"Hunter of Evil" Build Ideas?

[PhantomLamb]

I want to make a zealous hunter and was looking for build ideas. Preferably I see him as a CG character, but perhaps as CN. I envision a lawless paladin type, who ruthlessly hunts evil but is far from bound by laws and codes. Originally I was thinking of outsiders as my main quarry, and shadow magic or other evil targets are also good. But I don't want to specialize in undead, that seems trite. He probably would need tracking ability or rogue-like skills to fit the concept I'm after.

I had thought about Thaumaturge in combo with AT, Daggerspell, or maybe even Darkfire.

Another obvious angle is a Ranger build for the favored enemies.

Silverstar looks intriguing but goes a bit too far down the undead path.

Any good ideas? Thanks!

[chad878262]

Would be easier if you could narrow what mechanics you're looking for. Anyone can "hunt evil" as shown by your list that includes casters, rangers, rogues, etc. Do you want to be a caster? A HiPSter sneak/death attacker? buff n' bash?

Cleric of Shevarash fits the bill if you want to make an Elf that hates Drow. Ranger/SD/CS would be a good fit for that as well. Any DC mage pretty much slays anything, but it might be interesting to make one who specializes in Necromancy, but doesn't use evil spells (Avasculate, undead summoning). Instead uses Undeath to Death and Wail of the Banshee to obliterate evil doers everywhere. It's often said that not all Necromancy is evil, but I've never heard of anyone actually making a Necromancer that hunts evil. Could also explore the RP around "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you." Just a thought, as I said it would be easier to give build advice if you could narrow down the mechanics you're looking to play and not just the goal of the build. How you hunt evil will be as important as hunting evil when it comes to 'fun factor'.

[Deathgrowl]

Did you get inspired by some other fiction for this path? What sort of character, in that case?

As chad says, a "hunter of evil" can be just about anything. Do you envision an inquisitor of some kind? A witch hunter? A monster slayer? Exorcist?

[NeOmega]

ive toyed with a vampire hunter before. they are undead, but a special kind of undead. perhaps pick an evil your char find particularly distasteful, and build based on destroying those at an early level as possible.

the only vampires i know of is in the haunted mansion, so n my concept, the char would periodically head to the mansion, and see if he could slay a single vampire in epic combat, (ie, try at level 11, and then at higher levels until he wins). gear and usables would be sought and based on this purpose.

as with many of my chars with a certain purpose, a trophy of some sort would be in order. perhaps something the first killed vampire dropped..

[Xanfyrst]

Motivation for your character's mission to hunt evil?

To what lengths does your character go to hunt evil?

How do he/she treat evil characters?

What does your character consider evil?

[Deathgrowl]

What does your character consider evil?

THE OBJECTIVE APPROACH
This is the straightforward approach taken in the D&D
game, and it is the one stressed in this book as well. From
this frame of reference, evil can be judged objectively. The
evil nature of a creature, act, or item isn’t relative to the
person observing it; it just is evil or it isn’t. This clear-cut
definition allows spells such as holy smite to work. Conversely,
an objective definition of evil exists because
the detect evil spell works. Want to know what’s evil?
Don’t study a philosophy book, just watch who gets
hurt when the cleric casts holy smite. Those creatures
are evil. The things they do, generally speaking, are
evil acts. If your character still isn’t certain, he can
summon a celestial creature or cast a commune spell
and simply ask, “Is this evil?” The higher powers are
right there, ready to communicate.
The Player’s Handbook says, “ ‘Evil’ implies hurting,
oppressing, and killing others. Some evil creatures
simply have no compassion for others and
kill without qualm if doing so is convenient.
Others actively pursue evil, killing for sport or
out of duty to some evil deity or master.”
This objective approach to evil works well for
fantasy roleplaying games. Evil is a thing that a
hero can point at and know he must fight. An
objective concept of evil allows players (and
their characters) to avoid most ethical or moral
quandaries, particularly the kinds that can
derail a game session. If you run an adventure
about fighting gnolls, you don’t normally want
the entire session consumed by a philosophical
debate about whether killing gnolls is a good
thing or a bad thing.

[NegInfinity]

Any good ideas? Thanks!

Aasimar smiter.

Aasimar, Fighter + Weapon Master + Divine Champion. If you want tracking, you should be able to stuff few more levels in there.

Basicaly, you get smite infidel ability, raise charisma to 25 and at epic levels take Great Smiting feat ( http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Smiting ) at every level you can take it. Divine Champion levels go to epic levels, because bonus feats. You won't be able to take 10 levels of divine champion in epics, of course, (because 3b20), but you'll eb able to take at least 7.

Then you take a scythe as a weapon master weapon.

IF you use smite infidel IF it lands and IF you score critical, you'll be dealing around 500..700 damage. Almost anything evil you land that hit on will go splat.

Issues? Well... this can be only done X times per day, this can only be done with aasimar or another race that grants +2 charisma bonus, and chances of landing that hit will not be that great because you might end up with average BaB. So it is a very specific one trick pony kind of build.
------
Also, run this with someone who knows custom server changes well. This works in original game. BGTSCC might've implemented something that breaks this.

[Steve]

Ranger/Silverstar/Assassin. CL 26.

Or, Cleric (9), Silverstar (10), Weapon Master (7), Fighter (4), but CL 23. Still, it should function very well without buffs (or learn how to game the AI and rebuff).

[Thorsson]

Minsc. And Boo of course.

[Darradarljod]

Love the concept.

[PhantomLamb]

Sorry to drop this, holiday travels and all. I realize I left a big open canvas for you all. I appreciate the input.

Inspiration? Well ... too many comic book movies lately I guess. Van Helsing and Ash spring to mind. Easy and mindless ... but that's just the base to start with.

A "smite machine" was something I was considering, but it's hard to do without paladin. That's the big class I'm trying to avoid.

A crossbow specialist could be pretty interesting, too. There's that DEX damage feat. Anyone gone down that path for some crazy archery builds?

[chad878262]

A crossbow specialist could be pretty interesting, too. There's that DEX damage feat. Anyone gone down that path for some crazy archery builds?

Truthiness could likely help you, but not sure he really frequents the forums lately. You may be able to catch him on IRC or Discord. I am not certain of his build, but I think it is a Ranger/Assassin hybrid with the Crossbow feats.

[Xanfyrst]

Only other classes getting anything Smite-related is a Cleric with Destruction domain and Divine Champion. Both gets Smite Infidel, which doesn't work the same as Smite Evil. Oh, and afaik both those classes don't mix well on that front either.

If you want to be a smite machine, you would have to go paladin. Not worth it if you don't like paladin RP.

Fighter 12/Divine Champion 8/Anointed knight 10 is a strong "templar knight"-like build. You get a lot of feats, good amount of AB and damage, some utility and quite good saves in the end. You're stuck with Good alignment, but otherwise got a great amount of RP freedom. Depending on your choice of deity, you can easily RP a "Hunter of Evil".

[PhantomLamb]

Good idea, was looking hard at DC. Was looking for classes with damage bonuses vs. evil, but there are definitely spells that can benefit that.

The extra challenge I'm having is matching classes to his RP side. I want him to be so convinced that his work is so important that he'll do anything to make sure it's not impeded ... including removing good guys if needed. I think he will be focused heavily on acquiring artifacts: those that aide in the fight, and those he needs to keep away from the baddies, too. And again, he'll do anything to keep his treasures guarded.

So with those in mind, I may need to:
- Steer away from alignment-restricted builds
- Have access to UMD, appraisal, etc.

Are AT/Daggermage builds effective? Seems like the AB is always so tremendously low.

[chad878262]

Interesting.... Warlock/Rogue/SD/DSM actually fits quite well IMO. DSM requires good alignment, but a character pacted to a fey who gave something up (his soul?) to fight evil is an interesting dichotomy. Or someone who's ancestor gave up their soul to a devil so now he's got these evil powers and he chooses to use them against evil, fighting fire with fire, so to speak.