Penultimate chapter !
Earth Shugenja 5/Divine Oracle 2/Earth Dreamer 5 (future levels: DO +8)
Dream Dwarf (RoS)
Order of the Consuming Flame
or Order of the Forbidding Wasteland
or Order of the Gentle Rain
Contemplative Domain: any
Feats1 Earth Sense (RoS)
3 SF: K: Religion
6 Spontaneous Healer (CD) or Extend Spell
9 Spontaneous Summoner (CD)
12 Summon Elemental (CM)
Spell list1 Endure Elements, Pass Without Trace, Shield of Faith
Cure Light Wounds, Faerie Fire
2 Barkskin, Bear's Endurance, Glitterdust
Fog Cloud, Resist Energy
3 Greater Magic Weapon, Summon Nature's Ally III
Divination (Oracle Domain)
4 Death Ward, Spike Stones
Wall of Fire or Scrying (Oracle Domain)
5 Wall of Stone
Confusion
6 Greater Dispel Magic
(Order spells are not included.)
CommentsA lot of buffing available at low levels and not much else except Glitterdust. Later on you get great control thanks to Walls.
At all levels, abuse divinations (Gentle Rain adds Augury which can be nice).
Dream Dwarf is very flavorful but there are other options.
- Raptoran or Dragonborn X with the Wings aspect, to use Fly-By Attack combined with Earth Glide (if allowed by the DM).
- a small race, so that you can mount the Medium elemental you get from the reserve feat - you emulate Fly-By Attack that way (move out of the ground, cast, go back in it).
See the Mole Handbook for more ideas.
Mobile Spellcasting is another possibility if your DM frowns on the above.
It's playable at low levels but barely. I find the Air Shugenja better balanced across all levels. That said, the WS build can probably be improved by transitioning to... Earth. You get Dismissal more easily so you can choose a better Order.
**************************************
(IB's note: on the fence about a BLUE vs. TEAL rating for this one. No Domain access and fairly campaign-specific abilities, along with a reduction in HD. Thoughts?)
Campaign-specific is a bit harsh. Whether in the wilderness, in a stone dungeon or a city with stone buildings, you'll get to use the capstone, Earth Glide. That excludes... naval adventures and adventures to the Plane of Fire.
Also, why do you think domain access is so good for Shugenjas ? The only automatic benefit is the domain power. Contemplative is very good for Shugs only because they have no class feature after level 1 and they can't qualify for many other PrCs...
In any case, Earth Dreamer is very compatible with Divine Oracle and it's only 5 levels long so it doesn't delay Contemplative by much if you want it badly.
(IB's note: if X 4 = another BLUE PrC, the overall level of awesome for the build is TEAL IMHO.)
You get the ScM ability at level 14, so it's Teal-at-high-levels. Which is fine, a lot of CO builds are like that.
While we're at it, I'll note that Divine Oracle's Evasion isn't all that it's cracked up to be given that a Shugenja's Ref save will suck. The level 3 ability is fantastic if your DM doesn't nerf divinations... but you need to pick the spells to go with it (Augury, Divination). They are available thanks to the domain but they take up known slots.
**************************************
Moonspeaker (RoE) works fairly well for Shifter Shugenjas (an odd combination to start with, admittedly). So:
Shifter Shugenja 8/Moonspeaker 12
OR Shifter Shugenja 8/Moonspeaker 5/Planar Shepherd 7
For people who don't mind late-blooming builds, that's pretty golden. Full casting, and you get Planar Bubble at level 18. You miss out on Outsider Wildshape before epic though.
**************************************
I've accumulated enough material to start my own Handbook...
