Post by Yojimbo on Dec 7, 2011 18:39:31 GMT
Depths of Despair
26 Ranger/14 Blackguard
Lash of Hatred is a great tank quasi class with self buffs and the ability to inflict select opponents. There is few Lash builds which go with a Control Class, CC, of Ranger so I had made one and have really enjoyed it. The standard CC Blackguard builds will be capable of more inflictions to any of their selected targets but a Ranger has a wider range of targets. Your selected targets will be your Favored Enemies.
Sub-race choice:
Lizardfolk
The Lizardfolk sub-race is Human so you get a bonus feats at first level which will be used as an enabler feat. While this build will be a Strength focused character you will want 16 Dexterity this will let you use Medium Armor and Large Shield for higher AC than Full Plate and Tower Shield. There is also a piece of Medium Armor in the Abyss which is specifically for Lashes and this will maximize your AC in that armor.
Class choices:
-Ranger (Rng): A required class of the quasi but this build will make it your CC. As the CC you will get better Caster Level, CL, in the Ranger spells as well spells with functions specific to Ranger at certain CLs will be available.
-Blackguard (BG): The secondary class also required for this quasi and more levels in it improve the power of your inflictions so we want as many levels as we can without compromising the power gained from Ranger levels.
The tables below will guide you through the leveling process notes on it can be found at the end of each section. Items which have a note at the end of their section will be marked with a *. Before we start I will highlight a few of the benefits this build takes advantage of.
Please note that Tumble uses base ranks only.
Starting Stats:
Sub-race Edits:
Starting Notes:
You need to use !charedit to swap Strong Soul for Slippery Soul before continuing further with this build. The Favored Enemies are what you can inflict with your Lash so the choice is yours you are not required to follow my selection.
Pre-Epic:
Pre Epic Notes:
Cleave can be a free feat from a certain vial of dragon blood this also make Power Attack elective. If you are able to get Cleave from another source I would suggest picking up Blind-Fight and Toughness in their place.
Epic:
Epic Notes:
Remember the Favored Enemies are your choice and up to you I have selected those which are best for Hell, Abyss, and General LLs in my opinion.
Legendary:
Legendary Notes:
You must acquire and read the Ancient Tome of Enchantment prior to level 48 to allow you to take the Legendary Spell Focus feat. Tumble will reach maximum effective ranks with 60 at level 57 and does not need to be increased on future levels. I do not recall how many extra skill points are left but my math says 36 and I dumped them into Craft Weapon.
Final Stats:
AB is calculated with only +12 stat boosts and +1 from CW you should easily be able to get +2.
Saves are given with +12 stat boosts and no feats.
HGE User Notes:
With HGE you will be able to use Extended Spell slots for any spell even if it grants no benefits this will allow easier spell book manipulation. The HGE Hak will also enable you to cast BG spells from the radial menu instead of from the wand items which you get from the spell pedestal at the docks.
Final Notes:
If you can find or acquire a vial of a specific dragon's blood you can gain the Cleave feat for free which then frees up 2 pre-epic feats. You will have respectable AC and Immunities but your best defense is your concealment buff so you will want to know when you should wear a Breach and/or Mord immunity item most parties will know if you ask before the run. Most of your BG spells won’t be worth much but some will and you can set them via the sim tool command “!sb change bg” without the quotation marks.
26 Ranger/14 Blackguard
Lash of Hatred is a great tank quasi class with self buffs and the ability to inflict select opponents. There is few Lash builds which go with a Control Class, CC, of Ranger so I had made one and have really enjoyed it. The standard CC Blackguard builds will be capable of more inflictions to any of their selected targets but a Ranger has a wider range of targets. Your selected targets will be your Favored Enemies.
Lash of Hatred
- The Lash of Hatred quasiclass combines the Ranger's singleminded devotion to slaying certain types of foes with the Blackguard's rage and magic. This potent mix of hatred is channeled through the Lash's weapon of choice, the whip.
- To qualify for Lash of Hatred the character must have 12 levels of Ranger, 10 levels of Blackguard, and Weapon Focus (Whip) before level 24.
- Lashes of Hatred receive Weapon Specialization (Whip), Disarm, Improved Disarm, Knockdown, and Improved Knockdown as bonus feats.
- The Lash of Hatred quasiclass combines the Ranger's singleminded devotion to slaying certain types of foes with the Blackguard's rage and magic. This potent mix of hatred is channeled through the Lash's weapon of choice, the whip.
- To qualify for Lash of Hatred the character must have 12 levels of Ranger, 10 levels of Blackguard, and Weapon Focus (Whip) before level 24.
- Lashes of Hatred receive Weapon Specialization (Whip), Disarm, Improved Disarm, Knockdown, and Improved Knockdown as bonus feats.
Sub-race choice:
Lizardfolk
"Lizardfolk"
- FCs: Fighter, Ranger / BC: Druid
- STR +2, CON +2, INT -2, CHA -2, breathes water, speaks Draconic, speaks Lizardfolk
- FCs: Fighter, Ranger / BC: Druid
- STR +2, CON +2, INT -2, CHA -2, breathes water, speaks Draconic, speaks Lizardfolk
The Lizardfolk sub-race is Human so you get a bonus feats at first level which will be used as an enabler feat. While this build will be a Strength focused character you will want 16 Dexterity this will let you use Medium Armor and Large Shield for higher AC than Full Plate and Tower Shield. There is also a piece of Medium Armor in the Abyss which is specifically for Lashes and this will maximize your AC in that armor.
Class choices:
-Ranger (Rng): A required class of the quasi but this build will make it your CC. As the CC you will get better Caster Level, CL, in the Ranger spells as well spells with functions specific to Ranger at certain CLs will be available.
-Blackguard (BG): The secondary class also required for this quasi and more levels in it improve the power of your inflictions so we want as many levels as we can without compromising the power gained from Ranger levels.
The tables below will guide you through the leveling process notes on it can be found at the end of each section. Items which have a note at the end of their section will be marked with a *. Before we start I will highlight a few of the benefits this build takes advantage of.
Legendary Save Feats
- Legendary Fortitude requires the Great Fortitude feat and adds +7 to your Fortitude save.
- Legendary Reflexes requires the Lightning Reflexes feat and adds +7 to your Reflex save.
- Legendary Will requires the Iron Will feat and adds +7 to your Will save.
- Legendary Luck requires the Luck of Heroes feat and adds +3 to your Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves.
- Legendary Hardened Soul requires the Strong Soul feat and adds +5 to your Fortitude and Will saves.
- Legendary Slippery Soul requires the Slippery Soul feat and adds +5 to your Reflex and Will saves.
- Legendary Valor requires the Dauntless feat and adds +5 to your Fortitude and Reflex saves.
Slippery Soul
- This feat grants +1 to Reflex and Will saves.
- It can only be taken by using !charedit to feat-swap Strong Soul at first level.
Craft Armor
- Now grants +1 AC per 40 points.
Craft Weapon
- Now grants +1 AB per 40 points when wielding a weapon.
Listen
- Increases your chances of hitting concealed enemies. Up to a skill of 60, the enemy concealment drops to (Concealment ** (1 + (Listen skill / 60))). With a skill above 60, the enemy concealment drops to (Concealment ** (1.5 + (Listen skill / 120))).
- A Listen skill of 60 is equivalent to having the Blind-Fight feat in reducing enemy concealment, and skill and feat do not stack. '**' is the exponentiation operator.
- If the above sounds too complex, remember that effective enemy conceal will be shown in-game.
- Being deafened halves your effective listen skill - after all other calculations
Tumble
- AC bonus is now capped at 12 - (PM + RDD AC bonuses), with a minimum cap of 6.
- If you have 5 points of AC from RDD levels, for example, the most AC you can get from Tumble ranks is 7.
- The 2 base AC from level 1 of Pale Master do not count in this calculation.
- Tumble can lower the duration of some knockdown attacks. If there is a chance of this, you will see a Tumble check when you are being knocked down.
Languages
- Rangers can speak Animal. To speak it, use the command /l animal [message] to speak a single line in Animal, or !speak animal to speak it until you !speak another language or opt to !speak common.
Legendary Ability Bonuses
- Legendary Rangers gain +1 per 5 legendary levels to Constitution.
Evasion
- Upon reaching level 41 using the Altar of Legends, a character with Ranger 25 will receive the Evasion feat. If he has Ranger 40, he will receive the Improved Evasion feat.
Animal Companion
- The creatures summoned by the Animal Companion ability scale up in power with caster levels, beyond the normal scaling, and continue to scale in legendary levels.
Nature's Allies
- At Druid 21 or Ranger 21 and at least 25 character levels, characters can acquire the ability to summon natural allies. The power of those allies scales with druid and ranger level, animal domain power, conjuration foci, and animal empathy skill.
- The character can control the type of ally summoned by means of the !opt summonele command, which toggles the elemental affinity of the ally summoned:None: Treant Air: Roc Earth: Xorn Fire: Lava Lurk Water: Water Drake.
Call of the Grave
- At Blackguard 11, the Contagion ability instead casts a mass Vampiric Touch spell centered on the target at the Blackguard's caster level, with a +15 bonus to spell penetration.
Dark Blessing
- Dark Blessing requires evil alignment to grant its Charisma bonus to saves.
Feat Books
- There are several series of books in the game which can add feats to characters.
- A character may only use one book from each series ever, and once read, the chosen book cannot be changed.
- The books have level prerequisites to use, but characters do not need prerequisite feats or abilities to gain the feats granted by the books.
- Tomes of Ancient Lore add Epic Spell Focus in a single school, or Epic Spell Penetration.
- Pandects of Darkest Secrets add other feats.
- Epodes give Legendary Form Focus 3 to a shifter who already has the base shape feat of that type.
- Legendary Fortitude requires the Great Fortitude feat and adds +7 to your Fortitude save.
- Legendary Reflexes requires the Lightning Reflexes feat and adds +7 to your Reflex save.
- Legendary Will requires the Iron Will feat and adds +7 to your Will save.
- Legendary Luck requires the Luck of Heroes feat and adds +3 to your Fortitude, Reflex, and Will saves.
- Legendary Hardened Soul requires the Strong Soul feat and adds +5 to your Fortitude and Will saves.
- Legendary Slippery Soul requires the Slippery Soul feat and adds +5 to your Reflex and Will saves.
- Legendary Valor requires the Dauntless feat and adds +5 to your Fortitude and Reflex saves.
Slippery Soul
- This feat grants +1 to Reflex and Will saves.
- It can only be taken by using !charedit to feat-swap Strong Soul at first level.
Craft Armor
- Now grants +1 AC per 40 points.
Craft Weapon
- Now grants +1 AB per 40 points when wielding a weapon.
Listen
- Increases your chances of hitting concealed enemies. Up to a skill of 60, the enemy concealment drops to (Concealment ** (1 + (Listen skill / 60))). With a skill above 60, the enemy concealment drops to (Concealment ** (1.5 + (Listen skill / 120))).
- A Listen skill of 60 is equivalent to having the Blind-Fight feat in reducing enemy concealment, and skill and feat do not stack. '**' is the exponentiation operator.
- If the above sounds too complex, remember that effective enemy conceal will be shown in-game.
- Being deafened halves your effective listen skill - after all other calculations
Tumble
- AC bonus is now capped at 12 - (PM + RDD AC bonuses), with a minimum cap of 6.
- If you have 5 points of AC from RDD levels, for example, the most AC you can get from Tumble ranks is 7.
- The 2 base AC from level 1 of Pale Master do not count in this calculation.
- Tumble can lower the duration of some knockdown attacks. If there is a chance of this, you will see a Tumble check when you are being knocked down.
Languages
- Rangers can speak Animal. To speak it, use the command /l animal [message] to speak a single line in Animal, or !speak animal to speak it until you !speak another language or opt to !speak common.
Legendary Ability Bonuses
- Legendary Rangers gain +1 per 5 legendary levels to Constitution.
Evasion
- Upon reaching level 41 using the Altar of Legends, a character with Ranger 25 will receive the Evasion feat. If he has Ranger 40, he will receive the Improved Evasion feat.
Animal Companion
- The creatures summoned by the Animal Companion ability scale up in power with caster levels, beyond the normal scaling, and continue to scale in legendary levels.
Nature's Allies
- At Druid 21 or Ranger 21 and at least 25 character levels, characters can acquire the ability to summon natural allies. The power of those allies scales with druid and ranger level, animal domain power, conjuration foci, and animal empathy skill.
- The character can control the type of ally summoned by means of the !opt summonele command, which toggles the elemental affinity of the ally summoned:None: Treant Air: Roc Earth: Xorn Fire: Lava Lurk Water: Water Drake.
Call of the Grave
- At Blackguard 11, the Contagion ability instead casts a mass Vampiric Touch spell centered on the target at the Blackguard's caster level, with a +15 bonus to spell penetration.
Dark Blessing
- Dark Blessing requires evil alignment to grant its Charisma bonus to saves.
Feat Books
- There are several series of books in the game which can add feats to characters.
- A character may only use one book from each series ever, and once read, the chosen book cannot be changed.
- The books have level prerequisites to use, but characters do not need prerequisite feats or abilities to gain the feats granted by the books.
- Tomes of Ancient Lore add Epic Spell Focus in a single school, or Epic Spell Penetration.
- Pandects of Darkest Secrets add other feats.
- Epodes give Legendary Form Focus 3 to a shifter who already has the base shape feat of that type.
Please note that Tumble uses base ranks only.
Starting Stats:
Level 1 | Rng (1) | STR: 14 DEX: 16 CON: 8 WIS: 14 INT: 14 CHA: 10 | Blooded Strong Soul* Favored Enemy (FE): Aberrations* | Animal Empathy: 1 Concentration: 4 Craft Armor (CA): 4 Discipline: 4 Hide: 4 Listen: 4 | Any Evil Alignment |
Sub-race Edits:
STR: 16 CON: 10 INT: 12 CHA: 8 | Water Breathing | Speaks Draconic Speaks Lizardfolk |
Starting Notes:
You need to use !charedit to swap Strong Soul for Slippery Soul before continuing further with this build. The Favored Enemies are what you can inflict with your Lash so the choice is yours you are not required to follow my selection.
Pre-Epic:
Level 2 | Rng (2) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 3 | Rng (3) | Power Attack* | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 4 | Rng (4) | STR +1 (17) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 5 | Rng (5) | FE: Outsiders | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 6 | Rng (6) | Cleave* | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 7 | BG (1) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | ||
Level 8 | BG (2) | STR +1 (18) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | |
Level 9 | BG (3) | Weapon Proficiency: Exotic | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | |
Level 10 | BG (4) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | ||
Level 11 | BG (5) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | ||
Level 12 | BG (6) | STR +1 (19) | Weapon Focus: Whip | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 |
Level 13 | BG (7) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | ||
Level 14 | BG (8) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | ||
Level 15 | BG (9) | Improved Critical: Whip | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | |
Level 16 | BG (10) | STR +1 (20) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 | |
Level 17 | Rng (7) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +11 Listen +11 | ||
Level 18 | Rng (8) | Metamagic: Extended Spell | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 19 | Rng (9) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 20 | Rng (10) | STR +1 (21) | FE: Shapechangers | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 |
Pre Epic Notes:
Cleave can be a free feat from a certain vial of dragon blood this also make Power Attack elective. If you are able to get Cleave from another source I would suggest picking up Blind-Fight and Toughness in their place.
Epic:
Level 21 | Rng (11) | Great Strength I (22) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 22 | Rng (12) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 23 | Rng (13) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 24 | Rng (14) | STR +1 (23) | Great Strength II (24) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 |
Level 25 | Rng (15) | FE: Monstrous Humanoids | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 26 | Rng (16) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 27 | Rng (17) | Great Strength III (25) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 28 | Rng (18) | STR +1 (26) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 29 | Rng (19) | Concentration +1 CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 30 | Rng (20) | Great Strength IV (27) FE: Vermin | CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 31 | Rng (21) | CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 32 | Rng (22) | STR +1 (28) | CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 33 | Rng (23) | Great Strength V (29) Bane of Enemies | CA +1 Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 34 | Rng (24) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 35 | Rng (25) | Epic Weapon Focus: Whip | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 36 | Rng (26) | STR +1 (30) | Great Strength VI (31) Epic Prowess | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 |
Level 37 | BG (11) | Discipline +1 | ||
Level 38 | BG (12) | Discipline +1 | ||
Level 39 | BG (13) | Great Strength VII (32) Armor Skin | Discipline +1 | |
Level 40 | BG (14) | STR +1 (33) | Discipline +1 |
Epic Notes:
Remember the Favored Enemies are your choice and up to you I have selected those which are best for Hell, Abyss, and General LLs in my opinion.
Legendary:
Level 41 | Rng (27) | Discipline +1 Hide +5 Listen +5 | ||
Level 42 | Rng (28) | STR +1 (34) | Legendary Skill Affinity: Tumble | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 |
Level 43 | Rng (29) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +46 | ||
Level 44 | Rng (30) | STR +1 (35) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 45 | Rng (31) | Legendary Weapon Focus: Whip | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 46 | Rng (32) | STR +1 (36) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 47 | Rng (33) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | ||
Level 48 | Rng (34) | STR +1 (37) | Legendary Spell Focus: Enchantment* | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 |
Level 49 | Rng (35) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | ||
Level 50 | Rng (36) | STR +1 (38) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 51 | Rng (37) | Great Strength VIII (39) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 52 | Rng (38) | STR +1 (40) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 53 | Rng (39) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | ||
Level 54 | Rng (40) | STR +1 (41) | Greater Weapon Focus: Whip | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 |
Level 55 | Rng (41) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | ||
Level 56 | Rng (42) | STR +1 (42) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1 | |
Level 57 | Rng (43) | Legendary Slippery Soul | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 Tumble +1* | |
Level 58 | Rng (44) | STR +1 (43) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | |
Level 59 | Rng (45) | Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 | ||
Level 60 | Rng (46) | STR +1 (44) | Epic Skill Focus: Listen | Craft Weapon (CW) + 36* Discipline +1 Hide +1 Listen +1 |
Legendary Notes:
You must acquire and read the Ancient Tome of Enchantment prior to level 48 to allow you to take the Legendary Spell Focus feat. Tumble will reach maximum effective ranks with 60 at level 57 and does not need to be increased on future levels. I do not recall how many extra skill points are left but my math says 36 and I dumped them into Craft Weapon.
Final Stats:
Ranger 46 Blackguard 14 | STR: 44 DEX: 16 CON: 14 WIS: 14 INT: 12 CHA: 8 | Animal Empathy: 1 Concentration: 31 CA: 36 CW: 36 Discipline: 63 Hide: 63 Listen: 63 Tumble: 60 | AB: 96 | AC: 122-128 | Fortitude: 62 Reflex: 61 Will: 60 |
AB is calculated with only +12 stat boosts and +1 from CW you should easily be able to get +2.
Saves are given with +12 stat boosts and no feats.
HGE User Notes:
With HGE you will be able to use Extended Spell slots for any spell even if it grants no benefits this will allow easier spell book manipulation. The HGE Hak will also enable you to cast BG spells from the radial menu instead of from the wand items which you get from the spell pedestal at the docks.
Final Notes:
If you can find or acquire a vial of a specific dragon's blood you can gain the Cleave feat for free which then frees up 2 pre-epic feats. You will have respectable AC and Immunities but your best defense is your concealment buff so you will want to know when you should wear a Breach and/or Mord immunity item most parties will know if you ask before the run. Most of your BG spells won’t be worth much but some will and you can set them via the sim tool command “!sb change bg” without the quotation marks.