Another build focusing on rakshasa form. It's a bit like I imagine traversec's build would be like but the problem with that one is that all you can do is imagine, it's very poorly documented. So here goes, pulse cap's rakshasa build. It's meant to work well without any fancy items, hence auto-quicken spell. If you can get your hands on perma haste items, I'd suggest combat casting, imp combat casting and perhaps some more shapes. Thanks to GhostNWN who suggested adding in dragon shape, which gives it a reasonable melee presence where tons of ice falling from the sky won't help. Finally note that it gets deflect arrows (and very good ac) to help against the feared blessed bolts.
Race: Human
Abilities: Str 10 Dex 8 Con 16 Int 10 Wis 18(30) Cha 8
Human form: (no equipment) max HP 440 AB 24/21/18/15/12 Damage 1-6 AC 21 saves: Fort 28 (36) Reflex 20 (28) Will 32 (40)
Rakshasa form: max HP 440 AB 32/27/22 Damage 1-6 +8 +1-10 fire AC 47 saves: Fort 30 (41) Reflex 28 (39) Will 34 (45)
Rakshasa form: (with barkskin, owl's insight, aura of vitality, imp expertise) max HP 520 AB 34/29/24 Damage 1-6 +10 +1-10 fire AC 70 saves: Fort 32 (43) Reflex 30 (41) Will 40 (51)
The big question was how to make it playable until you get outsider shape at lvl 24, I chose the classic druid/monk and then shifter towards the end. Feel free to take the pre-epic shifter levels earlier if you like, but make sure you can get all the metamagic feats. At the end you can alternate between three major playing styles; caster druid, ice storm spammer rakshasa, or melee dragon. A nice tactic would be to cover an area in stonehold, storm of vengeance, creeping doom, and whatever AoE spells you have time to fire, then shifting to rakshasa to stand in the thick of it raining down two maxed ice storms per round.
Edited By griphook on 08/20/05 16:03
Quote: Posted 08/18/05 00:46:42 (GMT) -- pulse cap
Skill points: 301
Chalk it up to my Shifter ineptitude, but how so many skill points? That rivals a heavy rogue build. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
Thanks, I had time to edit. It originally had 14 int so it could get the heal and lore skills to 43. It was lowered for some extra con and I forgot to edit that sum.
Looks very nice but if you're wielding a staff (in Rakshasa form) will you be able to deflect arrows? _________________ Teaching men a lesson in combat etiquette.
I hate when this happens, this build is just doomed. I guess I'll just post it as it was before I got fancy ideas about dropping int. (see below)
Race: Human
Abilities: Str 10 Dex 8 Con 14 Int 14 Wis 18(30) Cha 8
Human form: (no equipment) max HP 400 AB 24/21/18/15/12 Damage 1-6 AC 21 saves: Fort 27 (36) Reflex 20 (29) Will 32 (41)
Rakshasa form: max HP 400 AB 32/27/22 Damage 1-6 +8 +1-10 fire AC 47 saves: Fort 29 (41) Reflex 28 (40) Will 34 (46)
Rakshasa form: (with barkskin, owl's insight, aura of vitality, imp expertise) max HP 480 AB 34/29/24 Damage 1-6 +10 +1-10 fire AC 70 saves: Fort 31 (43) Reflex 30 (42) Will 40 (52)
I'd suggest starting with:- STR 10 DEX 10 CON 12 INT 14 WIS 18 CHA 08 You only keep your STR in a couple of forms but my favourite Kobold Commando is 1 of them You keep your own DEX in about a quarter of the forms so I wouldn't nerf it You keep your own CON in about half the forms so thats defnitely the 1 to put spare points in Personally I'd go down the Combat Casting/Improved Combat Casting route but it depends how common Haste tems are where you're playing I suppose _________________ Teaching men a lesson in combat etiquette.
This is a rakshasa build, so a high con is the goal. After 18 wis, 14 int, 14 con I had two points left that I couldn't make use of in either of those three. I chose strength for a bit more carrying capacity and discipline in human form.
The forms I intend for it to use are (in order of importance) rakshasa, human, dragon, slaad, elemental.
At the early levels I'm thinking 1-4 caster druid 5-12 brown bear 13-15 dire boar 16-17 minotaur 18-19 drider 20-23 lizardman/kobold/drow
I believe the minotaur is the only one that preserves dexterity, so I'm pretty happy with the distibution of the physical stats.
OK, we have a problem Huston. It seems the maxxed icestorms on shifter builds are capping around 50-60 damage. Is this a fix on the maxxed icestorm or is the shifter level determining the caster level now? Also, the autoquicken dosn't seem to be firing as fast as hasted. Any thoughts, ideas or people who have tested this and found similar results. I suspect the last patch may have created this as I have testimonials saying their ice was doing 200 a pop before it was released.
OK, we have a problem Huston. It seems the maxxed icestorms on shifter builds are capping around 50-60 damage. Is this a fix on the maxxed icestorm or is the shifter level determining the caster level now? Also, the autoquicken dosn't seem to be firing as fast as hasted. Any thoughts, ideas or people who have tested this and found similar results. I suspect the last patch may have created this as I have testimonials saying their ice was doing 200 a pop before it was released.
I just tested this to be sure, my maxed ice storms do 66 cold damage and 18 blunt, which is exactly what the spell description says they shoud for a lvl 28 caster. Auto-quicken gives me 2 casts per round, just like haste would, I haven't bothered to test if auto-quicken and haste can stack for three casts, because everything I've read indicates that they don't.
Here is a list of what happens when you shift into Raksasha form for those who don't know shifting well.
ST:17 DX:20 CN: IN: WS: CH: AC: 27 (+12 Natural +5 DX) HP: +30 To Hit: BAB+8 Attacks: +5 Rakshasa Staff 1d6+3 (20/x2) +1d10 fire +5 bludgeoning Special: Save Universal +2 True Seeing DR 15/+5 Spell Immunity: 0th through 8th level spells Knockdown, Dodge Dispel Magic, unlimited use Ice Storm, unlimited use Mestil's Acid Breath, unlimited use Discipline +5, Hide +10, Move Silently +11, Spellcraft +15, Spot +10 Blessed weapons will kill you, no saving throw Unarmed: No Merge: Weapon, Armor, Items
Are you taking28 levels of druid for the infinite elemental shape? If not you may want to consider dropping it down to 21 levels of druid and 17 levels of shifter so all your shifter forms are at their epic versions. That helps out a ton for dealing with whatever the situation is in front of you.
Here is an extremely useful link for shifter abilities http://faqs.ign.com/articles/490/490595p1.html _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
Quote: Posted 08/18/05 17:03:16 (GMT) -- Emrill Are you taking28 levels of druid for the infinite elemental shape? If not you may want to consider dropping it down to 21 levels of druid and 17 levels of shifter so all your shifter forms are at their epic versions. That helps out a ton for dealing with whatever the situation is in front of you.
Infinite elemental shape is on lvl 26. I'm taking as much druid as I can to get a more powerful ice storm. I know lvl 27 has the same damage as lvl 28, but 28 helps with beating spell resistance and makes druid buffs a lot harder to dispel.
Ahh I was just wondering if you were shooting for the infinate elemental form and rounding it off on a epic bonus feat level. _________________ Come visit the Epic Builders Guild for all the character info you could ever want or need: Click Here
Looks very nice but if you're wielding a staff (in Rakshasa form) will you be able to deflect arrows?
I have now tested this and it seems deflect arrows works while using a weapon, so it will indeed provide a good defense against blessed bolts.
Edited By pulse cap on 08/21/05 02:30
very handy always seems to be a little unpredictable what will and won't work with shifters _________________ Teaching men a lesson in combat etiquette.
After some further testing I found that deflect arrows only works while in physical combat, not while casting spells or standing around. So I suppose ac will be the only real defense against the bolts after all.
wierd still he has an excellent AC and can cast Ice Storms whilst in Improved Expertise mode right does the blessed weapon have to actually damage the Rakshasa or just hit it to affect it if the former druid buffs like Premonition should help too and when he gets dragon form hes got a nice alternative for dealing with clerics _________________ Teaching men a lesson in combat etiquette.
I think they just need to hit. With an ac of 70 after a few buffing spells this will hopefully be a 1/20 chance, and there is the option of slaad, elemental, and eventually dragon shape, as well as pretty good casting in human form, so hopefully it will work out. In PvM situations blessed weapons should not be an issue unless the AI is really advanced.
Edited By pulse cap on 08/21/05 13:18
Here's a slight different build using 6 lvls of Monk. Gives you Improved KD and some extra speed if you need to high tail out of there. You gain +1 AC at lvl 6 Monk but loose Armor Skin. So in essence you really only loose 1 AC and gain better AB and Imporved KD. I dont know, just my 2 sense.
Animal Empathy 43(42), Concentration 43(45), Discipline 42(41), Heal 43(53), Hide 42(42), Lore 5(7), Spellcraft 43(45), Tumble 40(40)
Am I the only one to think that having 28 druid lvls and no epic spell is odd?
What's the point when you can't get EMA or Epic Warding? _________________ < XmikeW> im glad though.. i used to think that -all- finns were supersmart nerds.. but, after seeing 1) (C) law ..2) your culture minister ..and 3) the äm-irk girls... i can say that you guys are definately typical human beings after all [smile_:-)
Greater Ruin (no SR)or Dragon Knight are worth a feat IMO... and a dragon summoning another dragon is something to be seen
The build has 35 minimum spell penetration power, which should be plenty. I don't think Epic Spells can be cast while shifted? _________________ < XmikeW> im glad though.. i used to think that -all- finns were supersmart nerds.. but, after seeing 1) (C) law ..2) your culture minister ..and 3) the äm-irk girls... i can say that you guys are definately typical human beings after all [smile_:-)
The build has 35 minimum spell penetration power, which should be plenty. I don't think Epic Spells can be cast while shifted?
They are considered feats by the game engine and AFAIK they can be cast while shifted... I kind of remember Zelle talking about hellballing around while in dragon form eh-eh
You can indeed cast epic spells while out of your 'druid' shape. Now if the CEP crowd can just fix the DR issues, dragonshape might be a bit more fun to play ..
Good job Pulse.
My only question is: I was aware about Deflect arrows not functioning out of combat, but since Expertise/Imp Expertise is a combat feat, are you 100% sure it doesn't work when casting in that?
edit: Just noticed old post _________________ The following statement is true. The above statement is false.
Edited By pocketbeetle on 12/06/05 00:45
This is a fun build. I currently have it to level 25 on the PW I play on and it rocks. They have the improved shifter scripts so bracers and tower shields merge. I moved the first monk level to 22 to max my BAB.
It's a little slow pre 24 but worth the wait. Unfortunately, they disabled casting with Imp/Expertise on but 70AC is still nice. _________________ http://www.dormaeglinunderdark.com/
Edited By Talamier on 12/06/05 04:13
I forgot to add one more thing. This build very much needs combat casting and improved combat casting. Yes, he has high AC however, with spamming ice storms you tend to attract a lot of attention and soon you are surrounded with bad guys. This brings up two negatives for the Rakshasa:
1) 5 of his AC is from dex and you lose this while casting because you are flat footed.
2) Every casting invokes an attack of opportunity.
If surrounded and casting lots of spells, the AoO's add up and you will be hit as there's more chances to roll a 20 against you. Imp combat casting is a strong suggestion for improving your survivability. However, where you can fit it in may be a bit tricky. _________________ http://www.dormaeglinunderdark.com/
Quote: Posted 12/06/05 21:58:08 (GMT) -- Talamier 2) Every casting invokes an attack of opportunity. If surrounded and casting lots of spells, the AoO's add up and you will be hit as there's more chances to roll a 20 against you. Imp combat casting is a strong suggestion for improving your survivability. However, where you can fit it in may be a bit tricky.
You've got a good point there. Surprisingly it's not that hard to fit in ICC (and CC prereq).
Lose: Either Extend spell or one of the Expertises pre-epic Either Dragon shape/Epic Spell Penetration or Armour skin (probably worst of bunch) in epic.
ICC can be taken from level 27 onwards (assuming 24 is Rak shape) _________________ Stupidity and laziness annoy me. If my tone seems acerbic then examine your post. If you can find no examples of either, then the conclusion should be obvious.
The build has 35 minimum spell penetration power, which should be plenty. I don't think Epic Spells can be cast while shifted?