25 Point Buy:
14 Str, 18 Dex, 16 Con, 12 Int, 12 Wis, 7 Cha
(5, 10, 10, 2, 2, -4) Human bonus goes to Dex
Level bonuses go to Dex
14 Str, 22 Dex, 16 Con, 12 Int, 12 Wis, 7 Cha
16th level fighter:
16d10 (1/2 + 1 method = 96) + 48 (con bonus) + 16 (favored class) = 160 HP
BAB + 16
Fort + 10 (+3) = +13
Ref + 5 (+6) = + 11
Will + 5 (+1) = + 6
Feats:
H - Shield Bash
1 - Weapon Focus (spiked heavy shield)
f1 - two weapon fighting
f2 - Double Slice
3 - Blind Fighting
f4 - Weapon Specialization
5 - Dazzling Display
f6 - Improved Two weapon Fighting
7 - Shield Slam
f8 - Weapon Swap
9 - Greater Weapon Focus
f10 - Stunned Defense
11 - Vital Strike
f12 - Shield Mastery
13 - Greater Two Weapon Fighting
f14 - Greater Weapon Specialization
15 - Deadly Stroke
f16 - Improved Vital Strike
Skills: (2 class + 1 Int Mod + 1 Human)
Acrobatics 16 + 6 Dex Mod = + 22
Escape Artist 16 + 6 Dex Mod = + 22
Perception 16 Ranks + 1 Wis Mod = + 17
Sense Motive 16 Ranks + 1 Wis Mod = + 17
Equipment: (315,000 gp total)
Mithral Full Plate + 5 'Improved Slick' (+13 AC + 3 Max Dex - 3 Armor Check, Medium Armor 35,500gp)
Adamantine 'bashing' Spiked Heavy Shield + 5 (+7 AC - 2 Armor Check, 38,030 gp)
Ring of Evasion (25,000 gp)
Ring of Protection + 5 (50,000 gp)
Amulet of Natural Armor + 5 (50,000 gp)
Cloak of Resistance + 5 (25,000 gp)
Belt of Physical Might (Str & Con) + 4 -- Added effect Dex + 2 (40,000 gp + 6,000 gp (4,000 gp x 1.5))
Guantlet of Rust (11,500 gp)
Boots of Striding and Springing (5,500 gp)
Headband of Inspired Wisdom + 2 (4,000 gp)
Potions:
Haste (6th caster level, 900 gp)
Good Hope (7th caster level, 1,050 gp)
Blink (4th caster level, 400 gp)
Left over gold: 7,120 gp
Adjusted Stats:
Str 18, Dex 24, Con 20, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 7
HP: 200
BAB: + 16
Fort +13 ( + 2 Con increase + 5 Cloak + 2 good hope) = +22
Ref +11 ( + 1 Dex increase + 5 Cloak + 2 good hope + 1 haste) = +20 Evasion
Will +6 ( + 1 Wisdom Increase + 5 Cloak + 2 good hope) = +14
AC: 10 + 13 (armor) + 4 (armor training) + 7 (Dex) + 7 (shield) + 5 (Ring) + 5 (Amulet) + 1 (Haste) = 52
Skills:
Acrobatics + 23 (+ 1 dex increase, - 2 armor check + 2 good hope)
Escape Artist + 33 (+ 1 dex increase, - 2 armor check + 2 good hope + 10 Improved Slick)
Perception + 20 (+ 1 wis increase, + 2 good hope)
Sense Motive + 20 (+ 1 wis increase, + 2 good hope)
Movement: 30 ft (20 + 10 boots of striding & springing) (40 ft when Hasted (30 + 30 = 60 * 2/3 (armor penalty)))
Attack:
Shield Bash + 16 + 7 (shield) + 4 (Str) + 3 (weapon training) + 2 (greater weapon focus) + 2 (good hope) + 1 (haste) = + 35 to hit
2d6 + 19 Damage (4 (str) + 7 (shield) + 2 (good hope) + 3 (weapon training) + 4 (greater weapon speicalization))
Special: Free Bull Rush attempt, Doesn't provoke AoO
Full Attack:
Shield +35/+35/+33/+30/+28/+25
Damage: 6d6 + 19
Special: Free Bull Rush attempt, Doesn't provoke AoO
*** warning ***
Stupid mistake on my part: I forgot to type in the extra cost of the improved slick on the armor. It is included in the grand total, but I forgot to type it in specifically in the armor's cost.
Armor for Benny should cost: 51,500 gp
TWF has a -2 attack modifier. Your highest attack on a full attack should only be 33.
*Edit* Actually, you'd have a -4 to all attacks due to having a non-light weapon in the offhand. Adjusted numbers below.
With haste, and giving up two attacks for Imp Vital Strike, I'd be looking at:
+31/+31/+31/+26/+26/+21
primary/offhand/haste/primary/offhand/primary
You would have given up the lowest primary and offhand attacks to get the extra 4d6 per attack.
What I'd do instead, is the following...
Get a Light shield instead. This ups your attack by 2 points.
Either get rid of the Gauntlets of Rust, and get a custom Belt of Enlarge Person instead. Cost for a continuous effect on a 1 min/lvl duration is 4000 x spell lvl x caster level. Which is 1 and 1.
So 4k and you lose a bit of Dex to gain some Str and your Spiked Light Shield of Bashing becomes 2d6 again.
Changes?
*Edit* Since Dex is only helping AC at the moment, the Dex and Large modifications only decrease AC by 2, no other Dex changes. Attack is unchanged by size (Large reduces by 1, but made up for by the Strength bonus), but light weapon increases TWF to only -2. Damage is increased by 1 (Str). Reach is increased to 10'.
Then you get to have +33 as a base attack (light weapon), and 6d6 + 20 damage.
.
Oh, and if your DM dislikes custom magic items (sucks for your Wizard in the group), just get a supply of Enlarge Person potions.
I understand your idea about the Light shield, but the two weapon fighting isn't affected by shield size, it's the weapon swap feat that's costing those 2 points on attacking with the off hand, so even a light shield will have that penalty. Shield mastery gets rid of the normal penalties from attacking with two weapons as long as one is a shield.
Actually with the money he has left over Benny could almost afford to have the belt of enlarge person added to his belt already... that's something to look into has it would raise his damage by another d6 (3d6 when using improved vital strike) and give him reach.
Great idea there.
I understand your idea about the Light shield, but the two weapon fighting isn't affected by shield size, it's the weapon swap feat that's costing those 2 points on attacking with the off hand, so even a light shield will have that penalty. Shield mastery gets rid of the normal penalties from attacking with two weapons as long as one is a shield.
Actually with the money he has left over Benny could almost afford to have the belt of enlarge person added to his belt already... that's something to look into has it would raise his damage by another d6 (3d6 when using improved vital strike) and give him reach.
Great idea there.
Yeah, 4k for the belt so you'd have plenty with that 7k leftover.
Yes, a Light shield will have the penalty, that's why I said +33 (instead of +35).
For Shield Master to work, you need to "wield another weapon in your main hand". I do not think that Weapon Swapping the Shield into your main hand will allow you to benefit this, because it's not "another" weapon, it's the same weapon.
However, I guess it's how you read it... so it would be a DM call.
I'd still like Jason to clarify the full potential of Weapon Swap and things like Shield Master, or Two Weapon Rend. Are they supposed to work in this manner?
.
Oooh.. now I recall something..
Under table 7-8 (pg 110), Donning Armor: Removing a Shield requires 1 move action. Also, Donning a shield is 1 move action.
This is reinforced by the first line in the description of shield right above this table which says "You strap a shield to your forearm and grip it with your hand."
Since it would take your entire round's worth of action (Quickdraw doesn't work on shields), you can't switch the hand a shield is using for purposes of Weapon Swap.
You will have to buy two Shields to pull this off. Replace Weapon Swap with Improved Critical or something similar.
At this point though, you'd definitely qualify for Shield Master, and only have a -2 penalty on the mainhand for TWF. And with Enlarge on a heavy shield, you are looking at 9d6+20 19-20/x2 per attack.
.
*Edit*
Knock down your AC boosting items by 1 each and you have an extra 36k gold.
And since this could be put on the mainhand weapon (the one you are giving up most attacks with anyways), you could make it a different set of bonuses.
So instead of a +5 (since it no longer counts for AC), you could go with +1 and then a bunch of effects (flaming, shocking, holy). Or go Cold Iron + Holy + Demon Bane/Devil Bane and have some Silversheen. It can be your Evil Outsider DR busting shield.
:-)
Well even though it doesn't could to AC, the Shield bonus counts as an enhancement bonus to the attack roll and damage, so a + 5 heavy shield instead of a light shield would give + 7 to hit and damage. A + 5 light shield would be + 6 shield bonus giving a + 6 to hit and damage. Lowering the defensive items might not be a bad idea and would clear all questions on weapon swapping a shield. The extra feat could be used for Toughness, or Improved Initiative.
The Belt improvement would cost 6,000 gp (improving an existing item costs 1.5 the original price of new enchantement), still within range though.
I do think there are some anomalies within the feats selected that presuppose another weapon, although it could be handwaved away. My idea would be to assume the gauntlet of rust you are wearing counts as the other weapon, especially if you add spikes to it. This also relieves a bit of the strain on Weapon Swap, except for the move action to ready a shield. Anyone else think that Quickdraw could help on this, as it seems to address this, and spiked shields are considered weapons, or can we consider it settled with Weapon Swap?
Taking a light shield would allow you to add Weapon Finesse, and get some benefit, besides AC and initiative, from the high dex, although you lose a few more points from damage, with only one half your Strength bonus. Then again, you aren't heavily invested into Strength. Improved Initiative is certainly a good idea, as well.
All things to consider.
Edit: To second the light "off-hand" shield, bashing makes it +1 for purposes of enchantment, so a +1 bashing cold iron ghosttouch flaming burst spiked shield is absolutely reasonable.
Well the bashing bonus wouldn't stack with the bonus from shield mastery as they are the same type (enhancement) Dumping strength and hitting up the dex with weapon finese on 2 light shields could be an idea, but DEX caps at 24 for a reason:
Mithral Full Plate even with fighter armor training only allows a bonus of +7 from dex.
Also every point I trade away from Str is one less damage Benny is hitting for. Benny can connect in almost any fight already, especially if he has some buffs, what he can't do is get stellar damage out of each hit like a two handed fighter can, so he doesn't want to reduce that bonus damage if he can at all help it. He's relying on that with the multiple hits to carry the hurt home.
Well the bashing bonus wouldn't stack with the bonus from shield mastery as they are the same type (enhancement) Dumping strength and hitting up the dex with weapon finese on 2 light shields could be an idea, but DEX caps at 24 for a reason:
Mithral Full Plate even with fighter armor training only allows a bonus of +7 from dex.
Understood, but since he is doing generally okay, going the two shield route and grabbing bashing on the light shield is mostly for increasing the size category for damage on the light shield, and saving a little bit on making it a weapon. Bashing by itself allows you to add weapon properties, so you could also enchant your primary shield as a weapon with whatever you want.
As a side note, one thing that I noticed about the Lenny buffs is that Benny doesn't have any way to tap into prayer or haste. Figuring out a way to grab boots of speed at least is definately a good idea.
Yeah I'm kind of relying on a party buffer for the buffs mostly here.
I don't disagree with getting another shield, I'm just thinking Heavy Spiked 'bashing' would be the way to go. There won't be any penalties to hit due to shield mastery and the damage stays the same.
The cost difference between a light and a heavy is 11 gp, and once large and using improved vital strike the base damage difference is 6d6, compared to 9d6. Without going large it's 3d8 vs 6d6.
Also 'bashing' isn't needed to add weapon enhancements to the shield: The shield spikes themselves can be enchanted, I didn't because most of the weapon enhancements are traps and not worth the gold.
The best of the bunch are: Speed, Defending, Holy, Axiomatic, Unholy, and Keen.
Some decent runners up are: Merciful, Vicious, Wounding, Dancing.
Banes aren't universal enough to take, energy damage isn't going to add enough to be worth commenting on, and most monsters have at least 5 points resistance to cold, fire, and lightning, especially at higher levels, the energy burst suffer the same way the regular energy stuff does, Brillant energy would be worth it if it made it a touch attack, but most monsters have natural armor and don't wear anything else, Vorpal only works on a natural twenty -- not reliable enough, and the rest are just too specialized.
Now if you could take energy types multiple times to add extra damage on those might be able to get to a point of being worth something...
But it isn't likely and still wouldn't be worth the cost, IMO.
But it isn't likely and still wouldn't be worth the cost, IMO.
What about, for sheer novelty or to copy a certain licensed character (ahem), holy throwing distance returning?
You could throw it to a reasonable range, with Benny's dex, and have it do some damage. Shield Master at least appears to work with thrown shields, although the rest of the tree does not. Plus, it is an extra trick, and more options are good, especially if you can't tap into the buffs.
Those are all very good points.
Well it can be done, and it's not like the build is set in stone. I just wanted to get the full thing out and posted for everyone to see what could be done in Pathfinder Beta with a fighter already, before we get overly excited about adding to him.