Disastrous Black Blade 6 Ftr / 4 Pal/Rog / 50 BG

[MightyKhan]

Disastrous Black Blade

a big fan of characters with big pointy sticks, i decided to try a 2hander with BG
i used borts CoT doubleweapon build as a template and modified it heavily to suit my will (its a 2hander as well, though slightly different, but mainly the same: high cha, high str, with smite)

instead of undying (which i dont have) i decided to go for a gnome salamander, because my other options were howler (ugh..) and rakshasa (str malus...) could possibly also do treant and wear heavy armor and use a huge weapon (once they are put in)

monk would be better than paladin, but disables the shield AC bonus from divine shield because of a possible exploit.

starting with:
str 9 (15)
dex 12 (14)
con 12 (12)
wis 14 (14)
int 10 (12)
cha 17 (17)

pre-epic leveling progression:
6 ftr, 4 paladin, 10 BG
or
1 rog, 5 ftr, 1 rog, 9 BG, 1 rog, 1 BG, 1 ftr, 1 rog
all points into CHA
raise hide to 5 at level 7 (or earlier) and change alignment to evil at level 10 (in case of paladin)
save points for a UMD dump at level 20

feats in order:
blooded
weapon focus (bonus)
power attack (bonus)
toughness
blind fight (bonus)
cleave
great cleave (bonus, @ level 19 with rogue version)
extra smite
divine might
imp crit
divine shield


epic leveling progression:
all BG
1 point into CHA, rest into STR

21 GCHA I
23 EWF (bonus)
24 GCHA II
26 Gsmite I (bonus)
27 Gsmite II
29 Gsmite III (bonus)
30 Gsmite IV
32 Gsmite V (bonus)
33 Gsmite VI
35 Gsmite VII (bonus)
36 Gsmite VIII
38 Gsmite IX (bonus)
39 Gsmite X

legendary levels (read enchantment book for +13 GMW):
7 points in STR, 3 in CHA

42 LSA tumble
45 LWF
48 Eprowess
51 over crit
54 dev crit
57 GCHA III
60 GCHA IV

305 skillpoints (pal version):
63 Discipline, 60 Tumble, 5 hide, 60 craft armor, 60 craft weapon, 52 concentration
347 skillpoints (rogue version):
63 Discipline, 60 Tumble, 5 hide, 63 craft armor, 63 craft weapon, 63 taunt, 23 UMD (7 left)

final stats, fully buffed:
STR 52
DEX 26
CON 24
INT 22
WIS 26
CHA 46

117 AC assuming no BUR/top of the ranks gear (+4 strongheart, +2 girdling, +2 BUR gear = 125 AC)
95 AB (rogue 94) which i find quite acceptable
77 fort (74 rogue)
67 refl (70 rogue)
67 will

so, what this character gets/has:
2handed weapon: +10 physical damage, while retaining OK ac (not meant to be a hell runner. but using a different sub such as hound archon, pharlan or half eladrin(take 6 fighter max and go for Bsword), it might be possible)
crit immunity
dev crit
18 points of irresistible divine damage per hit (21 uses each day, lasting 54 rounds each)
9-54 sneak attack damage
smite for 572 points of damage (528 rogue version)
28-33 divine damage kickback when hit (which, with the lowish ac will probably add quite a bit to its damage output XD)
vampiric regen because of BG flame weapon (though i couldnt find it in documentation, i remember an old BG having it...)
casts mass vamp touch
25% fire immunity
CL 50 for BG spells (54 with paladin version)
fear immune (paladin version)
reasonable concentration (paladin version)
evasion (rogue version)
2-12 additional sneak damage (rogue version)
UMD (rogue version)
taunt (rogue version)


so, what do you think?

(i was gonna post the concept first, thinking a lot would still be unclear, but i think i got a real build here. so i left out a lot of rambling about comparing this one to borts CoT)

[bort]

Something i've been thinking about building (based on my experience levelling my COT to 60) that you might want to consider, is a doubleweapon/2hander baneknight - because you can get crit immune and soak (from death ward and premonition respectively*) which have both been vital to the survival of my COT with such low AC.

I haven't worked out a build, so i don't know how viable it would be (guessing AB might be an issue and i think you'd have to ditch smites) but thought i'd throw it out there in case you were interested.

*Baneknights can wear armor and still use Premonition

[MightyKhan]

Apr 1, 2009 19:58:35 GMT bort said:

Something i've been thinking about building (based on my experience levelling my COT to 60) that you might want to consider, is a doubleweapon/2hander baneknight - because you can get crit immune and soak (from death ward and premonition respectively*) which have both been vital to the survival of my COT with such low AC.

I haven't worked out a build, so i don't know how viable it would be (guessing AB might be an issue and i think you'd have to ditch smites) but thought i'd throw it out there in case you were interested.

*Baneknights can wear armor and still use Premonition

like you said, i think AB will be the biggest issue, though perhaps not as big as one may think.
12 levels of sorc pre-epic means -5 AB for a 2hander baneknight. im not sure if great smites need be ditched, as you want a high charisma anyway and the smite feats convert to strength, which you are in even greater need. i DO think one will have to drop dev crit. this gets you back 1 pre-epic feat and 2 legendary.

perhaps i may just make a 2hander BK my next build (and probably using sally again >>)

added possible AC with better gear and girdling. also note that carrying a shield around makes for -7 AB +7/8 AC.

[the1kobra]

Actually, something I should mention, you won't be able to get the bonus shield AC from divine shield if you have any monk levels. The same is true if you have 2 ranger levels. Similarly, quasiclasses cannot benefit from divine shield's shield AC bonus.

[MightyKhan]

is that true? or does one need to actually get the wisdom ac. because wearing armor negates it...

[the1kobra]

highergroundpoa.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=BugReport&action=display&thread=13530
Yup, sawwey. No divine shield shield AC if you have a monk level. You might want to take rogue instead, or maybe paladin to help with the smite damage and more caster levels for your BG spells.

[MightyKhan]

good thing i also wrote down a paladin version...
deals less damage (weapon specialization), has no evasion and slightly lower skills and saves, but has better smite and spellpower.

i guess they banned monk and ranger because you can remove your armor after using shield and get both ACs... shame

also decided to drop dex by 2 and raise int and get a additional skillpoints: maxed taunt for the rogue version and higher concentration/craft weapon for the paladin version.
or should i get 60 hp and +1 fort instead?

so far, i think i like the rogue version best, but im not sure yet

one thing the paladin version has, is that its not dependant on alignment for saves: both good and evil work.