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Vigilante Talents
2.Lethal Grace(Alertness)
4.Shield of Blades(Power Attack)
6.Harsh Judgement
8.Cunning Feint
10.Vital Punishment(Vital Strike)
12.Steely Resolve
1.Weapon Finesse
3.Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Aldori Dueling Blade)
5.Weapon Focus(Aldori Dueling Blade)
7.
9.Serran's Masterstroke
11.
13.Devestating Strike
I like the direction now i just need help on how to polish it off.
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Vigilante Talents
2.Lethal Grace(Alertness)
4.Shield of Blades(Power Attack)
6.Harsh Judgement
8.Cunning Feint
10.Vital Punishment(Vital Strike)
12.Steely Resolve1.Weapon Finesse
3.Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Aldori Dueling Blade)
5.Weapon Focus(Aldori Dueling Blade)
7.
9.Serran's Masterstroke
11.
13.Devestating StrikeI like the direction now i just need help on how to polish it off.
Just posted in your other thread.
A zealot doesn't get vigilante talents at 4th, 6th, 10th, 14th, or 16th levels.
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Vigilante Talents
2.Lethal Grace(Alertness)
4.Shield of Blades(Power Attack)
6.Harsh Judgement
8.Cunning Feint
10.Vital Punishment(Vital Strike)
12.Steely Resolve1.Weapon Finesse
3.Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Aldori Dueling Blade)
5.Weapon Focus(Aldori Dueling Blade)
7.
9.Serran's Masterstroke
11.
13.Devestating StrikeI like the direction now i just need help on how to polish it off.
Just posted in your other thread.
A zealot doesn't get vigilante talents at 4th, 6th, 10th, 14th, or 16th levels.
Well that ironically makes my decision a lot easier
Vigilante Talents
2.Lethal Grace(Alertness)
8.Cunning Feint
12.Steely Resolve
1.Weapon Finesse
3.Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Aldori Dueling Blade)
5.Weapon Focus(Aldori Dueling Blade)
7.Power Attack
9.Serran's Masterstroke
11.Vital Strike
13.Devestating Strike
How does this look?
Vital strike is dubious there. Lunge, a metamagic feat (quicken spell, encouraging spell, etc.), cornugon smash/hurtful, even some social feat; any of these would be better IMO.
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It seems that your build idea is put together from individual elements you like but without looking too closely at the character level flow. You are getting Power Attack really late in the game. Serran's Masterstroke is a nice bit of damage, but it's just a bit and requires 2 other feats (3 including cunning feint). Vital Strike and Devastating Strike with an Aldori Dueling Blade adds a total of 1d8+2 damage on your standard action attack. Steely Resolve - no one likes failing Will saves but vigilantes already have good Will saves and you will have a decent Wisdom bonus (for casting) and access to long-duration save buffs like heroism.
It looks like you are trying to build for "one big hit." Cunning Feint (move action) then Power Attack Devastating Strike with Serren's Masterstroke. Takes you a total of 5 feats and a vigilante talent to get there. But it's not actually that much damage. At 13th level it's only 13.5 points more on average than your regular attack. And you can only do it when you don't need to take a move action. In which case you could just full attack. There are plenty of ways to add damage much cheaper and earlier in your career.
If you have an in-character reason why you want to do this, by all means go ahead. It's not a terrible build. But if you're looking for a level plan before/along with backstory I'd suggest focusing on a different weapon than the Aldori Dueling Sword - preferably one you are already proficient in. Lethal Grace is very good, but also take the zealot-exclusive talents like Harsh Judgment and Zealot Smite for damage.
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Vital strike is dubious there. Lunge, a metamagic feat (quicken spell, encouraging spell, etc.), cornugon smash/hurtful, even some social feat; any of these would be better IMO.
The idea is since ill likely be limited to one attack per round for most of the game anyway i might as well make it hit as hard as possible.
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Vital strike is dubious there. Lunge, a metamagic feat (quicken spell, encouraging spell, etc.), cornugon smash/hurtful, even some social feat; any of these would be better IMO.The idea is since ill likely be limited to one attack per round for most of the game anyway i might as well make it hit as hard as possible.
Hey, I called it right! But as mentioned above, this still really only works when you are in position to full-attack anyway. I can't stress enough what a great value boots of speed are for anyone making full attacks.
Your whole "hard as possible" averages 13.5 extra damage a round at 13th level. Your static damage without Serren's/Vital/Devastating Strike should be around +15 or better. So if you only hit one extra time in a round you are doing more damage. Then you start looking at the options you could have taken instead of those 5 feats and a talent. Quicken Spell would let you cast divine favor for an extra +3 to hit and damage on each attack. (Trait shenanigans can lower the spell level and/or increase the bonus.) Harsh Judgment (destruction) would add +5 to damage per hit.
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Vital strike is dubious there. Lunge, a metamagic feat (quicken spell, encouraging spell, etc.), cornugon smash/hurtful, even some social feat; any of these would be better IMO.The idea is since ill likely be limited to one attack per round for most of the game anyway i might as well make it hit as hard as possible.Hey, I called it right! But as mentioned above, this still really only works when you are in position to full-attack anyway. I can't stress enough what a great value boots of speed are for anyone making full attacks.
Your whole "hard as possible" averages 13.5 extra damage a round at 13th level. Your static damage without Serren's/Vital/Devastating Strike should be around +15 or better. So if you only hit one extra time in a round you are doing more damage. Then you start looking at the options you could have taken instead of those 5 feats and a talent. Quicken Spell would let you cast divine favor for an extra +3 to attack and damage on each hit. (Trait shenanigans can lower the spell level and/or increase the damage.) Harsh Judgment (destruction) would add +5 to damage per hit.
If i wanted that i would just go for a warpriest, but you have given me an idea one moment Also im dead set on it, the idea is to have a weapon that i can both two hand and finesse And right now the only ones that qualify are aldori and the elven curve blade
Vigilante Talents
2.Lethal Grace(Power Attack)
8.Zealot Smite
12.Harsh Judgment(Destruction)
1.Weapon Finesse
3.Exotic Weapon Proficiency(Elven Curved Blade)
5.Furious Focus
7.
9.
11.Improved Critical(Elven Curved Blade)
13.
Ok i think i got the core down where do i go from here?
Cunning feint works off the first attack in a full attack, and applies to all subsequent attacks that round from level 8. In many parties you will be reliably hasted at this level. But OK, you're looking elsewhere now.
I think the feats I suggested above are still good.
Lunge lets you get full attacks more reliably. Level 9+.
Quicken spell lets you get a buff up quickly. Level 13+ unless you spend a trait.
Encouraging spell increases the bonus of heroism; the feat is +1 attack/saves/skill checks for most of the time. Level 11+ unless you spend a trait.
Cornugon smash + hurtful is a free attack against many opponents. Hurtful is any level, cornugon smash is level 7+.
Skill focus (diplomacy) works with your inquisition, your RP and perhaps sets you up for eldritch heritage.
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Overall, new feat tree looks good. The one rules problem I see is that you can't take Power Attack when you take Lethal Grace at second level. If you already have Weapon Finesse, the replacement feat must be "another feat for which he qualified at the level he chose Weapon Finesse." Zealots have BAB 0 at 1st level so you can't take Power Attack.
You haven't mentioned a race yet, I'd suggest a race that can get proficiency with the elven curve blade at first level (like elf or half-elf). Then take Power Attack at 3rd level.
As for your other feats, it really depends on how much time you expect to be doing non-combat things in your campaign. If there's a good amount of skill and social content in the game I'd probably only pick up one or two other combat feats (with lunge and weapon focus among the options). I really like Extend Spell for anyone casting like an inquisitor. Especially if you aren't sure if you will be able to buy Extend Rods. You have a ton of 10 min/level buff spell options, and extending them means that you can reliably spend your entire adventuring day pre-buffed. Social skills like Skill Focus or Persuasive or Deceitful (depending on your character) can be useful.
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Overall, new feat tree looks good. The one rules problem I see is that you can't take Power Attack when you take Lethal Grace at second level. If you already have Weapon Finesse, the replacement feat must be "another feat for which he qualified at the level he chose Weapon Finesse." Zealots have BAB 0 at 1st level so you can't take Power Attack.
You haven't mentioned a race yet, I'd suggest a race that can get proficiency with the elven curve blade at first level (like elf or half-elf). Then take Power Attack at 3rd level.
As for your other feats, it really depends on how much time you expect to be doing non-combat things in your campaign. If there's a good amount of skill and social content in the game I'd probably only pick up one or two other combat feats (with lunge and weapon focus among the options). I really like Extend Spell for anyone casting like an inquisitor. Especially if you aren't sure if you will be able to buy Extend Rods. You have a ton of 10 min/level buff spell options, and extending them means that you can reliably spend your entire adventuring day pre-buffed. Social skills like Skill Focus or Persuasive or Deceitful (depending on your character) can be useful.
Right i kind of figured that, which is why i decided to go shield of blades instead. Also i wanna make a build that most people can get into easily Truth be told i'm now considering the estoc what do you make of the weapon?
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Truth be told i'm now considering the estoc what do you make of the weapon?
It's 0.5 more damage per hit than an elven curve blade, and less variability in damage than the ECB. Less likely to roll minimum, but also less likely to roll maximum.
After many years of playing and many, many math calculations I've come to the conclusion that you can sort all melee weapons into two rough categories: "1d8 20x2 and below" (bad) vs. "everything else" (good). "Everything else" has some weapons that mathematically average a bit more damage, but realistically it's only a tiny bit. There's only two situations where getting the "best" weapon out of "everything else" really matters.
1. You are stacking up a lot of size increases (in which case you want big, multiple dice).
2. You have feats or class abilities that rely on getting critical hits (in which case you want an 18-20 crit weapon).
Is there a difference other than that? Yes, but we're talking one or two damage at the point where your typical hit is doing more than 25 points of damage. So I've come to the conclusion that the "best" weapon (setting aside roleplay) is usually one that you automatically have proficiency in.