Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Aramul 01-14-06, 08:05 PM	I'm making this character for a game I should be playing soon, and would appreciate some input on making sure it will be a fun and effective character. The basic concept for the character is a War Mind with heavy use of the Aberrant feats described in Lords of Madness. We're starting our characters at 4th level and have standard gold. All Complete books are available to me, as well as Lords of Madness, Unearthed Arcana, and Heroes of Horror. My DM has most of the FR books, which will be the base setting for the adventure. The theme of the game is Plane-traveling, though our characters would not currently be aware of this. My character is currently a Human Monk 2/Psychic Warrior 1/Barbarian 1, levels taken in that order. My alignment is currently Neutral, and all non-bonus feats are going toward Aberrant feats (Aberrant Blood[flexible limbs], Inhuman Vision, and Warped Mind). Next planned level would be Psychic Warrior, then going into War Mind. Major question I have, is grappling going to be effective enough for Improved Grapple to be a good feat with my limited bonus feats? The character will have multiple bonuses to grapple (Aberrant Blood, eventually Deepspawn), but are those bonuses ever going to be enough to effectively grapple larger creatures? Any comments or suggestions are welcome. *Variants/House Rules in play: Fractional BAB, Intimidate bonus equal to number of Aberrant feats (reverse of penalty on various other skills).
Nifft 01-15-06, 10:05 PM	How are you taking levels in both Monk and Barbarian? IMHO, as a grappler you'll want to be a Psion -> Slayer instead of a PsiWar -> War Mind. Tips for Grappling Psions: - Expansion. Oh yes. - Metamorphosis. Tasty. - Grip of Iron. Obvious, but nice. - Animal Affinity. Cheers, -- N
Aramul 01-16-06, 04:32 PM	How are you taking levels in both Monk and Barbarian? Alignment change between levels 2 and 4. Monk doesn't lose any abilities from it, DM has no issue (covered in RP). IMHO, as a grappler you'll want to be a Psion -> Slayer instead of a PsiWar -> War Mind. Tips for Grappling Psions: - Expansion. Oh yes. - Metamorphosis. Tasty. - Grip of Iron. Obvious, but nice. - Animal Affinity. Cheers, -- N The idea wasn't initially for a grappler, I just thought that might be a doable route for the character. I saw Expansion and Grip of Iron, I'll need to see where I can fit in Animal Affinity, but Metamorphosis might end up difficult to get into War Mind. I do see your point about grappling Psions though, those augmentable powers do a number on them... Thanks for your input.
Talen Lee 01-16-06, 05:50 PM	I'm personally reluctant to combine manifester types - it feels inelegant to me. That said, Grappling doesn't have any synergy with the Warmind's single best feature, Sweeping Strike. Strike is at its best with Reach and similar - have you considered ways to exploit or explore that?
Aramul 01-16-06, 07:01 PM	I'm personally reluctant to combine manifester types - it feels inelegant to me. I agree about combining manifester types, the Psychic Warrior levels were originally introduced for bonus feats, since all my "normal" feats are going to Aberrant feats. There are a few 1st level powers that have decent usage at a low manifester level though (inertial armor being one). That said, Grappling doesn't have any synergy with the Warmind's single best feature, Sweeping Strike. Some of my other features synergize with both Grappling and Sweeping Strike, which is why I am considering it. To me it seems like partially exploring both abilities would lead me to a more well-rounded character than fully exploring one. Strike is at its best with Reach and similar - have you considered ways to exploit or explore that? One of the Aberrant feats grants an additional 5ft of reach, and it's in the gameplan :).
Nifft 01-16-06, 08:53 PM	His listed Aberrant feats are pretty nice -- Inhuman Reach grants you 10 ft. reach, which is worth both the feat and a -1 Attack penalty. An alternate path is Sanctified Mind (also in Lords of Madness). It looks like there is nothing in that PrC which prevents you from having Aberrant feats. It's otherwise like a mini-Slayer: full BAB, 5/6 manifesting, 4 skill points/level, reasonable skill list (including Intimidate). Slayer grants immunity to detection at level 6, and immunity to mind-affecting effects (!!!) at level 9. Sanctified Mind grants PR 5 + character level at class level 6. Here's a Psion build using SM: (Human) 1: Barbarian 1 -- Aberration Blood (+2 Grapple), Inhuman Reach 2: Psion (Egoist) 1 -- (Bonus) Speed of Thought -- Vigor, Offensive Prescience, Force Screen 3: Psion 2 -- Deepspawn -- Catfall, Offensive Precognition 4: Psion 3 -- Animal Affinity, Energy Adaptation (Specified) 5: Psion 4 -- Biofeedback, Synesthete 6: Psion 5 -- Iron Will, (Bonus) Expanded Knowlege (Metaphysical Claw) -- Dispel Psionics, Hustle 7: Psion 6 -- Time Hop, Touchsight 8: Sanctified Mind 1 9: Sanctified Mind 2 -- Warped Mind -- Metamorphosis, Psi Dimension Door 10: Sanctified Mind 3 -- Psi Freedom of Movement, Aura Sight 11: Sanctified Mind 4 -- Psi Revivify, Psi Plane Shift 12: Sanctified Mind 5 -- Track -- Psi True Seeing, Thicken Skin 13: Sanctified Mind 6 -- Psi Restoration, Psi Disintegrate 14: Slayer 1 15: Slayer 2 -- Warped Mind -- Wall of Ectoplasm, Defensive Precognition 16: Slayer 3 -- Energy Wave, Psi Major Creation 17: Slayer 4 -- Oak Body, Psi Overland Flight 18: Slayer 5 -- Durable Form -- True Metabolism, Psi Greater Teleport 19: Slayer 6 -- Psi Iron Body, Bend Reality 20: Slayer 7 -- Greater Metamorphosis, Reality Revision Highlights: BAB +17, manifester level 17, lots of Swift buffs Tactics: hustle, move up to 50 ft., then lay down a full attack Question: When you are under the effect of metamorphosis, do you keep your tentacles? If not, do you keep any of your Aberrant feats? ... and here's a claw-cenric build using PsiWar instead of Barb/Psion: (Human) 1: PsiWar 1 -- [Combat Reflexes], Aberrant Blood (+2 Grapple), Warped Mind -- claws of the beast 2: PsiWar 2 -- [Weapon Focus (Claws)] -- vigor 3: PsiWar 3 -- Deepspawn -- expansion 4: PsiWar 4 -- hustle 5: PsiWar 5 -- [Speed of Thought] -- metaphysical claw 6: PsiWar 6 -- Inhuman Reach -- grip of iron 7: PsiWar 7 -- claws of the vampire 8: PsiWar 8 -- -- [i]painful strike 9: SMind 1 -- Inhuman Reach 10: SMind 2 -- dimension slide (etc.) ... but if you must use a WarMind, Talen Lee has the right idea -- get reach. (human, uses Human Paragon, one of your class skills should be Kn(Psionics), Adaptive skill should be Use Magic Device) 1: Human Paragon 1 -- Aberrant Blood (Grapple +2), Warped Mind 2: Cleric 1 (any two of War, Luck, Travel, Trickery) 3: H.Paragon 2 -- Deepspawn, Inhuman Reach 4: Barbarian 1 (Rage, +10 ft. move) 5: H.Paragon 3 -- +2 Wisdom 6: Warmind 1 -- Beastial Hide -- claws of the beast 7: Warmind 2 8: Warmind 3 -- metaphysical claw 9: Warmind 4 -- Inhuman Vision -- hustle 10: Warmind 5 11: Warmind 6 -- claws of the vampire 12: Warmind 7 -- Durable Form 13: Warmind 8 -- claw of energy 14: Warmind 9 15: Warmind 10 -- Iron Will -- dimension slide 16: Sanctified Mind 1 17: S.Mind 2 (caster level bonus goes to Cleric, since WarMind can't advance past level 10) 18: S.Mind 3 -- one of the following: Practiced Spellcaster (Cleric), Divine Might, Power Attack, Starspawn 19: S.Mind 4 20: S.Mind 5 Cheers, -- N
Aramul 01-16-06, 09:29 PM	The ideas and builds presented have been very helpful, thanks.
pfooti 01-16-06, 10:36 PM	Have you thought about playing an Elan instead of a human? You'd need to convince your DM, because as written, the Elan (an abberation) doesn't qualify for any of the abberant blood feats. But you could make a good case for it, even if you still have to take the actual abberant blood feat. Plus which, it fits flavor-wise, Elans are cool, and you don't have to eat. And, if things go all pear-shaped, you can walk away and sit on top of a mountain for a thousand years (not only do you not have to eat, you don't age either). A benefit to going that way is access to the Rapidstrike feat (from MM and draconomicon), which gives you multiple natural attacks (since things like tentacle slams and claws don't iterate with BAB). There's a great couple of builds that really abuse that, look in the stickies for the King of Smack, President of Smack, and Prime Minister of Smack, all of which abuse rapidstrike with claws of the beast pumped way up. The nice thing is the characters are pretty fun to play all the way from 1-20, they're not just some obscure, weird, confluence of abilities that only becomes fun at level 20, for the five minutes you get to play at that level before retiring.
Talen Lee 01-16-06, 11:03 PM	By the way - make it eminently clear to your GM that taking Rapidstrike is your intent if you want to change your character to an Elan*. Otherwise, you're attempting to pull a fast one, and I consider that dirty pool, especially from a Character Optimisation perspective. * Note. I don't think the OP will - but I think that suggesting he get the GM to change one rule so he can abuse another is disingenuous unless you come up with it up front.
Nifft 01-17-06, 02:08 AM	Yeah, Rapidstrike would be sweet, but four attacks at full BAB is decent, especially when you can enhance them all at once (all count as "primary weapon" and "claw", even if the base damage isn't the same). -- N
Talen Lee 01-17-06, 04:45 AM	Also possible is wielding a sword in one of them, and having them be secondary attacks. A pattern of (say) 11/6/1/6/6/6 is pretty solid.
Nifft 01-17-06, 06:24 PM	For those builds which incorporate metamorphosis, I'd recommend the form of a Troglodyte. Good Natural Armor, free claw/claw/bite, and you get Multiattack (!) as a racial bonus feat. Cheers, -- N