Author Topic: Need help planning end game levels for a high speed martial striker type PC  (Read 2163 times)

Offline Eviltedzies

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Ok I'm playing in mid/high power campaign and we are reaching the upper tier of levels rather quickly. A few things to note:

*All LA's were able to be bought off at significantly reduced xp price.

* Wealth by Level guidlines are thrown out the window. PC's that stumble upon a massive treasure hoarde and live to actually spend it gain whatever the DM actually rolls is there.

* The custom feat allows me to make multiple attacks on a spring attack. I can make an one extra attack for each extra attack my BAB grants. So right now I can make 4 attacks on a spring attack. The DM would not give me pounce so we comprimised on this feat. I cannot gain any extra attacks on a spring attack via haste or flurry.

Books Allowed: Any 3.5 WOTC published books. No dragon magazine or 3rd party publishers. Online content is on a case by case basis.

ECL: 16
Race: Human
Templates: Half-Fey (LA 2 [Fiend Folio]), Shadow (LA 2 [Lords of Madness]), Phantom (DM assigned LA 2 [MM5])
Class: Tenken

Current Stats: Str 19, Dex 22, Con 18, Int 18, Wis 22, Cha 18 (Yes I know they are high, but I used several permanent stat increase items.)
Current Magic Items: Armband of Mindblank (For the Anti-Scry part), Bag of Holding Type IV x4, Earing of Constant Tongues, Rope Trick 3/day trinket, Caster Glove, Ring of Sustenance, Ring of Ghostouch, Faceguard with constant Filter spell [Tome and Blood], Glasses of constant Gazescreen, Vest with constant Greater Mage Armor+ Shield spells, +1 Holy Demon Bane [All types] Katana with custome x3 crit modifier, Necklace with constant Neutralize Poison.

Current Feats
Flaws: Improved Initiative, Exotic Weapon Prof: Katana
1. Quick Draw
3. Weapon Focus: Katana, Dodge*
6. Run, Mobility*, Spring Attack*
9. Custom Feat, Improved Critical: Katana*
12. Improved Unarmed Strike
13. Combat Reflexes*
15. Elusive Target

Currently Planned Feat Build
17. Power Attack*
18. Deflect Arrows
21. Exceptional Deflection
23. Infinite Deflection
24. Reflect Arrows
26. Improved Combat Reflexes
27. ?
29. ?
30. ?

I want to up my characters survivability while also keeping his damage potential high. He is a melee skirmisher/striker type character who is constantly on the move. My main concern is that there are not many epic level feats that fit well for the character. Any suggestions would be well appreciated.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2012, 10:38:00 PM by Eviltedzies »

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Bounding Assault might let you make another attack while using Spring attack, but it sounds like your DM probably based the custom feat on it and won't let it go through.  If it does though, great.

No online stuff, yet you're using an online-only class? Weird.

Speaking of the class, are you set on taking it into epic levels?  Multiclassing into a martial adept like swordsage or warblade would definitely help both on offense and defense because of the maneuvers.

What items do you have so far?  What are your stats, and for ease of reference could you cite where those templates come from?

Offline zioth

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Improved Combat Reflexes probably isn't worth it, unless you have a ton of feats to increase the number of AoOs you get (or just Robilar's Gambit).

Can you do a fair amount of damage in a single strike? If so, you can't go wrong with Spellcasting Harrier.

Fast Healing is also nice. It doesn't help much in combat, but you can heal completely in a few minutes, freeing up some of the cleric's spells.

You also might consider the epic feat that gives you +30 speed. The longer your spring attack, the better defended you are.

Offline Eviltedzies

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Added stats, major magic items, and template references.

I would like to continue to take the Tenken into epic levels ONLY for the level 30 ability. Other than that it would be much more beneficial for me to take a few levels of Swordsage or Warblade.

My damage output is honestly highly variable until I get power attack. On an average attack I do 1d10+10 damage. So avarage of about 15 points of damage per hit. My critical range is 15-20 so when I do crit I'm hitting for an average of 45 damage. When I can I always try to Iajutsu strike, but having to catch the foes flat footed makes it not always reliable. Once I get power attack my damage will jump quite a bit. Using the phantom template to make all my attacks as touch attacks will help too.

I already have fast healing 2 from Shadow Template. My speed is already rather fast with the Tenken speed bonus. At epic level an extra 30 feet is not worth an epic level feet for. At least thats my opinion.

I only went with the Deflect Arrows route because it reduces the chance my character will be hit by any form of ranged attack.

Offline Unbeliever

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I don't know about the homebrew class so can't really comment on that, but with regards to Epic Level feats (many of which sort of suck or have ultra-annoying pre-reqs, a problem I've run into with some of my characters), I have a couple of suggestions. 

@damage output:  if all your attacks are touch attacks (from the phantom template, which I don't know off the top of my head), then power attack will give you sufficient damage output. 

Otherwise, you could use your swift action to make opponents flat-footed via a wand(s) of Insightful Feint and Improved Feint and Suprising Riposte.  That would lead you to focus fire on one opponent, but that's not necessarily bad.  I also like doing something similar with Blend into Shadows, but then you need Darkness as a spell-like at will.  That requires 1 level dip into something like Warlock, though you might be able to get it from a template.  The feinting route seems more in line with your character, though. 

Oh, and take STAGGERING CRITICAL.  With your high crit range and the fact that you move around, it's death to any melee opponents. 

@epic level feats:  if you go with iaijutsu focus there's the Improved Iaijutsu Focus as an obvious one. 

You already have Deflect Arrows, and I can very much see how that fits the character.  Extending it to Exceptional Reflection and so on in epic levels might be really nice.  You won't have to worry about much in the way of mundane attacks, but you will get hammered by various rays, et al. 

You don't stay close to people, I expect, which is a great defense at high levels, but also makes something like Spellcasting Harrier kind of useless.  I could see taking Robilar's Gambit, by the way, if your melee damage is really high.  Though I agree with Zioth -- your Dex is high enough that Improved Combat Reflexes will pretty much never come into play.

Finally, I'd suggest Devastating Critical.  It has annoying pre-reqs and the save DC will be fairly low, but your crit range is going to be quite wide, and you have a lot of attacks per round.  It's bound to murder somebody sometimes.  I'd probably get that after the Exceptional Deflection, though.