The concept of this build is to balance between having a good attack and an reasonable AC for a Shifter.
It intended more for PvM and to marginally overcome specific dmg reduction than some spawns have, such as 20/- to slash.

AC would still be much better using Monk as a 3rd class, but I feel this build makes better use of the Humanoid and Greater Wildshape abilities.
With the shapes having unlimited shift this means it is possible to unshift cast divine favour and shift again.

It is not Min-maxed to maintain playability at lower levels, but if you want it can be done to reduce Dex/Int/Constitution to improve charisma.

Stats:
Race: Human
Str 14
Dex 10
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 14

Domains in order of preference (select 2 of the 3);
1. Trickery (Improved Invisibility, limited enhancement to rogue skills)
2. Travel (For haste, AC stats below include extended haste)
3. War (Cats Grace and Aura of vitality further increase AC and AB, replace Travel with this if haste items are avaible). War domain spells are not include in the below stats.

Leveling Guide
1 Cleric 1 - Weapon proficiency martial, and Toughness
2 Cleric 2
3 Cleric 3 - Power attack
4 Cleric 4
5 Cleric 5
6 Cleric 6 - Extend Spell
7 Cleric 7
8 Cleric 8
9 Cleric 9 - Divine shield
10 Cleric 10
11 Cleric 11
12 Cleric 12 - Divine might
13 Druid 1
14 Druid 2
15 Druid 3 - Alertness
16 Druid 4
17 Druid 5
18 Shifter 1 - Empower spell
19 Shifter 2
20 Shifter 3
21 Shifter 4 - Blind Fight
22 Shifter 5
23 Shifter 6
24 Shifter 7 - Armour skin
25 Shifter 8
26 Shifter 9
27 Shifter 10 - Undead shape
28 Cleric 13
29 Cleric 14
30 Shifter 11 - Great Wisdom
31 Shifter 12
32 Shifter 13 - Bonus choose any energy resist (improved wildshape 2)
33 Cleric 15 - Great Charisma
34 Cleric 16
35 Cleric 17
36 Cleric 18 - Great Charisma
37 Shifter 14
38 Shifter 15 (Improved wildshape 3)
39 Shifter 16 - Great Charisma, Bonus choose an epic energy resist
40 Shifter 17 (Improved humanoid)

Stat selection;
Wis at 4,8,12
Charisma at 16,20,24,28,32,36,40

Skills;
Make sure 20 is in Tumble for +4 AC, 39 in Spellcraft, and put the rest wherever.

End Stats;
Str 14
Dex 10
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 20
Cha 24 - Use Empower Eagle Splendour to increase it

Spell Buffed AB for some shapes (from combat logs not sheet);
Drow +52
Kobold Commando +52
Minotour +49
Dire tiger +49
Risen lord +51

1. Cast Extended Divine Power before other STR buff spells for best AB results (raises STR to 18)
2. Above AB is without the bonus of Empowered Bull str that will add +1 to +3 to the attack

Buffed AC for some shapes;
Drow 48
Kobold Commando 48
Minotour 38
Dire tiger 41
Risen Lord 39

1. Using Divine shield the AC maxes out at 51

Additional Dmg;
Divine Might +8 divine minimum (use items to increase charisma)
Divine favour +5 magical
Battletide +2 magical
Power attack +5 (-5 to the above AB if used)

It not intended that Divine Shield and Divine Might are used in every battle, however if required change one of the feats to get Extra Turning.

It possible to balance the spells for playing as a cleric and also buffing to melee as a shifter, hopefully providing a bit more flexibility. Ahh, my friend! Nice build. See you in cw.


Peace,a nd long live the Truth!
Quote: Posted 02/16/05 14:15:18 (GMT) -- lala_truthsayer

The concept of this build is to balance between having a good attack and an reasonable AC for a Shifter.
It intended more for PvM and to marginally overcome specific dmg reduction than some spawns have, such as 20/- to slash.

AC would still be much better using Monk as a 3rd class, but I feel this build makes better use of the Humanoid and Greater Wildshape abilities.
With the shapes having unlimited shift this means it is possible to unshift cast divine favour and shift again.

It is not Min-maxed to maintain playability at lower levels, but if you want it can be done to reduce Dex/Int/Constitution to improve charisma.

Stats:
Race: Human
Str 14
Dex 10
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 16
Cha 14

Domains in order of preference (select 2 of the 3);
1. Trickery (Improved Invisibility, limited enhancement to rogue skills)
2. Travel (For haste, AC stats below include extended haste)
3. War (Cats Grace and Aura of vitality further increase AC and AB, replace Travel with this if haste items are avaible). War domain spells are not include in the below stats.

Leveling Guide
1 Cleric 1 - Weapon proficiency martial, and Toughness
2 Cleric 2
3 Cleric 3 - Power attack
4 Cleric 4
5 Cleric 5
6 Cleric 6 - Extend Spell
7 Cleric 7
8 Cleric 8
9 Cleric 9 - Divine shield
10 Cleric 10
11 Cleric 11
12 Cleric 12 - Divine might
13 Druid 1
14 Druid 2
15 Druid 3 - Alertness
16 Druid 4
17 Druid 5
18 Shifter 1 - Empower spell
19 Shifter 2
20 Shifter 3
21 Shifter 4 - Blind Fight
22 Shifter 5
23 Shifter 6
24 Shifter 7 - Armour skin
25 Shifter 8
26 Shifter 9
27 Shifter 10 - Undead shape
28 Cleric 13
29 Cleric 14
30 Shifter 11 - Great Wisdom
31 Shifter 12
32 Shifter 13 - Bonus choose any energy resist (improved wildshape 2)
33 Cleric 15 - Great Charisma
34 Cleric 16
35 Cleric 17
36 Cleric 18 - Great Charisma
37 Shifter 14
38 Shifter 15 (Improved wildshape 3)
39 Shifter 16 - Great Charisma, Bonus choose an epic energy resist
40 Shifter 17 (Improved humanoid)

Stat selection;
Wis at 4,8,12
Charisma at 16,20,24,28,32,36,40

Skills;
Make sure 20 is in Tumble for +4 AC, 39 in Spellcraft, and put the rest wherever.

End Stats;
Str 14
Dex 10
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 20
Cha 24 - Use Empower Eagle Splendour to increase it

Spell Buffed AB for some shapes (from combat logs not sheet);
Drow +52
Kobold Commando +52
Minotour +49
Dire tiger +49
Risen lord +51

1. Cast Extended Divine Power before other STR buff spells for best AB results (raises STR to 18)
2. Above AB is without the bonus of Empowered Bull str that will add +1 to +3 to the attack

Buffed AC for some shapes;
Drow 48
Kobold Commando 48
Minotour 38
Dire tiger 41
Risen Lord 39

1. Using Divine shield the AC maxes out at 51

Additional Dmg;
Divine Might +8 divine minimum (use items to increase charisma)
Divine favour +5 magical
Battletide +2 magical
Power attack +5 (-5 to the above AB if used)

It not intended that Divine Shield and Divine Might are used in every battle, however if required change one of the feats to get Extra Turning.

It possible to balance the spells for playing as a cleric and also buffing to melee as a shifter, hopefully providing a bit more flexibility.

I was actually working on a build like this myself, so I'll comment on this one.

First of all, it seems a little "inefficient" in terms of saves and AB to take Cleric 12/Druid 5/Shifter 3 pre-epic. Generally speaking, when you are taking moderate-BAB classes (all 3 classes above are moderate BAB, check the table in the back of the manual), you want to take them in multiples of 4. Meaning that you'd do better to do something like Cleric 16/Druid 4, or Cleric 8/Druid 8/Shifter 4, or something like that.

Second, you get more skill points if you take Druid as your first level, although I have heard that the first class chosen is the one that counts as your caster level when casting spells in shifted form. Still, the only form that you'll likely be using to cast would be Illithid, so I probably would put Druid first for the extra skill points.

Also, I really don't think it's worth it to gimp your stats in order to get a decent Cha score. My recommendation would be that if you want to do a Cha build, start with your stats like this:

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

Not the most Uber setup, but it IS efficient, in that you get the highest total stat points at creation. Next, pump 5 points into Wisdom and 5 points into Cha. Then, take a few Great Cha feats (3 to be exact) and you will have an ending Cha of 22, only 2 points lower than before, and you just gained +4 Con and +2 Int (lost a point of Wis though; oh well).

Also, I would go into a little more detail about your skills; I generally don't just put stuff "wherever". Useful skills include Concentration, Discipline, Hide, Move Silently, Heal, Tumble, Spellcraft, Search, and even Lore or Animal Empathy.

Note that Hide and Move Silently are useful primarily in shifted form (think Kobold Commando) as you will be wearing armor in human form. If you want to revise the build I would calculate your total skill points and then figure out where you want to put them.

Another thing I don't quite understand is why you don't go for more Epic shapes. Sure, you would have to drop your Cha a little to get the requisite Wisdom (25 Wis, 16 Cha, assuming you use the starting stats I posted above), but you could easily get Outsider Shape, which would give you the Rakshasa form which makes you IMMUNE to all spells of 8th lvl or lower (also can cast Dispel Magic, Ice Storm, and Mestil's Acid breath an unlimited # of times).

Alternatively, if you want to focus on the Risen Lord shape, you really only need 10 Shifter levels (theoretically you need to be an Epic Shifter, but you can actually take 1 Epic shape on the 10th level as long as you meet the other requirements).

Thus, you could do something like Druid 15/Cleric 15/Shifter 10, and end up with a lot more spells, a stonger animal companion, and what not. Since you would only be getting 8th lvl spells with this build you could drop your Wis to 18, which would free up a point or two for other things.

Additionally, you could even go for Dev. Crit. if you wanted it. Granted, you'd only have a 10% chance of threatening a critical each attack (unless you were to find a scythe with the Keen property on it, or find someone to cast Keen Edge for you), but it would still make you dangerous since you could potentially kill an opponent in one shot as long as they weren't Crit Immune (and of course you would be).

Of course, you'd have to drop your Cha in order to raise your Str, so you couldn't really make effective use of Divine Might/Power if you went this route, but it still might be worth it.

Additionally, if you went Druid 15/Cleric 15/Shifter 10, you could cast Extended Aura of Vitality as an 8th lvl Druid spell, meaning you wouldn't even need the War Domain to get all the buffs you wanted.

If you wanted to be REALLY agressive, you could drop your Cha down to 8 or 10 and get ALL the Epic forms, including Outsider, Construct, Undead, and Dragon form. That way, you could make good use of your Epic Shifter feats rather than spending them on Energy Resistance (BTW, you DO know that you can take Great Wisdom on Epic Shifter feats, right?). CrispyCritter .
I think you and I will have to agree to disagree
The build I have done is to use unlimited shapes combined with the benefits of cleric.
What you have provided are various alternatives but I do not see how they would get the same attack, AC, and damage that is the intention of this build.

I dont see how it is in-efficient when I can average +50 AB, 50 AC, and combine 17 divine and magical damage for all greater wildshapes,humanoid and undead.
The attack for Drow is 52/52/52/47/42 without empowered Bull strength.... Pretty good I would say
The only downside is the use of only 3 undead, but at least I can use the other shapes now.

While the use of the 12/5/3 is pretty bad, it means that its possible to play the class without being crazily weakened and is needed to get Undead at level 27.
The combination as it stands also ensures no exp penalties will occur while levelling 10 shifter levels.

Regarding saves, well there are the cleric spells and the shapes to help there.

Edited By lala_truthsayer on 02/16/05 20:34