Crossbow Gish for the UD?

[TheKai]

Hello,

Reaching out for some help in putting together a build for UD play, (so sometimes with people) but mostly solo play. Some things I am looking for would be:

-Wizard (or cleric with Portal domain but I think there are only two deities that have it)
-CL of at least 27. Spells will be mostly buffing/utility spells to fit his theme (UD explorer)
-HIPs (for defense but also Plane of Shadow RP)
-Crossbow main weapon
-Neutral alignment
-Not picky on the race, drow or svirf preferred though.

Any help?

[TheKai]

Here is something I threw together. It's been years since I've built anything so looking for help identifying any errors or weaknesses. I dislike the delay of certain feats but I do enjoy the "planar" theme by including both EA and Thaum (which caused the delay). CL 28 is also a bit low but can't find a way around it.

It seems to fit the RP direction I'd like to go in though. Would love any thoughts or bits of advice!

http://nwn2db.com/build/?305672

[Rudolph]

Your link didn't work, alas. I used to play a pretty effective Arcane Trickster crossbow gish with 18 CL in the past, but then the CL bug got fixed. Still, the following might do the job. It is optimized for max skills and feats, so HiPS comes very late, but this can probably be changed.
http://nwn2db.com/build/?305737

[chad878262]

CL27 + HiPS is going to give you utter crap for your Attack Bonus. You could build a pretty decent Xbower with W5/EK9/A8/AT8 which end with CL25 and HiPS.... However, you'll gain HiPS late (~24 iirc) and 9th level spells even later (~26?). I played a drow PTWF build with that split and it's actually loads of fun since you have other ways to manage landing sneak attacks such as summons and feint. for an xbow sniper build you would be fine with buffing a summon up.

Edit to add.... You could of course do something like W7/EK10/SD3/DS10 which would have CL 26 and have BAB 25 (vs. BAB 21 in the build above), but would have no sneak dice making HiPS purely defensive....which is fine I guess, but the sneak dice certainly help in epics. To get CL27 you would have to stop at DS7 instead of 10 which would cost you 1 BAB, but also works (W10/EK10/SD3/DS7). So my original statement isn't entirely accurate as you can get a decent AB with such a build, but your damage than suffers from lack of sneak dice. Can't have it all, personally I think the Assassin/Arcane Trickster Build will be the overall 'best' in terms of a combination of damage, defense and caster level, but it's hard to argue against this alternative build in the early to mid levels (can get HiPS faster, faster spell progression, higher overall attack bonus). End game the CL25 build with 8d6 sneak dice is going to be better.