Feats for a Mortal Usher

[MrCharisma]

Hi all.

First things first: MORTAL USHER

I decided I want to try this prestige class with my Occultist in our Carrion Crown game. I showed it to my GM and he thought it looked great and that there should even be a chance to meet a psychopomp coming up.

I was looking at it and I wondered if there are any interesting feats/abilities/etc that go with the Mortal Usher that I wouldn't be immediately aware of?

For reference:

Winifred the Haunt Collector Occultist:

Half Elf with all the drow-ish alternate racial traits (for story reasons ... and darkvision).
Stats at level 1: S-14, D-14, C-14, I-17, W-12, C-7 (upping INT always).
Haunt Collector Occultist - 7 (planning 1 more level of Occultist then going into Mortal Usher).
Implements: Abjuration (Energy Shield), Conjurarion (Haunted-Champion, Purge Corruption, Side Step), Divination (Danger Sight), Transmutation (Sudden Speed). Planning on taking Telekinetic Mastery as my next Focus Power (for fun and profit) and Necromancy as my next Implement (probably should have taken this earlier, but oh well).
Feats: Combat Reflexes, Extra Mental Focus, Craft Wondrous items, Extra Focus Power.
Generally Winifred is a knowledge-monkey and a decent front-liner with utility spells and abilities.

I see that I get whip proficiency for free, and at level 7 in Mortal Usher I get a free +7 dancing (kinda) whip. Of course without Whip Mastery enemies have a pretty easy counter to this hugely powerful weapon option.

I also get Improved Vital Strike, which ... really doesn't do anything for a whip user (yay 2d3 bonus damage), although it does stack nicely with the 5d6 bonus damage from Reaping Strike, and could combo nicely with thr Lucern Hammer that Winifred is currently wielding.

Just thought I'd put some feelers out there and see if anyone's played or planned a Mortal Usher and has any cool ideas they want to share?

[Mark Hoover 330]

Firstly, can you wield 2 weapons using the dedicated wrappings? I don't see that called out in the ability, only that you can use the whip when your hands are full. Perhaps 2 weapon fighting could come in handy with this ability.

Also, you've got a mask that lets you cast Invisibility on yourself. You also get proficiency in a scythe. Take the feats Blind Fighting and Improved Initiative, then take Eldritch Assault.

Any time you attack from Invisibility, your first attack is a critical threat. With a bit of luck your first attack confirms. Starting with a scythe, that's 2d4 x4. Tack on Improved Vital Strike and separately you could roll the 2d4 three times, adding that to the eventual total. Then toss in a Reaping Strike on top of all that for an extra 4d6 and by my count you're looking at an average 49 damage before you even factor in Str bonuses, weapon bonuses, energy damage etc.

That might be worth something?

[MrCharisma]

Hmmm... it doesn't look like a bad feat, but you've slightly misread it. You don't get an auto-threat, you instead get an auto-confirm if you naturally get a threat. Still a good thought, although it seems like that feat would work better with Displacement or Greater Invisibility (both of which are on the Occultist spell list).

I don't know how it would work with TWF, but I could certainly use my scarf to get AoO's while wielding a scythe as my main weappn (or whatever). S I could still get some benefit from a big honking weapon for Vital Strikes while getting AoOs with the scarf. That would probably work better with the Occultist's Legacy Weapon anyway, give my greatsword the Bane property then go in for Vital Strikes with Reaping Strike for 13d6+lots, and still have a +5 Holy Disruption Undead-Bane scarf to ward off zombies (that's assuming improved whip mastery).

EDIT: I forgot you don't get Bane on the scarf, I was thinking of Legacy Weapon. Still mostly works though.

[Mark Hoover 330]

Whoops, sorry about that!

I also just did a quick search on Vital Strike related feats and came up with Seize the Opportunity. You need Combat Reflexes (and BAB +1, but you're already covered there) to qualify but using this feat you can make an attack action or Combat Maneuver in place of an AoO.

Essentially you could Vital Strike on your AoO's. It's situational, I know, but if you anticipate folks moving through your threatened squares when wielding your Lucerne hammer, you could deal a LITTLE extra damage with your scarf on the AoO.

[MrCharisma]

Ah man that feat would be stupidly good, but it's 3rd party.

We don't usually use 3rd party stuff, and ... well I can't say that 3d12+7d6+whatever on an AoO would really be balanced. Not all of that is from the one feat (2d6 of that is from Bane from Legacy Weapon), but adding 2d12+5d6 (~30 damage) is a pretty big power bump.

[MrCharisma]

PS Thanks Mark, I sounded like a nay-sayer here, but I really did appreciate the input, and you pointed out some options I've never seen before. Cheers.

[dunelord3001]

Anything that improves the efficiency of your move action.

[MrCharisma]

Yeah I thought Power Attack and Furious Focus seem like pretty obvious choices.

I have the Side Step power from my CONJURATION IMPLEMENT, so mobility isn't a concern, and I could take STRIKE TRUE for rounds where I don't want to move ... we're looking at 4 feats to get that all set up though, and then I can't get any fun whip stuff going .... hmmm ...