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Morning all. :)
I've been working on an Aasimar Dervish of Dawn, getting ready for an upcoming campaign where we will have three characters, each representing one of the major good Gods (Torag, Iomedea and Sarenrae) working towards a common endeavour. I get to be Sarenrae, obviously, and I really wanted to build just the best servant/chosen one for her that I could. The results, after play-test, have been amazing and I wanted to put her up here so that the experts could give me any advice on things they think I might not have considered and interested newbies could benefit from all my hard work.
The thought process was to go Aasimar for Dervish of Dawn to be able to maximize the doubled Inspire Courage benefit by using the race's favored class option to accelerate the rate it advances. Azata-blooded was chosen for obvious reasons - they are literally the divine bard - and the other benefits provided were nice. From there I decided to take a couple of levels of Master of Many Styles to secure the Crane Style feats and to shore up my defenses (saves boost, evasion, etc.), plus there's something about the imagery of wielding a scimitar and the Crane Wing style that seemed to have wonderful symetry. Those levels were taken at 2nd and 3rd.
I've been very impressed with the character in combat - she can initiate her performance as a move action at 1st, but by 12th level she can begin it as a swift, meaning that she can literally switch back and forth between Inspire Courage and Inspire Greatness (and eventually Inspire Heroics) during her turn, meaning at one point she'll have +8 to attack and damage on her turn and +8 AC and saves on her opponents turn. Nice, eh? And that's before buffs like Cat's Grace or Dance of a Hundred Cuts. Additionally, she'll be able to cast healing spells as a move action starting at 10th level, making heals during combat actually viable.
Pretty much all of her spells will be of the buff or healing variety with a few utility options thrown in, meaning that DC saves won't be particularly important.
So far in play tests she's managed to best (heads up) all of the martial characters we've put her up against, and has the added benefit of a wide variety of skills and spells as well. I'm really excited about her potential, but I know that the experts on this board can always offer tweaks for improvement.
FWIW, she's intended to be used in the next upcoming AP (which will remain nameless to keep this thread from getting bounced from the forums), and the rest of her party will be a Tiefling Paladin of Torag (raised in seclusion in a dwarven temple) who I think is going to have a crush on her, a Half-Elven Master Summoner who only summons celestial creatures and good outsiders (a worshipper or Iomedea) and possibly a mad Dwarven Cleric who doesn't really worship anyone but is convinced that our doom is near.
Aasimar 18th level Dervish of Dawn / 2nd level Master of Many Styles
Azata-blooded , Favored class option for Bards
Attributes: (20 point build)
STR - 10
DEX - 17 (+2 racial bonus, +1 @ 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th & 20th level)
CON - 12
INT - 12
WIS - 8
CHA - 14 (+2 racial bonus)
Traits:
Maestro of the Society
Magical Knack
Racial Abilities:
+2 Diplomacy & Perform checks
Darkvision 60'
Acid Resistance: 5
Cold resistance: 5
Electricity Resistance: 5
Glitterdust (SLA) 1/day
Feats:
1st - Dervish Dance
1st - Dodge
2nd - Improved Unarmed Strike
2nd - Stunning Fist
2nd - Crane Style
3rd - Crane Wing
3rd - Weapon Focus: Scimitar
5th - Arcane Strike
7th - Skill Focus: Knowledge - Religion
9th - Eldritch Heritage: Arcane Bloodline (Arcane Bond - Scimitar)
11th - Power Attack
13th - Crane Riposte
15th - Critical Focus
17th - Quicken Spell
19th - Staggering Critical
Skills: (7/level, 5 @ levels 2 & 3)
Perform: Dance (Acrobatics, Fly @ 8th) - 1/Bard level
Perform: Oratory (Diplomacy, Sense Motive @ 4th) - 1/Bard level Acrobatics - 1/level @ 1st, 2nd & 3rd
Ride - 1 @ 1st
Climb - 1 @ 2nd
Swim - 1 @ 3rd
Spellcraft - 1/level after 3rd
Use Magic Device - 1/level after 3rd
Knowledge: Religion - 1/level
Perception - 1/level
Stealth - 1/level
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For Power Attack, you would need 13 STR. You either have to take your Strenght score to that level or pick Piranha Strike, which would need Weapon Finesse.
Im also not sure, if the Arcane Bond is worth an Eldritch Heritage. Also I think your missing Improved Critical: Scimitar, especially when you want to start with some "insert debuff" critical stuff.
Toughness is always good for meele characters.
For Power Attack, you would need 13 STR. You either have to take your Strenght score to that level or pick Piranha Strike, which would need Weapon Finesse.
Im also not sure, if the Arcane Bond is worth an Eldritch Heritage. Also I think your missing Improved Critical: Scimitar, especially when you want to start with some "insert debuff" critical stuff.
Toughness is always good for meele characters.
That's some good advice. I totally dropped the ball on Power Attack so I'll have to find a good option to replace that.
The way I see it, the benefits of Arcane Bond are two-fold (apart from the role-play aspect of a Dervish of Dawn being bonded with the same weapon used by her Goddess): the first is an extra spell per day of the highest level you can cast. To me that's worth a feat (or two) any day of the week. The second is the ability to enchant the item as if you had the necessary feats/spells - which leads me to the reason you don't see Improved Critical, as Keen would be the very first enchantment I'd put on it.
I really looked long and hard at finding some way to get a good critical feat or two in there later in the build - I especially wanted Blinding Critical because I thought the flavor would be good (blinded by Sarenrae's holy light), but Staggering Critical is the best option I have given my slower BAB advancement... and its not so bad once you consider that Crane Wing and Crane Riposte would be devastating against any foe limited to a standard action.
Toughness might replace Power Attack... though by 12th level I'll be able to give myself 4d10+4 temporary hit points as a swift action, heal myself as a move action and deflect at least 1 attack every round. I'll look at it though. An option might be to drop my Dexterity from 17 to 16 to get those three points to raise my Strength to 13.
EDIT: As an aside, its really aggravating when there are redundant pre-req's for feats (such as being forced to take Weapon Finesse as a requirement for Piranha Strike when you already have Dervish Dance). Its easy for me to forget about Weapon Finesse in particular because in our game we've done away with it as a feat and made it a weapon trait instead.