Methods for a human to gain darkvision 60ft at by level 7 using core three books

[Dannyalcatraz]

(I did read your OP, but given some suggestions above, I'll post this anyway.)

If you are a Sorcerer, Battle Sorcerer or Stalwart Sorcerer, you can take Sorcerous Heritage Feats (CompArcane, PHB2, Dragon Magic). In particular, the feat Infernal Sorcerer Heritage opens up that particular line, and Infernal Sorcerer Eyes would be available as soon as 1st level for a Human:

As a swift action, you can expend a spell slot to cause your eyes to emit a spectral red glow. You gain the ability to see perfectly in darkness of any kind, out to the limit of your line of sight. You ignore the concealment provided by darkness spells and effects. This benefit lasts for 10 minutes per level of the spell slot used to activate it.

Follow that up with Infernal Sorcerer Howl and you'll have a Sonic attack in a 30' cone that does 2d6 damage per spell level used.

If you go for the Draconic Heritage (CompArc) instead, you can qualify for Draconic Senses (Dragon Magic):

Your draconic blood grants you great sensory power.
Prerequisite: Cha 11, dragonblood subtype.
Benefit: You gain low-light vision and a bonus on Listen, Search, and Spot checks equal to the number of draconic feats you have.
Special: If you have three or more draconic feats, you also gain darkvision out to 60 feet.
Normal: If you have four or more draconic feats, you also gain blindsense out to 20 feet.

Again, a human sorcerer could get this particular feat by 1st level, but until he got to third level, he would not qualify for the first boost in the feat. Still, there are a lot o nifty Draconic feats- one gets you a breath weapon (similar to the Infernal one above), another gets you additional spells, and so forth.

 

[Genesist]

I said no classes because I have a build in mind: ranger 1/barb 1/fighter 2/sorc 1/DD x, but I will look at horizon. I no of horizon tripper, but am starting at level 7 and it comes online too late. Half dragon probably isn't worth the HP loss. My DM is very experienced and fairly strict with what books he allows. He will not allow those other classes and variants. Also the campaign is against vampires, so I can't play as one.

 

[Genesist]

Come to think of it barb wouldn't be that useful for the tripper build. Can't trip while raging, and if I want to wear lots of armor, then fast movement doesn't help. I start with ranger for the skills despite the minor HP loss. What should I replace x with?


Ranger 1/x 1/ fighter 2/sorc 1/DD 5 (we supposedly won't go beyond level 10)

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Replace X and one of the Fighter levels with Ranger 2 and 3, enter Horizon Walker for a single level by level 7, and then do Dragon Disciple. You can start at level 7 as a Ranger 3 / Fighter 1 / Sorc 1 / HW 1 / DD 1 (if you stop at 10, you'll never see DD5, but I don't think that's a huge loss anyway). Of course, if you can just...not be human...you could do a much more simplified build w/o Ranger 3 or Horizon Walker.

I have no idea why you think you can't trip while raging, there' feats and alternate Barb class features based around tripping, and nothing in the rage description would lead a reasonable person to think it precludes tripping (which, considering it's a sheer strength check, can be flavored as "no frills" as "I shove him and he falls down" if you want).

So assuming Dwarf and that your DM doesn't prevent rage tripping, I'd do Barb 2 / Fighter 2 / Sorc 1 / DD 5. Really, though, you need STRENGTH and SIZE to be a good tripper, rage once/day with no racial str bonus and at best large size when spell-buffed isn't going to be very good. But you seem to be against the polymorph wizard idea, so this is the best possible build I suppose, unless lycanthrope is still on the table. Orc would be a better race, but you seem worried about your MAD, and they net a -2 overall on ability scores.

 

[Genesist]

The main thing that troubles me about the polymorph wizard is the 3 times per day that I can trip as well as the feat limitation and HP as well as BAB loss. I have 3 feats versus the 5 I get without human in the other build. Lycanthrope is not allowed due to thematic reasons. I can't use all the alternate barb stuff, and I thought I had read somewhere that you can't use one of the trip feats while raging. Forget which one.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Wizard is limited to 3/day (and that's assuming only 1 fight in those 7 minutes each casting, you may sometimes squeeze another encounter in before it runs out), but this limit goes up! Your build with Barbarian would be only 1/day, so I fail to see why 3/day is bad. Three times per day, when facing a significant threat from things that are trippable (if you face fliers or a sandworm, trip's pretty much not happening that combat anyway), you get to be really awesome. The rest of the time, you have spells to fall back on to support the party with.

Also, BAB means nothing for tripping. Most enemies have an AC of like 10-12. Some even have as low as 6 or worse! The touch attack is cake. All that really matters is the str check and being big enough to trip in the first place. Wiz gives you the str and size you need. DD build gives you...almost the str you need...once/day.

 

[Talonblaze]

Out of sheer curiosity, why go Wizard when he can simply boost his already existing Sorcerer levels instead? Seems more logical instead of adding yet another class. Course that's just the way I see it. Unless your meaning for him to drop the Sorc/DD build altogether for this trip machine.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

The necessity of the build being playable right out of the box at level 7.

The full caster route relies on polymorph to get big strength and size (and values Con more than most wiz builds to minimize the squishiness). His game starts at level 7. Sorcerers don't have level 4 spells at level 7. Simple as that. If it were an 8th level game start, I would be pushing Sorc, since the one thing they are great at is spamming the same spell over and over again.

EDIT: In an ideal world, also, he would take Fighter at level 1 (much more HD to be maxed and the extra feat has a greater impact at level 1, as does the proficiencies), do wizard until he qualified for Eldritch Knight, and then jump into that as soon as possible. Instead, the progression I suggested for him was wiz 7, and then Fighter 1, EK 1-10 (with another wiz level in there first for polymorph a 4th time/day if it's that crucial to him), which in the end is just plain worse (granted, not by much, but it's still worse), but works out much better for him in the immediate term.

 

[Genesist]

The BAB is so that I can make a second attack, not for the tripping. And rage is pretty unimportant to the other build. It is viable 24/7 (also has many more skill points). The wizard, at least trip combat wise is viable for 21 minutes. Although as you said, I could buff the party in the mean time... you know being batman and all. But I would lose disarming and combat reflexes. The first is meh, but not starting with reflexes kinda sucks.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I would be pushing Sorc, since the one thing they are great at is spamming the same spell over and over again.

So are Focused Specialist Wizards...especially if you're trying to focus on making a lot of use out of a small number of closely related spells.