Opportunity Attacks irrelevant

[chorolus]

Well the builds aren't completely focused on OA's, they're more just gravy on top of the other things they have going for them. Either way, even if OA's only occur once per combat it would still be worth a feat or two to make the most of them imo.

 

[Stalker0]

Depends on each group of course, but the benefit of retraining is you can always swap it back out if you don't think its worth it.

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Excellent, thanks for all the replies. I was hoping OA's would happen often enough to justify getting the HBO talent. I'm trying to put together a Beastmaster Ranger who has a bit of an Opportunity Attack focused build...still debating exactly which weapon/build to use but I think it's a tie between a melee Twin Strike/Crit focus Ranger using a Double Scimitar, or a mostly ranged Ranger who uses a Zulaat(poloarm-like double weapon) along with Nimble Strike and the feats that boost Nimble Strikes movement bonus. I was also considering a Daggermaster Rogue multiclass with a pair of Wraithblade daggers(gets to add sneak attack dmg to his crits), but I'm feeling like the double-weapon with HBO would add more flavor and be more fun to play.

The Ranged one looks to be an ideal hit-and-run character concept, with a Pet and beast talents, including Cruel Cut Style and Beast Protector, to make the most of his Dex/Wis stat focus. The Melee one looks to be a very nice burst-damage striker, though his damage would be extremely spiky...exceptionally nice with crits but average dmg when he doesn't crit -- and he seems to be pretty squishy compared to other melee attackers =[

Decisions, decisions...any thoughts/suggestions?

From an overall optimization point of view Spiked Chain Training is the way to go You can do that as a Beast Master and now you have a reach weapon to use with beast power, which starts to get more interesting. Also one could consider an axe path, A battle axe in one hand and a hand axe in the other plus the right feats could be joy. Probably worth running it as a dwarf. The real problem is that when you do those type builds it probably works better as a fighter or maybe a whirling barbarian. You lose a beast, but you gain a lot of hit points, a defender class feature, and if OAs are going to happen you gain more extra damage out of it than any other class.

The dwarf in the party I run is preposterous. His AC is great, his FORT is monumental, his WILL is pretty good and OK his reflex is TERRIBLE, but the character wielding a big axe FWT 2-handed and has the +WIS to OAs feat and you simply CANNOT draw them. 46 DPR on MBA is just not funny. Once in a while a monster will provoke, but they just die hard. Surround him with a few people and RoS just comes out...

 

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Heavy Blade oppurtunity also works on a charge, right? If so, it may still be worthwhile even if you don't get a lot of OAs.

 

[chorolus]

From an overall optimization point of view Spiked Chain Training is the way to go You can do that as a Beast Master and now you have a reach weapon to use with beast power, which starts to get more interesting. Also one could consider an axe path, A battle axe in one hand and a hand axe in the other plus the right feats could be joy. Probably worth running it as a dwarf. The real problem is that when you do those type builds it probably works better as a fighter or maybe a whirling barbarian. You lose a beast, but you gain a lot of hit points, a defender class feature, and if OAs are going to happen you gain more extra damage out of it than any other class.

The dwarf in the party I run is preposterous. His AC is great, his FORT is monumental, his WILL is pretty good and OK his reflex is TERRIBLE, but the character wielding a big axe FWT 2-handed and has the +WIS to OAs feat and you simply CANNOT draw them. 46 DPR on MBA is just not funny. Once in a while a monster will provoke, but they just die hard. Surround him with a few people and RoS just comes out...

Spiked Chains do look pretty tempting, but I was actually thinking a Zulaat might be a little bit better overall for my (mostly)ranged build. The weapon description doesn't specifically state that it has reach, but it does say that it's a Double-Weapon *Polearm*/Heavy Blade, which could be debatable as to whether they meant for it to have reach...and may be ultimately up to my GM if I choose to use one. I did read a couple of forum arguments for and against it and the ones arguing for the ranged Zulaat seemed to be coming out on top. The damage is the same as a Spiked Chain(with the feat), and I get +1AC cause it's defensive. It also saves me from getting a multiclass feat...and it works with HBO since it's also a Heavy Blade. Those higher-tier Spiked Chain feats with attached powers do look pretty awesome though...

 

[Holy Bovine]

I'm seeing them occur in almost every single fight, often multiple times, and it isn't uncommon for monsters to be killed by opportunity attacks while trying to flee.

Same here. For really smart opponents (i.e. Int score above 16) I make them avoid OAs pretty consistently. For things like zombies, bears, orcs etc they move where they please and damn the torpedoes!

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Of course, even if the enemies don't provoke AoOs, you might gain an advantage. It means they restrict their own options, and if you work to ensure that a lot of the enemies regular options would provoke an oportunity attack, you can seriously restrict him - or gain an extra attack. Admittedly, spending too many feats if you know enemies are avoiding AoOs anyway is not the best choice - but some DMs might make this decision based on how dangerous the AoO is - how much damage does it do, how likely is it to hit? And then more feats will give you that.