Author Topic: New to Optimalization looking for some feedback and guidance (Read 14525 times)

PhaedrusXY · « **Reply #60 on:** December 16, 2009, 07:16:39 PM »

Quote from: Thistledown Thurbertaut on December 15, 2009, 03:11:26 AM

and yes I know about PUN PUN so don't bother.

He knows about you too.

awaken DM golem · « **Reply #61 on:** December 16, 2009, 07:26:58 PM »

Quote

< snip >

... Rakshasha ...

< snip >

hmm ...

I'm looking at the 3e version, you know, the one that gets immunity up to 8th level spells.
Nice.
I like Ardent 1,
a visit to the Raja's Metropolis (I've no idea what the Hindi or Sanskrit word for metropolis is)
for a Psychic Chiurgery of a 2nd or higher level power,
Major Bloodline 3 can fit somehow or Psiotheurgist feat(s) from Dragon #349
Cerebremancer PrC the rest of the way

Thick with mid-level Sorc spells
Decent selection of hi-level Psi powers.
Oh and immune to spells up to 8th level.
Not half bad on the fly. Ascends to at least Tier 3 quickly.

Cleric 1 and DH_'s Miracle at level 6 set-up covers any problems.
You are still a Glass Cannon, but a very good one.

(yes these are sub-pun-pun responses, but they fix the low hd problem)

The_Mad_Linguist · « **Reply #62 on:** December 16, 2009, 07:36:17 PM »

Draconic grafts are from Races of the Dragon. Basically, a trained professional slices bits off a dragon and staples them onto you. I believe that the cheapest ones qualify for weapon of legacy status (even though they cost more than 4000 gp) because they're technically nonmagical. Gleaming scales is probably the first one you want to get. Later on, if you want, you can pick up a "real" breath weapon from metabolic fire

Legacy champion is mildly to moderately controversial. I let PCs in my games use it, but only if they play up a thematic weapon of legacy aspect (no grab-bag of abilities). Honestly, talk to your DM, point out that soaking up the +4 level adjustment is a pretty big deal, and ask how far you're allowed to go with getting bonus hellfire damage.

Prime32 · « **Reply #63 on:** December 16, 2009, 07:50:00 PM »

Can I suggest using petal for your race instead of pixie? (+2 LA, no HD) They're Tiny, get DR/cold iron and flight, and their ability scores are good for warlocks. Note that warlocks can get invisibility at-will from an invocation, though not the greater kind (so you have to refresh it after every attack). Consider some Fey Heritage feats (Complete Mage) since the DR/cold iron from the feats, race and class all stack.

http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Fey_Heritage
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Fey_Legacy
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Fey_Power
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Fey_Presence
http://realmshelps.dandello.net/cgi-bin/feats.pl?Fey_Skin

Note also that Eldritch Glaive lets a Tiny creature threaten adjacent squares since it's a reach weapon, though with such a character I would prefer to snipe.

cru · « **Reply #64 on:** December 17, 2009, 05:28:04 AM »

I could not find any "pixie dragon" you're referring to. I did find Faerie Dragon in Draconomicon, that one has invisibility as SLA 3/day.

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #65 on:** December 17, 2009, 06:38:04 AM »

Yeah that's the one, my mistake.

I continue to absorb information and pour over the vastness of supplements and topics here in my quest for the right build and character for me.

Will update again sometime in the next few days as to my progress. Prob not today though since I work from 9 am -10:30 pm

EDIT: I will say now that I realized today what was bugging me. The idea of a Pixie as a fullcasting wizard just doesn't sit rioght with me...I can;t see a pixie hoarding a spellbook and pouring over it every morning. I can see why they made their natural class Sorcerer and it explains why I feel so drawn to warlock and DFA.

The_Mad_Linguist · « **Reply #66 on:** December 17, 2009, 07:18:06 AM »

I dunno, I like the idea of a pixie flying around on top of a magical book.

Prime32 · « **Reply #67 on:** December 17, 2009, 10:38:34 AM »

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #68 on:** December 18, 2009, 04:11:01 AM »

Hmmm...nice pic! Still strikes me as odd though...

The latest update in my progress:

Still want to play a pixie and have two builds currently on deck. The first is pretty much a coppy of the Hellfire Ur-lock Disciple I found. Pixie 3 (w/ buy off), Warlock 4, Binder 1 (reflavored Naberius), HF Warlock 3, Ur-Priest 2, Eldritch Disciple 7. Yes this does sacrifice the highest level cleric spells but it is definitely way more powerful and versatile than a straight warlock progression, I don't have to waste invocations on invisibility (with Darkstalker especially...btw Pixies do get Hide and a bunch of skillpoints) and flight, have pretty decent SR and Damage reduction as well as a whole bunch of SLAs at 3x per day at CL via Magic in the blood. Plus with 1ldritch Disciple I get an awesome unlimited healing ray! Sound good?

Questions: Eld

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #69 on:** December 18, 2009, 04:36:09 AM »

Crap! Posting from my smartphone and once I went to the top of the post there was no way on the touch screen to scroll back down and continue writing...

Anyways, questions! Eldritch Disciple requires the ability to cast Divine Spells at 2nd level...Ur Priest at 2nd level has a 0 in that spot...what does that mean? I can also see my DM getting particular about the evil alighnment, but since some warlocks work against evil it makes sense that a non evil ur-priest could steal power from evil gods right?

also... It seems that it might be a stretch for ED to progress Hellfire past T levels...I can see my DM ruling that HF only goes to L3 and can't be put further and that the ED levels have to go to the base warlock class instead...any thoughts about that possibility? I am trying to stick to the least amount of necessary convincing for approval and clear explicitly stated rules help....

lastly, how do I get more feat slots? I see I need iron will to take Ur priest, and that eats into my big list as is.

I just found out about the mailman sorcerer build and noticed it gets 12 feats! How do I do this? That build looks cool for a pixie as well and would allow for 9th level speels right?

oh...and aside from the turn undead and caster levels, why is ur priest nevessary for the HF disciple build? Could another divine class get me there?

gah! Stupid phone won't scroll down...have been typing blind since the first two paragraphs...please excuse any typos and I will finish my update post in another post or two...

The_Mad_Linguist · « **Reply #70 on:** December 18, 2009, 04:37:03 AM »

The 0 means you only get the bonus spells from a high attribute.

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #71 on:** December 18, 2009, 04:51:29 AM »

I figured...but does that qualify me for E-Disciple?

oh and forgot to ask if their would be a more optimal order to taking the classes for my infernal pixie...?

more stuff..I reworked Shadowhunters build as follows: Pixie 3/rogue 1/battle dancer 1/swashbuckler 3/rogue 1/swordsage 2/fighter 1/rogue 8...is their a more optimal order? I flipped the number of rogue and swashbuckler levels because most of SB class features after level 3 don't really interest me compared with the rogue skills. Would I need to worry about BAB problems with this build?

l

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #72 on:** December 18, 2009, 04:59:55 AM »

grrr! Stupid phone... The last question I was going to ask (sorry for the multipost) was regarding DFA...though there are some differences, 46& is mechanically almost exactly the same as a Warlock. In fact I kinda like the flavor of the DFA a little better (personal taste), the HfW and EDisc PrCs seem to make Warlock the superior and more potent choice.

So I am curious if there is any equivalent to HfW for the DFA to pump it up similar to the Ur-lock build...

The_Mad_Linguist · « **Reply #73 on:** December 18, 2009, 05:23:56 AM »

It qualifies if you have a high enough wisdom, which you really ought to.

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #74 on:** December 18, 2009, 06:14:48 PM »

Hi, so I know I tripple posted (sorry!) and there are alot of questions and stuff to go over but I hope you guys will continue to give feedback!

I talked with my DM today and it sounds like he will be open to most things but in his group we roll scors rather than piint buy...this makes it a little harder to plan ahead since I can't splay out the whole build ahead of time but I have the info I need to take to the roll session. We roll 3 sets and take the best one and can assign where we want so that should work out good.

So I am still trying to figure out how to get 12 or more feats as per the Mailman build and I am a bit bummed that DFAs at the highest level only get 8 invocations known total. With a Pixie that woul max at 7...why do Warlocks get so many more?

Should I compile all of my questions from above to make it easier or are you guys cool with cutting and quoting?

Shadowhunter · « **Reply #75 on:** December 18, 2009, 07:18:23 PM »

Quote from: Thistledown Thurbertaut on December 18, 2009, 06:14:48 PM

So I am still trying to figure out how to get 12 or more feats as per the Mailman build and I am a bit bummed that DFAs at the highest level only get 8 invocations known total. With a Pixie that woul max at 7...why do Warlocks get so many more?

Because Warlocks need invocations to alter their Eldritch Blast, with their Eldritch Essence and Shaping invocations.
That only leaves a certain amount of non-EB invocations for general use.

Compare that to the DFA, who uses different Breath Effects for the same purpose.
Both classes gains things that modify their main attack method -EB and BW- and they gain aprox. the same amount of "general" invocations.

I'm not familiar with the mailman sorcerer, do you have a link?

There are no PrC's for DFA the way HfW is for Warlock as far as I know.
The only thing I know if is the Heir of Siberys PrC in Eberron Campaign Setting, but that requires you to be one of a few races capable of possessing Dragonmarks. Pixies aren't one of them.
The thing is to take at least 1 level in it and then take the Breath of Siberys feat from Dragonmarked, granting an additional 2d6 to your breath weapon. But that is a moot point in this case.

Besides fivefolded breath of tiamat is better than a normal Hellfire Blast, at least without ... unsavory

tricks to increase it.

Another divine casting class could get you ED, but that would require 3 levels and net you less powerful spells compared to the Ur-Priest. So you could, but it's not a good idea.

There is a more optimal order to take your levels in the sneak attack build, if you want Daring Outlaw earlier.
I say so since it requires 2d6 sneak which you won't get until your 8th class level.
There might be some BAB problems, but it might also not. Depends on how many attacks you want to gain and if you use Partial BAB, an optional rule from Unearthed Arcana
Without them, your BAB is 12.
With them, your BAB is 13, only one point of difference.
With all the various attack bonii one can aquire, the only real difference between different levels of BAB is if you have more or equal/less than 10 and more or equal/less than 15.
Since you won't be acheving BAB 16 for that additional attack, it makes little difference in having BAB 12 or 13.

I hope that answers at least one of your questions.

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #76 on:** December 18, 2009, 07:52:26 PM »

Thanks!

Re: The mailman:

http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19868534/The_Mailman_A_Direct_Damage_Sorcerer

No one has answered these parts yet:

Quote

also... It seems that it might be a stretch for ED to progress Hellfire past 3 levels...I can see my DM ruling that HF only goes to L3 and can't be put further and that the ED levels have to go to the base warlock class instead...any thoughts about that possibility? I am trying to stick to the least amount of necessary convincing for approval and clear explicitly stated rules help....

lastly, how do I get more feat slots? I see I need iron will to take Ur priest, and that eats into my big list as is.

I just found out about the mailman sorcerer build and noticed it gets 12 feats! How do I do this? That build looks cool for a pixie as well and would allow for 9th level spells right?

I also had the idea for a Draconic template Hellbred for a DFA. With LA Buyoff it would be LA 0. The Evil Exception would let me use 5fold tacnuke of Tiamat with the lower damage (still 30 points at 15th level...ouch! How can I mitigate this completely? I know Draconic Toughness would partially take care of it...)

I would really miss the auto flight and invisibility of the dragon-pixie and the incredibly cool image of it as well, but maybe I could find a way to use feats to make up at least the wing part...

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #77 on:** December 18, 2009, 07:59:24 PM »

Oh, and forgot to ask if someone could help me optimize the level order for the sneak attack build. Is not having a BAB of 16 super terrible?

The_Mad_Linguist · « **Reply #78 on:** December 18, 2009, 08:13:07 PM »

If he rules that it only goes to three levels, you could use a bloodline instead. Bloodline levels don't advance actual class features - they just increase your effective level for level-dependent abilities.

Thistledown Thurbertaut · « **Reply #79 on:** December 18, 2009, 09:23:08 PM »

So now that I have all that sorted and am tweaking my builds, I need to find out how to get as many feats as possible...that seems to be my current conundrum...All of my warlock and DFA ideas could easily call for 12-15 feats. I noticed the Mailman has 12, but I thoughty normally chararcters only get 1 every 3 levels for a total of 7...is this correct? How can I get more (while still being a pixie or draconic hellbred)...?

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Author Topic: New to Optimalization looking for some feedback and guidance (Read 14525 times)