3.5 Half-Ogre Soulknife/Fighter advice needed!

[Cairo]

Hey folks.

Tomorrow I'm beginning a new campaign in 3.5, a homebrew setting based on Eberron, in the continent of Nippon (basically Japan). http://nippon.graceamazing.com:1307/ It's a world where anything can be anything: the DM states as an example: "Sure it may be a displacer beast, and yes, that's a sword it's wielding in one tentacle and yea, that's a monk's outfit his friend is wearing and yea, you should probably be worried."

The DM set these rules: 1st level. any race or class will work, tho they made need some tweaks. Stat 80 rule (80 points, max 20 before racial bonuses, min 10 after racial bonuses), and bonus xp for RP and background.

I rolled a Half-Ogre Soulknife with a nice background - his clan had been enslaved by human Psions for 170 years, and he was the product of a violent sexual encounter between a human Thrallherd and an Ogre woman. The Thrallherd was executed for the abomination, and the child was mutilated, scarred, and shunned by both the ogres and the humans. He spent his life working in the fields alone, as no ogre wanted anything to do with him, and he because apt at wielding a scythe and harvesting crops. He spent his nights in the shadows, listening to the ogre elders talk about their illustrious ancestry, and the legendary battles and tactics they had used in their wars with the trolls and other ogre clans.

At 14, he stole some water from the slave-drivers, and as punishment, they executed his mother in front of him. He raged, broke free from the mental leash he had been placed under, and attacked the executioner. As he swung, a Psionic scythe materialized in his hands, and he kill the human. He then broke through the shields of the Thrallherd that was there, and killed him. He led a revolt of the ogre slaves, and, tl;dr, he helped the survivors of his clan escape to their ancestral mountains, and led them over 5 years in killing or driving away all the slavers.

He then left to wander, to find out about his inherited powers, and ended up crossing the sea into Nippon.


Im thinking of taking him SK1, Fighter1, SK2, Fighter2, SK3, then either SK the whole way through, or I may take him into the Slayer class and build his Psionic abilities, or I may build his scythe abilities thru Scythe-based PrCs.

We're allowed 1 to 2 Flaws, 1-2 Traits, and 1 Personality - I chose:

Flaw 1 - "Nyctalopis" - You cannot see in the dark. You gain double the normal penalties for darkness.

This counterbalances the Half-Ogres racial darkvision, which I did not want. This awards 1 bonus feat.

Flaw 2 - "Hopeless collector" - The character chooses a mundane item and always collects them. There is no point other than that they like them.

I chose this and will apply is to chains, whips, shackles, and manacles, under the purpose that my HOgre, who used to be a slave, wants to collect these so they cannot be used to enslave anyone else. This awards 1 Bonus feat.

My 1st trait is "Weapon Specialist". I only get to use 1 weapon, my Mind Blade, which takes the form of a Scythe, and cannot become proficient with any other weapon.

I plan to only ever use my Mind blade.

My 2nd Trait is "Magically Superior Body" - I gain ability scores at every even level, instead of every 4th. I can no longer gain benefit from items or spells that give me a bonus on ability scores.

As I develop my psychic abilities, I shun magical enhancement, instead embracing what I was blessed/cursed with.

Im tempted to develop this further, but I cant use Vow of Poverty cause BoED is banned in this campaign. So, ill probably just develop my fighter skills more and snag something like Two-Handed Power Strike and Mental Leap, or Dodge as my level 1 feat, and get Psionic Dodge (for +2AC total).

Toughness and Psionic Body? Iron Will + force of Will?

[Aspenor]

Unless you're absolutely set on Soulknife for some roleplaying reason, be a Psychic Warrior instead. Soulknifes are notoriously weak: their major class feature is "I have a magic (or, at low levels, non magic) weapon." Also, the Psychic Warrior can replicate almost their entire class by manifesting various powers if they wish.

Personally I'd go Pyschic Warrior 1/Monk 2/Psychic Warrior 17 (or sprinkle some prestige classes in, but something like the PsyWar, Slayer works). Take Tashalatora, which is a feat from Secrets of Sarlona IIRC. Tashalatora lets your PsyWar levels stack with monk levels for purposes of determining unarmed damage and AC bonus. Take Improved Grapple and use Expansion to make yourself Huge and wrestle stuff and punch it in the face.

However, if all you're looking for is an answer to your last question, it depends. You won't have bad saves all around even without using Force of Will, so I'm not convinced it's worth actually taking Iron Will as a feat. Improved Toughness is eons better that regular Toughness.

It's really going to depend what else you want to do with the character.

As a sidenote, Psicrystals can be pretty cool and useful.

[Grimgore]

Hate Psionics in 3.* but I have to agree with Asp on this one...

[Aspenor]

I also understand wanting to replicate VoP, but my advice: don't do it.

An ability score every 2 levels sounds great, but it isn't.

This means you get 10 ability score boosts from level 1-20.

Over time, you can get up to +16 to one ability score with level ups and magic items using the normal system.

Furthermore, you won't have any way at all to increase secondary ability scores.

VoP is a notoriously horrible, weak, underpowered and overestimated feat. DM's look at it and say: "OMG! this feat is crazy! BAN IT!" However, they don't even consider the downside: no wealth. No tomes. No magical enhancements. No flight unless you're a caster. Pretty much nothing that you want to be able to do at a certain level is possible when you take VoP.

If you're stuck with Magically Superior Body, I feel bad for you. The game assumes you have access to magical ability enhancement, and you won't get enough of it from 10 level ups.

[Cairo]

I also understand wanting to replicate VoP, but my advice: don't do it.

An ability score every 2 levels sounds great, but it isn't.

This means you get 10 ability score boosts from level 1-20.

Over time, you can get up to +16 to one ability score with level ups and magic items using the normal system.

Furthermore, you won't have any way at all to increase secondary ability scores.

VoP is a notoriously horrible, weak, underpowered and overestimated feat. DM's look at it and say: "OMG! this feat is crazy! BAN IT!" However, they don't even consider the downside: no wealth. No tomes. No magical enhancements. No flight unless you're a caster. Pretty much nothing that you want to be able to do at a certain level is possible when you take VoP.

If you're stuck with Magically Superior Body, I feel bad for you. The game assumes you have access to magical ability enhancement, and you won't get enough of it from 10 level ups.

Well the way the DM is running the game, you buy magic items thru a combination of gold and XP - mostly XP, as hes hinted that this wont be a high-wealth campaign.

So, I figure, I can use a trait to get stat gains, and VoP to gain magical bonuses, without spending XP for items, which means I'll be at a higher level than the guy who spends half of his 4th level on a +3 sword.

[Aspenor]

Well the way the DM is running the game, you buy magic items thru a combination of gold and XP - mostly XP, as hes hinted that this wont be a high-wealth campaign.

So, I figure, I can use a trait to get stat gains, and VoP to gain magical bonuses, without spending XP for items, which means I'll be at a higher level than the guy who spends half of his 4th level on a +3 sword.

The logic behind spending XP to purchase items is completely baffling. Sometimes I wonder what some DMs are smoking to get the ideas they do.

Then I wonder where I can get some.

I hope he's planning to tone back the monsters due to wealth considerations.

[oldmanpac]

I'm in this campaign as well. I'm an artificer so one of my main purposes is to be able to create magical gear, which will net me more exp for playing my character. So I'm always an option for that, instead of just taking MSB.

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