| hawkx27 |
here is a build i worked pretty hard on, thought i'd post it up and see what people thought. I will list the full 20 level progression and then compare damage with a 20th level fighter that also makes use of vital strike but doesn't take eldritch heritage because he does what fighters do best and dumps charisma. I will list only the feats and spells that factor into damage for the Flooridan, otherwise it will be too tedious-i have also included the two prerequisites to improved eldritch heritage to show there is some sacrifice for that. the build easily out damages the fighter after lvl 13 and gets 12 levels of divine spell casting, awesome saves and quickened heals. his purpose is to DPS and cast support/healing magic with good survivability.
pal4/fgt4/ora12 The Faloradin(Flooridan-cuz he will floor you, get it?..no not flaura!)
archetypes: oath of wrath/two handed fighter/-
human
20 point buy: 16/15/14/12/7/16(includes racial +2 in STR)
stat explanation: first abil point goes to dex for optimized breastplate usage, 16 cha for 6th level oracle spells, 12 int because i like skill points and put the last 4 abil points from leveling 7into STR)
Traits-highlander(stealth) magical knack-oracle(+2cl)
favored class: oracle(alternate bonus +1 spell known below highest lvl you can cast.)
spells: i will only list important spells to show where you get them. almost all spells should be utility, heal, buff spells because enemies will easily make saves due to low caster level.
gear: greatsword, breastplate
1-PAL: feat: power attack(lvl1) Skill focus: knowledge(planes)(human)(prereq)
2-ORA: battle mystery, haunted curse(gives levitation, no real downside), revelation: weapon mastery.(weapon focus) lvl 1 spells: divine favor, CLW
3-PAL:divine grace(yay!) feat: eldritch heritage-abyssal(claws)(taken as prereq for next heritage feat.
4-ORA: +1 DEX
5-PAL: feat: furious focus(no pa penalty on 1st attack)
6-ORA: revelation: warsight(initiative)
7-PAL: channel wrath(more smites) feat: vital strike(yay!)
8-ORA:+1 str, second lvl spell: bull's strength
9-FGT: feat(fgt):dodge, feat: fleet
10-ORA: 2nd lvl spell: eagle's splendor. curse spell-levitate
11-FGT: feat: improved eldritch heritage(strength of the abyss-SOTA-+2STR) feat(fgt): critical focus
12-ORA:+1STR, 2nd lvl sp: CMW, 3rd lvl sp: CSW
13-FGT:overhand chop(2x str with 2hnd melee weapons)(2hnd fgt) feat: improved vital strike, +2STR(SOTA)
14-ORA:revelation-combat healer!!!, 2nd lvl spell-weapon of awe.
15-ORA: feat:staggering critical, 4th lvl spell: divine power, improved critical(from weapon mastery revelation)
16-ORA:+1STR 4th lvl spell: CCW
17-ORA: 5th lvl spell: breath of life, mystery spell: righteous might,
feat: extra revelation: maneuver mastery: grapple. +2 STR(SOTA)
18-ORA: revelation: iron skin
19-ORA: 6th lvl spell: heal, feat: greater vital strike. greater weapon focus(from weapon mastery revelation)
20-FGT: feat(fgt) stunning critical( the fighter lvl is saved for last because 17 bab is the requirement for this feat)
final stats: 26/16/14/12/7/16 buffed: 30/16/18/12/7/20
smites per day: 7
whew, that's alot of stuff. now let's take a quick look at a fighter of even level then we can compare DPS.
fighter 20
human
20 pt buy 18/15/15/10/10/7
this is a relatively balanced fighter build i considered playing and has feats used for fun things like fleet, grapple and intimidate. still all the important dps feats are there. this is not an entirely optimized vital strike build but it's close enough and i don't want to build another character right now lol.
Archetype: two handed fighter
feats: 1)fleet, power attack, improved unarmed strike 2) improved grapple 3)intimidating prowess 4)iron will 5)furious focus 6)vital strike 7)improved initiative 8) improved critical 9) Wep focus GS 10) wep spec GS 11)improved vital strike 12)greater wep spec 13)penetrating strike 14)combat reflexes 15) toughness 16)greater vital strike 17)greater penetrating 18)critical focus 19) staggering critical 20)stunning critical
the fighter's not perfect but he's good. Now here's a damage comparison chart:
Flooridan----Fighter
1- +3(2d6+7) +4(2d6+8)
2- +5(2d6+8) +5(2d6+9)
3- +6(2d6+8) +6(2d6+11)
4- +7(2d6+8) +6(2d6+14)
5- +9(2d6+11) +9(2d6+14)
6- +10(2d6+11) +10(4d6+14)
7- +11(4d6+11) +11(4d6+14)
8- +13(4d6+12) +12(4d6+17)
9- +14(4d6+15) +14(4d6+17)
10- +16(4d6+18) +15(4d6+19)
11- +18(4d6+20) +16(6d6+19)
12- +20(4d6+21) +18(6d6+26)
13- +22(6d6+27) +19(6d6+26)
14- +24(6d6+33) +20(6d6+26)
15- +25(6d6+33) +21(6d6+30)
16- +26(6d6+33) +22(8d6+34)
17- +28(6d6+36) +23(8d6+34)
18- +29(6d6+36) +24(8d6+34)
19- +31(8d6+39) +25(8d6+34)
20- +33(8d6+41) +27(8d6+40)
Breakout:
--Flooradin: +33(8d6+20(strength)+15(power attack)+2(weapon of awe)4(divine power)
--Fighter: +27(8D6+12(strength)+24(power attack)+4(greater weapon spec)
as you can see the Flooridan drags a little in damage waiting for his BAB to allow him to take the viscious strike feats. The fighter shines a lot brighter at levels 6,11,12,16,17 and 18. at all other levels the damage is comparable. Even if I had taken the wf and ws feats sooner with the fighter instead of the RP feats I wanted to use it would only widen the gap marginally from lvls 1-9.
the Flooridan gets righteous might at 17th lvl, which increases him to large size and gives a +4 size bonus to strength. He also gets enlarge person at 4th lvl from the battle mystery. This obviously would have increased the damage beyond that of the fighter if factored in but I left it out because the fighter could easily get a permanent enlarge person spell cast on him, or get the buff from the group. Being large size is very good for these builds because the weapon damage increases. 2D6 becomes 3d6 for the greatsword. So then the 4d6 attacks are 6d6, the 6d6 are 9d6 and the 8d6 are 12d6, if you want to see what that attack line looks like. I simply note that the Flooridan gets those features built in, which could allow him to spend his money elsewhere. Other than those spells, all bonus damage from buffs is included in the comparison.
That all being said, with comparable melee damage, the flooridan also gets 7 uses of smite evil, 12 lvls of divine casting, which at 19th level gives you a quickened heal spell for 140 hp when you get into a bind and then a bunch of lower lvl quickened cure spells. The quickened business comes from the combat healer revelation. The Flooridan's saves are also quite solid with 20th lvl base saves of 12/6/13plus 5 to each from charisma with eagle's splendor and his normal stats ending out buffed at 21/14/16. the fighter build can't even hold his head up with his 12/6/6 base. Hp is comparable and the Flooridan gets way better skills and takes the best of three dice for initiative. I chose to take the trait for stealth to class skills and he gets perception and sense motive from oracle. He can levitate over anything at 10th lvl so no real need for climb/acrobatics/swim-he can get plenty of spells to get around those things. the fighter however could take the alternate favored class benefit to pump up his CMD against several different combat maneuvers quite easily-in CMD the fighter will be at least 3 better from bab and potentially much better with that FC bonus.
So I think that about sums it up. Any feedback is appreciated, if you want to flame me or something please include constructive criticism. Feel free to run the build if you like it! I hope it kicks ass for you.
Now that i'm looking at all this i'm thinking about making a fighter with 15CHA to take the improved eldritch heritage: SOTA feat. it saves me from having to take intimidating prowess feat, then you just sack iron will and toughness and bam-you have the three feat slots you need for it. why the hell didn't i do that in the first place? aw well, i'm too tired to work on this any more now.
| hawkx27 |
ok i lied, here's the eldritch heritage fighter:
stats: 17/14/14/7/10/15 dumping int makes me sad but there's really no way around it.
feats:
1-fleet, PA, WF
2-imp unarmed strike
3-skill foc-kn planes
4-WS
5-furious focus
6-vital strike
7-imp grap
8-imp crit
9-eldritch heritage
10-imp init
11-IVS
12-GWS
13-IEH-SOTA
14-pen strike
15-tuf
16-GVS
17-GPS
18-crit foc
19-stag crit
20-stun crit
attacks:
1 +4(2d6+8)
2 +5(2d6+8)
3 +6(2d6+9)
4 +7(2d6+16)
5 +10(2d6+16)
6 +11(4d6+16)
7 +12(4d6+16)
8 +13(4d6+19)
9 +14(4d6+19)
10 +15(4d6+19)
11 +16(6d6+19)
12 +18(6d6+26)
13 +21(6d6+30)
14 +22(6d6+30)
15 +23(6d6+34)
16 +24(8d6+38)
17 +26(8d6+40)
18 +27(8d6+40)
19 +28(8d6+40)
20 +30(8d6+46)
breakout: +30(20bab, 9str, 1 WF) (8d6+46(18str,24PA,4GWS)
keep in mind power attack is so high and str dmg is doubled because of two handed fighter variant in APG book.
compared to the flooradin's +33(8d6+41) this build does outdamage it in the end and it does it by alot at lower levels. but still i'll probably play the floordain in my next game just for all that juicy utility and heals
| Ughbash |
compared to the flooradin's +33(8d6+41) this build does outdamage it in the end and it does it by alot at lower levels. but still i'll probably play the floordain in my next game just for all that juicy utility and heals
So basically at the end of the day you have a level 20 character who gets a single attack at +33 for on average 64 points of damage.
I don't think 64 DPR is going to win the competition at level 20.
| hawkx27 |
I'm sure there are plenty of builds out there that put out more damage. it still seems like a pretty fun build to play. and items are gonna boost that damage quite it a bit after all, that's just base. also even with just the righteous might spell, and still no gear it's +35 and deals an average 85 damage. the ac, hp and saves are all quite good and it can rez and heal.
| Jeranimus Rex |
Orc is a better Bloodline for a Fighter to take than Abyssal.
At least, that's my opinion. Either way, there are feats in Ultimate combat that give some love to Vital Strikers that you should try to get a hold of. One of the top of my head can give upwards of +6 damage that gets multiplied on crit.