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When Everyone is Super: a Miniguide to Classless Damage Boosts by Svenj
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<blockquote data-quote="MwaO" data-source="post: 6749703" data-attributes="member: 12749"><p><strong>Something for everyone: generic options</strong></p><p></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Regardless of class, race, weapon or elemental preference, these are the options that every single build has access to. It’s strongly recommended you take a look at these, even if you’re not spending any other resources into increasing your damage.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Some of the bonus damage from these options is typed. Be careful not to take other options that give you bonus damage of the same type. Example: Weapon Focus and Dwarven Weapon Training both give you a feat bonus to damage. The latter bonus is higher, so if you take DWT, don’t take Weapon Focus.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">The listed options are all available at heroic tier (Claw Gloves only at level 10 for non-druids), except for the Ioun Stones, which are also rare. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong><u>Heroic</u></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><u><strong>Feats</strong></u></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong>Weapon Focus</strong>: heroic feat, PHB, HotFL, HotFK. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +1/2/3 feat bonus to all the damage rolls of one weapon type. Simple way to add a little damage to your weapon attacks. Take this if you can't add an element type to your weapon damage, but still want a small damage boost.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong>Implement Focus</strong>: heroic feat, HotFL, HotFK. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +1/2/3 feat bonus to all the damage rolls of one implement type. Simple way to add a little damage to your implement attacks. Take this when you can't turn your implement damage into one of the supported element types (a problem for some implement users), or just plain don't do elemental damage (Monks can suffer from this).</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><u><strong>Themes</strong></u></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #00CCFF"><strong>Fey Beast Tamer</strong></span>: theme, HotFW. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">This theme gives you a young owlbear fey beast companion with a very juice aura: all the owlbear's allies get a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against enemies adjacent to it. At level 5, the enemies also grant combat advantage to you. Especially ranged weapon characters profit from this bonus, since there aren't a lot of other good themes for them. Be aware that this doesn't stack with power bonuses from your partymembers, like the Artificer's Magic Weapon power. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><u><strong>Items</strong></u></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #00CCFF"><strong>Iron Armbands of Power</strong></span>: arms slot item, level 6/16/26, AV. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to all melee damage rolls, whether it's a weapon, implement or untyped attack. It's in a slot that generally doesn't have a lot of competition and gives a type of bonus that's not easily found elsewhere (and a substantial one at that), so it's no wonder even high-op melee builds use these. Take it when you can get it.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #00CCFF"><strong>Bracers of Archery</strong></span>: arms slot item, level 6/16/26, AV. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to all damage rolls with a bow or a crossbow. It's in a slot that generally doesn't have a lot of competition and gives a type of bonus that's not easily found elsewhere (and a substantial one at that), so it's no wonder even high-op (cross)bow builds use these. Take it when you can get it.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong><span style="color: #0000FF">Bracers of Mighty Striking</span></strong>: arms slot item, level 2/12/22, PHB, HotFL. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to the damage roll of your melee basic attack. Less widely applicable than Iron Armbands of Power, but common and available 4 levels earlier. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #0000FF"><strong>Bracers of the Perfect Shot</strong></span>: arms slot item, level 3/13/23, PHB. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to the damage roll of your ranged basic attack. Less widely applicable than Bracers of Archery, but common and available 3 levels earlier. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong>Staff of Ruin</strong>: staff, level 3+, AV. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add an item bonus to all damage rolls from attacks made with this staff. The bonus is equal to the staff’s enhancement bonus. Weapon users should stick to Iron Armbands of Power for their item bonus, but implement users can make very good use of this. Takes up your implement slot though, so you can't use your implement to change your damage types.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong>Goblin Totem</strong>: any weapon, level 2+, FRPG. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Your attacks with this weapon against a creature larger than you have an item bonus to damage rolls equal to the weapon’s enhancement bonus. It's a cheap item bonus that saves you your arms slot (no need for Iron Armbands of Power or the like). It works with implement attacks too, if you can use them through this weapon. Best for small or smaller races, obviously.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><strong>Siberys Shard of the Mage</strong>: dragonshard augment, level 3+, EPG. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add a +1/3/5 untyped damage bonus to all implement attacks rolls using the augmented weapon. You can augment a weapon with a dragonshard to increase its damage. Be aware that this only boosts damage from implement attacks, so you should be able to use a weapon as your implement. Common ways of accomplishing this is by using a staff (like the Staff of Ruin) or finding a way to use a weapon as an implement (multiclass Swordmage, Arcane Implement Proficiency).</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #0000FF"><strong>Claw Gloves</strong></span>: hands slot item, level 4, requires beast form (druid, weretheme), AV2. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">Add 1d10 extra damage to all melee attacks against targets granting combat advantage to you while you're in beast form. This used to be restricted to druids until the werethemes (Werebear, Wererat, Werewolf) were printed in DR410. Those let you be in a hybrid beast form if you're level 10 or higher, which means you can use all your class and item powers while still being in beast form. Because the latter is also the requirement for Claw Gloves, you get a pretty nice damage boost from it.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"><span style="color: #00CCFF"><strong>Ioun Stone of Agility, Allure, Insight, Intellect, Might and Vigor</strong></span>: head slot item, level 21, rare, MME</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'">The Ioun Stones give you a +5 item bonus to damage if you attack with the right stat (str,con,dex,int,wis,cha). They are rare and don't give you as much extra damage as the epic-level arms slot items or Staff of Ruin, but it's still a big bonus in a rarely-used item slot. If your DM hands these out, don't hesitate to take them.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #000000"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #444444"><span style="font-family: 'Open Sans'"></span></span></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MwaO, post: 6749703, member: 12749"] [b]Something for everyone: generic options[/b] [COLOR=#000000][FONT=Open Sans] Regardless of class, race, weapon or elemental preference, these are the options that every single build has access to. It’s strongly recommended you take a look at these, even if you’re not spending any other resources into increasing your damage. Some of the bonus damage from these options is typed. Be careful not to take other options that give you bonus damage of the same type. Example: Weapon Focus and Dwarven Weapon Training both give you a feat bonus to damage. The latter bonus is higher, so if you take DWT, don’t take Weapon Focus. The listed options are all available at heroic tier (Claw Gloves only at level 10 for non-druids), except for the Ioun Stones, which are also rare. [B][U]Heroic[/U][/B] [U][B]Feats[/B][/U] [B]Weapon Focus[/B]: heroic feat, PHB, HotFL, HotFK. Add a +1/2/3 feat bonus to all the damage rolls of one weapon type. Simple way to add a little damage to your weapon attacks. Take this if you can't add an element type to your weapon damage, but still want a small damage boost. [B]Implement Focus[/B]: heroic feat, HotFL, HotFK. Add a +1/2/3 feat bonus to all the damage rolls of one implement type. Simple way to add a little damage to your implement attacks. Take this when you can't turn your implement damage into one of the supported element types (a problem for some implement users), or just plain don't do elemental damage (Monks can suffer from this). [U][B]Themes[/B][/U] [COLOR=#00CCFF][B]Fey Beast Tamer[/B][/COLOR]: theme, HotFW. This theme gives you a young owlbear fey beast companion with a very juice aura: all the owlbear's allies get a +2 power bonus to damage rolls against enemies adjacent to it. At level 5, the enemies also grant combat advantage to you. Especially ranged weapon characters profit from this bonus, since there aren't a lot of other good themes for them. Be aware that this doesn't stack with power bonuses from your partymembers, like the Artificer's Magic Weapon power. [U][B]Items[/B][/U] [COLOR=#00CCFF][B]Iron Armbands of Power[/B][/COLOR]: arms slot item, level 6/16/26, AV. Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to all melee damage rolls, whether it's a weapon, implement or untyped attack. It's in a slot that generally doesn't have a lot of competition and gives a type of bonus that's not easily found elsewhere (and a substantial one at that), so it's no wonder even high-op melee builds use these. Take it when you can get it. [COLOR=#00CCFF][B]Bracers of Archery[/B][/COLOR]: arms slot item, level 6/16/26, AV. Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to all damage rolls with a bow or a crossbow. It's in a slot that generally doesn't have a lot of competition and gives a type of bonus that's not easily found elsewhere (and a substantial one at that), so it's no wonder even high-op (cross)bow builds use these. Take it when you can get it. [B][COLOR=#0000FF]Bracers of Mighty Striking[/COLOR][/B]: arms slot item, level 2/12/22, PHB, HotFL. Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to the damage roll of your melee basic attack. Less widely applicable than Iron Armbands of Power, but common and available 4 levels earlier. [COLOR=#0000FF][B]Bracers of the Perfect Shot[/B][/COLOR]: arms slot item, level 3/13/23, PHB. Add a +2/4/6 item bonus to the damage roll of your ranged basic attack. Less widely applicable than Bracers of Archery, but common and available 3 levels earlier. [B]Staff of Ruin[/B]: staff, level 3+, AV. Add an item bonus to all damage rolls from attacks made with this staff. The bonus is equal to the staff’s enhancement bonus. Weapon users should stick to Iron Armbands of Power for their item bonus, but implement users can make very good use of this. Takes up your implement slot though, so you can't use your implement to change your damage types. [B]Goblin Totem[/B]: any weapon, level 2+, FRPG. Your attacks with this weapon against a creature larger than you have an item bonus to damage rolls equal to the weapon’s enhancement bonus. It's a cheap item bonus that saves you your arms slot (no need for Iron Armbands of Power or the like). It works with implement attacks too, if you can use them through this weapon. Best for small or smaller races, obviously. [B]Siberys Shard of the Mage[/B]: dragonshard augment, level 3+, EPG. Add a +1/3/5 untyped damage bonus to all implement attacks rolls using the augmented weapon. You can augment a weapon with a dragonshard to increase its damage. Be aware that this only boosts damage from implement attacks, so you should be able to use a weapon as your implement. Common ways of accomplishing this is by using a staff (like the Staff of Ruin) or finding a way to use a weapon as an implement (multiclass Swordmage, Arcane Implement Proficiency). [COLOR=#0000FF][B]Claw Gloves[/B][/COLOR]: hands slot item, level 4, requires beast form (druid, weretheme), AV2. Add 1d10 extra damage to all melee attacks against targets granting combat advantage to you while you're in beast form. This used to be restricted to druids until the werethemes (Werebear, Wererat, Werewolf) were printed in DR410. Those let you be in a hybrid beast form if you're level 10 or higher, which means you can use all your class and item powers while still being in beast form. Because the latter is also the requirement for Claw Gloves, you get a pretty nice damage boost from it. [COLOR=#00CCFF][B]Ioun Stone of Agility, Allure, Insight, Intellect, Might and Vigor[/B][/COLOR]: head slot item, level 21, rare, MME The Ioun Stones give you a +5 item bonus to damage if you attack with the right stat (str,con,dex,int,wis,cha). They are rare and don't give you as much extra damage as the epic-level arms slot items or Staff of Ruin, but it's still a big bonus in a rarely-used item slot. If your DM hands these out, don't hesitate to take them. [/FONT][/COLOR] [COLOR=#444444][FONT=Open Sans] [/FONT][/COLOR] [/QUOTE]
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