pingpong
First Post
first off, i wanted to say thanks for letting me know about this movie. i rented it based off of this thread, and it was pretty awesome.
since someone else has already brought up psionics, heres how i would make a Tetragrammatron Cleric...
you mentioned having access to Dragon #310, i would take some levels of the Enforcer Paladin variant. how many you take is up to you, but i would think at least three for the Aura of Courage. being immune to fear kinda simulates the Cleric's lack of emotion. for skills, probably want maxed out Sense Motive, Intimidate, Gather Information, and Search. man, the enforcer has a lot of really good skills for this type of character.
after this, i would take some Telepath levels. theres a first level power called Empathy that would simulate the intuitive nature of some of the Clerics. how many Telepath levels you want is also a matter of taste, but im going to say take 5 or 6 becuase of my next suggestion.
if you have access to the book Mindscapes, theres a PrC in there called the Ghostbreaker. you need the power Sever the Tie, which will require at least 5th level Telepath to get. the reason i suggest this PrC is because it gets 1/1 BAB, Fort and Will as good saves, and 3 manifestor levels over its 5 level progression. most importantly, it gives you effective Turning (if you didnt get it with Paladin 4). i think this is crucial becuase this in turn gives you access to Divine Might. since you dont have the Ranger's Favored Enemy Bonus to up your damage with the hand crossbows, you need DM for the damage.
if your using the SRD version, the Slayer prestige class could be pretty handy too. it allows any creature to be your favored enemy, not just Illithid. if your lucky, you could convince your DM to use the +1 manifestor level table from the version of the PrC on Monte Cook's site, but i wouldnt count on being able to mix and match info.
another option, if your DM approves, is to skip all the other psionic levels and make a custom list of powers for the Psychic Warrior.
how you take the levels is a matter of how you imagine your character to be. if you want to focus more heavily on skills, you'll have an easier time of it taking the Telepath levels first. if you want more of a fighter type, take more Paladin levels, obviously
since someone else has already brought up psionics, heres how i would make a Tetragrammatron Cleric...
you mentioned having access to Dragon #310, i would take some levels of the Enforcer Paladin variant. how many you take is up to you, but i would think at least three for the Aura of Courage. being immune to fear kinda simulates the Cleric's lack of emotion. for skills, probably want maxed out Sense Motive, Intimidate, Gather Information, and Search. man, the enforcer has a lot of really good skills for this type of character.
after this, i would take some Telepath levels. theres a first level power called Empathy that would simulate the intuitive nature of some of the Clerics. how many Telepath levels you want is also a matter of taste, but im going to say take 5 or 6 becuase of my next suggestion.
if you have access to the book Mindscapes, theres a PrC in there called the Ghostbreaker. you need the power Sever the Tie, which will require at least 5th level Telepath to get. the reason i suggest this PrC is because it gets 1/1 BAB, Fort and Will as good saves, and 3 manifestor levels over its 5 level progression. most importantly, it gives you effective Turning (if you didnt get it with Paladin 4). i think this is crucial becuase this in turn gives you access to Divine Might. since you dont have the Ranger's Favored Enemy Bonus to up your damage with the hand crossbows, you need DM for the damage.
if your using the SRD version, the Slayer prestige class could be pretty handy too. it allows any creature to be your favored enemy, not just Illithid. if your lucky, you could convince your DM to use the +1 manifestor level table from the version of the PrC on Monte Cook's site, but i wouldnt count on being able to mix and match info.
another option, if your DM approves, is to skip all the other psionic levels and make a custom list of powers for the Psychic Warrior.
how you take the levels is a matter of how you imagine your character to be. if you want to focus more heavily on skills, you'll have an easier time of it taking the Telepath levels first. if you want more of a fighter type, take more Paladin levels, obviously
Granted, we've taken some big liberties with the class concept (done away with alignment and multi-classing restrictions), swapped out monk weapons for specific character concept weapons (so I can flurry of blows with my crossbows or my body), and given the Monk a Fighter's BAB. I don't know whether this presents balance issues, but we've decided that the important part of playing D&D isn't playing D&D by the book when the book limits your imagination, it's having fun with your friends and sometimes that means playing fast and loose with the rules, which are only guidelines anyway, as was hammered home when so many people were disappointed by some of the 3.5 changes (like the animal buff spell durations, or moving spider climb to 2nd level for example) and threw out the new rules in favor of the old, or some compromise in between. I am very happy with most of the 3.5 changes and the rules in general, but house rules are where it's at to get the most out of the game, IMO, since every game is different and different gamers have different tastes. I don't think I could have built my character concept using just the core rules, or even adding all the third party rules out there. Sometimes, you gotta step in and do some quick-n-dirty game designing of your own to get thegame to do what you want it to do. A point based system like GURPS would probably have let me build exactly what I wanted right out of the gate, but D&D's level based system is limiting in that regard without inputting third party and house rules... I still prefer D&D though, even if I have to tweak it (and I do, practically everytime, sooner or later). But that, to me, is part of the fun: "How can I make this work? Hmm... Wait a minute! By jove, I think I've got it. Eureka!" 
