I believe I mentioned this build in an earlier post. I'm posting it now so you folks can improve it or poke holes in it. The thread title is a reference to LogicNinja's melee killer gnome.
I'm sure you've seen the acronym
BBEG. Big Bad Evil Guy. Well, I was thinking about smaller ones, just for the humor value, and ended up fixing my attention on Petals. So naturally, I went to a class that has a feature that scales very well with charisma. The result of this is...
the Tiny Bad Evil Guy
You may be familiar with the Zhentarim Skymage prestige class from Lords of Darkness. If you're not, it's a 5 level PrC that advances spellcasting with each level, gives some free scrolls, grants a few bonus feats, and a flying mount. The free scrolls are actually quite nice. If the skymage gets that class feature later on in his career, it could mean as many as 8 free scrolls of Wish (or more, depending upon your interpretation of the ability). That's quite the value (230,600gp).
It's the flying mount I'll focus on right now.
A Zhentarim skymage can summon up a flying mount to serve him. Well, there's a list that says "suitable mounts include...", but the text states that some skymages use undead or even fiends as mounts, so it doesn't look like it's limited to the short list included in the ability description.
So mount can be anything the skymage would like with an HD limit of 1 + Charisma + skymage level. This can be maximized in a way similar to Hellfire Warlock, using Legacy Champion and/or bloodline levels. LC levels are clearly superior, since they advance spellcasting and grant bonus scrolls also.
If the skymage loses charisma or levels though, the mount will become uncontrolled, and likely be very angry at the skymage. This is why my TBEG includes means of protection vs. charisma drain and vs. energy drain. Note that in all cases, the HD cap for the mount could be raised by 3, by a +6 enhancement magic item. I haven't used this, since then the TBEG is just one sunder, antimagic field, or even a lowly
dispel magic away from losing control of his mount.
No bloodlines are used in the "simple" build. The cohort version and the slightly better mount version both do; As such, I'm interpreting bloodlines in the less favorable way (they count as class levels, basically). All of them use level adjustment buyoff.
The UA variant Wizard is used to trade Scribe Scroll and the level 5 bonus feat for fighter bonus feats. The TBEG is free to specialize, take ACFs, or whatever, as long as Enchantment, Illusion, and Conjuration are not banned.
Oh all of them have really really horrible strength too (especially the last one). The Con requirement is for the anti-energy drain soulmeld. The Cha is for the mount.
Feat progression (the same for all of them)[spoiler]
Petal Bonus: Weapon Finesse
1: Faerie Mysteries Initiate
Wizard 1 bonus: Improved Initiative
3: Combat Casting
Wizard 5 bonus: Mounted Combat
Otyugh Hole: Iron Will
6: Planar Touchstone (Catalogues of Enlightenment. Pleasure Domain)
Zhentarim Skymage 2 bonus: (one of: Flyby Attack, Mounted Archery, Ride-by Attack, Spirited Charge, or Trample)
Zhentarim Skymage 2 bonus: Craft Wand
Zhentarim Skymage 3 bonus: Spell Focus (any)
9: Least Legacy
Zhentarim Skymage 4 bonus: Skill Focus (any)
Zhentarim Skymage 5 bonus: Enlarge Spell
12: Shape Soulmeld (Pauldrons of Health)
Legacy Champion 4 bonus: (any legacy feat)
15: Open Lesser Chakra (Shoulders)
18: (free)
Legacy Champion 8 bonus: (any legacy feat)
[/spoiler]
Simple[spoiler]
Sparkly McEvil,
Old Magic-blooded Draconic Petal
Wizard 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Legacy Champion 10All legacy champion levels are added to Zhentarim Skymage
Starting ability scores: 18 Cha, 12 Con, Int as high as can be managed.
The 12 Con is boosted to 18 by racial adjustments, then lowered to 15 by age.
Charisma at class level 6 (ECL8): 33 (modifier +11) - breakdown: (18 + 12 racial + 2 age + 1 levels)
Charisma at class level 20 (ECL20): 42 (modifier +16) - breakdown: (18 + 12 racial + 2 age + 5 levels + 5 inherent)
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 6:
13 - breakdown: ( 1 + 11 charisma + 1 skymage levels )
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 20:
30 - breakdown: ( 1 + 16 charisma + 13 skymage levels )
Final wizard casting: 18th level
[/spoiler]
Cohort[spoiler]
You too can have an evil faerie cohort. Just dial-
Sparkly McCohort,
Old Magic-blooded Petal
Wizard 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Legacy Champion 6/Minor Doppelganger Bloodline 1Starting ability scores: 18 Cha, 14 Con, Int as high as can be managed.
The 14 Con is boosted to 17 by racial adjustments, then lowered to 15 by age.
Charisma at class level 6 (ECL8): 31 (modifier +10) - breakdown: (18 + 10 racial + 2 age + 1 levels)
Charisma at class level 17 (ECL17): 40 (modifier +15) - breakdown: (18 + 10 racial + 2 age + 4 levels + 5 inherent + 1 bloodline)
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 6:
13 - breakdown: ( 1 + 10 charisma + 1 skymage levels )
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 20:
30 - breakdown: ( 1 + 15 charisma + 11 skymage levels )
Final wizard casting: 15th level (CL 16)
[/spoiler]
Max Mount HD[spoiler]
He's ancient, he's decrepit, he's...
Sparkly McOld,
Venerable Magic-blooded Draconic Petal
Wizard 5/Zhentarim Skymage 5/Legacy Champion 9/Minor Doppelganger Bloodline 1All legacy champion levels are added to Zhentarim Skymage
Starting ability scores: 18 Cha, 14 Con, Int as high as can be managed.
The 15 Con is boosted to 21 by racial adjustments, then lowered to 15 by age.
Charisma at class level 6 (ECL8): 34 (modifier +12) - breakdown: (18 + 12 racial + 3 age + 1 levels)
Charisma at class level 20 (ECL20): 44 (modifier +17) - breakdown: (18 + 12 racial + 3 age + 5 levels + 5 inherent + 1 bloodline)
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 6:
15 - breakdown: ( 1 + 12 charisma + 1 skymage levels )
Maximum 'safe' mount HD at level 20:
31 - breakdown: ( 1 + 17 charisma + 13 skymage levels )
Final wizard casting: 17th level (CL18)
[/spoiler]
Oldypants over here can have a 31HD flying mount. Even with all flying mounts that aren't on mentioned on the ability's short list disallowed, and with templates disallowed (the ability is limited only by HD. a phrenic dark mineral warrior vampire dragon, evolved undead times a billion could be coming your way)... that's still, say, an ancient Shadow Dragon that has a BAB of 31, and breathes 6 negative levels at a time.
How is this useful? No idea.
As always, improvements/corrections/whatever welcome. As you can see, I don't even have him fully fleshed out yet.
edit: Oldypants can get a 32HD flying mount with Unseelie Fey adding another +2 Cha.