Building Shiki?

[Prime32]

For anyone familiar with TYPE-MOON, two of their works (Kara no Kyoukai and Tsukihime) feature characters called Shiki with something called the "Mystic Eyes of Death Perception". I was wondering how close you could get with a D&D character (using Tsukihime's Shiki since he's the weaker of the two).

Stuff needed:

• Unusually high speed and endurance due to being good at avoiding death. Goes into a sort of passionate trance around "monsters", increasing his abilities further.
• Can see the "lines of death" and "points of death" in everything around him, allowing him to identify creatures which have a strange relationship with death (zombies are a mass of lines, and powerful immortals have very few lines or dots). He has a pair of special glasses which are normally able to block this sight - without them he claims he would go mad.
• Can cut any inanimate object in two along its "lines of death" with any slashing weapon, regardless of durability. If he does this to a person the damage cannot be regenerated.
• Can cause the death of someone instantly by stabbing them in their "point of death", even if they're something which isn't technically alive. It's harder to comprehend the death of stuff like high-level outsiders/elementals/undead, so Shiki's brain gets stretched when he tries to see their point. Destroys the essence of the killed person, so no ghosts reforming after a few days.
• Can "kill" the properties of magical effects, poisons, and just about anything else - at one point he stops himself from turning into a vampire by killing the vampire blood that was injected into him. The former could be handled as a dispel check, since again, particularly exotic (read high-level) effects are harder to comprehend the death of.

The best I can think of right now is Deathwatch + Finger of Death/Mordenkainen's Disjunction + Smiting Spell + something which lets you inflict vile damage with your attacks. Either that or a commoner with Divine Rank 1.

[Jelvoden]

The best I've got so far is this:

Human Favored Soul 4/Rogue 2/Black Flame Zealot 10 (+5 levels of Favored Soul casting)

1-Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Kukri)
H-Iron Will
(All other feats are free, these are the prerequisites for BFZ)

Black Flame Zealot's crowning ability is that anything killed by his death or sneak attacks cannot be resurrected without true resurrection or stronger magic. Razing Strike will cover his ability to sneak attack undead. The divine casting will let you set up his perceptional abilities.

Also, BFZ grants immunity to fear. I'm pretty sure this accurately represents either Shiki.

Edit: I misread Razing strike. It boosts damage done based on sneak attack damage, but isn't actually a sneak attack. Instead, take Grave Strike as the first 1st level spell gained as a Favored soul.

[Prime32]

I'd probably add Slashing Flurry along with Vile Martial Strike (dagger), maybe a slotless item of wraithstrike (though Vow of Poverty would fit here, and it's incompatible with them - Shiki's muliple personalities might present a loophole to having both exalted and vile feats though). Probably add two levels of warlock for Baleful Utterance, See the Unseen and detect magic (Tohno Shiki's Pure Eyes had the ability to see invisible/magical effects before they evolved into the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception). Also Martial Study + Martial Stance (assassin's stance) to boost Sneak Attack.

Here's a video of two versions of Tsukihime's Shiki fighting each other.
And here are some battle animations from Battle Moon Wars.


As a side note, Arcueid is probably a lv24 lesser aasimar druid (substitute some fey race for lesser aasimar if necessary).

[DerWille]

Okay, this is ridiculously hard character to make. But as a Tsukihime fan (Still like Fate more) I couldn't resist.

My first idea is something like:

Factotum 8/Crusader 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 7/Warblade 2/Bloodclaw Master 2

 This build does less of lines of death but focuses more on the killing everything quickly. I haven't gone through and done the math to figure it out, but he should be able to hit someone 16 times to mimic his famous 17 pieces move he did on Arc. To do it I figured he'd take the entire Two-Weapon Fighting line (I know he only uses 1 switchblade normally, but...) combine that with Raging Mongoose and the Factotum's extra standard actions to get all of them through.

 Then to help reduce MAD, Shiki would take weapon finesse, shadowblade, knowledge devotion, and cunning insight to gain huge +attack and +damage. However it still doesn't do his signature move.

 Do you know if there's a way to advance arcane dilettante outside of Factotum? I was hoping that there would be someway to use it to then mimic the spells we would need to emulate Shiki's lines of death.

EDIT: I forgot to add, how does Druid 24 handle Arc? She has that marble phantasm that lets her warp reality to her will.

Maybe something like Druid 14/Planar Shepherd 10? You can sort of mimic her ability to distort reality with a planar bubble.

[Prime32]

EDIT: I forgot to add, how does Druid 24 handle Arc? She has that marble phantasm that lets her warp reality to her will.

Maybe something like Druid 14/Planar Shepherd 10? You can sort of mimic her ability to distort reality with a planar bubble.

Planar Shepherd would give you a Reality Marble. Arc's Marble Phantasm doesn't let her reject reality and substitute her own, she just manipulates nature. This is way more flexible than a Reality Marble, but it's weaker in places distant from nature like cities, and it doesn't work inside someone else's Reality Marble.

[Prime32]

And now I want to see someone stat Nrvnqsr. ...yeah, he'd probably be a druid too.

Releasing beasts from his body = summon nature's ally (choose randomly from list)
Soil of Genesis = forcecage (Roa taught him via the Extra Spell feat)
999th Beast = Wild shape

[DerWille]

Hmm, soil of genesis is tricky but here's what was my first thought.

Race: Awakened Swarm
Druid 7/Master of Many Forms 8/Warshaper 5

 I figured that Chaos was really just an intelligent swarm that spends most of its time wild shaped as a human. Warshaper's 5th level ability is like a must because it lets him constantly be switching forms without eating up all his wildshapes which is exactly how he fights. He'll punch you with a croc's mouth, kick with a horse's hoof, and then open up his stomach like a snake. That's all the while his summons pour out of him. Do you know if there's some way to apply the shadow template to all summon nature's ally? I was thinking it would definitely get the look of the summons down right.

 If I remember right (It's been a long time since I've played Tsukihime), he uses Soil of Genesis on Shiki by swallowing him whole in some way. However I'm probably be completely wrong here, but if he did, we could sort of emulate it by just wild shaping into an ooze and swallowing him whole.

 Maybe make use of Arcane Heirophant to get level 7 spells for forcecage?

EDIT: I forgot to add, how does Druid 24 handle Arc? She has that marble phantasm that lets her warp reality to her will.

Maybe something like Druid 14/Planar Shepherd 10? You can sort of mimic her ability to distort reality with a planar bubble.

Planar Shepherd would give you a Reality Marble. Arc's Marble Phantasm doesn't let her reject reality and substitute her own, she just manipulates nature. This is way more flexible than a Reality Marble, but it's weaker in places distant from nature like cities, and it doesn't work inside someone else's Reality Marble.

 It would make an excellent reality marble, but what do you think she does instead? Outside of casting a ton of terrain altering spells, I'm not exactly sure. 

[Arz]

FoE had a class called Thief of Life? that had lifesense.

I'd combine that w/ a do-it-yourself template with powers/spell -likes you need to get the job done or more interestingly permanent psi tattoos to get the job done. Hint-the tattos are are on your cornea.

I gotta go with everyone else to say that the static nature of shiki's ability makes him/her kinda hard to play in d20.

Now I'm jonesing for the last knk movie again.

[Jelvoden]

Releasing beasts from his body = summon nature's ally (choose randomly from list)

We need a way to  remove that pesky restriction on summoning aquatic animals into non-aquatic environments. It's not Nrvnqsr without the shark end.

[spoiler]More work on Shiki;
Human Favored Soul 1/Rogue 2/Warblade 5/Black Flame Zealot 10/Warblade 2

Total BAB: +15

1-Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Kukri)
H-Extend Spell
F-Sanctum Spell [Flaw: Frail]
3-Weapon Finesse
6-Dodge
8-Iron Will [Warblade Bonus Feat]
9-Mobility
12-Spring Attack
15-Acrobatic Strike
18-Martial Study (Avalanche of Blades) [via Psychic Reformation at level 20]

Manuevers (4 readied):
1st: Sapphire Nightmare Blade, Sudden Leap
2nd: Wall of Blades, Emerald Razor
3rd: Insightful Strike, Iron Heart Surge
4th: Bounding Assault

Stances:
1st: Stance of Clarity, Blood in the Water

Spells:
0: Detect Magic, Detect Poison, Purify Food and Drink, Resistance, Guidance, Inflict Minor Wounds, Read Magic
1: Grave Strike, Detect Undead, Magic Weapon, Deathwatch, Inflict Light Wounds
2: Align Weapon, Lesser Restoration, Status, Shatter
3: Remove Disease, Remove Curse, Dispel Magic
(6/6/5/3)

I'm not entirely sure if I'm using Martial Study and Psychic Reformation correctly. The above was written under the impression that the Initiator level for a strike learned with Martial Study is Martial class levels+1/2 of all non-martial class levels, and that Psychic Reformation checks only that you currently meet the requirements for a feat (and not as if you were the level you gained the feat). Please correct me if I am mistaken.
[/spoiler]

[Prime32]

Releasing beasts from his body = summon nature's ally (choose randomly from list)

We need a way to  remove that pesky restriction on summoning aquatic animals into non-aquatic environments. It's not Nrvnqsr without the shark end.

Couldn't he just summon a landshark?

[Prime32]

After finishing Seorin's LPs of Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya, I wanted to go back to this.



One thing which these builds don't simulate is the way Shiki's Nanaya blood boils in the presence of unnatural creatures, causing him to be filled with violent urges and increasing his physical abilities. I figure this could be covered by Favoured Enemy (evil outsider/undead) and the Nemesis feat (picked up with Vow of Poverty), though this would require working in ranger levels as well (use the ACF which trades away your animal companion and lets you add favoured enemy bonuses to attack rolls).

Or you could combine that variant with the druid variant which trades wildshape for ranger class features.

Then there's the Slayer of Domiel PrC in Book of Exalted Deeds, a sneaky PrC which can kill evil creatures by touching them. Shiki might even be called a Risen Martyr, since he did die and come back.

Tohno/Nanaya Shiki
NG/NE Human Variant druid 5/Rogue 1/Warlock 2/Black flame zealot 10/Warblade 2
Feats: Sacred Vow, Shadow Blade, Vile Martial Strike (kukri), Vow of Poverty, Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (kukri)

Vow of Poverty benefits:
Feats: Nemesis (evil outsider), Nemesis (undead), Nimbus of Light, Sacred Strike, Stigmata
+10 exalted AC, +3 deflection AC, +2 natural armour
DR 10/evil
All attacks are +5 and good-aligned
Ability enhancement +8/+6/+4/+2
Energy resistance 15
True seeing
Freedom of movement
Immune to detect thoughts, discern lies and alignment detection
Endure elements
No need to eat or drink, or breathe
Recover 1hp/level/hour

Favoured enemies: Evil outsider, Undead
Invocations: Baleful Utterance (shatter), See the Unseen (see invisibility + darkvision) - note that 2nd-level warlocks get detect magic at will

Shadow Blade is in there because the power of Shiki's attacks depend entirely on his aim, with his physical strength having no meaning. Vile Martial Strike adds 1 point of vile damage to his attacks with a kukri, to prevent recovery (I can't think of many ways to block regeneration).

Now what about some antimagic glasses?


If you played Shiki in a D&D game you would fight as normal, but reducing your opponent's hp would be flavoured as gaining advantage over them, with only the finishing blow actually making contact.

[DerWille]

Nice build, but there could be a way to get the blood boiling in the presence of his enemies. Why not take the Druidic Avenger variant too? All we give up is diplomacy and the animal companion. Then we can use that to sub out rage with whirling frenzy. What do you think?

[deuxhero]

Talasomethingorother monk 2/Psy Warrior with advanced learning to get control object (need to find out how to improve it, I think swift concentrate works with psionics, but how to get the puppet to be stronger...). Biggest issue is that wisdom (and thus sense motives) will be high (because if you don't realize that the guy who force choked you is "inhuman" for 2 days, it's very very low). A -4/-4 flaw would help here though it still needs to be lower.




Wait...

[Prime32]

Talasomethingorother monk 2/Psy Warrior with advanced learning to get control object (need to find out how to improve it, I think swift concentrate works with psionics, but how to get the puppet to be stronger...). Biggest issue is that wisdom (and thus sense motives) will be high (because if you don't realize that the guy who force choked you is "inhuman" for 2 days, it's very very low). A -4/-4 flaw would help here though it still needs to be lower.




Wait...

Um, what?

[The_Mad_Linguist]

You know, if you put enough optimization iaijutsu focus, and assume most normal beings in type-moon worlds have low numbers of hit dice, I'm pretty sure that could cover it as well.

[deuxhero]

Talasomethingorother monk 2/Psy Warrior with advanced learning to get control object (need to find out how to improve it, I think swift concentrate works with psionics, but how to get the puppet to be stronger...). Biggest issue is that wisdom (and thus sense motives) will be high (because if you don't realize that the guy who force choked you is "inhuman" for 2 days, it's very very low). A -4/-4 flaw would help here though it still needs to be lower.




Wait...

Um, what?

Another character with the same name (know it was the wrong one, hence the "Wait...")