I was wondering what builds you have made that are FUN to play.. Eg, they may not necessarily be doing uber damage (but damage is good) but have fun options?
Story is, I need to make a few builds (5th level and higher) and am scratching at ideas for these builds - two characters per person. And we are doing this campaign for a while so I don't want to have boring characters..
If you are going to think up ideas - basically our DM has an Aversion to Psionics, Tome of Battle, and Warlocks. Character race is limited too
But You can use a 36pt buy and gold available to the relevent character level 
I haven't played a fun Cleric in a while so maybe ideas there?
Can you fantastic people here on the boards give me a few ideas?
Thank you so much in advance!!
Round 1 fight
Fighter runs up and breaks your sword then hits your with power attack but has a +8 to hit on top of everything else.
Round 1 enemy
*cries* I've no weapon. or well he might be dead lol.
Half-Orc Barbarian 2 (Lion Totem) / Fighter 18 (Zhentarim sub levels)
1 Power Attack
3,b Improved Overrun, Extra Rage
4b Intimidating Rage
6,b Imp Bull Rush, Shocktrooper
8b Leap Attack
9 Imperious Command
10b Imp Sunder
12,b Combat Brute, Combat Reflexes
14b Mageslayer
15 Combat Expertise
16b Improved Disarm
18,b Improved Trip, Quickdraw
20b Throw Anything
Binder 15 / Knight of Sacred Seal 5 is ALWAYS fun!
i.e.- A monk with slippers of spider climb and possibly a wand of web (UMD cc...)= The Amazing Spiderman!
Cleric (Knowledge and Competition domains) 5/War Mind 4/Psychic Theurge 2
At level 11, BAB 8 (11 under Divine Power), saves at 8/5/8, hit dice average out to a d8
Play a kalashtar, half-giant or anything with Wild Talent to get the power points for war mind. Everything else is pretty simple.
Expansion, Grip of Iron, Divine Power, Balor Nimbus and he's a theurgic grappler.
Haven't really spec'ed out the feats; obviously DMM-Persist is an option for Divine Power.
Or, since races are restricted, Chameleons are fun, although you can only get into the class at lvl 6. Check out the chameleon compilation
I also am in love with Binders and Anima Mages lately. Tons of flavor, and interesting abilities.
Monk1/Fighter6(Dungeoncrasher)/DrunkenMaster2/HulkingHurler2/WarhulkX
Stick a level or two of Lion Barbarian in there if you want, for +10 move and Pounce. Play something Large sized (or the feat that makes a human get Powerful Build counts), preferrably with improved grab.
Charge in (with Drunken Master, you can charge any way you like; I prefer to zig zag into battle). When you hit someone, if you use Power Attack they go flying into walls for big damage (Knockback feat, Dungeoncrasher). If you have improved grab or not, grapple them one handed (Multigrab, Imp Multigrab feats). Then you can throw them (Throw Anything, Really Throw Anything Hulking Hurler abilities; damage depending on how much they weigh), or bludgeon enemies with them (Drunken Master again, Improvised Weapons, damage equal to unarmed+1d8)
Other options include beginning battle by finding something really heavy and throwing it at them (buildings, whatever).
Factotum 20
Psion 20 (Seer or Telepath Discipline)
Wild Talent for psionic access, Up the Walls for running on walls and ceilings and stuff.
Using a DM approved homebrew with UMD as a class skill, but haven't gotten much in the way of wands yet, because we've been fighting undead. Good for XP, not so good for treasure.
The build is very... fun. It's obviously not very high tier/high damage, but spring attacking from crazy angles, and the speed bonuses are just fun on so many levels.
It helps that the rest of my party is barely optimized, though I've tried to steer them towards the light.
Monk 20 is underrated because it's not a very good damage dealer, has average BAB, and lots of the abilities are kind of useless. But with the right support, it's a really fun thing to run for a more experienced player.
I also like Duskblade 5 a lot. Pretty good damage output. Good items available on MIC.
Monk 2 / Totemist 7 / Apostle of Peace 2 / Contemplative 1 / The Sapphire Heirarch 8
Need two flaws, but what DM is going to argue semantics with a build like this?
Soulmelds practically erase any lack of utility that Vow of Poverty adds, not to mention divine spellcasting. Turn Undead for DMM: Persist goodness.
Its fun, but may not fit into your campaign.
Need two flaws, but what DM is going to argue semantics with a build like this?
To keep an Apostle of Peace out of the campaign? Everyone, I expect.
Skipping the feats details, he was a dual scimitar wielding, nagaika using (Masters of the Wild) trip machine. Using light armor only (with descent dex), he was one of the best core book only sneaking fighter ;) Took Perform (chant) to be able to fight with 2 blades and still use his bardic powers (suggestion being the most fun !).
You get about 10 feats with this mix of classes and you need about 6 for the fighting so you get 4 for the bard.
I was never more unlucky than with this guy. The only luck I had seemed to be when I was doing stupid stuff. The craziest, the better the rolls ;)
I do wish everyone to get 1 character that's as fun as mine. Not especially powerful, but a blast to play !
Keep on gaming !
A 4 int barbarian is always fun.
+100.
Bard 7/Paladin 2/Cloistered cleric 1/Ordained Champion 1/Silver Pyromancer 1
This is a pretty fun build, Cloistered Cleric + Ordained champion means 3 domains can be changed into ftr feats, or keep em (like I kept travel for the freedom of movement even if its only 2 rds, its awesome). Silver Pyromancer + Battle Blessing feat (champions of valor) means you can now use those arcane spells faster.
Best part is your super saves, and the ability to enhance others via bardsong, along with loresong (dungeon scape) for even more luck.
A variant if ya want the chaos one...
Bard 7/Pal of freedom 2/Chaos monk 1/Sublime 1/Sacred Exorcist 1
Tighter on feats, but awesome for melee.
Another simple one is...
Changeling full base attack class 4/warshaper 1+/chameleon 7+
I like barbarian 1/Ftr 1/Warblade 2 *but ToB can't be used, so anything else fits, ranger 2 is awesome for skills and 2 weapon fighting free.
A 4 int barbarian is always fun.
I forgot something. You also have to take Power Attack and Sunder, then smash things with Adamantine weaponry.
"Thog ANGRY!!!!!!!!" *rage* *smash wall with full power attack adamantine greataxe"
A 4 int barbarian is always fun.
I'll 1-UP you
A 4 int raging paladin
Half orc halforcparagon3/paladin17
With the Races of Destiny racial subsitution that trades smite for righteous fury, which is a rage-like ability that stacks with a normal rage so this character will have 2 "rages" going on at the same time.
You can swift cast the mount spell, quick-mount on it, then charge :D
hmm...
Bard 7/Paladin 2/Cloistered cleric 1/Ordained Champion 1/Silver Pyromancer 1
This is a pretty fun build, Cloistered Cleric + Ordained champion means 3 domains can be changed into ftr feats, or keep em (like I kept travel for the freedom of movement even if its only 2 rds, its awesome). Silver Pyromancer + Battle Blessing feat (champions of valor) means you can now use those arcane spells faster.
Best part is your super saves, and the ability to enhance others via bardsong, along with loresong (dungeon scape) for even more luck.
A variant if ya want the chaos one...
Bard 7/Pal of freedom 2/Chaos monk 1/Sublime 1/Sacred Exorcist 1
Tighter on feats, but awesome for melee.
Another simple one is...
Changeling full base attack class 4/warshaper 1+/chameleon 7+
I like barbarian 1/Ftr 1/Warblade 2 *but ToB can't be used, so anything else fits, ranger 2 is awesome for skills and 2 weapon fighting free.
Battle Blessing cannot be used in conjunction with the Silver Pyromancer's class feature, this has already been established. It allows you to cast Paladin spells as arcane spells and thus they aren't paladin spells and are not effected by Battle Blessing.
Where has that been established, if you have a link?
no do I need one? Sorry not going to get into a junior high flame war with you so you can try and tattle on me
My DM emailed wizards back when they were still answering questions and it was shot down because of the reasons stated above. Plus RAW and RAI are pretty clear. Nice try though
The custserv questions all can be read externally, if one just knows what to search for. When I searched for "Silver Pyromancer" or "Battle Blessing" I do not get any hits (here). So pardon me for doubting.
I wanted clarification, is all. Its becoming a common enough build archetype to combine the two. chillax.
The custserv questions all can be read externally, if one just knows what to search for. When I searched for "Silver Pyromancer" or "Battle Blessing" I do not get any hits (here). So pardon me for doubting.
Ok fair enough, I apologize. That link may not be the best resource, I remember asking a question regarding the Warmage Edge ability back in the day and receiving a response from wizards. I just tried to search for it in that database but came up with nothing. The only instance in which I can see Battle Blessing working for a Silver Pyromancer is if you went Paladin 4/Wizard 5/Silver Pyromancer 5. Say you had a 12 or higher wisdom the 1 bonus spell you'd receive at Paladin 4 would be affected by Battle Blessing, since it's actually a Paladin spell and considered as such.
That link may not be the best resource, I remember asking a question regarding the Warmage Edge ability back in the day and receiving a response from wizards. I just tried to search for it in that database but came up with nothing.
Hmmm maybe not.
The way you worded it, though, seems like a Paladin using either the Southern Magician feat or Alternative Spell Source feat to make the spells arcane would no longer be casting Paladin spells, though, which doesn't make sense to me (which is why I was looking for clarification).
Hmmm maybe not.
The way you worded it, though, seems like a Paladin using either the Southern Magician feat or Alternative Spell Source feat to make the spells arcane would no longer be casting Paladin spells, though, which doesn't make sense to me (which is why I was looking for clarification).
hmm well a Paladin with the Southern Magician feat would still be casting Paladin spells, they'd just be arcane in lieu of divine. A Silver Pyromancer never really casts Paladin spells per se, the spells themselves are now arcane spells and added to their class list which means they'd be sorc/wiz spells.
Here's an excerpt from the Silver Pyromancer, it looks the the editors did a pretty good job on the explanation.
"In addition, starting at 1st level, you can treat spells from the paladin spell list as though they were arcane spells on the spell list in which you could cast 3rd level spells before becoming a silver pyromancer."
Are flaws allowed? How much cheese is tolerable? A cloistered cleric/shadowcraft mage can be great fun and incredibly powerful... or even broken (but they don't have to be broken).
I also am in love with Binders and Anima Mages lately. Tons of flavor, and interesting abilities.
Flaws: Have not been ruled upon but I would say they would be out.. In saying that as long as they aren't abused They could be allowed
Cheese: as much as you want really - knowing you have the power to destroy all your enemies is not the same as using it to destroy them and break the game :D
Got a build for a cloistered cleric? I'd love to pull out a strong cleric for this group and to be honest I've never been a fan of clerics either
Another build might be Binder1/Cloistered Cleric 3/Anima Mage 10/Tenebrous Apostate 5/X1. You'd get full binding and nearly full casting, 3 free metamagic uses per day, and a wealth of flavorful and powerful abilities.
Lesser Aasimar
Favored Soul 5/ Mystic Wanderer 2 / Heartwarden 10 / Spelldancer 3
The heartwarden boosts CHA while mystic wanderer adds it to AC as a sacred bonus as long as you don't wear armor. Spelldancer allows some metamagic fun but you have to spend several rounds to get it off, lowering the amount of cheese and limits the amount you can safely do (you can still do it again you just might fatigue yourself).
One character I had a blast playing is a human Bard (15) / Fighter (4) / Shadowdancer (1) with little wisdom (8) but smart (16) and charismatic (18). So he's cute and smart but "forget" to think about the consequenses ;)
Skipping the feats details, he was a dual scimitar wielding, nagaika using (Masters of the Wild) trip machine. Using light armor only (with descent dex), he was one of the best core book only sneaking fighter ;) Took Perform (chant) to be able to fight with 2 blades and still use his bardic powers (suggestion being the most fun !).
You get about 10 feats with this mix of classes and you need about 6 for the fighting so you get 4 for the bard.
I was never more unlucky than with this guy. The only luck I had seemed to be when I was doing stupid stuff. The craziest, the better the rolls ;)
I do wish everyone to get 1 character that's as fun as mine. Not especially powerful, but a blast to play !
Keep on gaming !
I'm presently playing a bard with the flaw Daredevil : Whenever faced with a supremely dangerous or spectacular proposition, you must make a DC 25 will save or do it in the most impressive way. Ex. Red dragon flies into the air, Bardy charges. Standing at the bottom of a craggly cliff, your goal is at the top, the wizard begins reading a scroll of teleport, genious bardy boots it and starts climbing that baby with his -1 climb check.
Essentially he's a duel-longsword weilding crazy mofo with dragontouched, draconic heritage, dragonfire inspiration, and focused performer at level 1, then he grabs focused performance so he can inspire courage to only one person (probably himself) at 2x the bonus, that bonus being in d6 sonic damage. Then he grabs words of creation at lvl 6, meaning 4x inspire courage bonus as he charges the terreske. Its fun, and normally our bards always die, now he seems to be the only character that doesn't, however he winds up gambling and using scrolls to bring his party members back to life. I used 2 reincarnation scrolls at level 1, and wound up bringing my 2 human party members back to life as humans! Talk about lucky rolls :P Fun and memorable night, the lvl 1 bard taking on a level 4 encounter with his entire party being killed on round 1
Planning on going into Seeker of the Song, incase anyone wants to play this build.
P.s., the longswords are going to be Harmonizing Chrystal Echoblades
Play as the warrior's armor, or an indestructible cube of adamantine, or as a sandwich (as in the original implementation).
Noone has mentioned using either Haunt Shift (that's the word right) or the Mind Switch/Astral Seed trick to play as a full caster/manifester in the form of an object?
I propose a combination of the two: To create a Haunted Sandwich.
Arcane Lich + Psion partner: Lich PoA his phylactery into a Sandwich and ressume tricks as normal.
Actaully remains me of an idea I had where you use the Haunt Shift trick and Cleric Sandshaper Domain to create "Sand Machines" and which are powered by your ghosts slaves- because haunt shifted creature are able to move any part an object has that they are possessing. I thought the idea would have been incredible fun to play and favourful- or how I imagined it, it was. Think of an kind of Innovative Jafar.
Or was it the sandshaper class? One of the two could make moving parts and the other couldn't.
Another fun build was my very first AD&D chracter (2nd edition). He was a schizophrenic and each personality was a different class. The DM had a system for which personality was in control and I had to roll in order to remain in control. He died when we were facing a red dragon and I failed the roll. The wizards personality came out just as the dragon released it's breath weapon and I failed my saving throw
But it was a very memorable character.To keep an Apostle of Peace out of the campaign? Everyone, I expect.
Not everyone. As I said,
Its fun, but may not fit into your campaign.
In a more roleplaying oriented campaign, rather than an all out combat-fest, an Apostle of Peace can be a force to reckon with. I would not recommend playing an apostle of peace if you are not in an exalted campaign or in a group that resorts to killing everything in order to get experience.
Back ON topic, another build I have had fun with is Cleric 5 / Warlock 1 / True Necromancer 14. It was something I saw on the CharOp boards quite a long time ago. Using Spellstitched Necropolatian to qualify for the arcane side of the True Necro prestige class (leave arguements, if any, on legality of build for another thread or PM me) and pumping up warlock casting with the +1 arcane casting bonus made for a damn good time.
Divine Metamagic goodness
Mother Cyst Feat
Corpsecrafter feat tree
Just to start everything out. Not dependant on flaws but, like every build, it does benefit from them.
Forest Gnome
Rogue 3/ Fighter 2/ Jaunter 4/ Shadowdancer 1/ Telflammar Shadowlord 4
Fun for the fact that you can generally go where-ever you please and at 14th level your Hide (in Plain Sight) skill modifier (with a collar of umbral metamorphisis) is well into the 30's
Come on.. There must be more fun builds out there..
Come on.. There must be more fun builds out there..
Nope, thats it :D. It is a bit of a nebulous request, though... Some people's fun isn't anothers, ya know... But I don't play un-fun builds anymore (which is probably why I still stink at theoretical optimization on the super-powerful side of things).
my 3.5 experience
The very first character was a Rogue going into Arcane Trickster (the DM could've told us that we were ending at 7th level ). I had fun with it, but it totally was ineffectual.
My first 3.5 Wizard was fun (2nd 3.x character). What made it more enjoyable was the fact that the group had never seen what we now call a God-style Wizard, and I rocked it with style. If not for that, the monster amount of paperwork did suck.
After that, I played a Cleric, and I hated it. I have not played the "healer" of a group since. It stunk so much, in fact, that after much deliberation the DM let me play a gnome Bard, which was a blast.
In one game afterwards where the DM had NO idea what he was doing I played a Druid. The DM forced multiclassing so I took a single level of Cleric for you-know-what. I raped any of the enemies that came against us. The rest of the party got ridiculous amounts of loot just to keep up (and they still couldn't). We ended up going to L32 before we stopped (and that was over 6 sessions from ECL2 - remember me saying the DM didn't know what he was doing?). It actually was fun from about L5 to L13, but the ease of everything and the ridiculous things we fought just to keep it competitive made it all stupid. On top of that, one of my good friends was playing a Warmage, and he just couldn't keep up with DM EDIT: "favoritism" (one of the players who ALWAYS rolled 19-20 was the DMs brother, and always got the coolest gear; the guy was also a jerk).
I played a Kobold Necropolitan Dread Necromancer after that for quite a while, and this guy was fun. I maxed out Disguise and Bluff, and convinced the other characters that I was a Druid (disguised as a gnome, and having the imp familiar in Wolf form all the time). It became powerful for the ECL when we stopped (~12), but after the first 10 levels it became a lot of "skeleton attack, move to scare enemy, skeleton attack, move to scare enemy, cast a Shivering Touch rarely...". So, although RP-wise it was a hoot, the mechanical aspects were a bit boring.
Then, I played a series of Binders, each one more fun the previous, but all mechanically about the same. These were the most fun characters, so far.
I also played an Incarnate (evil, with a heavy "incarnum" build focus; see todd's incarnum by the numbers near the end for what I mean there), and although its cool for a few levels, it really starts getting boring around 6th level or so.
). I had fun with it, but it totally was ineffectual.My first 3.5 Wizard was fun (2nd 3.x character). What made it more enjoyable was the fact that the group had never seen what we now call a God-style Wizard, and I rocked it with style. If not for that, the monster amount of paperwork did suck.
After that, I played a Cleric, and I hated it. I have not played the "healer" of a group since. It stunk so much, in fact, that after much deliberation the DM let me play a gnome Bard, which was a blast.
In one game afterwards where the DM had NO idea what he was doing I played a Druid. The DM forced multiclassing so I took a single level of Cleric for you-know-what. I raped any of the enemies that came against us. The rest of the party got ridiculous amounts of loot just to keep up (and they still couldn't). We ended up going to L32 before we stopped (and that was over 6 sessions from ECL2 - remember me saying the DM didn't know what he was doing?). It actually was fun from about L5 to L13, but the ease of everything and the ridiculous things we fought just to keep it competitive made it all stupid. On top of that, one of my good friends was playing a Warmage, and he just couldn't keep up with DM EDIT: "favoritism" (one of the players who ALWAYS rolled 19-20 was the DMs brother, and always got the coolest gear; the guy was also a jerk).
I played a Kobold Necropolitan Dread Necromancer after that for quite a while, and this guy was fun. I maxed out Disguise and Bluff, and convinced the other characters that I was a Druid (disguised as a gnome, and having the imp familiar in Wolf form all the time). It became powerful for the ECL when we stopped (~12), but after the first 10 levels it became a lot of "skeleton attack, move to scare enemy, skeleton attack, move to scare enemy, cast a Shivering Touch rarely...". So, although RP-wise it was a hoot, the mechanical aspects were a bit boring.
Then, I played a series of Binders, each one more fun the previous, but all mechanically about the same. These were the most fun characters, so far.
I also played an Incarnate (evil, with a heavy "incarnum" build focus; see todd's incarnum by the numbers near the end for what I mean there), and although its cool for a few levels, it really starts getting boring around 6th level or so.
Haven't gone down the Cleric route yet. Never had the inclination to..
FEATS:
IUS, Power Attack, Frozen Berzerker, Extra Rage, Superior Unarmed Strike, Rapid Assault, Snap Kick, Roundabout Kick.
Tearing things to shreds with your bare (bear) hands is fun.
Focus on avoiding combat in every special way. Play Cat-and-Mouse with your DM and drive him bonkers. Do it in any possible way. Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Hide, avoidance spells, etc
Factotum, Rogue, Exemplar, Bard, Chameleon, or some other super omega skill monkey.
Focus on avoiding combat in every special way. Play Cat-and-Mouse with your DM and drive him bonkers. Do it in any possible way. Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, Hide, avoidance spells, etc
Perfect example: I don't think that would be fun for me at all!
Human
Knight 3/Focused Transmuter 2/Fighter 1/Abjurant Champion 5/Spellsword etc.
Obviously he is never meant to be a full gish (playing with a group of DnD newbies and I do NOT want to steal the spotlight, I just want to keep them alive and have fun)
He uses a Great Spear (no spiked chain....I refuse to be THAT cheesy) and armor spikes (ok so a lil cheese, but they will never be defending spikes haha) with combat reflexes, deft opportunist, stand still, mage slayer, practiced spellcaster, power attack etc.
He essentially stands in front of the group and doesn't allow anything to get close to them so that they can do their newbie caster stuff in peace. I've played him since level 3, and he is a ton of fun. Bulwark of Defense along with reach and AoO awesomeness is great, plus with stand still I'm not dealing all the damage and letting the other party members get the kills while keeping them safe.
The little bit of spellcasting he has is for some sweet buffs when necessary, and he can wraithstrike and power attack when he really needs to deal damage, but I try to avoid doing that too often.
Be the ultimate Abjurer/Exotic dancer!