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Messages - allhaillaharl

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Min/Max 3.x / Re: [3.P] Optimize me Senpai!
« on: March 01, 2016, 11:18:31 AM »
Quote from: Keldar on February 29, 2016, 08:20:14 PM

You should be able to go Tefflamar Shadowlord 5/Swiftblade 8 on your A side.   Unless you choose to use your B side to get into Swiftblade before Shadowlord, you won't be able to get the last 2 levels of Swiftblade thanks to needing to have 7levels before you can enter TSl.

Perhaps it might be more worthwhile to instead go Telflammar Shadowlord 4/Swiftblade-9.

Quote from: Keldar on February 29, 2016, 08:20:14 PM

I can't find any Sun School feat, no clue what you are talking about.  But damn are all your feats eaten up.  3 for prerequisites.  3 for more shadow pouncing.  (And Dimensional Dervish requires BAB +6 so you can't get it till later.  And looking at the wording, I'm not sure if its useful to you since you can get move action teleports.  In nigh infinite number.)  You should have 1 feat for Weapon Finesse, or whatever the Sun School thing is.

The Sun School feat is buried in Complete Champion. It gives access to three tactical maneuvers, but it's the third that happens to be relevant. It reads as follows:
Flash of Sunset: To use this maneuver, you must move adjacent to a foe instantaneously, as with a dimension door spell or the monk's abundant step class feature. If you do so, you can immediately make a single attack at your highest attack bonus against that foe.
http://www.realmshelps.net/charbuild/feat/Sun_School

So any time I teleport I get a free attack at my highest BAB which also stacks with haste. At the cost of a single feat, it seems absolutely fantastic considering there are few reasons not to dip at least monk-2 to pick up Dodge and Mobility. It seems especially efficient if an encounter lasts longer than my spells/day, as I can get some minimal value from recurring Swordsage's Shadow Jaunt and/or a move action teleport. Also, apart from Totemist-2, with the blink shirt, what other methods of infinite move action teleports are available to me? I think I might have missed something lol.

As for the Dimensional Agility chain + Sun School: Dimensional Dervish adds a number of sun school attacks where (N=Base-speed/5). After Shadowpounce, N becomes number of full attacks instead of single attacks. And finally the capstone, Dimensional Savant, allows us to flank unassisted, making all attacks sneak attacks as well. As far as I am aware/concerned, this ability stacks with the extra teleports granted by the TSL's Shadow Jump ability.

Quote from: Keldar on February 29, 2016, 08:20:14 PM
As to your SLA- Dimension Door!  Lets you meet the Shadowlord prerequisite.

Most likely. I had also toyed with the idea of a shadow-themed Wraithstrike, or the class ability granted by TSL-5 (Shadow Discorporation), some sort of Invisibility, or some sort of Mirror Image.[/quote]


Quote from: Keldar on February 29, 2016, 08:20:14 PM
Oh, by the by, Monk and Swordsage AC don't stack.  Mostly because one requires armor and the other doesn't work in armor.


Well damn. Though I guess between a single Wis to AC and the various forms of partial concealment, I'll be tanky enough as is.

You have all but convinced me that the B-side should likely be full caster, we just stand to gain so much from it. so I suppose my next iteration of the build would be
                                                                                                                              A Side
Wizard-6/Abjurant Champion-1/Eldritch Knight-1/Abjurant Champion+4/Eldritch Knight+7
                                                                                                                                   B Side
Thug-3(Sneak attack Fighter Variant)/Monk-3/Totemist-2/Telflammar Shadowlord-4/Swiftblade-9

The loss of Swordsage hurts as we lose access to Dex to Damage from the Shadow Blade feat, but I can't think of any configuration that lets us pick up a single level of swordsage and also have access to 4th level spells at Level 7.

Here is what I think our reqs and stuff layout looks like, hopefully.
(click to show/hide)

Post Thoughts, areas of potential further optimization?
If we could somehow sneak a single level of swiftblade in at any point before level 7, our Spring Attack feat can instead be Sun School, which would in turn be replaced by Dimensional Dervish for a non-insignificant increase to our damage output. Even a single level of Swordsage allows us to qualify for the Shadowblade feat. Perhaps Totemist could be moved around to a later level, especially if we can take Swiftblade earlier for free Spring Attack, or even removed entirely if there are other avenues of gaining the ability to teleport as a move action. We're getting there though!

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Min/Max 3.x / [3.P] Optimize me Senpai!
« on: February 29, 2016, 04:05:46 PM »
   Hello there Brilliant Gameologists! I've found myself a challenge I won't be able to overcome without you all. I will also preface this post with an apology; I'm posting this from my phone, sorry in advance for any really strange formatting. So let's get down to it, I suppose. I will be joining a campaign in a week or so, and I had a relatively unoriginal thought for a character that I wanted to play, and would fit nicely into our proposed party. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the experience necessary to optimize the build. I gave it my best shot (See Mumen Rider, Episode 9 of One Punch Man) but I have a good feeling we'll be able to work out the kinks with just a little more advice!

   I tried to get as much information about the campaign and how he plans to run it as I could, and these are the things I was told.
      -All WoTC and/or Pathfinder material, including dragon magazines are fair game with only one exception, Psionics are illegal.
      -Was tentatively open to Homebrew, as long as he checked out and okayed it.
      -We will be gestalt characters, all starting at Level 7. (Didn't distinguish between CL and ECL. Open to LA buyoff)
      -No multiclassing penalties of any kind, because that would be rude.
      -Skill points and Feat acquisition are per Pathfinder rules
      -Assume 32 point buy.
      -Edit: We start with 21k gold.
      -I haven't heard anything about taking flaws, but I feel that the DM could be convinced if necessary.
      -Not sure if relevant, but the campaign will take place on Faerun.
      ~He wants us each to come up with a 1/day SLA unique to our character. He would also like it to have a drawback of a sort.

   
   As for the character himself, I plan to name him "Jitters", due in part to a particularly hilarious conversation I had with a friend about a Swiftblade with the Craven feat. The party urged me to consider playing a non-specific Sneaky Mc.Daggerson, and after a fair deal of homework delving through threads on this board, I came to the conclusion that my dream is to play a form of Multi Tele/Shadow Pouncer. (Another apology: I'm sorry if this post seems to jump around or otherwise seem scatterbrained and nonsensical, I'm not very skilled in organizing my thoughts - one of my motivations to seek your help.) For Jitter's race, I looked at a few options but two in particular stood out to me. Whisper Gnome seemed like an amazing find as far as optimization is concerned, and is also likely spot on as far as flavor goes. Catfolk and Lesser Tiefling weren't flavor hits, but do offer a nice array of stats, especially if the Whisper Gnome's -2 Con penalty paired with the Shadow-Walker template would be too crippling.

   These are things that I really want to work with;
      -I'm definitly more interested in going the Telflammar Shadowlord route as opposed to the Crinti Shadow Marauder.
      -Pathfinder's "Dimensional Agility" feat chain, and the Sun School feat are a must-have.
      -For the love of god, can we make Jitters a Swiftblade as well?
      -Hide in Plain Sight + Swiftblade psuedo-concealment = super happy fun times

   These are things I am opposed to working with:
      -Ruby Knight Vindicator. I know this is good. Too good, perhaps, for this campaign.
      -Unarmed anything. I'm fairly commited to wielding daggers or Quickrazors.

   So this is where things become difficult for me, partly because there are so many damn options available. This is a vague idea of what I have so far.

Totemist-2/Cobra Strike Monk-2/Swordsage-2/Telflammar Shadowlord-1   ///Class(s) X
   
   I know very little about Totemist besides the facts that it meets the requirements of 3/4 BAB class with cool stuff, ie Blink Shirt soulmeld. I feel like I read somewhere that feats can be invested here to increase the Blink Shirt's effectiveness, but I believe we'll be extremely feat starved, and it's pretty great without any additional investment. Cobra Strike Monk gives us a whole slew of goodies in addition to meeting the 3/4 BAB req. Flurry of Blows is required to take the Sun School feat, and the two level dip also gives us both Dodge and Mobility which are required further on in the build for Telflammar Shadowlord. Wis to AC also can't hurt. (On a side note, does the Wis to AC from Monk stack with the Wis to AC from Swordsage?) Swordsage-2 will qualify net us Shadow Hand maneuvers, and Assassin's Stance which will satisfy the sneak attack requirements of Telflammar Shadowlord. (Side note: is Adaptive Style an auto-include here?) Then I believe as per Pathfinder's skill rules, I believe we can qualify for Telflammar Shadowlord at level 7 as opposed to level 8, which will get us to Shadow Pounce one level sooner. From that point onwards, I had planned on Telflammar Shadowlord-4/Swiftblade 9. I would sell my soul to get that last level of Swiftblade, and perhaps my firstborne for the last two levels of Telflammar Shadowlord, but if I have to, I will make due without them.

   That leaves the other half of the gestalt build largely up in the air, so I can do little more than offer you the ideas I had, and hope that you can forge them into a shining paragon of optimization.

   -Wizard of any amount of levels would be greatly beneficial (I think). At the very least, it will allow more casts of Dimension Door, and will likely reward us with the ability to cast other spells to enhance our arsenal such as Wraithstrike, Haste (Swiftblade please!), invisibility of varying flavors etc. I had also read something about the Abrupt Jaunt ACF, but as far as I'm aware, it's only available to the Conjurer Variant... Unfortunately I have no interest mechanically on summoning anything, and it also doesn't fit the flavor of the character I'd like to create. But perhaps I've missed something.
   
   -Arcane Swordsage Variant, assuming Adaptive Style: Seems to be a great choice assuming we can pick up relevant spells. What would we replace the two levels of Swordsage with in the first half of the gestalt build if we decided to take a hefty amount of levels on this side? Also, I believe that semantically, casting Haste in this manner does not satisfy the prerequisites of Swiftblade. But I suppose an argument could be made that it simply does, and I believe that argument would be enough for our DM

   -Rogue of any amount of levels seem good. Tons of skill points, more sneak attack dice.
   -Assassin - A single level dip might be great at some random even-numbered level of rogue, if we go that route, as it offers a +sneak attack, and spells at first level.

   -Swiftblade: For the love of god PLEASE. Honestly I'm not sure if trying to get into this PrC quickly is the path we want to take, despite it literally being the coolest thing ever. Also, if we ended up taking it here, what do we replace it with on the other half of the gestalt build?
   
   -Duskblade?
   -Daggerspell Mage?
   -Eldritch Knight/Abjurant Champion?
   -Fighter, perhaps just for feats, if need be?
   -Any other suggestions?

If at any point in this build we have superfluous feats, there are certainly things that I would love to acquire, such as
   -Weapon Finesse. This might be borderline required.
   -Shadowblade. Extra bonus points if we can grab Gloom Razor as well.
   -Craven.
   -Darkstalker
   -TWF feat chain
   -Other Suggestions?

   If at all possible, once I/we get some sort of build together, will you Brilliant Gameologists help me compile an ordered list of the feats I/we take, and when/how we acquire them just so our DM won't be able to call us on foul play?

ERRATA: I also don't have a great idea of what to do for our given SLA. The DM hasn't said much about it, but I assume it is somehow plot related. Ideas are not just welcome, but encouraged.

And to finalize this shoddy wall of text, I'd like to thank you for (hopefully) humoring me and taking the time to read this. Even bigger thanks for anyone who spends time and energy thinking and/or replying to me!

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D&D 3.5 and Pathfinder / Seeking Help Optimizing a Charging Barbarian!
« on: August 20, 2014, 05:19:14 PM »
Hello there MinMaxers! A quick disclaimer; I'm not entirely sure if this is the place to post

this. If not, apologies!

Preface:
  • A member of our DnD group was asked to leave the table more or less permanently. This left

    a void in the core party, and a melee damage dealer is now needed to replace him. My original

    character in the group will now be played by our DM as an NPC, and I'm to create a new

    beatstick. As we have a Paladin in the party who acts more or less as a tank, I decided that I

    wanted to try some sort of shock and awe melee combatant, and immediately became enamored by

    the Shock Trooper feat. I'd like to build a character around this, if at all possible, which

    is why I know beseech the MinMaxers for aid in optimizing said character.

About our Campaign:
  • Our Campaign takes place in a modified Dark Suns setting. To shorten an otherwise long

    story, the party has been stripped of their destiny, and are now "Divines", fledgling deities

    tasked with restoring the shattered Elemental Plane, thusly repairing their ravaged world, and

    ascending to true godhood. What this means mechanically is that each of our characters exist

    both in the Material Realm, and the Divine Realm. Each "side" of each character is it's own

    separate entity (and character sheet), and gains in one realm do not transfer to gains in the

    other. That is, until a series of tasks are completed in both realms, allowing the Divines'

    sparks to merge with their physical bodies, becoming Gods, and combining all character

    classes, feats, ability scores, etc, into one character sheet with a maximum of Level 40

    (assuming the character had attained level 20 in each Realm). The only downside of this

    "merging" is that when one becomes a Divine, his 'self' in the Divine Realm is identical to

    his physical form, i.e., we can't achieve 100% efficiency as some levels and feats will

    overlap.
  • Our party currently consists of a Paladin, a Beguiler, a TWF Ranger, a Battlemage, and a

    very poorly optimized Rogue/Swashbuckler. Each party member is Level 8, which is also the

    Level my character will be upon creation. Overall, the party functions well enough for the

    challenges our DM throws at us, but we are by no means strong, and have mad quite a bit of

    trouble facing creatures with high Damage Reduction and/or immunity to crits.
  • Our DM is very flexible, and will accept nearly anything that comes from official Wizards

    of the Coast literature - But has a zero tolerance policy on Homebrews, and psionics.
  • Unfortunately, our DM is very stingy with items and gold. This character can only have

    ~11,000 gold pieces worth of gear

TLDR;
  • I'd like your help building a Level 8 Charging Ragebeast without delving into homebrews

    or psionics.

Rolled Ability Scores
  • 16, 15, 14, 14, 11, 9

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Introduce Yourself / Hey there!
« on: August 20, 2014, 04:23:10 PM »
Hello there Min-Max boards! My name is irrelevant, Male, age 22. I have degrees in Biology and Chemistry, and am pursuing a Masters in Nursing, and I rather enjoy Dungeons & Dragons, League of Legends, and Magic the Gathering when I have time to partake. I'm currently in a modified Pathfinder/3.5 campaign of my DM's invention, and some time in the future, I plan to DM a Kingmaker campaign of my own!

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