"Sneaky beings that slowly creep through the darkness carrying knives and lanterns. Their incessant, innocent stare stabs through opponents, pushing them over the brink of despair."
Here's a blast from the past. Whenever I find something about my meme builds can be updated, this is how I'm going to handle it: Fixing the build and reposting it. If I simply edit the page, chances are you're not even going to know I did it. So this is better.
The only change here is that I found out about the feat Advanced Weapon Training that leds you get Focused Weapon earlier, at five instead of nine. This eliminates what I thought the biggest disadvantage of the build was, so it's very important. I also updated some build advice.
I'm gonna do some build showcases. They're gonna be meme-y and funny, but I assure you all of them will be playable. I don't like putting together unplayable or bad characters, even as a joke. I don't want people mistaking joke builds, or builds that simply test theoretical limits, for playable ones.
The builds I'm presenting are gonna be just the core of what they need to be the thing I'm saying they are: some are gonna have a lot of free levels where you can take whatever you want. Some will have none.
Tonberry
Class: Fighter
Feats
1 Weapon Focus(Dagger)
1F
2F
3
4F Weapon Specialization(Dagger)
5 Advanced Weapon Training
6F Vital Strike
7
8F Improved Weapon Focus(Dagger)
9 Devastating Strike
10F Improved Critical(Dagger)
11 Improved Vital Strike
12F Improved Weapon Specialization(Dagger)
13 Improved Devastating Strike
14F
15
16F Greater Vital Strike
17
18F
19
20F
Weapon Training
5 Light Blades
5b Focused Weapon(Dagger)
9
13
17
This is nothing special, honestly, but I'm enamored of the idea. At its base, this is stacking a simple Vital Strike build with Focused Weapon to (eventually) get mucho damage on your attack actions. Once the build comes together, you'll be able to shuffle slowly toward your victim and hit them with Everybody's Grudge(also known as The Attack Action) for 8d8+15 before adding your Strength or weapon enhancement bonuses.
Pros. Like every vital strike build, you're super mobile. You'll hit for ruinous damage even on rounds you have to move, and you'll do even more if they're dumb enough to sit still for you to take a full attack. You're great against high-AC targets, since you can put most of your damage behind one really high attack bonus. You're using dagger, which is an easily concealed and very common weapon. You'll have a lot more luck getting a dagger into somewhere than a two handed weapon, even if you're not concealing it.
Cons. You're not really using your other hand(but see Full Memery below). If you decide to be size small to commit to the joke, you're losing a significant amount of damage because the weapon die progression from Focused Weapon will be lower. You also lose out on a weapon flag that's very important to Vital Strike characters: the weapon dice enhancing flag Impact can't be put on a light weapon.
Finishing the Character. There are a few "X times a day, save vs. an effect" feats that go with Vital Strike. Those aren't too bad. Staggering someone in particular with Staggering Blow can sometimes save your(or someone else's) butt from a full attack action. If you're taking that one, you should probably do so at level ten and put off taking Improved Critical a while. Power Attack can basically be used on every attack since you're really likely to hit, and there are a few ways to stack Vital Strike with cleave that I saw. Vital Strike also goes amazingly well with Sunder, melting through a weapon(or armor) in one strike. You could also take movement related feats, but be careful: Spring Attack does not work with Vital Strike. AC or defensive feats could also be on the table since you're probably using a shield to make use of that other hand.
In addition, anything that increases your weapon die type disproportionately buffs your damage compared to other people. Enlarge Person isn't very in-line with the theme, but it's a good spell. A wonderful spell for you to slap onto an item is called Lead Blades. It's a level one, but it's a ranger only spell, so you might expect the GM to put you on a quest to find an enchanter who can do it. I'd suggest doing that quest, because it's your best buff.
17
This is nothing special, honestly, but I'm enamored of the idea. At its base, this is stacking a simple Vital Strike build with Focused Weapon to (eventually) get mucho damage on your attack actions. Once the build comes together, you'll be able to shuffle slowly toward your victim and hit them with Everybody's Grudge(also known as The Attack Action) for 8d8+15 before adding your Strength or weapon enhancement bonuses.
Pros. Like every vital strike build, you're super mobile. You'll hit for ruinous damage even on rounds you have to move, and you'll do even more if they're dumb enough to sit still for you to take a full attack. You're great against high-AC targets, since you can put most of your damage behind one really high attack bonus. You're using dagger, which is an easily concealed and very common weapon. You'll have a lot more luck getting a dagger into somewhere than a two handed weapon, even if you're not concealing it.
Cons. You're not really using your other hand(but see Full Memery below). If you decide to be size small to commit to the joke, you're losing a significant amount of damage because the weapon die progression from Focused Weapon will be lower. You also lose out on a weapon flag that's very important to Vital Strike characters: the weapon dice enhancing flag Impact can't be put on a light weapon.
Finishing the Character. There are a few "X times a day, save vs. an effect" feats that go with Vital Strike. Those aren't too bad. Staggering someone in particular with Staggering Blow can sometimes save your(or someone else's) butt from a full attack action. If you're taking that one, you should probably do so at level ten and put off taking Improved Critical a while. Power Attack can basically be used on every attack since you're really likely to hit, and there are a few ways to stack Vital Strike with cleave that I saw. Vital Strike also goes amazingly well with Sunder, melting through a weapon(or armor) in one strike. You could also take movement related feats, but be careful: Spring Attack does not work with Vital Strike. AC or defensive feats could also be on the table since you're probably using a shield to make use of that other hand.
In addition, anything that increases your weapon die type disproportionately buffs your damage compared to other people. Enlarge Person isn't very in-line with the theme, but it's a good spell. A wonderful spell for you to slap onto an item is called Lead Blades. It's a level one, but it's a ranger only spell, so you might expect the GM to put you on a quest to find an enchanter who can do it. I'd suggest doing that quest, because it's your best buff.
Finally, a note on basic building. This is a character that could multiclass if they wanted to. Easily. You could even make them into a Weapon Finesse character since you don't get as big a benefit from STR than a traditional fighter: You're only ever making one attack, and with a one-handed weapon to boot.
For Full Memery. Hide your armor under your robe, or buy glamered armor. Ask if you can reflavor a shield to a lantern. If they say no, you can still enchant your shield with a +1 weapon bonus(so it's a magic weapon) then put the Glamered weapon flag on it. Since it only goes away when you attack with the weapon, it'll look like a lantern(and function as a shield) the entire fight. Caution, though. If your GM is a stickler, he's not gonna like how you got around his decision. He might declare something un-fun like blocking an attack with the shield reveals the glamour.
If You Hate Fun. The cool thing about this build is that it can be taken to be a "weapon master". You can pick any of those cool but useless weapons out of the equipment guide and declare your character is the master of it, unparalleled at its use. You'd basically be right. Focused Weapon can also turn mediocre weapons into great ones, and you can use that to leverage the strengths those weapons have, like kusari-gama's reach and trip bonus.
For Full Memery. Hide your armor under your robe, or buy glamered armor. Ask if you can reflavor a shield to a lantern. If they say no, you can still enchant your shield with a +1 weapon bonus(so it's a magic weapon) then put the Glamered weapon flag on it. Since it only goes away when you attack with the weapon, it'll look like a lantern(and function as a shield) the entire fight. Caution, though. If your GM is a stickler, he's not gonna like how you got around his decision. He might declare something un-fun like blocking an attack with the shield reveals the glamour.
If You Hate Fun. The cool thing about this build is that it can be taken to be a "weapon master". You can pick any of those cool but useless weapons out of the equipment guide and declare your character is the master of it, unparalleled at its use. You'd basically be right. Focused Weapon can also turn mediocre weapons into great ones, and you can use that to leverage the strengths those weapons have, like kusari-gama's reach and trip bonus.
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