Umbral Disciple handbook

[Waazraath]

Introduction

The Umbral Disciple is a prestige class from Magic of Incarnum. It's a bit a bit of a niche class. The flavor suggests it's a monk prestige class, but it doesn't advance any monk abilities. It's an incarnum class, but it doesn't advance meldhaper levels, so incarnates and totemists are better off without it. It has some good abilities for (melee) combat, but only an average BAB and a d6 HD. One of its best abilities is melee only, and with an average BAB it isn't a logical choice for ranged combatants either. And although it advances sneak attack and has a decent number of skill points per level, it's not really for the skill monkeys at first sight: its skill list is not that impressive, and search, disable device, survival and UMD are cross class skills.

At first sight, the class looks like not much of anything. In this handbook, I'll discuss the pro's and contra's of the class and try to describe some uses for it.

Prereqs:
- essentia pool: 1.
- skill ranks: concentration 4, hide 8, knowledge (arcana) 2, listen 8.

Ratings key:
-Good
-Average
-Bad

Since this handbook is meant to give useful advice, focus is on the good stuff.

Comments, ideas, suggestions and critique can be given here in the discussion thread:

[Waazraath]

The class features

Good:
Skills: 6 skillpoints/level, but unfortunately a rather short list of class skills.
Reflex save: good will save, not the most important but always nice
Will save: will save is one of the two ones, nice
Sneak attack: good extra source of damage
Embrace of shadow: a 10-40% miss chance, depending on the amount of essentia invested, and hide in plain sight to go with it, is very nice.
Sight of the eyeless: blindsight, yay! 10 feet per essentia invested.
Kiss of the shadows: extend your reach during your turn with 5ft per essentia. Even though it doesn't allow aoo's, it's great to make a full attack at let's say 20ft distance. Even better if you can do it when invisible, or hidden.
Essentia: 7 essentia over 10 levels. And very nice abilities to invest it in.

Average:
BAB: average BAB, average rating.
Step of the bodyless: a bonus on balance, climb, jump and tumble, based on essentia invested. Probably rarely needed, if it is, it's nice.

Bad:
HD: d6, low, and that's bad for a class that's most useful in melee
Fort save: meh, fort saves are really important vs save or die effects, so bad fort save progression sucks
Sept knowledge: a +2 bonus on knowledge and gather information after speaking somebody of your elite order, or something. Whatever.
Soulchilling strike: enemies hit by your attacks must make a fort save or loose 1 strength. It's capped at 1 strength/round. Too little, too late.

[Waazraath]

Role in the party

Despite being hard to fit in (see the introduction), the class can have some uses. An obvious would be for skillmonkeys, who happen to focus on the class skills that the Umbral Disciple gives access to. That would be for characters that combine the role of scout and face. With 6 skillpoints/level, the character can max out spot, listen, hide, move silently, diplomacy, sense motive, and probably tumble with an int of 12 or higher, or when human. The loss of UMD hurts, and this scout can neither track nor find traps all that well, without special feats or features that turn cross class skills into class skills. On the other hand: a lot of soulmelds give a bonus on skills, and the class advances essentia. Souldmelds as mage spectacles (UMD) and truthseeker goggles (search) can help to overcome this, a level in a meldshaper class can work wonders here.

Another role for the class is to finish melee builds and make the mundanes a little more special (something I find rather interesting, see here.
Since the prereqs for the class are really easy to fulfill, the Ubral Disciple can be used to augment a mundane melee character with concealment, blindsight, some minor skill bonusses, sneak attack and up to 20ft extra reach. The main risk is the low HD of the UD, especially up to the point when concealment is gained. A character with a decent con should be able to manage though.

[Waazraath]

Races

What race is good and what's not is mainly dependent on the base class that is used to enter the UD prestige class. A water orc or Krynn minotaur might be nice for a melee focused build, but they aren't for a more skill focused build. Race suggestions below are selected because the augment the abilities of the UD, so they are all rated good. Stuff I looked after are relevant skill bonuses, extra essentia, the ability to fly or get extra attacks.

Warforged: gives a huge load of immunities, a constitution boost, and extra attacks: a slam attack, and with the right feats another slam and a bite. That's great for a melee focused character with sneak attack.

Azurin: the extra feat is welcome, and the extra point of essentia as well. Though blindsight and skill boosts are optional and the strength debuff Soulchilling Strike is sub optimal, a character will always have max essentia in the concealment and reach abilities. Without extra essentia from feats or race, the class lacks the essentia for that.

Duskling: gives a constitution boost, and an extra point of essentia.

Human: extra feat, extra skill points; both are handy for the UD. Besides, when making a build with a few front loaded melee classes, the softened multiclass restrictions can be handy (sneak attack fighter 3 / barbarian 1 / rogue 1, for example).

Strongheart halfling: always a strong race. The extra feat, fact that it's small and has besides that a bonus on listen and move silently makes it an attactive choice.

Whispergnome: small, extra bonuses on hide, move silently, spot and listen, silence 1/day; it's good for a sneaky character. The bonus to dex and constitution is nice as well. The race also fits thematically well.

The dragonborn template is a powerful option. It improves constitution, and gives other powerful options, like fly (which the UD misses), or the possibility to get draconic aura's.

Raptorian: also gets the ability to fly, and has a bonus on spot.

[Waazraath]

Feats

Umbral discple is an interesting prestige class because it doesn't have any feat prereqs, which is rather unusual. This gives a more then average possibility to customize the class. Feats can be chosen to augment racial abilities, sneak attack, or to take interesting feat trees. For example, the two weapon fighting tree, together with sneak attack augmentation, is a good combination. But the lack of feat prereqs also makes it possible to invest in, for example, abyssal heritage feats, exalted feats or draconic feats.

Sneak attack feats:

- craven: +1 dam/lvl when sneak attacking. Great, the -2 vs fear is more than worth it
- staggering strike: stagger a creature you hit with a sneak attack (fort save vs dam); the fort save should be difficult, especially together with craven. Anything you can sneak is limited to one action / round.

Warforged feats:

- jaws of death: extra bite attack, extra sneak attack damage
- extra slam: 2nd slam attack,
- adamantine plating: full plate and DR/2 from level 1 onwards: yes please!
- improved fortification: immunity to sneak attack and criticals is nice, but it comes with a penalty: no more healing from the healing subschool of magic. This might not be worth it, considering the other defensive options a Umbral disciple has and can get.

Meldshaper related feats:

- bonus essentia: good when you can shape soulmelds, else you're better off with a meldshaper feat that gives 1 essentia
- meldshaper feats: depends a bit on the build. One that includes rage or smite may benefit from Cobalt rage or Saphire smite. The bad thing about these feats is that you invest essentia in them at the beginning of the day, and can't swicht it around anymore; it's fixed. While the whole advantage of the incarnum magic is the flexibility it offers.
- shape soulmeld: use this to get that soulmeld that inproves your UMD or search skill, and get more out of the bonus essentia feat.

Other:

- 2wf, i-2wf, g-2wf - often sub optimal, but when you can do a lot of damage with sneak attacks, like, with staggering strike and craven, this gets quite good.
- abyssal heritor feats are rarely used, at least, I don't see them often. But hey, nothing wrong with DR 6 / law for one feat, or +3 natural armor, or the ability to reroll 6 dies of sneak attack damage. The catch: the more feats you have, the stronger they become. So preferably, you need a lot. When using flaws, this is a very powerful option for melee characters, especially in early to mid game.
- exalted feats in general suck, but they can be uses as prereq for the saint template. Which is really, really, really good. Exalted feats that are okay are for example Nymphs kiss and Touch of golden ice (last one especially with natural attack), but depending on your entry in Umbral Disciple there may be more decent options.
- heritage feats fey heritage and fiendish heritage feats (Complete Mage) can be worth it ; fey heritage gives a +3 bonus on will saves vs enchantments, Fey presence and fey legacy give interesiting SLA's, and Fey skin gives DR / cold iron, based on the number of heritage feats you possess. Likewise, Fiendish heritage gives a bonus on fortitude saves and good spells and effects, Fiendish presence and Fiendish legacy give decent SLA's and Fiendish resistance gives a resistance to acid and fire, based on the number of fiendish heritage feats.
- Magic in the blood - use those 1/day SLA's you just got with the heritage feats mentioned above 3 times / day. Nice!
- Abberant feats - always wanted to play an aberration? Wait no more! Bestial hide gives a bonus to natural armor for each two aberrant feats! Deepspawn gives 2 extra tentacle attacks. Waterspawn gives a swim speed, starspawn flight for 1 + con modifier rounds; both give cold resistance 5.
- soulbinding feats - it's o so good, the 'bird eye viewing' ability: you can summon a bird, and see through its eyes, without any range limit. When the bird dies, you can summon a new one. No limit. It costs three feats: Bind vestige, Improved bind vestige and Practiced binder. With this combination, you can have bird's eye viewing, and poison use, also nice for a sneaky character. Need something else? you can also choose for darkvision and an extra (ram) attack, or some skill bonusses, or loads of other stuff. Versitile and good, especially for a UD that prolly has a role of scout and that can make good use of an extra attack.
- multiattack: get it for example with warforged with the jaws of death and extra slam feats.
- improved initiative: always nice to get first if you do a lot of sneak attack damage.
- strength devotion: an extra attack, nice! Blue when you have turn undead to re-use it.
- draconic aura / double draconic aura - blue when you are of the dragonblood subtype. The gains: a draconic aura, 30 feet radius, giving a bonus varying from +1 to +4 (lvl 20). The bonus can be on spot, listen and initiative, on damage or can be fast healing (up to 1/2 full HP). This assumes that the feat also allows to choose draconic aura's from PHB2 - if your DM decides not, it's less worth it imo.
- able learner Handy feat for the human skill monkey

[Waazraath]

Entry classes

Since the Umbral disciple can be entered with almost every combination of classes due to its easy prereqs, it pays off to pick several of the most front loaded classes.

Barbarian: very good, fast movement, or better, pounce, rage, or better, whirling frenzy for an extra attack and extra AC (which can be enormous at the lower levels, together with totemist and/or a +AC race). Full BAB, 4 skillpoints/lvl and d12 HD don't hurt either.

Rogue: is good for the skillpoints, and the 1d6 sneak attack; pick 3 levels for more skill focused builds, and grab evasion and another die of sneak attack damage.

Fighter: especially the sneak attack variant from Unearthed Aracana is good. Full BAB and SA are quite nice.

Ranger: free two weapon fighting, full BAB, free track, and a good skill list / many skill points. Nice!

Swordsage: a difficult one, this is. It stacks thematically very nice, especially with a more shadow hands oriented swordsage. But the question is whether a swordsage that is themed in that way, doesn 't gain more by taking more levels in swordsage. The negative sides of swordsage, medium bab and a relative low hd, are the same as the flip sides of the UD, so that doesn't work really nice either. On the other hand: grabbing wis to AC, weapon focus, a few maneuvers and a few stances with 2 levels of swordsage rarely hurt a build. If you're not trying to enter the UD class as soon as possible (lvl 6), then swordsage is blue when grabbing two levels (9 and 10) for some extra sneak attack and other options.

Cleric: the iconic cleric dip that is so good that it has its own handbook. Too bad it costs a point of BAB, but hell, turn undead (and with that, devotion / divine feat use) and 2 domain powers are more than worth it. Check out the cloistered cleric variant for the extra knowledge domain / devotion, at the cost of a lower HD and armor proficiencies.

Paladin: with good enough ability scores, a few levels of paladin are always nice: turn undead, full BAB, a boost to saves, an X-ray evil detector at will... nice. With a feat like strength devotion for an extra attack, and coupled with for example a level of rogue, it's viable.

Warblade: a more logical choice to end the build with, not to start; martial adepts aren't that front loaded as other classes, but work extremely well at the end, due to the IL = 1/2 class level for not martial adepts. Then again, something like warblade 2 / barbarian 2 / rogue 1 can work; improved uncanny dodge is nice, as are some maneuvers and stances.

Crusader: Same as for warblade. Crusader 1 is nice for a build that works with a lot of attacks, with the martial spirit stance (heal 2 damage per hit). It's a way to provide a warforged with some healing, even if the warforged has the improved fortification feat and can't be healed with regular spells.

Human paragon pick some class skills that stay class skills, among other nice things, like a bonus feat (any), an ability score increase (+2) and two increased caster levels over three class levels. Nice for a build like cleric 1 / human paragon 3 / rogue 1 / UD 10.

Factotum the pinacle of skill monkeyness. Take 3 levels for trapfinding, 8 skillpoings/lvl, all skills as class skills and Int to all strength and dex checks.

[Waazraath]

Some conclusions

At the high levels, the defense against melee damage can be impressive. The UD can make an attack against an opponent from 25 feet away; there's a big chance the target is staggered when using staggering strike. Opponent needs to move to get close, so no full attack. Not any attack, if staggering strike worked. Even if the opponent can attack, there´s a 40% miss chance. Not taking into account any AC or damage reduction. 

The capstone, kiss of the shadows, is great when undetactable. UMD something like improved invisibility (or ask a caster friend), and melee attack from 25 ft distance against an enemy that has no idea where to retalliate.

Some races get better with a lot of feats, like dragonborn (with aura's) or warforged (extra attacks, improved fortification). Some races grant feats (azurin, human, strongheart halfling). Some classes need extra feats, like the barbarian, for which Extra rage is mandatory. Some classes grant feats (cleric, human paragon, fighter, ranger). The trick is to make the right combination.

[Waazraath]

Example builds

Warforged ranger 2 / SA-fighter 1 / totemist 2 / umbral disciple 10 / warblade 2 / incandescent champion 3

1   Ranger - Mithral body, track, Favored enemy +2, wild empathy
2   Ranger - combat style: 2WF   
3   Fighter   - Jaws of death, 1d6 SA
4   Totemist  - wild empathy, (illiteracy)
5   Totemist  - Totem chakra bind   
6   Umbral disciple - Bonus essentia, Sept knowledge (meh), step of the bodyless (+2*E on skills)
7   UD - 2d6 SA
8   UD - Embrace the shadow
9   UD - craven      
10   UD - 3d6SA
11   UD
12   UD - Staggering strike, Sight of the eyeless (blindsight)
13   UD - 4d6SA
14   UD - Soulchilling strike
15   UD - Second slam Kiss of the shadows
16   Incandescent champion - Incandescent strike (essentia to damage)
17   Warblade - IL 9, sudden leap, dancing mongoose, pouncing
Charge, leading the charge, +1 reflex
18   IC - Bonus essentia, Fast healing E (self) for IC level rounds/lvl
19   IC - Unbearable countenance (meh)
20   Warblade IL 11, white raven tactics, uncanny dodge

Items: gloves of the balanced hand (lvl 12)

This build ends with 16 BAB, 16 essentia, a warblade initiator level of 11 (for max. 6th level maneuvers / stances), 9 to 12 attacks (6 normal attacks, 3 natural attacks, 2 more with dancing mongoose maneuver, and maybe 1 more from the totem chakra bind) and 4d6+20 sneak attack damage.

Extra damage can be done by investing essentia in soulmelds like totem avatar, or incandescent strike. Staggering strike and soulchilling strike work as debuffs. Extra actions are gotten with sudden leap and white raven tactics, blink shirt grants short range dimension door. Pounce is gotten late level, and the build has a large amount of skill points. Defensive options are the high AC at early levels, high base saves, uncanny dodge, the immunities from being a living construct, light fortification, the miss chance from umbral disciple, and the ability to make a full attack from a safe distance.

This build is playable from level 1. At first level, with mithril body, a decent dex and a shield the character has a high ac and 2 attacks. At level 2 the AC drops, when the shield is traded for an extra attack. At level 4, there are already 4 attacks, with 1d6 extra sneak attack damage. At level 4, with for example blink shirt and wormtail belt the AC raises and the char gets unlimited short range dimension doors. At level 5, the build can get another attack through the totem chakra bind, or use any other totem bind option. During the levels, combat capacity continues to grow, with extra (sneak attack) damage, extra attacks, and a miss chance. At level 15, the build can have 9 melee attacks, which can be made at 20 ft distance, which all do 4d6 +15 bonus damage, and have the chance to stagger the enemy.

Human abyssal disciple

Level   class - Feats / Special abilities
1   Fighter - (SA variant)   Eyes of the abyss, Cloak of the Obyrith   1d6 SA
2   Fighter      
3   Fighter - Demonic sneak attack, 2d6 SA
4   Rogue - 3d6 SA, trapfinding
5   Rogue - Evasion
6   Rogue - Primordial scion, 4d6 SA, trap sense +1
7   Swordsage - Weapon focus (school) +1 init, maneuvers, stances
8   Swordsage - 6d6 SA
9   Totemist - Demonic skin, Wild empathy, 2 soulmelds
10   Totemist - Totem chakra bind (+1 capacity), 3 soulmelds
11   Umbral disciplie - Sept knowledge (meh), step of the bodyless (+2*E on skills)
12   Umbral disciplie - heart of the nabassu, 7d6 SA
13   Umbral disciplie - Embrace the shadow
14   Umbral disciplie   
15   Umbral disciplie - Staggering strike, 8d6SA
16   Umbral disciplie   
17   Umbral disciplie - Sight of the eyeless (blindsight)
18   Umbral disciplie - Deadly precission, 9d6SA
19   Umbral disciplie - Soulchilling strike
20   Umbral disciplie - Kiss of the shadows

items preferred: rogues vest (+1d6 Sneak Attack, among others), tower shield, wands / wand grips with vine strike & golem strike, greater truedeath crystal, martial discipline weapon (shadow hand).

I designed this build as an a-typical sword & board fighter, partly out of annoyance about the ideas that 'every shield must be an animated shield' and 'sword & board is not viable'. I didn't want tot turn in into a gimmick build either (like a 2 handed shield basher). Of course the build can be made better, damage increased by multiple attacks, etc., but this should be viable against standard opponents from the monster manuals.

The build has:
- defenses: an AC that counts with +4 natural armor, tower shield, totemist soulmelds like wormtail belt (min. +2 natural armor enhancement) and lammasu mantle (+2 vs evil), either wis to AC and light armor or heavy armor. The build has evasion (when wearing light armor), 40% miss chance, teleport at will (vs grapple, force cage, entangle, etc. with blink shirt soulmeld); can make melee attacks at +20 ft distance; high base saves; has some maneuvers, for example to improve saving throws; is immune to level drain and has DR 6 / lawful.
- attack: martial weapons, 14 bab at lvl 20, 4 attacks with the totem chakra bound, with items 10d6 sneak attack, all results 1's being rerolled and added to the damage, and 6 dice can be rerolled anyway. The build does 2d6 extra damage against lawful creatures, every sneak attack means save vs staggered against a very high DC. Some extra options depending on maneuvers known.