Evil priest build

[DreadArtemis]

Hello all,
I'm looking to make an evil necromancer priest dude.
I have two options, both revolving around the deity Bhaal.
First one is cleric/rogue/thaumaturge/darkfire disciple. Gets 5d6 sneak attack with divine power.
I plan on using dome deadites as well as a planar summon to trigger sneak attack. Also, the stunning effect from storm of vengeance triggers sneak attack so that will be nice. Mostly just letting my crew handle the enemies with me chipping in sneak attack.

Second one is cleric/thaumaturge/hierophant. With hierophant animal progession working for the negative plane avatar it could open up a squad that has negatiove plane avatar, CGU extended, planar ally, and animate dead maxed out for a death squad. This build would have wis maxed along with some epic spells. Would be going for DC spells along with hierophant doubled Harm spells. Any thoughts?

I pretty much have the builds planned out, although the negative plane avatar( at least in JEGS) is not the most impressive for the second build. I messed around with a pale master, but I like the clerical side of things. A little easier to heal the clowns as well as still able to cast invis from domain. Plus, I can always get in there with my summoned friends and fight decent as a cleric.

I understand there is not much in the way of Bhaal worshippers from what I have seen in the forums, but maybe I can revive that.
To be honest, I think the darkfire disciple will be more fun to play, although losing out on a quasi-effective negative plane avatar is depressing. I will however have max tumble, great UMD, and be a quasi effective fighter with a little sneak attack for good measure.

Another build to consider would be an evil cleric with the animal domain to summon a humanoid( I know they are KOS, but I will already have undead lol), although I feel tied to trying a Bhaal cleric (murder for the murder god).

[DreadArtemis]

Alternatively, I was thinking a priest of Talona. Spreading evil and disease could be some interesting RP. Suffering domain also allows for some interesting adds to the spell list. Did some research on her and seems like a tough choice between her and Bhaal

[Sun Wukong]

Hello all,
I'm looking to make an evil necromancer priest dude.
I have two options, both revolving around the deity Bhaal.
First one is cleric/rogue/thaumaturge/darkfire disciple. Gets 5d6 sneak attack with divine power.
I plan on using dome deadites as well as a planar summon to trigger sneak attack. Also, the stunning effect from storm of vengeance triggers sneak attack so that will be nice. Mostly just letting my crew handle the enemies with me chipping in sneak attack.

If you are not planning to disarm traps, Cleric 12/Phantom 3/Thaumaturge 5/Darkfire Disciple 10 could something else to consider with highish wisdom. You could even grab the Zen Archery feat to have easier time delivering those sneak attacks over your horde of mobs. Slings are a good choice of weapon.

Cleric 7/Rogue 3/Hierophant 10/Darkfire Disciple 10 with necromancy spell focus could also be something for you to consider.

Second one is cleric/thaumaturge/hierophant. With hierophant animal progession working for the negative plane avatar it could open up a squad that has negatiove plane avatar, CGU extended, planar ally, and animate dead maxed out for a death squad. This build would have wis maxed along with some epic spells. Would be going for DC spells along with hierophant doubled Harm spells. Any thoughts?

I do not know if the Negative Plane Avatar has been properly improved though. But what I do know is that the stock NWN2 Negative Plane Avatar is an entirely pointless summon... aside from potential role-play flavour.

It should do fine though. Just giving a warning about the potential performance issues with the Negative Plane Avatar.

High Wisdom is a boon on such a build.

I pretty much have the builds planned out, although the negative plane avatar( at least in JEGS) is not the most impressive for the second build. I messed around with a pale master, but I like the clerical side of things. A little easier to heal the clowns as well as still able to cast invis from domain. Plus, I can always get in there with my summoned friends and fight decent as a cleric.

Yup, might be just role-play flavour. But JEGS is not always up to date or even correctly working.

I understand there is not much in the way of Bhaal worshippers from what I have seen in the forums, but maybe I can revive that.
To be honest, I think the darkfire disciple will be more fun to play, although losing out on a quasi-effective negative plane avatar is depressing. I will however have max tumble, great UMD, and be a quasi effective fighter with a little sneak attack for good measure.

A cleric of Bhaal can be something of a challenge to role-play.

Another build to consider would be an evil cleric with the animal domain to summon a humanoid( I know they are KOS, but I will already have undead lol), although I feel tied to trying a Bhaal cleric (murder for the murder god).

Pick Malar as your deity in that case.

[DreadArtemis]

Thank you for the insight!!!!

I have made an orc battle cleric with summons.

The Darkfire disciple you mentioned was already on my mind as well. I don't know how popular they are but they seem to me like they are interesting. The idea of phantom wis to AC sounds appealing. I feel if I go rogue instead of phantom it will not really be too much more advantageous, except of course evasion!

Rogue feels better for that build, I will be a little tight on feats but I planned on necromancy focus as well.

I will play around with a few of them and let you know. Thanks for the insight!

[chad878262]

Another option for a Cleric of Bhaal would be FvS15/A8/DFD7. CL is only 25, but with HiPS that isn't as much of an issue. Also is a pain to level as you have to go FvS 13, then you can take 1 level of Assassin and the last 6 levels are 3 Assassin, 3 DFD. This means the earliest you will gain HiPS is level 24. Would be more of a melee based PTWF build w/ 6d6 death attack so you'd go with CHA ~16, WIS dump stat and DEX 25+. I play a PTWF Wizard/Rogue gish that only hits 25 CL and HiPS is quite helpful in keeping your wards up if you know when to use it. Requires a bit of skill/practice, but keeps you on your toes and is a lot of fun. If you wanted you could drop DFD to 3 to either go FvS19/A8/DFD3 which would gain 3/day Haste and +1 CL or you could go FvS18/A9/DFD3 which gets a cast of Improved Invisibility from Assassin, but in either case you're losing Sacred Flame and Dimension Door. Especially with low CL Dimension Door is a really nice Oh @#%! button, so I like the 15/8/7 split.

Of course, you can also get HiPS by going FvS17/R3/SD3/DFD7 with CL27, but you become very feat starved with Dodge/Mobility requirement. At this point you might have to trade FvS for Cleric to gain some feats, but Bhaal doesn't work for that, which is why I suggested the Assassin route. Lose a couple caster levels, but have less issue with feats.

Finally, Bhaal having Evil domain makes me think of a turning cleric. This wouldn't be able to make use of DFD as it doesn't progress turning, but C20/H10 with Evil and Destruction domains could be a pretty sweet start to a Caster/Turn Undead based cleric. In this case I think Conjuration Focus works great since it's already a good focus for clerics and destruction gives you Storm of Vengeance. With decent Charisma you can use Turn Undead to Turn the Balor in PvE and you can also use it with Improved Divine Spell Power to get some really great DC's, weather you go for Conjuration or Necromancy.

In any case, it sounds like you already are on a path you're enjoying, just wanted to post another option as I agree DFD has a lot of interesting directions you can take both from a build and an RP perspective.

[DreadArtemis]

Also good insight.

The build I was thinking for the darkfire disciple was rogue3/darkfire disciple 10/thaumaturge5/ cleric 12. Caster level 29, but no Hips. Would be using summoned monsters to proc sneak attack. Not really sure is there is a group of Bhaal worshippers here. Im sure I will just be doing my evil dirty deeds with no one around to praise

Also, I had a fun concept of strength rogue with fighter levels taking all the shield feats along with blinding strike. I figure between blinding/ shield slamming/ knockdown it would be a ton of fun to trigger sneak attack. Considered some blackguard action if going the evil route. a few summonedm cronies and additional sneak attack could be fun.

[Sun Wukong]

Also, I had a fun concept of strength rogue with fighter levels taking all the shield feats along with blinding strike. I figure between blinding/ shield slamming/ knockdown it would be a ton of fun to trigger sneak attack. Considered some blackguard action if going the evil route. a few summonedm cronies and additional sneak attack could be fun.

Rogue 16/Fighter 14 can avoid multiclassing experience penalty regardless of your race as long as you take one level of rogue followed by fighter, until you sit at Rogue 15/Fighter 14, and you take the last level as Rogue. You will get hit by multiclassing experience penalty, but at that point it doesn't really matter.

Shield Slamming requires a quite a high number of feats, thus I would skip Weapon Spezialization altogether to free up some of those feats. You get sneak attack dice, thus the Weapon Spezialization damage is less required.

Blackguard leans towards an EDM build, which also gives you more damage that is not reliant on sneak attack dice landing. Therefore something like Rogue 13/Fighter 12/Blackguard 5 could be worthy of consideration to get your hands on the Hellhound. Mixing in Blackguard will cost feats thjough, and delay Epic Precision. As before, just keep Rogue and Fighter levels within one level of each other and you are good to go.

[chad878262]

The 'best' combination (IMO) for a Fighter Rogue is R10/GFK10/BG10. It requires you to take Improved Initiative and Power Attack (you get Cleave for free). The benefit is you get 11d6 Sneak Dice as well as a couple useful blackguard spells, EDM (Divine Shield will cost you an epic feat unless you "waste" a pre-epic feat to take cleave earlier) which the high Charisma will also give you a pretty good DC on your Frightful Attack (further augmented by Blackguard aura). Finally, you have summons from Blackguard to further help with landing sneak attacks and 8/day Ghost Step as another method to land sneak attacks. You'll want 14 DEX to wear Mithral Chainmail with +4 DEX item or 15 DEX for +3 DEX item, minimum 21 STR and CHA and of course you need at least some CON and INT. R10 lets you take Crippling Strike/Epic Precision so you can always land extra damage. R16 is only optimum on a DEX build going for Epic Dodge IMO. Those bonus Rogue feats at 13/16/19 are ok, but in this case I think you gain more by taking these high BAB classes that still give some sneak progression. Consider the R16/F14 you are getting 8d6 sneak dice, lower BAB in exchange for a boat load of Fighter feats and +8 damage from Epic Weapon Specialization/Melee Mastery. The average damage from the +3d6 sneak dice you get from GFK/BG comes to ~10.5 average per sneak attack landed, but you won't always be doing sneak damage. However, you also have EDM which allows you to apply +14 damage (assuming 21 CHA w/ +3 item) for 1 minute, 24 seconds per use with enough uses to have it up fairly often.

Fighter will help simply due to more feats, but you can make an efficient Fighter/Thief with BG/GFK combo that has plenty of ways to apply sneak damage as I stated above. Add in Blinding Strike every 45 seconds and you'll have fun with it. The upside is even when you can't land sneak attacks for whatever reason you still have 27 BAB which you should be able to get in to the low to mid 40's. Carry around some (greater) heroism pots and you'll never have any trouble landing blows. EDM allows you to have another damage outlet besides turning on PA or dropping your shield to go two handed on your weapon which means you can do similar damage to the fighter while keeping your AC up. All in all it's a well balance and relatively easy to play build. Just note you have to take Rogue for 7 levels, then GFK for 6 levels and then you want to take BG3 or higher at level 18 which will allow you to take Divine Might. After that just remember to take a Blackguard level at 18 so you can take Divine Shield (if you want it). Finally, you want to try to hit R10 by 21 at latest so you get Epic Precision at 21. I would level R to 7, GFK to 6, BG to 5, then R at 19, 20, 21 to hit R10 @ 21. After that I would max GFK then BG to get more uses of Ghost Step, but you could go the other way to max out your spells and summons from Blackguard too.

[DreadArtemis]

Thank you both for the ideas. I played around with JEGS with some builds and the rogue/fighter/GFK with shield feats was entertaining. If I went the divine might build I would have to throw the shield feats out the window as my strength wont be crazy enough to land all the goodies.
I feel drawn towards a Rogue fighter comb with the shield feats. Perhaps Rogue/fighter/gfk/assassin to eventually get Hips

[DreadArtemis]

I just figured that with the shield feats being able to slam them would allow sneak attack, along with epic precision I could sneak the immunes too. Plus with blinding strike I would have another option as that seems like a great feat!

[Sun Wukong]

I just figured that with the shield feats being able to slam them would allow sneak attack, along with epic precision I could sneak the immunes too. Plus with blinding strike I would have another option as that seems like a great feat!

Fighter 10/Rogue 10/Ghost-Faced Killer 10 gets BAB of 27.

Feat Requirements:
Improved Initiative, Power Attack (Fighter Bonus Feat)

Blinding Strike

Shield Bash, Shield Charge, Shield Slam

In this build fighter grants six Fighter Bonus Feats, and one of them can go to Power Attack. Hence five of your seven pre-epic feats are already reserved. (Humans and stronghearts get one extra feat.) But on the plus side is that you can afford to grab Epic Weapon Focus for rather decent AB to land all those sneak attacks.

Perhaps Rogue/fighter/gfk/assassin to eventually get Hips

With such a build, I would actually drop Ghost-Faced Killer and go for Fighter 10/Rogue 11/Assassin 9. BAB of 24.

[chad878262]

F4/R16/GFK10 would 3d6 more sneak dice at a cost of 1 feat since Rogue gets bonus feats at 13 and 16 vs. the Fighter bonus feats at 6/8/10. You would lose one BAB as well as the ability to take Greater and Epic Weapon Focus, but for a Shield Slam build you should not really have too much trouble hitting stuff anyway. ~10.5 average damage per sneak attack is worth 1 feat and ~1-3 Attack bonus IMO.

Perhaps Rogue/fighter/gfk/assassin to eventually get Hips

With such a build, I would actually drop Ghost-Faced Killer and go for Fighter 10/Rogue 11/Assassin 9. BAB of 24.

If going for HiPS you are better off building a DEX Based character with PTWF and Epic Dodge. HiPS isn't very good for a shield build because you are only ever going to get 2 sneak attacks out of stealth. With Shield Slam, Feint and Blinding Strike you are able to get a full round (or more) of sneak attacks which works with using only one weapon. However, HiPS is different as you are only landing sneak attacks in the first flurry. If you are only using HiPS to break spell lock GFK Ghost Step has enough uses to cover that. If going for some kind of HiPS'ing Fighter/Assassin build I would recommend PTWF or Manyshot with at least 10 levels of Rogue, 8 or 9 of Assassin and then some combination of Bodyguard, Blackguard, Wilderness Stalker and/or GFK. My personal preference would probably be one of two builds. The first would be R16/A9/GFK5 for 15d6 sneak dice and 23 BAB while having Epic Dodge. The other possible build I think would do well is R11/A9/NWN3/WS7 which would have 15d6 sneak dice and 24 BAB. While it loses Epic Dodge it gains Swift Tracker and Camouflage which are two of the nicest to have abilities in the game for a sneak. The key here is with PTWF you are getting 4 attacks in the first flurry and doing ~52.5 sneak damage per attack you land plus weapon/STR/EB etc. damage.

In other words my personal opinion is you don't go after HiPS unless you are going after landing lots of high damage sneak attacks. If you are only landing 2 sneak attacks out of HiPS and your sneak attack damage is ~38.5 per sneak attack there are better things to go after, such as multiple ways of landing a full round of sneak attacks. I still think the best way to do that is R10/BG10/GFK10. You will have your 11d6 sneak dice and you have many ways to land the sneak damage (summons, ghost step, blinding strike and shield bash.) I would also max bluff on this if you have a Rieli's belt or hope to purchase/trade for one from another player. This will allow you to use feint on the rare occasion where it will work on an enemy.

[Sun Wukong]

Now, many years ago, I actually had the following build on this server:

Fighter 12/Divine Seeker 5/Blackguard 4/Ghost-Faced Killer 9

This was prior to the Ghost-Faced Killer PRC buffs and addition of shield bashing. My character was basically just another cookie cutter EDM build with ICE and IPA, until she got to flank or feint something. The +6d6 Sneak Attack damage on top of the EDM damage was a little bit jaw dropping way back when. Not to mention the stock 3 uses of Ghost Step did save my character's bacon a few times.

Therefore, HiPS is not really necessary, and you should not forget that simply teaming up with other people and flanking the opponents allows you to get your sneak attack dice on every attack that lands.

[aaron22]

i personally like the Wilderness Stalker build that chad put out. i took out the NWN in my build and took the extra levels in R. i went with Epic Dodge instead of EP because i can more or less choose my targets, but ED works every time on any mob. cant say enough about swift tracker and camo. i think i only get 12sneak dice but my build is grey orc so i get 20 (16+4) str to make up for it a bit. i am not as good at playing defense as a good sneak player like chad, so the will save is typically my biggest issue.

[DreadArtemis]

thanks again for all the replies all of you. This has been very helpful. I will probably load up JEGS tonight and try a few things out. The F4/R16/GFK10 build sounds interesting, although the blackguard one does too. So many choices. I am married to the shield fighting for this character. I plan on him being a fighter/ infiltrator type. Think of an evil mercenary to the highest bidder. Will probably go human and build him like an old Dnd character I used to have.
Probably longsword or bastard sword.