Smackdownish Hitpoints

[The Souljourner]

Ok, this is only using standard PHB races and classes, since I don't feel like looking for a cheesy race or template to increase my con to ridiculous levels. Also this uses the various toughness feats from Masters of the Wild (Dwarf's Toughness, Troll's Toughness, Dragon's Toughness). They require +5, +8, and +11 base Fort saves as prereqs, and give you +6, +9, and +12 hitpoints respectively. So obviously we want to maximize the number of Dragon's Toughnesses we can take. That requires getting to +11 as fast as possible, and that means lots of +2s from 1st level classes. Of course, Con is a big factor too, since over 20 levels even a difference of 2 Con means 20 hitpoints. It says specifically that these feats can be taken as fighter feats, so I know what the bulk of our class levels will be.

Race - Dwarf, starting with 20 Con.

Lvl 1 - Barbarian, Toughness (Base Fort +2)
Lvl 2 - Ranger (Base Fort +4)
Lvl 3 - Paladin, Dwarf's Toughness (Base Fort +6)
Lvl 4 - Monk (Base Fort +8)
Lvl 5 - Fighter, Troll's Toughness (Base Fort +10)
Lvl 6 - 20 Fighter, always taking Dragon's Toughness (base Fort +11)

That's 15 more levels of fighter (handily the favored class of dwarves) which means 8 more feats, plus 5 from character level = 13 Dragon's Toughness.
12 * 13 = 156

toughness + dwarf's toughness + troll's toughness = 18

18 levels of 5.5 hitpoints on average = 99
1 level of 4.5 hitpoints on average = 4.5
1 level of 12 hitpoints = 12

Assume all stat raises to Con = 23 + 5 inherent bonus from Manual of Bodily Health/Wish + 6 enhancement bonus from Amulet of Health = 34 = +12 modifier
12 * 20 = 240

156 + 18 + 99 + 4.5 + 12 + 240 = 529.5 hitpoints. That's *average*.
This character will also have a Fort save of +30 before any magical enhancements.

Talk about a tank! So you think your 20th level wizard is da bomb with his Meteor Swarms huh? On average, it'll take 7 of them to kill this guy. And that assumes he *fails* every single save.

Damn that's one tough dwarf!

Let me know if I missed anything.

-The Souljourner

 

[RigaMortus]

Quickened Harm + Magic Missile... I win...

Hey, if I didn't say it, someone else would have =P

 

[mikebr99]

HAHAHA...

Just make this guy a deep Gnome (and remove 3 ftr. levels) and you are all set... oh, and the feat that allows you to change your preferred racial class...

 

[mzsylver]

hey! dont forget to burn a level on wizard for a toad familiar!

 

[Christian]

Not a bad thought, mzsylver. He's not getting a Dragon's Toughness at 20th level anyway (he got one at his 18th character level, and another at 19th (14th fighter level)); so he might as well snag that wizard level & a toad familiar for another 17 hit points. (Average 2.5 instead of 5.5 for the class level, but +20 for the +2 Con.) Plus, that toad seems appropriate somehow ...

 

[Christian]

Oh, and you forgot the Charisma bonus to his Fort save. (Paladin level, remember?) That could be anywhere from +1 to +3. Although I suppose that when you have a +30 anyway, you don't notice the missing +1 to +3 that much ...

 

[Christian]

One last thing: I had started to write a post about the extra hit points this character would (briefly) have when he raged. But of course, he can't rage. The reason he can't is left as an exercise for the student.

 

[mzsylver]

hehe... ya i was just looking at the original class combo and shaking my head. massive multiclassing is one thing but...

maybe he could be a Dwarven Defender???


[sarcasm]
he might not qualify though with his lack of the Toughness feat.
[/sarcasm]

 

[Christian]

I considered that for a moment, but he'd need to sacrifice two Somebody's Toughness feats for Dodge and Endurance. The class gets him 2 average hit points in replacing the monk class level, but costs him 15 points (minimum) in bonus hit points from the lost feats. (He can't drop the base Toughness feat, because that's a prereq for DD-it'll be Dwarf's Toughness and Troll's Toughness, at best.) Net -13.

 

[The Souljourner]

A few things - he actually has 16 levels of Fighter (1-4 are non-fighter, the rest are fighter, so losing a level means losing a feat, but the toad familiar gives +20 hitpoints, whereas the feat only gives 12. Of course, you lose 3 hitpoints from rolling d4 instead of d10, but the 20 hit points absorbs that too. So it's pretty much worth it. But then you have an extra level of fighter that's not doing you any good.... can we use that to make this guy better? I can't think of anything at the moment, but let me know if I'm missing something important.

You could take dwarven defender, but that takes dodge and endurance, which sucks out 24 hitpoints, and generally isn't worth it. Yeah, he'll get those back with more to spare when he's in his defensive stance, but you can't stay in that all day (though with 38 con, you can sure stay in there for a long time)

So let's see our revised Hitpoint Tank:

Dwarf
Fighter 15 / Wizard 1 / Ranger 1 / Barbarian 1 / Paladin 1 / Monk 1
Feats: Toughness, Dwarf's Toughness, Troll's Toughness, Dragon's Toughness x 12.
Toad Familiar
Constitution: 36
Final hitpoints: 534.5 (average)

There's actually a spare level in there (15th fighter), so if we wanted we could gain one level of barbarian instead just for the extra +1 average hitpoint. *shrug*

-The Souljourner