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Post by mrslayer on Oct 20, 2006 8:57:27 GMT
A bard with a few splash classes to make him a bit tougher
Race: Fallen Angel (Human).
Could be done with a number of other races but you loose divine might and shield.
ST 8 DX 16 CO 14 IN 8 WIS 12 (17) CHA16 (18) Start Neutral Evil
1 Bard visit rowan tree and change to lawful 1 Monk change back to neutral (do this on 1 trip, have a high level friend help) 7 Bard 3BG (no need to buy cleave due to monk) Rest bard
Skills Are very tight. Max Disc, Peform and tumble. 5 points in hide. 1 other skill about 9 points shy of maximum (probably umd or conc).
Pre Epic Feats Toughness Ambidexterity 2 w fighting imp 2 w fighting Weapon focus Kama Blind fighting Weapon finess curse song
Epic G Dex 8 lasting inspiration Epic weapon focus Epic prowess Armoured skin
Book of ench for gmw
Leg G Dex 9 and 10 Leg spell foc ench Great Cha 1 and 2 Great Wis 1 Free Choice
A twin kama (or kama and torch) weilding dexer who buffs the part with spells and song, buffs himself (song, spells and divine might and shield), cursesd the enemy. Good saves, when buffed fights well, evasion and good abb progression due to monks UAB progression. His main Str though is that those around him have a much easier time of things. Cons are lower ac due to no sheild (though you do get conceal from EV) not amazing Hits, and low Dex for a dexer (though you get great dex early, so aroundd 40 you will be on par with many builds, and later your bard abilities should compensate).
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 11:59:44 GMT
I think this is a pretty good build idea. I've been thinking about something similar, but going with the Siren subrace. You'll get more dex, and two of the bard feats for free (or three, I forget now). So you could sub in Divine Might/Shield there. Any reason for BG over Paladin, other than personal preference?
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Post by mrslayer on Oct 20, 2006 12:18:07 GMT
Exp penalty for BG over Pal unless you went 2 monk and 2 Pal, in which case no Turn Undead to fuel Shield and Might, or went 35bard,3pal, 2 monk.
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 12:41:01 GMT
Ah, good point. Thanks!
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Post by FunkySwerve on Oct 20, 2006 14:27:55 GMT
Exp penalty for BG over Pal unless you went 2 monk and 2 Pal, in which case no Turn Undead to fuel Shield and Might, or went 35bard,3pal, 2 monk. Prestige classes do not count when calculating xp penalties. What I think he means here is exp penalty for Pal over BG. Funky
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 14:51:43 GMT
Yeah, that's how I read it. Makes a good reason to go BG over Paladin, since you wouldn't gain a lot more by going the other way (other than the xp penalty).
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Post by azrael on Oct 20, 2006 15:12:48 GMT
nitpicking here, but your levels in title only add up to 39
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Post by bkelowna on Oct 20, 2006 16:41:44 GMT
APre Epic Feats Toughness Ambidexterity 2 w fighting imp 2 w fighting Weapon focus Kama Blind fighting Weapon finess lasting inspiration curse song Epic G Dex 8 Epic weapon focus Epic prowess Armoured skin Book of ench for gmw Leg G Dex 9 and 10 Leg spell foc ench Great Cha 1 and 2 Great Wis 1 Free Choice Lasting insiration is not a pre epic feat.
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Post by sabregirl on Oct 20, 2006 16:50:59 GMT
The problem with this build over some other bard builds is you'll take a -1 to your BAB and you'll only have 3 attacks. Since you take the monk level early to get a free cleave feat you'd have to take 7 BG levels to make up for it. Plus the starting dex seems rather low, while you are getting a huge wisdom boost from FA, that won't help your AB, also I don't think divine might and shield are worth talking too much about since with only 3 BG levels they're not going to last very long - and you already get a dodge boost from bard song. I did a BG based bard (4BG 1 monk 35 bard) using pixie a while back and just took the power attack and cleave feats on first level - get strength to 13 and let pixie mod it to 11. Stats were pretty similar to the typical dex bard setup. The only problem I had with it was discovering that I hated being a pixie - it was really hard to tell if I was FF and if my buffs had worn off or not, and of course nobody remembers to rez pixies edit - Also since it seems like you're doing this primarily to avoid the XP penalty and giving up the usual bonus of taking 4 pally/BG levels why not just take 2 pal and 1 monk? You'll still get no XP penalty, get all the same BAB and number of attacks as 3BG 1Monk and you'll have an extra bard level at the end and save the 5 skill points. -S
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 17:45:19 GMT
I thought Divine Might and Shield were based on your CHA bonus, not BG or Pal levels. Or was that changed for HG? When I first saw this, I thought it would be nice to have these two feats, and was trying to figure out how to re-work this into a Siren build.
And by "usual bonus of taking 4 pally/BG", I'm guessing you mean one more AB, to get 4 attacks per round? Or is there more than that?
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Post by mrslayer on Oct 20, 2006 18:27:03 GMT
5 attacks with on hand Kama, 2 with offhand. at 40 progression is 37/34/31/27/24 and 37/34 according to tester. Agree that divine sheild is almost worthless but I think the damage one may be ok. Duartion wont be doubled/tripled, but should be good enough for a fight.
Cheers for pointing out the lasting inspiration thing. Feats are all correct though I think, just didn't properly note down when I took them when I did the tester. I could take 20 bard pre epic but then my saves wont be a good (as wont get +2 progression on all 3 from my monk). If I take the monk pre epic I need 3 BG pre epic also, or else my ab drops. And without the monk pre epic i dont think i get the monk funky kama ab progression.
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Post by Master Jaxx on Oct 20, 2006 20:23:19 GMT
Aye, divine might and shield are not worth much with so few lvls (due to custom mods), tho more so if your charisma isn't much (damage/duration).
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 20:31:49 GMT
Sorry for my ignorance, but I'm still not seeing where Divine Might and Shield were modded to use levels of BG or Pal instead of CHA modifier. I see this...
...in the Ability Change post in the Class/Ability/Spell customization portion of the forums, so apparently there's something else I'm missing.
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Post by sabregirl on Oct 20, 2006 21:09:58 GMT
I did forget you were using kamas which'll fix your attack per round problem. Though, I've never been a big fan of kamas anyway due to the crappy crit range and mulitplier. Tried them out for a while on one of my bards and wasn't overly impressed, but maybe I'm just picky. Most bards I've seen rely on higher crit weaps like kukri, rapier, shortsword or dagger. I think Kamas would be really nice on a WM bard. As to taking monk pre-epic for saves, usually the pally/BG bonus pushes saves up to pretty ridiculous levels anyway. As to the kama AB progression being only pre-epic, I looked at my own lvl 40 bard who took monk levels post epic. Wielding a kama, AB appears to be the same as what you posted. Actually looking at it again, if you went kamas - you could do 1Pally 1 monk (post epic) - same AB as 3BG 1 monk - and you'd get an extra epic feat (which every bard build seems to be crying for), better song and again no XP penalty. Course going pally screws up the build title Also seems like you're pumping a lot into charisma and wisdom, seems like a bit of overkill - maybe more into dex/int at the start? Divine might adds divine damage to your weapon equal to the charisma multiplier and lasts the same number of rounds as your charisma multiplier which as a bard isn't really all that long - the same number of rounds as your CHA bonus which even with gear won't be over 11 on this build (little over 1 minute per use I think) - on HG it's modded for high level BGs and pallys to double and triple in duration - which makes it VERY useful in later levels for those that get the increase. Wouldn't even bother using divine shield on a bard as KB won't be much and like I mentioned earlier the dodge AC bonus is already in bard song. You'll need at least 3 pally or BG levels to use either might or shield because it is tied to the turn undead ability. Something to keep in mind, but I think most fights here last a lot longer than a minute Phalthallus- Just scroll down, the changes to divine might and shield are the same for pallys, blackguards and paladins. -S
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Post by phalthallus on Oct 20, 2006 21:35:43 GMT
Yeah, I saw that the change applied to all 3 classes; I just didn't realize you meant it was so short "in regards to what it could be" w/ one of those being your controlling class. And you're probably right that CHA won't be that high, since you'll be trying to get dex as high as possible.
Interesting info about all the weapon/AB stuff too. Thanks to everyone who supplied info on that.
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