4th lvl. smackdown?

[The Sigil]

Original...

Think about this character. S/he would have had to grow up in Amn or Waterdeep in FR

FR Regional Feats... not Core Rules...

and had access to planar knowledge to find out about the skill, iaijutsu focus, on Rokugan

Iaijutsu Focus... not Core Rules...

Then, s/he would have had to come across a crescent knife - typically a tribal weapon, and trained in its use. All of these events are unlikely, but, hey, according to the rules, they are legal.

Crescent Knife... not Core Rules...

Now, IIRC, the original poster asked for a Core Rules 4th-level smackdown. I reject your character on grounds that it's not Core Rules. In an "any WotC product" smackdown, however, you've got a keeper. ;-)

--The Sigil

 

[XCorvis]

(Note: I didn't come up with this one.)

Ftr 4.

Mounted Combat, Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge.
Weapon Focus and Weapon Spec: Heavy Lance
(If you're Human, add Power Attack to max out damage)

Horse. MW Heavy Lance (or better)

Use a mounted Charge. A lance allows you to do x3 damage. Assuming a Str of 18

Att: +12 (+4 BAB, +4 Str, +1 Focus, +1 MW, +2 Charge)
Damage: 1d8 + 6 (+4 str, +2 Spec) x3 for charging, or 3d8+18.

On a crit it will do x5 damage - so around 6d8+30 damage.

Don't forget the power attack if you're human. A +4 power attack bumps damage up to 3d8+30 and a crit to 6d8+50 (with an attack of +8 - still not bad.)

Otherwise go 1/2 orc to max out strength.

[Edit: Corrected crit multiplication - thanks Dr. Zoom]

 

[Dr. Zoom]

The crit would be x5, actually. You only count the original 1d8 once. Or think of it like this. Spirited charge with a lance is x3 damage. This means you roll your damage an extra two times. The critical damage for a heavy lance is x3. This means the same thing, roll your damage an extra two times. So, you roll your damage, then roll it two more times, then two more times, for a total of 5 times.

 

[FANGO]

Whew, there's a number of wrong things in here..

First of all, Iaijutsu focus only requires you to have drawn the weapon that round, so you don't need to draw a new weapon for each attack. This also means that in the first round you would only need to have one knife out, which means you wouldn't need to worry about two weapon penalties.

Also, Iaijutsu focus does work with any melee weapon...I believe you are thinking of the Iaijutsu master prestige class, which requires someone to have weapon proficiency (or is it focus? I forget...) in katana, and I think that some of the abilities also require the use of a katana...but the skill itself, which can be taken by anyone, can be used with any melee weapon.

Also, the iaijutsu focus damage is applied to every attack, regardless of any shuriken-like rules for sneak attacks. Sneak attacks are supposed to be precise and such, whereas Iaijutsu focus simply states that you must have just drawn the weapon (that same round) and catch your opponent flat-footed. I'm pretty sure this means that you get the damage on all attacks, especially considering that one of the abilities of the iaijutsu master prestige class is to get two attacks with one attack action-seeing as this class is focused on using the iaijutsu focus skill, I doubt that they would get this ability if they couldn't use that skill on every attack. So maybe he would lose the sneak attack damage on the second attack of each knife, but that's really not that big a deal (only like 3 damage average).

Also, bluff does not allow you to use iaijutsu focus skill for extra damage. All bluff does is deny your opponent their dexterity bonus, and though this is the same thing that happens when you are flat-footed, using bluff does not actually make you flat-footed (in the same way as attacking someone from hiding does not make them "flat-footed", they just lose their dex to AC). "Flat-footed" is a condition that can ONLY happen in the first round of combat (and surprise rounds), by definition, and bluff does not allow you to get someone flat-footed. However using the Flick of the Wrist feat from Song and Silence does allow you to catch your opponent flat-footed after the first round of combat, and as far as I know this is the only other way to get someone flat-footed (and it specifically states in the description of the feat that it does make the person flat-footed).

So what the original smackdown character would do is quickdraw+expert tactician+attack, making 4 attacks at highest attack bonus in the first round of combat. Then, if they win initiative, they can drop the first knife, draw two others and make 6 attacks (or at least I think it's 6, I'm not sure entirely how the crescen knife works...) that round. Then, in the next round, they can drop those two knives, draw one more with flick of the wrist, and then get 4 attacks (attack+expert tactician) if that is successful. I'm pretty sure this is how things would work...I'm not all that sure about expert tactician and crescent knife, but I know that all the details about iaijutsu focus , flat-footedness/bluffing/losing dex to ac, and quickdraw and such are spot-on.

 

[Gaiden]

Fango - where did you get the idea that you can use iaijutsu focus more than once with the same weapon after you have drawn it. The text reads: if you attack a flatfooted opponent immediately after drawing a melee weapon. How do you interpret that to mean "if you attack a flatfooted opponent with a weapon you have drawn that round"? Immediately means right after you draw that weapon and only right after you draw that weapon.

I stand corrected on the bluff. Of course, more than likely as I pointed out, bluffing will not be necessary as my test case was a bit biased being a character who devoted every feat to HP increases AND rolled max on hit points at every level.

Believe me when I say that if this character catches any CR 4 opponent by surprise, that opponent is toast.

The QttE feat is the obvious next feat for this character (or improved initiative), but this was a level 4 smack, not level 5 .

 

[reapersaurus]

Ftr 4.

Mounted Combat, Ride-by-Attack, Spirited Charge.
Weapon Focus and Weapon Spec: Heavy Lance

I'm surprised it took till the second page for the mounted smackster to be mentioned in a core rules smackdown thread. ??

Actually, i think it would VERY hard to beat the mounted smack with only core rules.

The damage is 1d8+11 x 4 = 62 points of damage with a +14 to attack

Hard to beat, IMO.

(This damage is based on adding Rhino Hide armor and Gauntlets of Ogre Power, created by a party member, and using a half-orc using 2 hands on the lance charge)

And that's not including crits, because they're not going to happen with a x20 weapon.

P.S. and the REAL problem with the Iajitsu Focus Smack is that there IS no such thing as the Iajitsu Focus skill.

 

[XCorvis]

And that's not including crits, because they're not going to happen with a x20 weapon.

Sure it will. 1 in 20 times, approximately.

 

[Varius]

Sorry, I my computer is screwing up and I didnt see the other mounted attack post

 

[FANGO]

Page 82 of the OA book...in the "combat" chapter...first paragraph of the "Iaijutsu Strikes in Normal Combat" sidebar:

"You can use your Iaijutsu Focus bonus damagein normal combat too, but only when you are attacking a flat-footed opponent and you draw your weapon in the same round you strike."

Like I said...I'm sure that all the details on Iaijutsu Focus are right ;-) The "immediately" in the description of the skill is mostly just for flavor, I suppose.

 

[milo]

Don't you add your charisma modifer to all the extra D6's from Iaijutsu combat? So you would have an extra 12 points of damage per hit.