Morning all.
I've been working on a new character concept for a friend to run - its a little different than what I'm used to but the more I play around with him the more fun I think he'll be. The goal here really isn't to 'optimize' the character so much as to make him as playable as possible within the context of them concept.
If it matters, the charcacter is intended to be used for a Jade Regent campaign, but may well be used for other stuff instead/in addition to (so NO reason to move the thread, mods). The idea is a daring halfling with insatiable curiosity who's combat participation is more cinematic than traditional with plenty of opportunity for comic relief without ever devolving into slapstick. We don't just want him to be funny, we want him to be effective as well, and effective in ways that other characters normally are not.
I think I've got my first 10 levels hammered down, but I want to develop the character out to his full potential and I'm in a real quandry as to where to go next. We want him to be the group's designated trap-spotter/disarmer and scout as well as the group's face - apart from those roles he's free to freelance in combat however he thinks he can best assist as we've got the heavy hitters already in place.
This is what I've got so far, using a 20 point buy:
Attributes:
STR - 12 (-2 racial mod)
DEX - 16 (+2 racial mod, +1 @4th, 8th, etc.)
CON - 14
INT - 13
WIS - 8
CHA - 12 (+2 racial mod)
Feats:
1st (Bd1) Lingering Performance
2nd (Bd2)
3rd (LW1) Weapon Finesse, Agile Manuvers
4th (LW2) Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick
5th (LW3) Defensive Combat Training
6th (Op1)
7th (Op2) Skill Focus: Perception
8th (Bd3)
9th (Bd4) Greater Dirty Trick, Rogue Talent: Quick Dirty Trick
10th (Bd5)
(Bd) = Archeologist
(LW) = Lore Warden
(Op) = Halfling Opportunist
I think one of the biggest decisions I'm struggling with at this point is what to do next - whether to go full bore into Lore Warden to continue Maneuver Mastery, gain Know Thy Enemy, get a better BAB and more combat feats to presumably exploit criticals (kukri wielder)... or to continue Archeologist to gain Evasion, additional spells, skills, Rogue Talents and enhanced Archaeologist’s Luck. I don't think splitting the two would result be the better option so its looking like one or the other.
The party won't be relying on him to do anything apart from his primary roles above, he's going to kind of be the group's 'wild card'. In combat I see him flanking, using Combat Expertise, Dirty Tricks, Exploitative Maneuvers and critical effects to aid his allies, but his primary usefulness coming out of combat through scouting, trap-finding, social situations and knowledge checks.
Any thoughts?
At the moment, I'm thinking on making a slight tweak to his Attributes (+1 INT, -2 CHA for more skills), taking one more level of Bard for Evasion as much as anything else and then going all Lore Warden the rest of the way... also, change the Rogue Talent @ 9th to Weapon Training - Kukri.
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Attributes:
STR - 12 (-2 racial mod)
DEX - 16 (+2 racial mod, +1 @4th, 8th, etc.)
CON - 14
INT - 14
WIS - 8
CHA - 10 (+2 racial mod)
Feats:
1st (Bd1) Lingering Performance
2nd (Bd2)
3rd (LW1) Weapon Finesse, Agile Manuvers
4th (LW2) Combat Expertise, Improved Dirty Trick
5th (LW3) Defensive Combat Training
6th (Op1)
7th (Op2) Skill Focus: Perception
8th (Bd3)
9th (Bd4) Greater Dirty Trick, Rogue Talent: Weapon Training - Kukri
10th (Bd5)
11th (Bd6) Two-Weapon Fighting
12th (LW4) Weapon Specialization: Kukri
13th (LW5) Quick Dirty Trick
14th (LW6) Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
15th (LW7) Improved Critical: Kukri
16th (LW8) Greater Weapon Focus: Kukri
17th (LW9) Critical Focus
18th (LW10) Blinding Critical
19th (LW11) Greater Two-Weapon Fighting
20th (LW12) Greater weapon Specialization: Kukri