The Daring Champion I’m working on is a fey-blooded human trickster of a fencer who belongs to (our campaign setting’s version) of the Order of the Blossom. Point of fact, he also has the Circuit Judge Archetype, but re-flavored. He will be a front-line combatant that relies on agility, defense, darting attacks, and called shots. Personal taste, Daring Champion mechanics, and campaign specifics mean that I won’t dip into other classes or take up the Duelist prestige class. Additionally, I won’t be able to count on magic items to address the challenges I’ll outline below.
The build I envision comes down to marrying the Circling Mongoose feat to the Sneak Attack gained by Order of the Blossom and enhanced by the Knave Standard. The character will be fighting with a rapier, both for the sake of the improved crit range and to avoid investing feats into Slashing Grace or weapon proficiency.
The challenge I’m facing is maximizing the AC of a character who will be wearing light armor, but won’t necessarily have access to the optimal light armor.
The Knave Standard itself gives a nice dodge bonus against the attacks of opportunity Circling Mongoose’s movement would provoke. The human Favored Class Bonus to the Cavalier will increase that dodge bonus every four levels. Fighting Defensively is the most obvious means to further improve my AC, but its attack penalty has to be mitigated: the flanking bonus from Circling Mongoose and the Knave Standard will offsets the penalties from my Called Shots, but not another -4 to hit.
In a perfect world, by 11th level I would utilize both the Dizzying Defense Deed and Osyluth Guile for a substantial bump to AC. My understanding, however, is that the Daring Champion does not qualify for the Signature Deed feat; while he gains the Panache class feature, his levels do not count as Gunslinger levels in the way the Swashbuckler’s do. Absent the Extra Panache feat (and I don’t have that many feats for this), it’s unlikely he’ll have more than 3-6 Panache by 11th level. Even taking into account a good critical range, Dizzying Defense isn’t a whole-battle solution.
The next obvious option for me was going the Crane Style route, which would lower attack penalties and (through Crane Wing) raise my AC even higher. The problem I run into there, though, is that Circling Mongoose is a full-round action… so it can’t be used in conjunction with Fighting Defensively.
Panther Style is interesting, but until I get Panther Parry it’s a reactive measure that doesn’t improve my defense, relies on my opponent(s) having more than one AOO, and utilizes unarmed strikes… which I’m (A) not good at and (B) would then probably disqualify use of Precise Strike for that round.
So what am I missing? In terms of feats, what can I start picking up from around 9th level (GCS can bumped further down) to improve my AC in melee combat?
1) Dodge, Mobility
3) Spring Attack
5) Combat Expertise
6) Improved Called Shot
7) Circling Mongoose
9) Greater Called Shot
11)
12)
13)
15)
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19)
I know you're going Dex-based, but if you have a minimum of 13 Str, then you can take Power Attack--> Cornugon Smash and put a Cruel +1 weapon enchant on your rapier for the Shaken/Sicken combo (-4 att/saves/skills/abilchecks & -2 damage). While this won't bump up your AC per se, it will decrease their ability to hit you, effectively netting you (and your group) a +4 AC. Debuffing their saves by -4 will make your party's casters happy too.
You could really pile on the debuffs if you took 4 levels of Unchained Rogue and use Debilitating Injury for an additional -4 to hit you. Not only would you have a respectable AC, but enemies that you SnA with Circling Mongoose now have a -8 to attack you. You get a metric crapton of stuff by taking 4 levels of URogue, and it all works great for what you're building towards. You do take -1 BAB with 4 levels of rogue, but you get Weapon Finesse (full**), Dex to Dmg, +2d6 SnA, Evasion, and 2 Rogue Talents, 32 skill points and a TON of class skills, and all of this fits well with what you're trying to do with this character.
**Daring Champion gives you partial Weapon Finesse; it's light weapons or one-handed piercing melee weapons only. U-Rogue gives you Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, which gives you light weapons, elven curve blades, rapiers, whips, or spiked chains. This isn't super important for you because you've already decided that rapier is your weapon of choice, but if you were ever forced to fight without your rapier (such as being disarmed or rolling nat1 and break the weapon, etc.), having full Weapon Finesse gives you more options.
Some very good advice.
I’m not sure I’ll get access to a particular weapon enchantment, but I’m a big fan of the Power Attack/Cornugon Smash/Hurtful combo. I’m usually focused on the bonus attack, but you’re right: in this case I also benefit from a nice little de-buff.
To the rest of your proposals, believe me, I get the benefit of everything you described. It just doesn’t go with the theme of the character I’m putting together (and, more specifically, the settling).
Vmc rogue. Get more sneak attack
Makes total sense, I get it. Thematically, though, I’m committed to Daring Champion without multi-classing or VMC.
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The challenge I’m facing is maximizing the AC of a character who will be wearing light armor, but won’t necessarily have access to the optimal light armor.
A mithral chain shirt isn't magic and quite inexpensive. It should be the best-in-slot for a long while. You also have the scaling AC bonus from your archetype and Precise Strike is compatible with a Buckler.
The next obvious option for me was going the Crane Style route, which would lower attack penalties and (through Crane Wing) raise my AC even higher. The problem I run into there, though, is that Circling Mongoose is a full-round action… so it can’t be used in conjunction with Fighting Defensively.
You're overthinking. You can fight defensively when taking a full-attack action and Circling Mongoose allows you to perform a modified full-attack. It's fine.
Three ranks in acrobatics, a Dueling Dagger in your buckler hand, the Aldori Caution trait, and Crane Style puts you at -2 Att/+6 AC.
(You'd have to drop the knife if you want to continue in the feat chain, but until then it's a free +1 AC)
Personally I'm not that impressed by Circling Mongoose as you need to start your turn adjacent to the foe, and can't use your 5-ft step. In your case the accuracy bonus (from the banner) is also reliant on you hitting in the first place, which can be an issue. Especially since you only have one full-bab attack.
Wonderstell,
Pairing a buckler with the dueling dagger is excellent advice; I hadn’t considered the two could be combined, and that neither will preclude me from using Precise Strike. Better yet, both are readily available in our setting—unlike mithral, which is unfortunately scarce/hoarded by our elves.
Re: Crane Style, you’re absolutely right, and I can’t believe I misread the section on Fighting Defensively so badly! I fixated on the section title itself, ignoring that it clearly states “You can choose to fight defensively when taking a full-attack action.”
Thank you so much!