Jester: The Jester class in D&D 3.5 excels at using humor and deception to manipulate and control the battlefield, combining performance skills with combat versatility.
Mocking Menace[1]: Designed to taunt and demoralize enemies, this build excels at drawing attacks while remaining evasive and hard to hit.
The Shadow Jester[2]: Focused on high level spellcasting and powerful performances, this build combines the Virtuoso and Sublime Chord classes for formidable magical and performance capabilities.
The Temptress[3]: A dexterous and charming Yuan-Ti Pureblood, specializing in poison use, enchanting dances, and snake themed abilities, excelling in infiltration and crowd control.
The Many Faced One[4]: Leveraging the Master of Masks prestige class, this build adapts to various roles, from melee fighter to spellcaster.
He’s Literally Me[5]: This build epitomizes the “He’s literally me[5]” trope, blending deception, melee prowess, and spellcasting for unmatched versatility.
The Mocking Menace[1] is designed to taunt and demoralize enemies, forcing them to attack while remaining evasive. This build focuses on high Charisma and Dexterity to perform, evade, and survive in combat.
Excellent at drawing enemies’ attention and making them miss their attacks.
Relatively low damage output compared to other builds focused on direct combat.
Use Spring Attack to hit and run, combining it with your taunts to frustrate and control enemy movements effectively.
The Temptress[3] is a dexterous and charming Yuan-Ti Pureblood, specializing in poison use, enchanting dances, and snake themed abilities. This build is an excellent infiltrator, damage dealer, and crowd controller.
High Dexterity and Charisma, combined with poison use and energy draining touch, make it deadly in both combat and social situations.
Vulnerability to conditions affecting its relatively low Constitution and hit points
Use Enchanting Dance to captivate and distract enemies, setting them up for a devastating poison attack or energy drain.
This build focuses on high level spellcasting while maintaining the jester’s deceptive and humorous nature. The combination of Virtuoso and Sublime Chord classes allows for powerful spellcasting and impressive performance abilities.
Access to 9th level spells and powerful bardic music abilities, making it a formidable spellcaster.
Lower physical combat capabilities and reliance on spellcasting for major damage.
Use the Song of Cosmic Fire with your Item Familiar to deal massive damage, leveraging your performances for high damage output.
This build leverages the Master of Masks prestige class to adapt to various roles in combat, from melee fighter to spellcaster. It excels in deception, using multiple masks to gain different abilities and surprise enemies.
Incredible flexibility with different masks granting unique abilities, making the character adaptable to many situations.
Requires careful management of masks and abilities, which can be complex and overwhelming.
Switch to the Gladiator’s Mask to gain proficiency with the Elven Courtblade. Thus allowing for powerful melee attacks with Weapon Finesse and Power Attack.
This build epitomizes the “He’s literally me[5]” trope, blending deception, melee prowess, and spellcasting. With a versatile mix of classes, it excels in assassination, poison use, and causing heart attacks with the Death Attack ability.
Unmatched versatility in combat and skills, allowing for effective melee, spellcasting, and assassination.
Low Strength and Constitution make it vulnerable in prolonged physical confrontations.
Utilize the Beguiling Influence from Warlock to enhance your Bluff, Diplomacy, and Intimidate skills, making you a master manipulator.
FAQ
What makes the Jester class unique in D&D 3.5?
The Jester class combines humor and deception to control the battlefield, using performance skills to taunt and manipulate enemies while also possessing combat abilities and spells.
How does the “He’s Literally Me[5]” build utilize its versatility in gameplay?
This build blends various classes such as Jester, Warlock, and Assassin to excel in melee combat, spellcasting, and assassination. Altogether making it adaptable to many situations.
What is the primary strategy for the “Mocking Menace[1]” Jester build?
The Mocking Menace[1] focuses on taunting and demoralizing enemies, forcing them to attack while using evasive tactics and high Dexterity to avoid damage and control the battlefield.
How does the “The Many Faced One[4]” Jester build manage its flexibility?
By utilizing the Master of Masks prestige class, this build switches between different masks that grant unique abilities. This allowing the character to adapt to various combat roles and situations.
What are the key abilities of the “The Temptress[3]” Jester build?
The Temptress[3] excels with high Dexterity and Charisma, using poison attacks, energy draining touch, and enchanting dances to charm and incapacitate enemies, making her a formidable infiltrator and crowd controller.
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Writer, Editor, GM, Technologist – Andrew’s been playing TTRPGs since as far back as he can recall… at least sometime in the nineties… or was it the early 2000s?
The lord and the scribe sat in the private lodge, which overlooked the arena for this special tournament.
The old lord looked pensive, “I am glad you accepted this rush job,” he said to the scribe, as the latter was preparing to write down the man’s memories.
“Always ready to serve one as illustrious as you, my lord. Shall we begin?” The older man, a respected wizard-scribe and fellow of the Lodge, asked graciously.
The lord turned his seat to face the scribe, with his legs crossed lazily. He then retrieved his goblet of wine and took a sip.
“Yes, I suppose it is time. For starters, I am no lord,” he shook his head lightly on the admission.
The scribe wrote what the man said but paused as he stayed silent,
“Sir?”
“I never was a lord to begin with. That man you think you know doesn’t exist. Never has,” mirth flashed over the older man’s face.
“Is…is that one of your tricks?” The scribe recalled about how his liege was reputed master trickster. Reportedly able, with both the magic and the mundane, to alter events to suit his needs.
“No more tricks my friend. Just the honest truth between you and I, for this one time…”
Race
Human
Class
Jester 20
Ability Score
Str 10/Dex 15/Con 14/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 16
Skills
Perform(Comedy), Tumble
Equipment
Chainshirt, Heavy Shield, Shortsword and Whip.
Goal
The Jester is like the antibard, demoralizing and taunting opponents into attacking you.
So I made this build to force enemies into attacking you, yet being completely unable to reach you. This forces them to run after you as you and your team pick them off one by one.
Between your spells, spring attack, a decent AC and decent survivability, you are an absolute pain to deal with. Furthermore you’re versatile enough to deal with most situations fairly easily.
“So… you really are a woman?” Asked the scribe, who barely dared blink as he watched the… person shedding the lord’s mannerisms slowly into those of a trained killer, step by step.
“No, although I may have enjoyed that role for a while, that identity was merely one of many. I also was an archmage of some renown before I became the temptress.”
She removed the face, this time his new visage that of a sage old man.
The Scribe gasped. The visage belonged to an archmage from the Arcane Order who went missing a decade ago. This was a man that the Scribe had known, at least in passing.
“Do you know my friend, how difficult it is to emulate an archmage of such caliber? The hoops and loops I had to work through to appear as such…”
He continued, a smile slowly manifesting beneath his bearded face, “But, it was by living such a life, that I truly began to realize that my life was not a tragedy, but a comedy.”
You can cast 9th level spells like Wish. You can pass off easily as a Sorcerer or even as a Wizard, and are an extremely strong spellcaster. You’re capable of rivaling the so-called “tier 1” classes in versatility.
When you get the Song of Cosmic Fire, with the help of your Item Familiar, you can deal hundreds of damage each round simply by spending your performances.
“So… if you are not one of this city’s lords, who ARE you?” the old Scribe asked, wide-eyed on the revelation.
The lord smiled before he replied, “It would be simpler if I showed you. See, as the years passed, I took several identities. The one of the lord is but my latest of many.”
He grasped his face with his hands, which, to the complete horror of the scribe, detached itself from the man’s skull.
It was a mask, his face had taken the form of a porcelain mask. A mask depicting the soft, smiling face of the lord.
What was the lord’s form morphed into a woman with serpent-like features. She had slit eyes, a forked tongue, and what looked like scales that glinted in the light and yet she was oddly alluring.
Her eyes pierced the very soul of the scribe, who had completely forgotten to write down any of this.
She continued in a voluptuous, sensual tone, “Before I became the lord you admired so much, I was but one exotic dancer in the underworld of this city, a snake charmer and a master of poisons.”
Race
Yuan-Ti
Class
Pureblood 4/Jester 2/Animal Lord 10/Soul Eater 1/Cloaked Dancer 2
Ability Scores
Str 10/Dex 18/Con 14/Int 12/Wis 10/Cha 18
Skills
Escape Artist 5, Handle Animal 4, Hide 5, Knowledge(Arcana) 2, Knowledge(Nature) 2, Perform(Dance) 10, Sleight of Hand 5
Equipment
Spiked Chain, Chainshirt
Flaws
Shaky, Murky Eyed
Goals
You are a snake lady, both nightmare and wet dream of so many.
You can shift into a viper, summon snakes to your help and your very touch saps the life force of your foes. This deals tremendous damage, poisons them, and does not remove them from your charms. This enables their rapid and discrete death.
A truly terrifying build that is a fantastic Party Face, an incredible skill monkey, and a powerful damage-dealer.
“Then, who are you, really?” Finally asked the scribe as he rubbed his flowing white beard, pensively.
With a wistful tone, the Lord Banker replied, “As you can imagine, living so many lives can make things…” A long pause, “hard to remember at some point. I was so many people…”
“A gladiator, who worked for the criminal underworld as a bruiser,” he said, as he removed yet another mask to now have the face of a tough, rugged man with many scars.
“I was a drug dealer, nicknamed the Angel,” he continued, and removed yet another face. ‘He’ now took on a semi-angelic, androgenous face with platinum tones.
As he spoke, he continued to remove faces – masks – the Scribe growing more unsettled with each passing moment, “I was behind a secret thug organization. Mastermind of the terrorists who blew up the King’s treasury. Even battle master of this here arena.” With a weak grin on his face, “I was every person with any ounce of importance in this city.”
He let out a sigh.
“But I suppose, all of this was merely to escape who I truly was,” he continued, as he removed his final mask, “a clown, and a murderer…”
The Scribe, completely oblivious to what was happening around them, finally saw the real face of the man he once thought a friend.
Race
Half-Elf Godblooded of Vecna
Class
Jester 5/Swashbuckler 3/Half-Elf Paragon 2/Master of Masks 10 (1 LA Buyback)
Shortsword, Whip, Light Crossbow, Chainshirt, Heavy Shield, an Elven Courtblade
Goal
You can do it all. You can cast spells reliably, fight well both in melee and ranged. You’re also a capable scout, face, and even support.
It all depends on the combination of masks you wear at the time. With the gladiator mask you can use an Elven Courtblade. Which will enable you to use both weapon finesse and power attack with two hands.
That’s only one of your seven masks, each with a variety of abilities ranging from sneak attack to spell-like abilities and boosting your caster levels.
Also, Master of Masks is one of my favorite PrCs in 3.5, and it fits so well with Jester that I had to make such a build.
It was not the face of a benevolent noble, a dangerously renowned temptress, or that of a mighty archmage who stared at the scribe. Instead, it was the very tired face of a quite normal man.
“Who… are you?” The Scribe asked, supremely confused.
“Yes,” the man smiled sadly at the Scribe, pausing to let the word hang in the air,” I’d imagine you wouldn’t remember me. I used to be the Lord Banker.”
The Scribe’s jaw dropped.
The Lord Banker had disappeared so long ago. He had been accused of murdering his own wife and practicing dark magic.
“I spent my youth as a regular man, a lower aristocrat. Sworn into the complacency of a mundane job, that of a banker. My marriage was arranged with a woman I couldn’t care less about. With a job that slowly killed me inside. So I became a jester.”
Complacency Kills
The Lord Banker paused for effect, a toothy grin across his face, “and a murderer. I committed atrocities because this whole world is but a comedy, a farce, a dream I shall wake up from at any point.”
His smile evaporated, “Or so I dared believe in the last fifteen years. I was once, like you, yearning to fit in but I realized just how uncaring the world is.”
A harsh tone overcame his voice, as he stared the Scribe in the eye, “This is our true enemy: Complacency. I had to break out.“
He stopped, looked at the arena, and continued with a much softer lilt, “But my time as this identity has come and gone.” There was a light nod from the man, “and now, I must wear someone else’s face.”
The Scribe, glancing at the door over his shoulder nervously, “…Why… why …” he stuttered, panicking, “are you…admitting all this?”
“Because it’s completely pointless, my friend. That’s the beauty of it, even if you were to go blabber about it, nobody would believe you,” the Lord Banker grinned wickedly, “After all…” He put on a mask, taking the appearance of the Scribe, though the grin did not fade.
“I am literally you, too. This whole confession, like everything else, has meant nothing…” His eyes gleamed, murderous…
Race
Human
Class
Jester 3/Warlock 2/Assassin 10/Black Dog
Ability Scores
5 Str 14/Dex 12/Con 10/Int 16/Wis 8/Cha 16
Skills
Bluff 4, Craft(Poisonmaking), Craft(Drugs), Craft(Alchemy), Disguise 4, Hide 8, Move Silently 8, Perform(Comedy) 6, Sleight of Hand 4
Equipment
A handaxe, a Chainshirt, a dagger, a shield
Flaws
Shaky, Murky Eyed
Goal
Yes, I went there. This build is pure distillation of the “He’s literally me” trope. Be it the Joker, Bateman, the Driver, Nightcrawler, Light Yagami. You name it, you can find some of the character’s aspect in this.
You’re extremely versatile as you’re not only a capable spell caster but a masterful melee combatant and more. Possessing the best Death Attack, as well as the ability to slay people with heart attacks you’re extremely effective at dispatching foes. Let’s not forget the ability to effectively deploy explosions, poisons, fists, and any melee weapons to dispatch adversaries you are the perfect murderer.
Not only that, but you’re a strong party face & an excellent skillmonkey.
As said, your versatility as a Literally Me Jester is second-to-none. After all, life’s a comedy – laugh it up.
Level Distribution
Level
Class
HD
Feat
Special
1
Jester
6
Mercantile Background, Least Dragonmark, Willing Deformity, Deformity(Madness)
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