Here's my first submitted build. I've made level 40 builds in the past, but none quite as tough as this one.
In RPGs, it is highly traditional for you and your band of fellow adventurers to fight the Ultimate Maximum Doom Lord in a climactic final battle The UMDL typically has equally evil cohorts that he can summon, and often has several annoying immunities to make the fight more challenging. Finally, he should possess the ability to rapidly disable and kill his enemies. Then I thought to myself, what if you could *be* the UMDL in a game? I set out to construct a build that possessed two things: lots of evil, and lots of power. Here's what I came up with:
Level Progression: 1-8 Bard 9-18 Blackguard 19-20 Pale Master 21-29 Blackguard 30-36 Pale Master 37 Bard 38 Pale Master 39-40 Bard
Skill Set at Level 40: 43 Discipline 21 Heal 5 Hide 15 Perform 14 Persuade 40 Spellcraft 40 Tumble 25 Use Magic Device
This requires that you take all of these skills as class skills, so quite frequently you will need to save points.
Feat Set at Level 40 (BG bonus feats marked with asterisks, all feats listed in order): Power Attack, Cleave, Curse Song, Great Cleave, Weapon Focus: Greatsword, Improved Critical: Greatsword, Divine Might, Knockdown, Great Strength I, *Overwhelming Critical: Greatsword, Great Strength II, *Devastating Critical: Greatsword, Epic Fiend, *Epic Weapon Focus: Greatsword, Toughness, Great Charisma I, Improved Knockdown, Energy Resistance I: Fire
Important Bard Spells: Balagarn's Iron Horn Mage Armor Bull's Strength Eagle's Splendor Find Traps War Cry
Add 8 to each of those numbers if the save is against a spell.
Advantages: - Receives four attacks a round with pre-epic BAB of 17 - High average damage (Eagle's Splendor + Divine Might, Bull's Strength, War Cry, Power Attack, 6d6 Sneak Attack, 2d6 two-handed weapon, high Strength) - High armor class: with out so much as a stitch of armor, this character can attain an AC of 29 (10 Base, -1 from Dexterity, +8 from Tumble, +6 from Bone Skin, +4 from Mage Armor, +2 from Bard Song) - Receives five free summons a day (Epic Fiend, BG Create Undead, PM Animate Dead, PM Summon Undead, PM Create Greater Undead) - Superb saves against spells thanks to Spellcraft - Able to weaken opponents in a variety of unpleasant ways - Able to use most magic devices, such as Monk boots and robes - Immune to critical hits and most mind-affecting spells - Devastating Critical: 'nuff said
Disadvantages: - Lacks Evasion/Improved Evasion, so weak against spells with a Reflex save - Requires you to save a lot of skill points and often - Will need to wear heavy armor, thus contributing to arcane spell failure - Relatively low hitpoints compared to other melee fighters: maximum of 466 HP at level 40 - Relatively low Devastating Critical difficulty check - Lacks bread-and-butter Rogue skills like Open Locks and Disable Traps, thus necessitating the Find Traps spell
All in all, though, I think the Ultimate Maximum Doom Lord is a very well-rounded and powerful build, suitable for any Epic-level campaign and useful in nearly all combat and non-combat settings.
Questions, comments, and criticisms would all be appreciated. _________________ (sig space for rent)
Edited By Cinnabar Din on 02/27/08 02:42
Comments by CrispyCritter:
Heh, I like that Ultimate Maximum Doom Lord build. Although if I did it, I'd probably go Cleric rather than BG. You'd sacrifice 2 points pre-epic BAB, thus losing that 4th attack per round, and your sneak attacks as well, but you'd get access to 9th lvl spells as well as domain powers.
Of course, in order to do this, you'd need to take some points out of Str in order to get a high Wis, so you might not be able to get Dev. Crit if you went with a Cleric. If you took 3 points out of Str at creation, that would give you enough credits to raise both Int and Wis to 14 at creation. Since you're only getting lvl 4 Bard spells anyway, I would only take 14 Cha and put the other 5 points into Wis, getting you up to 18 Wis. You'll lose 2 points to all your saving throws, but that's not all that big of a deal.
I would also recommend getting rid of Divine Might, since it only lasts a # of rounds equal to your Cha modifier, which would be 4 rounds in your build, or 2 rounds in my build. I would then take that feat and replace it with Great Wisdom, and voila, you're up to 19 Wis. Granted, your Str is now down to 23 base, which is only enough for Overwhelming Crit, but if you were willing to sacrifice a couple more feats for Great Str (say, Epic Fiend and Energy Resistance), you could still get your Str. high enough to get Dev. Crit. Your final stats would end up like this:
Str 25 Dex 8 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 19 Cha 14
In my mind, the Cleric spells would add a LOT to this character. You could now cast, in addition to your Bard spells, all sorts of good stuff, like Divine Favor, Shield of Faith, Darkfire, Battletide, Endurance, Eagle's Splendor, Darkness, Death Ward, Divine Power, Slay Living, Spell Resistance, Blade Barrier, HARM, Heal, Destruction, Regenerate, Fire Storm, IMPLOSION, and Storm of Vengeance, among others. Depending on the domains you take, you can get even more spells, like Chain Lightning (Air) or Aura of Vitality (War, gives +4 Str, Con, and Dex).
Although he would lose 1 attack/round, I think Divine Power is supposed to add an attack/round, and I bet with all those buffs he'd probably have better damage and BAB than your BG. Anyway, that's what I would do. Hope that helps, and good luck in making your Ultimate Maximum Doom Lord. MUAHAHAHAAAAA...
Hmmm I just realized that 3 of your feats are bonus feats from BG. In that case in order for my template to work you'd have to get rid of another 3 feats. I'd probably get rid of Curse Song, Knockdown, and Improved Knockdown. These would be nice feats to have, but in the above build, there just isn't room for them.
Also, if you were going to play this character in PvP I would go neutral rather than Evil. That way those silly goody-two-shoes Paladins and CoTs can't Smite you.