Walks a golden path most of the walkway to 40. Useful PvP vs some types of enemies.

For the first part of the story Click Here

Well inside the cavern they could hear voices down ahead. They slowly crept closer, and realized it was some kind of chanting. They had already started the ceremony. They rushed more quickly inside, and found themselves on top of some kind of cliff inside the tavern. Down in the bottom they saw several men, two of them standing out from the others. One of them had his arms raised and chanted. The other one had no armour, but two thin blades at his hips. There were 20-some other men, soldiers like those outside. They didn’t know it, but were probably gonna be offerings to the devil, since they had no guard duty. Brink pointed his hand towards them, his eyes giving of a soft glow. A deep resounding chant came from his lips. The men at the bottom turned around, and the unarmoured one drew his blades and started moving. A ball of Eldritch fire flew from the death knights fingertips and exploded at the bottom of the cavern. Several of the soldiers were burned to crisp immediately and others were rolling on the floor to put out the flames. Sadine was a half-Dragon and also had inherent magical powers, bolts of magical energy struck the warriors with great effect. The man who chanted was seemingly untouched by it all and the other one had disappeared. ”Get down there as quickly as you can!” She yelled and jumped off the cliff. With her armour on she was to heavy to fly, but she could still use her wings to get a soft fall. Brink started on a path down, seeing that the remainder of the soldiers had engaged Sadine in battle, trying to keep her from their master. Halfway down Brink suddenly felt a sting in his left side. He acted from instincts developed from years in combat, and did a backsweep with his shield followed by a couple of blows to gain distance to the threat. A man with two blades stood in front of him, surprised. He had been waiting and attacked from the shadows, expecting first blood. Brink attacked with all his skills, utilizing advanced maneuvers and blows. The thin man ducked, dodged, parried and countered when he found openings, connecting two blows in Brinks body. His armour and undead body took most of the effect off the blows, but Brink knew he was in trouble. He went about a more defensive style trying to find an opening or a weakness in his opponent, who in turn used his blades furiously to find openings. His blades bit into the Death knight time and again, and even though it didn’t slow him any, he knew it was a matter of time before even his body would be left of energy. He had been pressed halfway back up the slope, when he started to notice that the attacks were slowing just a tad. Brink suddenly saw his chance, and started a tough offensive not really trying to connect a blow, but forcing his opponent to use his energy on parrying and dodging, slowly wearing him out. Brink was undead, he didn’t tire, but in moments his opponents had more and more trouble coping with Brink. A glimmer of fear flickered over the blademasters face in an instant before Brink plunged his sword through the mans heart. He realized how serious his injuries were, but that would get attention later, he turned and saw how Sadine fared.

Moments earlier….
Sadine flapped her wings to slow her fall, and cast a spell to flame her weapon. She hit the ground and took a moment to fuse her muscles with even greater strength. The few soldiers who still had a fighting spirit met a golden amazon whose flaming blade wreaked havoc among them. Her blows so mighty she cleaved their shields, and strikes so true that she finished them in what seemed only a matter of moments. Her attention immediately turned on the man who were summoning the prisoner. She slashed with all her might across his back, but he didn’t even flinch. His chants continued, and she knew the devil was empowering him. She concentrated on a spell to weaken his enchantments and hoped it would work. She dropped her blade and shield and took one arm around the mans neck, the other around his head and wrestled with all her might, trying to break his neck. Pain shot through her, but she didn’t care she knew this was her only chance. At first she thought it was futile, but moments later she felt his head bend slightly. Pain shot even harder through her and she almost fainted. Then she noticed that he had stopped chanting and his hands were desperately grasping her arms. The pain was so great her legs no longer had any strength, and her vision was all red and blurry. She gave all she had left in her arms and finally the pain let go. She sank down on the ground and saw her opponent on the ground, lifeless, his neck broken. She looked up the Cliffside and just managed to see the Deathknight finish his opponent. She sighed in relief. They had made it. She looked upon the knight and realized she was fascinated by him. Perhaps we should try a way to lift his curse, she thought. But that will have to wait. For now, she realized, I really need rest ….

I build I came up with as I wrote the story, almost a sidekick to the Deathknight. And besides, the story got so long it felt right to share it between two builds. This one is unique to.

Human, LG for the theme. Actually, any non-evil works.

STR 16(34)
DEX 8
CON 12(14)
WIS 8
INT 14(16)
CHA 16(20)

1:Sorc: Weapon prof: Martial; Expertise
2:Sorc:
3:Sorc: WF: longsword
4:Sorc: CHA(17)
5:Sorc5:
6:RDD: KDown
7:RDD:
8:RDD: CHA(18)
9:RDD: Imp.Expertise
10:RDD5:
11:Sorc6:
12:RDD6: Still spell; STR(21)
13:CoT:
14:CoT2: Armour prof: Heavy
15:RDD: Spell penetration
16:RDD8: STR(22)
17:Sorc:
18:Sorc8: Greater spell penetration
19:CoT:
20:CoT4: Blind fight; STR(23)
21:RDD: GrSTR I(24)
22:RDD10:
23:Sorc:
24:Sorc10: Epic spell penetration; STR(29)
25:Sorc:
26:Sorc:
27:Sorc: GrSTR II(30)
28:Sorc: STR(31)
29:Sorc15:
30:Sorc: Armor Skin
31:Sorc:
32:Sorc18: STR(32)
33:CoT: Auto still spell I
34:CoT6: IC:Longsword
35:CoT:
36:CoT8:Auto Still spell II; EWF:longsword; STR(33)
37:CoT:
38:Sorc:
39:Sorc20: Auto Still Spell III
40:CoT10: Epic prowess; STR(34)

AB: Mundane longsword
40/35/30, with max STR, Haste and Truestrike, 66/61/56/66

Dmg: mundane longsword
1d8+12 (17-20/x2), can buff with keen edge, bulls, flame weapon, true strike, GMW.

AC: naked/mundane FP+Tower
19/31. Buff with mage armor, shield, Cats grace

hp: 344 (not much, but it’s okay for a spellblade) +40-80 with endurance

Saves
Fort 29
Ref 22
Will 27, note that all saves are +9 vs spells.

Skills 234
Concentration 42(44)
Discipline 43(55)
Lore 8(11) for RDD
Spellcraft 42(45)
Spot 43(42)
Tumble 20(19)

Spot won’t be too useful, perhaps x-class a few rogue skills instead, and you got true seeing if you want.

Spell slots 0-9
6/8/7/7/7/7/6/6/6/6

Spells known 0-9
7/5/5/4/4/4/3/3/3/3

Spell list, similar to my other sorcerer spellblades, but needs to be present
highest recommended listed first
1:Mage armor, True strike, Prot from alignment, shield, magic misl, identify
2:Tough choices here, your environ will decide much: Ultravision, B’s STR, C’s Grace, Endurance, Death armor, Flame wep, invis, darkness, Eagle’ splendour
3: Haste, Magic circ ag align, Vampiric touch, Displacement, flame arrow and keen edge + GMW if you can’t find any better.
4: Imp Invis, Element shield, lesser spell breach, Ice storm, stoneskin(at least a while, switch when useless)
5: Lesser mind blank, lesser spell mantle, Mestils acid sheath, Bigby’s interposing, Energy buffer, dismissal(summons don’t have to good saves)
6:Mass haste(if no perma-haste), greater spell breach, True seeing, bigbys forceful, Stone to flesh, IGMS, (Greater stoneskin, probably useless)
7: Spell mantle, Bigbys grasping, Shadow shield, Finger of death(seen the fort save of rogues?)
8 Greater sanct, Mind blank, Bigbys clenched, horrid wilting
9: Timestop, Mord’s disjunct, Bigbys crushing, Shapechange, Black Blade (might hit autofail on 1)


Feat distribution quite similar to the Deathknight, but the theme here is a half-gold (To bad it isn’t implemented) Champion of Torm. Her inherent dragonblood gives her arcane powers. A great asset in this spellblade is her AB of 40 and her okay damage. As all spellblades, use long-lasting melee buffs, and pepper your enemies with a few non-savers, bigbys and IGMS for starters, get your damaging shields up and wade in. If you fight high AB opponents, turn on improved expertise to minimise crits against you, and let your shields and spells do the job.

In some setting fighter might be better, but your saves will be as good as Wile E. Coyotes and you can’t take the punishment he can. You have a 25% chance of being dispelled at most, and have a 75% chance to penetrate default SR. Monks won’t be problem, use melee force, shields and summons(Black blade of disaster).

I’ve put some effort into her, let me know how you feel about this. What's not entirely obvious from just looking at this post is the difficulty in fitting in Auto Still I-III at the end: Requires Level 9 Spells which means 18 levels of Sorc and 19 CHA - which in turn is dependent on the +2 CHA from RDD 10.
It isn't at all easy, so nice one Grimnir for working around that.

Given this build's a bit more complex, rather than listing potential changes, I've just dumped the output into this post and will comment at the end. I would suggest you put it into a builder and then flick between the two - it makes the little changes more obvious.

The improvements are relatively minor - and so I apologise for the length of this feedback.
They don't really merit it.

STR: 16 (36)
DEX: 8
CON: 12 (14)
WIS: 8
INT: 14 (16)
CHA: 16 (19)

Hitpoints: 344
Skillpoints: 234
Saving Throws (Fortitude/Will/Reflex): 30/27/23
BAB: 25
AB (max, naked): 41 (melee), 24 (ranged)
AC (naked/mundane armor/shield only): 19/30

Concentration 42(44),
Discipline 43(56),
Heal 16(15), <--- spare ones
Lore 8(11),
Spellcraft 42(45),
Spot 43(42),
Tumble 20(19)


01: Sorcerer(1): Knockdown, Expertise
02: Sorcerer(2)
03: Sorcerer(3): Weapon Focus: Mace
04: Sorcerer(4): CHA+1, (CHA=17)
05: Sorcerer(5)
06: Red Dragon Disciple(1): Still Spell
07: Red Dragon Disciple(2): (STR=18)
08: Red Dragon Disciple(3): STR+1, (STR=19)
09: Red Dragon Disciple(4): Improved Expertise, (STR=21)
10: Red Dragon Disciple(5)
11: Sorcerer(6)
12: Red Dragon Disciple(6): STR+1, Spell Penetration, (STR=22)
13: Champion of Torm(1)
14: Champion of Torm(2): Armor Proficiency Heavy
15: Red Dragon Disciple(7): Weapon Focus: Longsword, (CON=16)
16: Red Dragon Disciple(8): STR+1, (STR=23)
17: Champion of Torm(3): CT: (Smite Evil)
18: Champion of Torm(4): Greater Spell Penetration, Improved Critical: Longsword
19: Champion of Torm(5)
20: Champion of Torm(6): STR+1, Blind Fight, (STR=24)
21: Red Dragon Disciple(9): Epic Weapon Focus: Longsword, (INT=14)
22: Red Dragon Disciple(10): RDD: (Darkvision), (STR=28), (CHA=19)
23: Sorcerer(7)
24: Sorcerer(8): STR+1, Epic Spell Penetration, (STR=29)
25: Sorcerer(9)
26: Sorcerer(10)
27: Sorcerer(11): Armor Skin
28: Sorcerer(12): STR+1, (STR=30)
29: Champion of Torm(7)
30: Sorcerer(13): Great Strength I, (STR=31)
31: Sorcerer(14)
32: Sorcerer(15): STR+1, (STR=32)
33: Sorcerer(16): Great Strength II, (STR=33)
34: Sorcerer(17)
35: Sorcerer(18)
36: Champion of Torm(8): STR+1, Automatic Still Spell I, Automatic Still Spell II, (STR=34)
37: Champion of Torm(9)
38: Sorcerer(19)
39: Sorcerer(20): Great Strength III, (STR=35)
40: Champion of Torm(10): STR+1, Automatic Still Spell III, (STR=36)


Comments
I don't agree with all the points above myself - just giving you options.

Quote: 
If you fight high AB opponents, turn on improved expertise to minimise crits against you,
Not forgetting casting are you?

Overall
A very interesting build, made me think quite a bit.
Effectiveness vs the standard FTR/WIZ/ Spellsword? Unsure.


Sidenote: What happened in your other PM build, one minute there's 7 replies the next 1 (now 3), someone get a bit OT?
_________________
Some Forum Members believe respect is a right and should be freely given.
Myself: I work on a point-buy system, and today my friend you're all out of credit... This is what I call feedback. It's the little things that matters. Epic Warding would be real nice, and yes, I would perhaps used it. Imp.Expertise vs high AB opponents is of course to start maiming them with spells to, thanks. Taking 6 CoT pre-epic was what i originally planned , but i thought I couldn't fit Auto still 3 in there. Is that on the CoT feat list? I thought it wasn't, but one is learning every day. 1 extra CHA like you said, gives 1 extra lvl 1 and 5 spells. Not necessary.

As for the PM build, I don't know, i didn't know. Someone probably posted the same post many times.

Edit: You don't need still spell until lvl 12, since you can't wear armour until lvl 13.
Cheers.

Edited By Grimnir77 on 01/17/06 06:33