisho: Immunity Fear
Lvl 33: Conc 25, Disc 25.
Feats: Epic Dodge
Lvl 34: Conc 28, Disc 28.
Feats: Overwhelming Critical Katana
Daisho: Immunity Disease
Lvl 35: Disc 31, Conc 31.
Lvl 36: Dex +1->26. Conc 34, Disc 34.
Feats: Improved Initiative
Daisho: Damage Bonus Fire 2d12
Lvl 37: Conc 37, Disc 37.
Feats: Superior Initiative
(Telflammar Shadowlord)
Lvl 38: Tumble 39.
Lvl 39: Tumble 42, Move Silently 20.
Feats: Shield Proficiency
(Rogue)
Lvl 40: Tumble 43, UMD 40.
Daisho: Immunity Death Magic

With a weapon that can hit through +5 resistance, adding 2d12 fire
damage and several incapacitating spells, sneak attacks through the roof,
Crippling Strike, Lingering Damage, Overwhelming Critical, Epic Dodge,
and all the Shadowlord abilities and spells, this build is extremely strong.

Character Builds / Base Class: Anti-Paladin

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:16:30 AM »

This character was a great force of evil, until accidentally reading a Tome of Opposite Alignment:

Levels 1-31: Chaotic Evil
Levels 32-40: Lawful Good

Illithid Anti-Paladin 21 / Disciple of Baalzebul 10 / Shining Blade of Heironeous 9

Starting Abilities
STR (16+2)18 / DEX (8+4) 12 / CON (8+2)10 / INT (12+8) 20 / WIS (8+6) 14 / CHA (18+6)14

Ability increases: First Strength is raised to 22, all further increases are to Charisma

Ending Abilities
STR 22 [+6] / DEX 12 [+1] / CON 10

/ INT 20 [+5] / WIS 14 [+2] / CHA 34 [+12]

Fort / Refl / Will: +34/+33/+40

Hitpoints: 30d10 + 10d6 = max 360

Armor Class: 33 (Dexterity Bonus +1) (Natural Armor +5) (mundane Full Plate Armor +8) (mundane Tower Shield +3) (Tumble +6)

Main Hand (mundane longsword): +40/+35/+30/+25 (Base Attack is 30)
1d8 + 6 slashing damage (17-20/x2)

Racial Feats
- Darkvision: Illithid are able to see in the dark
- Spell Resistance: Innate spell resistance of 25, plus 1 per character level = 65
- Natural Armor Bonus: Racial natural armor bonus of 3
- Weapon Proficiency (Creature): Illithid can make an unarmed attack with their tentacles
- Spell Ability - Mind Blast: Can perform as level 4 spell
- Spell Ability - Charm Monster: Can cast as level 8 spell
- Extract: Illithid have a chance to extract the brain of a victim on a successful hit
- Aberration: Illithid are considered Aberrations for the purpose of spells

Character Feats
- Disciple of Darkness
- Force of Personality
- Insightful Reflexes
- Power Attack
- Extra Turning
- Divine Might
- Divine Shield
- Epic Divine Might
- Epic Divine Shield
- Weapon Focus (Longsword)
- Epic Weapon Focus (Longsword)
- Epic Prowess
- Improved Critical (Longsword)
- Armor Skin

Anti-Paladin (Levels 1 - 21)
- Proficiencies: All simple and martial weapons, light, medium, and heavy armor, and shields.
- Skill Points (*4 at 1st level): 7 / level = 147
- Spend at least 10 points on Bluff (required for DoBa)
- Spend at least 7 points on Lore (required for SBoH)
- Spend at least 16 (cross-class) points on Persuade (required for DoBa)
- Spellcasting: Anti-Paladin Spells. Divine (Wisdom based, armor-related chance of spell failure is ignored).
- 1st/2nd/3rd/4th level spells per day: ?/?/?/?
- Class Feats
- Smite Good 5/day [This seems to be a different feat than the Blackguard's Smite Good and so does not qualify for Extra Smiting]
- Divine Grace
- Aura of Fear
- Death Knell 4/day
- Turn Outsider
- Contagion 5/day

Disciple of Baalzebul (Levels 22 - 31)
- Skill Points: 11 / level = 110
- I recommend Tumble (for AC boost) and Use Magic Device (because you don't get many chances to do this!)
- Class Feats
- Tongue of the Devil - Add Intelligence modifier as well as Charisma to Bluff checks = +17!
- Sneak Attack +3d6
- Suggestion - 1/day, cast a version of Charm with a DC of 10 + Disciple Class Level + Charisma modifier = 32!
- Baalzebul Summon I - Summon a devil once per day
- Insect Plague - Once per day summon biting flies to interrupt the concentration of your enemies
- Beguiling Nature - Every other day produce an effect identical to mass charm with a Will save DC of 10 + Disciple Level + Charisma modifier = 32!
- Baalzebul Summon 2 - Summon a greater devil once per day
- King of Lies - Gain a permanent +4 bonus to Charisma

Shining Blade of Heironeous (Levels 32-40)
- Skill Points: 7 / level = 63
- Persuade is not a class feat? Odd for a Paladin-like class.
- Spellcasting: Increases effective Anti-Paladin level by 5 levels (to 26) for calculating spells per day?
- Class Feats
- Brilliant Blade 6/day
- +1d6 Electrical damage
- +2d6 divine damage against evil
- Attack Bonus +20
- Duration is 21 rounds

This character has good armor, high saves, and a strong attack (if Epic Divine Might and Brilliant Blade can be combined - Evil will wet itself!). The Anti-Paladin spellbook appears to be available at level 40, though I'm not sure how the 'evil' abilities should be affected by the character's 're-alignment'. Hmm. Do Evil Unto Evil...

Character Builds / Base Class: Scout

« on: June 05, 2009, 10:13:12 AM »

I thought I'd have a go at the Weekly Builds, and thus came up with this:

Race: Elf

Starting Stats

Str: 14 [+2]
Dex: 20 [+4] (18+2 elf)
Con: 10 [+0] (12-2 elf)
Int: 12 [+1]
Wis: 8 [-1]
Cha: 8 [-1]

Level 1: Archer - Craft Weapon 4, Discipline 4, Jump 4, Lore 4 - Rapid Shot
Level 2: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1
Level 3: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1 - Weapon Focus: Longbow, Called Shot
Level 4: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1 - +1 Dex
Level 5: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1
Level 6: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1 - Toughness
Level 7: Archer - Craft Weapon 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1 - Many Shot
Level 8: Archer - Hide 1, Discipline 1, Jump 1, Lore 1 - +1 Dex
Level 9: Peerless Archer - Hide 1, Move Silently 2 - Bow Mastery
Level 10: Peerless Archer - Hide 2, Move Silently 1
Level 11: Peerless Archer - Hide 1, Move Silently 2
Level 12: Peerless Archer - Hide 2, Move Silently 1 - +1 Dex - Perfect Shot
Level 13: Peerless Archer - Hide 1, Move Silently 2
Level 14: Peerless Archer - Hide 2, Move Silently 1
Level 15: Peerless Archer - Hide 1, Move Silently 2 - Improved Critical: Longbow
Level 16: Peerless Archer - Hide 2, Move Silently 1 - +1 Dex
Level 17: Peerless Archer - Hide 1, Move Silently 2
Level 18: Peerless Archer - Hide 2, Move Silently 1 - Dodge
Level 19: Archer - Hide 4
Level 20: Archer - Hide 3, Carry 1 - Dex +1
Level 21: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 3, Search 3, Tumble 3 - Epic Weapon Focus: Longbow
Level 22: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 3, Search 2, Tumble 3
Level 23: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 3, Search 2, Tumble 3
Level 24: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 3, Search 2, Tumble 3 - +1 Dex - Killing Shot, Mobility
Level 25: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 4
Level 26: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 4
Level 27: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 4 - Improved Many Shot
Level 28: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 4 - +1 Dex - Spring Attack
Level 29: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 4
Level 30: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 1, Lore 3 - Perfect Shot 2
Level 31: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 1, Lore 3
Level 32: Scout - Hide 1, Move Silently 1, Search 3, Tumble 1, Lore 3 - +1 Dex - Blinding Speed (If haste is available, swap for Great Str 1)
Level 33: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3 - Armour Skin, Epic Prowess
Level 34: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3
Level 35: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3
Level 36: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3 - Dex +1 - Alertness
Level 37: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3 - Great Dexterity 1
Level 38: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3
Level 39: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3 - Epic Will
Level 40: Archer - Hide 1, Spot 3 - +1 Str

Finishing Stats

Str: 15 [+2]
Dex: 30 [+10]
Con: 10 [+0]
Int: 12 [+1]
Wis: 8 [-1]
Cha: 8 [-1]

BAB: 29
AB: Unarmed - +32/27/22/17
AB: Ranged (+0 Longbow) - +49/44/39/34/49
AB: Ranged (+0 Logbow - Rapid Shot) - +47/42/37/32/47/42

Fort: 28
Relfex: 26
Will: 19

Skills

Craft Weapon: 14
Discipline: 9
Hide: 53
Jump: 9
Listen: 3
Lore: 21
Move Silenty: 45
Search: 36
Spot: 29
Tumble: 47

Base Speed: 50ft
Base AC: 29
Base AC with Skirmish: 32

Recommended Equipment:

Composite Longbow - Damage and AB
Haste - More Speed and an extra attack
Light armour - Preferably padded
Items that boost Str or Dex

Pros:

*Can create arrows
*4d6 sneak attack
*3d6 skirmish
*High AB and a high number of attacks per round
*High AC
*Has a decent speed
*Fort and Reflex are fairly decent
*High Hide and Move Silently
*Can shoot 6 arrows at once
*Can deduct 15 AB to deal an extra 15 damage
*Can disarm from range
*Blindsense

Cons:

*Arrows get pricy in both gold and experience
*Skirmish only works within 30ft when using a bow
*High number of attacks means you burn through loads of arrows
*The Will Save is pitiful

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