Whirling Eater of Souls (3.5e Optimized Character Build)



Author's Note: "I drained the soul of a monk once. It tasted like chocolate."

Introduction
Summary::Combining Soul Eater with numerous natural attacks allows one to quickly reduce enemies to shells of their former selves, all the while maintaining high AC and saves.

Spells, Powers, Soulmelds, Stances, etc...
Substitute powers into melds as found here, as well as substituting Alertness instead of Wild Empathy into the Natural World mantle.
 * Tail of the Dragon (Secrets of Sarlona) into Natural World
 * Bite of the Wolf (Expanded Psionics Handbook) into Natural World
 * Claws of the Beast (Expanded Psionics Handbook) into Natural World
 * Expansion (Expanded Psionics Handbook) into Conflict

Powers by level of Ardent taken:
 * 1) Claws of the Beast, Tail of the Dragon
 * 2) Inertial Armor
 * 3) Force Screen
 * 4) Psionic Lion's Charge
 * 5) Bite of the Wolf
 * 6) Expansion
 * 7) Metamorphosis

Grab the Totemist Soulmeld Girallon Arms and bind it to your Totem Chakra. Choose whatever other soulmelds you want.

Progression
Starting Ability Scores (Before Racial Adjustments): (Assuming 32 Point Buy) 16 14 16 8 14 8

Race (Templates): Race::Elan

Note: Bolded feats are granted as bonus feats from flaws or the class taken at that level.

At level twenty: Final Class Progression::Monk 2 / Ardent 7 / Totemist 2 / Soul Eater 7 / Warshaper 2

Items of Note

 * Monk's Belt
 * Amulet of Mighty Fists

Highlights
Manifest augmented Expansion, augmented Inertial Armor, Tail of the Dragon, and augmented Claws of the Beast at the start of the day.

Assumed stats at level 20 (Before Metamorphosis):
 * Str: 40 (+15) = 16 (Base) + 5 (Level) + 6 (Item) + 5 (Tome) + 4 (Expansion) + 4 (Morphic Body)
 * Dex: 16 (+3) = 14 (Base) + 6 (Item) - 4 (Expansion)
 * Wis: 20 (+5) = 14 (Base) + 6 (Item)
 * AC: 40 = 10 (Base) + 3 (Dex) + 5 (Wis) + 2 (Monk AC Bonus with Monk's Belt) + 8 (Inertial Armor at 9 ML) + 4 (Force Screen) + 5 (Ring of Protection) + 5 (Amulet of Natural Armor) -2 (Size)
 * Grapple Check: +52/+47/+42 = 15 (BAB) + 8 (Size) + 15 (Str) + 4 (Improved Grapple) + 2 (Flexible Limbs) + 8 (Girallon Arms with 3 essentia invested)

Full Attack (+5 Amulet of Mighty Fists):
 * Unarmed Strike +34/+34/+34/+30/+25 (8d6+20)
 * Claws of the Beast +33/+33/+28 (6d6+12)
 * Girallon Claws +33/+33/+33/+33 (2d6+12)
 * Bite of the Wolf +32 (6d8+12)
 * Tail of the Dragon +32 (4d8+12)
 * Tentacles +32/+32/+28 (2d6+12)

This totals to 17 attacks per round, for a total maximum of 34 negative levels every round. Can soak damage with the Elan racial abilities, and boost saves as well.

Combat Sequence

 * First round of combat manifest linked Force Screen to Bite of the Wolf while moving closer.
 * Second round, full attack if possible, and if not use Psionic Lion's Charge to pounce. Rinse and repeat.

Further Optimization

 * Anything that adds damage to each attack (like a bard with Dragonfire Inspiration) will boost the damage on this build immensely.
 * Greater Mighty Wallop (spell) will increase the damage of unarmed attacks.
 * Chaos Roc's Wings soulmeld from Dragon #350 for another 2 attacks that deal nonlethal damage.
 * Pick up a Psionic Tattoo of Strength of My Enemy to drain enemy levels and strength.

Limitations

 * Damage being as low as it is per attack, this build can be stopped at most levels by creatures with decent DR.

DM Counters

 * Damage Resistance and non-living monsters immune to level drain.
 * Dispelling buffs. (Dispel Psionics, Unshape Soulmeld)

Variants

 * Trade out a feat (perhaps Improved Natural Attack: Unarmed Strike) for Practiced Manifester for a higher ML.