Zaruthustran
The tingling means it’s working!
Fifth Element said:
Yes. I absolutely abused 3E's multiclass system to cherry-pick abilities and powers.
He was a Living Greyhawk character. My goal was to build a character that maximized the system via AoOs, Power Attack, extra damage dice, and the huge combat advantage of full concealment/invisibility (50% miss chance).
He was Rogue 1 / Fighter 2 / Ranger 3 / Scout 1 / Wildrunner 2 / Shadowdancer 3, I think. Wood Elf (favored class: ranger).
Ranger 3 for weapon profs, TWF*, track, Endurance (pre-req for Wildrunner), the ranger spell list (even though he couldn't cast, he could use wands), and skills (pre-req for Shadowdancer).
Rogue for Sneak Attack and skills.
Fighter for feat (shadowdancer has steep feat pre-reqs).
Scout for more skills, and damage from skirmish, + movement rate.
Wildrunner for skills, skirmish, scent, and primal scream, + movement rate.
Shadowdancer for evasion, darkvision, uncanny dodge, at-will Invisibility, Shadow companion, illusions, and short-range teleport.
He used a glaive to take advantage of Power Attack and two-handed weapon damage (as a wood elf, he had an 18 Str even using Living Greyhawk's 28 point buy system). He'd Spring Attack a foe, power attacking, and hiding in Plain Sight on the move in (for attack bonus + making foe flat-footed + sneak attack damage + skirmish damage). He'd then Hide on the move out (accepting the -20 penalty; not bad with max ranks, 18 Dex, and Cloak of Elvenkind). Most times, the foe literally wouldn't know who hit him, and even if had a stellar Spot check and Readied an action, it'd be no good because the attack would be from 10' away thanks to the reach of the glaive.
Hiding in Plain Sight is even better than Invisibility, because the spell See Invisible doesn't beat it. Only Spot checks. And with something like a +25 Hide modifier, not many things had a good enough spot check. Only requirement is to stay within 10' of "some sort of shadow"; typically the character stayed within 10' of companions, his mount, foes, trees, rocks, tables, etc. Shadows are everywhere. Funny enough, one reason I picked up Wildrunner was for the Scent ability, just in case an enemy picked up Hide In Plain Sight and wanted to snoop around...
Then add in the perfect scout: the shadow companion. He's incorporeal and has darkvision, so he can just walk through the wall into the adjacent room, or stick his head into the locked chest or sarcophagus and report what's inside, or "swim" down a flooded passage. And since he's only hurt by magic, you can send him in alone to deal with animals, some Beasts, low- or mid-level monsters, oozes, even some aberrations and giants.
Yeah, it was abuse. But then, in 3E only casters stayed with just one class. Just about every player I met had a character that dabbled in at least one other class, usually Fighter for the weapon proficiencies and feat or Rogue for the sneak attack and skills.
-z
* regarding TWF: in those rare cases where he'd stand toe-to-toe and do full atacks, he'd use the glaive as his primary weapon, and armor spikes for his off-hand weapon. In this way he'd get the extra attack from the off-hand weapon, but still gain the Str-to-damage and Power Attack benefits of using a two-handed weapon. Again, the character was a deliberate exercise in powergaming 3E rules.
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