My personal favorite is a human Rogue 13/Fighter 12/Cleric 15. You do have to be a little careful on the lvl progression so that you don't get an XP penalty. At lvl 20 you should be Rogue 4/Fighter 4/Cleric 12, and in Epic lvls just make sure to keep Rogue and Fighter within 1 lvl of each other and you will have no problem.

Stats

Starting

Str 15
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 16
Cha 8

Ending

Str 30
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 18
Cha 8


You then put 2 points into Wis and 8 points into Str.

You get 11 feats pre-epic with this build. These are the feats that I take:

1 Power Attack, Cleave
3 Extend Spell
6 Weapon Focus: Scimitar
9 Great Cleave
12 Improved Crit: Scimitar
15 Toughness
18 Empower Spell

Fighter: Knockdown, Imp. Knockdown, Weapon Spec.

You get 11 feats in Epic lvls with this build. Epic feats I would recommend are:

Great Str x 7

Fighter: Epic Weapon Focus, Epic Weapon Spec, Overwhelming Crit, Dev. Crit.

Rogue: Improved Evasion, Crippling Strike


As for domains, I would recommend Trickery for Improved Invis., and Travel is a good choice as well as it gives you access to haste. Of course, I also like Str and Healing, since Str gives you more Divine Power spells and Healing allows you to take Heal spells at lvl 5, which then allows you to load up on Harm at lvl 6. Ultimately, the domains are up to you.

Equipment:

Heavy armor
Tower Shield
Scimitar, Keen if you can find it

Skills:

Concentration: 42
Healing: 26
Discipline: 42
Listen: 43
Spellcraft: 40
Spot: 43
Tumble: 40
UMD: 25

Total: 311

What you end up with is a very powerful offensive build. You have 8th lvl Cleric spells, 30 Str, Dev. Crit, 7d6 Sneak Attacks, Improved Evasion, Crippling Strike, Improved Weapon Spec., tons of skill credits,
and 44 AB with a mundane scimitar. Your AC isn't all that great, but it's an offensive build. With Divine Power and Haste (Travel domain) you can get 6 attacks per round, 3 of which are at your full AB.

Fully buffed it should be possible to get around 70 AB with this build, so if it has an AC of lower than 90 or so if your opponent has an AC of less than 90 or so, he may be in trouble. Max HP is 438, so you should be able to get over 400 without too much trouble, and with an empowered Endruance spell you should be able to to break 500.

You don't get any immunities or anything, but it's still a very powerful build. I call this build the Infernal Thug, as I enjoy playing a badass cleric who goes around extorting donations from people and roughing them up when they don't pay. nice build! I also love using clerics for melee chars, they are basically a notch or 2 below the all out meleer (WM) until it's time for a boss fight, where they buff up and kick butt!

I like the fighter/cleric/WM build more, but this one sure has it's charms, tumble and UMD will make ones life a lot easier plus there are a lot more versatility to this build.

you could of course do better on the leveling to max out AB but I can see you made this to be strong 1-40 so you wanted cleric spells ASAP.

happy gaming Vin, glad you liked the build. The issue with the leveling is that since all classes are base classes, you have to keep 2 of your classes within 1 level of each other or get an XP penalty. You could go Rogue 4/Fighter 12/Cleric 4 pre-epic and that would get you 2 more BAB, but then you lose Epic Weapon Spec.

In addition, you have to spend your regular feats you get every 3 lvls to get your epic combat feats, rather than being able to take them on Fighter lvls. Thus, if you go Rogue 4/Fighter 12/Cleric 4, you lose 4 points of Str, effectively lowering your damage as well as your AB by 2 points each. So, although the AB should be the same either way, if I take 8 Fighter lvls past 20, I end up doing 6 more damage per hit. Besides, you don't really need another 4 pre-epic combat feats. An alternative would be to make an evil build and take assassin instead of rogue.

You can get the prereq for assassin at level 13. (ie level 14 is assassin no 1)

You lose skill points but you dont have to deal with the xp penalty.

You also get a few one use spells like improved invisibility, ghostly visage, invisibility and darkness.

Syrath

EDIt or do a good version of the build and take Rogue/Cleric/Champion of Torn . You lose on the weapon specs. but gain a great bonus to your saving throws, With the cleric buffs the loss of damage isnt too much and you also free up a couple of feats. Also doesnt have xp penalty.

Edited By syrath1001 on 08/13/04 08:10

Quote: Posted 08/13/04 08:07:20 (GMT) -- syrath1001

An alternative would be to make an evil build and take assassin instead of rogue.

You can get the prereq for assassin at level 13. (ie level 14 is assassin no 1)

You lose skill points but you dont have to deal with the xp penalty.

You also get a few one use spells like improved invisibility, ghostly visage, invisibility and darkness.

Syrath

EDIt or do a good version of the build and take Rogue/Cleric/Champion of Torn . You lose on the weapon specs. but gain a great bonus to your saving throws, With the cleric buffs the loss of damage isnt too much and you also free up a couple of feats. Also doesnt have xp penalty.

If you take Assassin rather than Rogue, you lose Improved Evasion and Crippling Strike. You get fewer skill credits as well. Improved Invis. is nice, but I think the Assassin can only cast it once per day, whereas a Cleric with the Trickery domain could cast it multiple times, which is nice when you're fighting opponents who can dispel.

As for CoT, I think that would probably work. You would get +6 to all saving throws, and you would free up one Epic feat and one pre-epic feat. Personally, I think I'd rather have the +6 damage from WS and EWS, but it would be nice not to have to worry about the XP penalty when leveling up. You only gain 1 feat post epic, since CoT doesnt get a level 1 bonus feat compared with fighter.

Its actually not a bad trade off the plus 6 saves really help you out. You dont miss the damage against mobs that can be knocked down , since you are sneak attacking them most of the time. For mobs you cant knockdown you have magic to fall back on.

If you did it this way you have a very flexible build without the hassle of the xp penalty.

Syrath Revised

Rogue 13/Cleric 21/Fighter 6
(pre-epic Rogue 8/Cleric 8/Fighter 4)

Race: Dwarf

Domains: Trickery and Travel

Note: Travel is mostly useful for Haste. If you play on a server in which you have access to perma-haste items, you may prefer another domain, like Str or War.


Stats

Starting

Str 16
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 16
Cha 6

Put 3 points into Wis and 7 points into Str.

Ending

Str 26
Dex 8
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 19
Cha 6

Feats

1 Power Attack
3 Cleave
4 Fighter: Knockdown
6 Extend Spell
9 Weapon Focus: Scimitar
10 Fighter: Imp. Knockdown
11 Fighter: Weapon Spec
12 Great Cleave
15 Improved Crit: Scimitar
18 Toughness
21 Epic Weapon Focus
24 Epic Weapon Spec
25 Rogue: Improved Evasion
27 Great Str I
30 Great Str II
33 Great Str III
36 Hellball (21st lvl of Cleric)
39 Overwhelming Crit., Fighter: Dev. Crit.
40 Rogue: Crippling Strike

Epic leveling progression:

21 Cleric
22 Rogue
23 Cleric
24 Fighter
25 Rogue
26-36 Cleric
37-38 Rogue
39 Fighter
40 Rogue


Note: You can change the leveling order a little, but make sure to take your last lvl of Rogue no earlier than lvl 37 if you want to get the full +8 AC from Tumble.

Equipment:

Heavy armor
Tower Shield
Scimitar, Keen if you can find it

Skills:

Concentration: 43
Discipline: 43
Set Trap: 42
Spellcraft: 39
Tumble: 40
UMD: 25

Total: 268 skill credits (~26 left over, spend on what you want. Lore or Healing would be recommended)

This build is pretty similar to the original Infernal Thug, but it sacrifices some Str for more spell power. It does get an XP penalty, but in my opinion the extra spells improve the build enough to warrant it. I really like the addition of Hellball, not only because it seems like the kind of thing an Infernal Thug should have, but also because it gives you a free knockdown, regardless of your opponent's Discipline check. This is the latest revision of my Infernal Thug build. I changed some of the stats and feats to max out my Fort saves, and the results aren't bad.

He has a base Fort save of 33, which can be buffed up to 37-38 with spells. With +12 to Con, he can get it as high as 42, and he now has over 500 base HP if you roll the max every level.


Rogue 13/Fighter 12/Cleric 15
(pre-epic Rogue 3/Fighter 4/Cleric 13)

Race: Human

Domains: Trickery and Travel

(Travel is for Haste; if you have access to perma-haste items, feel free to take another domain, such as Strength, Healing, or War)


Infernal Thug

Stats

Starting

Str 16
Dex 8
Con 16
Int 10
Wis 15
Cha 8

+2 Str, +2 Wis, +5 Str, +1 Wis
(take stat increases in this order)

Ending

Str 26
Dex 8
Con 18
Int 10
Wis 18
Cha 8


1 Power Attack, Cleave
3 Weapon Focus: Scimitar, Knockdown *
6 Extend Spell
9 Great Fortitude, Great Cleave *
12 Improved Crit: Scimitar
15 Toughness
18 Blind-Fight, Weapon Spec *
21 Epic Weapon Focus
24 Great Str I, Epic Weapon Spec *
27 Great Str II
28 Overwhelming Critical *
30 Great Str III
31 Improved Evasion **
33 Epic Fortitude
36 Great Con, Devastating Critical *
37 Crippling Strike **
39 Great Con, Epic Prowess *


Epic Level Progression

21-22 Rogue
23-24 Fighter
25-26 Rogue
27-28 Fighter
29-30 Rogue
31 Fighter
32 Rogue
33 Cleric
34-35 Rogue
36 Fighter
37 Rogue
38-39 Fighter
40 Cleric

* Fighter bonus feat
** Rogue bonus feat

skills

Concentration: 40
Discipline: 40
Healing: 20
Search: 20
Spellcraft: 40
Tumble: 40
UMD: 25

Total: 225


AB:

25 base
+8 Str
+1 WF
+2 EWF
+1 Epic Prowess
_______
37 AB w/ mundane Scimitar


AC:

10 base
-1 Dex
+8 Full Plate
+3 Tower Shield
+8 Tumble
_______
28 AC w/ mundane armor

Saves

Fort 33
Reflex 17
Will 24

HP: 508 max unbuffed