Ryan Makes Some Experimental Builds

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Contents 1 Cleric Archer 2 Final Fantasy Style Dragoon 2.1 Equipment 2.2 So What Does This All Work Out To? 3 The Unstoppable....Basketweaver 4 Thuranni Brothers 4.1 Jarod Thuranni 4.2 William Thuranni

Cleric Archer

So you remember back at the table when I said one of the best possible archer classes was not Ranger or Scout, as normally expected, but Cleric? Yeah, here is how that works.

This works better if your GM allows flaws, but I'll assume he doesn't.

Elf Cleric of Corellon Larethian

Domains: Elf (Gives Point Blank Shot), War (Gives Weapon Focus Longbow)

WIS>CHA>DEX>CON>STR>INT

Cleric 1 - (Extend Spell) (If DM allows flaws, this is where you take Persistant Spell and Divine Metamagic (Persistant))

Cleric 2 -

Cleric 3 - (Persistant Spell unless you had flaws, then Zen Archery)

Cleric 4

Cleric 5

Cleric 6 - DM (Persistant) Again, unless you had flaws, in which case Zen Archery)

Cleric 7 -

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 1 - New Domain - Exorcism

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 2 - Zen Archery or Rapid Shot

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 3 -

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 4 -

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 5 - Rapid Shot or Quicken Spell

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 6 -

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 7 -

Cleric 7/Sacred Exorcist 8 - Quicken Spell or Extra Turning

I don't feel like writing out the rest of this, but thats the basics. Finish out Sacred Exorcist and take Contemplative to level 20, after getting DMM (Quicken) you can just take Extra Turning a bunch of times, or grab some other Archery Feats or Holy Warrior or something. Also, if your DM won't let you buy or give you a bunch of Nightsticks (magic item from Libris Mortis, gives you +4 Turning Attempts per day, costs about 4000gold each) then you need to get more Extra Turnings. Recommend swaping out the Quicken for this.

Anyway the basic strategy here is to buff yourself up every morning with Persistent buffs and be godly. Zen Archery means your ranged attack is based on Wis, and you can cast 24 hour Divine Might, Divine Favor, Righteous Might, Holy Star, Greater Magic Weapon, Magic Vestment, Spikes, Animated Shield, the list goes on. There is no need to have any magic weapons or armor, your own buffs will probably be better.

Magic items you definitely want will be Nightsticks (as many as possible), Prayer Beads, and anything that buffs Wisdom.

Final Fantasy Style Dragoon

Now this is one I've actually played in a campaign, though it didn't go long enough for me to really hit the true power of the build. For fans of melee fighters or general awesomeness, this build is top-notch.

Again, I'm assuming that the DM allows the use of flaws for extra feats.

Keothi Longleaper Olavi

Goliath (Races of Stone) Scout 11/Psychic Warrior 2/Blade Dancer 7 (Blade Dancer is from Oriental Adventures, which is 3.0. The class was updated to 3.5 at some point, but nothing changed except for a couple bonus names. It doesn't effect the build at all, and so you can just use Blade Dancer as written right out of the OA hardcover.)

01 Scout - Battle Jump (UE), EWP Greatspear, Power Attack, Skirmish 1d6, trapfinding

02 PsyWar - Dodge*

03 Scout - Run, Battle Fortitude 1, Uncanny dodge

04 PsyWar - Mobility*

05 Scout - +10 speed, Skirmish 1d6/1, trackless step

06 Scout - Spring Attack* Leap Attack (CV)

07 Scout - Evasion, Skirmish 2d6/1

08 Scout - Flawless Stride

09 Scout - Up the Walls (XPH) Skirmish 2d6/2

10 Scout - Improved Bull Rush* Camouflage

11 Scout - Skirmish 3d6/2

12 Scout - Speed of Thought (XPH) Blindsense 30'

13 Scout - Battle Fortitude 2, Speed +20, Skirmish 3d6/3

14 Blade Dancer - Acrobatics +10, Fast Movement

15 Blade Dancer - Shock Trooper, Enchanted Blade 1

16 Blade Dancer -

17 Blade Dancer - Ride the Wind, Improved Fast Movement

18 Blade Dancer - (Open feat slot. Recommend - Psionic Charge, Skill Focus (Jump), Combat Reflexes, Stand Still, etc.) Acrobatics +20, Acrobatic attack

19 Blade Dancer - Enchanted Blade 2

20 Blade Dancer - Greater Fast Movement

Stats are gonna be STR>DEX>CON>WIS>INT>CHA

Make sure your Wisdom is at least 13 before level 6.

Obviously you also need to max the Jump skill for this. You should also max Tumble. Depending on how many points you have to play with, skill priority goes Spot, Listen, Climb, Balance, Hide, Move Silently, Intimidate, Concentrate.

Equipment

THE BARE MINIMUM: A large greatspear (A+EG. Goliath's have a racial feature that lets them use large weapons.), Some kind of decent light armor with little to no AC penalty. (Mithril Breastplate), a shortbow for when you need ranged.

WHAT YOU PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE:

Valorous Greatspear

Speed booster.

Accelerator. (Dorje of Hustle)

Jump booster.

Fall Blocker. (Cape of Catfall.)

Freedom of movement something.

Ring of Force Shield, or an animated heavy steel shield.

WOULD BE NICE:

Wisdom Booster.

Brooch of Inertial Barrier.

Fully Upgraded Weapon: +5 Metalline Valorous Greatspear of Collision and Vaulting.

Fully Upgraded Armor: +5 Mithral Halfweight Illithidwrought Fullplate of Nimbleness.

Bracer's of Psionic Lion's Charge.

So What Does This All Work Out To?

Haha, I'm glad you asked, myself. The basic concept for this character is the absolutely sick synergy between Power Attack, Leap Attack, and Battle Jump, as well as Shock Trooper (which is really just icing on the cake.) Power Attacking with a 2handed weapon gives you +2 Damage for every -1 penalty you take on your attack roll, simple enough. Leap Attack allows you too, when charging, if you clear a leap of at least 10 horizontal feet, triple your damage from power attack. Battle Jump states that whenever you attack an enemy by jumping DOWN from at least 5 feet above them, your attack automatically counts as a charge, and you do double your total damage. A Valorous Weapon enchantment doubles all damage dealt on a charge.

Assuming normal conditions (Battle Jump and Leaping Attack activate, Valorous weapon) and standard DnD rules for stacking multipliers (2 doubles = 1 triple), then what this works out to a 10:1 return on Power Attack, and a 3x normal weapon damage. +Skirmish, +Enhancements.

Every round.

On foot.

And then you Spring Attack away.

When you get the Shock Trooper feat it becomes even more disgusting, because at that point you get to dump the penalty from Power Attack into your ARMOR CLASS instead of your attack roll. Sure you'll be incredibly vulnerable, but you'll never miss, AND your speed is 110 feet, so you'll easily be out of range when you Spring Attack. And YES, you get to spring attack even though its a charge, because Battle Jump makes the attack COUNT as a charge even if you didn't take the charge action!

Oh yes, didn't I mention your speed is 110ft? That means that when you take a run action, since you have the Run feat, you go 550ft in a round. This works out to roughly 68 m.p.h. I'm not even kidding.

Also, if you do choose to play as a Goliath, you end up with the Powerful Build racial feature, which lets you use Large Weapons. A Large Greatspear (besides looking really badass), deals 3d6 damage as its base. As its BASE. Which means that this is a pretty rockin character, even at first level. And you have reach! Woo!

The Unstoppable....Basketweaver

Human Monk 5/Shou Disciple 5/Exemplar 1/Drunken Master 9

Feats:

Human 1: Dodge Level 1: Skill Focus (Basketweaving) Level 3: Weapon Focus (Unarmed Strike) Level 6: Great Fortitude

And what you will from there.

That's right, this is a serious attempt to optimize basketweaving.

So... this'll let you Flurry with baskets, and you get d12 extra damage on each hit with one. Two-weapon basketweaving is a good idea, but there's also the option of taking Shield Proficiency (Tower) and making a large basket to use as a tower shield to go sword and board, too. Or you could just be a two-handed basketwielder.

Basicly, screw all the mental stats; WIS and INT are going down the drain once you start drinking, and CHA gets you nothing. DEX really only needs to be 13 for Dodge, so throw most of what You've got into STR and CON.

Exemplar is there for Skill Artisty (Craft [Basketweaving]).

As soon as you can, get yourself a potion belt (and, depending on your DM, a masterwork bandoleer) and fill it with bottles of alcohol.

Thuranni Brothers

Jarod Thuranni

Playing around with Psionics on this one. Human or Shifter Blasty blasty wilder.

I'm thinking Wilder 5/Anarchic Initiate 10/Cognition Thief 5.

Feats: (This is tricky as all get-out. There's a ton that I want, bleagh) 1st Level: Point Blank Shot Human: Precise Shot Flaw 1: Overchannel (Swap for Psicrystal feats later) Flaw 2: Psionic Shot (Swap for Empower Power) Non Com - Talented Non Com - Education

3rd Level:

6th Level: Psionic Meditation

9th Level: EK: Hustle

12th Level: Split Psionic Ray

15th Level: EK: Schism

18th Level: Probably Twin Power.

Powers:

Energy Ray (Swap for Crystal Shard at higher levels) Offensive Prescience Psionic Levitate Defensive Precognition Dimension Door True Seeing Disintegrate Energy Wave Greater Teleport True Metabolism Reality Revision

Plus Hustle and Schism from Expanded Knowledge feats.

Alternate

Longstrider Shifter Wilder 5/Anarchic Initiate 10/Wilder 5 (Perhaps gestalted with PsyWar or barbarian)

Feats:

   * 1st Level: Psicrystal Affinity
   * Flaw 1 (Shaky): Expanded Knowledge: Claws of the Beast
   * Flaw 2 (Frail): Expanded Knowledge: Jaws of the Wolf
   * Non-Combat: Education
   * Non-Combat: Track 

   * 3rd Level: Extend Power 

   * 6th Level: Expanded Knowledge: Psionic Lion's Charge 

   * 9th Level: Expanded Knowledge: Schism 

   * 12th Level: Psicrystal Containment

   * 15th Level: Twin Power 

   * 18th Level: Expanded Knowledge: True Metabolism 

Powers:

   * Level 1 - Offensive Precognition, Claws of the Beast, Vigor, Inertial Armor
   * Level 2 - Share Pain, Psionic Lion's Charge, Animal Affinity
   * Level 3 - Hustle, Mental Barrier
   * Level 4 - Metamorphosis, Schism
   * Level 5 - Psychofeedback
   * Level 6 - Temporal Acceleration
   * Level 7 - Fission
   * Level 8 - Fusion, True Metabolism
   * Level 9 - Greater Metamorphosis

William Thuranni

Paladin base. The other person is playing this brother so he gets the final call. My suggestion:

Gestalt Cleric 1//Paladin 6/Pious Templar 10/Shadowstriker 3/??? - One more level to fill. Recommend just doing a level of fighter for the bonus feat.

Feats: 1st: True Believer Human: Power Attack Domain (War): Weapon Focus (Insert Weapon Here) Flaw 1: Divine Might Flaw 2: Extra Turning

3rd: Goad

4th: Awesome Smite

6th: Divine Shield

9th: Weapon Specialization (PT Bonus), Melee Weapon Mastery

10th: Law or Prot Devotion (I recommend law its way better but if you want Prot that can go here too -PT Bonus feat)

12th: Sacred Vitality or Divine Vigor

14th: Bonus Fighter Feat from PT, I'd go with Shield Specialization or Block Arrows

15th: Battle Blessing (Yes, its worth it with the PT spells)

18th: If we even get this far, from here on out its your choice. You have the skeleton build all set. Anything that makes you better with the shield, or Extra Turning.