Favored Soul of Dol Arrah Character Build -- Critique Away!

My gaming group is starting up a new Ebberon campaign, and my character concept is to play a Human Favored Soul devoted to Dol Arrah.

I figured that I would throw my planned build out here and see if you all had any comments or suggestions.

My rolls for this character were 17, 15, 14, 13, 11, 6.

I plan to allocate them as follows:

Strength 17
Dexterity 15
Constitution 14
Inteligence 6
Wisdom 11
Charisma 13

Because I plan to go for the Spinning Halberd Weapon Style at level 3, my initial feats will be Two-Weapon Fighting and Combat Reflexes. I get Martial Weapon Proficiency: Halberd for free at level 1 as a Favored Soul of Dol Arrah.

Since I am human, I get to keep two skills maxed out in ranks even with my 6 INT. I was planning on maxing out Concentration and Sense Motive.

I have planned my progression through level 13, since this should be a long-running campaign.

At level 3, I get Weapon Focus: Halberd for free as a Favored Soul of Dol Arrah. For my Level 3 feat, I take Spinning Halberd Weapon Style (pretty cool to get this at level 3 as a priest-type).

At level 6, I take Silent Spell Metamagic Feat (combo with Silence to kill spellcaster NPCs).

At level 9, I take Empower Spell Metamagic Feat (allows me to skip taking heal spells at some levels, since empowering a heal works out to be almost the same average amount healed as using the equivalent heal spell that is 2 levels higher).

At level 12, I take Heroic Spirit (required for my prestige class at level 13).

At level 13, I enter the Heir of Siberys Ebberon prestige class. I get a bonus feat in this class which will be Action Surge. Levels 14 and 15 will be Heir of Siberys too, and will either take Greater Teleport or Mind Blank as my power (undecided).

Stat increases will be Strength to 18 at level 4, Charisma to 14 at level 8, Dexterity to 16 at level 12, and Wisdom to 12 at level 16. I will need to make sure my character buys or acquires at least a +2 cloak of charisma before level 10, so that I can cast level 5 and level 6 spells (should not be a problem - we will have an artificer in the party).

So, in summary, my bonus spells will always suck - but my melee should be pretty formidable.

Thoughts on my planned build? Suggestions? Criticism? Flames?

Thanks!

What kind of armor do you plan to wear? Ranged Combat options (except Searing lights)?

Chosen spells might be interesting as well.

The beginning sounds ok, though you'll miss Power Attack.

Well, since he is level 1 now I have him in a chain shirt.

I would like to keep his base move at 30 if possible, so I would ultimately like to get him some magic elven chain or similar. With no shield and light (or maybe medium) armor, he won't have tremendous armor class. He does have a decent dexterity, at least. We will have a paladin in the party though, so hopefully I can let the Pally take most of the hits from the toughest foes.

Regarding chosen spells, I am planning to mostly focus on buffs, cures, and heals. I may not bother to take any spells that require a saving throw.

I probably won't have a real ranged combat option. In theory, I could be buffing the party or moving up instead of using a ranged combat option.

I gave a lot of thought to Power Attack. I may end up dropping one of my metamagic feats for Power Attack, if I really find myself missing it. One thought is that your typical melee cleric would have Power Attack, but not the extra attack from weapon style. Maybe Spinning Halberd Weapon Style will be more than enough to make up for the lack of Power Attack.

I would switch Dexterity and Charisma, I think. It's more important to be able to cast your spells w/o the help of magic items.

If I were to build this character, I'd probably go for S17 D11 C14 I13 W6 C15 to be able to qualify for Combat Expertise. Get some boots of striding and springing and a decent full plate.

If you are going melee fighter, you want some feats to complement this, like Power Attack/Cleave or Combat Expertise/Improved Trip. Power Attack is pretty much a must-have, especially with a two-handed weapon.

Why do you need Silent Spell, anyways? You won't cast many spells in combat, or will you? I wouldn't "waste" a feat on that one.

Empower is surely a good feat, but hardly necessary and not that good, if you cannot use it on offensive spells in a decent way.

I personally like Extend Spell a lot for the Favored Soul.

As for healing spells... Cure Moderate Wounds, Vigor (fantastic with Extend Spell!) and Heal is all you'll ever need (plus stuff like Restoration, of course).

So, instead of Silent Spell and Empower Spell, I'd at least consider Power Attack and Extend Spell.

If possible, I'd try to sneak in Combat Expertise and Improved Trip (probably at the loss of Extend Spell (given the above) and maybe Action Surge?), that will complement your Combat Reflexes and the reach weapon (10-15' with Righteous Might...) nicely. Not sure what the Spinning Halberd style does.

Well, at least something to think about.

Bye
Thanee

Not sure what the Spinning Halberd style does.

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The Complete Warrior has the rules for Weapon Style Feats.

From memory here at work, Spinning Halberd Weapon Style Feat is -

Requirements: Weapon Focus Halberd, Combat Reflexes, Two Weapon Fighting

Benefit: When you full attack with a Halberd, you may take an extra bludgeoning attack with the the back end of the halberd. The attack is at Base Attack Bonus -5, does 1d6 points of damage on a hit, and only applies half of your strength bonus. Also, when you full attack with a halberd, you get a 1 point deflection bonus to your armor class.

So, the only reason I am putting 15 into Dex instead of charisma is to get this special spinning halberd style feat. Is it really worth it? Maybe / maybe not - but I think it adds a lot of flavor and provides a pretty cool benefit.

It basically allows me to gain an extra attack (at -5 to hit, and less damage) without taking any penalty to my primary attack. It is a bit like using Two Weapon Fighting while wielding a two-handed weapon. Also, since the halberd head is one solid piece of metal, I can use all enchantments and bonuses placed on the halberd with both the normal slashing/piercing attack and with the extra bludgeoning attack from the feat.

Hopefully this clarifies my choice of feats a little better.

If I were to build this character, I'd probably go for S17 D11 C14 I13 W6 C15 to be able to qualify for Combat Expertise. Get some boots of striding and springing and a decent full plate.

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Favored Souls are only naturally proficient with Light and Medium armor. So, if I wanted to wear full plate, I would have to spend another feat on Heavy Armor proficiency.

Vigor (fantastic with Extend Spell!)

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What book is the spell Vigor in? I am not familiar with this one. My DM is allowing Eberron, Complete Warrior, and Complete Divine for this campaign in addition to the core stuff.

Can you explain why you like Extend Spell so much?

Vigor is a psi-power ... I guess there's something similar in CD?

Spinning Halberd Style is nice... but you sink several feats into one additional attack, without penalties... If you don't wanna go spellshooting, what about one or two fighter levels for real melee smackiness?

It's in Complete Divine, and I hope I'm not mixing up the spell name with the psi power now.

It's a 3rd level divine spell, which heals 2 hit points per round for quite a few rounds. Unless time if of the essence, this spell can heal a lot of damage with minimal resources (especially combined with Extent Spell, it's about as good as Heal for curing damage effectively, if you have the time).

And you're right with the heavy armor restriction... my bad. Make it a decent mithril full plate then.

About the stats, that's just what I would do with them, of course TWF and the Style feat wouldn't work then.

About the Style feat. Yeah, it's a cool flavor feat and an extra attack is never bad for sure. The cost to get there is pretty high, too, however. But if you like it, I'd stick to it. I'd just try to get at least Power Attack.

Bye
Thanee

Elwood Slayer said:

Can you explain why you like Extend Spell so much?

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Because Favored Souls are all about buffing and having your buffs run longer for just a +1 in spell level (and you can always decide if it makes sense, because of the spontaneous casting) is really quite good, especially now, that the durations are so short on many spells.

It's also immensely good with the 1h/lvl duration buffs (i.e. Greater Magic Weapon, Magical Vestment), since you can cast them in the evening with your leftover slots once you have a decent level and have them running with all slots available during the next day.

Bye
Thanee

Just a small comment you may or may not have realized: The extra attack from Spinning Halberd does not count as an "off hand" attack; it counts as an extra attack from the halberd. You could combine that with your two-weapon fighting (put it to some use) with armor spikes. So, your unmodified TWF attack routine at 8th level would look something like +4/-1 Halberd and +4 Armor Spikes and -1 Halberd Butt.

On Empower Spell: Just remember that you need to be adjacent (or 5' away) to the ally that needs the healing; Metamagics on spontaneous spells are a full round action.