Author Topic: New System Character: SC/Incarnum  (Read 2179 times)

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Zombieboots

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New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« on: December 14, 2009, 12:54:32 PM »
So my 5th Warblade bit the dust (ARGH!). 300xp away from 6th too. Sadly it was a TPK, but the DM is new and that is fine. If it doesn't happen once you can not improve. So now I am in the market for a new character.

In my quest to effectively play every system variant I have two left on the table. Shadowcasting (ToM) and Incarnum. I am leaning towards a Totemist, perhaps one focusing on the Manticore Belt, I have read a while ago that was a solid choice.

So my post is two fold:
First off I have read the MoI and a few of the handbooks from here and WotC. Currently reading ST's Totemist report from the trenches; I am still foggy on how in the Nine Hells their Totem abilities works. From what I understand I can not Shape a soulmeld to my totem, I must shape it to one of the other locations however I can Chakra bind any soulmeld TO my totem, even if it is one for example currently on my Arms. Is this correct?

Second some build suggestions would be appreciated. Something simple, to ease me into it. I fooled myself into contemplating a Soulknife/Totemist with Psycarnum blades before laughing the idea off.

Starting level 5th. Build progression to level 10 for now. Age of Worms Campaign. All books allows except Ebberron, ToB very appreciated but would prefer to avoid uses the classes as I just finished one, and that funky Age of Worms class is available but I have not read it myself.
Edit: No Templates.
Other party members will be a Jaebrin Beguil', Probably a Raptorian Cleric, and no hard decisions but a "Caster" or Swashbuckler.
Mandatory flaw: -1 to all saves (OUCH!), bonus feat.
« Last Edit: December 16, 2009, 12:18:22 AM by Zombieboots »
Ah! Maddness. Thank you.[spoiler][/spoiler]

BowenSilverclaw

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #1 on: December 14, 2009, 01:11:41 PM »
Skarn Barbarian 1/Totemist 4 (heading into Totem Rager later on) with Extra Rage and Multiattack feats and generic stuff like Battle Jump, Power Attack, Leap Attack etc.

Whirling Frenzy, Pounce and Girallon Arms bound to Totem chakra gets you 6 attacks on a charge, pretty nice. Could dabble in Grappling as well with the bonus you get from Girallon Arms.

Maybe find a way to gain more natural attacks, like a level or 2 of Swordsage or Monk for Improved Unarmed Strike (and Improved Grapple for the Monk), or Binder for Amon's Gore attack, or maybe Dragontouched and Dragon Tail feats from RotD?

Rage Claws and Wyrmtail Belt can help with survivability, Blink Shirt can provide some extra mobility.

That's the most basic thing that comes to mind right now, just point in direction of enemy, initiate blender mode and charge :)

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bearsarebrown

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #2 on: December 14, 2009, 01:20:16 PM »
Manticore belt and raging blender are the two types of Totemists.

Manticore Belt- MAXIMIZE ESSENTIA and dump all that shit in there. Then get damage dice. Be it Skirmish, Sneak Attack (and Craven ;) ), Dex to damage.... The biggest issue with this type of build is that what manticore belt is... Try to convince your DM to let it be a natural attack, then get Splitting and Wounding on that jazz ASAP too.

Raging Blender? Bowen pretty much covered it all. Get as many attacks as you can! Abberant Blood and Starspawn(? maybe Deepspawn) will get you two tentacles. Something else he didn't cover are templates. Feral gives two claws and a bite (iirc), Half-Minotaur gives a gore,  Lycanthrope can be great too(all of your soulmelds will stay while shifted so you can really stack up on those natural attacks). AND they'll give you some great ability scores.

Ivory Knight

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #3 on: December 14, 2009, 02:50:44 PM »
I'm pretty satsfied with my Draconic Creature Human Barbarian 2(Lion Totem)/Totemist 4/goin' Totem Rager next.
LA buyoff allowed? If so, get Draconic Creature Template on Race of your choice
I used Human for the Bonus Feat, in my case the Luck of Heroes, Faerun regional feat(+1 luck bonus to AC and all saves, could nicely offset your flaw^^)
If LA buyoff is out, any of the LA +0 dragonblooded races also gets access to the Dragon Soulmelds in Dragon Magic.
I'd use Silverbrow human, again for the Bonus Feat.

You can change your setup(melds + which one the "expanded soulmeld capacity"-feat goes to) on a daily basis,
but these I used repeatedly:
either Claws of the Wyrm or Landshark Boots(used the later above ground and the former in dungeons, for climb)
Lammasu Mantle
Wormtail Belt
Winter Mask(Touch of fatigue kinda disappointed me, so I changed this to Yrthak Mask)

I used to have some ranged capacity(either a cone of fire or a sonic ray) and claws to go with my pounce from Lion Totem.
Some + to various skills and amazing AC even while raging were just the icing on the cake.

BowenSilverclaw

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2009, 03:05:12 PM »
Yeah, a Feral Silverbrow Human or Draconic Skarn with LA Buyback and the Dragon Tail feat is pretty nice :D
« Last Edit: December 14, 2009, 03:08:50 PM by BowenSilverclaw »
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Operation Shoestring

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #5 on: December 14, 2009, 05:40:06 PM »
Eh, i like to encourage people to be more original than just totem rager + 12 natural attacks (my one totem rager build was also a Bear warrior - Bear with shotgun tail FTW!)

How about a Swordsage/Totemist/Shadow Sun Ninja darkness build using the Shadow Mantle?

Or a Monk/Totemist sun-school teleport-tripper?

Or a Totemist/Warblade using Winter Mask + Combat Rythm.  (Sudden Leap + Dread Carapace bound to feet = kick'n)

Winter Mask is very useful at higher levels, since you can iterative with it.

HCL

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #6 on: December 14, 2009, 08:40:29 PM »
recommend against silverbrow human actually. basically you are just going to be using that dragonblood and extra feat for the tail. You might as well pick something with an inherent natural attack like Darfellan (bite) or Warforged, or be a Fireblood dwarf and get the normal dwarf goodies and just burn a feat for the tail. Remember you cannot invest essentia into your racial natural weapons however, and you can't invest much in skarn spines due to bad essentia progression on spinemeld warrior

telehax

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #7 on: December 14, 2009, 11:54:22 PM »
If you want a more original idea, you can try one of mine:

Totemist 2/Shaper 3/Soul Manifester
It needs your DM to let you use the Share Soulmeld feat with a psicrystal, and it's fairly weak until later levels. Be careful.
Your BAB is low, but you get another set of natural attacks with your psicrystal. Anyway, later in the game there's combat transformation.
I recommend taking able learner and ride as a skill, and have your psicrystal take mounted combat.
In my build I threw in VoP, but that was due to a low treasure game, your mileage may vary.

Zombieboots

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #8 on: December 15, 2009, 06:14:05 PM »
Well as I read the Magic Incarnum I begin to see more and more stuff I like. Are Necrocarnum Adepts viable? The whole Raising Undead quickly is nice and gravy flavoured but how can it really pull it's worth?
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bearsarebrown

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #9 on: December 15, 2009, 11:10:00 PM »
Well as I read the Magic Incarnum I begin to see more and more stuff I like. Are Necrocarnum Adepts viable? The whole Raising Undead quickly is nice and gravy flavoured but how can it really pull it's worth?

...it's weird. smokey_the_bear made a topic about them recently. I think its still on the front page.

Bloody Initiate

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Re: New System Character: SC/Incarnum
« Reply #10 on: December 15, 2009, 11:33:29 PM »
If buy-off were allowed I'd recommend Lolth-touched over draconic. Offense-wise The +6 strength adds ALL your attacks, gets you competitive at lower levels (Forgive me if I'm completely unimpressed with 5 attacks that all miss), and also justifies your fetish for the soulmeld that gives you more arms.

The REAL reason though is the +6 con that comes with it. That's amazing or a meldshaper. If you put a reasonable score in your con you won't have to increase it again for a long time.
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