Description[]
Warlock 16 / Frenzied Berserker 5 / Blackguard 4 / Divine Champion 5
Alright, it's not a real Sith build obviously, but it did evolve out of my attempt to create one that resembled a force-user. The Sith Marauder uses warlock invocations to add some nifty abilities to some combat classes with their own nifty abilities. It is also easily viewed as a Dark Knight type character weilding pure magic for those that couldn't care less about the Sith concept, which is easily as cool to me.
Pros
- High Saves
- Decent damage reduction (natural Warlock DR, achieves 1 dark invocation - Dark Foresight is highly recommended for both utility and flavor)
- Epic Divine Might and Enhanced Power Attack for high damage potential
- 26BAB - full 6 attacks
- Divine Shield, Force users are supposed to be dodgy
- Loads of assorted goodies like Supreme Cleave, Walk Unseen, Devour Magic, Divine Wrath, Deathless Frenzy, Flee the Scene etc.
- Good UMD
- Useful on low magic servers. High independent damage, infinite use magic abilities, good survivability (high saves, decent AC, respectable HP, decent Damage Reduction, plus the odd healing abilities - not great ones, but they will save you the odd med-kit), Leaps-and-bounds, Walk Unseen, etc all are especially handy on low magic servers.
- Charisma increases saves 2 times over and Divine Damage 2 times over, plus has other good effects. Independently good, and should help it scale decently on high magic servers too.
- AC is respectable with full plate equipped, a shield equipped, divine shield activated, and in the campaigns can get extra help from UMDing monk boots.
- Especially effective in quantity vs quality enemy scenarios. High damage, Supreme Cleave, damage reduction, and spell resistance all put the screws to numerous weaker enemies.
Cons
- Only basic PvP abilty
- Lack of combat feats
- Warlock spellcasting limitations, unremarkable Eldritch Blasts
- AB and HP are acceptable, but really nothing good for what is basically a melee build. AC isn't necessarily great either, it's pretty basic wielding a sword 2-handed and without divine shield activated.
- ECL -2, difficult to start from level 1
Character Creation[]
| Initial Values |
Final Values | |
| STR | 16 | 22 |
| DEX | 10 | 10 |
| CON | 14 | 14 |
| INT | 16 | 16 |
| WIS | 8 | 8 |
| CHA | 18 | 22 |
| Base attack bonus | 26 | |
| Fortitude save | 32 | |
| Reflex save | 22 | |
| Will save | 27 | |
| Spell resistance | 41 | |
| Hit Points | 366 | |
| Natural AC | 12 | |
- Race: Yuan-Ti Pureblood
- Classes: Warlock 16, Frenzied Berserker 5, Blackguard 4, Divine Champion 5
- Cleric Domains:
- Build Nature: PvM, RP
- Alignment: Any Evil
- Deity:
- Background: Bully
| Intimidate | Spellcraft | |||||||||
| Hide | Tumble | |||||||||
| Concentration | UMD | |||||||||
| CL | Class | Feat | Bonus/Class Feats | Attributes | ||||||
| 1 | Warlock1 | Power Attack | Eldritch Blast 1d6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 4 | ||
| 2 | Warlock2 | Eldritch Lore | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 3 | Warlock3 | Cleave | Eldritch Blast 2d6, Damage reduction 1/cold iron | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 4 | Warlock4 | Deceive Item | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | |||
| 5 | Warlock5 | Eldritch Blast 3d6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 6 | Warlock6 | Great Cleave | Fiendish Resilience 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 7 | Warlock7 | Eldritch Blast 4d6, Damage Reduction 2/Cold Iron | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 8 | Warlock8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | ||||
| 9 | Warlock9 | Improved Power Attack | Eldritch blast 5d6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 10 | Blackguard1 | Use Poison | 5 | |||||||
| 11 | Blackguard2 | Smite good x1, dark blessing, bull's strength x1 | 3 | 1 | ||||||
| 12 | Blackguard3 | Divine Shield | Aura of despair, turn undead, create undead x1 | 5 | Cha+1 | |||||
| 13 | Warlock10 | Energy Resistance 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 14 | Warlock11 | Eldritch Blast 6d6, Damage Reduction 3/Cold Iron | 2 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| 15 | Blackguard4 | Divine Might | Sneak attack +1d6 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 16 | Warlock12 | Imbue Item | 2 | 3 | 2 | Cha+1 | ||||
| 17 | Warlock13 | Fiendish Resilience 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 18 | Warlock14 | Weapon Focus: Longsword | Eldritch blast 7d6 | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||||
| 19 | Warlock15 | Damage Reduction 4/Cold Iron | 2 | 1 | 2 | |||||
| 20 | Warlock16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | Cha+1 | ||||
| 21 | FB1 | Great Strength | Frenzy x1, Toughness | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | ||||
| 22 | FB2 | Supreme Cleave | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 23 | FB3 | Great Strength | Frenzy x2 | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | ||||
| 24 | FB4 | Deathless Frenzy | 1 | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | ||||
| 25 | FB5 | Epic Divine Might | Frenzy x3, Enhanced Power Attack | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 26 | DC1 | Lay on hands x1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 27 | DC2 | Great Strength | sacred defense I, Epic Prowess | 1 | 1 | Str+1 | ||||
| 28 | DC3 | Smite infidel x1 | 1 | 2 | Cha+1 | |||||
| 29 | DC4 | Epic Resilience | sacred defense II, Epic Toughness | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 30 | DC5 | Divine wrath x1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
Notes:
- Long Sword as your weapon focus is of course optional. If you choose it remember you can use it in 2 hands
- Until you reach level 10 and get your weapon and armor proficiencies you're going to be playing a pure warlock. Early level warlocks are not known for being great characters, and Yuan-Ti get ECL-2 to boot, it takes some time to get to a point where it can be independently useful
- Initial Constitution or Intelligence can be lowered by 6 points for an extra 2 to Charisma or Strength
- On the flip side if you're after hitpoints (or know you'll end up with odd numbered ability bonuses to Strength and/or Charisma), you can drop a couple Great Strengths and pick up a couple Epic Toughness, switch one natural Charisma over to Strength, and still pick up Epic Divine Might. Just be sure you have 21 Strength and Charisma before level 29 at least
- Races that receive a Charisma bonus do best with this build. Yuan-Ti are the most powerful, but also of course have a higher ECL than Aasimar. You will also miss Blind-Fight, armor, skillpoints and assorted other abilities. Drow work alright but Yuan-Ti are frankly better if you have access to them, unless you like RPing Drow. I also personally feel Yuan-Ti fit this build flavor-wise surprisingly well, their scaly skin isn't dissimilar from some SW subraces or results of tampering with the Dark Side, and their Charm ability also provides a little flavor in its own way. Human is possible (even if the min-maxing gets a little ugly) if other races seem cheesy to you. You can grab Luck of Heroes, have attributes Str:16, Dex:8, Con:8, Int:14, Wis:8, Cha:18 and use this same progression, or lower intelligence and change the skills a little. Any race that doesn't actually get a penalty to Charisma or Strength can work
- Your UMD is high enough that you can take some points out and put it in intimidate instead. I doubt it will ever be needed at a base score of over 20-25 with the bonuses you'll be getting
(Recommended) Invocations[]
Least:Dark One's Own Luck, Entropic Warding, Leaps and Bounds
Lesser:Flee the Scene, Walk Unseen, Eldritch Chain
Greater:Devour Magic, Noxious Blast, Vitriolic Blast/Choice
Dark:Dark Foresight
- Be aware that Flee the Scene, Walk Unseen, and Devour Magic are affected by Spellcasting failure from armor. On the plus side, these are your only abilities affected by spellcasting failure and you can recast them if it fails, though a wasted turn in battle isn't exactly great. If you have access to mithril full plate all the better.
- Vitrolic Blast may be considered cheesy for somebody going for a real Sith build, pick something else if both bug you of course there's some cool options. Eldritch Chain and Noxious Blast are justified (in my mind) by the concept of a large Force Push with subsequent stunning if they fail their fortitude save.