How would you make a Dark Elf Executioner in PF?


Advice

Scarab Sages

Any suggestions to how to build a character like this in Pathfinder?

Referring to the Dark Elf Executioners from Warhammer fantasty:

[IMG]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v423/StoneTitan/Warhammer/Darkelf_executi oner.jpg[/IMG]

Some basic knowledge about them:

"The executioners of the Har Ganeth have mastered their art. When they aren't guarding the city they are away training how to better eviscerate their foes. It is said that the most accomplished of their number can kill a foe with a single strike, may it be through decapitation, disembowelment or a blade to the heart. They are not visibly sadistic, they see their role as a religious duty. Consequently, the Executioners never make sport of their victims. "

Basically think of them as Centuries old Drow whom are spending their entire lives perfecting the art of killing in the service of the God of Murder.

I was considering 3 lvls Unchained Rogue and making the Elven Curved blade stand in for the Draich(Execution weapon)and then taking the rest of the levels as Slayer.
However how would you build such a character and would it be worth it over fighting with 2 weapons?
Though They're not stealth killers, but rather agile fighters in metal armor as the image shows.


Fighter with Trained Grace would probably fit closest to the concept.


Are you looking for the whole "one hit, one kill" angle? If not - an unchained rogue 4/weapon master fighter 3+ with warrior's spirit (provided it's not a PFS character) can be pretty brutal with a pair of duelist gloves, especially if you fit a VMC cavalier into the mix.

Sovereign Court

At low levels, the big advantage for a rogue to go two-handed is to use Improved Feint every round since it won't reduce your offense. (You might consider a dip into Snakebite Stalker so that you don't need the 13 INT and for d6 SA.)

As you level though, two-weapon Feint is probably the easiest way to get it off consistently, though Moonlight Stalker Feint and using smoke pellets is even better, it is VERY feat intensive. (Though you would be saving a couple feats which you would otherwise burn on TWF.)


So, the picture looks like it might be an Elven Curved Blade. Warhammer "Dark Elves" sounds like Drow, but neither need be the case.

The things that stick out for me about the Elven Curved Blade are that it's a big high-damage, 2 handed weapon with a threat range of 18-20.

To me, that says Great Cleave, Improved Crit, Combat Reflexes, and Outflank with some other kind of class ability that unlocks Teamwork Feats. I'm thinking at least 2 levels in Fighter with the Eldritch Guardian Archetype, granting you a Familiar with the Mauler Archetype, and you will have a Flanking buddy who knows all the Combat Feats you know. So then you also might as well take Bodyguard, Paired Opportunist, and Broken Wing Gambit. Also take Crit Focus and some other of those wicked Crit Focus Feats.

If you take even 1 level in Ranger, you would be able to use a Wand of Lead Blades, which would cause your Elven Curved Blade to inflict damage as if it were 1 size bigger: 2d8.

Great Cleave is for when you are attacking crowds of people. For Single opponents, you want Vital Strike, which won't interfere with all those lovely attacks of opportunity, although I don't think they stack with it.

So lots of attacks/round with lots of damage/attack, critting nearly 30% of the time.


Warhammer Dark Elves are pretty much indistinguishable from regular High/Wood Elves. They are called "Dark Elves" because they turned to evil when Malakith was burned trying to take over the Phoenix Throne.

Or something like that ... my Warhammer history is lacking of late.

For simplicity sake, I would go Two Handed Fighter utilizing the Vital Strike feat line, Power Attack, Weapon Specialization.


Okay, I dont know if any of the you familiar with them.

The Dark Elf Executioners are What It says On The Tin. They function as a regiment of semi-elite soldiers using two-handed swords capable of randomly decipitation. The decapitation isnt really useful as they usually have already hit and killed the target.

Vorpal weapon function most accurately as it decapitates.

In practical gameplay terms, the feats Power Attack and Vital Strike can both be combined with two-handed weapons for increased damage. a Nodachi is a two-handed sword with a high critical strike chance which can be raised even higher with the feat Improved Critical.
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Elves do not make the best Warriors as they do not give a bonus to strength, which governs both the chance to hit and damage, and take a penalty to constitution, which governs durability.

If youve ever played warhammer this would be the equivalent of making elves weapon skill 2 strength 2 and toughness 2 compared to humans with 3 in those stats.


Nothing about their description or look strikes me as "agile". They sound like just straight up damage dealers, though they are described as being able to kill with one blow. The two mains ways of doing that are Vital Strike with big 2-handed weapons or using an ability like Assassinate like that from Assassin, Rogue, Ninja, Slayer, etc.

The first route seems more fitting to me, and can be pulled off with just a basic Fighter and some liberal use of Advanced Weapon/Armor Training. Slayer would probably let you combine the two, though you wouldn't be quite as good with armor, and would end up wanting to boost Int to maximize the DC for Assassinate.


Vital Strike without using a really massive weapon (greatsword < oversized bastard sword < oversized greatsword Titan Fighter) is kind of a waste, since it's literally all about the damage dice.

The only way to really maximize the Vital Strike line of skills is with some kind of Rage cycling and the Furious Finish ability. Some combination of Oracle and Barbarian can set that up fairly easily, as can having at least 2 levels of Scarred Rager. You don't need much Barbarian to do it; you can take a bit of Barbarian with some Extra Rage and then focus on something like Weapon Master.

Another mechanic for a really heavy single hit would be to take four levels of Rogue or Ninja that grant access to Vanishing Trick and 2d6 Sneak Attack, add Accomplished Sneak Attacker for another 1d6, and then combine it with a typical melee master; using Vanishing Trick before striking guarantees that you'll add the whole 3d6. Assuming you can use the Scout Archetype with a Ninja (the answer seems to officially be yes, but it's not really clear), then you can also automatically get Sneak damage on a charge as well.

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