Books required: PHB, DMG2, Eberron Campaign Setting, Magic of Incarnum, Races of Stone, Unearthed Arcana, Epic Level Handbook (yes, seriously)
Race: Dwarf
Alignment: Any non-evil (this version uses LN)
Stats, after racial adjustments (32-point-buy): 10/10/14/16/12/14 Pump Int at every level
Skill notes: Spellcraft and Knowledge (Arcana) need to be through the roof, while Craft skills (Armorsmithing and Weaponsmithing especially, though SOME Alchemy wouldn't hurt) and Use Magic Device are your actual bread and butter. Keep Spellcraft, Knowledge (Arcana), and UMD maxed. Make sure your smithing skills are maxed at level 5, you can ease off a bit after that. Sadly, this is a skill-intensive build with only one level that gives more than (2+Int).
Magic Equipment: You'll make your own weapon and armor, but you need Tomes for Int and Cha and a Belt of Magnificence because EVERY ability is used in this build (though Dex and Str are used in combat only)
Build Stub: Artificer1/Incarnate1/Dwarf Paragon3/Ironsoul Forgemaster10/Battlesmith5/Major Bloodline (Silver Dragon)
1 -Artificer (Artificer Knowledge, Artisan Bonus, Disable Trap, Item Creation) (Apprentice (Spellcaster), Scribe Scroll) [Sense Motive +2]
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As near as I can tell, an artificer would get Knowledge (Arcana) as well as UMD from the Apprentice feat, mostly because artificers are listed as Arcanists in the Guilds section of DMG2. This will be exceptionally useful later. You'll want to pour your 30 skill points this level into Craft (armor and weapon), UMD, Knowledge (Arcana), Spellcraft, and anything else you might want. Personally I would choose Appraise and Craft (Alchemy).
crew that discovered the Battlesmith +
Ironsoul Forgemaster combo, back in
the day ... (grizzled graybeard mem'ry).
Yep. Midgard Dwarf can help, say via
a friendly PAO. Legacy Champion PrC
also fits ; Uncanny Trickster PrC pumps
the numbers too.
The Bloodline levels are actual levels.
There was/is some debate about the
Bloodline mechanics in general over
at BG/minmaxboards. Bastian + PLZ
have a super item discount thread there
too, that makes everything cheap.
Anyway, your build goes epic, and the
epic feat happens at the right time.
ironically iirc - it was one of Tempest's
crew that discovered the Battlesmith +
Ironsoul Forgemaster combo, back in
the day ... (grizzled graybeard mem'ry).
Dammit! Shoulda known I hadn't figured out something new.
Yep. Midgard Dwarf can help, say via
a friendly PAO. Legacy Champion PrC
also fits ; Uncanny Trickster PrC pumps
the numbers too.
I chose the bloodline over UT because it boosts ALL the levels, not just one.
@awaken_D_M_golem: Why do Bloodline levels make you count towards epic? I know it says in the book that they are like levels that don't count towards anything but max skill ranks, but if they are just L.A.-esqe levels, why do they show charts going to level 20?
This is a very interesting build, and it's a crying shame that the Craft Epic Arms/Armor feat has such a high skill prerequisite. (Although, I'd need to check - don't [epic] feats require CL 21+ implicitly, similar to how you can't take [psionic] feats without the subtype, even if the feat doesn't expressly require it? I.e. Human Monk 6 meets the requirements for Psionic Meditation, but doesn't have the (Psionic) subtype).
EDIT: Upon closer reading, it seems that the [Epic] feats do not have such rules attached to them in the SRD, so if you qualify - which you do here, since that feat has no separate character level requirement - you can take them pre-epic. Iiiiinteresting.
My first thought was to find a way to cram in Uncanny Trickster here as well, but I'll have to check the wording on battlesmith to see if that's even close to worthwhile (probably not). My second thought was to consider a different bloodline, but that's more fluffy than anything else (as Awaken DM Golem suggests, there's a great Norse myth theme here, even without Midgard dwarf - hooking up a dwarf to a giant bloodline makes a particularly fun scenario for those familiar with the sagas.)
There is one other way I know of to boost a maximum skill rank - but it only gives you one extra pump, it only applies to a single skill (so it won't help with Craft Epic Arms/Armor), and it takes two feats to get. It's the Primary Contact feat in Cityscape, in case it helps.
(As an aside, I really like how you worked in bloodlines into the format we use for build showcases. I don't have any other bloodline builds on the docket (though there are a few that'd hilariously benefit from them - but they suffer from other problems that need fixing first)... but if any others get shown off, I'll use that format to make it clear where they work. I may go back and reformat the two bloodline builds to use this - although realistically only Ashardalon Reborn will benefit from this style of discussion, as the bloodlines only really matter there.)
Awaken DM Golem:
The Bloodline levels are actual levels.
There was/is some debate about the
Bloodline mechanics in general over
at BG/minmaxboards.
I read the BG thread while it was happening (I didn't sign up at either forum because I think Josh hates me), but I did not find their argument convincing. Nothing they've said ever seemed to circumevent the clause from the rules: "Class levels of "bloodline" do not increase a character's character level the way a normal class level does, but they do provide certain benefits (see below)." This means they do not count towards epic, nor do they count towards the XP required to gain a level. The only contentious point is if you can buy bloodline levels early (i.e. at ECL 1, can you "buy" three bloodline levels, each for just 1000xp, ending up as an ECL 1 character with three bloodline levels) or if you're forced to take them right before the limits, as in this build.
You do have to pay for those lower levels. Now, maybe he got off 'cheap' xp wise...but levels are just encounters, so he might qualify for Epic a few encounters before his friends, and that's about it.
Regardless, taking bloodline levels and falling behind his friends because he did so should be NO reason to earn extra xp to catch back up. It's akin to letting someone earn extra xp to catch up to the rest of the party because he burned it on perma-buffs or magic items...so he gets to be the same level as everyone else, only he has more stuff then they do.
==Aelryinth
This is a very interesting build, and it's a crying shame that the Craft Epic Arms/Armor feat has such a high skill prerequisite.
I was pretty bummed by that, too; it was my first choice for an Epic crafting feat.
My first thought was to find a way to cram in Uncanny Trickster here as well, but I'll have to check the wording on battlesmith to see if that's even close to worthwhile (probably not).
Not on Battlesmith, it's not. The only thing that's level-based in Bs in Secrets of the Forge. Ironsoul Forgemaster at least gets that AND a crafting bonus.
My second thought was to consider a different bloodline, but that's more fluffy than anything else (as Awaken DM Golem suggests, there's a great Norse myth theme here, even without Midgard dwarf - hooking up a dwarf to a giant bloodline makes a particularly fun scenario for those familiar with the sagas.)
Where would I find Midgard dwarf?
Also, I chose the Silver Dragon because it's (typically) LG, it granted a Major bloodline, it gave a boost to Cha (my other thought was Gold for Int), and it fit thematically. Only Storm Giants (or was it Cloud?) grant a Major bloodline, and it didn't seem to fit thematically. If I was going solely by the ability bonus, though, my first choice would be an Intermediate Yuan-ti bloodline for +1 Int and +1 Cha. It's the only bloodline that grants both, but the Yuan-ti aren't powerful enough to have a major bloodline.
There is one other way I know of to boost a maximum skill rank - but it only gives you one extra pump, it only applies to a single skill (so it won't help with Craft Epic Arms/Armor), and it takes two feats to get. It's the Primary Contact feat in Cityscape, in case it helps.
I don't have Cityscape.
(As an aside, I really like how you worked in bloodlines into the format we use for build showcases. I don't have any other bloodline builds on the docket (though there are a few that'd hilariously benefit from them - but they suffer from other problems that need fixing first)... but if any others get shown off, I'll use that format to make it clear where they work. I may go back and reformat the two bloodline builds to use this - although realistically only Ashardalon Reborn will benefit from this style of discussion, as the bloodlines only really matter there.)
Thank you.
The main reason I put it in that way is that I originally had something that needed Power Attack as a prereq and I wanted to show how I qualified.
The only contentious point is if you can buy bloodline levels early (i.e. at ECL 1, can you "buy" three bloodline levels, each for just 1000xp, ending up as an ECL 1 character with three bloodline levels) or if you're forced to take them right before the limits, as in this build.
After reading, re-reading, and then reading that section some more, I would have to say... "The rules don't say I can't". It's definitely more XP effective here, and this guy's going to be swimming upstream in that river for the entire campaign, so it would be worth it.
I realize that I didn't go as far as Tempest usually does and post total skill points (I didn't even want to try to figure that out, TBH), ending BAB, saves, etc. I would like to point out, though, that fractional BAB would actually be quite helpful to this build. The BAB would jump from +15 to +17, gving an additional attack.
Where would I find Midgard dwarf?
Frostburn, oddly enough, but it's based off of the Norse version of dwarves (for starters, it's an outsider). Although Tolkein-style 'dwarves' are sourced more or less to the Norse, there's been some pretty strong memetic drift. The big thing with them is that they get a number of craft feats as racial bonus feats, and have a racial ability that lets them meet any magic item prerequisite other than the feats (i.e. a Midgard dwarf fighter could craft his own magic arms and armor). It's worded loosely enough to even extend to caster level prerequisites (so an out-of-the-box Midgard dwarf could craft any non-epic weapon or armor, given enough time and money), but they've got a relatively huge starting level (8 HD + 4 LA).
I don't have Cityscape.
You can find it in a few places online (of questionable legality), but the main thrust here is that it's a two-feat chain based on how strongly tied you are to an organization. There's not a really good description as to why it works, but the big thing is that it takes one of your organization's main skills and raises your maximum rank in that skill by one. It's rarely useful, due to the feat cost, but I think an early-entry trick or two used it in cases where bloodlines aren't available.
The closest the book comes to saying you have to be epic to take an epic feat is on page 25.
In any other place in this book where “character level” is indicated, you can use effective character level instead. For example, a creature with a level adjustment of +5 who is also a 13th-level fighter/3rd-level blackguard is ECL 21 and eligible to select an epic feat provided he meets the prerequisites.
I thought, but didn't think out loud ... oops.
(may have been playing Everyone Is John)
Or it's just a "level" not a level ??
OA Samurai 1 ... gets the equivalent of
Craft Arm(s) and Armor(singular).
The OA book uses lots of: this = that
for purposes of qualifying blahblah.
And the abilty keys to Character Level
instead of Class Level. It could work.
So a Bloodline level is an LA ? That's what
I thought, but didn't think out loud ... oops.
(may have been playing Everyone Is John)
Or it's just a "level" not a level ??
It isn't actually a "level", nor is it actually an LA. I explain it here - basically, you "buy" them like levels, but they don't increase the "cost" of later levels the way a character level would. The only part that isn't clear is if you can "buy in advance" while the price is low, in exchange for not really getting much benefit at the time - I would argue that the rules support this, but it probably isn't a good idea gameplay-wise (due to the XP River trick leading to an easy catch-up).
get a Yur Doin It Rong award.
Personally, I like the custom bloodline: Two Dead Fighters.
(wink)
