Character concept possible?

[Sorrol]

Hello,

We've just had a TPK and we're making new characters... We're all making multiple character concepts we'd enjoy playing...

Now I had the following vision:

A character which glides across the battlefield with finesse, sometimes even teleporting from one enemy to the other, slamming them with his masssive hammer. He's like a shadow on the battlefield, only visible for a split second when he slams someone's head in.

Anyone know how I can achieve this idea? (We're just lvl 3 now but this idea is focussed upon lvl 20, with all the other levels just building towards the fantasy :) )

Cheers,
Sorrol

[Arachnofiend]

Sounds like you want to be going the Dimensional Dervish line. A Slayer who goes into the Horizon Walker prestige class is the best way to do this IMO. A Solar Oracle is also an option.

[Charon's Little Helper]

If you're not super attached to the hammer part of the concept - you could go for a monk who specializes in Dimension Door so that he can teleport next to somone and attack. If you go for Drunken Master you should have enough Ki to do it pretty consistently.

The other potential option is to do something similiar with VMC - though technically you don't qualify for the feat which lets you act after teleporting - most GMs would likely allow it.

[Secret Wizard]

Magus works too. Perhaps a Kensai. You have a good spell list, spell combat to mix teleportation and blur spells while fighting, and the ability to 1H/2H a warhammer.

You could go Dorn-Dergar Master too.

[Imbicatus]

Warpriest with the Travel Blessing also works.

You could also do this with the Shadowdancer, but that is strictly word mechanically to the single class options.

[Dafydd]

I was thinking Ninja/Shadow Dancer. However any of the above suggestions work very well as well. Shadow Dancer is just what sprang to mind reading the vision.

[alexd1976]

Blink Dog with Urban druid levels will grant you Alter Self at a moderately early level...

At least you can LOOK human. :D

Then take the feat chain um... hmmm...Dimensional Agility/Assault etc.

Level as fighter after that.

[Korak The Boisterous]

Charon's Little Helper wrote:

If you're not super attached to the hammer part of the concept - you could go for a monk who specializes in Dimension Door so that he can teleport next to somone and attack. If you go for Drunken Master you should have enough Ki to do it pretty consistently.

The other potential option is to do something similiar with VMC - though technically you don't qualify for the feat which lets you act after teleporting - most GMs would likely allow it.

All he has to do is spend a feat for weapon proficiency, sucks he doesn't get his flurry but he'll get his hammer.

[Just a Guess]

Sounds like an enlarged* quickling wielding an earthbreaker.

*enlarge person would not work on fey.

@Monk: A sohei/quingong monk could exchange one of the latter abilities to get back abundant step and he can flurry with a twohanded hammer.

[Scott Wilhelm]

I'm thinking what Archanofiend is thinking: get Dimension Door somehow, take a couple of Dimensional Dervish Feats you retain your actions after. Further, I second her suggestion of the Horizon Walker Prestige Class.

So,

Sorrol wrote:

slamming them with his masssive hammer. He's like a shadow on the battlefield, only visible for a split second when he slams someone's head in.

So you want an Earthbreaker hammer. And you want Great Cleave. Dim Dor will be a Swift Action once you get Dimensional Dervish, and Great Cleaving is a Standard Action.

You will appear out of nowhere, explode into action with your ring of brutal death, and do it again 3+your Wis mod times/day.

[alexd1976]

I wasn't kidding. If your GM allows it, look at Blink Dog/Urban Druid...

Then the feats.

You can wind up flitting about like Nightcrawler, and flanking with yourself. No limit on daily use.

Also, you can Blink.

Granted, you have to be ECL/Level 8 to pose as a human, but I've seen this played effectively.

[Scott Wilhelm]

The problem with Horizon Walker and Shadow Dancer is that you don't get Dim Door until level 9, and that means no Dimensional Dervish until level 13. Monks don't get Abundant Step until level 12. A Synthesist Summoner can do it by level 6. A Wizard gets the Dimension Door Spell by level 7.

As a Ninja, you can take the Vanishing Trick by level 2. Turning Invisible won't teleport you around the battlefield, but you sure can move around the battlefield better.

Another thought for if you are willing to just move better around the battlefield is to just take Panther Style feats. Every time you provoke an attack of opportunity by moving out of a threatened square, you get to make an unarmed strike as a Free Action, called a retaliatory strike.

You can also just move around the battlefield without provoking by just taking lots of ranks in Acrobatics.

I just came up with a build that uses Panther style feats in this way. It's not really the kind of thing that you are talking about, but I'm really proud of it. It's a Goblin tank that takes Snake Fang, Panther Parry, Roll with it, and Tangle Feet. So when he doesn't provoke, he gets to knock his enemies Prone. If he does provoke, he gets a Retaliatory Strike. If the attack Misses, he also gets an Attack of Opportunity. If the attack hits, he will Roll with It and get himself sent skittering across the floor through as many enemies as possible, tangling feet and hitting people all along the way, like a little green wrecking ball.

[Caryth Derellis]

Sorrol wrote:

Hello,

We've just had a TPK and we're making new characters... We're all making multiple character concepts we'd enjoy playing...

Now I had the following vision:

A character which glides across the battlefield with finesse, sometimes even teleporting from one enemy to the other, slamming them with his masssive hammer. He's like a shadow on the battlefield, only visible for a split second when he slams someone's head in.

Anyone know how I can achieve this idea? (We're just lvl 3 now but this idea is focussed upon lvl 20, with all the other levels just building towards the fantasy :) )

Cheers,
Sorrol

There is a cleric domain that allows you to instantly (as an immediate action) teleport up to 10 ft. when an enemy attack misses you. This might fit into your design somewhere. It's one of the "newer" domain features. You'll want wisdom probably to increase the number of times you can do this.

[Caryth Derellis]

I found it, its the Deception Sub-domain under Trickery

Sudden Shift (Sp): In the blink of an eye, you can appear somewhere else. As an immediate action, after you are missed by a melee attack, you can teleport up to 10 feet to a space that you can see. This space must be inside the reach of the creature that attacked you. You can use this power a number of times each day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.

You can use this RIGHT away at first level. As a cleric you, I believe get 2 domains, so you could pair it with:

Love sub-domain:

Adoration (Su): As an immediate action, you can attempt to thwart a melee or ranged attack that targets you. This ability functions as sanctuary, but only against one individual attack. You must use the ability after the attack is declared but before the roll is made. The creature attacking you receives a Will save to negate this effect. If a creature has more than one attack, this ability only affects one of the attacks. You can use the ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier. This is a mind-affecting effect.

SO, when you use Adoration, they miss (hopefully), and you can immediately teleport to smash more baddies. ADd a reach weapon and you can still hit the other guy. Maybe the big reach dwarven hammer. Idk.

:D

Edit: The one downside is that you need to remain within the initial targets reach.

Edit 2: It is also worthwhile to point out that you only need 1 level of cleric for this to work. You can then continue on smashing things as a fighter, barbarian, etc. Whatever direction you want to take it from there. You can use the Dim Door build after this and be able to REALLY dart about the battlefield. :D

[nate lange]

sadly, there's no grace/finesse build for a big hammer... if you're cool with a big axe instead, a daring champion cavalier or swashbuckler could take slashing grace for a waraxe. that and max ranks in Acrobatics should be plenty to get you started.

as for a long term plan... one level of swashbuckler and the rest in magus would let you do the waraxe/acrobatics thing with plenty of spells for buffing, vanish/invisibility, and eventually (starting at 10th) dimension door, which opens up the dimensional dervish/assault line.

if you're interested in the divine route, pairing the trickery[deception] domain with travel would be a great option (though you may have to give up some of the grace/finesse feel for a cleric build).

[Bandw2]

unchained rogue with effortless lace on his hammer, it's not a two-hander, but he can wield it like one.

[Dave Justus]

I would go with a Magus. The hammer isn't ideal, as a Magus really wants I high crit weapon, but the class does come with a lot of tricks that let you pull off your feel in different ways.

Spell combat to hit, then the vanish spell means you can hit and disappear at level 1.

Bladed dash, a level 2 spell gives awesome maneuverability and attacks.

With dimensional agility and spell combat a magus can dimension door and attack, almost pounce at 100s of feet.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Dave Justus wrote:

I would go with a Magus. The hammer isn't ideal, as a Magus really wants I high crit weapon, but the class does come with a lot of tricks that let you pull off your feel in different ways.

Spell combat to hit, then the vanish spell means you can hit and disappear at level 1.

Bladed dash, a level 2 spell gives awesome maneuverability and attacks.

With dimensional agility and spell combat a magus can dimension door and attack, almost pounce at 100s of feet.

When you are a Magus, you really want to keep a hand free for using Spell Combat and Spellstrike. Your spells are sort of your off-hand weapon.

Maybe be a Dwarf or Tengu Magus. They get nice Exotic Weapons as Racial Traits. The Tengu get Bastard Sword (any sword, actually), and Dwarves get the Dwarven Waraxe, sort of Bastard Sword in axe-form.

Then Magi can get teleport or DimDor in the way that they do, and so it goes.

I guess another way you could do this is by being an Eldritch Knight. Ever since they took away the SLA-early entry, you can't be an Eldritch Knight before level 7: Level 1 Fighter (or something)/level 5 Wizard/ Level 1 Eldritch Knight. You wouldn't get DimDor until level 9 nor Teleport before level 11. And for most of your career, you wouldn't be a fighter who could do a few magic tricks like the OP seems to want: you'd be a wizard with a few extra HP who knows how to use a sword. But still a viable character who can do something like what the OP was asking for and is worth the readers' consideration.

[Dracoknight]

I recently did this concept of a character: Dimensional Dervish of Dawn
You can take a look at the setup and see if you can replicate something similar to your character, but the basic setup is: lvl 6 X Class / lvl 3 Horizon Walker, and stack some wisdom.

[Scott Wilhelm]

Dracoknight wrote:

I recently did this concept of a character: Dimensional Dervish of Dawn

You can take a look at the setup and see if you can replicate something similar to your character, but the basic setup is: lvl 6 X Class / lvl 3 Horizon Walker, and stack some wisdom.

That looks pretty badass. I didn't see any Crit Feats. Are you taking those next? It seems like the whole point of using a scimitar is to take advantage of the increased Threat Range.

[Dracoknight]

Scott Wilhelm wrote:

Dracoknight wrote:

I recently did this concept of a character: Dimensional Dervish of Dawn

You can take a look at the setup and see if you can replicate something similar to your character, but the basic setup is: lvl 6 X Class / lvl 3 Horizon Walker, and stack some wisdom.

That looks pretty badass. I didn't see any Crit Feats. Are you taking those next? It seems like the whole point of using a scimitar is to take advantage of the increased Threat Range.

Maybe, the point with the build was to have a little bit extra "flash" to the dervish usage, the criticals are just a bonus to the entire thing and it might be something i focus on, or it might not.

With Haste and Battle dance you sit at +5 to hit after a single turn ( Move or Swift action battle dance + Standard casting action ) plus the addition of an attack, honestly a "better" build for the dimensional dervish tree is a class with more attacks.

And depending on the GM you could take Outflank and mix it with Dimensional Savant to give you +4 to your flanking and maybe even a AOO when you crit... but GMs will most likely shut that that combo.

[Taenia]

The Unchained Monk can get Abundant Step at 8th LVL allowing the build, with some retraining to come online earlier.

[Gregory Connolly]

Fighter 1/ Wizard (Teleportation) 5/ Eldritch Knight 10/ Wizard 4

This isn't the strongest build out there but you will be teleporting around with a hammer from level 2. You get dimension door at 9th and then a bonus combat feat at 10th to help with the dimensional dervish line. You end up as a powerful tier one character while still being known as a hammer fighter.

Or any of the other good ideas everyone else has posted, this concept has many options it seems.

[Kaboogy]

Take the wizard VMC with the teleportation school. Swift action short ranged dimension door at seven. As for your actual class, taking the UC rogue isn't a bad choice, since with dimensional savant you can flank with yourself. Although that doesn't do much with the hammer.