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Ayla Smackdown (Paladin Smackdown)
Originally posted by Carpe DM

This tactic allows a high level Paladin to deliver a near-unmissable 250-500 points of damage in one round.

Tactic Title: Ayla Smackdown

Paladin (Ayla Flamehair), 16th Level

Feats Needed:
Mounted Combat
Ride-by Attack
Spirited Charge
Power Attack

Spells Needed:
Holy Sword
(Optional) Sacred Journey

Items Needed:
Lance (any)
Boots of Speed
potions of True Strike

The Tactic:

Rd 1: (usually surprise rd)(partial Action): Activate Boots of Speed
(extra partial action): Cast Holy Sword

Rd 2: (partial action) Drink potion of True Strike
(standard action) Charge, smiting and power attacking

The Damage:

The base damage is:

1. Full Power Attack (16 pts=base attack. Note that True Strike more than compensates for this).

2. Smite (16 pts. If sacred journey has been cast, 32 pts).

3. Holy Sworded Lance (5 pts.)

4. Strength (5 pts. I assume 5, b/c at the very least you should be able to get a 20 strength from a buddy casting an empowered bull strength giving 6 pt increase).

This equals, given sacred journey, gives 58 base points of damage, added to the weapon damage.

Note that in practice, Divine Might (see DotF scoop on RPGplanet), Divine Favor (spell), Bardsongs, etc. all add marginal points of damage here, but we'll keep it simple for now.

So, currently we're at a base of 1d8 (lance) + 58.

We then note a X3 multiplier from the spirited charge feat, AND an extra X2 from the holy sword. X3+X2=X4, under the rules.

Therefore, this attack, which is almost guaranteed to hit (our paladin has a + 35 or so to hit when she does it), will deliver a average of:

(1d8 + 58) X 4, equaling

4d8 + 232, which (given a 4.5 average on a d8) works out to 232+18, which is 250 points of damage.

Note that on a critical hit, the x3 crit multiplier of the lance will also apply, leading to X3 + X2 + X3, equaling X6 damage.

On a critical, the attack will therefore do:

6d8+348, which works out on average to 375 points of damage in one shot.

Variations of the Smackdown:

Try adding:
Divine Favor (extra +2 or +3, multiplied by 4)
Horseshoes of speed: doubles charge range of the paladin's warhorse.
Bardsongs (giving plusses to hit and damage)

Ayla's Special Smackdown (maxed out variation):

This version requires a party mage to cast mass haste, including the Paladin's warhorse as a subject.

Since the Sacred Journey grants two double-strength smites a day, the paladin may then do the above, but she can also wait for a new round (and power up additionally in the first rd of combat, usually with divine favor), then:

charge as a standard action, doing 250 pts of damage (on average) and then ride-by, per the feat (note: no attacks of opp for this, see the feat).

THEN, once she is past her target, she wheels and for her partial action, she:

partial charges, with the second smite. Note that this only works if the mass haste gives the paladin's warhorse the extra needed action for the second charge.

This, on average, yields 500 points of damage.

Questions? Comments? Improvements?

Very best,

Carpe

Orcish Barbarian Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

Ok, this one works best if the user is an NPC Fiendish Orc(so this one's for you, DMs), but the principles work fine for PCs too.

Required Race:
Half-Orc, Fiendish template

Required Classes:
Barbarian 6
Blessed of Gruumsh 9 (see Dragon #282)

Required Items
Orcish Double Axe (Greater MWeaponed to +5 / +5 by your friendly neighborhood cleric)
Boots of Speed (for haste)

Required Feats:

Ambidexterity
Two-weapon fighting
Improved Two-weapon Fighting

The Tactic Summary:

From surprise, the Blessed delivers a devastating charge. On the first round of combat, the Blessed then attacks 12 (yup, 12!) times.

The charge:

The Blessed charges, raging and using his Luck of Gruumsh ability to add +8 to hit, while smiting (from fiendish template), power attacking and using his Fist of Gruumsh ability to add to damage.

His attack is at: +15 base, +9 (luck of Gruumsh), +12 (strength: start with a 20 strength (18 +2 racial), add 4 for the level-ups (assuming 16th level here) then get +6 from an empowered bull's strength and +4 for the rage, puts you at 34 strength) and +5 (weapon). Also add +2 (charge).

This puts him at a +43. If you really want this to hurt, have him drink a potion of true strike first, and do a full power attack. Even without the TS, he can full power attack (15 points, let's say) and still be at +28, hitting AC 38 on average. Not bad.


Damage is:

1d8 + 15 (power attack) + 18 (two handed blow means 1.5 * 12) + 15 (smite from fiendish template) + 5 (weapon) =

1d8 + 53 + 3d6 (from Fist of Gruumsh), or on average, 68 points of damage.

If he crits (due to improved crit feat and keen weapon spell, if he has the sense to use them), he'll do:

3d8 + 159 + 3d6, which is roughly 192 points of damage. Not too slouchy.

But the really nasty surprise comes the next round, now that he's closed with the enemy.

The Blessed takes a full attack action, and uses his Thunderous Roar ability, so his main attacks are, if he's hasted,

(partial action) +34/+34
(standard action)+34/+34/+29/+29/+24/+24 as main attacks and

+34/+34/+29/+29

for his offhand attacks, giving a total of 12 attacks in one round.

Each attack does 1d8 + 12 + 5 (for main attacks) and 1d8 + 6 + 5 (for offhand attacks).

If he were to hit on all attacks (which I'll address here in a second), he'll do

8d8 + 96 + 40 (or, on average 172 pts of damage) from main attacks and

4d8 + 24 + 20 (or, on average, 62 pts of damage) from offhand attacks.

The total? 234 points of damage in Round One, following the 68-192 points of damage he did in the surprise round.

So the difficulty here is that he has to hit. That's true, but his lowest attack is at +24, and that's nothing to slouch at. Furthermore, four of his attacks are going to be at the highest level (+34) which is going to hit almost anything.

Paladin: "What ho, ye scurvy orcs! Flee my path, or suffer my righteous indignation."

Orcish Blessed of Gruumsh: SMACK! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! WHAM!

Paladin: "Gurgle..."

Orcs: "Thanks, Carpe!"

Ah, yes...Orcs are back.

Enjoy,

Carpe

Jack the Knife
Originally posted by Carpe DM

The idea: by making a Rogue who can use a wand of monster summoning to flank or a scroll to gain improved invisibility, you turn all of your attacks into sneak attacks.

Required:

Feats:

Quick Draw (to get the knives out fast--you'll be throwing some)
Precise Shot
Rapid Shot

Weapon finesse: Dagger (so you can hit with those daggers while improving your initiative and AC...both of which are crucial for this tactic).

(nice) Improved Initiative
(later, at higher levels) Improved Two-weapon fighting

Skills:

Use Magic Device (for wands of monster summoning).

Items:

Wand of Monster Summoning
Boots of Speed
(preferably) Magical daggers (or if you can't get those, have your friendly cleric toss a greater magic weapon on one).

Classes:
1 ranger (so you can fight with two daggers)
Rogue (as many as you like)
Assassin (if you can get it)

Note: you can do this with any class that continues to gather sneak attack damage.

Ok, so the idea is simple: by taking 1 level of ranger (why anyone would take more than one is beyond me...what a terrible class) and the feats listed above, you are able to get a large number of attacks, either ranged or fighting with a dagger in each hand.

In the first round, throw as many daggers as you can. If you get surprise (and what rogue worth his salt can't?) do the following:

Surprise Rd: Haste (boots); (extra partial): throw dagger. Dagger gets (assuming Rogue 9, Ranger 1, Assassin 5) 8d6 sneak attack damage.

Rd 1: Hopefully you go first (since your dexterity is above 20 due to an empowered cat's grace, and you've got improved initiative, right?). If you do, then throw five daggers at a flatfooted target (4 due to rapid shot, 1 for the partial action). Each does 8d6 damage.
This is 40d6 in round 1.

If you don't go first, all is not lost. Use your partial action to either (1) use a scroll of improved invisibility or (2) use a wand of monster summoning to flank a creature. Then take your attacks as melee sneak attacks. Due to improved two-weapon fighting, you should get off five (three standard, two offhand) sneak attacks due to flanking. Each of these does 8d6; again, you do 40d6 in round one.

What makes this work is that if you summon your flanking creature on your turn, your opponent doesn't have a chance to take it out until you get your sneak attacks in. Sure, they kill your fiendish badger on their turn, but you summon another one. You get the picture.

Of course, if your opponents are incompetent enough to not be able to see invisible, then your best bet is to use improved invis (scroll) and rake them with thrown daggers. Also note that if the party has some way of stunning enemies (is there a monk in your party? See the Monk Smackdown listed here too. The Eyebite spell works great too here) you can simply wipe out anyone that is stunned. 40d6 goes a long, long way.

The usual method, though, is to haste up and throw an 8d6 shot in the surprise round, get the 40d6 sneak attacks ranged against flatfooted targets in the first round (by maxing out initiative bonuses so you can clock people who are still flatfooted), then monster summon / melee any remaining targets for 40d6 a round.

Variations:

Use a magical + mighty bow, and have a cleric throw greater magic weapon on the arrows. Let's assume a +3 mighty bow, and let's assume you're magicked up to have a +3 strength bonus. (Note that due to a recent sage advice ruling, you can use a mighty bow even if your strength doesn't currently match the mighty bonus on the bow). The Cleric can give you +4 arrows (cause he's 12th level). So you're looking at +10 damage per hit; at five arrows a round, you're doing 5d8 + 40d6 + 50, for a rough total (at 3.5 average for d6 and 4.5 for d8) of 22 + 140 + 50 per round.

This puts you at 212 points of damage a round, which gets you into the Smackdown Club...weaker tactics are turned away at the door.

Before someone goes off, I know you probably won't hit on all of those shots. That's true...but you were using Keen Edge on those arrows weren't you? (Official now...arrows can use it, 50 at a time). And you have improved critical, right? Which means criticals on 18-20, which somewhat offsets the occasional miss. Plus you're always at an advantage to hit: you're either invisible (+2 to hit, and they don't have their dex against you) or acting first (they don't have their dex against you) or flanking them (-2 to their armor class). And you have that phenomenal dexterity (our Rogue started with an 18 or so, raised it to 22 with 4 level increases, adds +4 from a cat's grace for a total of Dex 26 plus his base attack bonus plus bow bonus plus arrow bonus.) I think his attack bonuses work out somewhere around +30 for a first attack. He doesn't miss very often.

So, there you have it. On average, the rogue does 212 pts of damage on round one and each subsequent round.

Very best,

Carpe

Notes from CRGreathouse:
Analysis of Carpe's "Jack the Knife" Smackdown
Levels: Rgr1/Rog15/Assassin3
Race: elf
Feats: Improved Critical (dagger), Improved Initiative, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, Quick Draw, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot, Weapon Finesse (dagger), Weapon Focus (dagger)
Skill ranks: Disguise (4), Hide (8), Move Silently (8)
Equipment: boots of speed, 5 daggers
Outside help: 5 greater magic weapon @ caster level 16, 1 maximized cat’s grace @ caster level 9.
Ability scores: Str 14; Dex 18 + 2 (racial) + 4 (leveling) + 5 (cat’s grace) = 29

Initiative: +9 (Dex) + 4 (Improved Initiative) = +13
Attack bonus: +14 (base attack bonus) + 9 (Dex) + 1 (Weapon Focus) + 5 (greater magic weapon) = +29
Ranged attack routine: +27/+27/+27/+22/+17 (1d4+7*)
* +10d6 on a sneak attack
Average damage per hit with sneak attack: 44.5
Extra damage on a crit: 9.5
Vs. AC 25: average damage 198.5 without crits, 203.86 with crits

Arcane Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

This is a tactic I've used in our campaign against my PCs. In fact, it's the favored tactic of the PCs evil nemesis, Zera Ahashtyn (a beautiful elven woman... I wonder why they hate her with such sweet passion? (laughs demonically)).

First, let me note that 9th level spell smackdowns are too easy.

For example:

Time Stop
Meteor Swarm (Targeted)
Power Word: Kill

This will kill nearly any PC with no save. But it's no fun.

So here's a nasty tactic for lower level spells. The idea here is to get a spell DC higher than God almighty, and then hit the PCs with multiple spells. You can do a lot of this with core rules, but the really really nasty versions use Ritual & Relics spells.

To do this, start with a Sun Elf character (+2 to intelligence) and an 18 attribute base. Zera starts, therefore, at 20 intelligence. Then add Spellcasting Prodigy (which you have to take at 1st level). That puts your effective intelligence at 22. Then add your level increases. (+4 for our usual 16th level Smackdown character), so 26. Then add either a 6 point headband of intellect, or an Empowered Perfect Recollection (from R&R...I'm betting a similar spell comes out in FR, since I've seen the charisma variant in Dragon) to increase your intelligence to 32. Finally, Zera was able to secure two points through one of the attribute-increasing manuals; you don't need those points, but they help.

So now you have a 34 intelligence. This gives your save DCs a +12. But wait. There's more.

At this point, you'll need to find out two things. First, is your character evil? Second, can you use Rituals and Relics spells? Recognizing most people's interest in playing good characters and using only core rulebooks, I'll give the standard spell only version first, then the really nasty evil / r&r version later.

Take spell focus: evocation and greater spell focus: evocation. Now your save DCs are +16.

Finally, it's silly for mages to keep gaining mage levels after 10th level. So take those extra levels in Arcane Devotee; your spells are just as good, and you get a lot of extra abilities, including the Enlarge Spell power, which doesn't add any spell slots to the base spell to use. Normally this doesn't add to the area of effect (just increases distance) but it actually does for cone-effects.

So, scanning our lists for cone effects, we discover the 7th level spell Prismatic spray. Normally a 60 foot length, it doubles in size under the effect of our Arcane Devotee power.

Ok, so, now the only question is how to get off a lot of spells against those pesky targets? Here I'm going to reinsert R&R spells; just remove them to do a core rulebook version.

Rituals and Relics REALLY BAD SMACKDOWN
(surprise rd):
(partial action) Haste, (extra partial action) Two Minds (a 9th level spell allowing you to cast an extra spell a round), (Quickened free action) Quickened mirror image (for defense), (Free Action) Renewed focus.

Ok, what does this do? First, note you've cast 4 spells in the surprise round. And boy, does it get worse in round 1. Renewed Focus is cast as a free action, like Feather Fall is; it's a 2d level spell, and lets you act like you've renewed your focus as an initiative action. So you're going to go first in the first round of combat, since your initiative is going to be 20 plus any initiative feats plus your dex bonus.

So, in Round 1, cast:
(standard) Prismatic Spray (save DC 33, by the way), (partial) Prismatic Spray, (two minds action) Prismatic Spray (or your next highest evocation spell), (Quickened Free Action) Add any remaining evocation spell, quickened. If nothing more, magic missile.

So now you've gotten off 3 extended prismatic sprays and a magic missile (or any other evocation--fireball works) off in one round. Nobody will be left standing; they'll all be dead / insane / on other planes.

For a lower level version of this, of course, throw as many of your super-DC evocation spells of your highest levels as you can.

But you wanted to make this version worse, right? I mean, c'mon, we can do better.

Ok, let's switch our spell focus and greater spell focus to Necromancy. Now, if you only have the Core Rules, throw Horrid Wiltings for your three first-round spells. The advantage there is that these are Fort saves, so everyone will take at least half damage (evasion won't apply).

Assuming people aren't hitting 33 saves with any regularity, and given a 16th level character, this attack will deal 48d8 points of damage (or roughly 216 points of damage) in one round.

But we can actually make it worse, if your DM approves Rituals & Relics (trust me, if he reads the smacks on this board, he won't). Instead of those Horrid Wiltings, throw Shadow Storms.

For those of you unfamiliar with the spell, Shadow Storm does 1/2 caster level in both constitution and strength damage on a failed fortitude save; 1/4 on a successful save. It also does some damage (4d8 + 1 per level, I think) on a second reflex save; but that's unimportant. What's important is that even on a failed save you take 4 points con and strength damage.

This means two things: first, remember we're casting this three times. The targets will take a MINIMUM of 12 con and strength damage, on 3 successful saves. But the strange thing about this spell is that it targets the very attribute that generates its save. So after you take the first 4 points con damage, your fort save is at -2. And so on. If you fail those saves, you'll take 24 points of Con and Strength damage...enough to kill anyone.

Finally, note that the Shadowstorm is an area effect spell, so you're likely to be able to kill an entire adventuring group (or group of mobs if you're an adventurer) in round one.

Enjoy,

Carpe

Monk Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

This tactic does not instantly kill opponents as do the Paladin and Cleric smackdowns (in previous posts). It renders the target helpless and puts him out of the fight. It can be delivered from tremendous range and does serious damage to boot.

The Smackdown: The monk will charge from 320 feet away, and deliver a flying kick which will do 2d12 + 40 points of damage and leave the target stunned for one round, and nauseated and unable to move for the next.

Required:

Spells:

Cast Divine Wisdom, empowered, at the beginning of the day. This will give 6 points of wisdom. DW is from Relics and Rituals; the spell is not necessary, but very useful, since wis adds to both stun DC and the monk's AC.

Items:

Potions of True Strike

Monk's Belt (for Haste)

Sandals of the Tiger (from S&F) with layered Boots of Striding and Springing. (this second power will cost you double because it is added to a slotted item (see the DMG), but since the power costs all of 1000 gp for a mage to create, you'll end up striding for 2000 gp. The best deal in the game).

Ki Straps (from Sword and Fist)

Feats:

Pain Touch
Power Attack

Rd 1: The monk hastes herself (monk's belt)
Rd1 partial: The monk drinks a potion of true strike.

Rd 2: The monk launches a 320 foot flying kick. Her base move is 80 (I'm assuming a 15th level monk); the striding makes it 160. Doubled (for a charge), this is 320.

The flying kick (based on the Sandals) does double damage, so

1d12 + 10-15 (power attack) + 5 (strength bonus) * 2 = 2d12 + 40.

But the real smackdown is in the stun. Save DC is 10 + half monk's level (7 or 8) + wisdom bonus (5 at least, see Divine Wisdom), + 5 (Ki straps). Our monk, who started with an 18 wisdom (raised to 24 by the DW), delivers a stun with a DC of

10 + 8 + 7 (wis) + 5 = 30.

When they're stunned, they're out of combat for 2 rounds, because of the pain touch feat.

What's great about this tactic is that you can basically do it once every round, since your save DC is 30 for the stuns. The extra damage and distance for the charge is neat, but what really hurts is having a monk keep half of the opposition stunned / nauseated during a fight.

Also note that anyone who fails that 30 DC save is vulnerable to sneak attack damage from rogues. Our rogue has 5 attacks (hasted, rapid shot--you get the idea), each one doing 1d8+7d6 damage. He usually delays to attack after the monk, and kills whoever she stuns in one round.

Evil Mage: "Hmm...those pesky heroes are 450 feet away...just about fireball range; but those fighter types can't hurt me!!!"

Hasted Monk: (Run as partial action for 160 feet, flying kick for 320 feet; total 480 feet.)

Evil Mage: (gurgles as he fails his 30 DC save, takes 50 odd points of damage, drops his components and his staff automatically b/c of the stun). The party closes in (or just multiple-fireballs the both of them, since the monk has evasion, and stunned boy doesn't get a save).

Monk: Thanks Carpe!

Enjoy!

Carpe

Cleric Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

Required:

Spells:
True Strike (A cleric can get access to this through either the Elf or Fate domains).

Harm.

Items:
Boots of Speed

Once the Cleric is hasted up, he casts true strike as a partial action, and harm as a standard action. This will take nearly any creature down to 1-4 hp in one round. There is no save to the harm, and remember that the spell is a touch attack, so no armor or natural armor applies. With a plus 20, you're pretty much guaranteed to hit.

Our cleric just did this to a high level barbarian / blessed of Gruumsh (which are GREAT characters for DMs to use; see Dragon #282)...the barbarian lost 201 hit points. Yes, we here at Smackdown Productions scorn any attack that does less than 200 points of damage.

Spell resistance is the only thing that stops it, and if the cleric is smart he'll have taken Spell Penetration and Greater Spell Penetration. Bye-bye critter.

For a really nasty variation, take a Hierophant level (from FR Guidelines) and pick up that ranged touch attack ability. Then anything that gets 30 feet from the cleric is toast.

And the very best? Have someone else do at least 5 points of subdual damage to the creature first.

Rd 1: Fighter punches Dragon in the nose. Does 5 points of subdual damage.

Rd 1: Cleric: True strike / Harm. Dragon has 3 hp. Dragon is subdued. End of encounter.

And before somebody says something like "but Destruction kills someone straight off!", let me remind you that Destruction has a save...and a fortitude save at that. What high level creature doesn't have a +14-20 fort save?

And finally, use a Heal version of this to deal with pesky undead.

And yes, I know, what dragon/lich/demon/assorted other monstrous badass would be stupid enough to let PCs get close to him? Mine don't. But hey, your DM may drop the ball. When he does, *WHAM*.

Best,

Carpe

Dragon Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

Well, since I've posted a few smacks for Characters, I thought I'd add one for DMs.
Here's a tactic I use with Dragons all the time...enough to render Dragons as scary as they're supposed to be (in the face of my save-maxed party, all of whom have +20 or so reflex saves...sigh).

The idea is simple: You get no save to a breath weapon when you're in the dragon's mouth.

If the Dragon can cast Harm, by the way, just harm them when biting, and good-bye (remember--you can deliver a touch attack via a standard attack, and with a Dragon's massive bonuses to hit, the character is toast.

But assuming a lower-level dragon, do the following.

Have the Dragon cast haste before combat (c'mon, you knew to do that), and if you have time, cast shocking grasp (if low level) or Slay Living (if high level) as a touch spell, and hold the charge. Now, swoop down on those pesky PCs.

Do a Fly-By attack, snatching one of the characters (standard action), breathing on him (partial action), and dropping him to fall far far to the ground as a free action once you've completed the fly-by and gained altitude.

You do bite damage, then automatically try to grapple, which does bite damage again (so now they've taken 2x bite).

So, assuming a Mature Adult Red Dragon, (bulled up, of course) you'll do:

2d8 (bite 1) + 13 (11 standard str, 2 bulls).
2d8 (bite 2) + 13 (same) for grapple.

1d8 + 9 (shocking grasp), OR Slay Living damage.

Breath Weapon (no save): 14d10 = 77 points on average.

Drop as free action (assuming only a 100 foot climb, given a 500 foot move): 10d6, or 35 points of damage on average.

1 rd total: 77 + 35 + 26 + 18 = 156 damage, plus the shocking grasp or the Slay Living. And, of course, if the Slay takes out the character on the bite, you can just drop the guy and breath on the whole party.

Better ideas? Remember--keep it low level (Mature Adult Red) or such, so that we don't just devolve into high level spellcasting scenarios.

Very best,

Carpe

Notes from the Chief
Originally posted by Carpe DM

(looks around the office; nods)
Fantastic stuff, people.

A few clarifications, other than the usual silly stuff (yes, true strike potions exist, as per WotC. Can we not have this conversation every time? Besides, it doesn't matter. See spell-storing ioun stones.)

So here are a few smacks and smack variants. I'll keep the core ideas simple; the ramifications are usually pretty clear.

1. Dust of Sneezing and Choking + sneak attack. There's no save vs. the stun caused by the dust. The stun lasts up to 20 rounds (5d4).

2. Ring of Blinking (for rogues). Cheap, and turns all of your rogue's attacks into sneaks. Take a level of ranger, pick up expert tactician as a feat and get boots of haste, and you'll be able to attack 7 times a round, doing sneak attack damage every time.

3. Spell storing weapons (for paladins and clerics). This is a must.

The key here is that a spell storing weapon discharges its spell as a free action when you decide to unload. So, as a paladin, you load Divine Sacrifice into your weapon before the battle (preferably the day before so you get the spell back). Then use spirited charge, deliver that huge damage, and then add the 5d6 damage on top of it.

This is VERY effective when used with the Shield Charge feat and a spell storing shield of bashing (as per Reapersaurus' shield charge special).

One really cool thing to do in conjunction with this at low levels is Pearls of Power. They cost 1,000 for the 1st level ones. Paladins need at least 5 of these things, to keep the spells going.

If you have Shield Charge, and a +1 shield of bashing / spell storing, you can have Spikes cast on the shield by a cleric buddy (doubling threat range and causing massive damage), fire up divine might, have divine sacrifice IN your shield, cast any combat spell you like ON your shield (I prefer Smite from R&R, because you can cast it well before combat), smite, and charge (gaining double damage from the S. Charge). With haste and the ready action action, you can do a double charge in one round (charge twice). With a 6th level character I did a double charge the other day that did over 180 points of damage. Plus, you can smite (using your own personal smite, not the spell, which you've cast on your weapon).

There are more, but including Dust, Rings of Blinking and Spell Storing weapons in your game goes a long way.

Now, I included DS as the spell to use because it's core. Note that by FAR the best way to do the variant "Stored Smack" is to use the R&R smite spell. What's nasty about that spell is that it can be cast ON a weapon and held until combat. So you cast smite:

1. IN your spell storing weapon,
2. ON your spell storing weapon,
3. and then you SMITE as per your own power.

If you're using a R&R Sacred Journey, your own smite is double strength. So now, you're packing 4 smites into one punch.

Pretty nasty. Since these ARE multiplied, you'd be putting a nasty hurt on.

And before you say that it's obvious these shouldn't stack, consider the fact that all of the various different smite powers (smite fiend, smite evil, holy liberator smite, etc.) are indeed combinable into one attack.

Of course, DMs may, for good cause, rule that the smite effects can only be used once, not in, on and personal. That's why I included the DS variant.

And as for flaming, just look at the damage. Compare 17.5 to 3.5 for flaming. Absolutely no comparison--it's your best buy on the market. The 10 points of damage to you, remember, is not a big issue, since you can choose to use the spell if you're hard up for hit points, and since your hit points are so cheap to heal after a fight.

By the way, I've noticed that dragon 287 has all KINDS of ways to optimize your smacks via the planar faction prestige classes.
Takers. Mmmm, good. 2d level, they get Righteous Might? Hooboy. Revise the Paladin Smack to include 2 levels of Taker, and you can get a +4 enlargement bonus to str, and turn that d8 lance damage to 2d6, multiplied to 8d6 when you hit them with spirited charge and a holy sworded lance. Ok, so it's chump change on top of the 600 points of damage you're already doing, but it's a thought. And the +2 enlargement bonus applies to your str, and lasts for a number of rounds equal to your Character level (not class), so you more than make up for the two points of smite damage you're not getting.

Besides, at 1st level Taker you can cast True Strike, thus shutting up your DM if he insists that TS potions don't exist.

And finally? Remember that with shared spell, your mount benefits from Righteous Might as well. Stomp.

Very best,

Carpe

Brother Joachim "Liches are my Bitches" Smackdown
Originally posted by Carpe DM

Editor’s Note: I can’t post the original post, and the subsequent fixes, so I’ll just post the closest version to a corrected maximized version. Please see the original post for detailed analysis.

Using your 11th Level example, we have: Clr 6/Radiant Servant of Pelor 5

TURNING CHECK:

+3 (consecrate. +6 if you use the shrine / haversack trick)
+10 (heighten--notice I'm not using the whole bit, just enough to get +19)
+6 (charisma)
+2 (glory)
-2 (empower)
---
+19 to turn check. This guarantees a +4.

Then we calculate effective level.

EFFECTIVE LEVEL:

+4 (turning check result)
+2 (sacred armor)
+2 (sacred shield)
+4 (amulet of turning)
+4 (rod of authority)
+11 (level)
---
27, effective level. So, the smack will destroy anything of 27th level or less.

Finally, we do turning damage. Effective level does NOT plug into turning damage, but cleric / turning prestige class levels do. And since those magic items which added to effective level also add to damage, we count them again. Note that the turning check bonus to effective level DOESN'T seem to carry across. It simply says to add your level, not your effective level.

+2 (Sacred armor)
+2 (Sacred shield)
+4 (rod of authority)
+4 (amulet of turning)
+11 (level)
+6 (charisma: I know you used +9; this is adjustable)
-10 (heighten)
+2d6 (base)
+2d6 (empower)
+1d6 (glory)
---
5d6 + 19, for an average of 19+ 17.5 = 36.5.

Note that this framework would only be used if the cleric were trying to wipe out a very high level monster (27 hit dice ) and didn't care about damage.

If we were going after our average 11th level monster, you'd drop the heighten turning, and go for the gusto on the turning damage. In that case you'd do 5d6 + 29= 17.5 + 29 = 46.5 turning damage of hit dice.

best,

Carpe