This build came out of a statement made by RT that Tess the Molestress needed to updated, and one made by Fred that he didn't see a way to make "The Fighter" a healer. From what I can tell, Tess was designed to heal herself as a way to better enable tanking; I made Kris able to heal everyone. It starts off slowly, but picks up steam after Level 5.
This build utilizes a 28-point buy, fractional saves, and the "No XP penalty" houserule for multi-classing. The fractions aren't necessary, but they do boost your Reflex & Will saves by a point each.
Books used: PHB2 (one feat), Eberron Campaign Setting (one feat), Magic of Incarnum, Tome of Battle
Kris the Sadomasochist C'mon, baby; make it hurt. So. GOOD!
Race: Azurin (Humanoid (Human, Incarnum)) Abilities: 13/14/14/12/10/13 (if I were using my usual 32-point buy, I'd put 1 into Str & 3 in Cha) (+1 to Cha at 8th level, +1 Dex every other level) Alignment: LN (I'll explain this in a bit)
At this level you get 2 soulmelds, 2 points of Essentia (one is from your race), and no Chakra binds. You can shape any soulmeld off the Incarnate list, and they last all day. My personal preferences at this point would be Bluesteel Bracers (Initiative Bonus) and Impulse Boots (Uncanny Dodge, plus an enhancement bonus to Ref saves based on invested Essentia). An interesting option is Mage's spectacles, which lets you make untrained UMD checks (among others) with a +4 bonus.
Another point of Essentia, another soulmeld... and the ability to bind to the crown Chakra. At this point is when I start utilizing the Diadem of Purelight. Bind it to your Crown Chakra, and anything short of total concealment is useless against you. Another good option is the Crystal Helm, which gives a bonus to Will saves against enchantment & compulsion, and when bound, turns your melee attacks into force attacks. After all, if you can't hit it, you can't hurt it.
This level is why I chose LN for the alignment. Remember when I said you can't hurt what you can't hit? Once per day, for most (if not all) of a fight, you get a +1 untyped bonus to melee attacks. Also, if you decide to invest Essentia (which you can now do with an extra point in all your soulmelds) into the Incarnate Avatar soulmeld, you get an insight bonus to melee attacks based on the invested Essentia.
I chose to delay Crusader until level 5 just because I couldn't find enough good Level 1 Maneuvers - and I really like a couple of the Level 2 White Raven maneuvers. If you want to hit Crusader sooner, go right ahead; it doesn't slow anything down - in fact, it speeds up your ability to heal. And be sure to be using the Therapeutic Cloak pretty much permanently from now on; just remember that it won't do anything for you without invested Essentia.
You're now up to 7 points of Essentia, 4 soulmelds shaped, and 3 options for where to bind the one soulmeld you can. Leanr to work within these limits, because you're not getting any more. I still like the Diadem of Purelight, but the Impulse Boots are an interesting option - when bound, they grant evasion.
If they move, hit 'em; it's that simple. And, with Stand Still, if you hit 'em, they won't move. There's a reason Thicket is used in all Lockdown builds, and that's essentially what Kris, and Tess before her, are. As RT said about Tess, "The crusader's stance progression would make the baby Jesus cry." We waited this long for Crusader 2 to avoid making Jesus cry. Also, note that you're now adding your Cha mod to Will saves; there's a reason I chose to have Cha higher than Wis... A side noteShow
I found that doing this actually smooths out the stance progression for the rest of the Crusader levels. It's like the Crusader was actually DESIGNED to be a 14-level class.
Let's see... You hit them, and now you get an AoO if they try to hit your battle buddy instead of you. And now, if you have the Diadem of Purelight bound, you're ignoring anything short of total concealment AND total cover. We would have taken this at level 7, instead of Weapon Finesse, but for some reason it's not a fighter bonus feat.
Really, this feat is open, but who doesn't like having extra options at the start of combat? The only other feat I could think of to use here was Lightning Reflexes; your Reflex save does suck. And smite? That's one part of why you're using Charisma instead of Wisdom. It's also strictly better than a pally's smite, because you can never waste it.
Level 13 - Crusader 7 (Bonesplitting Strike) Level 14 - Crusader 8 (Steely Resolve 15) (Press the Advantage or Aura of Order) (Revitalizing Strike -> Rallying Strike) Spoiler:Show
Tess uses Tactics of the Wolf for this level's stance. Since Kris gets higher level stances, why not take advantage of it? I like PtA, since it gives you two 5' steps for the price of one, but Aura of Order is nice if you don't like missing your opponent.
This maneuver is the other reason why Kris likes Charisma more than Wisdom. If the opponent you hit with this is not also LN, every oppontent within 30 ft (and that should be quite a few by now) takes a -2 penalty on all attacks for 10 rounds if they fail this Cha-based save.
In the words of Hannibal from the A-Team, "I love it when a plan comes together." It takes a while (damn near forever, as a matter of fact), but when Kris peaks, it's a thing of beauty. Those levels in Incarnate slowed down Robillar's and Defensive Sweep, but now you've got everything a Lockdown tank needs. If they move, hit 'em, and make it so they don't move. If they don't move, and you're next to them... hit 'em again. And Tactical Strike and Press the Advantage each give you extra 5' steps, so chances are good that you're slowly roaming the battlefield, getting in some extra hits. If you're using your Therapeutic cloak correctly, you're healing an extra 2-12 points of damage every time you heal. If you're in the Martial Spirit stance, you're healing every time you connect.
Now you get to allow your battle buddies to act on your turn. Granted, it's not White Raven Tactics, but it's still dmaned effective. Oh, and if you want to see your DM cry, bind the Impulse Boots to your feet for eavsion to go with Mettle. Congratulations! You're now taking no damage on a successful save - ever.
You're now damn hard to kill from HP damage. And you were damn hard to kill from saves starting at last level. You now really are a tank! And you can Heal your party members.
Summary: Like RadicalTaoist's Molester line, Kris is built on the premise of "AoO Crusader". Built off of the Tess chassis (Healer, heal thyself!), and incorporating Fred's "role reversal" musings, Kris is what I came up with. She won't win any damage contests, but she'll hurt everyone she can - and enjoy doing it, with all the healing that effects. Kris ends up with a BAB of +18, saves of +16/+6/+9, and an average of 146 HP. With the ability to shape & bind various soulmelds, Kris can be semi-effective in various roles, but is designed to focus on healing and battlefield control. The soulmelds I like the most for her to use on a daily basis are the Therapeutic Cloak (duh), Impulse Boots, Bluesteel Bracers, and a bound Diadem of Purelight.
Weaknesses: Low Reflex save, average Will save (but helped by the Charisma addition), limited number of soulmelds, limited number of maneuvers. There are plenty of weaknesses, but with the proper selection of soulmelds, invested Essentia, daily maneuvers, etc., I think Kris is able to overcome most of them. Kris also has slightly below-average HP for a tank, but with reach & her ability to heal anyone & everyone within range, I don't envision that being a problem.
Strengths: HEALING, a good Fort save, Die Hard, and the maneuver/stance selection allowed by waiting several levels to focus on Crusader.
Magic Items: Gloves of the Balanced Hand, preferably paired with Gloves of Dex. The usual items needed for an AoO tank (+Str, +Dex, +con), along with Charisma boosters. Kris is also not very self-sufficient; a friendly wizard making an amulet of Enlarge Person would be helpful.
Variations: The easiest variation would be to change the alignment; different alignments grant different abilities for both Incarnate Avatar and incarnum radiance. If you're more interested in an uber-charger than an AoO tanker, you could go with a Goliath Barbarian with Mountain Rage and Lion Totem if you use any other alignment (chaotic would get you the speed bonus back). This obviously changes your feats, but it doesn't really affect your maneuvers much. Since you won't be focused on getting as many attacks as possible, I'd recommend Iron Guard's Glare as your 1st-level stance over Martial Spirit. Another possibility is to drop a level of fighter for another level of incarnate. At the cost of a feat, that grants you another point of Essentia and the ability to unshape & reshape a soulmeld 1/day as a full-round action. Also, even 1 Bloodline level would allow you to get all 3 9th-level maneuvers allowed to a Crusader.
As always - thoughts, critiques, criticisms, and suggestions are welcome.
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But wasn't there some discussion about whether Theraputic Mantle works on manoeuvres? It says it triggers when a "spell or effect" heals you, but the amount it heals is based on spell level. I would think that would take some DM adjudication.
You could also use the Lifebond Vestments to transfer your own health to others. This would be ideal for outside of combat, since it's touch and since you can temporarily plumb all your essentia into it to heal large amounts if necessary, but they you have to be OK starting encounters injured (I guess you can jump right to the healing manoeuvres).
Would this slightly convuluted method work? You use the Lifebond Vestments to heal someone, using your damage pool to delay the health loss for a moment. Then, you attack the floor with Stone Power, gaining temporary HP. When the damage comes out of your pool, it's soaked up by the temp HP. Free healing, admittedly limited by not only the Vestments, but also Stone Power and Steely Resolve. It's still 20hp per person per hour, though, at Crusader 4 (and actually you could do it with Shape Soulmeld).
I applaud you, sir. The Molester family has found a worthy successor. I would personally prefer having the Engima Helm in there rather than the Diadem of Purelight; Will saves always deserve shoring up.
Nice idea with the Lifebond Vestments + Stone Power, Fred (I was actually musing on something similar using Vigor to make a soul manifester healer). I think that would need to be its own build though; you'd need action shenanigans to make the timing work as using the Vestments is a standard action. As for the Therapeutic Mantle, while the initial effect references spell level and requires GM adjudication to work with maneuvers, adding essentia to increase the healing effect does NOT reference spell levels at all. (You want to see something nasty with psionics-magic transparency? Add the Therapeutic Mantle on to Claws of the Vampire/Vampiric Weapon psionic powers.)
I don't see how you can combine the therapeudic mantle with a martial maneuver. The logic that lets that work would let things like Globe of Invulnerability resist strike attacks - and, under that same logic, I have no clue whatsoever what would happen if I used a boost and attacked someone with Spell Turning. (It's clear that Spell Turning would reflect strikes, but not normal attacks; boosts make my brain hurt.) Therapeudic Mantle Crusaders don't work as well as advertised. (It DOES work with Claws of the Vampire, as near as I can tell.)
You might also want to look into damage splitting effects - you don't have room for casting, but there's plenty of space for items, and I seem to recall there are rings of Shield Other.
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Hmm. You could still use Lifebond Vestments with self-healing strikes; maybe you could attack a rock?
Likewise, I think Lifebond + Stone Power would work thanks to your delayed damage pool (I was trying to find a way to use Stone Power first, then Lifebond, all before the end of your turn, to no avail - well, aside from things which are too expensive to be worth it, like the Belt of Battle). You use Lifebond first, it goes into your pool, and it doesn't come out until the end of your next turn, after which you've used Stone Power.
Some kind of Share Pain/Shield Other magic could work, too (have the party Psion put Share Pain on you?). With Stone Power you can be a pretty neat health battery anyway.
I don't see how you can combine the therapeudic mantle with a martial maneuver. The logic that lets that work would let things like Globe of Invulnerability resist strike attacks - and, under that same logic, I have no clue whatsoever what would happen if I used a boost and attacked someone with Spell Turning. (It's clear that Spell Turning would reflect strikes, but not normal attacks; boosts make my brain hurt.) Therapeudic Mantle Crusaders don't work as well as advertised. (It DOES work with Claws of the Vampire, as near as I can tell.)
I'm not sure that follows. The Therapeutic Mantle states:
Whenever you are the target of a spell or effect that heals hit point damage, the spell heals additional damage equal to its spell level.
Emphasis mine. It does not say "spell effect", like globe of invulnerability does.
An immobile, faintly shimmering magical sphere surrounds you and excludes all spell effects of 3rd level or lower. The area or effect of any such spells does not include the area of the lesser globe of invulnerability. Such spells fail to affect any target located within the globe. Excluded effects include spell-like abilities and spells or spell-like effects from items.
Spell turning is even more restrictive:
Spells and spell-like effects targeted on you are turned back upon the original caster. The abjuration turns only spells that have you as a target. Effect and area spells are not affected. Spell turning also fails to stop touch range spells.
"Effects" as a category is broader than "spell effects" or "spell-like effects"; "effects that heal hit point damage" is broad enough that it can have room for Martial Spirit (which certainly qualifies). Martial Spirit does not qualify as a spell effect (or a spell-like effect from a spell-like ability or item) however.
You might also want to look into damage splitting effects - you don't have room for casting, but there's plenty of space for items, and I seem to recall there are rings of Shield Other.
Oh hell yes this. Damage splitting effects are pretty natty with Crusaders.
Likewise, I think Lifebond + Stone Power would work thanks to your delayed damage pool (I was trying to find a way to use Stone Power first, then Lifebond, all before the end of your turn, to no avail - well, aside from things which are too expensive to be worth it, like the Belt of Battle). You use Lifebond first, it goes into your pool, and it doesn't come out until the end of your next turn, after which you've used Stone Power.
You're slightly mistaken; the delayed damage pool empties at the end of your current turn.
I don't see how you can combine the therapeudic mantle with a martial maneuver. The logic that lets that work would let things like Globe of Invulnerability resist strike attacks - and, under that same logic, I have no clue whatsoever what would happen if I used a boost and attacked someone with Spell Turning. (It's clear that Spell Turning would reflect strikes, but not normal attacks; boosts make my brain hurt.) Therapeudic Mantle Crusaders don't work as well as advertised. (It DOES work with Claws of the Vampire, as near as I can tell.)
I'm not sure that follows. The Therapeutic Mantle states:
Whenever you are the target of a spell or effect that heals hit point damage, the spell heals additional damage equal to its spell level.
Emphasis mine. It does not say "spell effect", like globe of invulnerability does.
I'm with RT on this. The way I read it, it works kind of like an Amulet of Natural Armor on a human. The ANA gives an enhancement bonus to NA, but a human has an NA of +0, right? The base Therapuetic Mantle grants extra healing based on the spell level (in this case, +0), but investing essentia "increases the additional healing". So, in this case, since it is a spell or effect that increases healing, it would heal 0 hp + X hp, where X is based on invested essentia.
"Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter." -Condoleezza Rice
"My fellow Americans... I've just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. Bombing begins in five minutes." - Ronald Reagan
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Resident Pithed-Off Dragon Buttler of the House of Trolls
I was going off "the spell heals additional damage equal to its spell level", but if the essentia adds extra healing... then yeah, that extra should probably trigger.
Delayed damage pool is next turn (right there bottom of p10). It's designed for when someone else hits you, so there would normally be no current turn (because it would have passed).
Delayed damage pool is next turn (right there bottom of p10). It's designed for when someone else hits you, so there would normally be no current turn (because it would have passed).
Yes, because most people hit you when it's not your turn. I conclude that it's a per-turn reset that happens at the end of your turn, because if it reset at the beginning of your turn, you'd never gain any benefit from Steely Resolve.
Think of it this way: if you are a crusader sorceror gish with a dd pool of 15, and you take 10 points of damage from an enemy attack during their turn, and then cast Blade of Blood on yourself during your turn (which deals 5 damage to yourself), where does the damage go at the end of your turn when you're done whooping the fool who attacked you? Do they both go into a delayed damage pool that totals to 15 damage and empties when your turn is over? Or does the 5 from Blade of Blood somehow go into a separate delayed damage pool that will empty on the next turn?
I would be tempted to say a separate pool. I see what you mean - the pool essentially empties itself each turn - but the book actually says "next turn", so by RAW I would think it would work. Possibly a bit of a grey area, though.
