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Ardent Admiration: An Ardent Handbook (by Dedekine)
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<blockquote data-quote="Nibelung" data-source="post: 6703897" data-attributes="member: 74499"><p><strong>Originally posted by Dedekine:</strong></p><p></p><p>Class features and builds</p><p></p><p><strong>Mantles</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Mantle of Clarity</strong></span>: Insight and especially Perception are among the most important skills in the game, so bonuses to them are always great. The Wis-modifer bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks is amazing, and you and your allies don't need to rely on the DM to make use of the incredible mobility it facilitates. The defense bonus to Ardent Surge is nice, though it's difficult to make great use of Ardent Alacrity. Choose this mantle when you're aiming to support the strikers in the party.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Mantle of Elation</strong></span>: The fixed bonuses to Diplomacy and Intimidation and the Con-modifier bonus to opportunity attack damage are all of varying usefulness, depending on your DM. Ardent Outrage can be an encounter-turner, especially if you have a rogue in your party, and the bonus to attack rolls with Ardent Surge is solid. If you're primarily needed to support defenders, this is the mantle of choice.</p><p></p><p><strong>Mantle of Impulsiveness</strong>: Again, the bonuses to Intimidation and Endurance are dependent on the nature of your campaign. Ardent Eruption gives a fairly small bonus to damage, and the fact that it's triggered by you being bloodied and ends on the start of your next turn means that it might not serve any benefit at all. The mantle essentially grants mobility: allies targeted by opportunity attacks get a bonus to damage on their next attack roll (discouraging monsters from taking them), and Ardent Surge boosts the target's speed. Practically speaking, though, the defensive bonuses from the Mantle of Clarity serve the same role but better. However, the Mantle of Impulsiveness does have some good feats, especially the amazing epic-tier Instinctive Surge.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p>The PHB3 organizes ardent builds around your choice of Mantle. However, no power riders depend directly on your choice of Mantle; instead, they depend directly on either your Con and Wis modifiers. This means the important build choice is actually whether you choose Con or Wis as your secondary stat. Even more, the Mantles don't depend very strongly on its associated secondary stat. The Mantle of Clarity in particular is still good even with a Wis modifier of +2. Even if you choose Con as your secondary stat, you might give serious thought to choosing the Mantle of Clarity.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Which secondary stat?</strong></span></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Con</strong></span> gives you extra Fort, extra HP, and extra healing surges, and there are a number of ways to get boosts to both Cha and Con.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff00ff"><strong>Dex</strong></span> boosts your Reflex and initiative, as well as your AC in light armour. However, despite the fact that Psionic Power suggests this as a secondary for impulsive ardents, there is nothing that keys off Dex -- no class features, no powers, no paragon paths, not even the Mantle of Impulsiveness itself. You can make this work, by choosing powers with no secondary stat riders or riders that work even with low modifiers, but it really should not be your first option. If you do decide to make Dex your secondary, choose either Con or Wis as your tertiary and make sure it starts with at least a 14.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Wis</strong></span> gives you bonuses to some nice skills. It doesn't help your defences at all, sadly. With the advent of Dark Sun and Psionic Power, though, there are finally epic destinies and paragon paths to suit Wis ardents. Unfortunately, there's only one race that gives boosts to both Wis and Cha, and it's a bit harder to find epic destinies that will benefit both. The Battlewise feats means that Wis ardents are likely to have the best initiative modifiers.</p><p></p><p>Contrary to what the PHB3 says, there's no straightforward logic as to which sorts of powers depend on which stat. Con is the more frequent rider for boosting damage, while Wis is the more frequent rider for boosting defences, but this is not a hard and fast rule. However, as of PHB3 only one third of all ardent powers even have a secondary-stat rider, and many of these are good even with small secondary stat modifiers. This means that you have a lot of leeway in making your decision.</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 12px"><strong>Survivability</strong></span></p><p></p><p>Chain mail and no shield proficiency is not great, especially for a class that needs to be near the front line. Con ardents have it slightly better, but the extra HP will not help much with the recent damage boosts for monsters, and if you need to use powers to access your surges you've done you're job wrong. Realistically, expect to spend at least two to three feats boosting defence -- the Wingman sample build in this guide spends eight!</p><p></p><p>However, those feats don't necessarily have to be armour-related. With Psionic Power, the ardent now has many feats that give large benefits to allies in the mantle triggered on the ardent taking damage or spending surges. These realistically serve as a discouragement against targetting the ardent -- in a twisted Obi-Wan moment, striking the ardent down will only make his allies more powerful.</p><p></p><p>Practically speaking, the way in which you go about boosting your defense depends in large part on your choice of weapon (and of course, vice versa):</p><p></p><p><strong>Weapon Choice</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p></p><p>One-handed vs two-handed weapons: As will be discussed more below in Feats, damage is generally a lower priority for ardents than accuracy and defence. With the exception of polearms (because of Hafted Defence), ardents will normally be better off with a one-handed weapon and picking up shield proficiency.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Polearms</strong></span>: Reach keeps you further from the front line, and since many powers specify "adjacent to you or the target" reach also makes it easier to buff allies. Hafted Defence is a good defensive feat with no stat prerequisites. Polearm ardents should definitely drop a feat to acquire Greatspear proficiency for the +3 proficiency bonus.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Light blades</strong></span>: They might not fit the intended flavour of ardents, but this should probably be your default choice for one-handed weapons. The rapier no longer requires a weapon proficiency feat, and Light Blade Expertise gives a nice damage bonus.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Heavy blades</strong></span>: While it's not a bad choice, Heavy Blade Expertise doesn't really stand up to to Light Blade Expertise. Still, there are some nice superior heavy blades, and if you're going to go with Master at Arms you lose nothing by going with heavy instead of light blades. Sadly, your stats are all in the wrong place to meet heavy blade feat prerequisites.</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>Hammers</strong></span>: Con ardents will not find it difficult to meet the stat prerequisites for hammer feats, and there are some very good hammer feats. Given how much you'll be relying on at-will powers with no miss effects, it's worth choosing hammers just for Hammer Rhythm.</p><p></p><p><strong>Axes, flails</strong>, <strong>maces</strong>: The feat support is not as good as hammers, and you'll find it harder to meet feat prerequisites. However, the axe does tend to do a lot of damage, and as of Dark Sun there are flail and mace weapons with a +3 proficiency bonus.</p><p><span style="color: #ff00ff"></span></p><p><span style="color: #ff00ff"></span><span style="color: #ff0000"><strong>Clubs, picks</strong></span>: No great feats, lower damage, and +2 proficiency bonus. You're better off with something else.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p><strong>Defense boosting approaches</strong></p><p>[sblock]</p><p>This isn't necessarily a comprehensive list, but I've tried to enumerate the basic approaches you can take, and rated them by how they synergize with weapon choice. Especially for the scale/plate mail approach, don't feel obligated to pick up all the feats listed.</p><p></p><p><strong>Scale/plate mail</strong>: A starting Str and Con of 13 will get you scale proficiency in heroic, and plate proficiency and specialization in epic (3 feats, +3 AC) and works for all weapon choices. It's clearly the best option for <span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>non-polearm two-handed weaons</strong></span>. <span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Polearm users</strong></span> will want to pick up Hafted Defense (4 feats, +4 AC/+1 Reflex), and <span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>one-handed weapon users</strong></span> can pick up light and heavy shield profiency (5 feats, +5 AC/+2 Reflex -- or go crazy and add shield specialization in too, for 6 feats, +5 AC/+3 Reflex). If you can arrange to have a starting Dex of at least 13 (which will probably be quite difficult), you should seriously contemplate picking up scale specialization instead of plate proficiency (saving you one feat and costiing you one AC, but giving you much desired mobility). All told, this is probably the most straightforward option, but it can be taxing for <strong>Wis</strong> ardents.</p><p></p><p><strong>Shield and chainmail</strong>: With a starting Strength of 13, you can get light shield proficiency in heroic and heavy shield proficiency in epic (2 feats, +2 AC/Reflex). For best effect, try to start with a Dex of 14, which will let you get shield specialization (3 feats, +3 AC/Reflex) or chainmail specialization (3 feats, +3 AC/+2 Reflex). An approach for <span style="color: #0000ff"><strong>one-handed weapon users</strong></span> only, obviously. Compared to the scale/plate approach, it lets you spread your starting attributes more evenly across your NADs, and doesn't require Con, making it more friendly to <span style="color: #33cccc"><strong>Wis ardents</strong></span>.</p><p></p><p><strong>Chainmail only</strong>: Start with 14 Dex and pick up chainmail specialization in paragon (1 feat, +1 AC). This is only really an option for <strong>polearm wielders</strong>, since they can also throw in Hafted Defense (2 feats, +2 AC/+1 Reflex). It leaves you quite fragile, but reach can help.</p><p></p><p><strong>Two weapons</strong>: Start with 13 Dex, get Two-Weapon Fighting and Defense in heroic, and then pick up chainmail specialization by epic (3 feats, +2 AC/+1 Reflex). You don't have any real reason to wield <span style="color: #ff00ff"><strong>two weapons</strong></span>, so the only excuse for doing so is to pick up a proficiency in a defensive weapon (4 feats, +3 AC/+1 Reflex). Feat intensive, and almost certainly a gimmick approach.</p><p></p><p><strong>Powers and feats</strong>: You can also increase your defenses indirectly, by using powers like Unsteadying Rebuke or Prescient Strike and second wind/healing surge optimization feats to discourage monsters from targeting you in the first place. It's difficult to quantify exactly how effective this can be, but it's certainly a big factor. This is really something to combine with the above approaches.</p><p>[/sblock]</p><p></p><p><span style="font-size: 15px"><strong>Ability Scores</strong></span></p><p></p><p><strong>Strength</strong>: Armour and shield proficiencies require this. A starting score of 13 post-racial is ideal to pick up scale and light shield proficiency in heroic, and then upgrade to plate or heavy shield proficiency in epic. Polearm wielders might start with 12 post-racial, and then upgrade to scale in paragon. (Starting score 12-13 post-racial)</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #00ccff"><strong>Constitution</strong></span>: Your best choice for a secondary stat. Even Wis ardents will probably want at least 12 or 13 to pick up scale proficiency in heroic or paragon, and possibly 14 to improve riders on the occasional Con-rider power. (Starting score 12-16 post-racial)</p><p></p><p><strong>Dexterity</strong>: Some points in here to improve Reflex and Initiative won't hurt. Polearm wielders might be tempted to boost it to qualify for Polearm Momentum, but it's probably not wise. (Starting score 10-12 post-racial)</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #ff0000">Intelligence</span></strong>: No need for it, no feats that use it as prerequisite, and Dexterity is objectively better for boosting Reflex. The default dump stat. (Starting score 8-10 post-racial)</p><p></p><p><strong><span style="color: #ff00ff">Wisdom</span></strong>: The other secondary stat. Con ardents will still want some points here to boost the occasional Wis rider, and a minimum of 14 if they have chosen to be an enlightened Con ardent. However, euphoric Con ardents can realistically dump this stat entirely. (Starting score 10-16 post-racial).</p><p></p><p><span style="color: #ff9900"><strong>Charisma</strong></span>: Your attack stat must be high. As mentioned in the build section above, secondary stat riders aren't a huge factor. Seriously consider a pre-racial 18 in Charisma. (Starting score 18-20 post-racial).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Nibelung, post: 6703897, member: 74499"] [b]Originally posted by Dedekine:[/b] Class features and builds [b]Mantles[/b] [sblock] [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Mantle of Clarity[/b][/COLOR]: Insight and especially Perception are among the most important skills in the game, so bonuses to them are always great. The Wis-modifer bonus to defenses against opportunity attacks is amazing, and you and your allies don't need to rely on the DM to make use of the incredible mobility it facilitates. The defense bonus to Ardent Surge is nice, though it's difficult to make great use of Ardent Alacrity. Choose this mantle when you're aiming to support the strikers in the party. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Mantle of Elation[/b][/COLOR]: The fixed bonuses to Diplomacy and Intimidation and the Con-modifier bonus to opportunity attack damage are all of varying usefulness, depending on your DM. Ardent Outrage can be an encounter-turner, especially if you have a rogue in your party, and the bonus to attack rolls with Ardent Surge is solid. If you're primarily needed to support defenders, this is the mantle of choice. [COLOR=#00ccff][b][/b][/COLOR][b]Mantle of Impulsiveness[/b]: Again, the bonuses to Intimidation and Endurance are dependent on the nature of your campaign. Ardent Eruption gives a fairly small bonus to damage, and the fact that it's triggered by you being bloodied and ends on the start of your next turn means that it might not serve any benefit at all. The mantle essentially grants mobility: allies targeted by opportunity attacks get a bonus to damage on their next attack roll (discouraging monsters from taking them), and Ardent Surge boosts the target's speed. Practically speaking, though, the defensive bonuses from the Mantle of Clarity serve the same role but better. However, the Mantle of Impulsiveness does have some good feats, especially the amazing epic-tier Instinctive Surge. [/sblock] The PHB3 organizes ardent builds around your choice of Mantle. However, no power riders depend directly on your choice of Mantle; instead, they depend directly on either your Con and Wis modifiers. This means the important build choice is actually whether you choose Con or Wis as your secondary stat. Even more, the Mantles don't depend very strongly on its associated secondary stat. The Mantle of Clarity in particular is still good even with a Wis modifier of +2. Even if you choose Con as your secondary stat, you might give serious thought to choosing the Mantle of Clarity. [Size=4][b]Which secondary stat?[/b][/size] [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Con[/b][/COLOR] gives you extra Fort, extra HP, and extra healing surges, and there are a number of ways to get boosts to both Cha and Con. [COLOR=#ff00ff][b]Dex[/b][/COLOR] boosts your Reflex and initiative, as well as your AC in light armour. However, despite the fact that Psionic Power suggests this as a secondary for impulsive ardents, there is nothing that keys off Dex -- no class features, no powers, no paragon paths, not even the Mantle of Impulsiveness itself. You can make this work, by choosing powers with no secondary stat riders or riders that work even with low modifiers, but it really should not be your first option. If you do decide to make Dex your secondary, choose either Con or Wis as your tertiary and make sure it starts with at least a 14. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Wis[/b][/COLOR] gives you bonuses to some nice skills. It doesn't help your defences at all, sadly. With the advent of Dark Sun and Psionic Power, though, there are finally epic destinies and paragon paths to suit Wis ardents. Unfortunately, there's only one race that gives boosts to both Wis and Cha, and it's a bit harder to find epic destinies that will benefit both. The Battlewise feats means that Wis ardents are likely to have the best initiative modifiers. Contrary to what the PHB3 says, there's no straightforward logic as to which sorts of powers depend on which stat. Con is the more frequent rider for boosting damage, while Wis is the more frequent rider for boosting defences, but this is not a hard and fast rule. However, as of PHB3 only one third of all ardent powers even have a secondary-stat rider, and many of these are good even with small secondary stat modifiers. This means that you have a lot of leeway in making your decision. [Size=3][b]Survivability[/b][/size] Chain mail and no shield proficiency is not great, especially for a class that needs to be near the front line. Con ardents have it slightly better, but the extra HP will not help much with the recent damage boosts for monsters, and if you need to use powers to access your surges you've done you're job wrong. Realistically, expect to spend at least two to three feats boosting defence -- the Wingman sample build in this guide spends eight! However, those feats don't necessarily have to be armour-related. With Psionic Power, the ardent now has many feats that give large benefits to allies in the mantle triggered on the ardent taking damage or spending surges. These realistically serve as a discouragement against targetting the ardent -- in a twisted Obi-Wan moment, striking the ardent down will only make his allies more powerful. Practically speaking, the way in which you go about boosting your defense depends in large part on your choice of weapon (and of course, vice versa): [b]Weapon Choice[/b] [sblock] One-handed vs two-handed weapons: As will be discussed more below in Feats, damage is generally a lower priority for ardents than accuracy and defence. With the exception of polearms (because of Hafted Defence), ardents will normally be better off with a one-handed weapon and picking up shield proficiency. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Polearms[/b][/COLOR]: Reach keeps you further from the front line, and since many powers specify "adjacent to you or the target" reach also makes it easier to buff allies. Hafted Defence is a good defensive feat with no stat prerequisites. Polearm ardents should definitely drop a feat to acquire Greatspear proficiency for the +3 proficiency bonus. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Light blades[/b][/COLOR]: They might not fit the intended flavour of ardents, but this should probably be your default choice for one-handed weapons. The rapier no longer requires a weapon proficiency feat, and Light Blade Expertise gives a nice damage bonus. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Heavy blades[/b][/COLOR]: While it's not a bad choice, Heavy Blade Expertise doesn't really stand up to to Light Blade Expertise. Still, there are some nice superior heavy blades, and if you're going to go with Master at Arms you lose nothing by going with heavy instead of light blades. Sadly, your stats are all in the wrong place to meet heavy blade feat prerequisites. [COLOR=#0000ff][b]Hammers[/b][/COLOR]: Con ardents will not find it difficult to meet the stat prerequisites for hammer feats, and there are some very good hammer feats. Given how much you'll be relying on at-will powers with no miss effects, it's worth choosing hammers just for Hammer Rhythm. [b]Axes, flails[/b], [b]maces[/b]: The feat support is not as good as hammers, and you'll find it harder to meet feat prerequisites. However, the axe does tend to do a lot of damage, and as of Dark Sun there are flail and mace weapons with a +3 proficiency bonus. [COLOR=#ff00ff] [/COLOR][COLOR=#ff0000][b]Clubs, picks[/b][/COLOR]: No great feats, lower damage, and +2 proficiency bonus. You're better off with something else. [/sblock] [b]Defense boosting approaches[/b] [sblock] This isn't necessarily a comprehensive list, but I've tried to enumerate the basic approaches you can take, and rated them by how they synergize with weapon choice. Especially for the scale/plate mail approach, don't feel obligated to pick up all the feats listed. [b]Scale/plate mail[/b]: A starting Str and Con of 13 will get you scale proficiency in heroic, and plate proficiency and specialization in epic (3 feats, +3 AC) and works for all weapon choices. It's clearly the best option for [COLOR=#33cccc][b]non-polearm two-handed weaons[/b][/COLOR]. [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Polearm users[/b][/COLOR] will want to pick up Hafted Defense (4 feats, +4 AC/+1 Reflex), and [COLOR=#33cccc][b]one-handed weapon users[/b][/COLOR] can pick up light and heavy shield profiency (5 feats, +5 AC/+2 Reflex -- or go crazy and add shield specialization in too, for 6 feats, +5 AC/+3 Reflex). If you can arrange to have a starting Dex of at least 13 (which will probably be quite difficult), you should seriously contemplate picking up scale specialization instead of plate proficiency (saving you one feat and costiing you one AC, but giving you much desired mobility). All told, this is probably the most straightforward option, but it can be taxing for [b]Wis[/b] ardents. [b]Shield and chainmail[/b]: With a starting Strength of 13, you can get light shield proficiency in heroic and heavy shield proficiency in epic (2 feats, +2 AC/Reflex). For best effect, try to start with a Dex of 14, which will let you get shield specialization (3 feats, +3 AC/Reflex) or chainmail specialization (3 feats, +3 AC/+2 Reflex). An approach for [COLOR=#0000ff][b]one-handed weapon users[/b][/COLOR] only, obviously. Compared to the scale/plate approach, it lets you spread your starting attributes more evenly across your NADs, and doesn't require Con, making it more friendly to [COLOR=#33cccc][b]Wis ardents[/b][/COLOR]. [b]Chainmail only[/b]: Start with 14 Dex and pick up chainmail specialization in paragon (1 feat, +1 AC). This is only really an option for [b]polearm wielders[/b], since they can also throw in Hafted Defense (2 feats, +2 AC/+1 Reflex). It leaves you quite fragile, but reach can help. [b]Two weapons[/b]: Start with 13 Dex, get Two-Weapon Fighting and Defense in heroic, and then pick up chainmail specialization by epic (3 feats, +2 AC/+1 Reflex). You don't have any real reason to wield [COLOR=#ff00ff][b]two weapons[/b][/COLOR], so the only excuse for doing so is to pick up a proficiency in a defensive weapon (4 feats, +3 AC/+1 Reflex). Feat intensive, and almost certainly a gimmick approach. [b]Powers and feats[/b]: You can also increase your defenses indirectly, by using powers like Unsteadying Rebuke or Prescient Strike and second wind/healing surge optimization feats to discourage monsters from targeting you in the first place. It's difficult to quantify exactly how effective this can be, but it's certainly a big factor. This is really something to combine with the above approaches. [/sblock] [Size=4][b]Ability Scores[/b][/size] [b]Strength[/b]: Armour and shield proficiencies require this. A starting score of 13 post-racial is ideal to pick up scale and light shield proficiency in heroic, and then upgrade to plate or heavy shield proficiency in epic. Polearm wielders might start with 12 post-racial, and then upgrade to scale in paragon. (Starting score 12-13 post-racial) [COLOR=#00ccff][b]Constitution[/b][/COLOR]: Your best choice for a secondary stat. Even Wis ardents will probably want at least 12 or 13 to pick up scale proficiency in heroic or paragon, and possibly 14 to improve riders on the occasional Con-rider power. (Starting score 12-16 post-racial) [b]Dexterity[/b]: Some points in here to improve Reflex and Initiative won't hurt. Polearm wielders might be tempted to boost it to qualify for Polearm Momentum, but it's probably not wise. (Starting score 10-12 post-racial) [b][COLOR=#ff0000]Intelligence[/COLOR][/b]: No need for it, no feats that use it as prerequisite, and Dexterity is objectively better for boosting Reflex. The default dump stat. (Starting score 8-10 post-racial) [b][COLOR=#ff00ff]Wisdom[/COLOR][/b]: The other secondary stat. Con ardents will still want some points here to boost the occasional Wis rider, and a minimum of 14 if they have chosen to be an enlightened Con ardent. However, euphoric Con ardents can realistically dump this stat entirely. (Starting score 10-16 post-racial). [COLOR=#ff9900][b]Charisma[/b][/COLOR]: Your attack stat must be high. As mentioned in the build section above, secondary stat riders aren't a huge factor. Seriously consider a pre-racial 18 in Charisma. (Starting score 18-20 post-racial). [/QUOTE]
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Ardent Admiration: An Ardent Handbook (by Dedekine)
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