| Anger Nogar |
TL:DR warning:)
Back in the old days when I was first introduced to roleplaying games my first character was an AD&D swashbuckler shortly before the 3rd edition release. The DM wanted to wrap up the campaign so we can try the next edition so he planed a dragon encounter as a culmination to our ongoing defense of a village from a gnoll/kobold horde.
In the end of the previous session my character had a short romantic encounter with the innkeeper's daughter and got separated from the rest of the party for the night, so when I was late for the last session - the DM was eager to finish the encounter so we can start making our 3E characters and ruled that my character was still sleeping in the barn, oblivious to the dragon attack.
By the time I got there, the cavalier and the cleric have already dealt with most of the dragon minions, but the dragon was still healthy as ever, skirmishing outside of the fighter's range and bouncing the wizard's spell on his hide and running the cleric dry on healing with his strafing breath attacks. Our cavalier was quire a powerhouse back then, so the dragon was doing the smart thing, refusing to commit in a melee fight with him. As this was going on, my character (who was plagued by atrocious die roll luck in all the sessions so far) awoke in a burning barn and leapt outside with a sheathed rapier in hand and a shirt tied around his private parts. Seeing a soft target, the dragon proceeded to dive him, nail all but one of his attacks and leaving him to 4 hp from death. With the cavalier yelling at me to hold him for a round so he can get there and considering the whole plethora of options for my character in his extremely advantageous position between a raging dragon and a burning barn, I simply had him draw his sword and poke at the dragon with a glorious triplet of natural 20s instant killing the lizard according to the crit./fumble table we were using.
Anyway, a few days ago we decided to restart that campaign again with our characters already grizzled veterans for a few nostalgia sessions, but this time in Pathfinder since its the 21st century and all...
Male human swashbuckler 1/warlord 5/landsknetch 10
CG Medium humanoid (human)
Init +10; Senses Perception +26, Darkvision 60 ft.
Traits: Ancestral Weapon (Silver), Practiced Initiator
Martial Tradition: Lens Maker Society
DEFENSE
AC 30, touch 17, flat-footed 25 (+8 armor, +4 shield, +1 deflection, +1 natural, +1 insight, +5 Dex)
hp 161 (favored class bonus +5 hp)
Fort +16 Ref +16 Will +13, +4 vs. fear, death, compulsion
Defensive Abilities: Improved Uncanny Dodge (lvl 10)
OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee +3 Fortuitous Silver Rapier +31/+16/+11/+6(1d6+17/15-20)
Special Attacks: Surprising Strike 3/day, Strength of Arms, Superior Reach, Mobile Attacker, Bait the Dragon, Tactical Flanker.
Gambits: Rascal's Gambit, Brave Gambit, Flanker's Gambit
STATISTICS (17, 14, 13, 12, 12, 10 stats rolled)
Str 28, Dex 20, Con 18, Int 12, Wis 14, Cha 18
Base Atk +16; CMB +25; CMD 43
Feats Combat Reflexes, Discipline Focus, Improved Initiative, Mithral Current Style, Mithral Current Flow, Mithral Current Slice, Quick Draw, Improved Quick Draw, Seize the Moment, Skill Focus: Sense Motive, Skill Focus: Perform (Dance), Skill Focus: Iaijutsu Focus, Tap Animus, Weapon Focus (Rapier)
Skills Diplomacy +26, Iaijutsu Focus* +32, Perception +26, Perform (Dance) +32, Sense Motive +30, Stealth +23
Languages Common, Draconic
SQ Inspired Panache, Strength of Arms, Threatening Demeanor, Warleader, Tactical Presence: Rallying Presence, Force of Personality.
WEAPON: +3 Fortuitous Silver Rapier
ARMOR: +2 Mithral Breastplace of Light Fortification
SHIELD: +3 Darkwood Buckler
BELT: Belt of Physical Perfection +6
HEADBAND: Headband of Mental Prowess +4
RING: Ring of Protection +1
WRISTS: Sleeves of Many Garments
NECK: Amulet of Natural Armor +1
HEAD: Crown of Crimson Glory**
SHOULDERS: Cloak of Resistance +3
FEET: Boots of Speed
CHEST: Quick Runner’s Shirt
EYES: Eyes of the Eagle/Googles of Night
HANDS: Gloves of Reconnaissance
OTHER: Swordmaster's Flair: Blue Scarf, Cracked Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone, Wayfinder with Dusty Rose Prism Ioun Stone
Strikes Readied: Whirlpool Strike, Final Blow, Descending Sunset Strike, Silver Crown Strike;
Counters Readied: Ride the Wake, Flowing Creek, Flowing River;
Boosts Readied: Red Zephyr’s Fleetness, Noble Blade.
Stances: Stance of Assured Victory, Deadly Thunder Lancer’s Stance, Scarlet Duelist Attitude, Stance of the Thunderbrand, Flowing Water Stance, Running Hunter’s Stance, Reaching Blade Stance
The GM is allowing me to use the Iaijutsu Focus from oriental adventures since it fits the character and the Crown of Crimson Glory is a legacy item crafted from the dead dragon's teeth that is basically a Crown of Conquest, but it gives +3 competence bonus to Sense Motive and charisma checks instead of +5 bonus to intimidate.
What the character is aiming to achieve is to be able to pull a 200+ damage in a single strike allowing him to one shot a CR16 enemy in one hit.
Iaijutsu focus should give me +6d6 damage against flatfooted enemy on the draw. +10 initiative bonus hopefully will allow me to act while an opponent is still flatfooted. If not - rascal's gambit can make him flatfooted at the cost of a swift action.
Noble Blade (in case we act first) should give me +2d8 for one strike (or if I had to waste a round to prepare - 2 point of animus will give me +8 damage instead), Iaijutsu Focus will give +6d6 in addition to that and my base damage is 1d6+17. That leaves it at about 50 damage. Descending Sunset Strike will multiply that x4 making it 200 and since the enemy will be vulnerable to silver against my first attack (thanks to Mithral Current Slice) for the round - the damage should reach 300 dispatching any 200ish hp enemy. Are my calculations correct?
| Cattleman |
I was quite disappointed to see that this was not a character who found a way to draw his enemies as a way to kill them. Apologies that I had no advice...
But! Maybe someone will now be inspired to create a character who quickly sketches his opponent with some kind of psuedo-voodoo magic!