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Melee Archivist?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
seikaragnok
Feb 28, 2011 2:30:51 Good morning. Afternoon. Evening. Yeah, whichever works for you. I've recently began a campaign with a group of friends, which is going well thus far. I've been allowed to use mainly any source books, except Dragon Magazines, and have been working on a Archivist. Here is my issue.

I'm an Archivist at the moment. My group is a Human Sorcerer, Half-Giant Psychic Warrior, a Human Warblade, and a Azurin Beguiler. When we started, one of our members stated they would have been a divine based class, allowing me for the first time to step away from my ScM and Iot7V typical play styles and step into the shoes of a Melee centric role. I was planning to do a Unarmed Swordsage. Well, that player decided to go back on their statement, leaving us lacking a Divine caster. I reluctantly took the mantle again as a caster role, and this time chose Archivist, mainly due to the vast spell selection available, the never ending supply of Knowledge checks, and the very awesome class abilities.

But I have been yearning to still stand up front with our Warblade and Psy. Warrior, and came across an idea. I understand taking a hit to Spell Progression is always a big negative, but with some research and house rules I have come up with this. To note, I am not looking to do any form of DMM: Persist Cheese, nor am I wanting game breaking mechanics. Just something solid and fun.

We are using a 32 point buy system, reverting to 28 pt buy to remove a +1 LA from a template or class if we so desire.

Class: Archivist 7/Crusader 1/Sacred Exorcist 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10.
Race: Illumian with Dragon Descended template (+1 LA from RoD).

28 Points to buy off +1 LA

Str: 18
Dex: 10
Con: 16
Int: 16
Wis: 8
Cha: 10

Taking Aesh and Krau for Illumian Power Words, allowing Str to factor my bonus spells per day instead of Wisdom.

Level One starts with these feats.

Feats:
1. Knowledge Devotion (Base)
1. Colligiete Archivist (House Rule of Colliegete Wizard from UA) (Flaw)
1. Insightful Reflexes (Flaw)
1. Weapon Focus: Falchion (Taint - Moderate Phobia: Large Creatures. Extra feat, and plays to my characters back story.)
1. Scribe Scroll (Class Ability)

I know where to fit my Skill Points, doing what I need to meet pre-reqs, and keeping my Knowledge skills up for Dark Knowledge and so forth. My concern is feat selection beyond 3rd level. I think I may take Crusader early perhaps (bad idea on Spells, I know) and use Martial Power and Crusader Strike to add to healing and gain Prof. with my Falchion, as well as grabbing Touch of Healing at 3rd level. I was guessing between those three sources, along with wands/scrolls, I could easily keep the group going, and allow me to stock more buffing and utility spells instead. The other Martial Maneuvers are bonuses as well. Carry on as Archivist after until I reach Sacred Exorcist, which I will take a single dip to gain Turning, allowing me access into RKV.

Any help with progression ideas, feat selection, or anything of the sort would be amazing. I know there are better ways to do this, but in terms of flavor and character back story, this progression fits a bit.
#2
New-Shadow
Feb 28, 2011 19:05:04 Personally, I'd go with the Archivist of Nature and Draconic Archivist feats. These allow you to use your Dark Knowledge against Fey, Giants, Dragons, and Constructs respectively. I'd also grab some Divine Feats (depending on your play style, Divine Metamagic might not be a bad idea), but this is dependent on how much the DM uses undead. Depending if you can talk your DM into opening the RKV to other gods (subject to flavor change), going Eldritch Disciple (and maybe Enlightened Spirit) post-Epic might not be a bad plan (or opening E.D. to all gods). Warlocks have a few useful invocations for melee, and grabing Crystal Helm from Magic of Incarnum makes all melee attacks have the Force desciptor (aka no miss chance for Incorporial/Etheral). But that's if you play that long.

Although,...don't you need Weapon Prof. to get Weapon Focus (weapon in question)? And I'm uncertain if you could meet the special condition for S.E. with your taint (unless you plan on ditching it via quests/storyline). Other than that, it is a good build.
#3
seikaragnok
Feb 28, 2011 19:47:00 My DM is granting me the ability to Dark Knowledge Fey, Gaints, Dragons, ect as part of base knowledge checks. He finds it wrong to have to dump feats to gain the ability to do so into something that should already be allowed. As for undead, he tries to vere from their uses, though we do encounter a few along campaigns. I'll look into the benefits of the other classes and possible different progression paths, as I still have time to make any changes. E. Disciple looks interesting with the Invocation and Divine casting spell progressions, though I forsee going Cleric to be a better route in that case. As for playing long he is carrying us until we finish (1-20 Campaign), or we quit due to people not being able to stick around due to life situations.

And you are correct, which I am currently fixing my feat selection for my taint. I was tossing this together at level 2 at 4 in the morning, and in my tired planning I let it slip my mind that I did not gain martial weapon prof. till that 2nd level if I take Crusader.

As far as taint limiting access to the S.E PrC, I am also uncertain. Additional input from others would be helpful, until then I'll re-read Taint out of HoH and confer with my DM on the situation. Thanks for input
#4
New-Shadow
Feb 28, 2011 20:43:48 Not a problem, I enjoy helping others. I also thought it was bogus to need two feats to expand the D.K. I also thought of another class to help you, depending if you play with Psionics or not: Sanctified Mind from Lords of Madness. You would need something to give you power points, and you lose out on a caster level, but you get full BAB for six levels, and a host of anti-psionic ablities, the capstone being Power Resistance 5+character level. Getting the Phrenic tempate from XPH, despite the +1 LA, would be worth it to do so.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 seikaragnok Feb 28, 2011 2:30:51	Good morning. Afternoon. Evening. Yeah, whichever works for you. I've recently began a campaign with a group of friends, which is going well thus far. I've been allowed to use mainly any source books, except Dragon Magazines, and have been working on a Archivist. Here is my issue. I'm an Archivist at the moment. My group is a Human Sorcerer, Half-Giant Psychic Warrior, a Human Warblade, and a Azurin Beguiler. When we started, one of our members stated they would have been a divine based class, allowing me for the first time to step away from my ScM and Iot7V typical play styles and step into the shoes of a Melee centric role. I was planning to do a Unarmed Swordsage. Well, that player decided to go back on their statement, leaving us lacking a Divine caster. I reluctantly took the mantle again as a caster role, and this time chose Archivist, mainly due to the vast spell selection available, the never ending supply of Knowledge checks, and the very awesome class abilities. But I have been yearning to still stand up front with our Warblade and Psy. Warrior, and came across an idea. I understand taking a hit to Spell Progression is always a big negative, but with some research and house rules I have come up with this. To note, I am not looking to do any form of DMM: Persist Cheese, nor am I wanting game breaking mechanics. Just something solid and fun. We are using a 32 point buy system, reverting to 28 pt buy to remove a +1 LA from a template or class if we so desire. Class: Archivist 7/Crusader 1/Sacred Exorcist 1/Ruby Knight Vindicator 10. Race: Illumian with Dragon Descended template (+1 LA from RoD). 28 Points to buy off +1 LA Str: 18 Dex: 10 Con: 16 Int: 16 Wis: 8 Cha: 10 Taking Aesh and Krau for Illumian Power Words, allowing Str to factor my bonus spells per day instead of Wisdom. Level One starts with these feats. Feats: 1. Knowledge Devotion (Base) 1. Colligiete Archivist (House Rule of Colliegete Wizard from UA) (Flaw) 1. Insightful Reflexes (Flaw) 1. Weapon Focus: Falchion (Taint - Moderate Phobia: Large Creatures. Extra feat, and plays to my characters back story.) 1. Scribe Scroll (Class Ability) I know where to fit my Skill Points, doing what I need to meet pre-reqs, and keeping my Knowledge skills up for Dark Knowledge and so forth. My concern is feat selection beyond 3rd level. I think I may take Crusader early perhaps (bad idea on Spells, I know) and use Martial Power and Crusader Strike to add to healing and gain Prof. with my Falchion, as well as grabbing Touch of Healing at 3rd level. I was guessing between those three sources, along with wands/scrolls, I could easily keep the group going, and allow me to stock more buffing and utility spells instead. The other Martial Maneuvers are bonuses as well. Carry on as Archivist after until I reach Sacred Exorcist, which I will take a single dip to gain Turning, allowing me access into RKV. Any help with progression ideas, feat selection, or anything of the sort would be amazing. I know there are better ways to do this, but in terms of flavor and character back story, this progression fits a bit.
#2 New-Shadow Feb 28, 2011 19:05:04	Personally, I'd go with the Archivist of Nature and Draconic Archivist feats. These allow you to use your Dark Knowledge against Fey, Giants, Dragons, and Constructs respectively. I'd also grab some Divine Feats (depending on your play style, Divine Metamagic might not be a bad idea), but this is dependent on how much the DM uses undead. Depending if you can talk your DM into opening the RKV to other gods (subject to flavor change), going Eldritch Disciple (and maybe Enlightened Spirit) post-Epic might not be a bad plan (or opening E.D. to all gods). Warlocks have a few useful invocations for melee, and grabing Crystal Helm from Magic of Incarnum makes all melee attacks have the Force desciptor (aka no miss chance for Incorporial/Etheral). But that's if you play that long. Although,...don't you need Weapon Prof. to get Weapon Focus (weapon in question)? And I'm uncertain if you could meet the special condition for S.E. with your taint (unless you plan on ditching it via quests/storyline). Other than that, it is a good build.
#3 seikaragnok Feb 28, 2011 19:47:00	My DM is granting me the ability to Dark Knowledge Fey, Gaints, Dragons, ect as part of base knowledge checks. He finds it wrong to have to dump feats to gain the ability to do so into something that should already be allowed. As for undead, he tries to vere from their uses, though we do encounter a few along campaigns. I'll look into the benefits of the other classes and possible different progression paths, as I still have time to make any changes. E. Disciple looks interesting with the Invocation and Divine casting spell progressions, though I forsee going Cleric to be a better route in that case. As for playing long he is carrying us until we finish (1-20 Campaign), or we quit due to people not being able to stick around due to life situations. And you are correct, which I am currently fixing my feat selection for my taint. I was tossing this together at level 2 at 4 in the morning, and in my tired planning I let it slip my mind that I did not gain martial weapon prof. till that 2nd level if I take Crusader. As far as taint limiting access to the S.E PrC, I am also uncertain. Additional input from others would be helpful, until then I'll re-read Taint out of HoH and confer with my DM on the situation. Thanks for input
#4 New-Shadow Feb 28, 2011 20:43:48	Not a problem, I enjoy helping others. I also thought it was bogus to need two feats to expand the D.K. I also thought of another class to help you, depending if you play with Psionics or not: Sanctified Mind from Lords of Madness. You would need something to give you power points, and you lose out on a caster level, but you get full BAB for six levels, and a host of anti-psionic ablities, the capstone being Power Resistance 5+character level. Getting the Phrenic tempate from XPH, despite the +1 LA, would be worth it to do so.