Enworlders, help me Min/Max a character for a Contest!

[Hypersmurf]

Re: WAIT A SECOND!

Are you implying that because he as a +2 enhancement bonus on his sword, that bonus applies to initiative as well? Is this a house rule? Did I miss something? Or am I interpereting this wrong?

The sword has the Eager weapon special ability from A&EG.

-Hyp.

 

[Pax]

Re: WAIT A SECOND!

Are you implying that because he as a +2 enhancement bonus on his sword, that bonus applies to initiative as well? Is this a house rule? Did I miss something? Or am I interpereting this wrong?

No, no, not that at all.

In Arms and Equipment there is a weapon special enhancement, "eager" -- the owner gets a +2 to initiative, and, readying the weapon is always a free action.

 

[LokiDR]

Spellcaster with the winged template or Avrial. It would stop Lohtek in his tracks. High dex, all-day dex boost (empowered, of course), boots of striding and springing, the blooded, thug, and improved intitive feats. You go first (almost certain) then you fly out of reach, haste and disjoin. If you lose inititive, you do the same thing. AMF doesn't stop your natural flight.

Alternatively, you could go the genasi-sorcerer polymorphed into a Kelmazu for the base 31 dex, then buff and feats from there. Incantantrix and persistant improved invisibility and shield. pray you win inititive, disjoin, and move silently around him.

This competition will come down to cheese, so you might as well time stop some time in first few rounds so you re-buff, lay out the nasty spells (empowered horrid wilting) or force cage your opponent.

A cleric wining inititive, and using the move, harm, quickend inflict would also satisfy the cheese factor.

Whatever you do, you want to win intitive.

 

[WattsHumphrey]

A cleric wining inititive, and using the move, harm, quickend inflict would also satisfy the cheese factor.

Whatever you do, you want to win intitive.

MMm... clerics... my favorite cheese.

I'd go with those sheilds of utter cheese from the DMG... the ones with the portable spheres of annihilation on them. Buy a couple. Whore initiative. Go first. Kill other guy. Whore ability to hit with your touch attack if you really need to.

Depending on the level you're playing at, I'd also suggest the enervating armor from DotF. That stuff's pretty obnoxious when combined with a character dual wielding touch attacks (or going tempest off of his touch attacks ).

 

[Pax]

Spellcaster with the winged template or Avrial. It would stop Lohtek in his tracks. High dex, all-day dex boost (empowered, of course), boots of striding and springing, the blooded, thug, and improved intitive feats. You go first (almost certain) then you fly out of reach, haste and disjoin. If you lose inititive, you do the same thing. AMF doesn't stop your natural flight.

One of the reasons Exodus reduced the fficacy of Mordenkainen's Disjunction; in a PvP environment, it's just too powerful. Even then, you'd be ... let's see, ECL, equipment ... you'd be lucky to be much over a 23 caster level, if any over that..

1% per caster level to overcome the AMF means under a 1-in-4 chance with each spell. Even assuming you're a Sorceror, with 10th level spell slots, and you burn most of all 9th and 10th level spells ... with FOUR items giving AMF (two of them quickened) ... odds are, you'll run out of MDJ's before the above watered-down Lohtek runs out of AMFs.

With a caster level of 25 (being generous IMO), your cumulative chances of dropping a single Antimagic Field by core rules for the MDJ are roughly:

1 casting: 25%
2 castings: 44%
3 castings: 58%
4 castings: 68%
5 castings: 76%
6 castings: 82%

Now factor in, the watered down setup I suggested still has FOUR antimagic field items available -- for exactly the reason of a Disjunction.

It takes 8 castings to have a 90% cnance to drop the AMF; times four AMFs, well ... unless you get lucky, on average it'll take some 25-30 Disjunctions to be certain of facing this sort of character without the Antimagic Field going.

Alternatively, you could go the genasi-sorcerer polymorphed into a Kelmazu for the base 31 dex, then buff and feats from there. Incantantrix and persistant improved invisibility and shield. pray you win inititive, disjoin, and move silently around him.

Notice, still hyperreliant on the (for this application) brokenly-overpowered Disjunction. There's a reason it's been barred or heavily nerfed in every Arena where it's possible to cast it. That would be the same reason I said, either an antimagic fighter, or, a spellcaster yourself -- not just 100% "crew you" dispelling of spells -- which, I must observe, is better than the EPIC dispel in the ELH -- but also, save for each bloody magic item or it's FOREVER nonmagical. And anyway ... you have the same problem dropping the AMF, as above, anyway.

On top of which, unless you're using Silent Spell ... you can't BE silent when casting a spell with a (v)erbal component. One readied action to charge later ... and you have a sorceror stuck in an antimagic field, being hacked into giblets.

This competition will come down to cheese, so you might as well time stop some time in first few rounds so you re-buff, lay out the nasty spells (empowered horrid wilting) or force cage your opponent.

A cleric wining inititive, and using the move, harm, quickend inflict would also satisfy the cheese factor.

Whatever you do, you want to win intitive.

Well, of course.

If the organisers have been smart, they've set up the arena area to make IMPOSSIBLE the first-round "run up and no hope" victory, like the cleric trick you mention above.

Now, as for the real Lohtek ... he has well more than 4 AMFs (around 20 of them), and many many many doses of poison suitable for grenadelike thrown use ...

He also had a lot more money available, as the "starting money by character level" tables were used ... 2.3Mgp is no small amount. Buys a lot of Runes of Antimagic Field, and LOTS of throwable vials of poison.

Not perfect, by no means unbeatable, but darned scary for a spellcaster (or other excessively-magic-reliant character) to face.

 

[Victim]

I think combining AMF strategies with Dragon Disciple is a great idea. You can fly and retain AMF protection. Taking epic dragon disciple levels means that you end up with huge grapple check bonuses because of your increased size and strength.

Whatever you do, use spell storing items (if necessary) to cast a Contigency. Set the trigger to be losing initiative in the arena match. Solid Fog is a good choice because it blocks LOS and greatly slows movement. If you can afford it, Chain Contigency is an even better choice. Ethereal Jaunt (cast by a cleric into your spell storing ioun stone) would also be a good choice, since it shields against disjunction.

If Magic of Faerun is allowed, use gnome gadgets.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

Now me, I'd suggest a halfling monk 1/Cleric (as high as you can get) with the magic domain. Pump your wisdom and dex through the roof, and rely on wizard items for things like haste, fly, Disjunction, etc. A wand of enervation would be quite good for you too.

That way, you can do the harm/inflict combo, you have a very high touch and normal AC, your saves are through the roof and you have evasion.

 

[Hypersmurf]

If you do take a level of monk, make sure you burn 30k on the Training Dummy from A&EG.

10' steps are awesome.

-Hyp.

 

[Kraedin]

A 17th level paragon grey elf wizard will work well. Your total level adjustment is +11, but you get a +17 bonus to Dexterity. Take the Improved Initiative feat, and buy gloves of dexterity +6. With the starting Dexterity of 18, you'll end up with a Dexterity of 45, which gives a +17 bonus to Initiative. You now have a total Initiative bonus of +21.

Also, you should have a starting Constitution and Intelligence of 18. (Leave the rest of your ability scores at 8, the +15 from paragon will help quite a bit.)

Start the battle by casting time stop. Then, cast fly and shapechange into a 200' gold sphere. Fly directly over your opponent. (20 feet off the ground.) When the time stop ends, fall on him. The fall will deal 1d6 damage to you, and 25,174,951d6 damage to your opponent.

 

[Kraedin]

If only you could play as an atropal. They are immune to subdual damage, and their regeneration is only overcome by intelligent weapons.