Dragon Knight of Sheinja -32 Druid/5 Ranger/3 Monk

[archmage]

Here is my build for the Dragon Knight of Sheinja, some of you may recognize it as my character Vardaan Shadowbane.

I'd like to thank Acaos for helping me with this build. I was a bit limited as I had to keep my druid control class. This is what we came up with. Hope you guys like it.

Vardann Shadowbane -Dragon Knight of Sheinja

32 Druid / 5 Ranger / 3 Monk

Human Anarch

Str: 8
Dex: 8
Con: 12 (16)
Wis: 18 (24)
Int: 16
Cha: 8

All stat points go to Wisdom

Blooded, Bullheaded
FE: Outsider
WF: Unarmed
Hvy Armor Prof
Blind Fight
Imp Crit Unarmed
Lightning Reflexes
Spell Focus - Illusion

Epic Feats – take these in order or it won’t work out

Grt Wis 1
Grt Wis 2
Dragon Shape
EWF: Unarmed, Grt Wis 3 (same level)
Greater Ruin - be sure to max Spellcraft before this level
Grt Wis 4
ESkF Animal Empathy
GSF: Illusion
ESF: Illusion, Epic Prowess

Level Progression:

1 Druid, 2-5 Ranger, 6-7Monk, 8-38 Druid, 39 Ranger, 40 Monk

LL Feats

LFF Dragon 1-3
LSA Disc
LSA Tumble
LWF: Unarmed
Legendary Reflexes

Use a Transmutation Tome for Shunt. Illusion gives you Veil of the Mists and nasty Creeping Dooms. Pandect is undecided at the moment, though I have a couple ideas.

Max out Animal Empathy, and whatever other skills you deem necessary for a dragon. I think discipline, tumble, Concentration, Craft Armor, Craft Weapon, and Listen are all good choices.

Fully buffed at double demigod, I have a 98 AB Max, 134 AC.

[archmage]

Gear at Demigod:

Armor: Carapace of Smoldering Stone
Helm: Visor of Vigilance
Gloves: Claws of the Dragon
Cloak: Netherward Cloak
Boots: Nature's Boots
Amulet: Heavenly Haunts
Belt: Gravity Slain
Offhand: Ruby Rod of Asmodeus

Weapons: Use any weapon you like depending on where you are. Bear in mind, when you shift to dragon, you get an onhit applied to your claws to match the color of dragon you shift into.

I'll work on reconstructing my pre-demi gear set.

[drunkenboaster]

Does craft weapon affect the ab when in dragon shape?

[Acaos]

Yes (as you are using claws).

Acaos

[maljin]

Some thoughts, questions and propositions:

If you take a spell focus before the first ranger level, you can chose great spell focus instead of a favored enemy.

You might consider going with elf instead of human, as you could use the able learner. I didn't calculate it, but 16 int is quite much and with a monk splash at 40, getting the cross-class skills to 63 shouldn't cost too much. With listen not being a druid class skill, going elf you free up the enabler and the respective LSA feats while you'd be short on skill points.

Regarding wis: I guess your breath and gust dc in dragon form or your spell dc's in druid form won't be high enough to use it regularly instead only on foes with the respective weaknesses or especially low saves/no evasion. If one's gonna focus on the tankish side of the dragon shape, wouldn't the ability points spent in wis after reaching 30 not better be used for con? I don't have dragon shape on my shifter but I guess con score won't be overwritten by dragons either, just as all the other forms.

Regarding monk: Do the obvious benefits like tumble dump before 40 and better base saves taking some levels pre-epic outweigh the polymorph level you'd gain by taking more druid or ranger levels? I assume you'll get druid wis ac while unshifted too, but I don't know (yet) how a splash affects the stats of your forms because of the lower PL.

Would love to hear something about your play style as well: Are you constantly (or better: as your shifts allow) switching between dragon form(s) and unshifted form to cast spells, breath and tank? Or do you forgo spells (except buffs, epics and a creeping doom here or there) for longer times in dragon forms to melee?

The build looks really interesting and I might adapt it to drider (wis bonus and large size for an even larger weapon choice) for -HC-. But as I don't like splash builds, I'd need some reason not to go pure ranger/druid (in some combination that nets me a high druid CL and 16 bab). I guess this build will be much more fun to play if the "unlimited limited forms with a fixed ep pool" will be implemented....would kinda lead to constant shape changing to match the damage vulnerability of the attacked monster.

maljin

[archmage]

Jul 22, 2009 22:43:50 GMT maljin said:

Some thoughts, questions and propositions:

If you take a spell focus before the first ranger level, you can chose great spell focus instead of a favored enemy.

You might consider going with elf instead of human, as you could use the able learner. I didn't calculate it, but 16 int is quite much and with a monk splash at 40, getting the cross-class skills to 63 shouldn't cost too much. With listen not being a druid class skill, going elf you free up the enabler and the respective LSA feats while you'd be short on skill points.

Regarding wis: I guess your breath and gust dc in dragon form or your spell dc's in druid form won't be high enough to use it regularly instead only on foes with the respective weaknesses or especially low saves/no evasion. If one's gonna focus on the tankish side of the dragon shape, wouldn't the ability points spent in wis after reaching 30 not better be used for con? I don't have dragon shape on my shifter but I guess con score won't be overwritten by dragons either, just as all the other forms.

Regarding monk: Do the obvious benefits like tumble dump before 40 and better base saves taking some levels pre-epic outweigh the polymorph level you'd gain by taking more druid or ranger levels? I assume you'll get druid wis ac while unshifted too, but I don't know (yet) how a splash affects the stats of your forms because of the lower PL.

Would love to hear something about your play style as well: Are you constantly (or better: as your shifts allow) switching between dragon form(s) and unshifted form to cast spells, breath and tank? Or do you forgo spells (except buffs, epics and a creeping doom here or there) for longer times in dragon forms to melee?

The build looks really interesting and I might adapt it to drider (wis bonus and large size for an even larger weapon choice) for -HC-. But as I don't like splash builds, I'd need some reason not to go pure ranger/druid (in some combination that nets me a high druid CL and 16 bab). I guess this build will be much more fun to play if the "unlimited limited forms with a fixed ep pool" will be implemented....would kinda lead to constant shape changing to match the damage vulnerability of the attacked monster.

maljin

Ok I'll try and answer your questions as best I can. First off the easy one. I like having Favored Enemy Outsider. It's a nice bonus for the Hells.

I could potentially go Elf, but then miss out on LSA disc or tumble. Would definitely have to lose one, as they are only level 1 feats.

My wisdom is plenty high enough for my breath and gusts. As for spells, I could Nature's Balance in a pinch, and have done so before, but the lack of slots make it a bear, especailly as my slots get wiped as soon as I shift, leaving me with like 8 NB's per rest.

The real reason for the monk level, is flurry. the number of attacks this grants is nothing to sneeze at. I intentionally nerfed my breath for flurry, as it makes me two dimensional in melee.

I spend all my time, in every run, as a dragon. Caster druids simply do their job much better than I can. And quite honestly, this is a tank. A fully universal tank, with 80 str and 52 dex. As for play style, I breathe the best element I see the mob as vulnerable to, then when the numbers dwindle and the last few scatter I typically melee. I do use Creeps for boss fights.

[jonuhey]

I thought the spells wipe bug/fix thing only applied when you had at least a shifter level, but anyways, if you think you'll be playing a caster druid in a run you can just quickslot the !opt shifterfix besides your epics so you never forget it. Its still a pain, but it wont be all days that you'll be using spell slots gear, but it works if a druid isnt in the party as an example.

You only need to use the command once, but it must be used everytime you relog.

jonuhey

[maljin]

Thanks for the answers. I completely forgot about the extra monk attacks but that makes the splash even for my likes quite valuable.

As for elf: I calculated the skill points needed if you'd go with elf (14 int 'cause of the -2 con), only one lsa and max out the rest via able leaner and it does come out inferior to human base (16 int) with two lsa. I took the elf route on my shifter, but then again a shifter doesn't have room for all the feats needed.

[bigminer]

Any opinions if Zeny would be an ok subby with this build?

[greven]

Jan 22, 2010 16:12:34 GMT bigminer said:

Any opinions if Zeny would be an ok subby with this build?

Str and dex do not transfer when shifted, so zeny isn't that great for this build. Doppleganger or Rilmani are decent alternatives to Anarch.

[MightyKhan]

Zeny works too: move gsf illusion to pre-epic (you get IC for free) and pick up armor skin instead. swap some feats around, and i think you can make it work. if you want more HP, you can drop blind fight in favor of toughness (make sure you have listen). not sure if theres a blindfight pandect.

With doppelganger, simply drop a great wisdom and pick up armor skin.

only real difference: doppel has more HP and fort save, a custom look and is UR, zeny does more damage, is BUR but has IWWA (for what it's worth) and can carry more unshifted.
Zeny also goes without an XP penalty, having base race and monk as FCs, instead of just druid.

Combine that, and I would definitely go for zeny instead of doppelganger

rilmani gives you 2 conjuration feats you are not going to use much, and you have to swap esf AE for armor skin. loses on damage, but has +2 wisdom and an xp penalty.

i would still go for zeny, i think, and then mostly because of the XP penalty.

[bort]

I was thinking that the Persuade changes might breathe some life back into this build, finally taking the responsibility of SR off of the bored druid player's shoulders (and onto the sorcerer's haha) - maybe i can finally reincarnate my druid into this...
Did you track down what had lowered your AB (you mentioned it in another thread) and what your AB is currently?
Cheers

[greven]

Zeny might actually be ok for this build now after the breathe weapon nerf; before almost all of the time the correct play was to use breathe weapon, so zeny did not in fact help much with damage (and in fact hurt it because of the -1 to dc).

[archmage]

I have to honestly say, with the breath nerf, I don;t know that I'd build this anymore. He in fact sadly is slated for reincarnation. Even breathing intermittently, in my last Cania run, I was on my last rest before the Meph fight.

[dragonledak]

I made this build and adapted it for Thri-Kreen and have been loving it. The only problem I have with this build (currently level 50) is that Dragon Shape is way too big with LFFD3, everyone hates it. How am I supposed to be a melee tank people would want in their party when I piss off the casters, ranged people and other tanks because all they can click on it me? I think this could be helped by making Dragon shape smaller somehow, like by an item or even a class secret. Don't like hindering the party because of my size. Love the build though it is so awesome. As you can tell by my name I love Dragons