[Epic] I know it's silly, but help me make a 36th-level cleric

[Kem]

Actually, in terms of bonus feats, Hierophant is likely the way to go. 5 metamagics in 5 levels, with no loss of caster levels.

Take some levels pre-epic if possible. After Epic every 2 levels is a Bonus EPIC feat you lose out on. Using those on Innate Spell Reqs isn't so bad.

Hathran at character level 36 has 13 Epic Feats With 5 levels of Heirophant in epic you have 5 Metamagic Feats, and 10 Epic Feats.

 

[RangerWickett]

Well, I've emailed the GM to see if he's cool with at-will miracles. I'm afraid he'll say no, since he already nixed another player's Master of Many Forms grappler build, which would have turned into a colossal dragon itself and pinned the red dragon until it fell unconscious and died from lack of oxygen to the brain. And one player actually nixed an idea for a 'Retribution Mage,' who just carried a bunch of staffs of power, which he would snap all at once.

In comparison, I think being able to cast any 7th level or lower spell at will is pretty tame.

 

[RangerWickett]

Is there any cheap way of getting my AC over 46 without shelling out bookoo bucks for actual 'epic' items?

Right now, I'm looking at:

+13 armor -- +5 mithral full plate (actually +1 with magical vestment cast on it each day)
+9 shield -- +5 animated mithral tower shield (as above, with magical vestment)
+5 natural armor -- +5 amulet of natural armor
+5 deflection -- +5 ring of protection
+1 insight -- dusty rose ioun stone
+3 Dexterity

Oh, I suppose I could up the ioun stone to a +5 insight bonus (for 125,000), and while I'm at it get a +5 luck and a +5 sacred AC bonus ioun stone (125,000 each).

So at this point I've spent

+13 armor (11,500 - it's really just +1 full plate)
+9 shield (10,030 - remember that it's really just a +1 animated shield)
+5 natural armor (50,000)
+5 deflection (50,000)
+3 Dex (free! or actually probably a lot of gp to buy a belt of magnificence, but whatever)
+5 insight (125,000)
+5 luck (125,000)
+5 sacred (125,000)

526,530 gp in order to get an AC of 60. Which probably won't even slow a CR 40 dragon down. But oh well, it's only 1/16 of my total wealth. I could get a cloak of displacement, but anyone worth their salt should have permanent true seeing at that level. Which means I should have an item of mind blank. Aiya, arms race!

For 360,000gp I could increase the armor to +6. Or I could buy a defending dancing weapon, but those don't stay in the air long enough. Everdancing weapons are frikkin expensive (+8 enhancement bonus, which makes them epic).

How else can I get dodge bonuses? If I can shapeshift into a choker and be hasted, I could make an attack each round with superior combat expertise to add about 20 to my AC, but that requires a spell I don't have access to, two feats I'd rather not spend, and me having to look like a choker. I considered taking a level of Monk, but I don't think I can get my wisdom high enough to make it worth the effort, since I'd have to ditch the full plate and tower shield. Even though I could still keep +5 from magic vestment, I'd lose 17 points of AC, which would require a Wisdom of 44 to balance out.

How feasible is wisdom 44? 18 +9 for leveling, +5 inherent, +12 item (costing 1.44 million). And if I did that, I could also up my Dex. Hmm. Too bad monks can't even use animated shields.

I'm sure there's some sort of janky way to apply my stats to AC multiple times, but I don't think the GM would let me stack the bonuses of, say, monk and swordsage, or any other similar prestige class. But I might be able to stack Wisdom and Charisma bonus.

Any other janky ideas? I don't plan to attack pretty much ever, so I just need spells, saves, AC, and similar defenses.

 

[Dracomeander]

Unless you're willing to invest significantly more gp in acquiring epic equipment, forget trying to increase your AC.

In our Epic level game, our group has discovered that the monstrous opponent's ability to attack vastly outstrips the character's ability to increase AC. You need to look for other ways to provide your character with defense. The best thing that I can think of is finding some way to get an item that provides Greater Blink either constantly or at will. At Epic levels, sometimes the only defense is to not be there when the opponent strikes.

To give you an example of what you are looking for in AC, the sample CR 40 dragon in Draconomicon has a primary attack of +77 and secondary attacks of +72. I'm sure your DM will be tweeking this as that is a readily available example, but that is the ballpark you are going to be looking at.

 

[RangerWickett]

I don't know if I want to go for the Seeker of the Misty Isle (I get travel and magic domains, which would let me counterspell Mordenkainen's Disjunction, and some of the abilities are nice, but it stunts my caster level). If the GM allowed it, I'd take swordsage, but I think I might go Monk 2/Cleric x.

The original plan was to have a drow cleric who used the shadow weave, but who upon reaching the surface converted to worship Labelas Enoreth, god of sunsets and knowledge. However, the cleric was unable to get free of Shar's clutches, so she still has to use the shadow weave. It made her angsty for a while, but now she's come to terms with it, and has a sort of mutual understanding with Shar that she won't screw with the cult of Shar as long as Shar doesn't screw with her.

Her ultimate goal is to redeem herself in the eyes of the elves, in order to get to Evermeet, which was why Seeker of the Misty Isle felt thematically-appropriate. This would result in, probably, a ranger 1/monk 1/cleric 8/seeker of the misty isle 24 (or perhaps higher if the GM allowed me to spend XP to buy off the drow level adjustment).

If that's all too complicated, I can just make a straight-up monk 2/cleric 34.

So, continuing to think out loud, base stats:

Str 8
Dex 16
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 18
Cha 10

With items (+4 tomes and +6 enhancement items for every stat but Wisdom; +5 tome and +12 item for Wisdom), this could get up to:

Str 18
Dex 26
Con 20
Int 22
Wis 44
Cha 20

If I have base 10 +5 nat, +5 def, +8 armor (bracers), +17 wisdom, +8 dex, +5 luck, +5 insight, and +5 sacred, that's 68. So at least the dragon might miss if it power attacked. *grin*

 

[Archade]

If you are looking at enhancement items, look at the Belt of Glory (or some such thing) in the Miniatures Handbook. It grants a bonus to all stats, and it only takes up one slot.

 

[geosapient]

At that CR you'd be better off looking for ways to reduce the creatures damage instead of trying to increase your AC.

Clr 7/ Radiant Servant of Pelor 10 / Elementalist (Fire) 10 would give you immunity to fire, the ability to do a maximized / empowered heal spell for each level of the heal domain once per day (I think), elemental special properties (immune to criticals, sleep, hunger...), along with some other abilities.

This is at the expense of 2 levels of divine caster levels (easily made up by practiced spellcaster) and the inability to cast spells that don't do fire energy (ie. any spell that would have done cold, electric or acid now deals fire damage only). You also have weakness to water attacks (1.5x damage) but agaisnt a red dragon that becomes less of an issue. You would still have 9 levels to work with.

With immunity to fire you can start selecting equipment that will reduce damage from his other attacks (or feats like Roll With It).

 

[foxwick]

If you are looking at enhancement items, look at the Belt of Glory (or some such thing) in the Miniatures Handbook. It grants a bonus to all stats, and it only takes up one slot.

Belt of Magnificience

 

[moritheil]

It's been a while since I tried to build an AC-optimized epic character, but IIRC at level 21 it's not a big deal to get 105 AC. It definitely must be possible at level 36. If you can find the Moritheil AC Rule thread, people posted examples of exceeding 100 AC at 20 and remaining useful in combat.

 

[Quartz]

Don't forget to drop a level so you have a pool of XP for Miracles. So you'll be 35th level (not 36th) with a pool of 35,000 XP - 7 Miracles. It would really suck to cast Miracle and find you've no XP with which to fuel it.