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#1 zeffienes Apr 21, 2010 9:02:40

Hey CO, I'm in need of some help. The Long Version I'm currently playing in a Gestalt campaign, with quite a few house rules in play (8 pages worth), some homebrew fixes to classes (of note, the Fighter, Paladin, Hexblade, and Ranger), and a good amount of DM handwaving for what we view are less sensical things about the rules (alignment restrictions and prerequisites that by logic should be extended to more things). Now, it seems as though any optimization work may be filled with landmines, but rest assured, most of the fixes will not lie around the area that I'm looking at. My current build wavers between the utility belt of the party (in a sense, like a Bard minus the mass buffing) and the boss-killer. The former is of no real concern (I'm happy with where I am, able to exchange between ranged, melee, and casting roles with surprising competence), and the latter is achieved through a hefty focus on the Archivist (whose spell list composes of Cleric, Druid, and Ranger spells only, with Ranger-only spells cast at Level + 1), aptitude with a gun (following d20 modern rules) and a custom feat allowing a gun to be a monk weapon (an extension to feats such as Whirling Steel Strike) with Decisive Strike as the main damage dealing mechanism and a Find the Gap spell to aid in striking enemies. Much of the damage dealing is dealt through a combination of Hunter's Mercy and a custom melee variant of it, along with a critical multiplier supplanted on Decisive Strike. The damage is already optimized in the current campaign (the expectation of the campaign is to optimize to a level just shy of named builds), and a brief rundown of what goes into it: Hunter's Mercy (auto-crit next ranged attack) Custom Legacy Amulet (granting improved critical at levels 12 and 20 as Slot E and Slot I abilities) G3-SG1 (2d10, 20/x2, S/A) Decisive Strike (as Monk 2) Targeteer (Dex applied to damage) Feats (Ranged Weapon Mastery) Enhancement (+1) There are two limitations to optimization: Concept. This is a sniper, a one-strike character. That was the challenge I posed to myself, to attack with one strike, not with a hail of arrows (as is the standard for pumping ranged damage). Not to say that showering the enemy with arrows isn't cool in itself, just that there is something awe-inspiring about the sniper who, by virtue of a calm, collected mind and a steady hand, topples enemies with a single blow. (The melee side of the character is following the same track, albeit with maneuvers - don't worry about this side, things will be getting nasty with Time Stands Still and Strike of Perfect Clarity.) Mechanics. The current build takes out bosses and brutes quite nicely. Enemies with high AC (40+) and DR (20+) but relatively low touch AC (<30) are the prime targets for my character, and it's become my role within the group to dispatch those enemies (and to give a shot at debuffing them with Greater Dispelling bullets). What's important to know is that this is achieved solely through Find the Gap (as the Ranger spell, cast as an Archivist with +1 to the level) and Decisive Strike (the PHBII ACF of the Monk). Hence, any improvements to damage cannot arise from the Rapid Shot, GMS, Arrow Storm, or Splitting areas (hell, these turn out to diminish my ability to ignore DR). As a solution to this problem, I decided to go the route of critical multipliers, to improve my damage. To constrain possibilities, any improvements cannot arise from class features; for several reasons, I ended up not taking Deepwood Sniper, the primary one being that I wanted melee functionality. Currently, I'm due for a crapton of Fighter bonus feats, as well as normal feats every even level. I am free to work with magic items, although Kaorti weapons are off limits. I may end up taking Double Tap and Burst Fire from the d20 modern rules, but it's not in flavor of the build to do so. Another option is to upgrade to an anti-material rifle, but a bump up from a 2d10 to a 2d12 (or even a 4d8) is not terribly groundbreaking (not to mention my Str score won't like the extra 12~40 lbs. of rifle I'd end up hauling). Either way, they're incremental, and probably too insignificant as we start leveling up. At the current rate, I'd like to match the other two "DPR" builds: A skirmish dervish tiger-blade master of nine spiral of doom, who should spit out massive amounts of damage per round over many attacks (a ballpark would be around 140 currently, and rising at a rate of 10-20 per level) and a decisive strike monk kensai duskblade who makes heads explode with his fists (estimated around 130 damage with a single blow, and rising at a rate of ~10-15 per level). I currently average somewhere about 100 damage with roughly double the same setup time as the others. I foresee any serious increases in damage as being tied to my critical multiplier, as I can draw upon criticals reliably. The Short Version (tl;dr) Without diving into class features or Legacy Items, how can I get a higher critical modifier? Or increase my ranged damage without resorting to multiple attacks? Thanks in advance guys. And yes, all material is allowed, though it has to fly by the DM's filter (he's pretty reasonable and can make logical jumps). We're also level 12, and this campaign will go on for a while (and has a great chance of moving through epic levels). The DM's also capable of throwing competent enemies, so there isn't an issue on that side.