Please help me check my character

[Learned Hand]

[edited so it made sense]

Here is my tank-ish character. I suspected BSR's guy may be more suited to dishing out damage on bigguns so I made somebody who is geared towards protection and mopping up mooks, although he can dish out a fair bit of damage.

Here are possible modifications and questions:

Modifications:

(a) more raw damage - I ditch the levels in knight for more levels of exoticist (It's like a fighter but with slightly different weapon proficiency) and take power attack, cleave, weapon specialistion etc.

(b) Even more of a mook killer - ditch the levels of knight, take the levels of exoticist and push myself to whirlwind attack. If you're interested, I do this by switching to human and losing deft opportunist.

Questions:

(1) Should I take different skills?

(2) Should I have bought potions and stuff (I don't know what that stuff would be). If so, which ones?

(3) Out of interest, does anybody have enlarge person as one of their spells. It's very, very useful for this build, and I may get some potions with it.

(4) Are there any obvious flaws? Or alternative modifications?

(5)Is it just me or is really hard to have a remotely good AC?

Here's my guy - he's called T.R. and he does have a personality, but I'll send that to O in a bit.

Dwarf exoticist/

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Str: 20
Dex: 16
Con: 16
Int: 14
Wis: 10
Cha: 6

Racial benefits:
Darkvision
Stonecunning
Weapon Familiarity – Dwarven Weapons
Stability
+2 vs poison
+2 vs spells
+1 vs orcs and goblinoids
+4 AC vs giants
+2 appraise/craft stone/metal
Languages: Common; dwarven


Class features:
8 levels of exoticist: Exotic Weapon proficiency: Spiked Chain; bastard sword; net; repeating crossbow; all the usual fighter proficiencies EXCEPT martial weapons


Feats - and the levels aquired

1 Combat expertise: Weapon focus (Spiked Chain)
2 Improved Trip
3 Combat Reflexes
4 Monkey Grip
5
6 Weapon specialization (Spiked Chain); Exotic Attack
7
8 Deft Opportunist


Skills

Appraise (weaponsmithing) 2
Craft (weaponsmithing): 8 (not including +2 racial bonus)
Climb: 7
Jump: 7
Tumble: 11
Swim: 6

Items

Whirling, living chain of big (large +1 spiked chain; wielder can attack all foes within range 3 times a day) 10,325
+ 1 Studded Leather of Mobility (+4 AC, user has mobility feat) 4,025
+2 cloak of protection (4,000)
+2 Gauntlets of Ogre strength (4,000)
+1 Ring of Protection (2,000)
Phylactery of Faithfulness (1000)
Potions: Bull’s Strength * 2
Potions: Enlarge Person * 4
large bastard sword and steel shield


HP –97
AC – 18
Attacks:
BAB = +8/+3;
Large Spiked Chain = +14/+9 (+8 to opposed strength roll to trip). Damage - 2d6+9
Saves: F: +11; R + 7; W + 4
Init: +3

[oneiros]

Spiked chain fighters can be some of the most devastatingly twinky combat builds

Few points from me:

1. I'm afraid, for the adventure I'm planning, the horse is not gonna be the most useful pieces of equipment. This might alter your decision to be a knight...

2. At L8 AC >20 is not too shabby. You can improve by using a shield of some kind.

3. Your armour is a bit wrong - Your breastplate and bracers both give armour bonuses so they do not stack, you'd be better off spending the 1k to make your mithril breastplate +1.

4. Hit points are not rolled. At every level beyond 1st, you take 75% of HD max and add Con bonus. By my calculation your fighter as stands would have 93hp!

[johandenerad]

a) is ok, don't do b). Whirlwind attack is naff, especially when you can already make 5 attacks of op a round in a ridiculous radius. a) might be a good idea, since the knight revolves around single combat, defence and using a shield, whereas you want to spank mooks.


1) Skills look cool, take more Tumble if possible, dead useful for you getting into the right position to get the most of the chain.

2) Yes yes and yes, and you can drop the Bracers of Armour for some cash because the armour bonus from them won't stack with that of your armour. With that 1,000 you can get...

3) Potions of Enlarge Person! They last 10 rounds and are 250 each. Maybe buy some other potions too. Cure's are always good, and Cat's Grace is nifty for your Dex.

4) Not sure about the Weapon Finesse, but since your Dex bonus is super high I guess there's no harm to it, but there might be better feats out there. Will have a think, can't get them off the top of my head.

5) You just get hit in D&D, but as a dwarf knight you should be fine. You could wear heavier armour, but I suppose the max dex thing will affect the number of attacks of op you can make with Combat Reflexes.

Also, the armour check penalty from the armour you wear doesn't apply to your AC, just certain skills. I think your AC would be 10+5(dex)+5(armour)+1(deflection)=21. With medium armour mastery you can boost it to 26.

One possible mod to get you an obscene armour class is to drop your Dex to 16 and take Mithral Full Plate. That way you start with AC 22, boosted to 30 with armour mastery. You attack a bit less accurately, initiative a bit slower and lose attacks of op to do this though. You could drop Weapon Finesse for something else though and boost your strength to make your trips more damaging and likely to go off.

Will think about it some more, but now I need to get my character in

[Learned Hand]

Yeah, without the horsey I'm not so keen on the knight - Inabilty to use a shield as well means I have 2 dead feats. OK- how about these mods?

Drop Dex to 16, and Cha to 6! Boost Strenth to 20 (start at 16 then use progression and gauntlets of ogre str)

Lose knight levels and take more levels in exoticist (mechanically identical to fighter at this point)

Dump weapon finesse

Take weapon focus , weapon specialisation, and.... [EDIT: Exotic Attack – +2 bonus on Trip attempts that the
Exoticist instantiates with an Exotic Weapon, & a +2
bonus on any Disarm roll.

I now have 4 attacks of op (1+dex bonus); my attack roll goes up by 1, and I do 2d6+9 damage instead of 2d6 +3. I can't attract people to me but then I have a reach of 20 foot so I can probably still do a good job protecting people. Cleave is always fun.

My AC goes down 2 but with 93 hp I can kind of take it. In fact, at this point I'm kind of tempted to lose the armour and just go hardcore. With the money saved from that and my bracers and my horse I could probably have some fun...

[Learned Hand]

OK... I'm going to turn the +2 bonus on my spike into a +1 and give it the whirling ability from the MIC - 3 times per day I can attack all opponents within reach. It should cost the same

O - Is that ok and does it indeed cost the same?

Also... am I right in thinking that +1 studded leather with mobility (a +1 bonus) costs 2,025? -1,000 for the +1 and 1,000 for the mobility. Or do they stack to become +2, costing 4,025 - which seems fairer and more intuitive. Is there any way to remove the -1 AC on such an armour?

[bravesirrobin]

I think the Strength based build is better, to be honest cleave is good for computer games - not sure it's that handy for an O written mission - but weapon spec is a must. i'd keep the AC bonuses and enjoy your hit points too. :-)

[oneiros]

Mar 18, 2009 18:58:27 GMT Learned Hand said:

OK... I'm going to turn the +2 bonus on my spike into a +1 and give it the whirling ability from the MIC - 3 times per day I can attack all opponents within reach. It should cost the same

O - Is that ok and does it indeed cost the same?

Also... am I right in thinking that +1 studded leather with mobility (a +1 bonus) costs 2,025? -1,000 for the +1 and 1,000 for the mobility. Or do they stack to become +2, costing 4,025 - which seems fairer and more intuitive. Is there any way to remove the -1 AC on such an armour?

Yeah, if the whirling ability is a +1, then swapping out is fine.

And on the armour, the plussages are summative, so it is a +2 item, not 2x +1 bonuses.

Not quite sure what the -1 AC you're talking about is. If you mean the ACP (Armour Check Penalty), then any magical or masterwork armour is automatically -1 ACP.

As for my writing, I think I can come up with situations for you to use Cleave

[Learned Hand]

O: I meant ACP - thanks.

Everyone: The latest version is at the top. I like him but... what with the studded leather and the spiky chains he's becoming less hardened-warrior-of-the-wilderness and more hairy- man-who-does-bondage-at-weekends than I would have liked.

hmmm. I'm tempted by iron will in exchange for exotic attack. O has already made me try to kill one of JD's characters once.

[johandenerad]

Mar 18, 2009 21:02:27 GMT Learned Hand said:

Everyone: The latest version is at the top. I like him but... what with the studded leather and the spiky chains he's becoming less hardened-warrior-of-the-wilderness and more hairy- man-who-does-bondage-at-weekends

Can't he be both?

The will save is a tiny bit pitiable, but don't worry, if you go spare I can just use my Charm ability on you to get you to fight for us again (the DC is 21, so you ain't making it most of the time).

What does exotic attack do exactly?