Dith’Xiretrea, barked an order to one of the low caste males, that had been sent with her on this raiding mission. As she brushed a silver hair away from her face with a delicate ebony hand, she winced at its coldness. She did not like the cold draft of these high vaulted Dwarven halls, she much preferred the warmth of the deep underdark. She did not appreciate either the light that eminated from the magically enchanted stone globes that were held by stone dwarves, who quietly kept their solemn duty in their recessed niches. Still her Matron had requested the helm from a dead Dwarven king. It had been a simple task for one of her skill to secret herself and her small contingent of warriors into the Hall of Cairns. She was surprised that they had met such little resistance. There were no guards at the entrance of the hall and the only resistance that they had encountered was a few weak undead, nothing that a priestess of Lolth could not handle. If she had been more insightful she might have wondered why there were undead in a Dwarven cemetery, but she was young and unfamiliar with such things. Now she was waiting for these interminably slow males to break the seal and remove the stones that covered the sarcophagus of the king. She was surprised they still called it the hall of Cairns, some throwback to when they still lived above ground she supposed. Some of the poorer graves she had passed had consisted of cleanly hewn pits, covered with rubble, but most of the noble graves were well made sarcophagi. As she looked down the hall at seemingly endless rows of graves, periodically broken by a structural column, she felt somewhat agoraphobic at the vastness of her surroundings.
She heard a piercing shriek which drew her attention back to her comrades. As she spun, she saw her mage stand oddly upright a sharp piece of metal protruding from his chest as blood cascaded down the front of his richly embroidered brocade robe. With the instantly recognizable grating sound of steel on bone, the blade was withdrawn and the mage slumped to ground. Behind the mage stood a four foot armored figure, his blackened armor glistened in the mage-light of the hall. In his right hand he held the implement of death, a scimitar, the left side of his body was obscured by a shield that was as large as he was. As he spoke a flat emotionless voice, that seemed to be both a scream and a whisper issued forth from the recesses of his helm, “You killed my servants, this will not do. No, it will not do at all. You will have to serve me now.” Dith’Xiretrea was further chilled, the voice seemed at once natural and disembodied. She shook away her fear, and ordered her men to attack. Their poisoned bolts bounced off of the body the armored warrior, as he issued a whistle. A horde of undead crawled out of their hiding places, behind cairns and hidden in shadows. Some of them were the skeletons, like the ones she had disposed of earlier, though she thought she saw a few ghouls as well. With a wave of his scimitar, the warrior directed the moaning horde towards the Drow males.
As he motioned with his scimitar, he moved his shield away from his body to reveal an unnaturally while skeletal arm. Dith’Xiretrea drew her shield as the warrior advanced towards her, was this figure undead? She said a prayer to her dark goddess, sending a bolt of light streaking toward the target. As the bolt struck the warrior, he laughed and continued to advance, now accelerating in a full run toward the Priestess. Dith’Xiretrea drew her flail and lashed out at the charging Dwarf. The figure parried with his scimitar, letting the chain of the flail wrap around the blade. Their weapons entagled, the warrior pulled the Drow towards him with his weapon arm, while he rammed his shield against her legs with his free arm. The maneuver sent the priestess crashing face first to the ground. Dith’Xiretrea coughed and choked on the mixture of blood and teeth that filled mouth, as she struggled to get to her feet. The sharp pain of the scimitar as it slid into her back and pierced her heart felt like a merciful release. The soldier of death had come to claim her.
Not all who seek to master the deathless arts do so for longevity or knowledge. Some seek a strength of arms that the living can never match. The Soldier of Death has sacrificed a part of his soul to gain a connection to the dead. He has fostered this mark of undeath and in return he has recieved all of their strengths and none of their weaknesses.
This is one of the 8 builds (including the three posted) that I submitted to Jay for the Epic builds (I might make a lot of builds, but I've submitted very few). When I first did this build, I felt the wizard levels were better than bard levels, because you could still learn spells and some of the wizard spells even with a caster level of 4 can be fairly powerful. After making the Doom Skald I feel that build is stronger, but this build still is quite powerful.
Advantages
-Devastating Critical with a 40 DC. With a 15-20 critical threat range (12-20 with a keen weapon), he has good chance of scoring a critical hit and with a 40 DC very few enemies who are vulnerable to critical hits will survive. -Immunity to Critical Hits. He is immune to devastating critical and the extra damage inflicted by critical hits. He is immune to sneak attacks as well. -Epic Warding. With the low caster level, it doesn't last long but coupled with the immunity to critical hits it makes him virtually immune to physical attacks. -6 levels of Wizard Spells. He has a low caster level, so the spells are not powerful, but there are several spells that are useful. -Immunity to hold, paralysis and stun effects. With his low will save, this is an useful ability. -Over 500 hitpoints. For a character that has 16 levels of palemaster and 4 levels of wizard, this is very good. For a pure fighter this would be an acceptable hitpoint total -Good AC. He has a base AC of 34 without any buffs, a tower shield and full plate armor. With +5 equipment and buffing spells (+5 full plate, +5 tower shield, +5 amulet of natural armor, +5 ring of protection, +5 boots of hardiness, Haste, Mage Armor, Cat's Grace) he can manage an AC of 66. -Good Saving Throws Vs. Spells. Thanks to spellcraft and his dwarven bonuses he has a good chance to make his saving throws vs. spells.
Disadvantages
-Low damage per hit. Against opponents who are immune to critical hits, he can't do much damage. Having a slashing weapon (slashing damage is commonly resisted by constructs and undead) doesn't help matters. -Low AB. At 42, this will not be good enough for a high magic server. Still, this is pretty good for this mix of classes. -Low saving throws. As mentioned above he does well against spells, but against things like dragon fear auras he can have problems, though he can cast mind blank.
Soldier of Death
Race Dwarf
Alignment True Neutral
Base Attributes STR 16 DEX 8 CON 18 WIS 8 INT 16 CHA 6
Final Level Distribution Fighter 20 Pale Master 16 Wizard 4
Feats Level 1: Weapon Focus (Scimitar), Luck of Heroes Level 2: Knockdown Level 3: Toughness Level 4: Weapon Specialization (Scimitar) Level 6: Iron Will Level 7: Blind Fight Level 9: Improved Critical (Scimitar), Lightning Reflexes Level 12: Improved Knockdown, Great Fortitude Level 14: Power Attack Level 15: Still Spell Level 17: Cleave Level 18: Extend Spell Level 19: Great Cleave Level 21: Epic Weapon Focus (Scimitar) Level 24: Great Strength I Level 27: Overwhelming Critical (Scimitar) Level 30: Great Strength II, Epic Weapon Specialization (Scimitar) Level 33: Devatating Critical (Scimitar) Level 36: Great Strength III, Energy Resistance (Fire) Level 39: Great Strength IV, Epic Spell (Epic Warding) Level 40: Epic Prowess
Final Attributes STR 30 DEX 8 CON 18 WIS 8 INT 16 CHA 6
Hit Points (max every level) 535
Final Saves (Vs. Spells) Fortitude 28 (39) Reflexes 18 (29) Will 21 (32)
AB and damage (Normal scimitar, no buffs) 42/37/32/27 16+1D6 (15-20 x2) Devastating Critical DC 40
(+12 to STR, +5 keen scimitar) 53/48/43/38 27+1D6 (12-20 x2) Devastating Critical DC 46
AC 34 (normal full plate, tower shield, no buffs) 64 (+5 full plate, +5 tower shield, +5 amulet of natural armor, +5 ring of protection, +3 boots of hardiness, Haste, Mage Armor, Cat's Grace)