Hi everyone!
I will soon begin a local 3.5 game for the first time in a long time, as most of my play group has long since moved away from 3.5 but wants to revisit it. In the spirit of, "Screw it, we'll probably never get a chance to play it again as a group!" and just being rather permissive in general, it's a planar gestalt game starting at ECL 13 with very few restrictions. I've drummed up a pretty heinous campaign plotline for them to play through, but they aren't great at optimization. One player in particular dislikes magic in any and all tabletop games, but for some reason wants to step out of his comfort zone in 3.5 of all games and play a roguish witch doctor (a la Diablo III). He's asking me for assistance in bringing this character to life, so I have come to the experts. See TL;DR below for specifics, and try not to give me too many reminders of how likely the players are to break the campaign with these rules after reading them.
TL;DR1. Gestalt "Planescapes" campaign starting at ECL 13. First 2 LA are free and LA Buyoff is allowed.
2. My player wants to be a Rogue // Dread Necromancer/Dread Witch to emulate a Diablo III witch doctor, focusing on summoning minions, fear effects, debuffs, etc, along with rogue utility.
3. The player has chosen to use his free LA to play a Greensnake Naga from OA with the Dark template from ToM, and I've ruled that all such naga, rather than only females, can use their Alternate
Form ability.
4. All official source material is available, along with Dragon Mag/Comp and homebrew on a case-by-case basis. I generally ignore the existence of the Rules Compendium, FAQ, and CustServ
responses.
5. I'm using the Taint rules from HoH to help with atmosphere of what should be a horror campaign. My playgroup cares more about RP than rolling dice, so it should go well.
6. I'll likely waive any racial or regional requirements, so long as it makes sense.
7. Cruddy tax feat requirements for feats and PrCs, like Iron Will, can be substituted out for something in keeping with intent and theme.
8. Using full psionic-magic transparency.
9.
Permanency can be cast on any spell that qualifies for Persistent Spell metamagic and doesn't have dischargeable effects that end the spell when used. Permanent spells can be dispelled
normally, however. I'm AFB at the moment, so I may be forgetting a peculiarity or two here, but it's viable.
10. Infinite loops aren't allowed. Ni-infinite progression, like for Tainted Scholar, must occur in-game and not in downtime or during creation.
My player needs help creating a fun build that will help ease him into being a mage that'll keep up in a high-power campaign involving high-level adversarial Illithids, liches, demons, Gith (and their red dragons), and a group of fanatics from the Westboro Baptist Church of Pelor. I'm specifically concerned about him making the most of his action economy, since he wants to focus on summoning witch doctor-y minions and generating stacking fear effects through sneak attack and his fear aura. I'm also willing to swap out or expand (within reason) the Dread Necro spell list for him to accomplish this.
Sorry for the long post, but I hope the detail helps. Thanks in advance for any and all help offered. I appreciate it!
Edit: To clarify, I'm familiar with and have read the applicable handbooks. He wants the build to be something along the lines of Rogue3/Swordsage2/Hexblade3/SA;ThugFighter2/Dreadnecrolvl8///DreadNecro1-7/DreadWitch1-5 (there are some free levels unassigned) with levels arranged in such a way to have full BAB and not lose a CL from DW 1. He's got sneak-attacking Undead and the like covered as well.
I'm mostly just looking for ideas on how he can spend his actions in various scenarios.
