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How Would You Make the Greatest Swordsman Ever?
- Thread starter Oni
- Start date
Jeremy said:
This is pretty off-topic, but I just wanted to acknowledge that the Song of Fire and Ice series is one the most intriguing set of fantasy writing ever. I used to hate political intrigue before reading this series.
Alright, continue with Das Uber Swordsman...
*used to play a female elven kensai of the wakazashis*
Jeremy
Explorer
*Continuing the tangent like the naughty monkey he is..*
Yeah, who'd have thought politics could hold so much interest.
Give Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince/Dragon Star trilogies a shot while you're waiting for more Martin. Politics, betrayals, but also large and small scale and HUGE scale warfare with lots of memorable characters.
Yeah, who'd have thought politics could hold so much interest.
Give Melanie Rawn's Dragon Prince/Dragon Star trilogies a shot while you're waiting for more Martin. Politics, betrayals, but also large and small scale and HUGE scale warfare with lots of memorable characters.
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The Souljourner
First Post
Both series are awesome. I'm actually thinking of making a character like Syrio Forel (at least like the man we know him to be so far, we may learn more of him later). Basically what I want is an unarmored master swordsman. Looking at the classes this is what I came up with:
Monk 1
Figher 1-4
Monk 2
Ranger 1
Ninja of the Crescent Moon 1-3
Duelist 1-10
You end up with 19 BAB, and can apply your dex, int, and wisdom to AC. Let me justify a couple choices - ranger is so that you can make offhand attacks with your bare hand (thanks to monk levels) or as a kick or whatever. Ninja of the Crescent Moon kind of gives that mysterious background feel, like "I was a member of the Braavos" and also it's pretty much just plain better than 3 levels of fighter at this point (loss of 1 feat for 2d6 sneak attack, +3 to all saves, and improved evasion). And the prerequisites are easy, except for Quickdraw, which fits in with the character concept anyway.
The skill ranks required for ninja of the crescent moon are really tight, but doable for a human with 12 intelligence (that gives you 4 skillpoints per level as a fighter, which you can turn into +1 hide and move silently each level)
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike*, Deflect Arrows*, Ambidexterity*, Two Weapon Fighting*, Track*, Weapon Focus: Rapier, Weapon Specialization: Rapier, Quickdraw, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse: Rapier, Power Attack, Improved Initiative.. and two more of one flavor or another. (* denotes free feats)
Special Abilities: +2d6 sneak attack, evasion, improved evasion, +3d6 precise strike, assorted other stuff.
The only thing I really wish I could give the character is the first two levels of uncanny dodge. Unfortunately that's a real b*tch to get. You need 6 levels of rogue to do it (or 5 of barbarian (why do they get it earlier?) but that doesn't even come close to fitting the character concept), which means you're sucking up two levels of +0 BAB. Add in the monk level and that's 3.
Any thoughts? Any suggestions on how to make this guy better? He's pretty well min/maxed right now, but perhaps someone knows something to make him even moreso.
-The Souljourner
Monk 1
Figher 1-4
Monk 2
Ranger 1
Ninja of the Crescent Moon 1-3
Duelist 1-10
You end up with 19 BAB, and can apply your dex, int, and wisdom to AC. Let me justify a couple choices - ranger is so that you can make offhand attacks with your bare hand (thanks to monk levels) or as a kick or whatever. Ninja of the Crescent Moon kind of gives that mysterious background feel, like "I was a member of the Braavos" and also it's pretty much just plain better than 3 levels of fighter at this point (loss of 1 feat for 2d6 sneak attack, +3 to all saves, and improved evasion). And the prerequisites are easy, except for Quickdraw, which fits in with the character concept anyway.
The skill ranks required for ninja of the crescent moon are really tight, but doable for a human with 12 intelligence (that gives you 4 skillpoints per level as a fighter, which you can turn into +1 hide and move silently each level)
Feats: Improved Unarmed Strike*, Deflect Arrows*, Ambidexterity*, Two Weapon Fighting*, Track*, Weapon Focus: Rapier, Weapon Specialization: Rapier, Quickdraw, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Weapon Finesse: Rapier, Power Attack, Improved Initiative.. and two more of one flavor or another. (* denotes free feats)
Special Abilities: +2d6 sneak attack, evasion, improved evasion, +3d6 precise strike, assorted other stuff.
The only thing I really wish I could give the character is the first two levels of uncanny dodge. Unfortunately that's a real b*tch to get. You need 6 levels of rogue to do it (or 5 of barbarian (why do they get it earlier?) but that doesn't even come close to fitting the character concept), which means you're sucking up two levels of +0 BAB. Add in the monk level and that's 3.
Any thoughts? Any suggestions on how to make this guy better? He's pretty well min/maxed right now, but perhaps someone knows something to make him even moreso.
-The Souljourner
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Spatzimaus
First Post
In response to the last few people: it's not the "Greatest Ever", but one option for the unarmored swordsman is to look at the Wizards.com website archives. Specifically, the Mindknight prestige class, and the psionic Feats they've also got in their archive.
I tried modifying one of my characters to use them, and now she's scary; she uses Inertial Armor, Improved Inertial Armor, one or two Monk levels, 8 Psychic Warrior levels, then Mindknight the rest of the way. Her AC is comparable to all the armor-wearing people, without the need for actual armor.
(Saves are insane too: at level 13, she's Fortitude +22, Reflex +14 with Evasion, Will +14 and immune to mind-affecting spells)
Psychic warriors have some great combat powers at lower levels; defensive powers like Vigor (note it's errata'd), Deflection, Improved Biofeedback, Inertial Barrier, Combat Precognition; Animal Affinity, Polymorph Self, and Combat Prescience for offense, and the new Reach power. Vigilance is a great utility power, too. All those "1 hour per caster level" spells really become nice once your caster level gets high.
Maybe you'd get more power out of the unarmed combat style if you worked on that, but it's just great to have a swordsman who doesn't need armor for a good AC, can still fight decently without a weapon.
I tried modifying one of my characters to use them, and now she's scary; she uses Inertial Armor, Improved Inertial Armor, one or two Monk levels, 8 Psychic Warrior levels, then Mindknight the rest of the way. Her AC is comparable to all the armor-wearing people, without the need for actual armor.
(Saves are insane too: at level 13, she's Fortitude +22, Reflex +14 with Evasion, Will +14 and immune to mind-affecting spells)
Psychic warriors have some great combat powers at lower levels; defensive powers like Vigor (note it's errata'd), Deflection, Improved Biofeedback, Inertial Barrier, Combat Precognition; Animal Affinity, Polymorph Self, and Combat Prescience for offense, and the new Reach power. Vigilance is a great utility power, too. All those "1 hour per caster level" spells really become nice once your caster level gets high.
Maybe you'd get more power out of the unarmed combat style if you worked on that, but it's just great to have a swordsman who doesn't need armor for a good AC, can still fight decently without a weapon.
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