Cupid's Beau - Arcane Archer w/ Quivering Palm & Kukan Do (Stunning at a Distance)!

[savingsoul]

This build functions like a traditional 10k stars/manyshot monkcher arcane archer (AA), but with the ability to stun at a distance. It also gets the additional benefits of Shintao III and 18 levels of monk.

My sorcerer is approaching level 20 and I have been considering reincarnating her into an AA ever since I heard that the arcane prodigy past life feat allows you to bypass the need for a class and level with magical training.

The initial appeal was that you could create a Kensei III AA, but as many people familiar with monkchers knew, you can get better dps by combining 10k stars with manyshot than you can get with manyshot alone. This lead some people to reconsider builds like Monkcheri Amour (see my signature), especially 1 Druid - 7 Monk - 12 Fighter, which gives a nice damage boost via ram's might. However, as one can see, the Druid variation of Monkcheri Amour does not really take advantage of the arcane prodigy feat, as the Druid class fulfills the magical training requirement, and you can simply take the mental toughness feat rather than the arcane prodigy feat.

So the following question remains: What is the best way of taking advantage of the arcane prodigy feat for an arcane archer build?

Well, here is one attempt to answer that question.

I'm seeking advice as I approach reincarnation, so any input would be greatly appreciated.


I give you Cupid's Beau - Manyshot/10k Stars Arcane Archer w/ Quivering Palm & Kukan Do (Stunning at a Distance)

Character Plan by DDO Character Planner Version 03.16.01
DDO Character Planner Home Page

Cupid's Beau (2Rgr-18M)
Level 25 Lawful Good Half-Elf Male
(18 Monk \ 2 Ranger \ 5 Epic) 
Hit Points: 352
Spell Points: 2220554 
BAB: 15\15\20\25\25
Fortitude: 17
Reflex: 19
Will: 18

                  Starting          Feat/Enhancement
Abilities        Base Stats          Modified Stats
(34 Point)       (Level 1)             (Level 25)
Strength             14                    17
Dexterity            16                    20
Constitution         14                    17
Intelligence          8                    10
Wisdom               14                    25
Charisma             14                    17

Tomes Used
+2 Tome of Strength used at level 7
+2 Tome of Dexterity used at level 7
+2 Tome of Constitution used at level 7
+2 Tome of Intelligence used at level 7
+2 Tome of Wisdom used at level 7
+2 Tome of Charisma used at level 7
+3 Tome of Strength used at level 11
+3 Tome of Dexterity used at level 11
+3 Tome of Constitution used at level 11
+3 Tome of Wisdom used at level 11
+3 Tome of Charisma used at level 11

Level 1 (Ranger)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider
Feat: (Half-Elf Dilettante) Half-Elf Dilettante: Rogue
Feat: (Past Life) Past Life: Sorcerer
Feat: (Selected) Point Blank Shot
Feat: (Automatic) Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Bow Strength
Feat: (Automatic) Defensive Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Keen Senses
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Mixed Heritage
Feat: (Automatic) Half-Elven Social Graces (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Heroic Durability
Feat: (Automatic) Immunity to Sleep
Feat: (Automatic) Light Armor Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Martial Weapon Proficiency (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Shield Proficiency (General)
Feat: (Automatic) Simple Weapon Proficiency
Feat: (Automatic) Sneak
Feat: (Automatic) Sunder
Feat: (Automatic) Trip
Feat: (Automatic) Wild Empathy


Level 2 (Ranger)
Feat: (Automatic) Rapid Shot
Feat: (Automatic) Two Weapon Fighting


Level 3 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Toughness
Feat: (Selected) Weapon Focus: Ranged Weapons
Feat: (Automatic) AC Bonus
Feat: (Automatic) Disciple of Breezes
Feat: (Automatic) Disciple of Candles
Feat: (Automatic) Disciple of Pebbles
Feat: (Automatic) Disciple of Puddles
Feat: (Automatic) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Kama
Feat: (Automatic) Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Shuriken
Feat: (Automatic) Finishing Moves
Feat: (Automatic) Flurry of Blows
Feat: (Automatic) Unarmed Strike


Level 4 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Stunning Fist
Feat: (Automatic) Evasion
Feat: (Automatic) Meditation


Level 5 (Monk)
Feat: (Monk Path) Path of Harmonious Balance: Fists of Light
Feat: (Automatic) Fast Movement
Feat: (Automatic) Finishing Moves: Path of Harmonious Balance (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Finishing Moves: Path of Inevitable Dominion (ALL)
Feat: (Automatic) Still Mind


Level 6 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Past Life: Arcane Prodigy
Feat: (Automatic) Ki Strike: Magic
Feat: (Automatic) Slow Fall


Level 7 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Ki Strike: Damage
Feat: (Automatic) Purity of Body


Level 8 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Feat: (Monk Bonus) Zen Archery


Level 9 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Manyshot
Feat: (Automatic) Wholeness of Body


Level 10 (Monk)


Level 11 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Improved Evasion


Level 12 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Feat: (Selected) Precise Shot
Feat: (Automatic) Archer's Focus
Feat: (Automatic) Curse of the Void
Feat: (Automatic) Ki Strike: Lawful
Feat: (Automatic) Moment of Clarity


Level 13 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Diamond Body


Level 14 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Abundant Step


Level 15 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Precise Shot
Feat: (Automatic) Diamond Soul


Level 16 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS


Level 17 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Quivering Palm


Level 18 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Precision
Feat: (Automatic) Ki Strike: Adamantine


Level 19 (Monk)
Feat: (Automatic) Timeless Body


Level 20 (Monk)
Ability Raise: WIS
Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost I
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Acid Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Explosive Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Force Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Slaying Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Imbue Terror Arrows
Enhancement: Improved Rogue Dilettante I
Enhancement: Improved Rogue Dilettante II
Enhancement: Human Adaptability Wisdom I
Enhancement: Human Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Human Versatility I
Enhancement: Human Versatility II
Enhancement: Human Versatility III
Enhancement: Human Versatility IV
Enhancement: Lifting the Veil
Enhancement: Ten Thousand Stars
Enhancement: The Receptive Earth
Enhancement: Restoring the Balance
Enhancement: Monk Improved Recovery I
Enhancement: Rise of the Phoenix
Enhancement: Shintao Monk I
Enhancement: Shintao Monk II
Enhancement: Shintao Monk III
Enhancement: Difficulty at the Beginning
Enhancement: Adept of Wind
Enhancement: Adept of Rock
Enhancement: Master of Stone
Enhancement: Adept of Rain
Enhancement: Grandmaster of Oceans
Enhancement: Master of the Sea
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +2 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +3 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +4 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer: Conjure +5 Arrows
Enhancement: Elven Arcane Archer I
Enhancement: Half-Elf Rogue Dexterity I
Enhancement: Monk Wisdom I


Level 21 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Critical: Ranged Weapons
Feat: (Automatic) Epic Skills


Level 22 (Monk)


Level 23 (Monk)


Level 24 (Monk)
Feat: (Selected) Improved Two Weapon Fighting


Level 25 (Monk)

[slimkj]

I am going to do a 18Mnk/2x build so this is interesting to me. I note you have IPS now rather than GTWF as in the other thread. Wise move

To be honest I'm mainly interested in not needing Magical Training as you say. My mutt AA is still first life but I'm pretty much capped on melee/ranged EDs now and need to do the caster ones, so my plan is; 1) get a Ranger PL from this life, 2) do a life as a Sorc for the PL, 3) back into a 36pt AA build.

I was tempted to go back to 12/6/2 on the third life... but am concerned about what the enhancement pass will bring so this is a good bet I think:

• At worst, you get a Monk PL for passive dmg
• At worst, you also get a build that can LR into Pure Monk and do something else (finally get my ToD ring? ) for a while
• At best, you get a competent ranged char with the full run speed bump from 18Mnk plus Ranger sprint boost for icing! (Whizz-wheeee!)

Personally I'd;

• Still go Dark for the sneak damage (iirc it stacks with Helf dili?) and for Shadow Fade
• Spend as little time in melee as possible and therefore probably drop ITWF
• Swap Toughness and Stunning Fist round (stuns asap for Ki building, more HP aren't needed til 16+ in my experience, even on a 32pt Elf build)

Finally, as a guildie pointed out to me, depending on your plans for EDs, you could probably drop IC:Ranged if you wanted. For example, I'll be in Fury which means the crit range benefit whilst doing Adrenaline Overload Manyshot is kind of irrelevant. Depends how much you value crits outside Manyshot and how much time you'll spend in ranged, I guess.

The only bummer about this build split is that try as I might I can't find a way to make it work with OC and all the ranged feats I want too. :/

[savingsoul]

Personally I'd;

• Still go Dark for the sneak damage (iirc it stacks with Helf dili?) and for Shadow Fade
• Spend as little time in melee as possible and therefore probably drop ITWF
• Swap Toughness and Stunning Fist round (stuns asap for Ki building, more HP aren't needed til 16+ in my experience, even on a 32pt Elf build)

Thanks for the input. I think that if you are going to do as little melee as possible, then do either the Shintao III (Cupid's Beau) for the tier 3 prE and Kukan Do (stunning from a distance) or you should revert to the 12M/6Ranger/2Fighter (Hong Kong Pewy) with Ninja II, as you get the full benefits of the extra sneak attack as well as all those ranger autofeats. I don't think going Ninja II on an 18M/2Ranger rather than Hong Kong Pewy is worth losing all those feats from 4 more levels of ranger and 2 levels of fighter, unless you are going to do a reasonable amount of melee, thereby taking advantage of the higher dc's on your special dark attacks. On the Devil Girl's Beau builds http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=412694, you effectively have a dark wis monk like Rockan Robin http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...t=rockan+robin but with strong arcane archer capability. That is why I opted for ITWF and GTWF rather than Precise Shot and IPS on Devil Girl's Beau, and that's why I suggested that Devil Girl's Beau should be played like a Helves Angel build rather than a traditional 10k stars/manyshot monkcher.

[savingsoul]

The 12/6/2 splits get many shot and 10k stars too. I'm struggling to see the benefit here. According to the calculation on the wiki, you'll never get the kukan do DC to worthwhile levels, so it doesn't seem worth losing all the feats that you'd get otherwise.

Keep in mind Kukan Do is a will save! Lots of high fortitude mobs have really sucky will saves, the trick is to use stun-fist on casters and Kukan do on melee's. And 10 base +18(level) +10(stunning) +5(exceptional)+6(dreadnought twist)=49.

Might not work on casters in EE, but should still be pretty effective. And that's without any charisma, which is now easier to slot with augments.


Sorry OP, I know you created a new thread, but wanted to reply on the kukan do front, and he didn't comment on the other thread.

No problem ArcaneArcher. I've replied here on the Cupid's Beau thread so that others could catch your important input. At the same time I have considered same alternative starting stats for Cupid's Beau.

Alternative starting stats:
14 str
16 dex
14 con
8 int
16 wis
10 cha

14 str
16 dex
14 con
8 int
14 wis
14 cha

These variations would use grandmaster ocean stance for passive ki generation rather than mountain stance, unless you have a +4 con tome.

[savingsoul]

Updated original post build by changing base stats to boost charisma for kukan do and enhancements for grandmaster of oceans.

[savingsoul]

Swapped precision and stunning fist in the feat progression, so that you get stunning fist sooner.

Since with the current progression, you could not get Shintao prE's until level 18 anyway, it seems to me that a good leveling strategy would be to play a pure dark or light monk like Rockan Robin http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php...t=rockan+robin until you reach level 20, then switch to 2Ranger/18M Cupid's Beau for slaying arrows using a +2/3 heart of wood.

[savingsoul]

Reserved.