Epic D&D campaign (still recruiting)

[ghostcat]

[MENTION=9026]Jemal[/MENTION] All I can say is wow; I'm speechless.

I'll comment fully when I have had chance to digest your comments and investigate. My only comment at the moment is "GAINING STRENGTH". The whole idea was to build a low strength fighter, so gaining strength defeats the object.

[MENTION=31780]Nephtys[/MENTION] I know I haven't published my background yet but believe me, Ishasha hates demons and will attack him/her on sight

[MENTION=6668704]Dharuhk Svahre[/MENTION] the above comment to Nephtys means that Ishasha and Nephtys' character can't be in the same party.

 

[Nephtys]

OK, ideas so far:
For the levels:

Half dragon barbarian (+10 speed, flight, bonus strength, 1 bab)

Half celestial : More amusing than powerful, the half angelic fiend would have a reason to be caught between two worlds. Would require GM ruling to allow it to be added to the marilith (As it states it's requires a non-evil base creature)

Swashbuckler3/fgtr 1: Bonus feat, 4 bab, Intelligence to dmg with all attacks (Doesn't hurt things with immunity to crits/sneak attacks)

Fgtr1/Dervish 3 : A standard for dual wielders. Bonus feat, 4 bab, Dervish 2/day for move+attack and +2 atk/dmg.

Other stuff:
Fiendish grafts.. on a fiend.. who's trying not to be evil. I don't know, I find it amusing. (And some of them are rather powerful), depending on what the DM thinks.

Feat from Rokugan: Hand of Osano-wo. This is a must-have for dual-wielders (Or multi-weapon fighters), it allows you to add your full str bonus to dmg with all attacks instead of half with the off-hand attacks.

Quicken Spell-Like ability for Greater Teleport (To close the gap so you don't have to charge and loose all your bonus attacks.. assuming you're not taking dervish dancing.


Another option would be instead of 6 weapons, wielding some combination of Falchion & Scimitars(If you want improved threat range), Scythe/Picks(For improved crit damage), or Greatsword/shortsword(For just straight damage).
1 BIG as primary, 4 LIGHT as off-hands


Also, keep in mind that at 20HD you won't be getting any epic feats, so Devastating Crit is kinda out.

Ouch! When Jemal opens a window he closes a door . Without epic feats she loses a lot more power.
Dharuhk Svahre, could I get some dispensation on this rule? Her Equivalent Character Level is 30, surely she should get some epic feats?

I've been thinking of going 1 lvl Marshal (minor focus strength), 1 lvl Monk (wisdom to AC, yes she'd have to be lawful and I feel it cheapens her a bit), 2 lvls Fighter (2 bonus feats).
Fiendish Graft, is that in BoVDarkness? Costs GP, or XP?
Hand Of Osano Wo sounds very interesting. Does it have prerequisites?
Quicken SLA is niceish, but its limited to 3 times/day, right?
Maybe she could have an item with the same effect? A Haste item would let her teleport on the added action and still get a full attack.

@Jemal All I can say is wow; I'm speechless.

Yes, he's pretty awesome.

@Nephtys I know I haven't published my background yet but believe me, Ishasha hates demons and will attack him/her on sight

@Dharuhk Svahre the above comment to Nephtys means that Ishasha and Nephtys' character can't be in the same party.

Yes, demons and fanatics don't play well together. Unless the fanatics are demon-worshipers. Off course, my character doesn't have to be a typical demon, nor does your character have to be a fanatic. Some nuance is always nice.

 

[Shayuri]

38 isn't bad. But spell levels cap at 9, regardless of hit dice.

Reading over the epic monsters, most everything at or near CR 30 has a Fort save that's pretty high. So I think you're right in the final analysis...my focus probably ought to be on dealing straight up damage with Vitriolic and/or normal blasts. As much as I like Utterdark, it's probably not worth it...

 

[Jemal]

*Deep bow*

Neph :
Hand of Osano Wo has no prereqs that you wouldn't allready qualify for by being a dual wielder in the first place.

Fiendish grafts are from the Fiend Folio.
Yes Quicken SLA is only 3/day, but it's still a very useful ability.
Especially since Haste giving extra action was 3.0. It's 3.5 variant is +1 attack when full-attacking, +1 ac, +1 Reflex Saves, +1 attack bonus, and +30 enhancement to movement.
As far as an Item to do it, I think the Belt of Battle from Magic Item Compendium gives you extra actions. It has 3 charges/day, 1 charge:move, 2 charges:Standard, 3 charges: Full Round. 12,000GP
I'd go with both of them personally, if you're worried about the 3/day thing.

As far as the levels go, it's ultimately up to you, I just figured I'd throw out some ideas.

And to the downside of considering some of your HD as Epic - It's basically a trade-off. If they're epic and qualifying for Epic Feats, then they're NOT granting Base Attack or Saves (Which stop once you become Epic). The ultimate bummer of LA at Epic. Either you loose epic feats or you loose Base attack/Saves.

Yes, demons and fanatics don't play well together. Unless the fanatics are demon-worshipers. Off course, my character doesn't have to be a typical demon, nor does your character have to be a fanatic. Some nuance is always nice.

Unfortunately if his background has him Hating Demons, there's not allways a lot of Nuance involved in hatred.
It's ok, one of you can come play with the Good Guys (ME & Albedo?) and the other can stick with VampyVertexx.
So where's that leave Shayuri?

 

[Wilphe]

I don't know where that rule is from, but I know I probably wouldn't allow it. However, I have made a decision based off of looking over all of the merileth's stats. I'm gonna knock your level adjustment down to 10. That will give you 4 levels to play with, then 10 LA and 16 racial HD.

That is the rule I asked about for me; as Hobgoblins are - so I understand considered week for LA+1 - and the benefit they gain from it (+2 Dex, +2 CHA, +4 Move silently) should be somewhat underwhelming at level 30.

 

[Wilphe]

WILPHE: Unfortunately I know nothing about Marshal or how to play it, and I don't really have any input on a leadership-based character (Especially since I'm not sure how it would work in this type of campaign.. Do you gain a new cohort/followers, or were they resurected along with you? Are the followers even viable at Epic since most people/monsters could likely wipe them out with little effort? Is the DM designing the Cohort or leaving that up to you?)

I have no idea about how that will work either, I will leave that to the GMs input. Either way it is two feats that are necessary to his character, so I am not especially bothered what if any benefit he gets from them. I fact I roughly think he is entitled to about 14,000 followers of up to 10th level (and he gets 10 at that level)

Rod of Fortification, Rod of Besiegment, Lyre of Building, Walls of Stone please start building a fortress somewhere. This is why he has K/Architecture and Engineering

I have noted however that Jack of All Trades enables 1/2 rank in all skills, and with a high CHA he can use most wands with a fair chance of success via UMD

And he can have a lot of classed level followers making them for him; depends how viable 1st to 4th level spells will be at this level.


In fact potentially anything that can be churned out by less than 10th level characters he might end up with a large supply (arrows of up to +3 bonus, gives you access to Bane (Whatever I happen to be fightingright now) and all the energy types)

Now:
If you can tell me how to make him an efficient archer, I'll be very greatful.

 

[Nephtys]

*Deep bow*

Neph :
Hand of Osano Wo has no prereqs that you wouldn't allready qualify for by being a dual wielder in the first place.

Fiendish grafts are from the Fiend Folio.
Yes Quicken SLA is only 3/day, but it's still a very useful ability.
Especially since Haste giving extra action was 3.0. It's 3.5 variant is +1 attack when full-attacking, +1 ac, +1 Reflex Saves, +1 attack bonus, and +30 enhancement to movement.
As far as an Item to do it, I think the Belt of Battle from Magic Item Compendium gives you extra actions. It has 3 charges/day, 1 charge:move, 2 charges:Standard, 3 charges: Full Round. 12,000GP
I'd go with both of them personally, if you're worried about the 3/day thing.

As far as the levels go, it's ultimately up to you, I just figured I'd throw out some ideas.

And to the downside of considering some of your HD as Epic - It's basically a trade-off. If they're epic and qualifying for Epic Feats, then they're NOT granting Base Attack or Saves (Which stop once you become Epic). The ultimate bummer of LA at Epic. Either you loose epic feats or you loose Base attack/Saves.

Point taken about the HD as Epic. Maybe I'm better off getting a full attack progression and focusing on dealing damage. Within a few levels I'll be able to gain the epic feats I want anyway since I'll probably pick levels in Fighter.

Grafts in general seem rediculously overpowered. It seems the rules set no limitation on their number so I could add dozens of additional arms and eyestalks and whatnot at a minimal GP cost. It's so broken in fact that I won't touch it, unless there are Celestial grafts which would just be too cool to resist.

Is there an item that grants Antimagic Field activated at will unlimited times/day? If not can I create one using the core item creation rules, or are we only allowed to use already statted items from books?

 

[Jemal]

Neph : the sources I've seen grafts in state a limit of 5. Also they replace the current body part and almost all of them are tied to a specific location (Meaning you can't usually have multiples taking up the same location, like with magic items.. You can't replace your heart with a dragons heart AND a fiends heart, for example.. unless you naturally have two hearts...)

As far as permanent antimagic field, I know of a few ways to gain it but I'm not sharing for a couple big reasons.
A: Antimagic field is the least party-friendly ability I can think of
B: It's most useful function is when the character using it is designed specifically to function IN an antimagic field, at which point it's horrendously broken unless you're facing another being designed to function in antimagic. (Same reason I hate the Collosus or Death Magic.. I despise "All or Nothing" encounters)

Neither of these is conducive to fun gaming IMO.

And no, we're not allowed to use the item creation rules, just existing items and Item stacking, with no repeat items (So no buying 20 "X/day" items). Not sure if he meant that to apply to things like wands/potions, though, or just the more abusable stuff like all the times/day equipment from Magic Item Compendium.


Wilphe - If you plan on your followers being a Magic Item factory don't forget a couple things.
A: Followers with character levels count as 2 lvls higher (So an 8th lvl Sorceror, Wizard, or Cleric would take up the slot of a 10th lvl follower).
B: Item creation requires feats and XP, and you would have to run it all by the DM, figuring out how much XP each follower has.
C: Followers are people too, and are going to want some reason/compensation for supplying you with cheap gear at the expenditure of their life force(XP) and time.

Also, Hobgoblins may be on the lesser side of what you should expect from a LA+1, but +4 stat mods, Darkvision, and +4 move silent is still worth a level. They're no Feral or Half-Ogre, but Hobs are still worth their LA... barely.

 

[ghostcat]

I've added Background and Knowledge checks to this post.

 

[Nephtys]

As far as permanent antimagic field, I know of a few ways to gain it but I'm not sharing for a couple big reasons.
A: Antimagic field is the least party-friendly ability I can think of
B: It's most useful function is when the character using it is designed specifically to function IN an antimagic field, at which point it's horrendously broken unless you're facing another being designed to function in antimagic. (Same reason I hate the Collosus or Death Magic.. I despise "All or Nothing" encounters)

Neither of these is conducive to fun gaming IMO.

And no, we're not allowed to use the item creation rules, just existing items and Item stacking, with no repeat items (So no buying 20 "X/day" items). Not sure if he meant that to apply to things like wands/potions, though, or just the more abusable stuff like all the times/day equipment from Magic Item Compendium.

My main problem with my build is that it's very weak against spellcasters. Sure I can buy items that grant immunities against most effects, and her saves will be decent. But her SR is terrible for her ECL and I don't think the rules allows it to stack with magic items, so a cleric with Holy Word and a few boosts to Spell Level will kill her instantly (and it's not a "Death" effect so Deathward is no help even if there's a statted item somewhere that grants it.)
Also, without the Epic feat of Devastating Critical (and even with it most opponents will be immune to crits) her only major trick is Improved Grab and grapple. Freedom Of Action or any number of magic effects protect against that so the only way to make it work is by using an Antimagic Field.
I've played a few Epic spellcasters and I know just how powerful they are, Antimagic Field or Disjunction are pretty much the only ways to beat one. And Quickened scrolls are so very expensive.

-
The item rules certainly makes things easier, although it requires a lot of digging trough the books.