Oriental Adventures Weapon Master (Kensei)

[Final_boss325]

A friend from my gaming group was asking me about looking for a class/PrC that could not only increase crit threat range, but the multiplier as well. After some searching, the Weapon Master was the only thing I could find that does both of these. But with such steep feat requirements, the class is looking like it might not be worth it. What would be a more optimum way of getting into this class other than Fighter 6? Must have Orc as a race.

Prerequisite Feats: Weapon Focus (Chosen Weapon), Combat Expertise, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Mobility, *Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack,

*(Although it's not listed, Spring Attack is a prerequisite for Whirlwind Attack)

Fighter 1 (Weapon Focus-Falchion, Combat Reflexes)
Fighter 2 (Dodge)
Fighter 3 (Mobility)
Fighter 4 (Spring Attack)
Fighter 5
Fighter 6 (Whirlwind Attack, Combat Expertise)

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Final_boss325]

Bump. Anybody?

 

[Grogg of the North]

*****Warning: I do not have Oriental Adventures. I'm trying to answer this based off of the books I have on hand. The only Kensai I have access to is in CW and sounds much different than yours.*****

Increasing crit range is easy enough. Keen Edge, Improved Critical and Keen weapon ehancement come to mind immediately. But you're going to need either a 5th level wizard (who is willing to cast this for you), wait till you have lots of cash, or have a BAB of 8 and an open feat slot.

Increasing multiplier is much harder. Master Thrower (CW) will up the multiplier for a thrown weapon. Cavalier gives you an increase in multiplier when charging with your mount. The maiming weapon enhancement in MH would help, but it could also hurt. Otherwise you'd have to be a level 20 fighter in Pathfinder.

Since I'm not sure what your player is looking for, other than being an orc with a falchion, I'd recommend just going straight fighter or Barbarian and picking up Improved Critical at some point.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Unless you're working with flaws, fighter 6 is the earliest you'll get in and it was intended as such. Even with flaws it'd be fighter 4/full BAB 1 since odd levels are odd on fighters unless you're using the Zhentarim Soldier variant from the Champions of Valor web enhancement (which is extremely effective for an Intimidate build, and orcs can manage that quite well actually)

I have a spreadsheet with the various crit levels if you want someone to run some numbers.

It's a bit dubious (because some DMs interpret the to only be usable by the Kaorti itself) but a Kaorti Resin weapon automatically has a x4 multiplier. It's one of the best uses of Exotic Weapon Proficiency because of that. Put it on a falchion and it's 18-20/x4, and with Improved Crit that goes to 15-20/x4, which is rather monstrous.

You may want to look at http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=242055 for more info.

Unless you have a boatload of stuff on crits though, it's better to just get extra damage via Exotic Weapon Master's (Complete Warrior) Uncanny Blow. 2x strength to damage is pretty good.

 

[Sekhmet]

Don't forget the Disciple of Dispater PrC from Book of Vile Darkness.
Triple threat range, stacks with Imp. Crit (for 4x threat range) when using any Iron or Steel weapon.

 

[Jackinthegreen]

Arcane Duelist would also work for a bigger threat range, but you have to be careful combining the various abilities because one of them is mathematically a trap that lowers damage... I don't remember which one though.

 

[nijineko]

psionic weapon master also increases threat and critical ranges.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040827d