Builds:
Spellscale Fire Shugenja 6/Divine Oracle 2/Sacred Exorcist 2/Contemplative 6/Paragnostic Apostle 4
Order of the Impenetrable Crucible
1) SF: K(Religion)
3) Empower Spell
6) Enlarge Spell
9) Extra Turning
11) Extend Spell (free with Planning Domain)
12) Persistent Spell
15) Knowledge Devotion
18) Improved Initiative
Trap Sense, Detect Evil at will, 12 Turn attempts, Divine Health, self healing, Poison immunity, Prescient Sense (Evasion +1), faux Bardic Knowledge, and three Domains from which you can diversify your spell list. Aside from the required Oracle Domain and listed Planning Domain, I like the Mind Domain for Diplomacy and Divine Oracle synergy. Additional note: Spellscale Meditation to Tamara allows him to use cure spell completion items at no penalty.
Akalsaris' Death Debuffer
Dragonwrought Kobold Cloistered Cleric 1/Shugenja 2/Master of Shrouds 2
Element: Air
Order:Spring Zephyr ?
Domains: Dragon Below, Undeath
Omen of Peace's Offense-Minded Healbot
Shugenja 5/Divine Oracle 3/Sacred Exorcist 1/Divine Oracle +1/Contemplative 2
Order of the Impenetrable Crucible
Contemplative Domain: War
I honestly prefer the Order of the Spring Zephyr, but I was forced to take the Order of the Impenetrable Crucible to 1) qualify earlier for SE 2) be able to take Divine Power as a spell known earlier (otherwise Dismissal blocks the "any school" 4th level slot for a while).
Feats
1 Law Devotion (CD) (retrained from Augment Healing (CD) at level 9 or so)
3 Animal Devotion (CC) - for versatility ; you have to wait level 9 to use it more than once per day *shakes head sadly*
6 Extend Spell
9 Persistent Spell (CA)
12 DMM: Persist (CD)
Get SF: Know. Religion from a Flaw or the Magical Location in CS ; or drop Law Devotion.
Spell list
1 Cure Light Wounds, Obscuring Mist, Speak with Animals
Magic Weapon
Shield of Faith, Silent Image
2 Fog Cloud, Lesser Restoration, Resist Energy
Sound Burst
Glitterdust, Silence
3 Cure Serious Wounds, Dispel Magic
Greater Magic Weapon
Haste
4 Cure Critical Wounds, Restoration
Dismissal
Divine Power
5 Righteous Might
Death Ward
Control Winds
6 Heal
Banishment
Strategy
Persist Divine Power and Righteous Might - use 1 Nightstick. Congrats ! You're now a subpar Cleric. Rolls Eyes
You do have a few cool tricks up your sleeves: Control Winds to clean up the battlefield, Haste and GMW to buff everyone, Glitterdust to debuff, Silence and Dispel Magic for utility (sneaking, traps) and bothering casters. Silent Image for great versatility. And healing up the wazoo.
Level-by-level:
1-3: spam Sleep.
4-5: retrain Sleep. Spam Glitterdust - you'll get a Rod of Sculpting (MIC) later.
6: spam Glitterdust, and Dispel as needed.
7-9: Haste at the beginning of each fight. Then as above.
10: you can try Righteous Might, but you'll suck in melee. Wait a bit by spamming <see above>.
11: Control Winds - learn to love it. It will get better as your CL increases.
12: hallelujah ! Cloud 9
Comments
- You will only use some of your known spells once every month. It bothers me even though I predicted it.
- While this looks ok at level 12, you kinda sucked on the way there: Persist is a dead feat before DMM, Extend you probably only used on GMW. I recommend liberal use of retraining (get Craft Magic Arms and Armors and retrain it later, etc...).
Ivory Knight's Eldritch Elementarist
Race will only matter if your DM enforces XP-Penalty for multiclassing, be a Human or Illumian to ignore this roadbump.
Shugenja 3/ Warlock 1/ Shugenja +1/ Divine Oracle 2/ Paragnostic Apostle 2/ Sacred Exorcist 1/ Eldritch Disciple 10
Needs to:
Focus in any Element other than Air
be any good alignment
worship a chaotic deity
1 Feat -> Skillfocus: Knowledge(Religion) at ECL 1 or 3
invest some Skillpoints:
5 ranks: Knowledge(Arcana) before/at ECL 7
8 ranks: Knowledge(Religion) before/at ECL 5
10 ranks: Knowledge(the Planes) before/at ECL 9, 5 of them before/at ECL 7
choose at least 2 Divinations of any Level as Spells known before ECL 5
take Dismissal as a 4th Level Spell known at ECL 9
Gets:
Divine Spells as Shugenja 18, can learn spells from the Oracle Domain
Invocations(including Eldritch Blast) as Warlock 11
Turn Undead as Cleric 3
Lore aka Bardic Knowledge as Bard 4
2 "Knowledge is Power"
4 "Gifts of the Divine Patron", can choose any that don't require worship of a nongood or evil deity
Prescient sense(aka Evasion in any armor)
Light Armor Proficiency
I won't suggest Feats or Spells known, as those tend to vary between the 3 Elements from which you can choose.
Your tactics also depend largely on your selection of Feats, Invocations and Spells:
Earth: You can use Invocations to make up for the loss of mobility from banning Air. If you go for Melee, select Wild Frenzy.
Fire: You can use your EB for blasting, focus on Battlefield Control and Utility Spells. As you banned Water, Healing Blast might be good.
Water: I don't know what role you play in combat, just avoid choosing redundant spells/Invocations. Your main Offensive is your Eldritch Blast,
choose either Protective Aura to keep you save while blasting, or scare your enemies with Fearful Glare & Frightful Blast.
Afterthought:
Reserve Feats could be a good choice for some Shugenjabuilds(not mine, as Invocations are also usable at will).
Will look into that, first results:
Air:
Can try BFC with Hurricane Breath or
Aid PC-Archers/Hinder Ranged Attackers with Windguided Arrows respectively.
Earth:
Could fuel Touch of Distraction with Antipathy, but there has to be something better.
Magic Disruption also isn't worth taking Imprisonment Bang Head
Fire:
Looks promising 9d6 Fiery Burst even rivals Warlock in damage + there is a good fire spell on each Level to take.
To bad it's the most likely resisted damagetype in the game....
Water:
Winter's Blast caps at 7d4, fueled by Greater Creeping Cold and there aren't many cold spells below 7th either.
Drowning Glance might be worth a second look.
All Shugenja can qualify for Summon Elemental with SNA V-IX, which are actually not bad to have as Spells known(if only 1 or 2 of them).
Perhaps Domainspells are a way to get more mileage out of Reservefeats?
Omen of Peace's Air Faux-Beguiler
Air Shugenja 5/Divine Oracle 5/Contemplative 2
Order of the Forbidding Wasteland for Phantom Stag & Control Weather
or Order of the All-Seeing Eye for Divination & Find the Path
or Order of the Spring Zephyr for Disguise Self, Invisibility, Air Walk, Greater Invisibility
Contemplative Domain: whatever
Feats
1 SF: Illusion
3 Spontaneous Healer (CD)
6 Transdimensional Spell (CA)
9 Invisible Spell (City)
12 Extra Spell: Dimension Door ?
Get SF: Know. Religion from a Flaw or the Magical Location in CS.
Spell list
Order spells not included since I'm offering a choice.)
1 Disguise Self, Expeditious Retreat or Feather Fall, Silent Image
Cure Light Wounds, Faerie Fire or Speak with Animals
2 Detect Thoughts or Resist Energy, Silence, Color Spray
Produce Flame, Fog Cloud or Lesser Restoration
3 Haste, Major Image
Keen Edge
4 Air Walk, Hallucinatory Terrain
Wall of Fire or Restoration
5 Control Winds or Greater Invisibility or Dimension Door
Confusion
6 Cloudkill or Greater Dispel Magic or Teleport
Comments
- I'm taking a different tack here, trying to focus on the cool spells Air Shugenjas get rather than on external abilities. You could even drop the PrCs (you don't always get to meet an envoy from your divinity, after all).
The Air list is much stronger: this is a build I could almost play from level 1 to 12, unlike the others. You're missing out on Glitterdust but otherwise you're pretty ok. The feats are pretty free as well - you could go for Touch of Healing or for more metamagic...
It plays like an Illusionist Sorcerer with some control/debuff, some healing/buffing and some utility. (IB's note: Hence the 'beguiler' descriptor above)
- (Forest) Gnome is a good race here.
On Multiclassing and Domains:Shugenja is a fairly flexible class, given that the various Elemental and Order foci allow for the emulation of various other classes. That said, the only benefit to advancing Shugenja beyond 1st level is spellcasting; for many optimizers, that's a clear indicator to get out of Shugenja as quickly as possible, into another base class or PrC. If you choose this route, here are some thoughts on the various benefits:
Barbarian:Get some extra HP, weapon and armor proficiencies, and the ability to froth at the mouth instead of casting spells. This sounds like a recipe for trouble. A minority of Earth Shugenja with good physical stats, and who are emulating a gish build, might find utility here in a one or two level dip.
Bard:With no change in primary stat focus, gain additional skill points and a whole lot more skills, along with the bardic music goodies. Two levels here add much to your versatility, including a gateway to that juicy Sublime Chord progression.
Cleric:A single level dip into Cleric nets you that coveted Turn Undead ability for DMM fun, as well as access to a couple of Domains. However, it won't let you progress Domain casting as a PrC would, and requires that you spent on what is otherwise your dump stat. Fire Shugenja might consider it for the access to healing.
Druid:The Animal Companion will be stuck at low levels of effectiveness, and you'll have to allocate WIS for the spells. You'll also probably be getting out before you can Wild Shape. Fire Shugenja might consider it for the access to healing.
Fighter: A single level dip - maybe two, no more - gets you considerable benefits if your Shugenja regularly finds himself in the thick of the battle. Those bonus Feats can help Earth Shugenja especially, as the ones most likely using attack oriented spells.
Monk: Emphasis on your dump stat and physical confrontations, for which you are otherwise ill-equipped, in order to do less damage than a well-conceived 1st level spell. Pass.
Paladin: Assuming you can live with the PITA code/alignment issues, this is arguably the best choice for a martial Shugenja. Two levels here will do you and your party a world of good.
Ranger: A small HP increase, some off-focus skills, and a combat style you're probably minimally equipped to use make this among the less attractive martial options for a Shugenja unless you're facing hordes of a specific enemy. It's better if you have access to the variant Ranger fighting styles from Dragon magazine.
Rogue: A wide variety of social skills - along with UMD - with plenty of skill points, Evasion, and a small, reasonable boost to your combat prowess make a two-level dip into Rogue a very tempting idea.
Sorcerer: Single attribute focus: check. Spells: check. Lots more versatility: check. If you go this route, you're aiming for a Theurge PrC of some sort.
Wizard: For a CHA-focused build, Sorcerer is just a more sound option. If Scribe Scroll is this important to you, buy the Feat.
Domains:Since I've sung the praises of Domain access throughout this handbook, naturally, the following retort came up:
Then what domains would you recommend ? (Don't tell me you didn't see that coming. ;))
Well, alrighty then.
Air - Very cheesy way for an Earth Shugenja potentially to gain some otherwise banned spells for more battlefield control, and a turn undead clone ability.
Animal - Extremely minimal gain here.
Death - Domain ability is likely underwhelming for your Shugenja, but a Water Shugenja becomes much more combat-viable with this one. Some redundancy with Fire.
Destruction - Possibly even better for a Water Shugenja than the Death Domain, this gives you a better attack option and lets you do your healbot shtick with a necropolitan party member.
Earth - See commentary on Air Domain, and apply it to Air Shugenja instead.
Fire - See commentary on Air Domain, and apply it to Water instead.
Good - +1 caster level on a small subset of your spells, and some decent buffage along with a couple of quite nice higher level spells. Earth Shugenja will find similarities.
Healing - See previous commentary on the 'benefits' of being a healbot. Could be useful to a non-Spellscale Fire Shugenja.
Knowledge - If you're the only diviner-type in the party, it COULD be useful, maybe. Probably not.
Law - Quite a limited sample of spells to boost with the Domain ability. Calm Emotions and Hold Monster are nice, though.
Luck - Rerolls are handy. The spell list is likely duplicated at least in part by extant spells on your lists, though.
Magic - Very nice Domain ability. Spell list pretty closely mirrors the Ineffable Mysteries.
Plant - Quite a few useful battlefield control spells here to go with your faux turn undead.
Protection - Useful for spell access throughout, especially for Air Shugenja. The Domain ability will potentially go unused.
Strength - Greatly expands an Air Shugenja's options for party buffing, and adds an otherwise forbidden buff for Fire Shugenja. Somewhat off-flavor for a Shugenja's standard archetype.
Sun - Spell overlap with Fire domain with slightly less cheesiness for a Water Shugenja. The Domain ability is useless without Sacred Exorcist or similar.
Travel - Freedom of movement ability and a potentially handy new class skill - if your DM isn't overly literal - make this attractive. Spell list is largely duplicated by the Air Shugenja list, with D. Door as a nice perk.
Trickery - A CHA-monkey like the Shugenja should enjoy the new class skills. Earth Shugenja benefit most from the spell additions before 8th level.
War - Earth Shugenja will gain virtually nothing here unless they want the MWP/F. Air Shugenja worshipping a martial god will likely benefit most.
Water - See commentary on Air Domain, and apply it to Fire instead.