 Zephrin the Lost |
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My group is nearing the end of ‘The Sinister Spire’ and will continue on through the third module in the series before jumping to 4e. This means I’m likely playing the last 3.5 character I’ll ever have rolled up -providing he survives to the end of the next module- and that seems worth a mention, especially as this character is in many ways an accidental preview of 4e concepts.
Allow me to explain.
Jerreth Rule is Hexblade/Favored Soul, currently level 2/4 respectively, and he has always had a very clear role: I called him a spoiler when concepting his build, but in 4e, he would be called a defender. I used the term ‘spoiler’ because he never does huge damage but instead uses his unique mix of abilities to lessen the effectiveness of his opponents. He has several good ways to achieve this. There is the hexblade curse, of course, which thanks to two feats feat he can now do 2X a day at level 6 with a DC 16 against Will. When successful, his enemy takes a –2 on all d20 rolls (attacks, saves, skill checks- you name it) and on weapon damage. That alone has been huge in some combats, but thanks to another feat, Intimidating Strike, Jerreth can often add ‘shaken’ to ‘cursed’ and raise many of those penalties to –4. This combo has only been successful a few times but when it works, it is lovely.
Jerreth’s other strengths in frustrating the enemy are his saves and AC. Hexblades are kind of a ‘dark paladin’ class as they get to add their Cha bonus to their saves against spells. They also have good Will saves. Add this to the Favored Soul’s strong progression in all 3 saves, and you get a fighter who is very hard to damage or control via spells. In fact, in 6 levels, Jerreth has only ever failed 1 Will save.
I have also focused on Jerreth’s AC. He uses a shield and has taken the feat shield specialization. His armor and shield offer no penalty to his Favored Soul spellcasting, and some divine spells, such as Shield of Faith and Foundation of Stone, add untyped bonuses to his AC. Wearing +1 mithral chain, with a +1 small shield and a 14 dex, he is AC 20 and AC’s of 22 through 25 (thanks to other buff spells, such as haste cast by the team wizard) are not unusual.
So that’s the ‘spoiler’ build, which is very close to the 4e concept of a defender. He absorbs melee, ranged and magical attacks, allowing his allies to do their jobs, while making it harder for the bad guys to do theirs.
Another way this character is very nearly 4e is in RP terms. Our DM is using ‘The Book of Righteous Might’ and Jerreth follows Maal, the god of law. Maal has 4 very definite rules that he expects his followers to abide by and as a Favored Soul, Jerreth takes these rules very seriously. He is in practice as rigorous and outspoken as any paladin, but he is lawful neutral, not lawful good. So in 3.5 I built a defending, non-LG paladin.
I’ll also mention that not being LG hasn’t made having a devout religious PC with a strict moral code any simpler. The chaotic and neutral PC’s are very capable of suggesting or undertaking actions that violate the tenets of Maal – the rule forbidding revenge being the most obvious one. So even though 4e has done away with the alignment restriction on paladins, there will always be room for disagreement when any class has a calling that teammates do not share or understand.
So far this series of modules has played very well to Jerreth’s devout approach to life. At the end of the barrow of the Forgotten King, he was presented with Murthuvial, a +1 adamantine longsword. Maal uses a longsword and Jerreth received weapon focus: longsword as a bonus feat with his third level of that class. To him, it seemed that his faithfulness and adherence to the code had been rewarded.
Allow me to explain.
Jerreth Rule is Hexblade/Favored Soul, currently level 2/4 respectively, and he has always had a very clear role: I called him a spoiler when concepting his build, but in 4e, he would be called a defender. I used the term ‘spoiler’ because he never does huge damage but instead uses his unique mix of abilities to lessen the effectiveness of his opponents. He has several good ways to achieve this. There is the hexblade curse, of course, which thanks to two feats feat he can now do 2X a day at level 6 with a DC 16 against Will. When successful, his enemy takes a –2 on all d20 rolls (attacks, saves, skill checks- you name it) and on weapon damage. That alone has been huge in some combats, but thanks to another feat, Intimidating Strike, Jerreth can often add ‘shaken’ to ‘cursed’ and raise many of those penalties to –4. This combo has only been successful a few times but when it works, it is lovely.
Jerreth’s other strengths in frustrating the enemy are his saves and AC. Hexblades are kind of a ‘dark paladin’ class as they get to add their Cha bonus to their saves against spells. They also have good Will saves. Add this to the Favored Soul’s strong progression in all 3 saves, and you get a fighter who is very hard to damage or control via spells. In fact, in 6 levels, Jerreth has only ever failed 1 Will save.
I have also focused on Jerreth’s AC. He uses a shield and has taken the feat shield specialization. His armor and shield offer no penalty to his Favored Soul spellcasting, and some divine spells, such as Shield of Faith and Foundation of Stone, add untyped bonuses to his AC. Wearing +1 mithral chain, with a +1 small shield and a 14 dex, he is AC 20 and AC’s of 22 through 25 (thanks to other buff spells, such as haste cast by the team wizard) are not unusual.
So that’s the ‘spoiler’ build, which is very close to the 4e concept of a defender. He absorbs melee, ranged and magical attacks, allowing his allies to do their jobs, while making it harder for the bad guys to do theirs.
Another way this character is very nearly 4e is in RP terms. Our DM is using ‘The Book of Righteous Might’ and Jerreth follows Maal, the god of law. Maal has 4 very definite rules that he expects his followers to abide by and as a Favored Soul, Jerreth takes these rules very seriously. He is in practice as rigorous and outspoken as any paladin, but he is lawful neutral, not lawful good. So in 3.5 I built a defending, non-LG paladin.
I’ll also mention that not being LG hasn’t made having a devout religious PC with a strict moral code any simpler. The chaotic and neutral PC’s are very capable of suggesting or undertaking actions that violate the tenets of Maal – the rule forbidding revenge being the most obvious one. So even though 4e has done away with the alignment restriction on paladins, there will always be room for disagreement when any class has a calling that teammates do not share or understand.
So far this series of modules has played very well to Jerreth’s devout approach to life. At the end of the barrow of the Forgotten King, he was presented with Murthuvial, a +1 adamantine longsword. Maal uses a longsword and Jerreth received weapon focus: longsword as a bonus feat with his third level of that class. To him, it seemed that his faithfulness and adherence to the code had been rewarded.
