20th level with 20 classes

[pawsplay]

CN human ranger 1/fighter 1/barbarian 1/hexblade 1/duskblade 1/swashbuckler 1/illithid slayer 1/horizon walker 1/duelist 1/dark hunter 1/tempest 1/exotic weapon master 1/war mind 1/battle trickster 1/streetfighter 1/dervish 1/tactical soldier 1/dragon samurai 1/nightsong enforcer 1/highland stalker 1/order of the bow initiate 1.

 

[sniffles]

A friend of mine was doing just that in a humorous pick-up game. Entirely for his own amusement. We only made it to 6th level, I think. He had levels in monk, rogue, cleric, druid... I forget what else.

Every time he took a new level, he announced that his character had "discovered his inner (insert class name here)."

 

[Turanil]

trying to build a 20th-level character with 20 different classes.

LOL! I had great fun reading this thread!

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Well, if nothing else, his saves should kick butt! I don't know how effective he might be at anything else though.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Evilhalfling]

I made a pre-gen char for a game that was a cleric/bard/rogue/fighter/paladin(CG-then ex) /fighter - and had just fallen in love with the party sorcerer and was trying to break into that field as well. With a backstory that described the whole process.
so a 6th lvl warrior type with a BAB of +3 and a lot of skills with 4 ranks each. Useless? in combat sure, but in my one shots personality counts more than effectiveness.

I don't know why she went back to ftr after losing her paladinhood, ranger would have been a more fitting choice.....

 

[ChimericDream]

Out of curiosity, has anyone actually gone through and statted up any of these theoretical builds to see their real potential? I'd think it would be a lot of fun to just see what the character looked like at 20th level... what kind of eq would fit best, what their saves would look like (*especially their saves*), etc.

I'm not nearly as good as others here at optimizing builds, but I just had this as a random interesting thought.

 

[QuaziquestGM]

What ever build you do, don't forget Matter Agitation for the psionic class. It is the most powerfull of the level one powers. One powerpoint and you can spend all day microwaving something if you want to.

If you go all casters, then you can make a decent one shot sneak attack assassin.

Warlock for hideous blow
Spell theif for sneak attack 1d6
dread necromances for carnal touch at will once per round 1d8
cleric death domain for death touch one/per day, and true stike
Wu jen for maximized shocking grasp with spell secret and watchful spirit to help get inititive on target.
Soulknife for the blade
Two weapon fighting and improved unarmed strike from somewhere...

Hide in alley, form soulblade, cast true strike and shocking grasp on the off hand,
sneak attack target with soulblade and hidous blow, off hand punch attack with shocking grasp while activating carnal touch. Roll initive, punch with hideous blow while activiting both carnal touch and death thouch, off hand attack with soulblade.

 

[Arkhandus]

How I'd do it.

Race: Xeph (Expanded Psionics Handbook)
CL 1 - Rogue (Dodge)
CL 2 - Fighter (Weapon Finesse)
CL 3 - Telepath Psion (Mobility, Psionic Weapon) (XPH)
CL 4 - Monk (Improved Grapple, Improved Unarmed Strike)
CL 5 - Ranger (Track)
CL 6 - Psychic Warrior (Practiced Manifester, Psionic Meditation) (XPH)
CL 7 - Hexblade (Complete Warrior)
CL 8 - Sorcerer
CL 9 - Barbarian (Spring Attack)
CL 10 - Elocator (Sidestep Charge) (XPH)
CL 11 - War Mind (XPH)
CL 12 - Slayer (Inquisitor) (XPH)
CL 13 - Duelist (DMG)
CL 14 - Ninja (Complete Adventurer)
CL 15 - Thrallherd (Combat Reflexes) (XPH)
CL 16 - Shadowdancer (DMG)
CL 17 - Crusader (Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords)
CL 18 - Swordsage (Shadow Blade, Discipline Focus - Weapon Focus - Shadow Hand weapons) (ToB:Bo9S)
CL 19 - Warblade (ToB:Bo9S)
CL 20 - Master of Nine (ToB:Bo9S)
= Awesome ninja fun, for me, anyway.

Roles: Sneak/infiltrator (primary), assassin (primary), hit-and-runner (primary), chaser/escapee/runner-over-any-surface (primary), mystical martial artist (primary), information gatherer (primary or secondary), detective/lie-detector (primary or secondary), manipulator (primary or secondary), minion recruiter (secondary), scout (secondary), tank (secondary), trickster/tricky fighter (secondary), thief/lockpick/trap-handler (secondary or tertiary), hunter/tracker (secondary or tertiary), outdoorsman (minor), scholar (minor).

Further notes/details:
[sblock]20th-Level Basic Stats: BAB +9/+4, Base Fortitude +20, Base Reflex +20, Base Will +16, average HP overall (D8 on average), decent unarmored AC, 9 power points + level 2 Int-based bonus points from Psion + level 1 Wis-based bonus points from Psychic Warrior + level 1 Wis-based bonus points from War Mind, fairly speedy, sneaky, has some minions and the capacity for additional minions (Psionic Charm), caster level of 1st in Sorcerer (spells are likely Mage Armor and Shield, to be most effective while unarmored as he'd be after reaching 9th-level), good at hit and run tactics, fairly good damage with such (after factoring in feats, maneuvers, powers, and such),

effective manifester level of 5th in either Psion or Psychic Warrior and 1st in the other (I don't recall if Practiced Manifester applies with only one psionic class or not), psionic powers (probably Psionic Charm, Mindlink, Entangling Ectoplasm, Empathy, Call to Mind, Offensive Precognition, Expansion), various 1st-level class features, Dexterity bonus to attack and damage with a rapier or other Shadow Hand weapon (I forget the other weapons associated with that Discipline), all kinds of uses for Dexterity, minimal need for Strength (just 13 to qualify for Psionic Weapon), good uses for high Wisdom so likely to be great at related skills and compensate for the base Will save only being mostly awesome (though Ninja's unspent ki energy pool gives another +2 Will as well, I think), many decent skills and a few good skills especially for stealth and social matters, decent outdoorsman and survivalist, decent favored enemy bonuses, has a familiar (should be a Raven that speaks one of his languages; this would allow him to use Minklink on it, and thereby use it as an effective long-range scout),

initiator level of 11th each in Crusader/Swordsage/Warblade upon reaching 20th character level (Bo9S counts initiator level from martial adept prestige classes, like Master of Nine, towards all ILs), 13-16 martial maneuvers of 5th-level (or lower at the PC's option), 3 martial stances of 5th-level (or lower at the PC's option), 2 or 3 martial maneuvers of 6th-level (or lower at the PC's option), and some access to all Nine Disciplines (potentially; don't have to take maneuvers/stances from each, but easily could).


Would probably want a Keen +5 Rapier or the like (to help make the attack bonus decent, after adding in Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus and possibly other things), and a Ring of Evasion (due to mediocre HP and the lack of 2 straight levels in any of the classes they have which would normally provide Evasion at 2nd-level), as well as possibly a Ring of Protection +5, Amulet of Natural Armor +5 or Amulet of Health +6 (likely the most useful items for their neck slot, since they won't need extra good Wisdom, just plain good Wisdom, and HP may be their main weakness as a frontline character; they should otherwise do alright on the frontline, with their good AC, awesome saves, martial maneuvers, damage/stat-boosting feats/class features, and Expansion psionic power).


I forget what all the prerequisites of the Master of Nine prestige class are, but I think I covered most of them or all of them with the feats I put in this build. If not I'd just have to swap out one or more of the early or middle feats (Psionic Weapon, Psionic Meditation, Improved Grapple, and possibly Practiced Manifester are expendable; but they're really useful to this I think, and well, IG is just an automatic Monk feat; I don't think Stunning Fist would be as useful to this build, since its abilities would otherwise be rather focused on a magic weapon like the rapier). I also forget the exact number of maneuvers a 1st-level Crusader, 1st-level Warblade, and 1st-level Master of Nine each get (I've only just started using a Swordsage, and have returned the Book of Nine Swords to the friend I had borrowed it from for the past few days, since I wrote down my PC's maneuvers/stances and their effects).[/sblock]

 

[Arkhandus]

What ever build you do, don't forget Matter Agitation for the psionic class. It is the most powerfull of the level one powers. One powerpoint and you can spend all day microwaving something if you want to.
*snip snip*
Hide in alley, form soulblade, cast true strike and shocking grasp on the off hand,
sneak attack target with soulblade and hidous blow, off hand punch attack with shocking grasp while activating carnal touch. Roll initive, punch with hideous blow while activiting both carnal touch and death thouch, off hand attack with soulblade.

Huh? Matter Agitation? Naaah, it's pretty limited. Expansion is much better (1st-level, psychic warrior). Also, check Matter Agitation: it has a limited duration, not very good range, and only minor damage per round (1d4 or 1d6 per round, after the first 2 rounds of building up heat) compared to what Expansion can do for you if your weapon's attack bonus is decent or good.

Matter Agitation
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Area: 2 sq. ft. of surface area of an object or creature
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 min./level

As for your other tactic, it seems good, although there are a few minor discrepencies in how it'd have to be carried out. Also, I dunno if Wu Jens can Maximize a spell at 1st-level with their Spell Secret; I don't have Complete Arcane myself to check, but in 3.0E Oriental Adventures at least, it wasn't one of the Spell Secret options (I dunno if that's true in 3.5).

Hmm. You'd have to use your main hand for the first punch since True Strike just affects your next attack roll in general, not your next attack with a particular weapon/limb; so your off-hand would have to wield the mindblade.
[sblock]On the second round you'd probably want to attack with the mindblade first (shifting it to the primary hand, which probably wouldn't cost any actions), then use the punch with its charged touch attacks, since the Death Touch ability doesn't have any effect unless the target's HP is low beforehand (and with only 1 level of Cleric, that means only 1 die roll for the Death Touch, so you'd have to hope your first few attacks reduced the enemy to no more than 1d6 HP first; at which point your punch's damage will probably do more than enough anyhow; the Death Touch would be discharged at the same time as your hit connects, so it would be checked against the target's HP before your punch's damage gets factored in).

Of course, there are various classes you could probably add in to improve this tactic of yours. 1 level of Assassin for Death Attack (though the Fort DC against it is hideously low and pathetic for anyone who hasn't gained several levels in the prestige class) and another 1d6 Sneak Attack; Rogue for 1d6 Sneak Attack; Ninja for 1d6 Sudden Strike; Monk for halfway decent unarmed damage and the Improved Unarmed Strike feat and the Stunning Fist feat; Scout perhaps for Skirmish though I don't know whether or not it would help in this case; 1 level each in the martial adept classes from Tome of Battle (Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade) for some maneuvers, stances, and especially boosts (and access to some offensive feats); and probably one or two others, but I dunno (I don't know what the Lurk from Complete Psionic gets exactly, or when, and I dunno what the Swashbuckler gets at 1st-level in Complete Warrior, either).

Take the Psionic Weapon and Greater Psionic Weapon feats, since you'll have a Soulknife level; this'll add 4d6 damage to the first attack you make with your mindblade (which would be your off-hand attack). Take the Superior Unarmed Strike feat from Tome of Battle; that'll improve your unarmed damage further (you could just take this in place of the Monk level in fact, and it would be just as effective or a little more so, even, but then you'd have to spend a normal feat slot or a Psychic Warrior level + its bonus feat slot to get Improved Unarmed Strike, and nevermind Stunning Fist if you do that).

Some other Tome of Battle feats would help as well, and the right combo of a Stance and a Boost could really help (if your last few levels are in Crusader, Swordsage, and Warblade, your initiator level for each of them will be quite high, so you'll be able to select mid-level maneuvers rather than just 1st-level or other low-level ones). Assassin's Stance (swordsage 3, Shadow Hand discipline) gives +2d6 sneak attack, while there are several Boosts that give extra damage for each attack in the round. Martial Strikes usually require standard actions or the like, and can't be used with two-weapon fighting or a full-attack or whatnot (usually; a few of them can be used with such).[/sblock]

......I'm in a tinkering/analytical mood today. *shrug*

 

[Gez]

How I'd do it.

CL 12 - Warrior (Inquisitor) (class DMG, feat XPH)

What about replacing that by Hexblade (CW) instead?