Arcane Animal- Balanced battle caster

[Valiance]

Ok was going to roll up a 16 sorc/2 pali/2monk but realized I have a 16 sorc who can easily go that class split next mod and save me about a month of levelling up. New plan is to try a wiz/monk/fighter with same level splits but should have much more melee dps.

This is the arcane answer to the 2 wpn fighting cleric posted by Nick. Dual wielding khopeshes and having the DQ torc as well as 1 or 2 concordant opposition items for mana regen. Unlike a fleshie however he will also be able to make use of the docent of defiance for 20 dr.

Fighter was necessary for 3 reasons 1) I have to take it at level 20 to be able to take Greater 2 wpn fighting which is a requirement imo, 2) I just love the sheer amount of feats this guy is gonna have and 3) in my experience the biggest problem with these battlemage builds is their to-hit bonus. Fighter helps alleviate that problem through the extra feats and the 1 extra str.

I am actually quite happy with the wizardry abilities as well. If I get a plus 4 tome next mod and craft a plus 3 int greensteel he could have 32 int while wearing the napkin. Toss in 2 spell pen feats and he is just an enervation away from being able to effectively flesh to stone, charm, ect. I might even trade out extend or some other feat for heighten by level 20.


Anyway without further ado:
Arcane Animal (Arcanimal)-16 wiz/2monk/2fighter

S- 16 (30- 3 ToDring, 2 tome, 1 fighter, 2 rage spell, 6 divine power)
D- 15 (17 plus 3 tome, )
C- 15 (30 - 2 race, 3 tome, 2 rage, 6 item, Min II con khopesh)
I- 17 ( 5 levels, 3 wizard, 3 tome, 6 napkin, 3 ToD ring 37/38 with abbot gear)
W- 6 (16- 1 monk, 3 tome, 6 item)
Ch- 6 ( 8- 2 tome)

Feats-
W1- max
W2- emp
W3- ext
W4- quicken

1- empower/2 wpn fighting (swap emp to 2 wpn fighting later)
3- Wiz past life feat (plus 1 dcs to every spell and uber MM spell)
6- khopesh
9- Pali past life feat (divine favor 3 times/rest extendable)
12- Lightning reflexes
15- Improv 2 wpn fighting
18- Heighten

fighter 1- oversize 2 wpn fighting
fighter 2- grtr 2 wpn fighting

monk1-power attack
monk2-toughness

AC-
12 base
7 DT docent
3 dex
5 wis
5 protection
4 shield spell
3 dodge
4 natural
4 Insight
2 dodge (bracers)
1 monk levels
1 alchemical
51 - Not worth the time or effort. Probably won't optimize any of my gear for AC unless they really lower attack bonuses next mod due to grazing hits.

Saves
F/R/W
3/0/0 fighter
5/5/10 wiz
3/3/3 monk
0/13/0 int
10/0/0 con
0/0/3 wis
0/1/0 haste
4/4/4 GH
2/2/2 luck
5/5/5 resistance
1/1/1 alchemical
33/34/28 Pretty decent

Hit points at 20
64 Wiz
20 fighter
16 monk
200 constitution
30 GFL
36 toughness (feat and helm)
30 toughness enhancements
10 agents of argo favor
5 monk enhancement
411 before greensteel item

45 hp item
456 hp- Plenty

Spell points- With wiki down can't figure this out..don't want to take the time... should be around 1800 sp I guess
250 wiz int bonus
835 wiz levels (680 w 14 wiz levels@16)
200 archmagi
150 greensteel
~1800 sp (1255 at 16wiz/2monk/2fighter)

To hit bonus-
20 BAB
10 str
5 wpn
4 GH
3 divine favor
2 competence
1 haste
45- minus 2 (2 wpn fighting)
43- minus 6 WF power attack I
37-with PA on.

Dmg-
10 str
6 power attack
5 wpn
3 divine favor
24 main hand mod
19 off hand mod

Will be pale master-

DC of web-
10 base
13 int
8 heightened spell to level 8
1 reaver napkin
1 past life wiz feat
(2 pale master lich form)
33/35 (37 on necromancy in lich form) (might be able to get a spell focus feat in there too if I don't need Oversize 2 wpn)

[BlackRage]

This is the arcane answer to the 2 wpn fighting cleric posted by Nick. I have to take it at level 20 to be able to take Greater 2 wpn fighting which is a requirement imo,
D- 8 (16 plus 2 tome, plus 6 item (or 5 item/3 tome )
1- 2 wpn fighting
9- improv 2 wpn fighting
fighter 2- grtr 2 wpn fighting

Is it just me or is someone missing something?

[Valiance]

Good call man was working on this late last night and totally forgot about the dex requirement as I got caught up in the insightful reflexes thinking.

Adjusted op by lowering str and raising dex to 14. I figure I'll have plenty of time to get a plus 3 dex tome as I"ll probably be taking the fighter levels at 19-20 anyway.

V

[Phidius]

Saves: Add +1 for the resistance ritual

HP: get the Argo favor for an additional +10... maybe take the Monk enhancement for +1 Concentration and +5 HP to get the even 400 HP? 5 HP isn't a big deal, but I'd constantly fret that I was only 5 away from 400

To Hit/Strength: I'd consider finding room for a +6 Str item. Divine Power clickies are useful, but I personally don't like depending on clickies unless they have a duration of 7 minutes or more (like Death Ward, Remove Poison, etc...). At any rate, your BaB should either be 11 without the clickies, or 20 with.

Don't get me wrong - I keep a Divine Power clicky on my battle casters... I just save them for specific uses, rather then every 45 seconds.

I like the build - if I didn't already have 2 battle casters, I'd be tempted

[Valiance]

Great points Phidius! I have amended the hp on the original post. The plus 1 to saves is a big deal as that actually would put my reflex save at 30 without lightning reflexes so that might open up one more feat for something like heighten...or I could have both improv crit slashing and weapon focus slashing.

Rolled him up and I'm fairly excited.

Edit- Oh and I'll totally have a plus 6 str item. I just didn't want people to come in and tell me how I wouldn't have room for all the stat items I need. Really though I just need str, con, my napkin and my concordant opposition for wis. Not really that high of gear stat requirement imo. Plus the new rings from the new mod seem to be all about stats so I'm not too worried.

[kingfisher]

i will be interested to see how this compares with the wf 12wiz/6ranger/2monk at end game. keep us posted yo!

[Valiance]

Well I have a 9wiz/6ranger/1fighter now and that is part of the reason I have dreamed this guy up.

First, obviously my current character doesn't have evasion. He was created just prior to monks so the 2 monk splash wasn't available. Second, it is on that character that I have noticed the problem with the to hit bonus. Oh he hits the vast majority of the time but it is just slightly too many misses. That will be much alleviated on this build do to the oversized two weapon fighting and weapon focus slashing.

While I will lose the 10% perma haste bonus I will gain 5 fighter haste boosts. I also cannot fit khopesh on my current character as the feat requirements are too tight.

All in all considering the higher to hit, the use of khopeshes, and the 4 extra wizard levels I feel that my overall dps output will be much higher on this guy then the 12/6/2 split.

I'll let you know!

[brlftz]

how did you take two weapon fighting at creation with a 14 dex?

[brlftz]

man, i had been thinking about almost exactly this build, and i was excited to see your post. i'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out how you made the feats work, though. without knowing how you managed to take 2 weapon fighting at level 1 with a 14 dex, don't see how it's possible. please help!

[Spisey]

Been thinking of something similar using halfling dragon marks. I would be interested in hearing how this turns out at higher levels!

[EinarMal]

man, i had been thinking about almost exactly this build, and i was excited to see your post. i'm tearing my hair out trying to figure out how you made the feats work, though. without knowing how you managed to take 2 weapon fighting at level 1 with a 14 dex, don't see how it's possible. please help!

The game doesn't remember "when" you use tomes, so you take a filler feat, then eat a +1 dex tome and use your free feat swap to take TWF.

[Valiance]

EinarMal explained it perfectly. Unlike other feat requirements the game doesn't remember when you meet the stat requirement so you can go back later to change it.

Alternatively you could always take insightful reflexes at first level and two weapon fighting at any later time.

Arcanimal is now at level 8 (7wiz/1monk) and is cruising along great. However, that doesn't say much yet as it is always cake to level up a WF arcane imo. So far even with his "gimped" int he is performing well as a wizard but that is probably more detailed knowledge about the game then character build performance.

My main problem is going to be figuring out how i'm gonna roll until I get my plus 3 dex tome. Heavily debating just going two handed staff or even great axe (master's touch) until I do a massive switch over to two weapon fighting. As of right now I have sap in my 1st level holding spot (for real, it's kinda fun wanted to try it). I do not have khopesh proficiency (have mental toughness instead) and I probably will be two handed fighting until I get that plus 3 dex tome then will do the big switch over.

V

[Valiance]

Been thinking of something similar using halfling dragon marks. I would be interested in hearing how this turns out at higher levels!

I like the thought of halfing marks as I love self healing but have yet to roll one.

Let me be clear though that a MAJOR goal of this build is the mana regen available through certain gear. Those darn halfing marks don't regen no matter how many times you get hit.

Thinking of frapsing my current battlemage melee'ing the DQ to death using this gear. It's fun stuff.

[brlftz]

ahhhh, thanks for the explanations. i should have waited another day before rolling mine! i wound up losing a point of con so i could get dex to 15. but, since i'm not likely to get my hands on a +3 dex tome anytime soon, it's just as well.

[Valiance]

Ok Arcanimal is level 9 now (8wiz/1monk) and blasting through content. I had forgotten how much fun it is to level up a WF battle caster. Every level there is something fun to look forward to. I've already achieved haste/displacement and firewall which are HGUE milestones in any arcanes life cycle.

At level 9 I was able to start using several of my many divine power clickies so that really kicked in the melee ability.

At level 10 I'll get to equip my docent of defiance AND get my 5th level spells (cloudkill, cone of cold, ect.)

At 11 I'll get my 3rd wizard metamagic feat. (Will take quicken because one of my place holder feats is already empower-->to be switched out next mod)

At 12 I'll get reconstruct which is the defining event in a battle casters career.

Level 13 will be monk and invulnerability will commence. Evasion, quickened reconsructs and docent of defiance=invulernability Also will pick up power attack at this level.

Right now I've been using great axes since I need the plus 3 dex tome to get both improved two wpn fighting and grtr two wpn fighting.

Has been a blast so far and I can really see the possibilities.

V

[winsom]

Have you considered sticking with the 2H weapon use w/ power attack rather than spending all the feats and "extra" multi-classing (lost caster levels) for the TWF feats?
You will be more accurate with 2H compared to TWF too, which is important for wizardly base attack bonus.

You aren't adding a lot of sneak attack like a rogue does, and you are not getting favored enemy on each attack like a ranger does, so you really are not getting all that much benefit out of the extra TWF attacks like these other classes do.

For new players: a character's Strength damage bonus is multiplied x1.5 and the power attack contribution is doubled when 2-handed fighting. That is a lot of damage for relatively little investment. It will not compare poorly to what you might achieve with Greater Two Weapon Fighting. By comparison when dual-wielding, your left-hand attacks are half-strength bonus damage and power attack is the normal bonus for each hand's attacks.

With your current character you might take that second monk level then take all caster levels at least until you see what the 18th level arcane prestige enhancements have to offer.