I'm fairly certain I'm not the first to make such a build, but I didn't see one in the index, so here goes my own try at it. I was willing to sacrifice anything else for the ability to get Dev. Crit with the Scythe, thus the build suffers in other areas.
-------------------------- Grim Reaper Build
Starting Stats (final) Str 16 (25) Dex 14 Con 12 Wis 8 Int 16 (20) Cha 8
Level Progression: 1 Wizard 2 Wizard 3 Wizard 4 Wizard 5 Wizard 6 Pale Master 7 Pale Master 8 Pale Master 9 Pale Master 10 Pale Master 11 Pale Master 12 Pale Master 13 Pale Master 14 Pale Master 15 Pale Master 16 Weapon Master 17 Weapon Master 18 Weapon Master 19 Weapon Master 20 Weapon Master 21 Weapon Master 22 Wizard 23 Wizard 24 Wizard 25 Wizard 26 Wizard 27 Wizard 28 Wizard 29 Wizard 30 Wizard 31 Wizard 32 Weapon Master 33 Weapon Master 34 Weapon Master 35 Weapon Master 36 Weapon Master 37 Pale Master 38 Pale Master 39 Weapon Master 40 Weapon Master
Feats (in order) Dodge, Mobility, Spell School (Necromancy) Weapon Proficiency (Exotic) Still Spell Weapon Focus (scythe) Expertise Spring Attack Whirlwind Attack Weapon of Choice (scythe) Power Attack Cleave Great Strength Great Intelligence I Great Cleave Great Strength II Light Armor Proficiency Epic Weapon Focus (scythe) Improved Crit (scythe) Overwhelming Crit (scythe) Devestating Crit (scythe)
Good Points: He has a devestating scythe. That's pretty cool. He also has an undead graft. That's also pretty cool. He has a natural AC of 24 (assuming you boosted Tumble to 20), and can wear light armor. A mundane Scythe deals 2-8 +10 damage and has a crit range of 17-20 x5 With True Strike enabled, he has an attack bonus of +54/49/44 He is Immune to Critical Hits
Bad Points: Low Hit Points. (249 in the test build) Not such a great offensive caster Can only wear light armor Will be open to attacks of opportunity when casting in a battle because Combat Casting could not be fit in. No Epic Spells Mediocre saves
Tips for Playing this character: Get some boots of striding or you're going to die. Cast Greater Stoneskin and Summon Creature IX after every rest Use Mestel's Acid Sheath and True Strike in most battles. -----
Advice? Criticism?
What's the use of wearing armor when you don't have still spell? Additional 1-3 AC isn't worth the risk of spell failure. I'd seriously advice to get 4 more PM levels - you'd be able to use epic spells, and also have 2 AC and 2 feats more.
I concur. Definately drop some of those WM levels for pm ones. In fact I would go as far as to say not to even bother with wizard levels after you hit 20. Try exploring a 5 wizard/28 pm/7 wm split once. I think you will find you get more feats as well as a much stronger defense and you'll only lose a small amount of spell capability. I believe 28 is a bonus feat level for pm. (13, 16, 19, 22, 25, 28) If not drop it down to the last level you will get a feat and add wiz levels. One other thing you will get from this many pm levels is a demi lich for a pet. Look at the undead champion build by cdaulepp. _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
After reviewing the build a couple times, I did trade the Still Spell and Light Armor feats for Combat casting and Improved Combat casting.
The reason I take as many Wizard levels as I do is that I want the ability to cast 9th level spells. (Which maybe I can do without as many Wizard levels, I don't really know much about magic users).
The reason I take 13 WM levels is for the Epic Superior Weapon Focus... which admittedly doesn't help much, so I might sacrifice 6 WM levels in favor of PM. I believe I can also sacrifice 2 Wizard levels for PM and still have 9th level spells.
That would make me a Wiz 13/PM 20/WM 7, which I'm sure I've seen before. But won't this build hurt my attack bonus a bit? I want this guy to be able to melee fairly well.
I'd try Emrill's suggestion, except maybe try 4 wiz 6 pm 10 wm and then 16 pm, 3 wm, and 1 wiz post-epic (gotta take that wiz last in the game, and at least one WM late also, to get a high discipline). Remember that wizards have the ability to learn spells from scrolls. You'd get a higher ab (+4 more, I believe) this way and one fewer epic feats (though one is a WM feat instead of PM). You'd also lose out on +4 ac from boneskin. It all depends on your priorities, but it sounds like you really want to have a decent AB. _________________ Have I mentioned I hate IGMS?
Edited By yrtsns on 01/21/05 19:30
The problem with the build you suggest is that by the time I'd take the first WM level, I'd not have completed enough feats to be a WM. Plus, you need 5 wizard levels to be a PM... or at least I do.
My suggestion for level split won't affect your AB at all as its all post epic changes. As for casting spells, a 28 pm/5 wiz casts spells as a 19th level wizard would. That is still 9th level spell access. If you do want more wiz levels, I'd swap it in batches of 3 pm levels. I'll tell you what though, a demi lich pet is frickin awesome, and casts plenty of 8th and 9th level spells itself. _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
Ah, yes, good point about the requirements. I'd definitely agree with Emrill in that case. Almost no reason whatsoever to go Wiz 15 when you can just pump PM, especially if you want better melee presence. _________________ Have I mentioned I hate IGMS?
Grim Reaper Version 2.0
Human Evil Male
Starting Stats (Ending) Str 16 Dex 14 Con 12 Wis 8 Int 16 Cha 8
Level Progression: 1-5 Wizard 6-15 Pale Master 16-21 Weapon Master 24-38 Pale Master 39 Weapon Master 40 Pale Master
Feats (In order) Dodge, Expertise Weapon Proficiency (Exotic) Combat Casting Mobility Spring Attack Whirlwind Attack Weapon Focus (Scythe) Improved Critical (Scythe) Epic Weapon Focus (Scythe) Power Attack, Improved Combat Casting Cleave, Energy Resistance Cold I Great Cleave, Energy Resistance Cold II Great Strength I, Cold III Overwhelming Crit (Scythe), Energy Resistance Electric I Great Strength II Energy Resistance, Electrical II
So I couldn't get this build to get the Devestating Critical, unless I wanted to leave Intelligence at 16, which would suck. His natural AC is 32, so that's good, but I must say that I'd rather forgo the Demi-Lich summon than not have the Dev. Crit. Ideally, I think taking PM to 20 would be fine for me.
Just a few things... first of all, if at all possible, take only four wizard levels pre-epic then ten PM... if you can't get WM at 14, then never mind this. Second of all, you may need to take one sorc level post-epic to open up spell slots, but they probably open up on their own as you level with PM, I'm not really sure. Lastly, you said you couldn't get dev crit without keeping int down at 16... Here's an idea then... drop out combat casting entirely. (this will, i believe, also allow you to take only 4 pre-epic wizard, then 8 pm, then WM for the next eight levels. What this does for you is allow you to take cleave pre-epic (at 18, after weapon focus at 15), meaning that you free up one more slot post-epic, pushing everything forward one step and thus allowing you to get dev. critical. And this is the real kicker: since you take the fifth wizard level post-epic, you can get your 20 int as well, in case you want epic spells. (But think about those nice prismatic immunities... (I'd go for 20 fire 20 acid 10 cold, and epic mage armor, personally, since you'll have 6 free slots without imp. combat casting)... With those and immunity to critical, it'll be really hard for melee fighters to damage you, especially with damage res armor and maybe elemental immunities to cover the other two. The loss of improved combat casting is minimal. You're trading extra attack of opportunity here and there for a bunch of extra ac... hm... tough choice... but I think I'll stick with the ac, considering it'll more than compensate by helping me avoid a bunch more hits than those attacks of opportunity threaten. And you also lose a few concentration points... but you won't be getting too hard anyways, so it will practically never matter.
Oh, and if you can't get elemental immunity items on your server, i'd go 10/10/10/10/10 for all of them, and get epic mage armor. You'll be the only kid on the block with prismatic immunity.
Incidentally, you also happen to gain a full 3 ab with this new pre-epic selection. _________________ Have I mentioned I hate IGMS?
Edited By yrtsns on 01/22/05 04:37
Bah, ignore that entirely. I just realized the combat casting was from the fifth wizard level. I guess you have to go to 15 to be able to gain weapon master after all. _________________ Have I mentioned I hate IGMS?
Okay, well, in that case the only further suggestion I can give would involve butchering the build a bit, and would depend entirely on exactly how attached you are to weapon master.
If you went: 12 fighter 3 wizard 4 pm 1 wizard pre-epic, and then finish off with 17 pm/2 ftr/1 wiz post-epic, you could quite easily get epic spells and dev. crit., as well as epic weapon spec giving you a total of +6 damage per attack. You'd also get _3 more ab_ (than v2.0) out of this build, and, most importantly, an _extra attack_ per round at 16 bab (just barely, phew). What you'd lose, of course, is half of your critical range and a little bit of your multiplier. With a keen blade you'd get only 18-20 critical range. It's decent, but it's not as good as the 16-20 you'd get otherwise (i think that's right). The difference between 4x and 5x isn't too huge, though. Basically you'd land criticals 3/5's as often, for 4/5's of the damage. Although... since you're multiplying by a larger number (+6 from epic weapon spec), you're probably actually on par with the old x5 multiplier, so let's just say you hit criticals 3/5's as often and leave it at that. The best part is that all of your non-critical hits gain a big boost, so overall, it's probably relatively comparable damage overall. Since you'll hit more often with 4 more ab, while maintaining that high ac (with epic mage armor and +12 bone skin), and also hit for more base damage, I'd consider this a pretty good trade-off.
(by the way, if you're focusing on dev. critical, why not go with a weapon that has a higher critical range to begin with, like, urm, great sword or heavy flail? Keen greatsword would give you 30% critical chance... 15-20 range... at least i think that's right.)
This version has a lot more flexibility with feats, especially pre-epic, meaning you can probably boost your saves with great fort/light reflex/iron will.
Anyways, at this point it's a huge deviation from your original build, but it's just a suggestion... not really sure what exactly you're looking for. _________________ Have I mentioned I hate IGMS?
Edited By yrtsns on 01/22/05 05:23
Quote: Posted 01/22/05 05:15:15 (GMT) -- yrtsns
(by the way, if you're focusing on dev. critical, why not go with a weapon that has a higher critical range to begin with, like, urm, great sword or heavy flail? Keen greatsword would give you 30% critical chance... 15-20 range... at least i think that's right.)
But the Grim Reaper always carries a Scythe. He wouldn't be the Reaper without it. I could, however, do the fighter levels instead. But if I did that, I'd just make a Fighter/Weapon Master/Blackguard