So, I'm playing in a high power campaign that'll be going deep into epic levels, and I'd like to try to raise my CL. I'll get into depth after discussing how things are looking currently.
Current Progression: Druid 1-6 / Planar Shepherd of the Abyss (FoE, 105) 1-10
Planned Progression: Druid 1-6 / Planar Shepherd of the Abyss (FoE, 105) 1-10 / Druid 7 / Bard 1 / Sublime Chord (CA, 50) 1-2 / Arcane Hierophant (RotW, 108) 1-10 / ???
Relevant notes:
1) By the end of the current encounter I'll have my 9th level Druid spells.
2) In another level beyond that I'll start taking levels in Bard/Sublime Chord. Entry is simple enough for this char, so that is already cleared. Character has really high Charisma, so casting will be high powered anyway.
3) I have access to the Travel and Trickery domains already via Domain Icons
4) Former Gatekeeper Initiate who was corrupted and became a Nightbringer (so both of the Initiate Feats for that, granting those spells).
5) Already have the Prayer Beads of Karma and a divine equivalent of the Ring of Arcane Might.
7) As a Planar Shepherd, I can wild shape anything native to the Abyss and an outsider, magical beast, or elemental within my HD (DM banned all boosts to wildshape beyond HD, condition for allowing PlanShep into the game). Since PlanShep wild-shaping grants all Ex, Su, and Sp, that gives me access to a ton of SLAs/PLAs, including straight up cleric and sorcerer casters. Once Shapechange gets online with my 9ths, that'll also unlock creatures with racial casting abilities.
Current Max CL: With all available boosts in place -- Planar Bubble exhibiting layers that give boosts to certain spells (not all of them, at least in my case, and nothing more than +1), the ring (+1), and Prayer beads (+4) -- I'm hitting +6 to my CL right now. Fair enough...but I want more.
The Issue
So, the problem is that as we are a really strong party, which means the DM is throwing piles of stuff at us that we're managing to field...but the SR is getting to the point on many creatures where I cannot reliably bypass it -- running 50/50 when I throw a 8th or 9th level at something risks more wasting of time and resources than I want.
As a Druid, I have plenty of spells that do wonderful work while ignoring SR, but they still have powers that key off of CL, and most of them have damage keyed off of CL that I want to raise too -- my best spells have no cap (Frostfell and Venomfire are the two most alluring, of course). Once I get into arcane casting, though, I know that CL will become much more important.
To give more context, as we progress everyone can do a great deal, but my job is "The Fixer" -- whether the problem is living, dead, undead, a city, an army, a nation, etc...I "fix" it >:}. In the encounter right now I've already used some of my top SR ignoring spells and don't want to strip myself when we have more encounters guaranteed today, so I'm having to get into melee with a 27 HD gargantuan undead monstrosity with passives, spells, summoning, etc. Not my first choice of combat style to say the least, and the main problem is that I have spells that would help (well, aside from my obvious buffs) but most would only have a 30% chance of beat SR....and encounters are only going to get worse.
Solutions?
I know of a few random things (i.e. Orange Ioun Stones), but here is what I'm particularly looking for:
1) Items -- mainly ones that give a lot more than just +1, even if it is temporary. Also of note is that I'll be picking up some serious loot after this day is finished, so I'll have dough to spend on more expensive items...but I'm also saving for a Greater Metamagic Rod of Persist Spell (900,000 GP), so I don't want to go too wild here.
2) OTHER -- this is my main interest. I'm wondering what out-of-the-way or creative or magical or whatever options are open for me to boost my CL. Preference is permanent, although I have excellent travel around both the Material Plane and other planes, so ones that are at least reliably renewed without too much work is fine too. The more boosting the better.
What you can work with:
1) Feats -- I have essentially all the feats I need right now, and since I have access to Polymorph Any Object on my spell list I can pick up feats that I don't have via other forms. That means that going forward I'm open to spending any feats on direct boosting.
2) Spells -- Obviously all druid spells plus the expanded list, but if there is a spell necessary I can most likely find an Abyss native that can cast it (and by find I mean PlanShep wild-shape into it and get all the Ex, Su, and Sp of that form, including racial spellcasting). I'd prefer to not have to waste wild-shapes on this, however, so preferably stick to spells I have via Druid, my expansions, or Bard/Sublime Chord.
3) Money -- limited. As I said, I'm saving for a super expensive item and have most everything else I need, so I'd like to avoid spending more than a few 1000 if possible.
4) Creativity -- I've got a ton of wiggle room to make things work. Not with rules (DM tends to be restrictive, although any WotC 3.5e/fully-converted 3.X is allowed), but with flavor, narrative, storyline explanation, etc.
So...have at it!
