Playable in PvE from 1-40.

It's too late at night for me to write a story for this one... it came out of a discussion on the general forums about buffing summons with flame weapon and darkfire.

Interestingly you can buff things using creature weapons with flame weapon and darkfire, but if they are using multiple creature weapons (such as two claws and a bite) it will only affect one of the weapons. The flame damage won't show up on their stat sheet but it will show up in combat, which is where it matters hehe.

You can also buff them with greater magic weapon but I didn't see a change on their stat sheet when I did so I'm unsure if it has an effect.

The build theme is to create a caster cleric/shadowdancer who can penetrate SR and use a buffed epic shadow summon as tank. I tried a blackguard version with the epic vrock but I believe the SD version is superior in several respects.

Human, Any Lawful

Str 10
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 16
Cha 8

1 Clr (1): Dodge, Spell Focus Evocation, Trickery, Travel
2 Clr (2):
3 Clr (3): Extend Spell
4 Clr (4): +1 wis
5 Clr (5):
6 Clr (6): Greater Spell Focus Evocation
7 Clr (7):
8 Clr (8): +1 wis
9 Clr (9): Empower Spell
10 Clr (10):
11 Clr (11):
12 Clr (12): Spell Penetration
13 Clr (13):
14 Clr (14):
15 Clr (15): Greater Spell Penetration
16 Clr (16): +1 wis
17 Clr (17):
18 Clr (18): Mobility
19 Clr (19):
20 Clr (20): +1 wis
21 SD (1): Epic Spell Focus Evocation
22 SD (2):
23 SD (3):
24 SD (4): +1 wis, Great Wis 1
25 SD (5):
26 SD (6):
27 SD (7): Great Wis 2
28 Clr (21): +1 wis
29 Clr (22):
30 Clr (23): Epic Spell Penetration, Great Wis 3
31 SD (8):
32 SD (9): +1 wis
33 SD (10): Great Wis 4
34 Clr (24):
35 Clr (25):
36 SD (11): +1 wis, Great Wis 5
37 SD (12):
38 SD (13): Epic Shadowlord
39 Clr (26): Great Wis 6, Epic Spell Greater Ruin*
40 Monk (1): +1 wis

* - optional feat, taken to deal with SR targets.

Max concentration, discipline, tumble, spellcraft. Have enough points left over for mid-30s in hide and MS even though you crossclassed the SD skill reqs.

Ending Vitals:
32 wis

31 AC naked
F 25 R 18 W 33
400 max hp

25 AB in melee

Evocation Spell Save DC 27 + spell level

FAQ:
Q: What can I buff my shadow with?
A: Lots of things. The highlights are PFA, shield of faith, stone bones (he's undead remember!), bless, aid, prayer, darkfire, bull's strength, greater magic weapon (unsure if it actually helps him), improved invisibility, haste...

Offensive buffing is of questionable value because his AB isn't going to be very good - upper 20s to lower 30s if you are very lucky. But giving him defensive buffs on top of his natural immunities and reductions will make him an excellent tank. And with darkfire buffed, when he does hit something it will hurt.

Don't forget that since your shadow is undead, you'll have to heal him using negative energy spells. For undead, healing spells hurt them and the inflict spells, harm, circle of doom, negative energy ray, and so on heal them.

Q: What kind of tactics does this character use then?
A: You have relatively high stealth skills, though not fully maxed ones, and you have HIPs. With stealth gear you can scout reliably (or use greater sanctuary) and so you will usually be able to buff your shadow right before you engage. Good for those round/level spells like haste.

Once he's buffed just send him in first and then use him for cover to cast attack spells as appropriate. Even with full PvP on it's safe to put flame strikes and fire storms right on his head because he's immune to fire and the divine damage of those spells never hurts allies.

However, nothing's immune to Implosion now, and I think storm of vengence and blade barrier might still damage him. You can use Negative Energy Burst to heal your shadow and damage everything around him, too.

You can cast silence on your shadow so that there's a chance any casters near him will get silenced, and don't forget to use word of faith in a tough fight to blind the opposition and give them an additional miss chance.

Q: Why focus in evocation instead of necromancy?
A: Because more attack spells that allow saves in the cleric list are evocation than necromancy. The only save-allowing spell you're likely to use much from the necromancy set is neg energy burst. You'll probably avoid death spells besides implosion in favor of harm, for example.

Q: Is this shadow summoner thing really that worthwhile?
A: I guess that depends on your preferences. This character is a solid caster cleric - you're over the dispel cap, you can penetrate the toolset max SR, and you have a reasonably good ending wisdom and a spell school focus for offensive casting, and your SD abilities give you a lot of defensive capability you'd otherwise lack - such as improved evasion and slippery mind, as well as HIPS.

So you've got a lot of tricks in your bag in addition to being a shadow driver. You just don't have much physical combat ability to speak of, but then, against trivial enemies you can just let your shadow eat them for you.

If you want you can put Zen Archery in the place of Empower Spell, or maybe even Extend Spell, but I went the full-on caster route. Clerics aren't that bad at nuking, but they do suffer from a more limited spell selection.

Q: Why take greater ruin?
A: It's a good fort-save evocation direct damage spell that ignores SR. If you get into a showdown with an SR monk you can use it to ruin his day. HIPS, wait till your shadow's taken a few bites out of him, then unhide and zap him before he realizes he should run.

Good for PvE bosses too.

You can replace it with another cleric bonus feat if you want, you don't strictly need it. But since your shadow is your tank I decided not to go for armor skin.

Q: You said you tried blackguard first... what went wrong?
A: Blackguard didn't really go wrong, it went different and, I think, worse. The trouble is that while SD gets the epic shadowlord at level 13, the blackguard gets the epic vrock at level 16. This doesn't look big on the surface but what it means is that the SD build gets 26 cleric levels and is over the dispel cap. The BG build gets 23 or 24 cleric levels and isn't.

Since the epic vrock is more than a little weaker defensively than the epic shadowlord, and relies more on the summoner's buffing to keep it alive, being under the dispel cap is pretty bad.

The other difference between the builds is that the BG build worked out as a ranged zen archery sneak attacker instead of an offensive caster.

One option if you want to try the BG route is to memorize a lot of dispels yourself, and counterspell enemy casters to try and keep them from dispelling your vrock.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.

Edited By griphook on 12/02/05 20:26

Fascinating build, Xylo. Very, very creative. Nice write up too (as usual). It explains very well the mechanics and optimal implementation of this build.

Nice job!

Kaliban.
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I want my two dollars! I note a funny thing in this build. Will save 33, then add spellcraft, then add max wis buffs +6 which you will probably have. At least 39 will save. And then you have slippery mind!!!! You would have to double roll a 1 to be close to failing a will save.

This guy is sweet, golden and dark(well, shadowy). With all the self buffs of a cleric you won't a total lamer in melee either, but not close to the best melee clerics of course. And there is other ways, like word of faith, great vs dexers with a zillion AC. And the newest patch only gives your saves to defend against implosion. i've read that the epic shadowlord isn't as good as a pure tank as the default shadow. i think that this is due to a lack of concealment. but if you buff with impr invis, i guess that more than makes up for that. interesting idea, buffing the shadow. gives some other builds a load of ideas and abilities. nicely done, as usual.

-c
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"Perception is strong and sight weak. In strategy it is important to see distant things as if they were close and to take a distanced view of close things." - Miyamoto Musashi
Quote: Posted 11/08/05 17:55:20 (GMT) -- christian.schnabel

i've read that the epic shadowlord isn't as good as a pure tank as the default shadow. i think that this is due to a lack of concealment. but if you buff with impr invis, i guess that more than makes up for that. interesting idea, buffing the shadow. gives some other builds a load of ideas and abilities. nicely done, as usual.

-c

Yes, the trickery domain is needed here to improved invis the shadow. Saying that the epic shadow is a weaker tank than the default shadow is sort of misleading... except for the concealment issue, the epic shadow has much-superior stats and over twice the hp as the nonepic shadow.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.