Another Living Greyhawk character design question (yeah, you guessed it, I'll be at GenCon).
Character design in a party is different than character design intended for solo play - I am sure we can all agree upon. I am traveling to the con with a couple of friends, one of whom already has a few character ideas. He wants to play the RSoP/S.E. "Liches are my Bitches" smack priest and/or a rogue.
In my other recent thread, Elven Sniper, I built an elven archer, which is designed to have synergy with the rogue. Both of us will have great stealth abilities and so can work together in scouting and attempting to use guerrilla tactics against our foes.
The archer could be useful with the priest but I was thinking that a bodyguard type might be more appropriate. Moreover, a warrior type that specialized in defending his comrades and increasing their battle prowess would be well liked no matter who we play with.
Here is the descriptive concept - a guardian/body guard whom specifically pledged to protect the priest with his life (maybe a member of church of Pelor himself) - picture Secret Service for the President.
The mechanical concept I was going for was someone who was simply a defensive tank - great saves, great AC, great at drawing attacks to himself, preventing opponents from reaching his charge, and somewhat of a combat monster himself (but that would be secondary to the other goals). The class outfit I came up with was a Human Monk 2, Paladin 3, Fighter X in that order. Monks have great saves and grant evasion. Paladins make saves all the better and grant immunities to fear and disease on top of increasing the saves of others and with the fighter class I could gain a reasonable amount of feats to increase combat versatility.
The problem is the 28 point buy. To make a legit Monk/Paladin you need good str, dex, wis, and chr with a decent con as no small consideration. I forget what this is called - something like ability score dependence syndrome or something. With a 28 point buy, I could get Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 14, Chr 14, which isn't bad but isn't that great either. If I take dodge, that leaves me with a 15 starting AC. Fighting defensively with tumble could increase the AC to 18 but leaves me with a fairly crappy to hit bonus.
The tactics of this character would be to use a reach weapon complete with deft opportunist and Power attack to deliver nasty AoO's. The monk grants combat reflexes and at 4th level I could bump up Dex to 15 to get access to Deft Opportunist. The CA version of Expert Tactician would make AoO's even more effective as well as help out the rest of the party. Finally Improved Trip could yield up to a +10 bonus on top of my normal attack bonus for AoO.
The real boost to this build, though, is defensive strike. Defensive strike would let me total defense all of the time and simply use AoO's for my attack form. I could take feats like Hold the Line, Close Quarters Fighting, and other things to increase the incidences of AoO's and as with above, I'd be looking at up to a +14 to the attack for AoO's. Either foes won't approach my charge, or they are going to be in for one hell of a womping.
The problem is this, Defensive Strike requires Combat Expertise - a great feat for a defensive tank type, but not something I can spare the points for to increase my int.
If I wanted Int 13, I'd have to redistribute the 28 point buy to get Str 13, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 14, Chr 12. With no Con bonus at all, I'd be looking at requiring Shield other from the priest of pelor to withstand any major damage, and the benefit from the paladin other than the immunities would be laughable at best. This sort of build would completely rely on stat buff spells and items which might not be feasable. Arguably, at higher levels this character could very well be a defensive monster (when I have the gp to buy all of the stat boosters), but until then, I am thinking he'd be suboptimal. I could throw in two levels of sorcerer to get mage armor and true strike which might make the build slightly better.
Alternatively, I could ditch wis and just go with normal armor. The point of combining the monk though was so that my AC would be effective against both touch attacks and normal attacks and if I ditch the Wis, stunning attack will be fairly useless (combined with improved grapple not being useful for this build because of the reach weapon, makes it a suboptimal choice). Also, I won't be able to use evasion (unless I wear light armor), and I don't get flurry of blows.
The feat list I was interested in was: Defensive Strike (dodge, combat expertise), Combat Reflexes, Deft Opportunist, Expert Tactician, and defensive throw (Improved unarmed strike, improved trip).
Any suggestions?
Character design in a party is different than character design intended for solo play - I am sure we can all agree upon. I am traveling to the con with a couple of friends, one of whom already has a few character ideas. He wants to play the RSoP/S.E. "Liches are my Bitches" smack priest and/or a rogue.
In my other recent thread, Elven Sniper, I built an elven archer, which is designed to have synergy with the rogue. Both of us will have great stealth abilities and so can work together in scouting and attempting to use guerrilla tactics against our foes.
The archer could be useful with the priest but I was thinking that a bodyguard type might be more appropriate. Moreover, a warrior type that specialized in defending his comrades and increasing their battle prowess would be well liked no matter who we play with.
Here is the descriptive concept - a guardian/body guard whom specifically pledged to protect the priest with his life (maybe a member of church of Pelor himself) - picture Secret Service for the President.
The mechanical concept I was going for was someone who was simply a defensive tank - great saves, great AC, great at drawing attacks to himself, preventing opponents from reaching his charge, and somewhat of a combat monster himself (but that would be secondary to the other goals). The class outfit I came up with was a Human Monk 2, Paladin 3, Fighter X in that order. Monks have great saves and grant evasion. Paladins make saves all the better and grant immunities to fear and disease on top of increasing the saves of others and with the fighter class I could gain a reasonable amount of feats to increase combat versatility.
The problem is the 28 point buy. To make a legit Monk/Paladin you need good str, dex, wis, and chr with a decent con as no small consideration. I forget what this is called - something like ability score dependence syndrome or something. With a 28 point buy, I could get Str 14, Dex 14, Con 12, Int 8, Wis 14, Chr 14, which isn't bad but isn't that great either. If I take dodge, that leaves me with a 15 starting AC. Fighting defensively with tumble could increase the AC to 18 but leaves me with a fairly crappy to hit bonus.
The tactics of this character would be to use a reach weapon complete with deft opportunist and Power attack to deliver nasty AoO's. The monk grants combat reflexes and at 4th level I could bump up Dex to 15 to get access to Deft Opportunist. The CA version of Expert Tactician would make AoO's even more effective as well as help out the rest of the party. Finally Improved Trip could yield up to a +10 bonus on top of my normal attack bonus for AoO.
The real boost to this build, though, is defensive strike. Defensive strike would let me total defense all of the time and simply use AoO's for my attack form. I could take feats like Hold the Line, Close Quarters Fighting, and other things to increase the incidences of AoO's and as with above, I'd be looking at up to a +14 to the attack for AoO's. Either foes won't approach my charge, or they are going to be in for one hell of a womping.
The problem is this, Defensive Strike requires Combat Expertise - a great feat for a defensive tank type, but not something I can spare the points for to increase my int.
If I wanted Int 13, I'd have to redistribute the 28 point buy to get Str 13, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 13, Wis 14, Chr 12. With no Con bonus at all, I'd be looking at requiring Shield other from the priest of pelor to withstand any major damage, and the benefit from the paladin other than the immunities would be laughable at best. This sort of build would completely rely on stat buff spells and items which might not be feasable. Arguably, at higher levels this character could very well be a defensive monster (when I have the gp to buy all of the stat boosters), but until then, I am thinking he'd be suboptimal. I could throw in two levels of sorcerer to get mage armor and true strike which might make the build slightly better.
Alternatively, I could ditch wis and just go with normal armor. The point of combining the monk though was so that my AC would be effective against both touch attacks and normal attacks and if I ditch the Wis, stunning attack will be fairly useless (combined with improved grapple not being useful for this build because of the reach weapon, makes it a suboptimal choice). Also, I won't be able to use evasion (unless I wear light armor), and I don't get flurry of blows.
The feat list I was interested in was: Defensive Strike (dodge, combat expertise), Combat Reflexes, Deft Opportunist, Expert Tactician, and defensive throw (Improved unarmed strike, improved trip).
Any suggestions?
