GraveDigger v2 for the play time impaired

[RumpleHorril]

Leveling a character for the casual player... Part 1 of 3 (maybe 4) Will update as I do a little more planning on the leveling process.....



Purpose of this is to run through the leveling of a Tempest/Kensai Dwarf (12 Ftr/6 Ranger/2 Barbarian Henceforth referred to as "GraveDigger") for a weekend warrior. For those of us who take roughly 2-3 months to get a character from lvl 1 to lvl 12, and another 2-3 months to get him capped, some of the builds from the uber-builders look freakin awesome at level 16 with all their kick-azz equipment, full set of +2 tomes, and armory full of Greensteel weapons, but not all of us have the kind of time to get that stuff, or plow through levels on a daily basis, and need to plan character generation a little more carefully to make sure we don't completely suck-azz at the mid-level content that we'll be living in for a while.




Fellow noobs, Meet GraveDigger.....

GraveDiggerv2 (Thanks Noctus for the spot on the last post)
Level 9 Neutral Good Dwarf Male (On the way to 16, and then on to 20)
(2 Fighter / 1 Barbarian / 6 Ranger)
Hit Points: 178
Spell Points: 45

BAB: 9/9/14
Fortitude: 13
Reflex: 9 (High enough to bother with evasion??)
Will: 2+2 (I'd love to improve this a little)



I repeat: This character will not have access to a stockpile of +2 tomes, Greensteel armament, or every desired Raid end-loot item possibly found in the game. I play the game when I have time because it's fun, challenging, and so far, unique.

If anyone sees a better way to accomplish the endstate, yet still maintain a playable character throughout the leveling process, by all means post a reply...


Up to Level 9:

*************** STAT SCORES ********************************
No I don't have any +2 Tomes so don't waste your time with "If you had a +2 Cha Tome you wouldn't waste so much money buying healing pots". I know. ************************************************** *******

Stat Scores:
28 STR: 18 base + 1 tome + 4 item + 1 Ftr Str I + 2 levels + 2 ram's might
22 DEX: 16 base + 1 tome + 4 item + 1 Rgr Dex I
21 CON: 14 base + 1 tome + 4 item + 2 racial
08 INT: 08 base
14 WIS: 10 base + 4 item
06 CHA: 06 base

***************** ARMOR cLASS ****************************
************************************************** *******

AC Breakdown:
10 Base
11 Armor (+3 Mith Full plate)
5 dex
2 tempest
4 Protection
1 Dodge
(4 Giant Defense)
(1 Favored Defense)
7 Shield (+5 Mithril Shield in case of emergencies)
4 Tumble (Used to navigate behind enemies and when Ogres swing at me)

Standing TWF at lvl9=33 (Giants=37, Favored=34) +4 Tumbling
Standing S&B at lvl9=38 (Giants=42, Favored=39) +4 Tumbling

Buffed:
1 Haste
2 Shield
2 Fighter AC Boost
3 Barkskin
2 recitation
2-4? Bard Song
Did I miss anything?

Standing buffed TWF at lvl9=45 (Giants=49, Favored=46) +4 Tumbling + 4 Paladin Aura:AC=53/57/54
Standing buffed S&B at lvl9=50 (Giants=54, Favored=51) +4 Tumbling + 4 Paladin Aura:AC=58/64/59

Doable for a lvl 9 TWF...


****************** HIT POINTS (COULD USE A HAND HERE) **************
************************************************** **************

Hit Points: 208 (Seems a little low... did I do the math right?)
20 HD
48 6 Ranger
20 2 Fighter
12 1 Barbarian
12 TOughness
30 Toughness Racial Enhancement
10 Toughness Fighter Enhancement
36 CON
20 IFL
(Con=Modifier added at each level? That's where I got 36 from... clarification would be excellent)


******************** LEVEL PROGRESSION ****************************
************************************************** **************
I included the automatically granted feats for those of us who don't know this stuff
************************************************** **************

Level 1 (Ranger1)
Feat: (Selected) Dodge
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Undead
Feat: (Automatic) Bow Strength
Enhancement: Ranger Sprint Boost I
Enhancement: Dwarven Armor Mastery I
Enhancement: Dwarven Armored Agility I

Level 2 (Ranger2)
Feat: (Automatic) Rapid Shot
Feat: (Automatic) Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Ranger Dexterity I

Level 3 (Fighter1)
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Mobility
Feat: (Selected) Toughness
Feat: (Automatic) Heavy Armor Proficiency
Enhancement: Fighter Armor Class Boost I
Enhancement: Fighter Haste Boost I
Enhancement: Dwarven Constitution I

Level 4 (Fighter2)
Ability Raise: STR
Feat: (Fighter Bonus) Oversized Two Weapon Fighting
Enhancement: Fighter Critical Accuracy I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness I
Enhancement: Fighter Strength I
Enhancement: Fighter Toughness I

Level 5 (Ranger3)
Feat: (Automatic) Diehard
Enhancement: Dwarven Armor Mastery II
Enhancement: Dwarven Spell Defense I

Level 6 (Ranger4)
Feat: (Selected) Spring Attack
Enhancement: Dwarven Axe Attack I
Enhancement: Racial Toughness II

Level 7 (Ranger5)
Feat: (Favored Enemy) Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider
Enhancement: Ranger Energy of the Wild I

Level 8 (Ranger6)
Ability Raise: STR
Feat: (Automatic) Improved Two Weapon Fighting
Feat: (Automatic) Manyshot
Enhancement: Ranger Tempest I

Level 9 (Barbarian1)
Feat: (Selected) Power Attack
Feat: (Automatic) Fast Movement
Feat: (Automatic) Rage
Enhancement: Dwarven Constitution II
Enhancement: Racial Toughness III


******************** DPS **************************************
Will probably be swinging Dwarven War Axes/Battle Axes/Heavy picks through these levels. Will switch to bastard swords (they're cheap) or Khopeshes at lvl 10 when I start the fighter progression
************************************************** ************

??? Here's how I calculate DPS... (Power gamers, close your eyes for this part, you'll probably cry)

Red #=Good
Red # + Red #=Gooder
Red # + Red # + Red #=Goodest
Miss=Bad

Formula:
(Red#'s) > (Miss)=Good
(Miss) > (Red#'s)=Not good

If anybody has a better formula for this, I'm all dwarf ears...


************************************************** **************
******************That's it... Till I get the 10-14 worked out***************
************************************************** **************

[Angelus_dead]

Why the second barb level? +1 con and another rage? I guess that's better than what ran7 or fig13 provide...

Will probably be swinging Dwarven War Axes/Battle Axes/Heavy picks through these levels. Will switch to bastard swords (they're cheap) or Khopeshes at lvl 10 when I start the fighter progression

Never ever switch to Bastard Swords from Axes or Picks (or Scimitars, Rapiers, or Kukris either).

[RumpleHorril]

Second barb gives the Barbarian Con enhancement, the rage, and the DR enhancements...

I still have to find a legitimate Kensai II enhancement listing to find out what pre-reqs are and all of that, but those seem better than 1 extra fighter level which grants me nothing...

New note...



What's with the Anti-bastard sword movement... You're not the first person to mention this...

+1 weapons used as examples here...

Bastard: Damage 2-11 (1d10+1), Crit range 19-20 x2
Dwarven Waraxe 2-11 (1d10+1), Crit range 20 x3
Heavy Pick 2-7 (1d6+1), Crit Range 20 x4
Warhammer 2-9 (1d8+1), Crit Range 20 x3
Scimitar 2-7 (1d6+1), Crit Range 18-20 x2

I see the crit multipliers.... understand a higher number is better etc... but mathematically, shouldn't the DPS battle go to the weapons with the wider crit range?
Especially on bursting weapons...

Or am I horribly confused?

[Gnorbert]

A higher multiplier means more damage from your bursting weapon as well as all of your other damage modifiers contributing more... such as strength and favored enemy damage.

If you must take the exotic weapon instead of sticking with dwarven axes then you should go with Khopesh... from a pure numbers point of view. Bastard swords are still great thoug so if you have some good ones or they are cheaper then go with them. You can always switch the feat later if you get your hands on some good Khopeshs.

Really just depends on what you like the most. For more casual players as this build suggests, the lower cost may be the deciding factor.

[Angelus_dead]

Second barb gives the Barbarian Con enhancement, the rage, and the DR enhancements...

The DR is a total waste considering the level of your character.

I see the crit multipliers.... understand a higher number is better etc... but mathematically, shouldn't the DPS battle go to the weapons with the wider crit range?

The easy way to see what's better is to multiply the crit range by the crit mult. But first subtract 1 from the crit mult to account for the fact that you get essentially a "1x" multiplier on normal hits anyhow.


Bastard: 2 * (2-1) = 2
Dwarven Waraxe: 1 * (3-1) = 2
Heavy Pick: 1 * (4-1) = 3
Warhammer: 1 * (3-1) = 2
Scimitar: 3 * (2-1) = 3

Notice that pick and scimitar are the best? They have the highest combination of crit range and crit mult. But look:
Khopesh: 2 * (3-1) = 4
Even better!

[RumpleHorril]

The DR would be a waste if that were the only reason, but the CON is the primary reason. The second barb level (IMO) gives the build some additional low-level enhancements that prove useful... not make or break useful, but give the character a little edge where the 13th fighter level grants nothing new.

I'm going to take the weapon question to a new post... I'm a little curious to see how all of these numbers crunch out...

Thanks for the input.

[Krago]

The DR is a total waste considering the level of your character.



The easy way to see what's better is to multiply the crit range by the crit mult. But first subtract 1 from the crit mult to account for the fact that you get essentially a "1x" multiplier on normal hits anyhow.


Bastard: 2 * (2-1) = 2
Dwarven Waraxe: 1 * (3-1) = 2
Heavy Pick: 1 * (4-1) = 3
Warhammer: 1 * (3-1) = 2
Scimitar: 3 * (2-1) = 3

Notice that pick and scimitar are the best? They have the highest combination of crit range and crit mult. But look:
Khopesh: 2 * (3-1) = 4
Even better!

Too bad Khopeshes require another feat.