Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Stoned Golem 02-29-04, 12:15 AM	"I'll beat you, even if it kills me." This build was inspired by the Lady's Gambit feat from Dragon 317, which lets you sacrifice up to one hitpoint per level to get a +1 to attack and damage per two points sacrificed for all attacks in a round. It also (ab)uses the Passive Way monk variant from UA just to get Combat Expertise without the Int prerequisite. Even cheesier, it abandons it after only one level to pick up Combat Reflexes. Oh well. Feral Human Ranger 3/Ninja 1/Fighter 2/Monk 2/Ghostwalker 10/Knight of the Middle Circle 1 NG -> LG, BAB +18, effective HD 9.8, Saves 16/9/17 Progression Human Bonus Feat: Iron Will 1 Rgr 1: (Track), Toughness 2 Rgr 1/Nja 1: (Dodge), (EWP: Chain, others) 3 Rgr 2/Nja 1: (TWF), Weapon Focus: Chain 4 Rgr 2/Nja 1/Mnk 1: (Combat Expertise) 5 Rgr 2/Nja 1/Mnk 2: (Combat Reflexes) 6 Rgr 2/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 1: (Power Attack), Karmic Strike 7 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 1: (Endurance) 8 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2: (Imp. TWF) 9 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 1: Lady's Gambit 10 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 2 11 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 3 12 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 3/KotMC 1: Double Hit 13 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 4/KotMC 1 14 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 5/KotMC 1 15 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 6/KotMC 1: Deft Opportunist 16 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 7/KotMC 1 17 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 8/KotMC 1 18 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 9/KotMC 1: Pain Mastery 19 Rgr 3/Nja 1/Mnk 2/Ftr 2/GW 10/KotMC 1 Iffy Equipment Checklist Wrathful Healing Chain - potentially overpowered Use-activated Masochism item - fits thematically, minor benefits, spell should not have [Evil] descriptor! Retributive Amulet - expensive, deals more damage to enemies but slows down entering Painful Reckoning, also potentially overpowered Feral wasn't ideal from a stats perspective, since a lot of the feats have Dex and Int requirements, but it's the easiest way I could think of to get fast healing, which is very nice for this build. In effect it can give you a constant +1 to attack and damage, since you can use Lady's Gambit for two points every round at no net loss. It also assures that you'll enter each big battle in peak condition, since Painful Reckoning isn't much good if you start the fight at 49% of your max HP. Likewise Ninja wasn't an ideal pick because of the alignment shift, but Dodge and EWP: Chain was too nice to pass up. Being able to use Power Attack at 10 feet and TWF with the same weapon is too good to miss. Lady's Gambit is also good because it gives you a greater level of control over Painful Reckoning. Instead of letting yourself get down to 55% HP and hoping that the next hit isn't a crit by something big, you can burn the exact amount of hitpoints necessary to put yourself over the edge. Interestingly enough, there's nothing in the ability description that states you need to have 50% of your hitpoints missing at once to activate it. In other words if you had 100 HP, lost 40, got healed for 35, then lost 15 you should enter Painful Reckoning even though you have 80 hitpoints at the current moment in time. As you can imagine, this fits very nicely with Wrathful Healing. Tactics-wise, against minor foes you can just approach and activate Karmic Strike, as well as possibly using Lady's Gambit to clear them out faster and power up quicker. Once you enter Painful Reckoning the heads will really start to fly. If you're fighting something big you can switch off Karmic Strike and switch on Combat Expertise in the round you gain Painful Reckoning, for a net change of +19 to AC, +5 to hit, and +10 to damage until the end of the fight. It's like in the movies when the villian is thrashing the hero, who then comes back from the brink of defeat to wipe the floor with the bad guy. Combat Sense and Pain Mastery are really just goodies. Of course one level of KotMC is never a bad idea if you can, and a Ghostwalker easily can in 3.5 since Innuendo has been rolled into Bluff. Pain Mastery maybe isn't the most useful feat, but it can sure be entertaining if you get into a long knock-down drag-out fight while using a wrathful healing weapon. If you can prolong the fight long enough, the only limit to how high your Str could get is your patience. Interestingly enough, neither Lady's Gambit nor Painful Reckoning are limited to melee attacks. They're both excellent sources of extra TWF damage since they affect any creature regardless of crit-immunity or resistances, but I mainly just liked the idea of fighting up close with Karmic Strike. It would be equally possible to deliver distrubingly powerful archery full attacks and manyshots as well, staying out of direct combat and relying solely on Lady's Gambit to drop your health low enough for Painful Reckoning to kick in. For a character like that, he might do more damage to himself over the course of his career than was done to him by others. edit: Wow, I wrote a frickin' book. It always looks shorter in the preview window.:embarrass
fnord 05-17-04, 08:36 AM	[edit] Nevermind.