Making a Daelkyr Half-Blood that's actually effective

[Thinblade]

Greetings, all. My group's about to try something new, specifically Eberron (we're more FR/homebrew), and I was wandering around the Eberron books looking for interesting and I came across the daelkyr half-blood. I really like the concept, but mechanically it's reminding me of the CW samurai. So I came here for help.

* The premise: a daelkyr half-blood that is on a holy war against other aberrations, and who is really good at killing them.
* What I would like: to use symbionts in pursuit of the above
* The problem: symbionts... well... suck.
* What I want from you: EITHER help making symbionts actually effective (including pointing me to 3rd party resources) OR help creating an aberration-themed aberration-killer who's effective
* Party: total of five PC's, starting at level 5, no one's come up with classes yet, so any role is open
* Books: if WotC printed it, I own it

Now, to prove I've done my homework:

Obviously, Impure Prince is right up this character's alley. Unfortunately, it runs into the problem with symbionts being useless. And if I can't get effective symbionts, it's not all that attractive. Likewise, another obvious choices, Keeper of the Cerulean Sign, is out because I'm an aberration through race. I'll tweak things if I really have to, but I'd prefer to stay RAW-legal.

Another option would be warlock with the feat aberration banemagic. I play a lot of warlocks, though (after all, I wrote the handbook, and yes, I'll get it ported over here), and would prefer to play something else this time.

So with that, I turn it over to your collected wisdom. Anyone have any ideas?

[dark_samuari]

You could possible go Wildshape Ranger/Warshaper/MoMF and polymorph into different aberrations. You could flavor it as your control over your symbiont becoming so powerful you can alter your form with them.

[Vattic]

first of all, symbionts aren't useless.  secondly, i have had enormous success using the psychic warrior class in conjunction with this race, and i suggest that you take a peek at the options along that path. 

[Akalsaris]

There are some aberration-hunter feats and PrC's in Lords of Madness you might consider taking a look at, though nothing struck me as especially powerful.

I wish I could help with the Daelkyr Half-Blood, but I don't have the book it's in =(

[PhaedrusXY]

One of the most broken builds ever to grace the CO boards was a daelkyr half-blood impure prince. I forget the thread/build name, but I think Lord of Procrastination made it.

The basic trick was: 1) You can share spells with your symbionts, including the types of spells that give them offensive powers like Mental Pinnacle, and 2) you can have as many symbionts as you want.

Edit: I remember the name. It was "The Nasty Gentlemen".

[Thinblade]

That's... really, really scary. And, cranked down, something that my DM might actually be willing to go for, especially since it'll be a while before I could crank out the truly sick stuff. Simply add an implied limit as to how many symbionts can actually be attached or can make use of the trick.

I'm starting to like this idea. After all, doing a pidly 1d6 electricty damage with a storm stalk as a standard action is horrid. Doing 10d8 with each stalk (plus yourself) with just a 5th level spell... less so.

Thanks, Phaedrus. As long as I keep it from getting too crazy, I think this will work great. After all, I wanted a guy who could eventually go toe-to-toe with illithids and aboleth savants... Also, thanks for pointing out the other symbionts in FF. I have the book, but haven't reread it in a while. Obviously, I need to dig it out.

[AndyJames]

Watch out for the stat drain that some of the symbiotes have. You might want to take 1 level of Binder and grab Naberius to offset it.

[Thinblade]

That's a good point. Either binder or incarnate with strongheart vest. I've been wanting to play around some with incarnum, so maybe instead of burning a feat go Wiz 3/Inc 2 going for soulcaster and impure prince, using the Gentleman aspect to offset the loss of power.

Hmm. I may need to think about that some more. Losing three caster levels is very bad, but incarnum would add even more options. I had originally been thinking of this guy as a CN(G) alignment, but I could see him becoming a good incarnate (having an epiphany). More stuff to think about at least.

Alternate idea: say the throwing scarab's description is modified to say it generates as many throwing shards (1d6x2, +1d6 acid, counts as magic weapon) per round as you can throw. Throwing builds are actually something I'm not familiar with. How would you take advantage of this?

[plaguewraith]

I think the totemist would fit more with the theme, anyway

you could adapt the mutation system from the d20 future book to D&D

[ChristopherGroves]

There's also a ton of benefit to the half-blood for ...

(a) Alter Self forms
(b) Aberrant Feats (Inhuman Reach, I'm looking at you)

That right there makes crunchy gishness.

[Nanshork]

Can't take abberant feats.  Abberation blood requires you to be a humanoid.

[kurashu]

Slayer is an option as well, if you choose to use psionics.