any advice for my dervish? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

any advice for my dervish?

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
saxyboy
Feb 23, 2010 15:40:16 I'm still a pretty new player, and decided this time i was going to play a dervish. I went the tiefling route and have gotten some pretty decent gear for this dancing demon. It was point buy in and these are my stats after race, but before equipment

Str: 10
Dex: 20
Con: 12
Int: 18
Wis: 8
Charisma: 6

my current gear is
gloves of dex +4
headband of int +6
boots of tracklessness (would have gotten the ones that give haste, but we have a caster who does that)
panther mask
belt of battle
vest of resistance +3

a +1 scimitar with prismatic burst
MW scimitar

+other random gear for traveling

my levels so far are as follows:
monk 2
swash 3
fighter 1
dervish 1

i picked up 2 flaws at level 1 to get some more feats, which are as follows

kung fu genius
expedious dodge
keen insight
mobility
combat expertise
Twf
combat reflexes
weapon focus(scimitar)

i also get weapon finesse and insightful strike from swashbuckler,

im currently planning on getting a second fighter level at level 9 to get 2 feats then, ITWF and TW attack of opportunity

im planning on being monk2/swash3/fighter2/dervish 10 but then i have a few extra levels that i dont know what to get

i was considering getting improved crit, but im thinking that maybe i shall just get keen on the scimitar with the prismatic burst seeing as the other scimitar im planning on getting explosive added to it, which doesnt really rely on crit

i havent bought any armor as the feats and monk levels add my int bonus to AC if im unarmored, which is currently at +7, plus we have a buffer who increases everyone's AC. it ends up easily reaching an AC of 40 while only at level 7

at level 7 i have a 6 BAB, +7 from dex, +1 focus scimitar, +1 enhancement, making it a +15 to hit before two weapon fighting and dervish dancing bonuses, and i get a +8 damage from my int bonus and magic enhancement bonus

is there anything else that you would recommend that i should get, whether its feats, items, enhancements, etc?
#2
saxyboy
Feb 23, 2010 15:49:15 i also forgot, i went the chaotic monk variant, and can use pretty much any book available for 3.5
#3
streamofthesky
Feb 23, 2010 18:57:55
i also forgot, i went the chaotic monk variant, and can use pretty much any book available for 3.5

I'd recommend you drop the monk levels and related feats, wear light armor, get the Mobility enhancement (Magic Item Compendium) on it (frees up another feat), and find a way to add your huge dex to your damage. I usually would just dip into Swordsage (Tome of Battle) to get a shadow hand stance and then pick up the Shadow Blade feat. What to do with your other levels and feats? Feat rogue (from UA) or regular rogue if you like sneak attack works well. For feats, I like Deadly Defense, from C.Scoundrel I think. Adds +1d6 damage to all your attacks as long as you fight defensively (which later on Dervish will make even tastier with Elaborate Parry).
#4
saxyboy
Feb 23, 2010 20:36:00 well the reason why i went monk along with the kung fu genius was so that i would have Int added to armor instead of wisdom, which would also synergize with the swashbuckler's insightful strike that adds int to damage. with this set up right now i get +7 armor from Int and +7 armor from Dec, where as with just plain light armor it would just be say with chain shirt of +4 from armor and +4 from dex. the way i have done it the gloves of dex and headband of int synergizes into Offense and defense, increasing both my AC as well as my + to hit and + to damage.

Keep in mind that this is a current character in a campaign too, so i can't exactly undo the levels in monk anyway

i did consider swordsage with the shadow blade feat, but that would only apply to weapons of the shadow hand class. i might just dip a level later just for the added dex to damage though, but that would mean spending more on new weapons, which shouldnt be too bad.
#5
streamofthesky
Feb 24, 2010 11:56:55
i did consider swordsage with the shadow blade feat, but that would only apply to weapons of the shadow hand class. i might just dip a level later just for the added dex to damage though, but that would mean spending more on new weapons, which shouldnt be too bad.

Well...unarmed strikes ARE a shadow hand weapon, if that's what you're doing (not a bad idea, what with it also benefitting from insightful strike and the benefits from monk). If you're using scimitars anyway, then yeah, not useful.

My favorite Swordsage dip (granted, usually for Rogues) is at 9th and 10th HD. That way, you pick up SHadow Blade with your level 9 feat, and have immediate access to 3rd level maneuvers or lower. THe reason for 2 levels is because by RAW your first stance has to be level 1. And Assassin's Stance (+2d6 sneak attack) is just so nice. For your build, maybe you don't need sneak attack. Normally a Rogue would take Island of Blades as his level 1 stance, you'd likely do much better with Child of Shadow, so everytime you move 10+ ft, you have a miss chance. If that's what you'd go for and only want a single Swordsage level, I'd still wait until 5th HD or later so you can grab level 2 maneuvers (which is a moot point, since it's an existing character, I guess). Some of them are really nice -- greater invisibility till end of turn, standard action teleport "out of jail free" card...

One thing I should ask, because your DM might let you change it...did you grab the Arcane Stunt variant from Complete Mage for your Swashbuckler levels? Getting to use Blur or one of the other spell-like abilities a few times per day is much more useful than Grace.

#6
saxyboy
Feb 24, 2010 14:03:29
ooh that is what i forgot to mention as well, we rolled for the attributes for the tiefling, and i ended up getting blur instead of darkness. I also got the claws that do slashing, so maybe swordsage might still be a good dip at level 9 anyway. would definetely make the character interesting. i just merely have to retrain the weapon focus to the claws. but do you know where i could find how to enhance the natural weapons to magic weapons? im considering making one claw explosive and one claw vampiric if im going to focus on the claws. I just went with the scimitars cause of the crit range.
#7
feuertag
Feb 24, 2010 15:38:29 An amulet of Mighty fists (DMG) provides an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 to attacks and damage rolls on with all natural weapons. I would see it as reasonable to sub in a special weapon ability for the enhancement bonus as long as you kept at least +1, like magic weapons.

Also, in savage species there is the Neckless of Nat Weapons that specifically allows for weapon special abilities. This option only applies to one nat weapon unless you increase the price as indicated in the description.
#8
saxyboy
Feb 24, 2010 18:14:19 im really liking the necklace of natural weapons. i think its the better option.
Since you might know better, would it be possible to make it so 1 claw is say a +3 vampiric claw and the other a +3 explosive claw? or would they both have to be the same?
#9
feuertag
Feb 24, 2010 21:15:34 To make your claws different you would need two items, and you can only wear one necklace. If your DM allows custom items the guidelines for magic item pricing indicate that we double the price to make a slotless item. You could use two of them if your dm lets you make one slotless. Another option is making it fill a different magic item slot, which multiplies the price by 1.5.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 saxyboy Feb 23, 2010 15:40:16	I'm still a pretty new player, and decided this time i was going to play a dervish. I went the tiefling route and have gotten some pretty decent gear for this dancing demon. It was point buy in and these are my stats after race, but before equipment Str: 10 Dex: 20 Con: 12 Int: 18 Wis: 8 Charisma: 6 my current gear is gloves of dex +4 headband of int +6 boots of tracklessness (would have gotten the ones that give haste, but we have a caster who does that) panther mask belt of battle vest of resistance +3 a +1 scimitar with prismatic burst MW scimitar +other random gear for traveling my levels so far are as follows: monk 2 swash 3 fighter 1 dervish 1 i picked up 2 flaws at level 1 to get some more feats, which are as follows kung fu genius expedious dodge keen insight mobility combat expertise Twf combat reflexes weapon focus(scimitar) i also get weapon finesse and insightful strike from swashbuckler, im currently planning on getting a second fighter level at level 9 to get 2 feats then, ITWF and TW attack of opportunity im planning on being monk2/swash3/fighter2/dervish 10 but then i have a few extra levels that i dont know what to get i was considering getting improved crit, but im thinking that maybe i shall just get keen on the scimitar with the prismatic burst seeing as the other scimitar im planning on getting explosive added to it, which doesnt really rely on crit i havent bought any armor as the feats and monk levels add my int bonus to AC if im unarmored, which is currently at +7, plus we have a buffer who increases everyone's AC. it ends up easily reaching an AC of 40 while only at level 7 at level 7 i have a 6 BAB, +7 from dex, +1 focus scimitar, +1 enhancement, making it a +15 to hit before two weapon fighting and dervish dancing bonuses, and i get a +8 damage from my int bonus and magic enhancement bonus is there anything else that you would recommend that i should get, whether its feats, items, enhancements, etc?
#2 saxyboy Feb 23, 2010 15:49:15	i also forgot, i went the chaotic monk variant, and can use pretty much any book available for 3.5
#3 streamofthesky Feb 23, 2010 18:57:55	i also forgot, i went the chaotic monk variant, and can use pretty much any book available for 3.5 I'd recommend you drop the monk levels and related feats, wear light armor, get the Mobility enhancement (Magic Item Compendium) on it (frees up another feat), and find a way to add your huge dex to your damage. I usually would just dip into Swordsage (Tome of Battle) to get a shadow hand stance and then pick up the Shadow Blade feat. What to do with your other levels and feats? Feat rogue (from UA) or regular rogue if you like sneak attack works well. For feats, I like Deadly Defense, from C.Scoundrel I think. Adds +1d6 damage to all your attacks as long as you fight defensively (which later on Dervish will make even tastier with Elaborate Parry).
#4 saxyboy Feb 23, 2010 20:36:00	well the reason why i went monk along with the kung fu genius was so that i would have Int added to armor instead of wisdom, which would also synergize with the swashbuckler's insightful strike that adds int to damage. with this set up right now i get +7 armor from Int and +7 armor from Dec, where as with just plain light armor it would just be say with chain shirt of +4 from armor and +4 from dex. the way i have done it the gloves of dex and headband of int synergizes into Offense and defense, increasing both my AC as well as my + to hit and + to damage. Keep in mind that this is a current character in a campaign too, so i can't exactly undo the levels in monk anyway i did consider swordsage with the shadow blade feat, but that would only apply to weapons of the shadow hand class. i might just dip a level later just for the added dex to damage though, but that would mean spending more on new weapons, which shouldnt be too bad.
#5 streamofthesky Feb 24, 2010 11:56:55	i did consider swordsage with the shadow blade feat, but that would only apply to weapons of the shadow hand class. i might just dip a level later just for the added dex to damage though, but that would mean spending more on new weapons, which shouldnt be too bad. Well...unarmed strikes ARE a shadow hand weapon, if that's what you're doing (not a bad idea, what with it also benefitting from insightful strike and the benefits from monk). If you're using scimitars anyway, then yeah, not useful. My favorite Swordsage dip (granted, usually for Rogues) is at 9th and 10th HD. That way, you pick up SHadow Blade with your level 9 feat, and have immediate access to 3rd level maneuvers or lower. THe reason for 2 levels is because by RAW your first stance has to be level 1. And Assassin's Stance (+2d6 sneak attack) is just so nice. For your build, maybe you don't need sneak attack. Normally a Rogue would take Island of Blades as his level 1 stance, you'd likely do much better with Child of Shadow, so everytime you move 10+ ft, you have a miss chance. If that's what you'd go for and only want a single Swordsage level, I'd still wait until 5th HD or later so you can grab level 2 maneuvers (which is a moot point, since it's an existing character, I guess). Some of them are really nice -- greater invisibility till end of turn, standard action teleport "out of jail free" card... One thing I should ask, because your DM might let you change it...did you grab the Arcane Stunt variant from Complete Mage for your Swashbuckler levels? Getting to use Blur or one of the other spell-like abilities a few times per day is much more useful than Grace.
#6 saxyboy Feb 24, 2010 14:03:29	ooh that is what i forgot to mention as well, we rolled for the attributes for the tiefling, and i ended up getting blur instead of darkness. I also got the claws that do slashing, so maybe swordsage might still be a good dip at level 9 anyway. would definetely make the character interesting. i just merely have to retrain the weapon focus to the claws. but do you know where i could find how to enhance the natural weapons to magic weapons? im considering making one claw explosive and one claw vampiric if im going to focus on the claws. I just went with the scimitars cause of the crit range.
#7 feuertag Feb 24, 2010 15:38:29	An amulet of Mighty fists (DMG) provides an enhancement bonus of +1 to +5 to attacks and damage rolls on with all natural weapons. I would see it as reasonable to sub in a special weapon ability for the enhancement bonus as long as you kept at least +1, like magic weapons. Also, in savage species there is the Neckless of Nat Weapons that specifically allows for weapon special abilities. This option only applies to one nat weapon unless you increase the price as indicated in the description.
#8 saxyboy Feb 24, 2010 18:14:19	im really liking the necklace of natural weapons. i think its the better option. Since you might know better, would it be possible to make it so 1 claw is say a +3 vampiric claw and the other a +3 explosive claw? or would they both have to be the same?
#9 feuertag Feb 24, 2010 21:15:34	To make your claws different you would need two items, and you can only wear one necklace. If your DM allows custom items the guidelines for magic item pricing indicate that we double the price to make a slotless item. You could use two of them if your dm lets you make one slotless. Another option is making it fill a different magic item slot, which multiplies the price by 1.5.