The Initiative Train, the Midnight Mage, and other crazy ideas... That I had while on my trip to nowhere-land.
1) The Initiative Train.
Chalar gripped his pilum nervously, as as he charged forward out of the embarkment. Maret's mistep had cost them the element of surprise, but shurrely the couls still prevail. To his dismay, the entire group of foes before him seemed to snap into action as if of one mind, spells and arrows snapping out like a rapid fire mentronome. He through he even saw one of the foes cast twice before his dazed mind could command him to even sling his javelin....
I see people using White Raven Tactics to try to gain an extra turn. Is that all you can think of to do with it? Don't you see you can use it to have an character (A cohort works well for this) pump initiative and the pull other characters up to his inititiative? If everyone has a White Raven Crown with WRT, you can have an initiative train where the entire party acts on an initiative count of 40+.
At level 9, Lassa, takes Leadership, giving her a level 7 cohort
Dren, Factotum3/Wizard1/Warblade3.
With decent INT and DEX, and using the Martial Wizards variant for Improved Initiative, as well as a Hummingbird familiar, Dren should have a Init of at least +14 at this level, and can expect to see it grow rapidly. He also picks up white raven tactics.
On round 1, Dren wins initiative, moves into melee range (move action), WRT's Lassa (swift action), and then recovers his maneuvers (standard action).
Lassa buffs with haste (Standard), moves into her prefered range (move), and WRT's Dren or another party member (Swift)
And so on so fort, with Dren eventually getting another turn, full attacking, and WRT-ing again to give another party member a second turn as well.
2) Midnight Mage
Bothos and Brendar stepped forward, twin axes swinging in rythm, but the mage merely laughed and gestured, and Bothos felt a surge of heat against his breast and an acompanying foreboding of doom as his body seemed to weaken. The mage was already soarding into the sky, and as Bothos called off his now pointless advance and unslung his bow, he saw the earlier gesture repeated, and again felt the fire, and the weakness. The mage laughed, and Bothos could only clutch at his breast as his breath faltered, and was horrified to see that his brother Brendar was likewise aflicted. Then the apparation sprung forth from the Wizard's dark magic, and the sagging Eneko could only scream in mortal terror...
Remeber that seemigly useless feat in Complete Arcane, the one that sacrfices a spell slot 8 levels higher for a 1/round quickened spell as a SLA, unlimited use? I think I may have found a use for it.
The Onslaught of Night. LN Azurin Wizard5/Divine Oracle3/Loremaster1/Sac Ex1/Silver Pyro5/Combat medic 5
A) Skill focus: Knowledge Religion (-this is just here for the Divine Oracle, which can readily be dumped from the build)
1) Energy Substitution: Fire
3) Fell Drain
6) Midnight Metamagic
L) Midnight Dodge (-I choose this feat for the combat medic, which can readily be dumped from the build
-----------------------any essentia granting feat is fine here)
9) Shape Soulmeld: Arcane Focus
12) Split Ray
15) Arcane Thesis: Acid Splash
18) SLA feat (I forget the name)
At level 6 you get your first trick. Buy a few Pearls of Incarnum Power I, and then combine that with Midnight metamagic-ing Fell Drain to recast a level draining magic missile several times per day. Also, you get your essentia back after you cast it the first time, so you can put them into Midnight Dodge or Arcane Focus.
At level 18, you get the focus of this build. With Arcane Thesis; a Fire Subbed, Split Ray, Fell Drain, Acid Splash is a 1st level spell.
With 3 essentia in Arcane Focus, it does a minimum of 4 damage, half holy thanks to silver pyro, with 1 fire and 1 holy to each target. With each target taking at least the 1 holy, which bypasses any resistances, each of your two targets takes a negative level. Being able to do this every round as a swift action is pretty nifty, and worth the 9th level spot just for sheer cool factor in my book.
3) The Sword Storm
The band of oni had surrounded the lone swordsman, an strange fellow with three Katanas, instead of the usual two of the human warrior caste. He wore two blades across his back in a X, and teh thrid as his waist, and seemed unervingly unconcerned for his life. The leader of the Oni stepped forward to speak, but even as he opened his mouth, the man's hands blurred, and all three blades seemed to leap from their sheaths. They scythed out in a scpiral, moving of their own accord, mowing down all that moved around their master. In seconds, the three-sword-bearer was the only breathing creatrue in the glade...
Remeber that spell in the SpC that lets you attack (I do believe it specifies attack rolls, no less) every enemy along a 120 ft. line with a weapon you throw from your hand? Remember that metamagic that lets you change between a Line, a Cone, and a Burst? Put the two together and.... Mn, yeah.
Now lets see what we can add to this, hmn? The Eager Weapon Enchantment is a no brainer. And since we plan to win Initiative anyway, why not Iaijustu Master 5?. Factotum 8's cunning surge, plus Quicken Spell Like Ability let us get this off three times in the first round. Heh, I do believe I just made Kreia.
