Level 12, All books are fair game. Now, what should I be? [Updated, still need help!]

[Nyaricus]

Huhm. Did you think about Favored Soul then?

Oh yeah, but I'd like me some melee, so that wasn't optiminal.

What I wanted for this character was a holy warrior, a tank who could also cast a few spells on the side. Not a spellcaster who could tank (ie a Favoured Soul or Cleric with the right spells)

 

[Quartz]

The Knight levels are good for your Will save and for the Mounted Combat feat and the Knight's Challenge.

Start with Str: 16 Int: 16 Wis: 11 Dex: 5 Con: 17 Cha: 20
At L12 Str: 16 Int: 16 Wis: 11 Dex: 5 Con: 18 Cha: 22

You're going to be wearing full plate with a nice big 2H weapon. Don't bother about shield feats. Cleave and Great Cleave for you. Take Divine Shield as your 12th level feat. Make that Cha work for you!

A +4 Dex item or buff spell will mean you only take a 1 pt AC / Save penalty.

A +4 Cha item will mean that your saves start at 21 8 15.

You'll get Specialisation at 13th level and you want to go for Weapon Mastery at 15th level

 

[Quartz]

Can I throw in a slightly wacky option? Drop the healing side and go for something like Ftr 2 / Mk 2 / Pal 3 / Duellist 5?

Str: 5 Int: 20 Wis: 14 Dex: 16 Con: 18 Cha: 16

You fight with dual rapiers! Your base stats give you an AC bonus of +10 which you boost with an items of Natural Armour +4, Protection +4, Wis +4, and Dex +4 to give you an AC of 32. And your wimpy Str is irrelevant, because you've got the Weapon Finesse feat.

 

[Magesmiley]

So, I'll pose another thought to you for a tank twist. I'm assuming that given all the wackiness you've mentioned that flaws (from UA) are acceptable.

Play a dwarf. Put the 20 in CON. Take 2 flaws at 1st level. Feats:

1: Toughness (stupid prerequisites, see if your DM will let you sub in Improved Toughness)
1: Roll with It (SS)
1: Roll with It
3: Roll With It
6: Roll With It
9: Roll With It
12: Roll With It

Gives you 12/- damage reduction. Coupled with a 22 CON (or higher with ability bumps and magic items) and a high AC this character will be nigh indestructible in combat.

Take fighter levels to get other fun feats.

 

[Seeten]

What world? Is it homebrew? Eberron?

 

[Nyaricus]

What world? Is it homebrew? Eberron?

No idea what world it is (homebrew is likely), but I have most of the FR and Eberron stuff.

Magesmiley, that is an evil combo with Roll With It. I'm not sure if it's worth it, the way my feat selection is working out though... I know Toughness definitly isn't (and Desert Half-orcs give +2 to con anyway ). Also, he's playing by the rules, so there's no option to swap in Imp. Toughness

Quartz, you've actually put me into a quandry here, because I never thought about how I could simply put that 5 into Dex and up it a bit.

So, folks, which is better for my character:

Dex 5
Int 16 (-2 from Desert Half orc stats for 14)
Wis 11

OR

Dex 16
Int 5 (-2 from Desert Half orc stats for 3)
Wis 11

thanks,
--N

 

[Lodow MoBo]

Here is my favorite powergamer build:

Paragon orc cleric:
Martial weapons, all armors, Rage, smite abilities, strong spellcasting
Very high Strength

Race !/2 orc
1 Cleric -practiced Spellcaster
(destruction, Str domains)
2 1/2 orc Paragon -Extra Rage (rage 3 times a day)
1 1/3 orc paragon - +2 str
3 Human Paragon - +2 str 2 cleric lvls,
bonus feat power attack,
6th lvl feat Extra Smiting
5 lvls Cleric lvl 9 and 12 optional choices

Starting Stats: 32 point buy
Str: 18 Con 14, Dex 10, int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8

End stats:
Str:26 Con 14, Dex 10, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 8

Optional
Str 24 and use the human stat bonus on Con.

Weapon of choice: 2 handed great sword.

BAB : 9 / 4
Melee : 17 / 11 2d6 + 11
With Divine Power and Rage
Melee: 25 / 15 2d6 + 19 (str 36)
With Smite and ( 9 point power attack)
Melee: 20 / 14 2d6 + 34

This is with no magic items in the equation and a single buff spell.

On top of dishing dmg:
Caster Level: 12
Spell slot level: 8 (4th lvl spells)

 

[Lodow MoBo]

Make a Mystic Theurge. You will jump right over the long and tedious part, where the class totally sucks and start where it beings to be cool.

Bye
Thanee

Another facorite build of mine:

Warmage4/cleric 3/Mystic Theurge5

Practiced Spellcaster for the warmage

Take BattleMage for the better armor

Improved Toughness for more hit points

Purchase Mitheral Plate

Take the War and destruction domains

The end result:
Platemail/small shield martial weapon fireball throwing healing bag of badness. Weakness Low hitpoints, needs DivinePower to fight.

 

[Magesmiley]

Magesmiley, that is an evil combo with Roll With It. I'm not sure if it's worth it, the way my feat selection is working out though... I know Toughness definitly isn't (and Desert Half-orcs give +2 to con anyway ). Also, he's playing by the rules, so there's no option to swap in Imp. Toughness

Well... if you take 12 levels of fighter, you still get 7 fighter feats to play with. I realize that you're after some divine levels as well though, so maybe 8 levels of fighter (5 fighter feats) and 4 other levels (cleric or something else) might work.

I've done a few variations on this build here and there (as has one of the players in the game I DM for). Veering into Dwarven Defender can work with it as well (you'll have to use one of the roll with it feats for endurance and one of the fighter feats for dodge, but you'll pick updefensive stance, uncanny dodge, and an AC bonus, plus 3/- more DR when you go up a level). In general though, my observation is that straight fighter (possibly with the dwarven fighter racial substitution levels from RoS) works the best for this concept.

Trust me - its worth it. Spend your gold mostly on AC boosting items (and possibly a CON booster). You become the uber meat shield that can take an incredible pounding and keep on walking. The DR will typically take 50% or more off the amount of damage you're getting hit with from attacks, effectively doubling your already high HP. I've got a 6th level version of this character in the game I'm DMing right now (started at 1st level) and only once has the character even gotten down to under 1/4 of his starting HP.

I'll throw out a sample of what I'm talking about... take the melee attacks of an old black dragon (CR 16). Assuming it hits every time it will, on average, do 77 HP of damage to most characters in melee (bite 18, claws 11, wings 8.5, tail 20). A character with 12/- DR will take 14 HP of damage from the same fight. The dragon's breath weapon will do on average 27 HP of damage - the high HP of the character can suck this up too. A dragon might be a bit extreme of an example, however you can see the effect.