Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 daedhaed Oct 16, 2013 16:37:48	I was thinking Master Thrower and maybe some Bloodstorm Blade but I'm not sure. Any help or ideas here.
#2 Lashius Oct 16, 2013 18:47:51	Well, my first thought would be something along the lines of Urban Ranger 2/ Warblade 3/ Bloodstorm Blade 10/ Master Thrower 5. With that you could utilize a strength-based two weapon fighting build since ranger doesn’t require the normal dex stats to qualify.   On the other hand, V was also portrayed as super humanly dexterous, so perhaps you could throw in a sword sage level for shadow hand maneuvers and take the shadow blade feet to add dex to damage with daggers and short swords.   The feat normally only works in melee, but the wording of Bloodstorm Blade’s bladestorm ability treats your thrown ranged attacks as melee attacks, so you could effectively add dex to both melee and ranged attacks (though it’s more feet intensive that way since you would have to invest in weapon finesse and shadow blade).
#3 daedhaed Oct 17, 2013 10:09:56	Thrown weapons use dex to hit so why the need for weapon finesse? I like the basic outline you have there though. Might go with some swordsage with shadow blade. I'll work on finishing a build and then I'll post it on here.
#4 Lashius Oct 17, 2013 10:26:04	Weapon finess would be for the melee aspect of V's combat style, after all he did get in close with his blades as well as throw them.
#5 Tempest_Stormwind Oct 17, 2013 11:53:01	Sixth level rogue-type at most. His combat ability is minimal in all of his appearances, largely being successful due to deception, surprise, and speed. V doesn't have to fight you at all to defeat you.   Rogue 4 / Swordsage 2 wouldn't be too far out of the picture.   (Note: Whenever I say "rogue" you can also substitute in Factotum and be more or less better, especially if you lean on Intelligence.)    It's not entirely clear what happened while he was in room 5, so there might be a template in there.
#6 Lashius Oct 17, 2013 12:51:37	Very true tempest (though personaly I would probably go with urban ranger 2/ thug fighter variant 2/ sword sage 2) my primary thought was simply a basic 20 level lay out since I just assumed that it was for play value (which generaly goes above a typical "normal" person's (or even a hero's) average level lay out).
#7 Slagger_the_Chuul Oct 17, 2013 17:34:51	You do have to remember that he's in a fairly down-to-earth setting, where his opponents are mostly regular humans; 6th level is virtually superhuman in that setting.  It plays out a bit differently in the typical D&D world, of course.
#8 Tempest_Stormwind Oct 17, 2013 18:11:35	Here's another way to look at it. Why is he so badass in everything? He's practically as good as a specialist in every single field out there that he applies himself to. If the majority of the significantly-trained "world" (i.e. military, scientists, etc) are around level 2 and most of the world is level 1, but V is level 5, then by max skill ranks alone V basically has Skill Focus (whatever skills he maxes out) when compared to a similarly-trained normal individual. (Skill Focus is what separates specialists from nonspecialists, more or less.) He wires explosives like the best demolitions experts (trained in the appropriate skill, but with three extra ranks where the demolitionist would have a Skill Focus). He manipulates people like the world's best politicians (think his recorded speech) and illusionists (think what he did to awaken Evie) (his max ranks in Bluff and Diplomacy are as high as normal people who have Skill Focus in the area, and he quite probably had room for a Skill Focus himself in one of those). And so on.   I just went with level 6 becuase it's more fun to build to that point than to 5 - and since I view 5 as just about the upper limits on what most human potential could provide (see the link I provided), and since V is slightly superhuman given his "alterations", it seemed a fair compromise to lift the "level cap" and stat him at 6.    It just doesn't take that much in order to replicate his skills. Classes with 6 skill points or higher from a diverse list (think rogue or factotum), plus some minor stealth/dagger support (rogue, swordsage), and you've basically got him.   The rest is good writing. Hope you're a good improvisor with the crazy/awesome erudition!
#9 Andarious-Rosethorn Oct 17, 2013 18:36:20	If you look at it this way, that the highest level followers are level 6, and there are few of them, likewise in most villiages you won't encounter anyone above level 6. That puts him on par with the highest level elite troops. Anything above that is just gravy.