Hello everyone,
I would like to have your advice on a type of character I have never created before - Dex based melee damage dealer.
After having read around in the forums for a while, I came up with the crunch below:
Arianna
Azata-Blooded Aasimar (Musetouched) Bard (Dawnflower Dervish) 5/Monk (Master of Many Styles) 2
LG Medium Outsider (native)
Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +11
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Defense
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AC 25, touch 19, flat-footed 17 (+6 armor, +6 Dex, +1 deflection, +2 dodge)
hp 52 (7d8+14)
Fort +7, Ref +14, Will +9; +4 vs. bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependant effects
Defensive Abilities evasion; Resist acid 5, cold 5, electricity 5
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Offense
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Speed 30 ft.
Melee +1 Scimitar +20 (1d6+15/18-20/x2) and
. . Masterwork Cold Iron Scimitar +20 (1d6+14/18-20/x2) and
. . Masterwork Silver Scimitar +20 (1d6+13/18-20/x2) and
. . Unarmed strike +13 (1d6+9/x2)
Special Attacks bardic performance (standard action) (20 rounds/da, bardic performance: countersong, bardic performance: distraction, bardic performance: fascinate (2 targets) (dc 17), bardic performance: inspire competence +2, bardic performance: inspire courage +2, battle dance: inspire courage +4
Spell-Like Abilities
. . 1/day—glitterdust (DC 17)
Bard (Dawnflower Dervish) Spells Known (CL 7):
2 (3/day) Heroism, Allegro, Mirror Image
0 (at will) Detect Magic, Mending, Read Magic, Message, Light, Summon Instrument
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Statistics
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Str 13, Dex 23, Con 14, Int 13, Wis 12, Cha 20
Base Atk +4; CMB +5; CMD 24
Feats Arcane Strike, Crane Style, Crane Wing, Dervish Dance, Dodge, Improved Unarmed Strike, Skill Focus (Knowledge [religion]), Stunning Fist (3/day) (DC 14), Weapon Focus (Scimitar)
Traits Maestro of the Society, Magical Knack (Bard [Dawnflower Dervish])
Skills Acrobatics +12, Climb +5, Diplomacy +15, Knowledge (local) +10, Knowledge (planes) +5, Knowledge (religion) +8, Perception +11, Perform (dance) +15, Perform (oratory) +15, Ride +10, Sense Motive +15, Spellcraft +8, Stealth +15, Swim +5, Use Magic Device +15; Racial Modifiers +2 Diplomacy, +2 Perform (dance), +2 Perform (oratory)
Languages Celestial, Common, Sylvan
SQ battle dance (move action), fuse style (2 styles), spinning spellcaster, stunning fist (stun), unarmed strike (1d6), versatile performance abilities (oratory), well versed
Other Gear +2 Mithral Chain shirt, +1 Scimitar, Masterwork Cold Iron Scimitar, Masterwork Silver Scimitar, Belt of incredible dexterity +2, Cloak of resistance +1, Headband of alluring charisma +2, Ring of protection +1, 150 GP
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Strike As a swift action, add +1 damage, +1 per 5 caster levels and your weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Bardic Performance (standard action) (20 rounds/day) Your performances can create magical effects.
Bardic Performance: Countersong (Su) Counter magical effects that depend on sound.
Bardic Performance: Distraction (Su) Counter magical effects that depend on sight.
Bardic Performance: Fascinate (2 targets) (DC 17) (Su) One or more creatures becomes fascinated with you.
Bardic Performance: Inspire Competence +2 (Su) +2 competence bonus for one ally on a skill check.
Bardic Performance: Inspire Courage +2 (Su) Morale bonus on some saving throws, attack and damage rolls.
Battle Dance (move action) A Dawnflower dervish is trained in the use of the Perform skill, especially dance, to create magical effects on himself. This works like bardic performance, except that the Dawnflower dervish’s performances grant double their normal bonuses, but thes
Battle Dance: Inspire Courage +4 (Su) Morale bonus on some saving throws, attack and damage rolls.
Crane Style Penalty when fighting defensively reduced to -2 and dodge bonus increases by 1.
Crane Wing May deflect one attack per round while fighting defensively or using total defense
Damage Resistance, Acid (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Acid attacks.
Damage Resistance, Cold (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Cold attacks.
Damage Resistance, Electricity (5) You have the specified Damage Resistance against Electricity attacks.
Darkvision (60 feet) You can see in the dark (black and white vision only).
Dervish Dance Use Dex modifier instead of Str modifier with scimitar
Evasion (Ex) If you succeed at a Reflex save for half damage, you take none instead.
Fuse Style (2 styles) (Ex) At 1st level, a master of many styles can fuse two of the styles he knows into a more perfect style. The master of many styles can have two style feat stances active at once. Starting a stance provided by a style feat is still a swift action, but whe
Improved Unarmed Strike Unarmed strikes don't cause attacks of opportunity, and can be lethal.
Maestro of the Society +3 rounds of Bardic Performance a day.
Magical Knack (Bard [Dawnflower Dervish]) +2 CL for a specific class, to a max of your HD.
Spinning Spellcaster (Ex) +4 bonus on concentration checks to cast spells defensively.
Stunning Fist (3/day) (DC 14) You can stun an opponent with an unarmed attack.
Stunning Fist (Stun) (Ex) At 1st level, the monk gains Stunning Fist as a bonus feat, even if he does not meet the prerequisites. At 4th level, and every 4 levels thereafter, the monk gains the ability to apply a new condition to the target of his Stunning Fist. This conditio
Unarmed Strike (1d6) The Monk does lethal damage with his unarmed strikes.
Versatile Performance (Oratory) +15 (Ex) You may substitute the final value of your Perform: Oratory skill for Diplomacy or Sense Motive checks
Well Versed (Ex) +4 save vs. bardic performance, sonic, and language-dependent effects.
Some notes on the character:
- The stats are rolled, so just bear with me :D
- For some reason, I believe the actual Armor Class is off - it should be 28 (+6 Armor, +6 Dex, +1 Ring, +4 from Fighting Defensively with Crane Style, and +1 from Dodge) - Herolab is messing up for some reason;
- The Skill Focus in Knowledge (Religion) is meant for me to take Eldritch Heritage afterwards, and make the scimitar a bonded item - this should be perfectly possible, correct?
- At 7th level, and when compared to other martial characters, I am concerned regarding her damage. It seems decent -> 1d6+15 without factoring in Arcane Strike, but this means only about 19 points of damage per round, which REALLY seems lackluster, as a Martial character like a bard, fighter, or melee Ranger would be attacking for the same damage (or more), but twice per round - Am I looking at it all wrong?
- I could add in the Allegro spell, and double the value above, but that would happen only during three fights per day, and prioritizing that spell over stuff like Heroism;
- The game I am aiming to play in has a couple of banned classes - Paladins and Alchemists are among those;
- I like a lot of stuff about the character - she packs average/decent damage (see my point about this above), multiple decent skill levels (still have to rearrange those), a very nice feel to it (what's not to like about a beautiful, dancing whirlwind of doom?), spells (these add versatility to the character, and further options) - all in all, the character has more stuff that she can do, which usually I equate with more fun (most likely would take the role of party "face" also).
I think he MAY have to gravitate into one of two other roles -> Tank (She seems to have the AC for it, but I don't really know how well this turns out as levels pile - the hp and low CMD will probably hurt here) or Secondary Healer (I think Dervish of Dawn is not suited for that, being mostly a combatant imo, but I guess some well bough wands can help here)
Any feedback regarding the above would be appreciated.
Cheers,
Edeldhur
Shameless bump :D
Enter MoMS at an odd level. Have the Dodge feat already.
Take Crane Style as your general feat for advancing to an odd level, now that monk has provided you Improved Unarmed Strike.
Use the monk bonus feat to immediately grab Crane Wing.
If you should decide to put another level in monk (I wouldn't), grab Crane Riposte with that bonus feat.
Or, if ANY other 2nd or 3rd style feat looks remotely interesting to you, hold off on your 2nd monk level till you have the pre-reqs for that base style feat, then take it your next odd level and re-enter monk 2 at that point, to immediately grab that later style feat.
Also, if you're actually starting at level 7 or higher, you don't even NEED to enter monk to get Crane Wing:
1 Dodge
3 IUS
5 Crane Style
7 Crane Wing
The monk dip is more helpful if starting at a low level. As you get higher and higher...yeah, paying 4 feats kinda sucks. But it's worth it to not lose casting and performance progression. The higher level you go, the more you'll regret dipping out. Especially when Aasimar has that lovely +1/2 level to inspire courage favored class option. (Could be any perform, but...for you it's definitely going to be IC).
@Edeldhur
How do you calculate your to hit and damage?
BAB +4, Dex +6, Inspire Courage +4, Weapon Focus +1 = +15, where is the rest coming from?
Thank you for your feedback on this one so far people - I think I have actually managed to come to a balance that suits me - it is clear now that the builds above are but a couple of options, and there are more than I imagined :D
@XMorsX: That may be very well one of my favourite options - I just think I will swap out Power Attack to the 7th level, as it gives me some more bang from the get go :D
@StreamOfTheSky: Yep. Crane Riposte is definitely the way to go, and I think I am sticking with the 2 levels in monk and that's it :D
As for the single class progression, I tried to build it and it definitely looks good, and quite interesting to play from the get go - good skillset, decent combat abilities, nice feel to it, etc. But unfortunately, I think my character will gravitate to a more "tank" role, which I believe can be best carried out with a couple of monk levels.
@Turgan: Herolab is totally messing up my attack bonus for some obscure reason [and yes, I have made sure to disable all the buffs, etc :D]
And by the way, I have built her with the most straightforward magical gear possible - Am I overlooking anything particularly interesting?
What do you think of Pages of Spell Knowledge?
Well, if you do 2 monk levels, at least make full use of them and don't spend a bonus feat on Crane Style, like I said above.
For feats, I like Enforcer + Blade of Mercy trait on a Dervish of Dawn. Do +1 damage and free intimidate on every hit if you do nonlethal (at no penalty), and you frighten if you score a crit. You could easily drop Maestro trait to make room for that.
Savant trait can also be nice, for a +2 to one of your versatile performances, boosting 3 skills. Definitely keep Magical Knack, though...
You can also look at Osyluth Guile (great feat for a high charisma tank). And every Bard's 11th level feat should be Discordant Voice. +1d6 damage for you and all allies basically every round of combat.
For items...I don't know many stand outs, but there are the very cheap boots of feather stepping to ignore difficult terrain. And the very expensive headband of aerial maneuvering to get both a mental stat bonus (Charisma, of course) and limited flight.
My general experience with hero lab is that usually (but not always) its user error. I suggest ujclicking everything and checking if the numbers are correct then.