Best class to do this with?

[Aulirophile]

So I was just trying to figure out some shenanigan I could pull off with intentionally small damage dice, and I came up with Vorpal Glaive+Destruction Gauntlets. 4d4 (at epic), brutal 1 on melee attacks, every roll of 4 adds another d4. So there is a 33% chance per die to add another die, those dice can also add another die. On a 4[w] attack you roll 16d4s+. Whee. So what would utilize this best? I was thinking of a Ranger MCed into Fighter and the Eternal Defender ED, for dual-wielding Vorpal Glaives. First thing that came to mind anyway, but I am open to suggestions.

 

[Turtlejay]

Aren't Glaives Two Handed Weapons?

Maybe do this with the Spiked Chain and the Spiked Chain Fighting feat that makes it a double weapon. Then you can use those two attack powers.

If you are doing this high level, Rage Strike has some pretty high [w] damage values associated with it.

Jay

 

[Elric]

So I was just trying to figure out some shenanigan I could pull off with intentionally small damage dice, and I came up with Vorpal Glaive+Destruction Gauntlets. 4d4 (at epic), brutal 1 on melee attacks, every roll of 4 adds another d4. So there is a 33% chance per die to add another die, those dice can also add another die. On a 4[w] attack you roll 16d4s+. Whee. So what would utilize this best? I was thinking of a Ranger MCed into Fighter and the Eternal Defender ED, for dual-wielding Vorpal Glaives. First thing that came to mind anyway, but I am open to suggestions.

Barbarian's level 29 rage Ancient Forebears’ Rage (PP) turns 1s and 2s into the dice's maximum. Combine with a Vorpal Falchion and, say, Hurricane of Blades for a ton of damage.

 

[kerbarian]

Dual-wielding glaives with reach 3 sounds pretty fun, but the expected damage for this isn't as crazy as you might think. We can describe the damage of a d4 with brutal 1 and vorpal as

x = 1/3 * 2 + 1/3 * 3 + 1/3 * (4 + x)

where x is the expected damage of each die. Solving for x, we get

x = 4.5

In terms of average damage, you've effectively turned each d4 into a d8, so it's like using a 2d8 weapon. Compared to using a basic 1d12 weapon, it's an extra 2.5 damage per [W], which is quite nice, but it's not a huge deal at epic.

 

[kerbarian]

Barbarian's level 29 rage Ancient Forebears’ Rage (PP) turns 1s and 2s into the dice's maximum. Combine with a Vorpal Falchion and, say, Hurricane of Blades for a ton of damage.

Now that becomes some impressive damage (if the DM doesn't rule that vorpal requires actually rolling the maximum value rather than changing your roll to the maximum value). The expression for each die of damage would be:

x = 1/4 * 2 + 3/4 * (4 + x)
x = 14

So the average damage for each [W] would be 28.

 

[Elric]

Now that becomes some impressive damage (if the DM doesn't rule that vorpal requires actually rolling the maximum value rather than changing your roll to the maximum value). The expression for each die of damage would be:

x = 1/4 * 2 + 3/4 * (4 + x)
x = 14

So the average damage for each [W] would be 28.

That 2 should be a 3 so the answer is x=15 and each [W] averages 30. I'd suggest not showing this calculation to the DM if you want to get to use this combo in game

 

[eriktheguy]

So the brutal, vorpal d4 is
x = 1/3*(2+3+4+x)
x = 1/3*x + 3
x = 9/2 = 4.5 damage per die
brutal, vorpal d6 is
x = 1/5*(2+3+4+5+6+x)
x = 4 + 1/5x
x = 5 damage per die

On the one barbarian attack, the brutal 2, vorpal d4 is
x = 1/2(3+4+x)
x = 7/2 + x/2
x = 7
the brutal 2, vorpal d6 is
x = 1/4(3+4+5+6+x)
x = 9/2 + x/4
x = 6 damage per die

So the glaive outperforms a 2d6 weapon for the barbarian attack and only lags by 0.5 damage per die (1 damage per [W]) on other attacks.

Edit: the above is only true for brutal 1 and 2 attacks, the barbarian's attack actually works differently. The Barbarian power seems to change the roll to max, rather than acting as if max damage were rolled, so one could argue that 1s and 2s also explode. In this case...
Average damage on a d4 is 15 per die (30 per [W])
average damage on a d6 is
x = 1/2*(6+x) + 1/6*(3+4+5)
x = 5 + x/2
x = 10 per die (20 per [W] if a 2d6 weapon)
Wow!