Palnatoke - 11/6/3 Bard/Ranger/Rogue

[Ultinoob]

First of all: English is my second language and although i believe that my English is decent i might have made some semantic or grammatical errors. I hope you can forgive these mistakes.

Playstyle:
Point and shoot. Press buttons to add extra damage. You have access to Sniper shot, Aimed shot, Blow by blow ranged and Shoot later.
You get 2 favored enemies which add a little extra damage to tough enemies.

Race: Gnome

Alignement: Neutral good.

Historical Facts
Harald Blåtand (Harold Bluetooth) also known as Harold the good was son of King Gorm the old and Queen Thyra Dannebod and was king of Denmark from around 958 til his death in 987.
Harald Blåtand was the first king to garther the whole of Denmark under his kingdom. Hence he was the first king of Denmark. I am pretty sure Denmark is short for Danernes Mark (Field) where Danerne is the people who live here.
Harald Blåtand also allowed christian missionaries into denmark and converted denmark from the old gods, such as Odin, Thor, Thyr, Freja etc to christianity. These names still appear in the danish names for the weekdays. Wednesday (Onsdag) is short for Odinsdag (Odins day) and torsdag and tirsdag is Thorsday and Thyrsday.
The marvel fictional character Thor is based on the old god Thor. In denmark some still believe in these gods and in danish it is called Ase as the race of these gods was Aser.

The legend of Palnatoke
Palnatoke is not a normal nordic name so it is believed that it is a nickname for Toke Pallesen which means Toke son of Palle. The ending -sen in danish means son. Others believe that Palnatoke is short for Polish Toke.
Palnatoke believed in the old gods and was against christianity. When it was introduced into denmark he joined Svend Tveskæg (Svend DualBeard) son of Harald Blåtand in revolting against Harald Blåtand.
The legend has it that Palnatoke was forced to shoot an apple from the head of his son by Harald Blåtand. The same legend was said about Wilhelm Tell around 450 years later.
Palnatoke was the bane of Harald Blåtand as he shot him in the butt. The thing was Harald was bend over so the bolt came out of his mouth and therefore killing Harald Blåtand.

I was not able to find out whether Palnatoke was weilding a crossbow or bow but this build uses a crossbow.

Fun fact: The Bluetooth interface is named after Harald Blåtand.

It is actually a really interesting story about the danish line of kings and queens. I don’t personally know much about it, but this was interesting finding out – some of it i learned in school as a kid but had forgotten.
Another interesting story about Denmark is the story of how we got our flag. You will have to find out for yourself.

The build
Action points:
41 inq, 12 harper, 12 swash, 13 deepwood, 2 left. If 1 universal tome spend 3 in mechanic for +2 damage and one sneak dice. If you have any racial ap spend them to get +6 damage from gnome.
Inquisitive 35 ranged power, 15 doubleshot, 30 alacrity.
Swashbuckler 12 for 8 damage and 12 doubleshot - have to enable swashbuckling with light crossbow in inq therefore loosing 5 so effectively 7 doubleshot.
Bard 8 gets you +2 damage from songs and another two from good hope spell. That's a total of 12 damage from bard.

Here is a level progression suggestion but you can alter it if you like:
Lvl 1 rogue 1. Feat: Rapid reload.
lvl 2 ranger 1
lvl 3 ranger 2. Feat: point blank shot
lvl 4 ranger 3
lvl 5 ranger 4
lvl 6 ranger 5. Feat: Precision
lvl 7 ranger 6
lvl 8 bard 1
lvl 9 bard 2. Feat: Insightful reflexes
lvl 10 rogue 2
lvl 11-19 bard 3-11. Lvl 12 feat: Improved crit req bab 8. Lvl 15 feat: Imp precise shot req dex 19 and bab 11. bab ranger 6, rogue 1, bard 5 ok! Lvl 18 feat: weapon focus
lvl 20 rogue 3

If you find this interesting please be adviced that it is a glasscannon, so i will not suggest to do hardcore with this build.

If geared right - and my calculations are right - you should do 4606 dps on non lawful monsters while sneaking and 3669 lawful not sneaking.

For NHB the numbers are 5945 and 4705.

Let me know what you think - gonna come back and do the gearing at some point but the ratcatcher is sort of given...

[Swimms]

The build
Action points:
41 inq, 12 harper, 12 swash, 13 deepwood, 2 left. If 1 universal tome spend 3 in mechanic for +2 damage and one sneak dice. If you have any racial ap spend them to get +6 damage from gnome.
Inquisitive 35 ranged power, 15 doubleshot, 30 alacrity.
Swashbuckler 12 for 8 damage and 12 doubleshot - have to enable swashbuckling with light crossbow in inq therefore loosing 5 so effectively 7 doubleshot.
Bard 8 gets you +2 damage from songs and another two from good hope spell. That's a total of 12 damage from bard.

Here is a level progression suggestion but you can alter it if you like:
Lvl 1 rogue 1. Feat: Rapid reload.
lvl 2 ranger 1
lvl 3 ranger 2. Feat: point blank shot
lvl 4 ranger 3
lvl 5 ranger 4
lvl 6 ranger 5. Feat: Precision
lvl 7 ranger 6
lvl 8 bard 1
lvl 9 bard 2. Feat: Insightful reflexes
lvl 10 rogue 2
lvl 11-19 bard 3-11. Lvl 12 feat: Improved crit req bab 8. Lvl 15 feat: Imp precise shot req dex 19 and bab 11. bab ranger 6, rogue 1, bard 5 ok! Lvl 18 feat: weapon focus
lvl 20 rogue 3

I am curious what (and why for that matter) you take in Swashbuckler enhancements? Would it not be better to just put more points into DWS for killer?

[Ultinoob]

I am curious what (and why for that matter) you take in Swashbuckler enhancements? Would it not be better to just put more points into DWS for killer?

Well i most admit i did not take into account killer, but since it is a none constant it is hard to factor in.

In Swashbuckler i take the first three cores for +2 doubleshot and +1 enhancement on weapon and +1 damage. Then blow by blow ranged, fast movement and Dashing Scoundrel for +6 damage and 10 doubleshot.

8 damage is a lot, but let's run it through the program i made you get 20 doubleshot - if only temporarely - and loose 8 damage and 10 doubleshot. you can however take 5 doubleshot again in inq. So total doubleshot gain is 15.
4756 dps

So yes you are right it will get you 150 more dps if you can keep it up. But if not you dps drops to 4266.

I personally would rather have more consistent dps. I am not happy with this build dealing law and sneak damage, but it was the best i could do.

[Swimms]

Well i most admit i did not take into account killer, but since it is a none constant it is hard to factor in.

In Swashbuckler i take the first three cores for +2 doubleshot and +1 enhancement on weapon and +1 damage. Then blow by blow ranged, fast movement and Dashing Scoundrel for +6 damage and 10 doubleshot.

8 damage is a lot, but let's run it through the program i made you get 20 doubleshot - if only temporarely - and loose 8 damage and 10 doubleshot. you can however take 5 doubleshot again in inq. So total doubleshot gain is 15.
4756 dps

So yes you are right it will get you 150 more dps if you can keep it up. But if not you dps drops to 4266.

I personally would rather have more consistent dps. I am not happy with this build dealing law and sneak damage, but it was the best i could do.

I find that killer (20% doubleshot) and thrill of the hunt (+3) damage are pretty much up all the time with an inquisitor.

[Ultinoob]

I find that killer (20% doubleshot) and thrill of the hunt (+3) damage are pretty much up all the time with an inquisitor.

Ok. Thing is in end boss fight in forexample Chronoscope it's hard to keep them up. But it does open up for heavy crossbows and taking something else than gnome. Maybe Warforged...

EDIT: So i redid the math since i made an error. You get +3 damage and 20 doubleshot. You loose 7 doubleshot and 12 damage... maybe 8, but you also loose blow by blow ranged, which to my knowledge only works while swashbuckling. With 12 lost we get 4641 dps and with 8 its 4757.

In all fairness if we don't take 11 levels of bard for 12 damage and 7 doubleshot we can probably put them to good use elsewhere. This also opens up for leg shot.

[Ultinoob]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Drmm85og1Ow

[Smokewolf]

I really liked your build.

[Ultinoob]

I really liked your build.

Thank you. The self healing is pretty nice.

[Kodwraith]

Thank you. The self healing is pretty nice.

I've been running a similar 16 bard/2 rogue/2 ranger split with CHA hit/dmg from the Feydark tree. I'm runnign this on my second Scoundrel life. It looses Sniper Shot from DWS, but picks up more freedom of action to invest elsewhere. You also get level 6 bard spells.

So far it's working great, although a bit feat tight as I'm trying to fit in Shot-on-the-Run. The basic AP layout is 41 Inquisitor, 12 Swashbuckler, mostly for doubleshot and run speed, 4 Spellsinger for Magical Training, 11 into feydark for CHa hit dmg and Color Spray SLA. Rest into Harper for KTA and Scoundrel.

[C-Dog]

...a bit feat tight as I'm trying to fit in Shot-on-the-Run...

Don't worry ~too~ much about SotR (on a non-archer*). With the current combat math, the "(-4) penalty" is rarely felt if you have a decent "to hit" stat**, so you're just taking it for the +3 Ranged Power.

(* Archers (using long/short bows) would also want it for the +10 Alacrity.)

o https://ddowiki.com/page/Shot_on_the_Run

(** By "decent" I mean it being your main stat, so starting @ 16-20, +4-5 Level ups, w/ a focus on gear & enhancements to boost as much as reasonably possible. Doesn't need a +8 Tome and the latest named gear, just an average "focus on it".

Without a decent "to hit" stat, in practice the penalty becomes a -1 on your to-hit roll, so you're missing on a 2, which is > a -5% drop in your DPS.)

[Kodwraith]

Don't worry ~too~ much about SotR (on a non-archer*). With the current combat math, the "(-4) penalty" is rarely felt if you have a decent "to hit" stat**, so you're just taking it for the +3 Ranged Power.

I hadn't realized it affected only short/long bows since the tool tip in game only reads "bows" which is ambiguous (and with a longbow, you usually don't need it at capped since you're limited to ~80 shots. Sigh serves me right for not reading the wiki. My guess is I can redo the feats to get IPS sooner and pick up some metas for the color spray SLA. Extend would also be super helpful since the 16 bared split gives you displacement and haste.

I only ran that split for a Scoundrel and Bard lives and I was too lazy to come up with something other than 1bard/2 rogue/17 something. Last time around I ran a thrower as a 11 ranger/ 6 alchi / 2 bard and that was OK but my thrower DPS was -meh- until cap at which point I immediately TRed. I've been debating picking up a druid/bard/barb life next incarnation.