Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 petalred Mar 26, 2009 10:13:37	Last month I came on here asking for help putting together a gish for a pit battle and ended up doing a scroll-using petal warlock instead, which was fun and I tied for first place, but this month I really, really want to do a gish. My character last month got high-level scrolls banned from the pit battles from here on out anyway. Anyway, I'm putting together a Duskblade 5/Abjurant Champion 4/Wizard 1 for a pit battle tonight, and I'm pretty resolved on this build, but I wanted help optimizing it. Duskblade is my favourite class, and I know they're not the most powerful class ever, and that they always lack as spellcasters and even lack as melee characters at around this level (10th), but they're the easiest and most direct way to qualify for Abjurant Champion and I really wanted to try an Abjurant Champion of at least 4th level. I think this can still be made to be a pretty solid character. The allowed books are: • Player's Handbook • Player's Handbook II • Dungeon Master's Guide • Dungeon Master's Guide II • Races of Stone • Races of Destiny • Races of the Wild • Complete Adventurer • Complete Arcane • Complete Champion • Complete Divine • Complete Mage • Complete Scoundrel • Complete Warrior • Cityscape • Sandstorm • Stormwrack • Frostburn • Planar Handbook • Tome of Magic • Magic Item Compendium • Spell Compendium • Monster Manual I • Monster Manual III • Fiend Folio We get a round of prep at the beginning of each fight, during which there's a 20-foot wall between us and our opponent. Any attempt to detect of affect an opponent during this prep round results in instant death. The arena is 80x80, with two 80 ft. tall trees, a 10 ft. strip of loose soil along one wall, and a 10 ft. area of water along the other wall. The soil and water both run along the entirety of that wall. The light is not bright enough to trigger light sensitivity but is sufficient for seeing without low-light vision or darkvision. Other than that everything's pretty standard. It's a 25 point buy for abilities and we get max hit points at first level, half hit points at every level thereafter. We have 10 ECL to work with. My plan so far is: RAPTORAN Duskblade 1: Power Attack Duskblade 2: Combat Casting (bonus feat) Duskblade 3: Knowledge Devotion Duskblade 4: Duskblade 5: Abjurant Champion 1: Law Devotion Abjurant Champion 2: Abjurant Champion 3: Abjurant Champion 4: Improved Critical Wizard 1: Scribe Scroll (bonus feat) I know Arcane Strike is a staple of any duskblade (or gish's) bag of tricks, but I don't qualify for it until 10th-level, I don't think, and wouldn't be able to pick it up until 12th. It's also sort of unnecessary with the Abjurant Champion's 4th-level ability. What do people think about feat choices? There are three reasons I'm dipping into wizard: Shield, Wand of Greater Invisibility, and Wand of Wraithstrike. I feel like every Abjurant Champion needs to have Shield in order to maximize his capabilities, and Wraithstrike with Power Attack is just too good to pass up, not to mention Greater Invisibility buys me time against spellcasters and might just seal the deal against many other melee characters. As a raptoran I have a natural fly speed and can make dive attacks with an improved critical rapier, meaning I should deal double damage most of the time, and quadruple damage (or is it only triple) a quarter of the time, not to mention my insight bonus from level 4 Abjurant Champion, my channeled spell through level 3 Duskblade, and my Knowledge Devotion bonus. I don't know. I'm definitely open to ideas on race and feats, but this is what I have in mind. I'd definitely love equipment suggestions (though I have some stuff in mind), and I'm also curious if anyone has thoughts on how I can cast Shield without risking spell failure. I was going to wear Mithral fullplate probably, which would leave me with 25% spell failure for wizard spells still. I could Twilight that to bring it down to 15%. I guess I could theoretically trade out Duskblade 5 for Spellsword 1 to bring it down to 5%, but then I lose Quick Cast 1/day, which I like having around. Unfortunately I can't just put Shield on a wand, because I don't think I'd get the +4 bonus to it from being an Abjurant Champion if I did that, would I? What do people recommend for point buy allotments with this build? My plan for prep round each fight is Standard: Greater Invisibility; Move: fly forward 10 ft. and 30 ft. into the air; Swift: Shield. And then See Invisibility, Resist Energy, Lesser Globe of Invulnerability, and Law Devotion all seem attractive possible next steps, depending on who I'm fighting. I don't know. Anyone have thoughts?
#2 keithio Mar 26, 2009 13:43:00	Hey, I just played in a lvl10 arena fight, lol. I was a cleric1/wizard3/masterspec6... I played defensively and spammed dispel magic like a mofo, all the way to 1st place =p. People cried when I turned all their magic off and wouldn't let them turn it back on. Hmm, you really want to be a gish this time though eh? Well, I would say your main schtick is abusing polymorph and wraithstrike, and I recommend being a wizard over a duskblade. The 2 most vanilla approaches are: Paladin2/Sorcerer4/Spellsword1/AbjurantChampion3 Barbarian1/Wizard6/Spellsword1/AbjurantChampion2 If you really need 4 levels of abj champ, your build is probably optimal. Only other option I have is: Barbarian1/Duskblade3/Wizard2/AbjurantChampion4 At this level I would strongly consider a: Binder1/Wizard3/AnimaMage6 (Tome of Magic ftw!) Do you REALLY want to switch from abusing scrolls to abusing wands, though? EDIT: Oh, you didn't say Unearthed Arcana was okay, but X1/StalwartBattleSorcerer4/Spellsword1/AbjurantChampion4 is really good as well. EDIT2: Remember Abj Champ's channeling ability is a swift action, and so is wraithstrike
#3 petalred Mar 27, 2009 7:39:50	Thanks for the suggestions! Yeah, I really wanted to try doing a higher level Abjurant Champion, as much for the ability to swift cast Resist Energy and to have Shield give me a +8 shield bonus as to have access to the AC's 4th-level power. As it would happen, it worked out pretty well. It was a small turnout this time (four people), but I played best of three against all three of the other people and went undefeated (2-1 against a large-sized barbarian mage slayer who could pretty much kill me in two hits except that he was almost never able to hit me, 2-0 against a wizard of some sort who died the first game before even taking an action because I won initiative and crit'd with one of my scorching rays, and 1-0-2 against a druid 3/wizard 3/beast master 1/arcane hierophant 3 riding a dire bear who decided after losing game one that he was going to wild shape into an octopus and hide in the water while his mount fought me, but I flew and blasted the bear to death from the sky, tying the games through inactivity since my opponent's spells couldn't penetrate my globe of invulnerability and he didn't have enough prepared dispel magics to deal with it). It was fun! At least two of the builds you suggested are builds I plan on trying in the somewhat immediate future (we do one of these pit battles every month), the Charisma based gish I nearly went with for last night before changing my mind and trying out the duskblade-based version, and the anima mage has been on my to-do list since last month.