My Frankenstein's monster of a character - where to go now?

[Skrayper]

So my character is currently a...
Arcane Duelist (Bard) 1
Inspired Blade (Swashbuckler) 5
Virtuous Bravo (Paladin) 5
Lore Keeper (Fighter) 1

Feats are:
Weapon Focus
Weapon Finesse
Fencing Grace
Combat Reflexes
Leadership
Angelic Blood
Angelic Wings
Critical Focus
Blind-Fight
Pageant of the Peacock (not a feat but using a feat slot)

I've been contemplating where to go from here. There's a few feat chain-options I like, but some are digging into my already "often used" swift/immediate action. Often I have it ready to double my precision damage, or smite.

I've been toying with the following chains (pretty much all involve retraining my level of bard now that we have a legitimate skill person in the party, rendering my Pageant useless):

Option 1:
Retrain Bard to Fighter - Get Combat Expertise (Lore Seeker), Gain Bonus Feat (Moonlight Stalker), Retrain Pageant of the Peacock feat slot (Blinded Blade Style), 13th Level and on taking Virtuous Bravo levels (my plan is stick with VB on all options), get a Minor Cloak of Displacement - 13th level taking Staggering Critical

Option 2:
Retrain Bard to Fighter - Get Combat Expertise (Lore Seeker), Gain Bonus Feat (Blinded Blade Style), Retrain Pageant (Improved Blind-Fight), Retrain Critical Focus (Blinded Competence)

Option 3:
Bard to Fighter (Combat Expertise), Bonus Feat (Power Attack), Retrain Pageant (Cut from the Air)
**3A Retrain Critical Focus (Smash from the Air)
**3B Retain Critical Focus, take Staggering Critical at Level 13

Option 4:
Bard to Fighter (Combat Expertise), Bonus Feat (Moonlight Stalker), Retrain Pageant (Improved Feint), Retrain Critical Focus (Moonlight Feint)

Option 5:
Bard to Fighter (Combat Expertise), Bonus Feat (Dazzling Display), Retrain Pageant (Violent Display), Retrain Critical Focus (Signature Skill: Intimidate)

(For the purposes of this, the Rapier Training of the Inspired Blade is considered Weapon Training by my GM).

The things I'm trying to debate between:
1. Does getting blinded/fighting invisible creatures come up enough for the blind-fighting build?
2. Do I focus on obvious static benefits (Moonlight Stalker with permanent Blur) or less static?
3. Does option 3 offer the best form of defense, considering my number of AoO (23 Dex)? Should that be my focus as I already deal a decent bit of damage due to the high crit build I already have?
4. Is my already high utilization of swift actions (extra precision damage, smite evil) meaning I should ignore anything else that wants to access those (feinting, intimidate, etc)?
5. Are critical feats worth it, or are the save DCs too low? Or is a single round of staggered still worth it regardless?

We get a few buffs to hit and damage (a banner, a bard song, etc) so my to-hit can be pretty robust. Power attack certainly wouldn't be a bad (though right now my Str is a 12, so I'd have to retrain my last bonus out of Dex and into Str to qualify - or get an Ioun stone of strength because adding it to my Dex/Con belt would be crazy expensive comparatively).

Curious if any folks had experience playing characters with these feats and if they were a lot of fun?

[VoodistMonk]

I do not think a Blinded Blade Style build is worth it unless you know for a fact you are going to be spending large portions of the campaign underground... or some other campaign where that $#!+ is expected to happen. Every other "average" campaign, Blind Fight is nice if you can squeeze it, but meh...

I also find most Critical feats to be underwhelming in their actual application during combat... with the exception being Dispelling Critical... it was hilarious when a ghost attacked the party's flying carpet instead of any of them on it. But instead of dispelling the carpet's flight, it dispelled the carpet's built in bag of holding and dropped their payload of acid flasks and alchemical fire on a field of flowers below. The ghost was just floating there, looking down at the boiling explosion, then at his rapier, then back to the still growing explosion, then back to his rapier... if you have never seen a confused ghost, it is a sight to see, indeed. Lol.

As much as I like Cut/Smash From the Air, I think you should go with the Intimidate/Dazzling Display build.

[Skrayper]

Thanks - I've been thinking on it, and I agree with you. I like that it doesn't impact on my swift/immediate action economy.

I would have loved to see that moment - but alas for the poor owner of that flower bed.

I may even retrain Blind-Fight for Skill Focus: Intimidate, try and make full use of the Signature Skill unlock.

[Ryze Kuja]

If you're going to do an Intimidate build, I'd go with Cornugon Smash, Dazzling Display, and Shatter Defenses. Put a Cruel Weapon Enchant so you can do the Shaken/Sicken combo for -4 att/saves -2 dmg.

Not only does this increase your survivability, but also your accuracy for your iterative attacks. Your iterative attacks will be vs. FFAC once your targets are Shattered.

[Skrayper]

Ryze Kuja wrote:

If you're going to do an Intimidate build, I'd go with Cornugon Smash, Dazzling Display, and Shatter Defenses. Put a Cruel Weapon Enchant so you can do the Shaken/Sicken combo for -4 att/saves -2 dmg.

Not only does this increase your survivability, but also your accuracy for your iterative attacks. Your iterative attacks will be vs. FFAC once your targets are Shattered.

A couple of questions:

Why specifically Cornugon Smash over Violent Display?
Is this a preference of single-target focus vs AoE, or not having a need to score a crit to generate the effect?

Talking with the players, having monster run away is problematic, so sticking to shaken and adding sicken to that is better than using the skill unlock.

[VoodistMonk]

The skill unlock for Intimidate becomes useful when you make enemies COWER... because then things like Dastardly Finish and Dreadful Carnage start a Coup de Grace feedback loop...

Scare someone, make them cower, coup de grace them, which scares everyone and makes them cower, you coup de grace the next one, which scares everyone and makes them cower... it's a viscious cycle...

[Skrayper]

VoodistMonk wrote:

The skill unlock for Intimidate becomes useful when you make enemies COWER... because then things like Dastardly Finish and Dreadful Carnage start a Coup de Grace feedback loop...

Scare someone, make them cower, coup de grace them, which scares everyone and makes them cower, you coup de grace the next one, which scares everyone and makes them cower... it's a viscious cycle...

Yeah, but that's not until level 20 (unless you're a Phantom Thief) and I don't typically bother with thinking along the lines of "well, I can do X 6-10 levels from now". I, personally, have never been a fan of looking at builds from a "level 20" perspective because in my experience I've never had a level 20 character long enough to utilize those abilities beyond a session or two.

[VoodistMonk]

Levels 6-10 are where the Cornugon Smash/Hurtful combo with a Cruel weapon is really going to shine. Throw is some Dazzling Display/Shatter Defenses, and you are golden for those mid levels.

[Skrayper]

Hmmm, so now I'm looking at this:

Bard to Fighter (Combat Expertise)
Bonus Feat (Power Attack)
Retrain Pageant (Cornugon Smash)
Retrain Critical Focus (Hurtful)
Retrain Blind-Fight (Dazzling Display)
Gain Cruel enchantment on my weapon
Next Level: Shatter Defenses

Considering how many stackable "to-hit" bonuses I get, I'd probably end up power attacking a lot. The Bard in the party, the Lord's Banner of Victory, Prayer, Bless, Haste, and Smiting (though not as many of those). Plus the combo of Dazzling Display and Shatter Defenses. Eventually also get Violent Display, give me the option of affecting all creatures with the Shaken condition. The -2 to attacks isn't huge, but that -2 to saves will help our wizards out a lot.

The only drawback is that we do tend to fight a decent bit of undead, but it's not the crux of the campaign. That would be a lot of feats that are kind of useless against a fairly big category of monsters. (I need to steer us more towards fiends :p )