First of all, I prefer melee characters over the others. This is why I wanted a char who has a nice ab, nice ac, can survive some spells and the bad-bad sneakies cannot kill him easily. I think he is good in PvP, but not good against mages. But hey, if you want to kill a (nearly) pure sorc, just build one. I do not like the Timestop / IGMS / Bigby style, sorry.
The char needs a VERY big alignment change from Lawful Good to Neutral (or Chaotic) Evil. Btw if you want to RP him, you will have a hard time (what will you say when your newly became chaotic evil char casts Divine Favor, eh?)
On the search engine are mainly Paladin / Bard / PM chars with more paladin levels (like 20) or more PM levels (like 28), so I don’t link any of those builds.
Human, Lawful Good [alignment change at lvl 12: neutral/chaotic, you can change here to evil too and you dont have to do it on lvl 20]
Playable from lvl 1-40 PvM and PvP (except those mages)
Stats (dont laugh) STR 14 (26) DEX 8 CON 14 WIS 14 INT 14 CHA 14
(Why? CHA 14 for lvl 4 bard spells, WIS 14 for enough Paladin spells, INT 14 for enough skill points, CON 14 to have HP [he still has low HP though] and left to STR, which is amazingly 14)
Leveling order
1) Paladin(1): Weapon Focus: Scimitar, Power Attack, P: (Divine Health, Lay on Hands) 2) Paladin(2): P: (Aura of Courage, Smite Evil) 3) Paladin(3): Toughness, P: (Turn Undead) 4) Paladin(4): STR+1, (STR=15) 5) Paladin(5) 6) Paladin(6): Divine Shield 7) Paladin(7) 8) Paladin(8): STR+1, (STR=16) 9) Paladin(9): Improved Critical: Scimitar 10) Paladin(10) 11) Paladin(11) 12) Paladin(12): STR+1, Blind Fight, (STR=17) 13) Bard(1): Ba: (Bard Song, Bardic Knowledge) 14) Bard(2) 15) Bard(3): Still Spell 16) Bard(4): STR+1, (STR=18) 17) Bard(5) 18) Bard(6): Curse Song 19) Bard(7) 20) Bard(8): STR+1, (STR=19) 21) Pale Master(1): Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar, PM: (Bone Skin) 22) Pale Master(2) 23) Pale Master(3): PM: (Darkvision) 24) Pale Master(4): STR+1, Epic Prowess, (STR=20) 25) Pale Master(5) 26) Pale Master(6) 27) Pale Master(7): Armor Skin, PM: (Tough as Bone) 28) Pale Master(8): STR+1, (STR=21) 29) Pale Master(9) 30) Pale Master(10): Great Strength I, PM: (Deathless Mastery), (STR=22) 31) Pale Master(11) 32) Pale Master(12): STR+1, (STR=23) 33) Pale Master(13): Great Strength II, Epic Energy Resistance: Acid I, (STR=24) 34) Pale Master(14) 35) Pale Master(15) 36) Pale Master(16): STR+1, Epic Spell: Epic Mage Armor, Epic Spell: Epic Warding, (STR=25) 37) Bard(9) 38) Bard(10) 39) Bard(11): Epic Skill Focus: Taunt 40) Bard(12): STR+1, (STR=26)
BAB: +28 AB with mundane scimitar: +40 Buffed AB (no magic items): 40 + 4 (Divine Favor) + 4 (GMW) + 1 (Bless) + 1 (Aid) + 1 (Prayer) + 2 (Song) = +53 Buffed AB (with high level magic items) 53 + Strength magical modifier +6 = +59
Full attack sequence fully buffed: +59 / +54 / +49 / +44 / +59 (note: it is easier to hit the enemy because of the Curse song (-2 AC) and Taunt (-6 AC))
Buffed AC (no magical items): AC 72 (calculation: 40 + 20 (Epic Mage Armor) + 1 (Mage Armor) + 4 (Haste) + 2 (Song) + 4 (Divine Shield buffed with Aura of Glory) + 1 (Dex from Cat’s Grace) = 72
Assuming best items (PvP environment server)(I mean +5 AC items under best) 72 + 5 (Magical Shield) + 5 (Maxed dexterity) + 4 (Charisma buffed and Divine Shield used [note: just reached the +20 dodge AC] = 86 AC
Using Curse song reduces enemy AB by -2, so you can think of your AC a bit higher (88 vs. enemy’s normal attack)
Additional: The character can cast some nice spells, and he ignores all arcane spell failure while using the still spell feat (note: it has lvl 4 bard spells, but they are NOT stilled, meaning you have 95% arcane spell failure if you try to cast it while wearing your gear. One of them is Improved Invisibility, so if not PvP, remove your armor / shield, cast it then re-equip items. Also, you can cast the spell Displacement, giving you 50% concealment bonus. Note: This spell doesn't have a somatic component, so you can cast it while wearing full armor and shield, ignoring arcane spell failure. [nwnwiki]) This little melee has immunity to stun, hold, paralyze, fear, critical hit and sneak attack (if I want to be „optimist”, you have immunity to mind-affecting spells too from Protection from Alignment). Can cast Darkness + Ultravision combo, (here’s the 3rd version to gain 50% concealment, plus enemy becomes flat-footed), have bard / curse song, Epic Warding, nice crit range aaaand this is all I can think of now. Weakness? Low HP (444) [even with +12 con boosting items, it is 684. Yikes!]
I’m eagerly waiting for your comments
(NOTE: Certainly you can swap leveling order in epic to gain bard skills faster)
Praetor _________________ "I will be the last...and you will go first!" Sarevok, Child of Bhaal
Edited By Kail Pendragon on 01/20/07 02:15
This is a really neat concept, and love the name (as well as the class combo, as everyone here surely knows), so just *must* have a looksy
Your defence is good, and that's nice, but the combo could produce so much more for you. At 12 pally, you're only getting warmed up when it comes to spells (ie., aka holy sword, just so close) and 12 bard seems an odd mix; most people either take enough bard (ie., 2 to 4) for skill dumps, go to 8 for some song, or up to 15/16 at least. Regardless, under 25 you're dispellable and so doesn't help much to go beyond 8 here; but, unfortunately, you do need to hit 3rd level spells to qualify for PM (might try sorcerer instead, but okay, let's work with bard, shall we?
thinking, start str. 16, 8 dex, 12 con, 12 int and 14 cha (for a fighting chance out of the gate, so to speak since you don't take ie ikd & thus don't need that much int, and w. pm ac is good and immune to crits, so your hps w. toughness is ok anyway (over 400 is sorta the starting point, which you god). I'd also take a grt str epic to round it out, as some nat offense is good. I love how youre defensive minded here, which is great, but offense is a good thing too, no?
Again, great concept, but relying a lot on buffs here, and while div shield is a great feat, still, relying on cha-buffs to raise it, too (remember, under 25 levels, dispelling is a factor, and so both your pally and your bard are vulnerable. Otherwise, really neat. I'm thinking sorc. might work better for you here than bard, which would allow you to take more pally pre-ep (thus raising your bab) since all you need for PM is to be evil and 3rd level spell-casting; this in turn would also give you more flex in terms of yer stats, but hey, me love them bards, too (ain't they great? )
Just some thoughts for you.
Oh, and great also RP wise - why, when you fall of couse, your new gods, the forces of darkness, more than happy to grant you div. favors -- neat!
FALL ON!!!
Tyr
Edited By TyrTemplar on 01/25/07 02:18
OOps, an edit may be in order: as to PM qualifications, (just in case in my hasty typing it's not clear) all that is required is that a character be of ANY non-good alignment, and ability to cast 3rd level spells. whew! ( )
Edited By TyrTemplar on 01/25/07 02:32
PM doesn't require the ability to cast 3rd level arcane spells, it requires 3 levels in an arcane casting class (bard, wizard, or sorcerer). So, rather than needing Wiz 5/Sorc 6/Bard 8, it just needs Wiz 3/Sorc 3/Bard 3.
Nice build. Is it really worth giving up access to Holy Sword for the somewhat limited (I.E. pre-16th level) use you're making of Bard Song? I'd probably drop Bard to 8, or even 4, and bring up Paladin more.
Alternatively, you could drop Pally buffs and take a lot of bard, but then you'd start looking like the Fallen Rock Star.
It looks good, it just seems to me that you'd do better focusing more on either Paladin or Bard, rather than trying to do both.
Yes, you are right. If I drop 4 levels of bard pre-epic and take paladin instead... + Holy sword as lvl 4 paladin spell + 1 BAB
- 2 AC from bard song (still has a nice AC IMHO) - 8 skill points (I would take 3 from perform [15 is required for lvl 8 bard song] and the remaining 5 from concentration)
This way you are still dispellable, but a bit more offensive.
Thanks for the replies!
*EDIT* I used bard instead of sorc for +4 AC (tumble maxing), UMD and bard song _________________ "I will be the last...and you will go first!" Sarevok, Child of Bhaal
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