Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 SixGunLover Nov 15, 2008 3:53:08	Hello everyone, I've been developing a new character concept for a rather unusual campaign I will be involved in soon, and need some help in optimizing my vision. First off, a little about the campaign - it will essentially be just myself (the PC) and a DM, and it's set in the Forgotten Realms. The campaign is very much going to be focused around this character - any party members the character works with will be run by the DM, and likely temporary at best. Therefore, this character is intended to be fiercely independent and self-sufficient (well, as much as possible, anyway), not engineered towards working in a group or as part of a team. Okay, on to the key elements. First off, race and gender (although the latter is irrelevant): the character will be a male Half-Drow. I know this is far from an optimal starting race for almost any build - it's primarily for role-playing/story purposes and flavor. I'm considering tweaking/adapting the race a little bit, since I always felt Half-Drow should have some further distinctions from standard Half-Elves aside from replacing Low-Light Vision with Darkvision. Maybe something involving Light Sensitivity (balanced with some other ability) and bonuses to different skills - perhaps Bluff and Intimidate rather than Gather Information and Diplomacy. Now, the character concept. The character is a mobile, dual-kukri-wielding, chaotic evil melee badass who fights in light or no armor and with stealth/surprise attack elements. He's primarily a melee combatant/sneak attacker, definitely not a skill monkey, but he's likely maxed things like Hide, Move Silently and so on. Tactics wise, he's likely to strike from the shadows/some sort of sudden mobile attack, then simply finish them off in melee. A good analogy might be Riddick from Pitch Black/The Chronicles of Riddick series, both persona and tactics wise. I've considered (and eliminated) the following options: Swashbuckler - adding INT to damage is cool and Daring Outlaw is sweet but the flavor is all wrong for this guy. Swordsage - cool class but the only reason for this build to take it over Warblade would be access to Shadow Hand, and I'm not keen on the maneuvers Shadow Hand provides. A lot are like supernatural powers, and that's not really what I'm going for here. Invisible Blade - this is perhaps the closest to what I'm looking for, but two otherwise useless prerequisite feats make this not worth getting into. Streetfighter - not really enough going for it, esp. with Improved Feint as a prereq. Nightsong Enforcer - love the full BAB and sneak dice, too bad the flavor is all wrong. Tempest - doesn't seem to have enough going for it when you factor in the lost levels of other classes. Dread Commando - again, cool class, but not quite what I'm looking for. I've been over many, many, many more, but these are the most relevant ones which I've dismissed. After much consideration, class-wise, I'd consider any of the following options viable: STEALTH/SUDDEN ATTACK ELEMENT Wilderness Rogue variant (Unearthed Arcana) - for sneak attack and skills or Scout (Complete Adventurer) - making him a fleet-footed mobile attacker COMBAT ELEMENT Warblade - I really like this class, and think that the Tiger Claw Discipline is absolutely perfect for the sort of style/flavor/tactics I'm going for - the whole Discipline is based around mobile/rapid/sudden attacks, the Discipline's legacy weapon is a kukri, and a lot of the maneuvers are great for dual-wielders. A select few maneuvers from other Disciplines (esp. Iron Heart and Stone Dragon) might be useful too, but the majority of Tiger Claw seems perfect. So essentially, I humbly ask for your help in making an optimized Warblade/Wilderness Rogue or Warblade/Scout. Aside from the reasons listed above, another reason I'd prefer to stick with these classes is that the benefits of sticking with Warblade or Rogue seem to outweigh the investments in something like Invisible Blade or Tempest. If you could make it say level 15 or 20, that way I can see the entire progress of the character level by level. Thank you in advance to anyone who responds - your help is much appreciated. Feel free to ask any questions.
#2 playswithfire Nov 15, 2008 9:32:40	Other prestige classes to consider: The original 10-level version of Invisible Blade. found here which has slightly better prereqs Dervish, though that's probably not quite the flavor you want Bloodclaw Master, sort of epitomizes dual-wielding and advances initiator level Me, I like dipping, so I'd probably do something like Scout Swashbuckler Scout Swashbuckler Swordsage Swashbuckler Warblade Swordsage* bloodclaw master bloodclaw master *obviously, take Kung Fu Genius or Carmendine Monk to make it an INT bonus to AC instead of WIS; and pick up Assassin's stance and then finish out with warblade to get the high level maneuvers, maybe mixing in more scout (or make scout into rogue) for more bonus damage dice; or else the original invisible blade
#3 NiteCyper Nov 15, 2008 12:52:01	One example of a type of build you'd like is T_G's Ghost (Dark Raptoran Swordsage 11). A link to it can be found in my Stealth Handbook. If I were you, I'd look into builds that focus on auto-critical-hitting. (e.g. Dolorous Blow + Surge of Fortune/Instinctive Consummator (XPH), other two are from Complete Champion?) To attack and hide again, there's Stalker in the Night (maneuver) and Shadow Striker (PH2) which actually might be the name of a tactical maneuver in the feat itself. Possibly, the real feat is called 'Fade into Violence' or else that's the feat combined with it which are the two the 'Stage Crew' build from Challenge: Optimization Circus! uses. Otherwise, you have to max your hide bonus to get past the -20 penalty with attacking and hiding. There's another feat called Expert Tactician that gives you an extra partial action if you succeed a Bluff vs. Spot check. It works with multiple opponents, IIRC. Get a fey(/pixie?)-craft weapon to increase the crit multiplier on those weapons. Don't let the name fool you, Swashbuckler is a very good filler class (if you can multiclass freely) for sneakers. Weapon Finesse and INT to damage, then get the Arcane Stunt variant from Complete Mage for some awesome SLAs along the way. Forget flavor. Flavor is what those class features allow you to do. Just because you take a two-level dip in Fighter and add the Hit-and-Run tactics variant from DotU for DEX to damage against flat-footed opponents within 30 ft. doesn't mean you have to roleplay a dumb meat-shield. Jarlaxle, a character in an R.L. Salvatore book who is apparently Drizz't with a different name, is spec'd by one of the forums as Fighter 20 with 20+ CHA and magical items he uses well. In the book, he used his tongue as much or more than his blade. There's even more info in my Stealth Handbook.