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Pimp My D&D Character
Litejedi
New York CityRegistered User regular
New York CityRegistered User regular
I know you can go to the CO boards on the wizard's site for this, but I've wanted to have a thread like this for a while here, so there we go. Post here if your character sucks and are looking for ways to make him suck less. Note that I'm a RAW guy, so don't come in asking for advice on highly questionable things (no, you can't play pun-pun in a campaign). Also, I'm a proponent of the idea that 3.5 is way the hell better balanced than 3.0, so if you're looking for advice from me about 3.0, I won't give it to you. You can ask here, but don't expect pearls of wisdom to come flowing from this nerd.
A few things to give us before you ask for help.
1) Your character in it's current state.
2) What books are allowed/not allowed.
3) What you want your character to do. A lot of advice will be useless if we tell you to do something that would go completely against the grain of your character.
4) I personally know diddly about psionics, so I'm going to stay out of that discussion.
Also, below are a few tips that I think are important for every character. I'll add more to these as time goes on.
1) If using point buy, buy a 14 con score. More con = more HP. More HP = you not dead. This is less important in roleplaying heavy campaigns, but for deadly games like Living Greyhawk, it can make a world of difference.
A few things to give us before you ask for help.
1) Your character in it's current state.
2) What books are allowed/not allowed.
3) What you want your character to do. A lot of advice will be useless if we tell you to do something that would go completely against the grain of your character.
4) I personally know diddly about psionics, so I'm going to stay out of that discussion.
Also, below are a few tips that I think are important for every character. I'll add more to these as time goes on.
1) If using point buy, buy a 14 con score. More con = more HP. More HP = you not dead. This is less important in roleplaying heavy campaigns, but for deadly games like Living Greyhawk, it can make a world of difference.
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This is all find and dandy, and I'd be willing to give advice on this front as well. For me at least, you should probably include some of your ideas behind the character and what you'd like to do with him. (Awesome swordsmen, arcane blaster, survivalist, and so on.)
Er....which part of Pun-Pun isn't RAW? He's definately not playable but I'm fairly certain at least one of his versions is stone cold RAW.
Pun-Pun is an example of a certain game taken to an extreme. This game is called "How broken are the rules" and it's strictly a drawing board/message board game. Any resemblance to an actual session of D&D should not be mistaken as signifigant.
Divine Metamagic. Now that we've settled that discussion I'd be willing to give people a hand with 3.0 stuff, but I've forgotten most of what I once knew on that front so don't expect miracles.
Which books are you allowed?
I tend to like battlefield control in 3.5. It does require alot of restraint and a certain willingness to let other people mop things up. Druids in core are fairly decent at this and the Beguiler (PHB2) looks darn shiny as well.
I personally do not one the PHB2, as I have a tight budget. SO looking at the other classes, looks like I'm sticking with core or the 3.0 Cleric/pally Splat.
As far as battlefield control is, I would have problems using it, in fact, the same problem I normally had utilizing AOE/Cones in the past, Friendly. Fire.
It's basically "I want to be able to do cool shit." Your main attack is a magical blast that does 1d6 per two levels (rounded up), which isn't much, but ignores DR and ER (but is, unfortunately, subject to SR). You get a very limited number of invocations, which are pretty easy to keep track of, and, eventually, DR, fast healing, the ability to craft magical items better than anyone else in the game, and the ability to take ten on Use Magic Device, which is awesome.
I like Clarics and Wizards/Sorcs, but past events have made me believe I do not posses the knowledge to utilize a Wizard or a Sorcerer properly. and I would love to play a Cleric if the other players allow me to play how I like.
This is not a bad choice. I was underwhelmed with the Warlock on a original read through but watching the warlock in my group beat the hell out of parts in WLD that nobody else can touch I'm starting to respect them more. Ignoring DR with that blast combined with a touch attack is really harsh.
3.5 Druids are only the frontline's bitches if you allow yourself to be. Playing a druid, I never memorize much in the way of Heals. I get some but it's a horrible idea to try and be the party healer because you suck at it compared to the cleric. All the cures but the first cost you extra levels. Learn to use your battlefield control spells aided by summons and it becomes pretty clear that a 3rd level spell for cure moderate is a waste of your resources.
Now Clerics I have trouble with playing in a role that isn't simply "I'm the slow starting fighter". They play the role well but it doesn't really take off until 9th+ level (where it can become just stupid.)
Edit: If you have trouble mastering all your options with the casters Warlocks are ideal. You need to read your powers when making the level up choice, from then on you'll have a handful of options to deal with and that's it. Learn those powers well and you're set.
I always take the sun domain spells.
Flamestrike and Acorns into gernades for the win.
Pah, just be a druid and be able to do each as often as you've got spell slots. Empowered Holly Berry Bomb+Resist Fire+A Lacky to hug the BBEG=Win.
If you're doing a point-buy system, warlocks are even better, because they're generalists; charisma is important, but not as important as it is to a sorceror. They can wear light armor, for a decent AC, and they get d6s for hp, a step up from d4s.
Yeah I was wondering that myself
Yeah but I can also heal myself alot and actully do pretty well on the battlefield. Oh and take a vow of celibicy so I can get that cool power to let me make undead explode when I turn them.
I'd rather not troll this thread, if you would please continue this in my Psionics thread, I'd greatly appreciate it.
Think of the best D&D ability. Su, Ex, or Sp. Go ahead. Good. He has that. He has all the ones you considered on your way there (unless he doesn't want them) and all the ones you probably didn't consider. (Divine Rank?)
Height of Cheese.
All thanks to one little monster ability that is horribly unbalanced.
That being said, I
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Psionic Warrior level 5
Just want to see what kind of suggestions you have. (we havent started this campaign yet so pretty much anythin can be changed)
Little about the campaign:
No healer class in the party
Eberron setting, but not the same world (same rules and gods and such but not the same places)
Also Im not sure how I want to RP this guy, so maybe a general archetype or somethin that would go well with this class. Thanks guys, lets see what yo come up with!
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
Oh, and what I meant regarding RAW is that to get this particular power, you have to play a particular thing from the serpent kingdoms, which is a forgotten realms book, so it's not likely pun-pun would be cropping up in any Eberron or Greyhawk games. And yes, Divine Metamagic is quite good, but compared to the rebalancing of the CORE rules in 3.5, the newer rules are much better. If possible, let's leave the discussion of what's balanced and what's not balanced outside of the thread.
It seems puny, but when you get up in levels and are delivering Vampiric Touch spells with a d8 unarmed attack... sweet merciful lord.
Looks pretty good to me, but I'm terrible with psionics; I only played under a DM that allowed them post-3rd edition once, and created a really broken character.
FYI, if you're playing 3rd edition, and someone asks to be a soulknife, the correct answer is "not only no, but hell no."
Edit: Are there any monk prestige classes that does away with the lawful alignment requirement?
I'd switch out Imp. Iniative for Psionic Mediation. That means you can spend your move action to gain focus, and then psionic weapon each round you make your concentration check. At level 6 gain hustle, and you can full round attack+attempt to regain focus. Then get greater psionic weapon at 8, and psicrystal containment at 9, for an extra stored focus.
You might want to switch to a 2h weapon, and get force screen instead of thicken skin. You'd have -2 AC for more damage without the power, but 1 AC more with casting (for a shorter time period though, 1min/level vs 10min/level). Going with a Greatsword vs a bastard sword also frees up a feat.
There's plenty of monk prestige classes that don't have lawful as a requirement. It doesn't matter, though. You can change alignments from lawful, as a monk, and you keep all of your monk powers.
Ok, I am relatively new to psionics, so let me see if I understand what you were tellin me to do.
Take the meditation thing, then I can focus -> psionic weapon, each round instead of having to focus and then attack next turn?
As for yhe shield vs Force Screen thing, I think I just skipped over that power. So yeah, I think Ill go with the greatsword and take force screen instead of thicken skin.
Thanks! Thats exactly the kind of help I was looking for.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
To gain focus, you need to make a concentration check DC 20, on a full round action. This is what allows you to make the psionic weapon for 2d6 extra damage. If you take psionic meditation, that full round action becomes a move action. This alone is nifty, because it's allows you to charge&swing, focussing without moving pretty much means you are focussing next to an enemy, which gets an attack of opportunity. However, if you add the hustle power, you get an extra move action, so you can gain focus->charge.
One more trick to get around the AoO, is to somehow increase your reach. Increasing your size is the easiest way to do this, but there are other options.
If you want to make a truly brutal psi-warrior, go with a spiked chain as your weapon. Your 2d6 greatsword damage goes down to a 2d4, but you get reach, and most of your damage should be coming from strength, Power Attack and Psionic Weapon anyway, so it doesn't matter much. What makes this truly brutal is at the beginning of combat, use the 5 or whatever points to make Expand a free action. Now, your 10' reach with the chain becomes 20' (or 15'? Don't remember off the top of my head, but I think it's 20'). Take Combat Reflexes and stay at the front of your group; at low levels, stuff will die before it even gets to you, and at high levels, you will be doing big, big damage for free. Plus, at the higher levels, you can crack-out Expand to get to size categories even bigger than large which will increase your reach and damage even more, and it's still a free action to manifest. Finally, take Improved Trip as a feat, as well; between the fact that you will keep growing in size and your strength will be through the roof (not to mention the spiked chain trip bonus), you'll be keeping the bad guys on their back for entire combats, while still getting to attack them.
What think ye all?
My thoughts exactly (and I moved some points arround, wasnt thinkin about focus when I put points in concentration). Plus my DM has a ban on spiked chain.
Jordan of Elienor, Human Shaman
First things first, I count 26 skills points but 24 you should have (3 lvl, 8 effective lvls). I think the problem is disguise, which you have listed as class skill and I don't see a source for that. This may be a rule change on your end but by core Kalashtar don't recieve any change to that.
2nd, you have no skill ranks higher than 4? Concentration needs to be as high as you can get it. You're going to need to manifest powers while threatened in combat and +7 isn't going to cut it. That's a 50% failure rate for combat manifesting.
I would look into all the things you can't do with search and consider if it's really where you should be spending your points there. I'd also reread Know(Psi) and compare it with Psicraft. Psicraft is technical know-how while Know(Psi) is theoretical underpinings.
Feats: Power attack is the obvious choice for anybody with a two handed weapon.
Psionic Weapon: A brief analysis
How high a level do you expect to reach? See, with Psionic Mediatation and Psionic Weapon you can, if you do not move more than 5 feet, attack each round with a +2d6 damage. This is good. Once you're 8th level though you could get two attacks if you do not move more than 5 feet each round. Is +2d6 worth an attack? This changes based on level. The higher a level you are the less likely the answer is to be yes.
Psionic Weapon is still a solid. It can help punch through DR, it should be an extra +2d6 at least once every fight, with psionic mediation it makes "the Ready game" usually break in your favor. I will caution you to be careful about spending two feats and giving up all itinerative attacks for 2d6 and always considering it a good deal.
I'm not big on improved iniative. *shrug* As a big guy in heavy armor my tendancy would be to let them go first so they're actually near me when it's my turn. Though going first would let you get Force Screen up alot more.
Powers!
Please open your Expanded Psionics Handbooks to page 105. Read Expansion. Take expansion. Rename character to Grape Ape. For 1 pp it gives you +0 hit, +4 average damage for 5 minutes. With errata 2 extra pp buys you an additional 45 minutes. Seriously, it's awesome.
I noticed you wrote down Prescience, Offensive. You meant to write down Precognition, Offensive. You don't think so? Well you have power attack right? So if you want more damage take the hit bonus from Precog and dump it into PA. If you need the bonus to hit, do nothing! This does offer a smaller upper bound for maximum damage but gives you alot more flexibility with what you can do. It also helps avoid the "I can't hit anything and I'm bored!" bit.
I've forgotten your allowed sources, but if you can use Magic of Eberron I'd swap out Dissolving touch (A power, for damage? Is this not why you carry a sword my good man?) and grab Sense Danger if your DM will allow it. It is very good and gives you fake Uncanny Dodge and the ability to quicken a 1 pp power at the beginning of every fight. (Like Force Screen, or Expansion.) Close to too good so this can smack of Cheese.
Sum up, I'd drop Biofeedback for Expansion, Prescience for Precognition and Dissolving Touch for Sense Danger.
I've run short on time, however what can you buy to start out with? Quori Implanted shards are....well how silly would you like me to get? Also, how much money do you start with?
Edit: Two bits I skipped, Expansion is also good since it can help you in grapples which every character needs to think about. If you do grab psionic weapon and psionic meditation you should also look into deep impact. Touch attacks you can power attack on are very good. It is another feat into the sucking pit of psionic focus though.
Fair enough. I agree, it's broken, but hey, that's how a pimp rolls.
Other than that, yeah, a greatsword is probably your best option. Don't forget to have Dissolving Touch (first level power) up on your weapon since it doesn't expire until it's used, and does an additional 4d6 acid damage. Stacked up, you're at:
2d6+4d6+4d6+1.5*Strength+PA+(Whatever Magic you have)
i.e.:
Greatsword + Dissolving Touch + Great Psionic Weapon + Strength + Power Attack + Magic
And, with your second psionic focus and your Deep Impact feat, this is a touch attack, so you can go crazy on your Power Attack. Yeah, all this stacked up is only for the first attack before you need to reset some of it, but that's a huge attack. Plus, if you take Hustle, you can reset one of your Psionic focuses at the end of this turn and the other at the beginning of the next turn, and do that damage again the next round, but then for round 3, you won't have a focus (although you can do the same thing and have both psionic focuses at the beginning of round 4).
Also, it's fun to stack Spell Storing onto your weapon.
Also, isn't there a weapon enhancement in one of the books that adds 5' of reach for a +1 bonus? I seem to recall it being there somewhere, but I can't remember what book it's in.
Also, I would advise that you set your Wisdom at 16 at the most and up your Dex or Con (or even Str). The extra power point every couple of levels doesn't really mean much, you can always use items to up your wisdom if you want to, and you only need 16 to be able to use all your psionic abilities anyway.
EDIT: From the guy above me, I thought that Dissolving Touch could be applied to a weapon? I don't have my books with me, and I don't remember for sure, but I thought that was the case. I could be wrong. If so, disregard that part of the post.
LOL BARD.
Half-fey bard, level 4 (ecl 6). I can't recall all the books I had to draw from for her. >>
Dissolving Weapon can be, not Dissolving Touch. I'd forgotten about Dissolving Weapon myself, but it still goes into my theory of "If Guy with Sword needs magic for Damage, Something is Wrong."
Capitals Are Good.
Oh, and it's 2nd level not first.
I acutally like bards, but I'm not sure about this. 20hp at 6th level? That is literally one hit from an average monster you'll face in a 6th level party, and an AC of 18, you WILL get hit. Not to mention an average 6th level fireball does, what, 21 points of damage, your cleric is not going to be happy with you.
The rest of this stuff...I understand the concept, and I really dig it, so you can disregard the below since it's more "crunch" advise, which doesn't really jive with cool character concept advise. In terms of character concept, the only other thing I can think of is Spell Focus: Illusion or Spell Focus: Enchantment since you'll be doing that a lot, but that can wait for later on.
As to your spell selection, I'm not sure what you're trying to get at there. You have Summon Instrument, but no Perform skills that require an instrument. Magic Mouth and Unseen Servent are, honestly, wand spells; you probably won't be using them often, and wands of 1st level spells are cheap. Do you really see yourself using those all the time compared to something like Cure Light Wounds, the...dancy one, or any of the other 1st level spells?
Also, a Ring of Feather Fall when you can fly with perfect ability? Save your 2kgp and get some wands or something.
I see this more as an NPC character than a PC. Down the road, that flesh golem isn't going to be impressed with most of what you have. To be fair, though, the next time I run a D&D game, I'm totally stealing this character for an NPC.
You sir and correct, thanks for the info.
As to the point about using magic to up your damage, why not? You can throw it on your sword in the morning (or, heck, the day before) and really give that monster a hurting on your first whack. As a fighter-type, your job is to deal all the damage you can, so why not add 4d6 more for 3 power points? If you can kill the big baddy in one hit, you'll:
a) look like a total bad ass
b) make the rest of the combat that much easier
Plus, it's his own "magic", and almost everything he's going to take is about doing more damage, so it doesn't seem that weird to me.
Yeah, Summon Instrument was held over from when the flute was her perfomrance skill, I guess I didn't think to change it. 20 HP and 18 armor class suck, but the whole idea was that in a fight, she'd just never be around. She wasn't really built with dungeon delving in mind, she's more of a social character.
The feather fall ring is in case something happens to her wings while she's like four hundred feet in the air. >>
Wand of Feather Fall + Use Magic Device. 750gp for 50 uses. Why waste a very useful slots and over 1kgp for a very unlikely scenario?
UMD, from my experience, is the most under-utilized skill out there. Keep it maxed out, get yourself a mess-load of utility wands/scrolls/etc., profit. Plus, I think it fits your character concept where you can pull all kinds of crazy things out of your pocket/vest/shoe/etc. when needed.
The social skills are all solid, though.
As to your feats, is it worth 2 feats to be able to cause 1d6+1 damage per hit? This is where UMD comes in; get a wand of something like Magic Missle or Fireball and do that instead. Use those feats for social skill boots (Skill Focus, etc.) or Spell Focus since that's what you character is more focused towards.
Again, just my advise. I like discussing bards, though, since I think they get a bum wrap from people.