Tricks for a Batman-Style NPC?

[Darklone]

Bowstaff is a weapon that can be changed from a longbow to a quarterstaff and back.

 

[angry monkey]

and she's got to have some sort of gnome (Alfred?) that get's her suit ready, and invents some of the stuff she uses, right?

 

[Kabol]

Dont forget Cloak dance feat from XPH { is a general feat so anyone can take } It lets you use a Moveaction to give youeself Concealment - or Full round action for Total Concealment

Very Batman..ee

 

[Evilhalfling]

Levels in paladin - and a armored pokemount named batmobile?
returning shurien or Chakras (thri-kreen weapons)
ioun stones that dont hover?
leadership and a cohort rogue named robin?
+ low lvl flunky albert (expert)
cheesy armor with nipples?

I would be stoned for trying this - unless heavy drinking was involved
as I have played a oneshot with batgnome as 2nd ed beastrider and his partner - robin the elf

 

[Sejs]

Urban Ranger with a couple levels in Monk.

Many ranks in uh... hell, it's Batman, so lots of skills. Gather Information, Intimidate, Sense Motive, Search, Bluff, Hide, Move Silently, Jump, Climb. At the bare minimum.

Ideally don't rely too heavily on (magic) gear to give your abilities; part of the whole Batman schtick is that while the gear is nice and handy, it's not required to get the job done.

 

[Deset Gled]

Creating a Batman, now there's an interesting idea.

First of all, if you want to be true to Batmans roots, he really needs his first few levels to be monk levels. When Batman started his crusading, he studied (I think I'm getting this right) kung fu and tae kwon do. Before he had built his suit and all his gadgets, he was primarily a hand-to-hand fighter.

After monk, I think a variant form of ranger would work best. Definetally remove the spells. HiPS is perfect for him, and you can probably model his suit as hide armor (silent moves and shadowed a must, etherealness probably wouldn't hurt). Go with the archery fighting style, use it with thrown weapons (lots of shuriken, the occasional grappling hook). Lots of skills. A lot of what other people have said.

Funny thing: I completely agree with Sejs as too the general build of the character, but completely disagree with his take on items. Batmans schtick is that he's a rich guy who can afford to spend whatever he needs to get the job done. Sure, he tries to be physically buff, but when the going gets tough his gear is a lot more powerful than he is. Incedently, there have been a number of recent TV shows that back this up (JLA, Batman Beyond). I'd model him with as many skill boosting and stat enhancing items as I could, and throw in a million and a half scroll and wands (used with UMD) to boot. I honestly think you could model Batman better with a lower ECL than 20 (maybe 15: 9 ranger and 6 monk for a quick estimate), and equipment equivalent to that of around ECL 25.

 

[Sejs]

I may have stated the last bit poorly - basically what I was trying to say is that while the gear is useful in that it augments his abilities, it wouldn't be solely responsible for them. So it's not that he's only able to climb because of something special about hit suit, or hide because of something special about his cape - he can do either on his own without difficulty - but the gear is a handy boost for what he can already do.

 

[DM_Matt]

Now I can see why she needs the Alchemist's Fire, she's not going to hit anything with those miserable attack bonuses.

Or do the PCs in your group have such a low AC (around 30) by ~20th level?

Well, I made a math error that had it two points too low, got rid of the useless rogue levels for something better, got some bracers of blinding strike,and now I'm disregarding the erratad down bab for notcm to add three more, so now its Flurry +30/+30/+30/+25/+20/+15.

I second the urban ranger for a batman-esk D&D character, with urban tracking and investigate. A few levels of monk as well.

Is Urban Ranger really better than NOTCM? 10 levels for +5d6 SA,Improved Evasion, Opportunist, Improved Kuji-Kiri (Hypnotism-like thing), Poison Use, Fast Climb, Fast Sneak, Silencing Attack (if his flatfooted opponent, silenced for 1 round, no save), Invisibility CL10, 10/day, Gaseous Form, 1min 1/day,1-round Quickened Etherial Jaunt 3/day, Always Sneaky (HIPS +Auto-Take10 on Move Silently and Hide), and Blindsight 60' ?

...and she's got to have some sort of gnome (Alfred?) that get's her suit ready, and invents some of the stuff she uses, right?

Indeed she does. Hooray for the Artifacer base class from Eberon.

I figure you could have ballista bolts of lightning bolt/disentegrate/whatever for giants or dragons, so you could have use-activated single use items in crossbow bolts or daggers or hammer or whatever.

Thats more the route that I think I'll have to go for a lot of this. Single-use items with a spell effect in them.



Here is where she is at now.



Monstrous Humanoid2/AnthropumaECL2/Monk6/NinjaOTCrescentMoon10
Total Base Race Enh Level Inherant
Str 30 14 +6 +6 +3 +1
Dex 30 14 +8 +6 +2 +0
Con 20 14 +4 +2 +0 +0
Int 20 14 +0 +6 +0 +0
Wis 18 10 +4 +4 +0 +0
Cha 20 14 +0 +6 +0 +0


AC: 43 10+10dex+4wis+4monk+1na+3defl+3enhna+8armor
Saves: +22/+30/+23 (+5Res)
Damage: 2d6+(15str+5ench+5collision)

Movement: 70
Init: +14

EQ: Monk’s Belt (13k), Ring of Str +6 (36k), Gloves of Dex +6 (36k), Amulet of NA +3 (8k), Vest of Con +2 (4k), Headband of Int +6 (36k), Goggles of Wis +4 (16k), Cloak of the Bat (26k), Robe of Change and Cha +6 (40k), Bracers of Blinding Strike +8 (130k), Ring of Prot +3 (18k), Darkstaff +5 Adamantine Impact Collision Ki (165) Str +1 book (used up) (27), Rod of Viscid Globs (6k, MGoFconjures tanglefoot bags, 100 range), Rod of Spiders (40k,MGoF, shoots stickly silk like spidey, usable as grappling hook+rope substitute, entangling enemies…halves enemy speed even on successful save) 2 Immovable Rods, 5 uses of Dust of Sneezing and Choking in eggshells to throw), Heward’s Handy Holder(2k), Rod of Smoke Bombs (3k, as horn of fog, extra cost for range), Necklace of Adaptation(9k), Boots of S&S (5k) (640). …80k remains for exploding/spell effect ammo. All continuous items will cost double bc she is out of slots.

Feats: WFin(Unarmed)(BonusRace), Improved Unarmed Strike (BonusMonk1), Stunning Fist(BonusMonk1), Deflect Arrows (bonusMonk2), Improved Trip(BonusMonk6), Imp Init (Bracers) Combat Reflexes(3), Expert Tactician(6), Improved Crit (Staff)(9) Power Attack(12), Arcane Schooling (Wizard –FR Regional…use items as Wiz1)(1), Ability Focus (Stunning Fist)(15), Quick Draw (18)

Abilities: Pounce, Scent, Sneak Attack +5d6, Improved Evasion, Opportunist, Improved Kuji-Kiri (Hypnotism-like thing), Poison Use, Fast Climb, Take 10 on climb, Silencing Attack (if his flatfooted opponent, silenced for 1 round, no save), Invisibility 10/day, Gaseous Form, 1min 1/day,1-round Quickened Etherial Jaunt 3/day, Always Sneaky (HIPS +Auto-Take10 on Move Silently and Hide), Blindsight 60, Still Mind, Ki Strike (Magic), Slow Fall 20, Trapfinding, Flurry of Blows, Purity of Body

 

[Deset Gled]

Is Urban Ranger really better than NOTCM? 10 levels for +5d6 SA,Improved Evasion, Opportunist, Improved Kuji-Kiri (Hypnotism-like thing), Poison Use, Fast Climb, Fast Sneak, Silencing Attack (if his flatfooted opponent, silenced for 1 round, no save), Invisibility CL10, 10/day, Gaseous Form, 1min 1/day,1-round Quickened Etherial Jaunt 3/day, Always Sneaky (HIPS +Auto-Take10 on Move Silently and Hide), and Blindsight 60' ?

Feats: WFin(Unarmed)(BonusRace), Improved Unarmed Strike (BonusMonk1), Stunning Fist(BonusMonk1), Deflect Arrows (bonusMonk2), Improved Trip(BonusMonk6), Imp Init (Bracers) Combat Reflexes(3), Expert Tactician(6), Improved Crit (Staff)(9) Power Attack(12), Arcane Schooling (Wizard –FR Regional…use items as Wiz1)(1), Ability Focus (Stunning Fist)(15), Quick Draw (18)

The urban ranger isn't necessarily better, it just doesn't seem to fit with the Batman concept very well. Sneak attack in particular seems to be an issue. Near as I can remember, Batman practically never hit to kill, or with the accuracy to weak points that sneak attack models. The hypnotism ability also seems odd. Getting HiPS earlier is a big plus though.

The only other major issue I can see with your build is the stunning fist stuff. With so few levels of monk, and a less than stellar wisdom, it's going to be useless. I'd drop it for Improved Grapple, and trade Ability Focus for something else. Either a feat that allows him to attack with nonlethal damage without penalty (I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple of those from various sources before), or Leadership to make his Alfred and Robin officially follow him.

 

[DM_Matt]

The urban ranger isn't necessarily better, it just doesn't seem to fit with the Batman concept very well. Sneak attack in particular seems to be an issue. Near as I can remember, Batman practically never hit to kill, or with the accuracy to weak points that sneak attack models. The hypnotism ability also seems odd. Getting HiPS earlier is a big plus though.

The only other major issue I can see with your build is the stunning fist stuff. With so few levels of monk, and a less than stellar wisdom, it's going to be useless. I'd drop it for Improved Grapple, and trade Ability Focus for something else. Either a feat that allows him to attack with nonlethal damage without penalty (I'm pretty sure I've seen a couple of those from various sources before), or Leadership to make his Alfred and Robin officially follow him.

This isn't a conversion of Batman per se. This is a TN character rather than an LG one, so the flavor becomes a little different.

Also, since its 3.5 the Stun DC is based on total character level. I forgot to add ki straps to give him +5 DC. So the DC is 10+9(Levels)+2(Ability Focus)+5(Ki Straps)+4(Wisdom) =30, which is plenty respectable. Its usabl9 times per day and triggers Expert Tactician and sneak attack.