Rook, Mobile Fortress

[Havok.cry]

Late last night I was reading random character builds when inspiration struck me. I would like to state that the Helves Angel build helped me form the idea's for this, but, this is not a slight variant of that build. I don't remember which thread I was reading on but the discussion turned to weaknesses and minimizing them... so i began thinking about some of my favorite builds, ones I've used and ones I want to try. Please bear in mind some of the things in this build are here because of the release notes for lamania.
It seems to me that the biggest weakness/source of hate for the arcane archer is it's tendency to draw aggro... the character being a ranged specialist does the logical (if inexperienced) thing... he keeps them at range... he kites... he ****es off every melee player he ever runs with and adds the the bad rap of ranged combat.
On the other hand a sword and board character's biggest weakness in my opinion is his need to convince the party to let him hit things first for a few seconds.
So my solution is to help the stalwart defender by giving him first strike capabilities not dependent on party agreement, and give the arcane archer the survivability to draw all the aggro in the game and then stand and take it rather than kite around forever.
I propose a half elf 18 fighter, 1 wizard, 1 ranger split used by many fighter AA's. I propose the following scenario:
Moving through any random dungeon, the party spots enemies. Rook here# Improved Shield Bash now grants a 20% chance to make a secondary shield bash while attacking with a melee weapon.
# Shield Mastery's feat benefit has been changed to, "You are now skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical damage vulnerability is decreased by 10% when using a buckler or small shield, 15% when using a large shield, or 20% when using a tower shield." clicks off manyshot and over the next 20 seconds produces standard AA hate.. namely he aggros everything his bow can reach, using some of the highest burst dps in the game. At the end of the manyshot he pulls out his bastard sword and shield and holds the aggro for the party to gather around and beat on with all the safety a Stalwart Defender can provide.
At this point i am going to provide some disclaimers:
- I do understand that 2 khopeshs out dps anything with a shield
- I understand sword and board fighting is widely considered useless
- I am not familiar with most endgame content or gear
and explanations:
- while wielding a shield the bastard sword IS the most efficient weapon you can have if you have the THF line and you're not a dwarf... the math has been done and khopesh does not win this one.
- Improved Shield Bash now grants a 20% chance to make a secondary shield bash while attacking with a melee weapon. (Lammania release notes)
- Shield Mastery's feat benefit has been changed to, "You are now skilled with the use of a shield, and your physical damage vulnerability is decreased by 10% when using a buckler or small shield, 15% when using a large shield, or 20% when using a tower shield." (Lammania release notes)

Okay now for the meat of it
Half elf Fighter 18 / Wizard 1 / Ranger 1

1 ranger
2-7 fighter
8 wizard
9-20 fighter

Str 16 (all points here)
Dex 17 (used for both ranged attack and for AC)
Con 14
Int 11 (a +2 tome would qualify me for combat expertise if i decide to take it)
Wis 8
Cha 8
I can personally count on +2 tomes for every stat

Dilettante: Barbarian (if you can manage a higher charisma you could do paladin for extra saves)
1 bastard sword proficiency
1 ranger: bow strength (taken first because of highest skill points)
2 ftr1 Improved shield bash
3 ftr2 THF
3 toughness
5 ftr4 point blank shot
6 weapon focus: ranged
7 ftr6 ITHF
8 wizard: mental toughness (arcane archer prerequisite)
9 Combat Expertise
10 ftr8 rapid shot
12 manyshot
12 ftr10 GTHF
14 ftr12 precise shot
15 Improved precise shot
16 ftr14 shield mastery
18 IC Ranged
18 ftr16 IC Slashing
20 ftr18 ???

what i'm considering for ???:
quickdraw- will be changing weapons often so this might be good
dodge- item could cover this bonus
Skill Focus: Intimidate
Second toughness feat
any suggestions are welcome

Skills:
Intimidate
balance
Jump
tumble (just enough to never be denied)

Enhancements:
disclaimer: I have not calculated these, this is just what i would like to fit in
Arcane Archer
+5 arcane arrows
Slayer Arrows
Stalwart Defender 3
Armor boost
Haste boost
Human Versatility
Toughness
Armor Mastery 3
Armored agility

OK thats all I have. I am not familiar with all the high end gear and would appreciate anyone who could figure out what GS items and other stuff with which to equip it. Would like any honest appraisal of this builds capabilities, keeping in mind U9 additions. Would like help developing this concept. As i have looked at the equations for DPS calculations several times and never been able to wrap my head around them, I would also appreciate anyone willing to "run the numbers" on what this build could do.

Gear i have and plan to use on this till i get something better:
Epic buccaneer ring t3
Epic Cavalry plate t3
Epic Swashbuckler t3 (i know its not the highest AC from shield but it does add to the dps)

OK tear it apart

[Havok.cry]

Dang no response, was hoping to get some feed back on this. I wonder if it's just lamaland stealing everyone away?

[morticianjohn]

Dang no response, was hoping to get some feed back on this. I wonder if it's just lamaland stealing everyone away?

Sorry I didn't make it through the wall of text and it also looks like a "flavor" build in which case min maxers Probably don't want to rip it too much because they'll remove the flavor.

[Narzic]

sounds like an interesting idea.

1. I would go with Combat Expertise for the ??? feat. if you are going for AC, you may as well go all the way.
2. if you get CE, then you could drop PA as it doesn't apply to bows (at least i dont think it does)
3. you may also want to consider dropping Improv. Shield Mastery as it only gives 3 DR while blocking, and if i understand this build right you won't be blocking very often.
4. Improv. Crit. Ranged would be my next choice for a feat to swap in.
5. not sure on the math exactly, but i suspect that Improv. Crit. Slashing would be a bigger DPS boost then Improv. Shield Bash
6. i believe you missed a feat at 9th level.
7. i'm not sure you'll have the AP to get everything you want, but you will be able to get what you need.

[Havok.cry]

Thanks for catching that missing feat. Going to put CE in at 9, and drop power attack as CE and it can't be on at same time... this would leave 2 feats still open, which is enough to add in both IC slashing and ranged. Was reading on forums that Imp shield mastery didn't get better like shield mastery did so i was going to drop that, any suggestions as to what to put there? Editing changes into OP.

[unbongwah]

Do NOT drop PA; there are times when you will want to be in melee DPS mode, not S&B AC mode.

Consider a bard splash instead of wiz; if you can get your INT high enough, you'll be able to have UMD as well as Intim (not sure about the rest).

[Havok.cry]

OK so filling ??? with power attack and I can switch stances when I need to.
As for wizard vs bard my main reason to go wizard is the bonus feat gets you the AA prerequisite for free.
If I understand this right bard would get me a couple higher points of damage, unless another bard was in the party, at the cost of an AP, which i'll be tight on already (i think). Would be willing to try it but I like the wizard more on paper... if i'm missing some part of why bard would be better please let me know.
Edit: The UMD would be nice, but this being a fighter the skills would be very tight... would be more likely I think to try for cleric dillitente. Does anyone know if a tome later would let you feat swap the dillitente feat for a different one? Me being me however I do wonder about the viability of fitting preform on this with the bard level lol. Fascinate might not be the greatest CC but it does get some pretty high DC's, and a tank with the ability to CC might be interesting... OK I will look harder at the Bard and get back to you on it... will have to calculate enhancments now

[Narzic]

just a thought but what does Barb Dilly even give you that you can't get somewhere else already with this build?

also even with bard you won't have the points to max intim, UMD, and balance without a higher int. not to mention the points needed for tumble/perform.

[Xenostrata]

I LOVE the idea of using the weaknesses of AA and S&B to cancel each other out. +1 for just coming up with a plan like that.

As far as the build goes, I'm not sure how this will work in the long run. I see this as the kind of build that would be excellent in some dungeons and terrible in others, moreso than many other builds with the same problem. And, like someone above me stated, this isn't going to be a min/maxers dream.

Excellent idea so far, this could become stellar if you fleshed it out a bit more.

[Havok.cry]

Running with the idea of switching the one level of bard instead of the wizard level my stats would change to this:
Str 16
Str 16
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 8
Cha 8

1 level up would have to go to dex and the rest to strength, this is to meet the dex requirements for the ranged feats

the first level would go to bard for class skills
the second level would go to ranger again to get class skills available

The extra intelligence would allow me arrange my skills as such:
23 ranks Intimidate
23 ranks UMD
10 ranks Jump
~6 ranks Balance (costs double points)
1 rank Tumble
at level 7 i would read a +2 tome and gain another skill point each level that would go to Preform
various random skills from extraneous points during the bard and ranger levels

My Action points would be spent as follows:
4 AA
4 +5arrows
6 Slayer Arrows
8 Stalwart Defender 3
- 2 improved intimidate
- 10 fighter AC boost (only 6 required to be spent for stalwart defender)
- 3 Item Defense 2
- 6 Armor Mastery
10 haste boost
10 toughness
6 racial toughness
10 human versatility
1 bard energy of the music
80 total

As to why I chose the barbarian dilettante feat, my options are fighter, barbarian, rogue, ranger, and wizard. Because I am not spending action points on improved dilettante at this point in the design, none of these add much to the build:
Fighter- I am already a fighter
Barbarian- DR 1/- at all times.. ok not impressive.. but it is free.
rogue- Seriously... 1d6 sneak attack on a build that is intending to take and hold all the aggro all the time?????
ranger- I am a ranger already
Wizard- In first build I am a wizard, however i was seriously considering this as it would raise my effective wizard level to 10 if I put AP into it. However going with the Bard Level, I get Max UMD.. so this would be rather useless IMHO.

Feats should remain the same with the exception of losing mental toughness and pushing fighter level 1-7 feats back 1 level each.

OK think thats all i have for now. please tell me what you think.