20 THF survivability/dire charge cc/dps trade offs. INT or STR build?

[lotsfan]

"Brilliant axe murderer"?

Is this the best way to maximize the top 3 important goals of a THF wade in and stun and kill and not die ideal?

THF dps, dire charge, and extra reflex saves....

Big three ideas of it are:

INT instead of strength to damage to:

Max KTA in harper tree.

and

Max insightful reflexes for extra pre heavy armor mrr damage mitigation from reflex saves on big aoe caster groups, and champ casters.

While losing minimal dps from a few strength vs Int opportunities in EDs and trees.


36 point build.

20 fighter.

You max Int, leave strength maybe 14 or 15 to get cleaves, GTHF etc at reasonable levels via tomes.

Forget stunning blow and improved trip and just uses dire charge late game for cc.

HUGE maxed out Int score for KTA and Int to damage from harper tree. Nice extra skills to concentration and heal for lay on hands/light the dark twist for 5 big heals even in reaper.

Lose a few strength points from some typical EDs and 2 from kensai tree. Basically losing 5 main stat there. Being in proper melee EDs and trees you can't grab the 5-6 lost strength as int.

However are gaining a huge boost to reflex saves with insightful reflexes, and bigger insight bonus to damage, and even bigger insight bonus to dire charge stun.

Again is this the best way to maximize the top 3 important goals of a THF dps, dire charge, and extra reflex saves?

I have a couple or a few of every past life and pretty much every piece of gear in the game for a THF fighter or pally. Nice crafting. Been playing 7 years. So gear/stats/DCs not a huge issue.

I am not seeing any major tradeoffs? Strength vs Int. Couple points here and there, less single mob tactics etc.

Int instead of Str though I am seeing several big benefits.

I feel like I figured out a no brainer here. Am I missing something major? (except "roll a caster/ranged" "youll have to explain why you can't pull levers" "your wife will have to open the ketchup" "be an elf" etc non purposes/points of the theory)

[SpartanKiller13]

No matter how high your Reflex gets, in heavy armor you're not qualified for evasion and as such you'll still take half damage pre MRR. Might be viable for an evasion build, but you could be Str maxed Int secondary and get a higher stat while also having decent saves?

Basically what it looks like is you're maxing Int instead of Str because it also applies to Reflex save while still applying to damage?
Does KTA work with Strategic Combat II? Giving 1.5x stat modifier as a base? That would be weird. If it does I see where you're coming from. I'll have to test later.

Consider Paladin as a counterpoint. With Divine Grace and Divine Might it's usually better to max Cha, because you get half of it back to Str as well as it applying straight to all saves.

[unbongwah]

Nice extra skills to concentration and heal for lay on hands/light the dark twist for 5 big heals even in reaper.
Concentration does nothing for LoH or ED abilities like LtD b/c there's no Concentration check. It would only matter if you plan to, say, UMD Heal scrolls.

However are gaining a huge boost to reflex saves with insightful reflexes, and bigger insight bonus to damage, and even bigger insight bonus to dire charge stun.
Ultimately you're debating between STR-primary INT-secondary vs INT-primary STR-no-more-than-necessary-for-THF-pre-reqs. Which is probably about a 10-12 pt difference at lvl 30 based on initial stats + level-ups. Yes, you gain a bigger bonus from KtA by going INT-based, but remember it's only 1/2 your INT mod, so you're gaining maybe +3 - not exactly a huge difference. And remember you're losing up to 2 STR from Kensei, up to 8 STR from Stalwart D., and however many EDPs you're not spending on STR in LD. So the STR-based build could certainly make up the difference from the extra KtA on the INT-based build and wouldn't have to give up Stunning Blow.

Personally I think it's largely a wash. The real advantage might be simplifying your gear, if you only care about CON+INT rather than CON/INT/STR.