| Major_Blackhart |
Working on a half-orc vanguard slayer. basically a completely brutal butcher of men. I want to maximize my use of sneak attack to do damage along with maximizing damage in general with a falchion. I'd like to take advantage of stun late game so I can coup DE grace enemies.
But in general, I'm curious how I could maximize his damage in general. Slayer gets some really great intimidation based feats, but I'm wondering if that's the way to go. Deciding on vanguard because of the initiative boost, which guarantees he will go first against all but the fastest.
Anyone got suggestions on how to build this guy? Posting from my phone. When I get home I will give further info on feat choices.
| Secret Wizard |
Take the Sczarni Executioner archetype instead of Vanguard, to start.
Sickens enemies to lower their saving throws, which, in addition to Shaken through intimidate, should lower the DC for Stunning (or Assassinating) by a great deal. It's almost as fun as coup-de-gracing.
| Major_Blackhart |
Well, here's what I was looking at.
I chose the vanguard because eventually, with this and Improved Initiative, I'm almost guaranteed to go first (+1/2 Vanguard Slayer level to Initiative). That's somewhat key in this whole thing. First round, I go, charge the enemy who is hopefully flat-footed, and sneak attack them.
Now, here's what I was going for via feats:
Power Attack, Intimidating Prowess, Hurtful, Killing Flourish, Gruesome Slaughter, Cornugon Smash, Weapon Focus (Falchion), Dazzling Display, Shatter Defenses, Stunning Assault (maybe)
And here's what I was going for via Slayer Talents. He gets a total of 8 slayer talents, losing one to a tactical feat requirement and another to his initiative bonus. Overall however, coupled with the human racial bonus to slayer, he can still get up to 11. Not bad. And those can be replaced with feats via the Rogue Talents Combat Trick and Feat. So, here goes:
Tactician Feat - Lookout (good for the nasty surprise round)
Slayer Talents - Surprise Attack (for that great first round bonus), Combat Trick (Combat Reflexes), Combat Trick (Improved Initiative), Combat Trick (Critical Focus), Combat Trick (Improved Critical, Falchion), Combat Trick (Dastardly Finish), Combat Trick (Merciless Butchery), Combat Trick (Staggering Critical), Combat Trick (Stunning Critical), Combat Trick (Sneaking Precision),Combat Trick (Onslaught)
None of these are in any particular order, so I'm not too concerned one way or another. Sneaking Precision becomes more important as time goes on, being able to trade sneak attack damage for a critical feat on the second sneak attack in a round.
With the following traits: Veteran of Battle and Bruising Intellect, I should be able to pretty much draw a weapon immediately and be an intelligent intimidation machine.
Some of these may be a bit redundant (Onslaught and Surprise Attack for instance) and the whole thing will need to be cleaned up a bit I suppose. But overall, he's got some great opportunities to really lay on the hurt.
Now, I intentionally avoid Assassinate because it's a fortitude saving throw = 10+1/2 slayer level + Int modifier. Stunning Critical and Stunning assault, while VERY late game, have DC's = 10+BAB. Overall, better but not by a whole lot.
I go half-orc just because that's how I roll yo.
Anyway, the group is known as The Murdered Children, and is made up of the following besides my Vanguard Slayer, all half-orcs:
A female Sanctified Slayer of Gorum (Anger Inquisition)
A male Cleric of Gorum (Rage and War domains)
A male Viking Fighter that focuses on using the Falchion and a buckler.
A male Investigator.
The GM has basically told us the whole campaign will take place in Belkzen, specifically starting out in Wyvernsting and going from there. I'm looking forward to this, playing one side against the other, so on and so forth. It looks to be a hell of a good time.
The ragers will all be getting the Amplified Rage power, and at least one of them will get Warleader's Rage for a bonus in range (probably the Viking and the Cleric). The Investigator will be our official party leader, but the group plans on being a bunch of pains in the asses towards one another in general, trying to get the others to submit to them.
Backgrounds are all interesting. The investigator is a bit of a thug himself, and despite his relative genius he enjoys clubbing someone but good. The Sanctified Slayer is a religious nut who views anyone who's not an overt Gorumite as an enemy of the faith. The Cleric is an extortionist who used a combination of brawn and divine magic power to collect taxes for the Murdered Child tribe. The Viking was a slave-born pitfighter from another tribe, but was freed by the Murdered Child tribe during a raid, and is now utterly loyal to Hundux and the other half-orc warlords of Wyvernsting. My character, the Vanguard slayer, was a bodyguard type character and a favored executioner for a time before being chosen to be a part of what is essentially the Murdered Children, Hundux Half-Man's personal group of investigators and operatives.
We've been told that so far, our job is to root out disloyalty and discover plots wherever they may be, throughout the city and the dirt sea region, etc. Discovering plots against the second most powerful chieftain in Belkzen will be easy, and if not we plan on manufacturing a few just to increase our own prestige.
I think with the right tactics and tools, we can be an overall destructive and deadly team. Let me know what you guys think, mostly of my character but of everything else overall.