Optimizing a Politician

[DavidWL]

On a more serious note, I am considering changing my build entirely. Out of curiosity, if you had to build a lvl 25 character for a one shot country invasion campaign. What would you build?

First - another piece of advice - by having 9th level spells via sublime chord, you can snag epic spellcasting - go for it!  That can fix any pesky problems you encounter.

To answer your above question - I think it depends on the person.  Myself, I like generalist casters and knowledge monkeys.

I'd probably play a Diviner.  With spontaneous divination, divine oracle 3, and lots of custom researched divination spells (if this was allowed).  Then I'd cast _a lot_ of divination spells up front, make sure I knew as much about what was going on before hand as I could, and prepare accordingly.  Etc.

I also like things like the feat uncanny foresight, and spells like foresight, eye of the oracle, etc.  (There was one cleric spell that let's you take a natural 20 on any roll! - don't remember the name.)

However, this is just me - there are lots of ways to play the game.

Best,
David

[Caelic]

Yeah, I realized that was a terrible analogy after I finished making it but I was too lazy to try again. My frustration comes from the fact that I'm being told about the weakness over and over again and no help as to what a good contingency plan would be to counter it.

Oh, that's easy.  It goes back to the biggest mistake (IMO) that people make when playing world-shaking characters:

They forget that any one character, no matter how powerful, is still just one character.  The secret to power at those levels is this phrase:

"I am not a powerful individual.  I LEAD powerful individuals."

YOU may not be able to directly affect that Mind Blanked mage...but your followers can.  You may not be able to affect him, but his Frenzied Berserker buddy who you just Dominated can.

Indirect attacks are always the key to immunities.  The golem may be immune to spells, but he's not immune to falling after I disintegrate the floor out from under him.

You're a politician...well, by gum, BE one.  Politicians USE people--that's their job!

[Claizen]

They forget that any one character, no matter how powerful, is still just one character.  The secret to power at those levels is this phrase:

"I am not a powerful individual.  I LEAD powerful individuals."

YOU may not be able to directly affect that Mind Blanked mage...but your followers can.  You may not be able to affect him, but his Frenzied Berserker buddy who you just Dominated can.

Indirect attacks are always the key to immunities.  The golem may be immune to spells, but he's not immune to falling after I disintegrate the floor out from under him.

YES, THANK YOU. I was planning on doing this all along. In fact, one of the beautiful things about insidious corrupter is that not only do your abilities work on your allies but they expect you to use them on your allies. If you force someone to do something they get a bonus to doing it, if they don't they get a penalty. Also, this is going to be an invasion, the dude is going to have a bunch of mooks that he wont have enough mindblank spells to entirely cover, they are not going to be his mooks.

Now all I need is some suggested feats, and spells, that could hopefully help me pull this off to great effect. If you please.

[Omen of Peace]

It's a bit strange, but RAW Claws of Influence is not mind-affecting since it doesn't say so and doesn't reference any mind-affecting effect (see how Minion references Dominate, for instance). If your DM does not houserule you're off to a good start.
You'll want Ability Focus:Claws of Influence and a Veil of Allure (MIC). Of course, pump your Cha as much as you can - either with epic spells or by chasing weird bonuses (like Frostburn's Snowsong spell, which is Persistable).
The complement is to debuff enemy saves: if you have free levels or a cohort, check out the usual Hexblade/Paladin of Tyranny/Binder debuffs.

It's indeed a good idea to have one or two ally under your influence, but I'm not sure how they'll appreciate following your orders. So I'd say use them by... releasing them, and gaining +Cha to the DC of your Charm or Compulsion spells (not to be used against Mindblanked opponents, of course).

I'm puzzled by Swift Enchantment: since it uses an immediate action, you can't cast a swift-action spell in the next round...

Thanks for bringing that class to my attention, by the way.

[Claizen]

You'll want Ability Focus:Claws of Influence and a Veil of Allure (MIC). Of course, pump your Cha as much as you can - either with epic spells or by chasing weird bonuses (like Frostburn's Snowsong spell, which is Persistable).

Thanks, the veil of allure will definitely help. I really will have to pump my cha, do you think I should put the two ability points from leveling that I put into Con into Cha instead? I think I may have to research more about what epic spellcasting can do.

*Edit* Actually, I just realized that if I want the tome of CHA +5 I'm going to want to have an odd Cha score or else take the epic feat that adds +1 Cha. What do you guys think, just make it odd or take the feat?

Also, should I take Practiced Spellcaster? I'm not sure how many variable numerical effects the spells I'll be casting most of the time will have but if I have the feats it might be a good idea. Caster lvl 23 as opposed to 19.

Also, How do I persist Snowsong? It's 6th level, so persist would make it 12 level. Unless there's a cap that would only make it 10th lvl and I took one of the feats that lowers metamagic costs by one. Or is there some metamagic rod of persist somewhere?

It's a bit strange, but RAW Claws of Influence is not mind-affecting since it doesn't say so and doesn't reference any mind-affecting effect (see how Minion references Dominate, for instance). If your DM does not houserule you're off to a good start.

Yeah, it puzzled me too... I may have to see what my DM thinks of it.

It's indeed a good idea to have one or two ally under your influence, but I'm not sure how they'll appreciate following your orders. So I'd say use them by... releasing them, and gaining +Cha to the DC of your Charm or Compulsion spells (not to be used against Mindblanked opponents, of course).

That's the plan, have all my allies under the effects when not in combat so that I can not only use the releasing benefits right off the get go but I can give them bonuses to their perception skills while we move.

Thanks for bringing that class to my attention, by the way.

No, thank you for the help.

[Claizen]

Shameless bump, I'll stop asking for help if someone just explains to me what ways I can persist snowsong, the 6th level bard spell.

[altpersona]

no one said necroplolitain?

come on now, a good politician is a dead one...

[PhaedrusXY]

Shameless bump, I'll stop asking for help if someone just explains to me what ways I can persist snowsong, the 6th level bard spell.

There are multiple ways. You could get spell slots above 9th level via Increased Spell Capacity epic feats, or 3 levels of Incantatrix (or an Incantatrix cohort/party-mate) would let you do it with a Spellcraft check. There are others also, like Anima Mage, etc.