| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm working on a vigilante to play in an upcoming Hell's Vengeance campaign. While going through the new feats in UI, I found Notorious Vigilante and wanted to create a build around it. Would appreciate some feedback, especially on if this is worth doing over a simpler combat archetype like Serial Killer.
The Ripper
Male Human Vigilante, lvl 11
Lawful Evil
Initial 20-point buy:
Str 10, Dex 18, Con 12, Int 10, Wis 8, Cha 16
Traits:
Blade of Mercy, ???
Feats:
1) Enforcer, Two-Weapon Fighting
3) Weapon Focus
5) Dazzling Display
7) Notorious Vigilante
9) Shatter Defenses
11) Demoralizing Display
Vigilante Talents:
2) Lethal Grace
4) Twisting Fear
6) Up Close and Personal
8) Evasion
10) Mighty Ambush
Social Talents:
1) Renown
7) Great Renown
By level 7 I can begin combat by moving through an opponent's square, taking the swift action attack from Up Close and Personal and demoralizing them via Enforcer, which procs the bonus non-lethal damage from Twisting Fear. Then I finish moving into position and use a standard action Dazzling Display, triggering AoE damage from Twisting Fear.
At 9th level I can unleash full attack actions on the second round, and any demoralized opponent will be considered flat-footed, thus proc'ing the vigilante sneak attack.
Finally at 11th I can choose between setting up flat-footed opponents to full attack down and possibly drop with a successful Mighty Ambush, or I can move again, proc'ing Up Close and Personal and Twisting Fear, then standard action DD'ing, causing AoE damage and fear tracking opponents with Demoralizing Display.
While all this seems cool on paper, I'm concerned it may take too long to come online, and may invest too many resources for the results achieved.
Sounds cool, but...
The RipperTraits:
Blade of Mercy*chuckle*
Personally, I'd move feats around to get Dazzling Display earlier. Maybe forego Two-Weapon Fighting until later?
Yeah, can switch it around so I get DD at 3, TWF at 5, which makes sense.
Traits:
Blade of Mercy, ???Your LE serial killer is going to worship Sarenrae? (Assuming the GM even allows the trait, as it's from a 3.5 source).
It's definitely a stretch, but assuming it's allowed at all, I'm confident I can twist the lore to my purposes.
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
It's definitely a stretch, but assuming it's allowed at all, I'm confident I can twist the lore to my purposes.Traits:
Blade of Mercy, ???Your LE serial killer is going to worship Sarenrae? (Assuming the GM even allows the trait, as it's from a 3.5 source).
You might wanna look into some means of immortality. Sarenrae not going to treat such a thing favorably in the afterlife.
It's definitely a stretch, but assuming it's allowed at all, I'm confident I can twist the lore to my purposes.Traits:
Blade of Mercy, ???Your LE serial killer is going to worship Sarenrae? (Assuming the GM even allows the trait, as it's from a 3.5 source).
If you don't want to use Blade of Mercy, here are some other options for dealing nonlethal damage with lethal weapons without a penalty.
Traits
Merciful Scimitar (combat): scimitars
Mock Gladiator (social): any one weapon
Feats
Bludgeoner (combat): all bludgeoning weapons
Merciful Bane (general): any weapon currently affected by your Bane class ability
Stage Combatant (combat): any weapon for which you have Weapon Focus
Virtuous Creed, Mercy (general): all weapons
Weapon Special Abilities
Merciful: any weapon
And here are a few ways to boost the effectiveness of Dazzling Display.
(1) One of the benefits of Equipment Trick (cloak) is that it can extend the effects of Dazzling Display by 1d4 rounds.
(2) A Dazzling Radiance weapon will blind and/or dazzle everyone within 15' when you use Dazzling Display.
(3) And, of course, if you or your teammates have Cruel weapons, you can add Sickened on top of Shaken.
...no disheartening display?
Come on. Why not have the enemies run away in fear in 12 seconds? Who doesn't love the ability to just keep on amping up your fear effect?
Nice, glad to see I have options if Merciful Blade is rejected. My main concern with this build is how unreliable acrobatics will be at moving through an opponent's square. I don't have to succeed for the attack to go off, but if I fail, I lose my move action and take an AoO. Since the DC of the tumble is 5 + the enemy's CMD, success seems unlikely as opponents get stronger. Especially since I can't find any feats or items that significantly boost acro checks.
...no disheartening display?
Come on. Why not have the enemies run away in fear in 12 seconds? Who doesn't love the ability to just keep on amping up your fear effect?
Whoops, for some reason I was calling it demoralizing display. It's the lvl 11 feat I picked at the end of this build.
Whoops, for some reason I was calling it demoralizing display. It's the lvl 11 feat I picked at the end of this build....no disheartening display?
Come on. Why not have the enemies run away in fear in 12 seconds? Who doesn't love the ability to just keep on amping up your fear effect?
Oh, no complaints then.
If you delay your feat progression a bit, you can exchange your human feat for skill focus: intimidate and skill focus: acrobatics with focused study. Pick a Boots of Elvenkind for another +5 and you will be at much more respectable acrobatics value and as a bonus your intimidate will also get a boots.Whoops, for some reason I was calling it demoralizing display. It's the lvl 11 feat I picked at the end of this build....no disheartening display?
Come on. Why not have the enemies run away in fear in 12 seconds? Who doesn't love the ability to just keep on amping up your fear effect?
Yeah, still weighing the pros and cons of focused study. The +6 to intimidate and acro at 10 is huge, but pushing back the build coming online until 9 is just...brutal. I could dump evasion for Rogue Trick and use it to get a combat feat to come online at 8.
Thanks for the tip off on the boots. I'm shocked how little there is to boost acro out there.
As another option - you can get weapon focus by throwing 10000+ gold for the resonant power of the Opalescent White Pyramid. That will allow you to the focused study without further delay in feat progression.
That's a cool idea, with the big drawback being, even assuming optimum wealth by level progression I wouldn't be able to afford that until level 5. Which would just barely work out if I got the stone before I made my level 5 feat selection, but otherwise I'd be delayed, as WF is a prereq for DD, and DD is a prereq for every feat I want besides enforcer and TWF.
I think I'd dump evasion as the better one. You could always get it later when you can.
I think I'd dump evasion as the better one. You could always get it later when you can.
Evasion is just a floater pick. I'm debating using it for the Rogue talent Combat Trick to pick up Shatter Defenses at 8 and then Disheartening Display at 9.
What about trying to fit violent display in there somewhere? But I guess you cant fit everything in there :D
I'd love to, but it's banned in PFS and my GM doesn't usually allow anything that's not PFS legal.
To boost acrobatics, you may want to buy some Boots of Elvenkind.
Performance Combat stuff with Performing Combatant and Hero's Display is truly awesome for a Dazzling Display type build; it's not PFS legel, but it's in Ultimate Combat. It takes some feats to use in regular combat, but Hero's Display is effectively Dazzling Display that you can use with a swift action after hitting with a charge, or hitting at least twice in one round, or a few other less common qualifiers. With Masterful Display you can weave Hero's Display together with another Performance Feat if you want to.
If you are following the PFS rules, I believe you can use the retraining rules to change the Weapon Focus feat into something else once you have enough wealth by level to be able to comfortably acquire the Ioun stone.
That would be a solid idea except for the fact that I'd have to give up enforcer or TWF until I saved the money. Enforcer provides extra damage after I get Twisting Fear at 4, plus the shaken debuff.
TWF could be retrained, but I'd be without multiple attacks until sometime after level five, and multiple attacks with sneak attack damage is the only thing keeping this character combat relevant until the build really comes online at 7.
I really appreciate all the good feedback. I wish I could update my original post, but for those who care, here's how I'm currently planning to progress this character.
1: Two-Weapon Fighting, Social Graces, Skill Focus: Intimidate (Focused Study)
2: Lethal Grace
3: Enforcer, Renown
4: Twisting Fear
5: Weapon Focus (Ioun Stone) Dazzling Display, Many Guises
6: Up Close and Personal
7: Notorious Vigilante, Great Renown
8: Rogue Trick > Combat Trick > Shatter Defenses, Skill Focus: Acrobatics (Focused Study)
9: Disheartening Display, Quick Change
10: Mighty Ambush