Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Orguth the Brawler 03-10-04, 10:23 AM	It saddens and dismays me to announce that my character for a Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil campaign, Orguth the Indomitable, has perished. Who would have thought being staggered, Confused, facing an Umber Hulk all alone on the endge of a pit could be so dangerous? As a side note - anthropmorphic creatures suck terribly. Anyone who uses them is lame. And a munchkin. If I ever see an anthropmorphic baleen whale step on my barbarian's damage-dealing toes again, I'll poison him in his sleep. Savage Species, I have decided, is unbalanced as hell. Edit: Wow, I feel stupid. Forgot to mention why I made the post - I now need to make a new character. I'm considering the following options - Halfling wizard/monk, Halfling fighter (cavalry), Gnome spellcaster wizard with vastly different spell list), Half-ogre cleric (Kord or Pelor), Half-ogre fighter. The basic concepts run as follows - the halfling monk is going to be a very clever opportunistic combatant with spell effects like Obscuring Mist and the like to minimize getting hit. Dextrous, uses Thunderstones, Tanglefoot bags, etc. Exp penalties suck. I may alternatively run this character as a Small human, a Tiefling, or just a plain human what's short. The human options cost me the sick Dexterity, though. Must beat the whale. The halfling fighter will simply be a fighter with mounted combat feats - including Spirited Charge, Rideby Attack, etc. Gnome spellcaster - most complex idea, involves a sort of "return to the earth" philosophy. Earth magics - no, not a druid - think Gnomes from Lords of Magic computer game, if you played it. Half-ogre cleric - my party lacks a powerful divine spellcaster for healing and turning. Also, a cleric of Strength could run competition with above-mentioned Baleen Whale for damage and strength capability. Half-ogre fighter - uses a large Half-orc double axe (Ogre Blade), and simply tries to out-kill the whale. We already have a Wizard, a Paladin, and the Whale (fighter/rogue) that show up all the time. Also an elven archer-build fighter. We have a druid/cleric that doesn't get there often and lacks high-level spells. I'm wary of playing the Half-ogre because then we'd have two large characters in the group, and anything from Savage Species reeks. Also, I don't much care for using races with an LA. Tieflings are cool, though. Thoughts?
PhaedrusXY 03-10-04, 10:59 AM	It sounds like your party does need a full-time divine spellcaster, so I'd go with the cleric. If you don't like using stuff out of Savage Species, then don't. Clerics are powerful enough without being a half-ogre. Look around on the Character Optimization boards for a powerful melee cleric build. Some guy was just asking for a melee cleric build of Kord on there, and there were some pretty good suggestions made for him. HERE (http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=194633) is the thread.
Orguth the Brawler 03-10-04, 11:31 AM	True enough, but part of the thing about going melee is we already have two combat-oriented characters (paladin and arrow-fighter), and the Whale manages to...well...whale on people just because he has such disgusting ability score modifiers and the like. An AC of 30, 50 hp, does +9 or +10 damage on the attack, plus Combat Reflexes and a Spiked Chain as a large creature, giving him 6 attacks of opportunity with a 2d6+10 damage weapon at 20ft of reach. Going for straight-up toe to toe combat seems pretty pointless now. It was just the vein I was hoping to use for the campaign. I should note that I don't hate Half-ogres, they're just about the only acceptable thing in the book, but I'm leery of playing one both for the dignity of the camapaign (we'd be up to a Half-ogre and a whale. Imagine where we'd go from there) and for having two Large characters in the group - let's face it, nothing short of Huge would stand a chance. I do actually rather like the idea of the Half-ogre cleric of Kord, though - I'd call him something like Karnak Favored Son, on account of his awesome strength, and get him Improved Grapple or something. Aside from the occasional concept, I don't generally care for cleric characters - they simply don't suit my style well enough, I don't think. The Monks occupy the top slot right now. Failing that, the Gnome, and after that, maybe an Inquisitor cleric. Purge the unclean, and all of that. There's plenty of unclean in the campaign to be purged. Red robes, whit mask, the works. That could be fun, if very, very one-dimensional.
(Psi)SeveredHead 03-10-04, 11:26 PM	Ok, who was running the baleen whale/humanoid? Anyway, the half-ogre isn't balanced either. I suggest going for the gnome spellcaster; the halfling monk might be fun at first, until you realize your character sucks :eek:
Orguth the Brawler 03-11-04, 02:18 AM	Aw, c'mon. All Small combat characters don't suck that badly. Besides, his whole gimmick involves not suffering many attacks, while attacking the enemy gobs. Very little damage, but an enemy that can't attack me or cast spells at me is going to lose if it takes two dozen attacks to do it. I also plan on using poisoned Shuriken. Against a single foe without very good saves, he would totally dominate. Against multiple foes he works great - especially as a distraction so everyone else can hack to their heart's content or get the hell away. Obscuring Mist, and eventually Spring Attack, and some Tanglefoot bags and poisoned Shuriken woill make this fellow one of the most irritating combatants they could possibly face. Besides - who needs to kill stuff with a fighter, a paladin, a Whale, and a wizard that explodes stuff in the group? The biggest problem there would definitely be the exp penalty. I hate exp penalties. Humans are the best monks for this reason. I want a wizard/monk for the whole "ninja magic" thing. Which cannot be done, otherwise. He might wind up being human, but I'd rather he be a halfling. I wanna play a small character, and I like the halfling skill bonuses and the like.
smrtgmp 03-11-04, 04:18 AM	Githzerai (pg 129 of the 3.5 MM), provided your DM will allow it, have monk as their favorite class, not to mention +6 to dex and +2 to wis. Their inertial armor ability gibes a +4 armor bonus that stacks with all monk benefits. And thats not even everthing they get. They do have a +2 level adjustment, however. If you use the new material printed in unearthed arcana, you can eventually overcome your level adjustment, and I think with a +2 LA, you can overcome it by level 9, or something like that.
Garan 03-11-04, 09:26 AM	Hmm, halfing with Riding feats... doesn't really have to be straight fighter to get there. How about Rogue 1/Druid 1/Rogue X Druid for the ride skill. You'll have all three feats you listed by level 12 (unless you buy 1 ride crossclass at level 1). If Druid turns you off, you could pick Ranger, Barb or Fighter... they all have up sides, but I think Druid is the winner here. Halfling gets rogue as it's prefered class, so no xp penalty. This lets you fill in trap finding skills which your party has none of, and also diplomacy, if the paladin lacks it.
Orguth the Brawler 03-12-04, 04:59 PM	No, the Paladin does, in fact, have very good non-combat scores - the penalty he pays is a lowly strength of 12. That being said, we don't use much in the way of role-playing opportunities - this is the most hack-n-slash campaign I ever seen or heard of. I blame my group. No first person participation. The halfling fighter on a Warpony is kind of...dependant on being a fighter. Sure, I could get the feats otherwise (I'm coming back at lvl 5), but to begin with, a Human fighter could have all of those feats at lvl 1, and mounted combat doesn't mix with searching for traps. Our Whale can do that well enough, anyhow. Right now, I'm thinking I'll either take the halfling and face the exp penalty and some ability score troubles, or take a human and de-emphasise the dexterity in favor of the Ninja-magic and not getting hit through lack of opportunities to attack him, instead. Either way, poisoned Shuriken will be the rule fo the day...And the halfling monk will hit a lot more often than the human, although his damage bites. Lastly, perhaps a human or half-orc cleric of Pelor would be in order. I could also try a gnome cleric, centered more on hiding and sneaking around...A gnome cleric of Garl Glittergold or Olidammara would work marvelously well. So would a halfling of the same faith...hmmm. This bears some thought.