Author Topic: The Ardent Handbook: Dominating the Mantles - by Samb Discussion  (Read 3953 times)

Offline billking

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This thread is for discussing The Ardent Handbook: Dominating the Mantles - by Samb.

In terms of that, I've got a couple Ardent "Nightcrawler" builds to share. In the Warlock Handbook discussion thread, I describe why Warlock-based Nightcrawler builds do not work as intended, and recommend Ardent instead.

The objective of a good Nightcrawler build is:
1) pick up the Shadow Pounce class feature somehow. This feature lets us perform a free full attack immediately after teleporting (the combination of teleportation and free attacks is hereafter referred to as bamfing). Unfortunately this is only available to two classes, Crinti Shadow Marauder (Shining South) and Telflammar Shadow Lord (Unapproachable East), unfortunately both Forgotten Realms exclusive. If DM says no, a distant second is the Sun School feat (Complete Warrior), which requires flurry of blows and therefore probably a level in monk. There are ways to work with that, the best of which are in Eberron Campaign Setting, noted below. Without access to Shadow Pounce or Sun School, bamfing is pretty much impossible.
2) we need a cheap, reusable swift-action bamf. This is where the Ardent shines: pseudo-exclusive access to the Freedom Mantle 1st-level power Dimension Hop. I think other psionic classes might be able to pick it up with the Expanded Knowledge feat, but that costs a feat on what will be a feat-starved character. Costing only 1 power point makes it essentially free; no other class can come close on this one.
3) we need a cheap, reusable standard-action bamf. Technically Warlocks own this one, because starting at 6th warlock level they can bamf at will with Flee the Scene. However, they can't really seal the deal on points #2 or #4, while Ardent competes with Dimension Slide form the Conflict mantle. The design of the power point system lends itself to spamming low-level abilities many, many times in exchange for less uses of higher-level powers, so paying this 5pp cost over and over again isn't that hard.
4) we need a reusable move-action bamf. It doesn't have to be cheap anymore really, because there isn't much competition in this category. Actually, the only other move-action teleport I'm aware of is the Shadow Stride manuever (Tome of Battle), which is unfortunately limited to once per encounter. Meanwhile, an Ardent can just augment his Dimension Slide by paying 4pp more to make it a move action.
5) high BAB. Points 1-4 just give us a lot of full attacks per round. A lot. However, if we can't hit with those attacks, there was no point in jumping through all these hoops.

Add it all together and you have 3 full attacks per round, by bamfing swift/move/standard, while getting some free movement in as part of the bamfs themselves, for the cost of 15pp per round.  Pile on as many damaging weapon enhancements and start on some 20-hit ultra combos. Of course, if you can't get Shadow Pounce, you'll have to settle for 6 near-full-BAB attacks per round, plus the free movement. I don't know if that's viable or not; something tells me it doesn't really compete with your standard optimized Daring Outlaw build.

In any case, here's some examples.

Shadow Pounce Nightcrawlers (Forgotten Realms)
1. Human Shadow Marauder
Whether you can run this depends on your DM. The requirements for Crinti Shadow Marauder require you to either be Crinti or "have the official sanction of the nobility of Dambrath," who are a bunch of half-drow with a history of enslaving/persecuting humans. He might make it impossible, or he might allow it (although probably not without some serious RP). Slayer can be either Illithid Slayer (Extended Psionics Handbook) or Slayer (SRD website).
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8
(click to show/hide)
Starting at level 10 you can charge then bamf, pretty much infinite/day; at level 12 you can double-bamf (unfortunately you can't augment until ML >= pp cost after augments) 5/day, less if you use some pp on other stuff; at level 16 you can triple-bamf 5/day, again assuming you don't waste many pp elsewhere; by level 20 you can triple-bamf 11/day.

2. Crinti (Half-Drow) Shadow Marauder
This doesn't end as good as the human version, but I included it because your DM may force you to go Crinti to get into the key class. Chances are if you can't get into Crinti Shadow Marauder as human, you can't rules-lawyer your way into Telflammar Shadowlord by beating the dimension door requirement in some exotic way (it even says spell, not power, if DM really wants to hose you). As it turns out, the half-drow version isn't all bad. Being forced into more levels of ranger gets you a free, and very useful, Two-Weapon Fighting feat, but with less ardent levels you lose precious power points, so it's a trade-off of sorts; less pp, one more feat. Not actually that bad of a trade for a melee machine like this one. Plus, crinti look more like Nightcrawler anyway.
Str 14, Dex 16, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8
(click to show/hide)
Starting at level 10 you can charge then bamf, but with only 8pp you can actually count how many times per day; at level 14 you can double-bamf (two levels later than human version) 5/day; at level 18 (again 2 levels later) you can triple-bamf 5/day, again assuming you don't waste many pp elsewhere; by level 20 you can triple-bamf 8/day, 3 times less than the human version at same level.

Tashalatora Nightcrawlers (Eberron)
These are basically straight Ardents, who just happen to have the Freedom mantle (and usually Conflict as well), with a one-level dip into monk. Eberron allows them to grab Monastic Training (Eberron Campaign Setting) at first level, then the Tashalatora feat (Secrets of Salorna) later, which allows Ardent levels to count for monk's flurry of blows, bonus to AC, and unarmed strike damage. At level 6 or 9, pick up the Sun School feat, and enjoy your Dimension Hops.

Also, you can definitely use some Two-Weapon Fighting type feats; just check out official rules clarifications here -- especially the example with the monk and the longspear. What it says is: if you're holding a longspear, you can make the same unarmed attacks you would without the longspear, at the same bonuses to hit, and get the longspear attacks on top, at the normal main-hand two-weapon fighting penalties... AND you can designate the longspear as off-hand, so while holding it you can still charge with unarmed strike if you wish. So be sure to get Two-Weapon Fighting, Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, and -- if your DM will allow you to use it with Sun School -- Dual Strike (Complete Adventurer), which might let you make 2 attacks per bamf, one main-hand and one off-hand. I think it actually might not, since Dual Strike says you get to make one attack at your highest BAB -- not that you can make one standard attack. Consult your DM on that one.

While Tashalatora Nightcrawlers are not nearly as bamf-y as their Shadow Pounce counterparts, they make up for this with just being much more flexible spellcasters. A one-level dip away from a full-casting, cleric-BAB class is still going to be a pretty versatile character.

Alternately, it's important to note that Psychic Warrior is considerably more combat-oriented than Ardent, also works with Tashalatora, and can probably pick up Dimension Hop pretty early with the Expanded Knowledge feat. Spending the feat isn't such a big deal because Psychic Warriors get a bunch of bonus feats anyway (and Expanded Knowledge is a valid bonus feat). Psychic Warriors also get Dimension Slide automatically. So for a dedicated melee nightcrawler, Psychic Warriors might make for a better build. Ardents might lose this one, at least in Eberron.

Vanilla Sun School Nightcrawlers (non-Realms, non-Eberron)
These sad folks are very similar to the Tashalatora Nightcrawlers, except they can't advance both classes at once. However, if you can get the Dual Strike wording in your favor, there still might be some goodness here to be had.

The good news here is because we aren't worried about Tashalatora progression, we can more freely multiclass into things like Slayer, Sanctified Mind, etc. to keep our BAB high, and that because we're more likely to do this, psychic warrior with its bonus feats looks a lot less appealing than Ardent with its larger pp pool. So Ardents win this one too.
« Last Edit: March 04, 2012, 09:52:03 PM by billking »