Adventures in Theorycrafting - Tempest Warpriests

[unbongwah]

Scourge Aasimar is a natural choice for the rgr 6 / cleric 14 War Domain build if you want to take advantage of racial weapon bonuses. Base weapon types are poor, but named weapons like Phosphor and Cranium Cracker would work well. Feats are basically the same, only drop khopesh prof. and take IC:Blunt instead. Enhancements are something like 40 Tempest / 17 Scourge (Destroyer of the Dead for +1 crit multiplier) / 11 RS (bursts) with remaining APs split between WP and RS as you wish.

[unbongwah]

Scourge variant using racial weapons:

Scourge Tempest Warpriest
14/6 Cleric/Ranger
True Neutral Aasimar Scourge


Level Order

1. Ranger          6. Cleric         11. Ranger         16. Cleric
2. Cleric          7. Cleric         12. Ranger         17. Cleric
3. Cleric          8. Cleric         13. Ranger         18. Cleric
4. Cleric          9. Cleric         14. Ranger         19. Cleric
5. Cleric         10. Cleric         15. Ranger         20. Cleric


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength        17       +4       4: STR
Dexterity       13       +4       8: STR
Constitution    15       +4      12: STR
Intelligence     8       +4      16: STR
Wisdom          10       +4      20: STR
Charisma        16       +4      24: STR
                                 28: STR

Feats

 1        : Precision
 3        : Empower Healing Spell
 6        : Quicken Spell
 9        : Maximize Spell
12        : Improved Critical: Bludgeoning
15        : Greater Two Weapon Fighting
18        : Empower Spell
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Stunning Blow
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic   : Epic Damage Reduction
28 Destiny: First Blood OR Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge OR Deific Warding
30 Epic   : Intensify Spell
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

 1 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Giant OR Construct
14 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider

 3 Cleric : War Domain

 2 Deity  : Follower of: Helm
 7 Deity  : Ever Watchful


Enhancements (80 AP)

Tempest (40 AP)
Shield of Whirling Steel, Tempest
Improved Defense II, Whirling Blades
Improved Parry III, Whirling Blades, Sprint Boost III
Storm Dancer, Critical Mastery III, Whirling Blades, Strength
Storm Tempest, The Growing Storm III, Whirling Blades
Dual Perfection, Cuts: A Thousand Cuts III, Whirling Blades, Dance of Death III

Aasimar Scourge (17 AP)
Stronger Bonds, Strength
Scourge Weapons, Improved Recovery
Improved Scourge Weapons, Divine Purpose, Divine Resolve III
Greater Scourge Weapons, Divine Charges III
Destroyer of the Dead

Radiant Servant (13 AP)
Healing Domain, Pacifism, Positive Energy Burst
Extra Turning III, Bliss I, Altruism III
(none)
Unyielding Sovereignty

Deepwood Stalker (6 AP)
Far Shot, Sneak Attack
Stealthy III, Tendon Cut I

Warpriest (4 AP)
Smite Foe
Divine Might III


Destiny (24 AP)

Legendary Dreadnought
Legendary Tactics III, Extra Action Boost III, Strength
(none)
Critical Damage III, Haste Boost III
Anvil of Thunder
Advancing Blows, Devastating Critical
Master's Blitz, Pulverizer

Twists of Fate (35 fate points)
Sense Weakness (Tier 4 Fury)
Grim Precision (Tier 3 Shadowdancer)
Balanced Attacks (Tier 3 Primal)
Rejuvenation Cocoon (Tier 1 Primal)

EDIT: oops forgot ED.

[Frumpyster]

Looks great! Frees up a lot of AP!

13 APs in Radiant enough though? No 4th core Improved Empower Healing either.

I will be implementing this into my builds rather than using Heal Spells only 0 APs into cleric.

[unbongwah]

APs are pretty tight on the Scourge variant, since it costs 17 APs to get the +1 crit multiplier from the racial tree. And TBH this is a flavor build without the better named weapons; Cranium Cracker is probably the best option, which should become 16-20/x5 with all crit bonuses vs 16-20/x4 for khopeshes on the regular Tempest.

[Kurse_Darkstone]

sorry.. returning founder here.. but been gone WAAAAAYYY too long..

can you do this with a 28 point build out?

[unbongwah]

can you do this with a 28 point build out?

Which one?

[Frumpyster]

I would guess the most recent one: Scourge variant using racial weapons.

Reason for Edit: Question.
Would a switch around of some APs in Radiant Servant and the edition of +1 Intense Healing help the Positive Energy Burst Power enough to make it worth the 2 extra APs?

[painkiller3]

Scourge variant using racial weapons:

Scourge Tempest Warpriest
14/6 Cleric/Ranger
True Neutral Aasimar Scourge


Level Order

1. Ranger          6. Cleric         11. Ranger         16. Cleric
2. Cleric          7. Cleric         12. Ranger         17. Cleric
3. Cleric          8. Cleric         13. Ranger         18. Cleric
4. Cleric          9. Cleric         14. Ranger         19. Cleric
5. Cleric         10. Cleric         15. Ranger         20. Cleric


Stats
               36pt     Tome     Level Up
               ----     ----     --------
Strength        17       +4       4: STR
Dexterity       13       +4       8: STR
Constitution    15       +4      12: STR
Intelligence     8       +4      16: STR
Wisdom          10       +4      20: STR
Charisma        16       +4      24: STR
                                 28: STR

Feats

 1        : Precision
 3        : Empower Healing Spell
 6        : Quicken Spell
 9        : Maximize Spell
12        : Improved Critical: Bludgeoning
15        : Greater Two Weapon Fighting
18        : Empower Spell
21 Epic   : Overwhelming Critical
24 Epic   : Stunning Blow
26 Destiny: Perfect Two Weapon Fighting
27 Epic   : Epic Damage Reduction
28 Destiny: First Blood OR Elusive Target
29 Destiny: Dire Charge OR Deific Warding
30 Epic   : Intensify Spell
30 Legend : Scion of: Arborea

 1 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Giant OR Construct
14 Ranger : Favored Enemy: Evil Outsider

 3 Cleric : War Domain

 2 Deity  : Follower of: Helm
 7 Deity  : Ever Watchful


Enhancements (80 AP)

Tempest (40 AP)
Shield of Whirling Steel, Tempest
Improved Defense II, Whirling Blades
Improved Parry III, Whirling Blades, Sprint Boost III
Storm Dancer, Critical Mastery III, Whirling Blades, Strength
Storm Tempest, The Growing Storm III, Whirling Blades
Dual Perfection, Cuts: A Thousand Cuts III, Whirling Blades, Dance of Death III

Aasimar Scourge (17 AP)
Stronger Bonds, Strength
Scourge Weapons, Improved Recovery
Improved Scourge Weapons, Divine Purpose, Divine Resolve III
Greater Scourge Weapons, Divine Charges III
Destroyer of the Dead

Radiant Servant (13 AP)
Healing Domain, Pacifism, Positive Energy Burst
Extra Turning III, Bliss I, Altruism III
(none)
Unyielding Sovereignty

Deepwood Stalker (6 AP)
Far Shot, Sneak Attack
Stealthy III, Tendon Cut I

Warpriest (4 AP)
Smite Foe
Divine Might III


Destiny (24 AP)

Legendary Dreadnought
Legendary Tactics III, Extra Action Boost III, Strength
(none)
Critical Damage III, Haste Boost III
Anvil of Thunder
Advancing Blows, Devastating Critical
Master's Blitz, Pulverizer

Twists of Fate (35 fate points)
Sense Weakness (Tier 4 Fury)
Grim Precision (Tier 3 Shadowdancer)
Balanced Attacks (Tier 3 Primal)
Rejuvenation Cocoon (Tier 1 Primal)

EDIT: oops forgot ED.

I was thinking about trying something similar, except only putting stats into racial, tempest and then 23 into deepwood sniper to get killer. also starting with 18 STR, 12 DEX (with +5 tome) and getting stunning blow at 12 and GTWF at 21 or 24. has anyone tried unbongwah's idea out?

[unbongwah]

I was thinking about trying something similar, except only putting stats into racial, tempest and then 23 into deepwood sniper to get killer.

What I would like to do with a rgr 6 / cleric 14 split is 40 Tempest / 22 WP (Ameliorating Strike) / 23 DWS, which comes closest to the original intent of this build. That's 85 APs though so something had to give. If I wasn't going heavy into the racial tree, 40 Tempest / 23 DWS (Killer) / 13 RS (bursts + Unyielding Sovereignty) / 4 WP (Div Might) would certainly work.

[mna]

Interesting question: when I first cooked up these builds, DWS was weaksauce and the higher-level Tempest abilities were sorta blah, so you weren't giving up that much DPS with a deeper MC; and you gained a lot of free healing plus other perks from cleric 7. Now, though, the DPS sacrifice is a lot bigger compared to pure Tempests or TTs, which makes this build more niche-y. I was kinda hoping Warpriest would've been buffed by now so it would open up some new build options, but no such luck so far.

Actually... I ended up having a hiatus again, let's see if I can find the time to play this year... Since the cleric multiclasses got free hearts anyway, how would you rework this thing?

It's still the same 12 ranger / 7 cleric / 1 rogue true neutral human, trap skills mandatory. Strength domain looks nice for the STR to reflex save, certainly... actually I have more than one of these in various stages...

And being subpar DPS isn't really a problem as long as it doesn't fall too far behind - this thing is still very good for playing in the support / backup role with the kids, as well as recon for places some of us still haven't been to. The dragonmark has been handy for that as well. (Hm, should fix the sig too, it's now 4 of my offspring playing at least occasionally.)

[unbongwah]

Actually... I ended up having a hiatus again, let's see if I can find the time to play this year... Since the cleric multiclasses got free hearts anyway, how would you rework this thing?

I posted a rgr 6 / cleric 14 variant shortly after domains came out. Holy Sword makes up for losing the lvl 12 rgr cores (+1 crit range & multiplier). Tempest chews up 40 APs to max out tier-5 DPS bonuses, but that still leaves you half your APs to go deep into Radiant Servant, Warpriest, or DWS (Exposing Strike, Killer). However, if you're talking about the original build...

It's still the same 12 ranger / 7 cleric / 1 rogue true neutral human, trap skills mandatory. Strength domain looks nice for the STR to reflex save, certainly... actually I have more than one of these in various stages...

Since you only get the lvl 5 domain feat and lvl 6 deity feat with that split, I'm thinking Olladra / Strength might be the best combo for the "emergency heal + stat buff" and "Reflex saves based on STR" effects, respectively. Then you could dump-stat DEX if you don't mind losing AC (and possibly the DEX-based feats).

[mna]

... However, if you're talking about the original build...

Well, if not quite the original, then at least something close enough to be reachable with the +0 heart.

Though I do have one or two of 12 cleric / 6 ranger / 2 rogue going too but that kind of build might not be salvageable... they're from way back before the new-style enhancements.

Since you only get the lvl 5 domain feat and lvl 6 deity feat with that split, I'm thinking Olladra / Strength might be the best combo for the "emergency heal + stat buff" and "Reflex saves based on STR" effects, respectively. Then you could dump-stat DEX if you don't mind losing AC (and possibly the DEX-based feats).

Does Olladra fix stat damage, level drain and status effects like Unyielding Sovereignty? Because HP is easy to regain in general, it's those others...

Wasn't figuring on being able to take Combat Archery anyway and everything else was Ranger autogrant that ignores the DEX prerequisite, and... well it's at most 3 points of AC. So, that'd rule out, hm... Dodge and the feat chains requiring it (maybe), Precision (maybe), Weapon Finesse (really not likely) and some even more unlikely feats.

Then again the Great Cleave isn't very useful later on and some of those might serve better. But it's just one feat... by the way, has a multi-hit Sap been tried, does it work?


... yeah, a DEX-focused variant might be workable nowadays too, and in that case either Luck or Knowledge I suppose, along with more of a ranged focus. But there are just so many more ways to boost STR...

[mna]

Does Olladra fix stat damage, level drain and status effects like Unyielding Sovereignty? Because HP is easy to regain in general, it's those others...

Oh well, HP regain on a Tempest type got nerfed hard with Ameliorating Strike only proccing once per 3 sec now... so no extra healing from doublestrike, offhand, or Dance of Death multi-hit. Bother.

[mna]

by the way, has a multi-hit Sap been tried, does it work?

Oh well. No one's picked up on that? Guess Sap just isn't very popular...?


Is it just me or does Axe of Adaxus look particularly nice with the new Knight's Training feat?