|
Anyone familiar with Final Fantasy Tactics would be familiar with the Lancer. He jumps to attack, jumps like crazy, is a little slow, but deals a lot of damage in a single blow. Also uses a polearm.
So I've looked around, and there's not much in the way of accomplishing larges amounts of damage with a jump like in dnd 3.5. Anyone have any ideas?
If jumping as part of a charge counts as charging from higher ground, then Death from Above+Screaming Leap nets +5 to hit and +1 to damage.
Maybe go with something like Human Druid (Nature Fang) 4/Fighter (Dragoon) 1, taking an Axe Beak as your AC. Grab Power Attack and Spirited Charge, along with the aforementioned feat and trait. Crank the Axe Beak's Acrobatics score, and hurl yourself at enemies from higher ground (or jump). With 18 Str, at level 5 you will be doing 3d8+37 with a mundane lance. The Axe Beak has reach, just like you, and gets a trip attempt on a charge. Resolve its attack first, and then your own on the now-prone enemy.
Nope in PF you need a Mount to get the benefit from a Lance. But there are several homebrew classes for somthing like the Lancer in here.
The dragoon fighter is suppose to mimic it. But it doesn't come online till 15. And your stuck being a straight up fighter.
the dragoon archtype could also come from Real World Dragoons and not nessesarily from a computer game:)
|
|
Also, no mounts.
So far, I can see that ninja's, monks, and barbarians all get good jump bonuses. High Jump from ninja seems almost mandatory, making me able to jump twice as high, so at least two levels of ninja seems to be in order.
Are there -any- good ways to deal lots of damage with vital strike? Barbarians can do a spring attack with any standard action, for perhaps a vital strike build might work. Is there any way to charge in a non-straight line?
Stright ninja might be good too, if there was a reliable way to get sneak attack while jumping.
Finally, is there any way to get acrobatics checks to jump to key off of strength instead of dexterity?
I would go With a monk take some exotic reach weapon but get the obcene jump attack damage from pummeling style with IUS. The reach weapon Will allow you to get lost of AOOs and pummeling style Will force others to deal with you.
I had a build like this using the flying blade from UC since it gives +2 to hit with AoOs. But a polearm Will be just as fine. And monks are the Kings of jumping after all.
You get the image and the damage, and even get to be fast, but the pole arm Will be for vaulting and AOOs and not for hitting with on the jumps.
It is often like that when porting stuff from one media to another that you have to give up a some to keep some. If you want him to be awesome you May have to adapt him to PF realities.
Alternatly a barbarian or bloodrager with a Big impact weapon and all the stuff that almost make vital strike worth it. Or pounce May be the Way to go.
Also ninja with the scout archtype Will allow you to get sneek attack when you jump charge folks.
I think I read a build once that used scout rogue levels and barbarian or cavalier. Scout rogue for the sneak attack charge and the barb/cav(i want say there was an archetype that gave a move speed bonus) was to up your base speed. Can't seem to find the build right now though. Just built around spring atttack and charging, staying mobile to get in and get out.
It was the closest I've seen to FF dragoons just without the jumps.
I used two levels of Ninja as part of the chassis when I built mine; took Extra Ninja Trick as a 3rd level feat, and then took the tricks Acrobatic Master (spend a Ki point for +20 to acrobatics) and High Jumper (halves the high jump DC). Then I just took levels in Mobile Fighter.
Death from Above and Power Attack is probably where I get most of my damage; as far as weapons go, the Totem Spear is a pretty decent choice. It's an exotic weapon, but it does a d10 and provides a +2 bonus to Acrobatics checks.
Like Eltacolibre says, it gets a lot easier if you have access to mythic; then you can take the Champion path and grab Aerial Assault; between that and your ninja tricks it's not hard to pull off a twenty or thirty foot high jump at level 3, depending on terrain, and that's worth a bunch of extra damage.
And if you can find fights with a lot of trees or buildings around, Boots of the Cat help.
The original 3.5 Lancer was built off of the Scout class. It just so happens that there is a Scout Rogue archetype that Ninjas can also take. At level 4, you can sneak attack any time you charge. Combine that with Fighter (Weapon Master) 3 for Weapon training and Gloves of Dueling, and splash with Barbarian (Savage Technologist) for extra movement speed and great rage buffs, and Brawler (Snakebite Striker) for more Sneak Attack without losing BAB.