The Holy Kensai (dual smiter)

[maddong]

I was originally trying to come up with a build to get a 2 hander with decent ac as an alternative to all of those dual wielding ac ranger builds. This required combining monk wisdom with a high level paladin aura. I then thought this would be a great opportunity to try and abuse the paladin smite/divine sacrifice enhancements. I was originally going to make a halfling for optimum ac but then decided to take the rapier enhancements and use the displacement marks until greensteel clickies could be made.

Elf
(alternative would be halfling for +sneak hit/damage)
Monk 2/Paladin 14
(alternative would be monk 2/paladin 13/wizard 1 for shield spell/wands/extend)
S 16 +4level +6item = 26/+8
D 16 +1tome +6item +2enh = 25/+7
C 12
I 12 +1tome
W 14 +6item +1tome +1enh = 22/+6
C 8 +6item +2enh = 16/+3saves

Feats:
1 dodge
2 toughness (to unlock the paladin enhancement)
1 twf (or thf)
3 oversized twf (or two weapon defense if you want AC)
6 combat expertise (I'm using stunning blow currently)
9 itwf (or ithf)
12 gtwf (or gthf)
15 improved crit

AC while dual wielding or using a two hander
10base +7dex +6wis +8armor +4aura +1centered +3barkpot +5defl +1dodge +1alchemalrobe
= 46 +5combexp
= 51 +4shieldclickie (much more convenient if you take 1 level of wizard)
= 55
If you are grinding then +4greensteel +3dodgering +4 dodgerobe = 66 standing ac without haste, 67 with +2 dex tome.
This would increase to 68 at the next level cap when you pick up the +4 aura ac enhancement.
You could raise this to 69 with two weapon defense (pretty good for a strength build dual wielder).

If you take a level of wizard it would have to be after level 12 unless you want to delay GTWF.
Taking wizard you would lose your dual +5 holy burst weapons and Exalted Smite III (& eventually ESIV).
Halfling would get you 1 AC and +3hit/+6dam while sneaking (vs continuous +2hit/+2dam dual rapiers).
A dwarf/warforged build would cost you 2 AC (6 for wf now that there is a +4 dodge robe)... and rapiers are going to be the best weapons for dual smites.

So with exalted smite III each holy burst rapier will get the smite damage bonus (49 damage at level 14) PLUS crit on a 14-20 for x4 damage (49 x4).
With divine sacrifice II each holy burst rapier will crit on a 15-20 for x3 damage PLUS 7d6 light damage and this works on non evil targets!
Each of the cooldowns will be 3 seconds....
That will be some pretty good burst damage!

[maddong]

Updated for the recent discoveries/changes (+4 dodge robe, divine sacrifice).

If you went dex build instead you would gain +3 ac (2 points from switching dex and strength, 4 points from levelup) but have to drop something for weapon finesse.

You could also situationally increase your ac by 1 with dual kamas or quarterstaffs, and 5 more with your action boost if you can fit in the AP (I'm only using the first level of it because AP are a bit tight).

Leveling has been easy.

[Dawnblade]

I can't check now but doens't rapier count as light weapon for the purpose of TWF? If so, would you need oversized TWF if you are planning on using rapiers?

[maddong]

It is finessable but not light. So you need it for dual rapiers.

I mainly took it for convenience with leveling so that I could always dual the best possible weapons with all these slots they gave us.

[wolfy42]

oversided TWF only affects your AB.....which isn't a big factor here (it'll be super high anyway).

It's not needed for either dual rapiers (if your going finess build) or dual khopesh.


Dual rapiers do have a much larger crit range....and the added bonus of not needing to use a feat.

Khopesh though have the highest damage per dual attack advantage in the game (ok I guess dual pick axes would possibly eek out a bit more...but not nearly as often...and there are other penalties as well).


Khopesh gives you a 16-20 crit range at x5

Rapier gives you a 14-20 crit range at x4


the rapiers crit 10% more often.....which is nice......but the khopesh do the highest numbers which is fun...and also useful.

Main difference is you can't finess Khopesh.


So if your going for a high dex finess build use the rapiers.

If your going for a high damage build with the highest crits possible go with the khopesh (or possibly pickaxes).


The pickaxe though has only a crit range of 18-20....with a x6 multiplier. It can get slightly higher damage totals though...and more importantly it can be used along with the rapier build (so again if your strength based your golden).

The advantage here is you again save a feat (no need for finess since your still strength based) but you can switch between rapiers and pickaxes at will depending if you want crit range......or max DPS.

For instance...you could switch to the pick axes JUST when you plan on using your Exaulted smites......when your using your divine sacrifices you can just use dual rapiers.

[maddong]

For smites, rapier will be 7 x 3 extra critical damage vs 5 x 4 for khopesh (eventually 8x3 and 6x4; ie equal when you get to 18 paladin, currently rapier is barely better).
Rapier you get more frequent critical specials and can use w/p if you have them.
Rapiers also let you add a +2h/+2d racial bonus to them.

For sacrifice they will also tie (6 x 2 rapier vs 4 x 3 khopesh).

If you aren't doing elf you can burn a feat for khopesh.

I'm eventually going to use twd and ce instead of osw and stun. Or if I have any trouble hitting at all with dual rapiers CE I'll keep osw.

[sickle423]

it would be a awsome build....except for one thing,* the only weapons you can duel wield and remain centered (which activates ALL of your monk abilities) is Kamasi hate to say it but you built your entire build around a flawed premise :-(

[Ryavin]

You just don't build up Ki if you are uncentered

2 Monk levels gets you
evasion
two feats
+3 saves
Wis bonus to AC

Yeah, I would say that is flawed.

Oh, and you DO NOT need to be centered to get all those bonuses listed above.

[RavenStormclaw]

Nice Build Maddong.

For the record rapier is a light weapon. Only light weapons are finnesseable. Plus I dual wield rapiers on my rogue with no penalty for wiedling a rapier in my off hand.

Raven.

[Aurochys]

I've been looking at a 2HF build myself. I wanted 2HF, but I wanted something with a little self healing so I've been looking at BarbarianX/Ranger1. This looks pretty interesting too. I guess if they remove the Wis bonus to AC thing, I could always fall back on regular armor. <Shrug> Wouldnt be the end of the world, I wouldn't be setup as an AC Tank anyway.

Also, I'm pretty sure that Rapiers are the exception to the rule. That is, they are Medium weapons that happen to be finesseable.

[sickle423]

i was under the impression that the wisdom bonus to ac only applyed when you were centered this is what i have seen with my monk.

haha so i just logged my monk on and equiped a bastard sword, funny thing, even though i was informed that i was uncentered, i did not lose the centered bonus to my armor class OR my wisdom bonus, this has to be a bug

[Korvek]

You should retain your wisdom bonus to armor class even while not wielding monk weapons.

[Jondallar]

Nice Build Maddong.

I dual wield rapiers on my rogue with no penalty for wiedling a rapier in my off hand.


incorrect unless u have oversized twf, rapiers are large light weps, except the fell ice rapier which counts as a small light wep:)

[bobbryan2]

i was under the impression that the wisdom bonus to ac only applyed when you were centered this is what i have seen with my monk.

haha so i just logged my monk on and equiped a bastard sword, funny thing, even though i was informed that i was uncentered, i did not lose the centered bonus to my armor class OR my wisdom bonus, this has to be a bug

It's not actually a bug.

[bobbryan2]

I just did a similar build... Halfling. Wanting to work with the twinning of smites.

Pretty similar stat allocation, though I didn't bother with combat expertise. I've been pleased.

[Lewcipher]

Nice Build Maddong.

For the record rapier is a light weapon. Only light weapons are finnesseable. Plus I dual wield rapiers on my rogue with no penalty for wiedling a rapier in my off hand.

Raven.

You still have to have Oversized TWF to not get penalized for dual wielding rapiers. It is light, but the following constitute non-penalized off-hand weapons:

Hand Axe
Light Pick
Dagger
Halfling (just a good all around weapon)
Kama
Kukri
Sickle?

I might be missing something in the list...please feel free to correct.

[Lewcipher]

You should retain your wisdom bonus to armor class even while not wielding monk weapons.

The only time you lose your AC bonus to monk is when you equip armor or a shield. You are correct sir.

[Redcoil]

Think about a WF str build - also stunning blow. WF enhancements to combat feats +3 to trip/stun etc, and Improved Power Attack +3 on top of normal, with khopeshs is not just 3 a hit but also 9 a khop crit, 12 onDS and 15 on smite above the normal.

you only really need 12 wis - 1 ench, 1 tome, 6 item for 20.
Runes, etc at 20.
Also composite plating doesn't count as armor, so while you lose the dodge robe, you can use a docent and chaosguardes just fine.
Docent of defiance, titan docent, etc. Isn't white dragon docent +6, anyway?

If I wasn't allergic to WF, I'd so do it anyway...