Sacred Fist - is it worth it?

[Malin Genie]

The class seems to have a lot of nice abilities (evasion, uncanny dodge, and eventually blindsight and no shadow blows at higher levels), some minor spellcasting, and good For/Ref saves (although poor Will saves and lower hp)

I play a Bbn4/Rgr1 longspear wielder with Combat Reflexes and Alertness, and 14 Wis, contemplating taking a level of Clr next to qualify for SaF.

While I use light armour and no shield anyway, it seems like I'm giving up a lot of damage-dealing capacity. As a light-armoured fighting-type, I rely on dealing damage to take my opponents down, as I don't have the AC to avoid damage. I'm also giving up Reach, which both gives me extra attacks in combat, esp with Combat Reflexes, and protects me from extra attacks against opponents with Reach themselves

(The reason I say a lot of damage capacity is not just that I'm going from a two-handed d8 weapon to a one-handed d6 weapon, but that the Amulet of Mighty Fists (the equivalent of a +x weapon) costs THREE TIMES as much as the equivalent weapon! A +3 Amulet costs more than a +5 weapon - and you can't get Flaming/Shocking/Ghost Touch etc fists, as the Amulet gives an enhancement bonus, but not weapon bonuses with a '+' equivalent.)

So - is it worth it? I'd welcome any opinions, but esp from those who have played/DMed/adventured with/ a Sacred Fist...

(NB - only allowed Core and Builder Book material - so "if you take this magic item from FR/Scarred Lands/etc you'll kick @$$ doesn't help ^_^)

 

[Pax]

Hmm.

Granted, it's from MoF and not a core book, but a lot of what is in MoF is the sort of thing that should have been Core. Several weapon enhancements that fill in gaps and holes (a non-crit-trigger sonic damage bonus, acid-based bonusses, and the like).

Regardless, there's one item you may ant to specifically ask your GM about: the Bracers of Striking.

Base, they cost just under 1400gp, IIRC. Their ability is solely to give the wearer Improved Unarmed Strike -- so on theface of it, anyone who intends to pick up the feat will have little use for the "basic model".

However, here's the glorious part: the BRacers can be enchanted like a blunt double-weapon, the only catch being both "ends" must be identical. Thereafter, ALL natural attacks by the wearer get the same benefit -- all the enhancement, all the +whatever-equivalent enchantments and abilities, anything you pay for to put in there.

It'd cost twice as much as a single weapon, but it really saves the day for unarmed fighters WRT magic weapons use.

Talk to you GM, maybe s/he will agree to let you use that one; again, it's in Magic of Faerun ... in the Wondrous Items section.

 

[hong]

Granted, it's from MoF and not a core book, but a lot of what is in MoF is the sort of thing that should have been Core.

Mind you, a lot of what's in MaoF is also the sort of thing that should never have seen the light of day.

 

[Roland Delacroix]

From a min/max perspective 3 more levels of Ranger would be better. And yeah, Sacred Fist is a KICK BUTT PrC. Unfortunatlly it has the inherent weakness of being useless against anyone who throws down a Prot from <your alignment> 10' Radius.

 

[Zhure]

From a min/max perspective 3 more levels of Ranger would be better. And yeah, Sacred Fist is a KICK BUTT PrC. Unfortunatlly it has the inherent weakness of being useless against anyone who throws down a Prot from <your alignment> 10' Radius.

Protection from ____ Spells don't work like that. "Third, the spell prevents bodily contact by summoned or conjured creatures..." A Sacred Fist isn't a summoned or conjured creature.

A Protection From ____ Spell will grant a deflection bonus to armor class, however.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

If I were to play in an Epic game, this would be my character.

 

[Pax]

If I were to play in an Epic game, this would be my character.

I once saw someone play a Sacred Fist/Templar for an Epic one-shot game (I forget what the base PHB-class levels were). Bastard had evasion abilities for all three saves!!!