Self-Healing, Sneak-attack intimitank

[GunboatDiplomat]

Edit: Have updated changed feats and new equipment as is currently level 15.

Golly, talk about trying to do everything :p. Seeing as someone made a very unkind comment on another thread about my new uber tank (boo hoo, poor little ol' sensitive me) I thought I'd post the build as all the compliments I get would bolster my poor damaged ego. I mean, thats usually what happens when you post a build on a forum right? It's not as if anyone would rip it to shreds... He's only level 8 atm but heres the plan for how he'll look at 16

Name: Gunboat Diplomat
Class: Fighter10/Rogue4/Paladin2
Race: Drow
Allignment: Lawful Stupid

Base Stats:
Str 16 +4(level) +3(Fighter) +1(tome) +6(item)= 30
Dex 16 +1(tome) +6(item) +1 (Rogue) = 24
Con 10 +1(tome) +5(item) = 16
Int 12 +1(tome) = 13
Wis 8
Cha 16 +1(tome) +1(paladin) +6(item) = 24

Final AC Breakdown (Intimitank mode)
10 Base
13 VOD +5 Mithral full plate
6 Dexterity (Fighters Armour Mastery II/Tower Shield Mastery)
1 Paladin
1 Dodge Feat
2 Chaosgarde
4 Protection (VOD armour)
9 Mithral Tower Shield
2 Alchemical Bonus
3 Bark Potion
5 Combat Expertise
1 Haste
4 Green Steel Weapon
----------------
61 Self buffed (no boost)

+2 Rangers Barkskin
+4 Paladin
+2 Recitation
----------------
69 Party buffed

+4 Uncanny Dodge
+3 Fighters Armour Boost II
----------------
76 short term

Final AC Breakdown (Two weapon/evasion mode)
10 Base
10 Breastplate of Destruction
7 Dexterity (Fighters Armour Mastery II)
1 Paladin
1 Dodge Feat
2 Chaosgarde
4 Protection (Breastplate of Destruction)
1 Alchemical Bonus
3 Bark Potion
1 Haste
4 Green Steel Weapon
+5 Combat experitse (if power attack is not on)
+4 Shield wand/cookie
----------------
53 self buffed

+2 Rangers Barkskin
+4 Paladin
+2 Recitation
----------------
61Party buffed

+4 Uncanny Dodge
+3 Fighters Armour Boost II
----------------
68 short term

Feats(6):
Toughness x 2
Combat Expertise
Improved Trip
Skill focus - umd
Force of Persoanlity

Combat Feats(6)
Two Weapon Fighting
Improved Two weapon Figthing
Greater Two weapon Fighting
Improved Critical Piercing
Dodge
Power Attack

Hit Points
20 Base
10 Gianthold Feat
120 Fighter/Paladin
48 Con
36 Toughness x 2
40 fighters Toughness IV
20 Racial Toughness
18 Minos Helm
30 Greater False Life Belt
45 Green Steel item
----------------
411 Total HP

Saves unbuffed
Fort (+4 item/+1 luck) 27 +4 (GH) = 31 self buffed
Reflex (+4 item/+1 luck) 28 +4 (GH) = 32 self buffed (36 uncanny dodge, more vs traps)
Will (+4 item/+1 luck) 24 +4 (GH) = 28 self buffed (31 vs enchantments)

Important Skills:
UMD 19 +7 (cha) +3 (skill focus) +3 (cartouche) +4 (GH) +1 (voice) = 37/39 with rogue skill boost
Intimidate 19 +7 (cha) +13 (item) +4 (GH) +1 (voice) = 44/46 with rogue skill boost
Diplomacy 19 +7 (cha) +13 (item) +4 (GH) +1 (voice) = 44/46 with rogue skill boost
Open lock , umm I'm not sure how many skill point are left but enough to do most chests/doors
Search/disable device - a bridge too far for this build

Curent Item Slots
Headgear - Minos helm/Charisma 6 helm
Goggles - Spare for Greensteel
Necklace - Cartouche
Trinket - Voice of the master/level drain scarabs
Cloak - +6 charisma/+4 Resistance
Belt - Greater False Life
Ring - +5 con
Ring - Baphomet/Striding 20%/
Gloves - +6 Str/+13 open lock
Bracers - Chaosgarde
Boots - +6 Dex/Feather Fall

Strengths:
I built this guy with the idea I would find no raid loot other than shroud items, only use +1 tomes, but would still be able to do the following:

- Intimidate and Tank most mobs (not raid bosses obviously)
- Go twf dps mode (with extra 2d6+6 sneak attack goodness)
- Diplomacy my way out of trouble so I can then:
- Umd heal scrolls (100% chance with rogue boost, 85% without)
- Umd GH scrolls so I don't have to run xorian 100 times
- Have good enough saves to kick the cr@p out of mob casters
- Be really useful in shroyud part 4&5

Weaknesses:
Oooh, hp could be higher, ac could be higher too. No tempest? Must be gimped ;) Why not go dorf and take 6 levels of ranger? Already did that on the european servers (http://community.codemasters.com/forum/showthread.php?t=319022) and while I was very pleased with the result I wanted to try something different this time. Plus I dont have 32 pointers here yet. Because I wanted both 2 levels of pally and at least one level of rogue I'm giving up on the top tier of Prestige enhancements too. But thats ok. Who knows, maybe I'll take my last 4 levels as pally to get Prestige classes from paladin and fighter, albeit only the first tier.

My biggest problem will be convincing pugs of my worth methinks:

'Phoeey, Batmen are sooo 2006'
'4 levels of rogue and you don't do traps? Gimp'
'Two weapon fighter with no tempest? Gimp'
'AC build with no monk splash? Gimp'
'Squishy drow wants to intimitank the orthons in vod? No thanks mate, now go home before you hurt yourself with that big shield'

[Junts]

my main feedback would be that sneak attack and intimidate are very unsynergistic, unless you're gonna use radiance rapier and cleave a lot, in whichcase it could be interesting

[GunboatDiplomat]

my main feedback would be that sneak attack and intimidate are very unsynergistic

True, but when I'm intimidating I'm going to have a shield up so won't be doing great dps anyhow. Its when I'm dual wielding and spamming diplo I'll be doing the dps. Unless I want to pull aggro from a caster in which case I can hit intimidate to instantly do so.

[Noctus]

Viable build. Will get the job done.


And as he isnt "Flavor of the month" (aka high nerv propability) he is future-proof.
When the level cap rises: 2 Fighter / 2 Rogue ?

[GunboatDiplomat]

At only 3k away from level 15 and having just done my first shroud run (err, well wiping on part 4...), I thought I'd give an update because things haven't quite worked out as I expected:

Feats
After a bit of number crunching I realised that Rapier with drow enhancements is nearly as good as khopesh, saving me 2 feats - Khopesh and improved critical slashing. I've chosen dodge and another Toughness enhancement to replace them.

AC
I'm far less squishy when twf than I thought mainly because with my high umd I can use 10 minute shield wands basically whenever I want, meaning I only lose 6ac from not using my mithral tower shield.
Evasion is also proving far more useful than I thought and seeing as I only have a set of +4mfp/+5mbp I'm only losing 1 ac to have evasion all the time. However if I know an upcoming fight does not have aoe spells I still change to the +4mfp. Every 1 ac helps. When I finally get some +5mfp/DT armour and more hp I'll probably change out more often.

HP
Still a bit low. Evasion helps but my ac still isn't quite good enough (56 self buffed) to tank the reaver elite for example without some close clerical attention. Died last night tanking the reaver when I rolled a 1 on disintegrate while on half hp. I need an insight weapon and green steel hp!

Skills
I put too many skill points into jump at lower levels and so my open lock isn't that great and my diplomacy won't be maxed either. Intimidate and umd are maxed though and working very well. Umd in particular is proving much more useful than I anticipated allowing me to teleport around and buff myself with gh/true seeing (after a couple of tries) and being able to use restoration/raise dead scrolls makes me a very cleric-friendly melee in the subterraen. I'm looking forward to using heal scrolls at 15, when I'll finally have sf: umd.

Saves
I've been getting away with not wearing a resistance item so far. I've started grinding the reaver for the head of good fortune to replace deleras trinket and if I can get a +2 cha tome I'll be able to wear a +5 cha/+2 res cloak. Which should be all the save I need really.

DPS
Wow, the extra sneak attack damage (5-15 now, 8-18 at level 16) really adds up. Nothing like a real rogue of course but in comparison to most melees its very respectable indeed. Kill counts have largely been very high although to be fair I have spent a lot of cash on a good weapon selection.

Curent Item Slots
Not enough! As follows:
Headgear - Minos helm
Goggles - Trapblast
Necklace - +5 Protection/Cartouche
Trinket - Voice of the master/level drain scarabs
Cloak - +6 charisma
Belt - Greater False Life
Ring - +5 con
Ring - Baphomet/striding 20%/Resistance +3
Gloves - +6 Str
Bracers - Chaosgarde
Boots - +6 Dex/Feather Fall

The only place I can realistically put a green steel item would be the goggles slot. I can't really see where I can fit anything else. Lets hope I don't find loot the vod goggles the day after :p

Level 20
Final 4 levels will most likely be 2 fighter, 1 paladin, 1 rogue. I don't think I'll have the spare AP for more than one prestige class.

[Aranticus]

4 levels of rogue is way to much for a build with no real rogue skills to speak of. what i suggest is to either get a higher int to get more skill points to load into search/dd or to reduce it to 2 rog.

you have twf feats and using non finesseable weapons. the impact is you need a high strength to hit mobs. you did not max out your strength neither did you take weapon focus feats. in normal endgame content, it may just barely make it with a good bard but with hard/elite content, good luck hitting anything

dps wise, you have no real dps. you are at least 7 damage from regular fighters. this is due to not have weapon specialisation feats (2x2), enhancements (1x2) and also a non maxed out strength

ac calculation is slightly off, pally aura is +2 and u forget bard IH which gives another +4 to ac

[GunboatDiplomat]

4 levels of rogue is way to much for a build with no real rogue skills to speak of. what i suggest is to either get a higher int to get more skill points to load into search/dd or to reduce it to 2 rog.

Well it may be too much in the sense it confuses people who can't understand why you don't do traps but its much better than 2 levels of fighter. I lose 1 feat, 8 hp and armour mastery III, shield mastery III, ie an expensive potential +1 to ac. You will notice I don't lose any BAB. I gain 6.5 sneak attack damage, uncanny dodge and skill points which I really need for open locks and diplomacy.


you have twf feats and using non finesseable weapons. the impact is you need a high strength to hit mobs. you did not max out your strength neither did you take weapon focus feats. in normal endgame content, it may just barely make it with a good bard but with hard/elite content, good luck hitting anything

Of course I didn't max out strength. How on earth would I also have such good saves and combat expertise and two weapon fighting on a 28 point build with no access to tomes beyond +1?

Regarding attack bonus, its true I am 3 behind what I could be. However I have the drow rapier enhancements so am +2 to hit and damage with those, have the sovereign host paladin enhancement giving me +1 to hit with my vorpal longswords and of course critical accuracy III to add 6 to those pesky confirm critical rolls, not to mention the +1 sneak attacking.

So I had no problems keeping up in the kill count on Rainbow elite the other night, even though I did a fair bit of intimidating.

More generally attack bonuses are not half as important as using the right weapons for the right occasion.


dps wise, you have no real dps. you are at least 7 damage from regular fighters. this is due to not have weapon specialisation feats (2x2), enhancements (1x2) and also a non maxed out strength

Actually a lot of the time I have better dps than most fighters, due to 13.5 sneak attack damage. Even if you assume I only sneak attack 50% of the time I’m still on a par. Now if I wanted I could still take a weapon specialisation feat/enhancements by dropping,say improved trip and dodge but I feel I get more bang for my buck as it is.


ac calculation is slightly off, pally aura is +2 and u forget bard IH which gives another +4 to ac

Basic paladin aura is +1 not +2. You can't raise it to +2 until level 3 paladin. Bard songs are few and far between I find so I don't usually include it in ac calculations. That said I did get a couple last night while intimidating the orthons in vod.

Thank you for your interest in my build. If you wish, you may subscribe to my newsletter :p

[Aranticus]

Well it may be too much in the sense it confuses people who can't understand why you don't do traps but its much better than 2 levels of fighter. I lose 1 feat, 8 hp and armour mastery III, shield mastery III, ie an expensive potential +1 to ac. You will notice I don't lose any BAB. I gain 6.5 sneak attack damage, uncanny dodge and skill points which I really need for open locks and diplomacy.



Of course I didn't max out strength. How on earth would I also have such good saves and combat expertise and two weapon fighting on a 28 point build with no access to tomes beyond +1?

Regarding attack bonus, its true I am 3 behind what I could be. However I have the drow rapier enhancements so am +2 to hit and damage with those, have the sovereign host paladin enhancement giving me +1 to hit with my vorpal longswords and of course critical accuracy III to add 6 to those pesky confirm critical rolls, not to mention the +1 sneak attacking.

So I had no problems keeping up in the kill count on Rainbow elite the other night, even though I did a fair bit of intimidating.

More generally attack bonuses are not half as important as using the right weapons for the right occasion.



Actually a lot of the time I have better dps than most fighters, due to 13.5 sneak attack damage. Even if you assume I only sneak attack 50% of the time I’m still on a par. Now if I wanted I could still take a weapon specialisation feat/enhancements by dropping,say improved trip and dodge but I feel I get more bang for my buck as it is.



Basic paladin aura is +1 not +2. You can't raise it to +2 until level 3 paladin. Bard songs are few and far between I find so I don't usually include it in ac calculations. That said I did get a couple last night while intimidating the orthons in vod.

Thank you for your interest in my build. If you wish, you may subscribe to my newsletter :p

like many have mentioned before you can lose some of the feats and pick up some weapon focuses or specialisations. yes you can possibly have better dps than fighters but if you get them, you can be even better than what you are now

sneak attack is sure useful but on an intimidating toon i wouldnt count it in my calculations. if you are intimidating, you are not recieving sneaks, if you are sneaking, then you are not intimidating. that said the sneak attack is really useful if you are the off tank, like in shroud where you do not get 100% agro

ps: do include the enhancements

[GunboatDiplomat]

like many have mentioned before you can lose some of the feats and pick up some weapon focuses or specialisations. yes you can possibly have better dps than fighters but if you get them, you can be even better than what you are now

Taking the weapon focus/specialisation feats on this build would not really make much difference to the offensive capabilities of this build, not least because 80% of the mobs I kill are with effect weapons - vorpals/puncturers/banishers etc. The only feats I could really afford to lose would be one Toughness and the dodge feat. So, +1 to hit/+2 to damage or +1 to ac/+18 hp. Seeing as my con is a bit of the low side and my ac is good but unspectacular I think the latter is better value.

And anyway my dps is already good enough :D


sneak attack is sure useful but on an intimidating toon i wouldnt count it in my calculations. if you are intimidating, you are not recieving sneaks, if you are sneaking, then you are not intimidating. that said the sneak attack is really useful if you are the off tank, like in shroud where you do not get 100% agro

If I'm intimidating I'm usually using a Tower shield and often blocking so my dps will suck anyway.

But actually I find I'm not intimidating all that much. Its useful in different places, especially shroud part II, VOD, reaver and on elite vale quests for example, but I spend most of my time using two weapons and sneak attack numbers come up a lot, depending on my play style.

Another aspect to sneak attacks i hadn't thought of was its a nice way to see if you have aggro from a mob, which can be difficult to tell with some mobs. Its also a nice way to help you regain aggro if you fail an intimidate check.

Regarding enhancements, umm just the usual fighter type ones, strength, critical accuracy, armour boost, haste boost, toughness etc and the drow rapier shortsword ones.