Path of war. Vishkanya Steel-Fist commando Build Advice


Advice and Rules Questions


Working on a snake themed assassin Character

Planning a level 15 Steel-Fist Commando Character

who will focus on Mithral current , Riven hour-glass & Steel serpent

I want to Rely heavily on Poisons and Prana / Sting Maneuvers with the other school helping out

I know I want to take The silver fang initiate Feat to help boost my Steel serpent maneuvers

but could use advice on my other feats

(Thinking of TWF with Two silver Kukuri)


Settle on some idea - any idea - and I'll lend a hand to try to make it good Julius. If this is just idea #11 of 20 I'll wait until you get to #20.


avr wrote:
Settle on some idea - any idea - and I'll lend a hand to try to make it good Julius. If this is just idea #11 of 20 I'll wait until you get to #20.

Well I am locked in to this one

as we Did the first Mission

First mission

Was world set up but I am now locked in

we are allowed to change some things like feats , spells / Maneuver known and items but not race and class

and AVR I am sorry i post all the time , I know its annoying and I want to stop doing it v.v


Hmm. I really can't believe you've used half the 15th level builds you've asked about recently. If this one's different, fine.

Mithral kukris not silver BTW. Mithral is silver for DR & so for silver vulnerability, but they don't suffer the penalties (-1 damage, lower hardness/HP) of being alchemical silver. The extra cost is nothing at 15th.

You might want the mithral current slice feat and so its prereqs.

With one good save (Fort) and minimal save benefits from your maneuvers you may want to spend a feat on iron will perhaps, or even another on improved iron will. Or if you're planning to fight unarmed and not to use two-weapon fighting you could use one hand carrying a padma blossom.


@ AVR

well these are the first Feats I picked out for mission one I am just unsure what one's i should switch out

LV1: Quick Draw
LV3: Weapon Finesse -
LV3: (Team-Work Feat) ???
LV5: Mithral Current Style-
LV6 Silver Fang Initiate -
LV7 Two-Weapon Fighting -
LV9 Mithral current flow
LV11 Mithtral current Slice
LV13: Deadly agility -
LV14: Improved Initiative -
LV15: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting


Looks OK given your starting level. Shake it off is a teamwork feat which boosts saves. Forget the padma blossom, I had a momentary brain fade about what style of combat you were looking at.


@ Avr

OK any Advice on my maneuvers?

I know I want the sting and Prana maneuvers but what others should I take?


Also what is my Unarmed damage at level 15? 2D6?


@ AVR

OK THE gm says as long as we don't change the entire character / build we can take a 2 to 3 level dip

so i'm i as thinking

Hidden Blade Unchained rogue 3 / Steel Fist commando 12

Mainly cause I was thinking of taking Treacherous Toxin

Considering Steel serpent has some sneak attack stuff

is this any good or should i forget it

and since Mithral current style allows feinting as a swift action i was thinking it be an easy boost to my poison dc


That dip saves a feat (net) and gives you +2d6 sneak attack & evasion but it also costs you your 8th level maneuvers, a maneuver known & one readied, and makes your ability to grant that teamwork feat still a standard action rather than letting it become a move action. If you play to L20 you'll get most of those back but you'll lose some other things.

Looking at it right now the biggest loss is not getting your 8th level stance and an 8th level maneuver. mithral lightning stance and adamantine fang look like significant losses to me - the latter is a +4 to save DC with any poison or prana boost used with it.


@ AVR I see

Ya I kinda want my 8th level stance and maneuvers

ok 15 level of Steel Fist it is

could you recommend me my other Maneuvers and stances?


The way the warlord's maneuvers known works, including their ability to swap a maneuver known at each even numbered level, is that at class level 15 you have one 8th level maneuver and 2 of each lower level until you run out of the 14 total maneuvers known. 1 8th, 2 each 7th, 6th, 5th, 4th, 3rd & 2nd, and 1 1st. For stances you have 2 1st level, 1 3rd level, 1 5th level, 1 6th level and 1 8th level.

Assuming you get the 8th level ones I named above and stick to your 3 named disciplines, and you want poisons in particular my thoughts are:
7th: Numbing venom prana is an OK poison. Beat the clock is too good to miss.
6th: Endless current works well with your TWF, as does blend with the night. For the stance, sand bearer's swiftness gives you haste when you need that. Sting of the viper does charisma damage which has little synergy with anything you're getting BTW, I wouldn't recommend it.
5th: Burning venom prana works if anyone else in the party targets will saves. Flowing stream is one of the very few save boost/replacers you can get. Chronal fission is a stance which may be useful sometimes.
4th: Temporal adjustment is a useful counter, sting of the adder synergises with burning venom prana, or ride the current stops full attacks against you. Pick two of these.
3rd: Night's knife is a useful boost and probability twist is a useful counter. Steel coils is a stance which helps you grapple if you ever want to.
2nd: Iron wave lets you make an attack at range, fading dodge saves you from a hit while also letting you debuff your enemy.
1st: Flowing creek is another save yourself from a hit ability which you may ready once in a while even at this level, and you likely want both steel serpent stances - a bonus to stealth is something different, and a huge bonus to poison save DCs is the best bonus to poison use of any of the stances.


@ AVR cool

Can I get some Advice on Gear (got 300,000 GP)

I want some money for poisons (not sure what ones are good) But purple worm looks nice


Remember that with poisoner's stance and adamantine fang you can get +11 to the save DC of a poison. Even drow poison (DC 13 Fort) may be worth using, and it's both cheap and effective if the target fails their save. Leng's tears is a more expensive, higher save DC poison. Deathblade is even higher DC though the effect is less.

Purple worm poison generally isn't for sale, there's no price listed. Presumably no one has a good way of farming vast burrowing creatures and extracting their poison.

You already have a thread asking about how to spend that 300K. The difference here (besides getting poisons) is that you need to buy 2 weapons, which is expensive - maybe get one good kukri, +5 keen and one cheaper, +1 ghost touch injecting?


@ AVR

any other Advice you can think of?

Like my Warlord class feature i can choose

or my traits?


If you get something like that list of maneuvers then you'll need to make a perform (dance) check sometimes. You might like a trait which helps with that. Also remember to max ranks in both perform (dance) and in heal; you may never make a heal check but the number of ranks in it matters for some steel serpent stuff.

I have no particular opinion on gambits, tactical presences or other warlord class features, pick whatever seems appropriate to you.

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