My favorite 3.5 build I ever made and then played. Basically, a Beguiler who thinks he's a favored Soul of Pelor, then all choices in terms of feats are ruthlessly optimized to appear to be a Favored Soul as much as possible.
Even if taking a feat to pick up Religion skill at 1st is super-suboptimal in any other context - because without it, I can't pick up Arcane Disciple at 1st level and therefore heal at 1st level. Which is very important when trying to convince other PCs(though I was straightforward with the players), that I was indeed a Favored Soul of Pelor. Or note that he's probably the only 3.5 build to ever go Divine Oracle and not actually take the 2nd level of it...
Human(Flan)
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 8
1: Beguiler 1: Well-read, Arcane Disciple(Healing)
2: Beguiler 2
3: Beguiler 3: Arcane Disciple(Purification)
4: Beguiler 4: Int 17
5: Beguiler 5: Silent Spell
6: Beguiler 6: Skill Focus(Knowledge(religion)
7: Divine Oracle 1
8: Beguiler 7: Int 18
9: Beguiler 8: Craft Wondrous Item
10: Beguiler 9
11: Beguiler 10: Still Spell
12: Loremaster 1: Arcane Disciple(Sun), Arcane Disciple(Good), Wis 15
He's a really weird kind of broken - he has all the spells necessary to craft a Bead of Karma and cast Holy Word at 14th. All he needs is Ioun Stone of +2 Wisdom and Bead access. He could also UMD scrolls of Owl's Wisdom.
Interesting Spells:
2: Glitterdust, Silence, Knock, See Invisibility
3: Recitation, Haste, Divination, Magic Circle, Dispel Magic, Slow, Arcane Sight
4: Holy Smite, Freedom of Movement, Confusion, Solid Fog, Scrying
5: Mass CLW, Dominate Person, Feeblemind, Flame Strike, Commune, Dance of the Unicorn
6: Heal, Blade Barrier, Fire Seeds, Greater Dispel Magic, Mass Suggestion, True Seeing, Fires of Purity
7: Holy Word, Power Word Blind, Greater Arcane Sight, Sunbeam, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful
He ends up acting something like a Favored Soul in play, just with a better spell list - except that he's also a trapfinder and skill monkey. At 5th, he has Eyes of the Eagle, so his Spot check is +15 as an example.
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Thanks!
The big thing is as Lightblade mentioned - gotta be able to cast a healing spell or two - a lot of my choices are to sell the idea that he really, truly is a Favored Soul of Pelor. He heals, he casts cleric buffs and divinations. Even an offensive spell or two. Pelor even talks back to him once he hits 7th level. Also, his UMD won't be high enough until he's around 9th level to consistently make that happen from a scroll or happy stick.
He's not the most overwhelmingly powerful character out there, but he covers so many roles in any given party that he's essentially one of the more tweaked out utility builds I've seen - he provides strong trapfinder, spotting(+15 Spot at 5th+See Invisibility as spontaneous), and if you have him in the party, you might not notice you're missing a cleric and/or wizard. He can't heal the party all day long in combat, but if someone needs to drop some healing on the tank to get him back into the fight, he can do it without a big resource expenditure - as you mentioned, at 8th+, he's got Greater Mirror Image - he can likely run up to the tank, slap him with the Healing, then retreat without taking a full attack in return.
But roleplaying considerations are also huge here - he's this horribly sunburnt maniac who looks like he should be twitching on the ground, that's how bad off he looks. Yet he acts just as you'd think a Favored Soul of Pelor with his spell list, skills and a 16 Int/14 Wis ought to act - thoughtful, intelligent, and tactical. A little in disbelief about how many people question him on is he really a Favored Soul of Pelor. He often describes how Pelor is influencing his actions in combat - when he casts Glitterdust, he says something along the lines of "May you see only the Light of Pelor!" When he finds traps, I pretend it is him seeing the light of pelor that only he can see, guiding him on how to find and disable traps.
Find and Disabling Traps is actually something I use to point out just how great a god Pelor is - all other gods give Find Traps as a spell known, but all that does is point out where traps might be. Pelor is the only deity to therefore have thought this through - give a long duration(all day) and show how to get rid of them. Makes you doubt those other gods existence, right? Why would they do something so silly?
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He got a lot of good reactions at tables - I get to roleplay in combat a lot of with him - I'll say something light/heat/sun related when casting a spell or finding traps. The metagaming players are often the best roleplayers in response to him as they try to pry out of him that he's really just a Beguiler. And I act confused about references about how Favored Souls are supposed to have high charisma or only use spells of a particular kind.
Again, as players, we all knew better - but it isn't clear why every PC would know how every god might treat their favored souls - why would some like Charisma over say Intelligence or Wisdom? Why would they only give them spells from a specific spell list rather than spells that made sense from a deity standpoint.
Even if taking a feat to pick up Religion skill at 1st is super-suboptimal in any other context - because without it, I can't pick up Arcane Disciple at 1st level and therefore heal at 1st level. Which is very important when trying to convince other PCs(though I was straightforward with the players), that I was indeed a Favored Soul of Pelor. Or note that he's probably the only 3.5 build to ever go Divine Oracle and not actually take the 2nd level of it...
Human(Flan)
Str 8, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 16, Wis 14, Cha 8
1: Beguiler 1: Well-read, Arcane Disciple(Healing)
2: Beguiler 2
3: Beguiler 3: Arcane Disciple(Purification)
4: Beguiler 4: Int 17
5: Beguiler 5: Silent Spell
6: Beguiler 6: Skill Focus(Knowledge(religion)
7: Divine Oracle 1
8: Beguiler 7: Int 18
9: Beguiler 8: Craft Wondrous Item
10: Beguiler 9
11: Beguiler 10: Still Spell
12: Loremaster 1: Arcane Disciple(Sun), Arcane Disciple(Good), Wis 15
He's a really weird kind of broken - he has all the spells necessary to craft a Bead of Karma and cast Holy Word at 14th. All he needs is Ioun Stone of +2 Wisdom and Bead access. He could also UMD scrolls of Owl's Wisdom.
Interesting Spells:
2: Glitterdust, Silence, Knock, See Invisibility
3: Recitation, Haste, Divination, Magic Circle, Dispel Magic, Slow, Arcane Sight
4: Holy Smite, Freedom of Movement, Confusion, Solid Fog, Scrying
5: Mass CLW, Dominate Person, Feeblemind, Flame Strike, Commune, Dance of the Unicorn
6: Heal, Blade Barrier, Fire Seeds, Greater Dispel Magic, Mass Suggestion, True Seeing, Fires of Purity
7: Holy Word, Power Word Blind, Greater Arcane Sight, Sunbeam, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful
He ends up acting something like a Favored Soul in play, just with a better spell list - except that he's also a trapfinder and skill monkey. At 5th, he has Eyes of the Eagle, so his Spot check is +15 as an example.
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dkay said:
Thanks!
The big thing is as Lightblade mentioned - gotta be able to cast a healing spell or two - a lot of my choices are to sell the idea that he really, truly is a Favored Soul of Pelor. He heals, he casts cleric buffs and divinations. Even an offensive spell or two. Pelor even talks back to him once he hits 7th level. Also, his UMD won't be high enough until he's around 9th level to consistently make that happen from a scroll or happy stick.
He's not the most overwhelmingly powerful character out there, but he covers so many roles in any given party that he's essentially one of the more tweaked out utility builds I've seen - he provides strong trapfinder, spotting(+15 Spot at 5th+See Invisibility as spontaneous), and if you have him in the party, you might not notice you're missing a cleric and/or wizard. He can't heal the party all day long in combat, but if someone needs to drop some healing on the tank to get him back into the fight, he can do it without a big resource expenditure - as you mentioned, at 8th+, he's got Greater Mirror Image - he can likely run up to the tank, slap him with the Healing, then retreat without taking a full attack in return.
But roleplaying considerations are also huge here - he's this horribly sunburnt maniac who looks like he should be twitching on the ground, that's how bad off he looks. Yet he acts just as you'd think a Favored Soul of Pelor with his spell list, skills and a 16 Int/14 Wis ought to act - thoughtful, intelligent, and tactical. A little in disbelief about how many people question him on is he really a Favored Soul of Pelor. He often describes how Pelor is influencing his actions in combat - when he casts Glitterdust, he says something along the lines of "May you see only the Light of Pelor!" When he finds traps, I pretend it is him seeing the light of pelor that only he can see, guiding him on how to find and disable traps.
Find and Disabling Traps is actually something I use to point out just how great a god Pelor is - all other gods give Find Traps as a spell known, but all that does is point out where traps might be. Pelor is the only deity to therefore have thought this through - give a long duration(all day) and show how to get rid of them. Makes you doubt those other gods existence, right? Why would they do something so silly?
-----
He got a lot of good reactions at tables - I get to roleplay in combat a lot of with him - I'll say something light/heat/sun related when casting a spell or finding traps. The metagaming players are often the best roleplayers in response to him as they try to pry out of him that he's really just a Beguiler. And I act confused about references about how Favored Souls are supposed to have high charisma or only use spells of a particular kind.
Again, as players, we all knew better - but it isn't clear why every PC would know how every god might treat their favored souls - why would some like Charisma over say Intelligence or Wisdom? Why would they only give them spells from a specific spell list rather than spells that made sense from a deity standpoint.
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