Eric Finley
First Post
I've got one of those very best kinds of dilemmas... I'm torn between several equally appetizing choices. So I'm tossing this out to see what other folks say.
My PC is a third-level Dragonborn Starlock, going on fourth, with an exceedingly odd background. (Put it this way – her age is accurately listed as "???" on the character sheet.) She falls very squarely in the 'naïve' type of Starlock, and I'm waiting to see just how much weirdness her older sister (another PC, our fighter) can take before taking steps to pin her down before she drifts away into madness.
Mechanically, I'm totally Cha-based; starting 20 Cha, 15 Int, 15 Con (we use a modified point-buy system and my background gives good reasons for extremely dumped Str and Wis). Definitely heading toward Student of Caiphon. I convinced my DM to give me Eyebite (reflavored, and Fear-based rather than Charm-based) instead of Dire Radiance, so I'm not too MAD overall. Other powers include Dreadful Word, Crown of Stars, Frenzied Certainty of Caiphon, and Otherwind Stride. I'm currently the party's only ranged striker, but our overall damage output seems pretty decent (dragonborn BRV fighter, eladrin wandizard, genasi assault swordmage with tweaks to make him stickier, human cleric/avenger and human brutal scoundrel, rotating DM duties; the rogue is currently sitting this one out as she's DMing). I've also gotten my hands on a Sunblade in rod form (all radiant damage, all the time!), minus the daily and plus an effect analogous to the Explorer's Fire ritual; feel-wise, I also just returned from death, after a prolonged absence wandering among the far stars which made me difficult to resurrect and which left me (a) sans my familiar [I decided to retrain him, he was too helpful for an aspect of Caiphon, I'd rather have him be an enigmatic NPC], and (b) distinctly glowing [the Sunblade's glow reflavored to emit from the wielder].
The tricky part for me is feats. I'm sitting on Sacrifice to Caiphon for sure, both for thematic and mechanical reasons. But Arcane Familiar is being retrained out as of third level, and I'm expecting another very soon (I just finished a DMing stint) at fourth. Expertise feats are disallowed. Doing reliable radiant damage, there are several attractive paths:
1) Return from death with Deva Heritage (reflavored to Astral Voyager). Handy stance power (daily, -2 to be hit by everything, only while unbloodied, it's not like I'm using any other stances), and opens up Radiant Recovery at 4th (gain Con mod temp HPs each time I hit with radiant). Obviously in this version I boost my Con as well, making me a kind of mini-BRV.
2) As above, but rather than going straight into Radiant Recovery pick up Starfire Womb first. A saving throw on every hit (esp. with Crown of Stars kicking around) would be amazingly strong on condition defense.
3) Postpone the Deva Heritage for later, glow "because" I'm retraining into Starfire Womb, and pick up Improved Fate of the Void at fourth. I know everybody says it's awesome, but so far my use of the basic FotV has been pretty hit-and-miss... Crown of Stars plus Dragon Breath plus some other stuff eats up my minor actions fast, much of the time.
4) ???? I'm open to other suggestions, though these are all pretty damn awesome.
Any thoughts on these?
My PC is a third-level Dragonborn Starlock, going on fourth, with an exceedingly odd background. (Put it this way – her age is accurately listed as "???" on the character sheet.) She falls very squarely in the 'naïve' type of Starlock, and I'm waiting to see just how much weirdness her older sister (another PC, our fighter) can take before taking steps to pin her down before she drifts away into madness.
Mechanically, I'm totally Cha-based; starting 20 Cha, 15 Int, 15 Con (we use a modified point-buy system and my background gives good reasons for extremely dumped Str and Wis). Definitely heading toward Student of Caiphon. I convinced my DM to give me Eyebite (reflavored, and Fear-based rather than Charm-based) instead of Dire Radiance, so I'm not too MAD overall. Other powers include Dreadful Word, Crown of Stars, Frenzied Certainty of Caiphon, and Otherwind Stride. I'm currently the party's only ranged striker, but our overall damage output seems pretty decent (dragonborn BRV fighter, eladrin wandizard, genasi assault swordmage with tweaks to make him stickier, human cleric/avenger and human brutal scoundrel, rotating DM duties; the rogue is currently sitting this one out as she's DMing). I've also gotten my hands on a Sunblade in rod form (all radiant damage, all the time!), minus the daily and plus an effect analogous to the Explorer's Fire ritual; feel-wise, I also just returned from death, after a prolonged absence wandering among the far stars which made me difficult to resurrect and which left me (a) sans my familiar [I decided to retrain him, he was too helpful for an aspect of Caiphon, I'd rather have him be an enigmatic NPC], and (b) distinctly glowing [the Sunblade's glow reflavored to emit from the wielder].
The tricky part for me is feats. I'm sitting on Sacrifice to Caiphon for sure, both for thematic and mechanical reasons. But Arcane Familiar is being retrained out as of third level, and I'm expecting another very soon (I just finished a DMing stint) at fourth. Expertise feats are disallowed. Doing reliable radiant damage, there are several attractive paths:
1) Return from death with Deva Heritage (reflavored to Astral Voyager). Handy stance power (daily, -2 to be hit by everything, only while unbloodied, it's not like I'm using any other stances), and opens up Radiant Recovery at 4th (gain Con mod temp HPs each time I hit with radiant). Obviously in this version I boost my Con as well, making me a kind of mini-BRV.
2) As above, but rather than going straight into Radiant Recovery pick up Starfire Womb first. A saving throw on every hit (esp. with Crown of Stars kicking around) would be amazingly strong on condition defense.
3) Postpone the Deva Heritage for later, glow "because" I'm retraining into Starfire Womb, and pick up Improved Fate of the Void at fourth. I know everybody says it's awesome, but so far my use of the basic FotV has been pretty hit-and-miss... Crown of Stars plus Dragon Breath plus some other stuff eats up my minor actions fast, much of the time.
4) ???? I'm open to other suggestions, though these are all pretty damn awesome.
Any thoughts on these?
