I've long wanted to play as a tsochar from Lords of Madness, and for a Planescape game the DM gave the go-ahead with a few changes compared to the stats found in Lords of Madness:
- No level adjustment (the tsochar is "LA: --"), but retains its 4 racial HD
- Ability score adjustments are halved
- No damage reduction, spell resistance or cold resistance
The game is ECL 7, but this character starts at ECL 4 (so just its HD) and has the following ability scores: Str 13, Dex 19, Con 14, Int 19, Wis 12, Cha 11
Since the tsochar fluff focuses a lot on their desire to steal arcane knowledge and spells from other creatures, I plan to take my first class level as Spellthief, then proceed into Assassin, taking Master Spellthief and Practiced Spellcaster (Assassin). Being sneaky and using Death Attack to paralyse a succession of victims for bodysnatching is the idea. The Steal Spell ability would be hampered by the 4 HD not counting toward the maximum level of spell that the character can steal, unless the DM makes a concession toward 'caster level' instead of 'class levels with arcane spellcasting'. Additionally, I love skill points, and there's an expectation that the character will fill the rogue's role once it actually has some.
However, I'm a bit worried that the character is going play third wheel on the bicycle of the (so far) two other characters: An artificer and a homebrew xenotheurgist(?) found on
GiantITP. I still want to focus on the tsochar schtick of bodysnatching, and I think it would be a great boost to have the
Metamorphic Transfer feat... which is a psionic feat, requiring ML 5 and 1 more Wisdom than I currently have. Also worth mentioning is that the tsochar can't cast spells out of bodies it inhabits, unless it kills the victim and takes over the body completely (unless it uses a particular 2nd level Sorcerer/Wizard spell also in Lords of Madness beforehand), but psychic powers would, as far as I can tell, be freely manifestable.
I'm looking for any suggestions either way - I'd like to keep the theme of stealing arcane magic, but the benefits of going psychic look pretty good too. Whatever tips you can provide will be welcome.
