So, I'm trying to build a recurring Kuthite villain for a player with the Nemesis story feat. In trying to keep with the Zon-Kuthon theme, I'm thinking his primary damage output will be from sneak attack and bleed. Here are my thoughts so far:
Human Slayer (possibly with the Stygian Slayer archetype). Two-Weapon Fighting, using a pair of kukris. High Bluff skill with Improved or Two-Weapon Feint, to utilize Sneak Attack without necessarily needing a flank. Capitalize on bleed damage as much as possible.
That last bit's proving a bit difficult, and I'm looking for options. The game isn't at a high enough level where I could justify Improved Critical/Bleeding Critical, nor can he yet afford to purchase Wounding weapons, though both of these options will come into play as soon as the campaign level allows for it.
The Slayer/Rogue talent Bleeding Attack seems viable, causing bleed damage after a successful Sneak Attack. There's also a Bloodletting Feat in Inner Sea Gods that allows bleed damage whenever you threaten a critical hit (no confirmation necessary). These are the best two options I've found for a low-level bleeder build, but does anyone else know of any options? Perhaps some overlooked feat, class ability, or alchemical item?
|
If your the GM, you could always come up with something homebrewed.
After all most monsters have abilities that are not part of any class or feat. And there are modules where the story gives certain NPCs or even the players certain effects that is not covered by any rules, templates or class abilities.
So why not just build up a slayer and give him a homebrewed Slayer Talent that allows him to throw out bleed damage with every attack or something similar to that effect?
Consider the Cruelty feat! Whenever your Kuthite inflicts bleed damage, he'll get a mini-heroism effect.
Thistle arrows are an admittedly poorly-written cheap way to inflict bleed damage. The consensus on how they work seems to be that they inflict damage as normal for an arrow, then 1 point of bleed damage for the next 1d6 rounds.
|
It sounds like you want my Pathfinder Society Monk: A Kuthite Monk (NOT Slayer) with the Belier's Bite feat. You hit, you deal bleed damage. Simplicity itself! If you want Sneak Attack, you could of course multiclass it with Rogue levels (and don't forget about the Ki Pool Rogue Talent in that case!).
Okay, so let me ask this, regarding bleed damage: when and how can it stack?
As per the Bleed condition in the PRD: "Bleed effects do not stack with each other unless they deal different kinds of damage. When two or more bleed effects deal the same kind of damage, take the worse effect. In this case, ability drain is worse than ability damage."
So, if I understand this right:
The Bloodletting feat requires a piercing or slashing weapon, so the resulting bleed damage would match the weapon type.
The Bleeding Attack rogue talent requires a successful application of Sneak Attack, which if I recall correctly deals precision damage.
If this above is true, these two abilities should stack their bleed damage together.
However, the Bleeding Critical feat requires a successful critical hit to inflict bleed damage. Critical hits also being precision damage, would not stack with Bleeding Attack, correct?
Also, in regards to the Cruelty feat: "Whenever you deal bleed damage to an opponent...you gain a +2 morale bonus on attack rolls and weapon damage rolls for 1 round."
When, exactly, do you deal the bleed damage to an opponent? Is it the initial attack that causes/stacks the bleed, or would it be from the opponent's turn when the bleed effect takes place?
Sorry about all of these questions, but I haven't really played around with bleed a whole lot and I want to make sure I have a concise understanding of the rules before I bring this character to the table.
The rules for bleed are so convoluted because bleed can refer to a status aliment as well as a damage type. Bleed the status ailment (as seen here), does 1 of three types of damage: bleed damage (HP loss), ability damage, or ability drain. Bleed the damage type is just HP loss. It bypasses DR so the type that caused it (percision/slashing/ect) doesn't matter. As such, bloodletting feat and bleeding attack would not stack because despite the difference in causes, the damage is still of type "bleed".
Edit: as of recently they have started trying to errata out things that deal bleed damage without the bleed status aliment (as seen by the boar style feat). Hopefully this will add clarity to later publications.
Alright, I think I've got a better understanding of it now. I guess for straight HP bleed my best choice is probably going to be the Bleeding Critical feat. Thanks for all the help guys. :)