The Ultimate Self-Reliant Character?

[doraemon8]

I dunno if anyone has come up with the idea of this, but I played this character once, it took me about 2 hours to make and 10 minutes to get killed due to a botched tumbling attempt.

What I had created was a monk/sorcerer. The monk was to compensate for the lack of armor a sorcerer had along with the need to completely rid of any weapons and such so that once the sorcerer ran out of spells, he could fall back on the fists. The sorcerer was used to enhance the monks mystical aura of part celestial/part arcane ability. Since I wasn;t looking for spell casting from a book, the sorcerer could tap into his inner ability and not only deal whatever monk damage dealt, but also spells based on touch attacks. Even if the monk missed with the punch, the touch attack would sometimes land. Oh yeah, and the sorcerer part would focus mainly on defensive and touch attack spells.

What do you think? The character never really had a chance to flesh out and was incredibly weak in the beginning, but once started to roll, i believe it could've became a powerful character. Each side compensates for the other.

 

[Ravellion]

I'm going to say that Psions are better for that purpose... You have offense, defense, HEALING (including ability score damage), movement speed, and stealth (invisibility). You also have no Arcane Spell Failure, so you can wear armour... of course, you'll take the Armour Check penalty as a non proficiency penalty to hit...

Rav

 

[Crothian]

Cleric. Good HP, Good saves, good spells, good armor and weapons, two feats that can very powerful, and spells.

 

[jgbrowning]

cleric

yep, cleric. I'd take two levels of fighter to cover the combat feats and all the rest cleric. it kinda sucks to sacrifice a level of spells for two feats +hp but early on it helps bunches.

joe b.

 

[DM with a vengence]

A ranger is actually pretty self-reliant. They can, with the proper training, fight, sneak, hunt, gather resources, craft weapons and armor, heal, cast a variety of defense and offense spells, and generally survive in just about any sort of terrain.

Of course he's not as good as a truely munched out character in a straight up fight, but he can deal with just about anything with some ability.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Druids. While they can't heal quite as well as clerics, their shapeshifting and other abilities more than make up for it in terms of flexibility.

A dire bear is scary!

 

[green slime]

There are three in my mind:

Clerics:
Their free "Feats" with the Domain. Their Domain means they have more spells available than an equally Wise Druid, and greater choice. Armour with the best, and can buff to equal a fighter. With the Magic Domain, can use Wizard spells.

Ranger:
For the reasons posted above.

Paladin 1 / Telepath X
Better synergy than the oft touted pal/sor due to Psions having no armour restrictions. At first glance weaker due to postponing power aquisition, but the Charm/Dominate powers are all at a lower level than any other class can aquire them. Incredible saves, and good healing potential.

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

A well played rogue or bard is a pretty self-reliant character. Or at least preternaturally resourceful. You pick up lots of neat gadgets and they just get neater as you go. Thank-you Use Magic Device!!!

Though I think the best call is to modify it with a few levels of druid. The animal companion lets you flank all the time. The spells are super nice without requiring lugging around too much, the hit points and saves are a real boon, and you can get abilities that enable you to run away really affectively.

On the other hand a druid monk combo is pretty awful too. Dire Bears with high bonuses to AC from wisdom and beneficial unarmed combat rates are super scary.

I've seen Paladins survive a scary amount of diverse situations.

 

[Joshua Randall]

An aggressive cleric is the most self-reliant if you're going with a single-classed PC. At the appropriate levels he becomes literally self-reliant, as he can create food and water, cure any diseases he picks up, and of course heal himself.

However, why would you want a self-reliant character, anyway? D&D is a social game and is far more fun with a group of PCs than with only one.

 

[Numion]

Nah, pure cleric's the way to go. Just take war and maybe elf or dwarf domain for feats. No sense in losing caster levels for feats.