Been looking through the Beastmass Challenge and I decided I wanted to take it up and see if my min maxing skills were up to snuff.
Character: Ray Skyhawke, a human paladin returning from a quest in the Plane of Shadow
Human Chosen One Paladin (VMC Sorcerer- Orc Bloodline)
20 point buy
14 14 14 12 8 16
After adjustments
30 24 20 14 14 28
Traits: Extremely Fashionable; Seeker
L 1) Noble Scion-War; Fey Foundling
L 3) Touch of Rage
L 5) Improved Initiative
L 7) Fearless
L 9) Unsanctioned Knowledge
L11) Power Attack
L13) Quicken Spell-Like Ability (Touch of Rage)
L15) Strength of the Beast
L17) Improved Critical- Falcata
L19) Power of Giants
Wayfinder) Weapon Focus - Falcata
Wealth (880,000)- Tome of Leadership and Influence +5 (137,500); Belt of Physical Perfection +6 (144,000); Headband of Mental Prowess WIS/CHA (90,000); Scarlet and Blue Sphere keyed to Fly (8,000); Amulet of Natural Armor +5 (50,000); Cracked Opalescent White Pyramid (1,500); Wayfinder (500); Armor of the Celestial Host (132,000); Cloak of Resistance +5 (25,000); Custom Holy Avenger Falcata (120,633); Ring of Evasion (25,000); Manual of Quickness of Action +4 (110,000); Bracers of the Avenging Knight (11,500); Dusty Rose Prisms whole and cracked (5,500); Handy Haversack (2,000); Paladin's Kit (11); Shield of the Sun (artifact); Assumed rest of wealth invested into retraining hit points to maximum, around 17,000 gp.
Statblock Proper
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LG medium humanoid (human) paladin 20
init +20 senses Perception +26
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AC 43, 18 touch, 36 flat footed (11 armor, 7 shield, 7 DEX, 7 natural, 1 insight)
HP 320; Lay on Hands 70
Fort +31 Reflex +27 Will +28
DR 10/evil; immune charm, compulsion, disease, fear; SR 25
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speed 30; fly 60 (good)
melee Holy Avenger +41/36/31/26 (d8+20+2d6 holy/17-20x3)
melee Two Handed (d8+27+2d6 holy/17-20x3)
melee Power Attack +35/30/25/20 (d8+38+2d6 holy/17-20x3)
melee Two Handed Power Attack (d8+45+2d6 holy/17-20x3)
Special Attacks channel positive energy (DC 29, 60), smite evil 7/day (+9 attack and AC, +24 damage, banish evil outsiders)
Paladin Spell-Like Abilities (CL 20th; concentration +29)
At will—detect evil
12/day-touch of rage
20 minutes/day-power of giants
Paladin Spells Prepared (CL 17th; concentration +26, +22)
4th—divine power (5), greater angelic aspect (2), eaglesoul (2)
3rd—haste (6), daylight (2), litany of escape (3)
2nd—litany of righteousness (10), bladed dash (1)
1st—hero's defiance (8), shield of faith (5)
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Str 30 Dex 24 Con 20 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 28
BAB +20 CMB +35 CMD 53
Feats Noble Scion (War), Improved Initative, Power Attack, Unsanctioned Knowledge, Fey Foundling, Improved Critical, Quicken Spell-Like Ability
Skills Diplomacy +33; Fly +26; Intimidate +33; Perception +26; Spellcraft +25
SQaura, code of conduct, compsognathus(silvanshee) familiar, holy champion, lay on hands (60 points, 19/day), mercies (dazed, nauseated, poisoned, sickened, staggered, stunned)
Tactically, Ray knows when he needs his defenses up, and it's not often. Normally he is using his falcata in two hands to maximize his damaging potential, and he fully employs his Power Attack feat for full effect.
The gap is closed by the second round, and smiting this thing isn't possible, we are going to have to rely on brute force to take it down. Ray hears this loud cacophony but it has absolutely no effect on him. A single charge while flying gets us right up to this sucker, and puts a serious dent into him of around 40 damage.
Shog strikes back, with 4 slams dealing out what ends up being 32 damage. He needs a 14 or better on the die to grapple, 15 if Haste is there. Very difficult roll to make.
Per beastmass rules, crits come in about every 4 hits for the falcata's range, meaning we get one every other round assuming we are power attacking. Ray uses his touch of rage power and cuts right into the shog, scoring 4 massive hits and a critical before it can even respond. Assuming average damage of 4.5 on the die puts out 370 damage after DR when power attacking, slaughtering the shog.
A single use of Lay on Hands puts Ray back into almost perfect fighting condition.
Best option is to try and go after the buffs like Eaglesoul, he gets it.
We come to initiative time, again no contest. It's pretty clear that a smite is being used here today, resulting in that balor crying like a little girl. Bladed Dash puts us right next to him, and hits him for an astronomical amount of damage (upwards of 100 damage in a single hit).
44 AC when smiting means the balor can't touch Ray, his Unholy Aura is his only hope to last any longer against this foe.
It doesn't help, Ray blasts through the protective aura and uses one of his many prepared Litany of Righteousness spells to double his prospective damage this turn, which includes a critical on the second hit, quadrupling his damage and slicing the balor into pieces.
Since he still has one prepared, Ray casts another Eaglesoul and proceeds.
Knowing that paladin's typically have bad reflexes, it launches its line of acid straight at Ray. He evades effortlessly since he only needs a 5.
Being over 100 feet away means we need to be able to move in, and fast. Ray declares his smite and then casts Haste, to give him the speed he needs. He can then fly right up to the damn thing.
Needing a 14 or better, the drake cannot touch him per the rules of beastmass, but let's allow him to get a shot in anyway, because we're nice. 18 damage and Ray literally cannot fail his Fort save against the poison.
Even if smite didn't bypass the DR, our falcata is made of cold iron meaning we can cut this thing down easily. Litany of Righteousness comes online, and by the third hit this turn we trigger another crit and end this thing. That's not all though!!! We have to worry about that Death Curse!!! LOL no we don't, we pass on a 2 because 1's autofail.
Ray goes first, even if he rolls a 1 and the dragon rolls a 20.
Keep your distance, and buff. We'll need Divine Power and Shield of Faith to both be active for this fight. Draw your shield, we need it.
The dragon doesn't know why we're fighting either, but it follows suit, in the most terrifying way possible. Mage Armor, Shield, and Shield of Faith give this thing 51 AC. This won't be a cake walk.
Ray moves in, having Spellcrafted the spells cast, he knows those defensive buffs are up and that he needs to be rid of them. He pops Eaglesoul, gaining a boost to AC and strength. Now it's time to unleash our Avenger's GDM effect, getting one of the Ancient's buffs, dropping his AC to 47.
The Ancient does not want to play this game, getting into petty dispel wars. He knows that the paladin won't be hurt by his fire aura, thanks to eaglesoul, so he has to come up with an alternative plan. He launches his breath weapon, having full knowledge that it may not work.
It doesn't, Ray evades on a 4, and prepares to go in 5ft and full on attack. Thanks to Divine Power and Eaglesoul, we can swing without Power Attack going, and hit on 4 out of five attacks, triggering a critical hit every round, averaging out at about 150 damage per round.
Gold has to be smart, can't afford too much more of that noise. He targets and greater dispels, after 5 foot stepping back. He can get up to three spells, Divine Power and Eaglesoul go first, followed by Shield of Faith, we're in trouble...
It's time to get serious, Power of Giants activates, and brings us up bigger than before, and puts us right in front of the beast, with a 10 ft reach so he can no longer hide from us to cast by 5ft stepping.
That extra 40 HP matters, a lot because is not much he can do other than take a move action to get out of the way, taking a single attack of opportunity in doing so, and about 20 damage.
Smart move, but now our dragon friend decides to head in and attack full force, doing another 20 points.
He's right where we wanted him. Since we know he hasn't bothered to take a turn to heal, as it would give us a turn to buff as well, we can now go all out and we quicken Touch of Rage and drop our shield to go all in on a full attack. Thanks to the combination of our orc bloodline powers, we easily hit on all five attacks, triggering a critical and felling the beast.
A single Lay on Hands gets us back to full health and we now have to get ready for an even more nonsensical fight.
Descending upon him is the Solar, and angel sent to defeat the slayer of the gold dragon and this is where it gets sad. On one knee, painful tear in his eye, Ray offers his life to the Solar without a fight.
The Solar draws his bow but before launching his slaying arrow, he asks the young paladin what he intends to do once he has entered the afterlife and can no longer gain access to Heaven. "I don't know, I never thought in a thousand years that this is how it would end."
The solar sees in Ray the ideals of true repentance, and drops his bow, instead using his Wish to cast the spell Atonement, restoring Ray to glory and informing him that his toughest fight is yet to come.
This reminds me of a 'playtest' in which a certain board member 'proved' how broken a class was because he was able to run himself through a module solo using all average rolls (except when he could succeed despite higher rolls).
Knowing your opposition, prepping for it, assuming average rolls, and (most importantly) running the monsters as well as your PC has no purpose.
This reminds me of a 'playtest' in which a certain board member 'proved' how broken a class was because he was able to run himself through a module solo using all average rolls (except when he could succeed despite higher rolls).
Knowing your opposition, prepping for it, assuming average rolls, and (most importantly) running the monsters as well as your PC has no purpose.
For that matter, playing the game at all has no purpose, unless it's fun.
Any time a monster with 20+ intelligence and knowledge of who he is fighting engages in a stand up melee brawl with a paladin you are underplaying the monster. It goes beyond the dragon.
This character is one dimensional. Even invisibility is very frustrating to him from a tactical perspective.