Swordsman build help

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Shurijo
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Swordsman build help

Post by Shurijo » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:20 am

Goal: best swordsman possible
Difficulty: Only SRD material (http://www.d20srd.org)
Character Level: 21

I'd love to stay as human as possible and as many fighter levels as possible, but I just can't find enough feats that I understand or like. I'm also trying to stay away from magic using classes.

Now, you need to remember I really suck at combat and spec'ing characters. So please no complicated stuff :)

My original idea of this character was a weaponmaster, knight, samurai, fighter, kenshi type build, but those classes/PrCs aren't allowed, so I'm trying to building similar things from SRD.

Any ideas or critiques would be appreciated.

Code: Select all

Generalist - twf, unarmed, etc.

CL	Class Taken	Class/Race Feats	CL Bonus Feat
1	Fighter	imp init, combat exp,	endurance
2	Fighter	imp disarm	
3	Fighter	diehard
4	Fighter	dodge	
5	Fighter		
6	Fighter	combat reflexes,	imp unarmed stk
7	Fighter		
8	Fighter	power attack	
9	Fighter		leadership
10	Fighter	cleave	
11	Fighter		
12	Fighter	great cleave,	twf
13	Fighter		
14	Fighter	imp twf	
15	Fighter		exp: bastard
16	Fighter	deflect arrows	
17	Fighter		
18	Fighter	imp grapple,	imp bull rush
19	Fighter		
20	Fighter	imp crit: bastard	
21	Epic Fighter		Dire Charge

Str	20
Dex	17
Con	20
Int	14
Wis	10
Cha	12

Code: Select all

Titan blood line

CL	Class Taken	Class/Race Feats	CL Bonus Feat	Blood line level
1	Fighter 1	imp init, exp: bastard,	weapon foc(bastard)	
2	Fighter 2	combat exper,		+2 jump
3	Fighter 3	combat reflexes	
4	Fighter 4	wpn spec (bastard),		power attack
5	Fighter 5			
-	Titan Bloodline		
6	Fighter 6	cleave,	Iron Will	
7	Fighter 7		levitate 1 /day
8	Fighter 8	greater wpn foc (bas)		
9	Fighter 9		improved crit (bast),	titan affin
10	Fighter 10	great cleave		
-	Titan Bloodline			+1 nat armo
11	Fighter 11				
12	Fighter 12	greater wpn spec (bas),	imp bull rush	+2 conc check
13	Fighter 13				
14	Fighter 14	impr disarm,		impro sun
15	Fighter 15		Endurance	
16	Fighter 16	imp bull rush,		con +1
17	Fighter 17				
18	Fighter 18	Diehard,	Leadership,	spell res 2 + HD
19	Fighter 19 
			
Str	21
Dex	14
Con	22
Int	14
Wis	12
Cha	12
I'm also open to throwing away both of those builds for anything that would fit the concept better.

od
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Re: Swordsman build help

Post by od » Thu Dec 14, 2006 7:57 pm

Alright, I went the power attack route instead of the whirlwind route. I like whirlwind, but the full attack requirement is bad now that they have refined 2 weapon fighting.

<code>
1 exp: bastard sword, combat expertise, weapon focus bastard sword
2 improved feint
3 improved trip
4 weapon spec: bastard sword.
5
6 combat reflexes
7
8 improved critical bastard sword
9 improved weapon focus
10 blind fighting
11
12 power attack, improved weapon spec
13
14 improved initiative
15 two weapon fighting
16 cleave
17
18 improved two weapon fighting, greater two weapon fighting
19
20 great cleave
21 epci weapon focus - bastard sword
</code>

Net effect - +4 attack bonus with bastard sword. +4 damage with bastard sword. Potential to crit 17-20.

I like this build because it is very round tactically it works well in groups or alone and you can vary the style if you choose.

And it can be very disgusting. Against a single strong opponent you either feint and blender. Or feint, trip single hand blender. And you better succeed in tripping them, I mean come on a touch attack, without dex modifier...ouch...just evil.

If you are against a group things get down right scary...yes...yes very scary. Ok, pick a guy, any guy...feint against him. Trip him...(succeed! - free attack with bastard sword...yes the free attack from improved trip doesn't say you can't trip with empty hand A and hit with Sword B...in fact it makes more sense to). Now crush this guy. With your offhand attack...ironically your offhand has the sword. Wash rinse, repeat.

Kill some one? Got the opportunity to cleave? Well either cleave into someone you already hit, so that you might cleave again, or if it happens early use your cleave to trip/hit (yes you can do that tripping is a melee attack, cleave give you a free melee attack).

When the round is over they all stand up and you get AoO against them. which are again attack actions, so if you want...hell you can retrip. Then they either fight you prone, or else burn a second move action to stand up...huge advantage to you.

If you really want to make this disgusting you need to drop the bastard sword and get a double chain. Since it has reach, and can be used to make trip attacks. If you did that I'd take the Improved Combat reflexes feat at 21 instead of the Improved focus.

Blind fighting and improved init are just good feats. And goind first is a big advantage with this build.

Lastly, your party will enjoy the constant proneness of your enemies jsut as much as you do.

oD

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Vardaen
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Re: Swordsman build help

Post by Vardaen » Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:15 pm

I'm not going to make the whole chart things, but one idea for a build is to use a combo of the following (this builds off od's concept really with just a slight change)

Two Balded Sword 1d8 Dmg, Crt 19-20/x2
Take all the Two Handed Weapon Feats
Take Improved Critical

You can end up making an insane number of attacks, and getting crits on 17+ (If you could use Weapon Master, where you raise the Crit Multiplier you'd be in even better shape). Or try something like Kukri or Scimitar for even wider ranges of Crits.

Toss in a few levels of Rogue for the Sneak Attack, along with some Imp Fient, Imp Initiative, Imp Trip and you can dish out some real damage. Then of course all the extra feats that just make this rounded, Great Cleave, Bling Fight, etc...

This build ends up being alot like Nirus however, so you might not want to do that unless you want to beef up Nirus.
"He that breaks a thing to find out what it is has left the path of wisdom." - Gandalf
J.R.R. Tolkien, Council of Elrond, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Shurijo
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Re: Swordsman build help

Post by Shurijo » Sat Dec 16, 2006 8:22 am

Thanks for the ideas.

I made a Kukri dex-based fighter once and it was pretty fun with the crits. Especially, on some magic-based weapons that activate on crits, etc. However, my concept for this guy was more traditional sword & board soldier/fighter.

I'll use a few of the ideas, but I need to read up on the multiple special attacks - that's my weak point right now (lack of personal knowledge skill points there).

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