First TR- Melee tactician

[Deceeve]

Hello all.

I played the Tempest Trapmonkey and will eventually like to do my first TR in the game. I am looking for a melee character, Paladin, Fighter or Barbarian that stuns. I do have a nice selection of dwarven axes, so a dwarf would be awesome. Also has to have the extras like healing/(traps?)/etc.

I have looked for a forum post for such a build, but I did not find one. If I missed one that fits the bill, I apologize and if you could link it that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[Discpsycho]

IMO, while leveling, tactical melee is best done by Fighter, Druid and Bard. Most of them benefit from some sort of Trance, depending on their main stat, and that often ends up best done multiclassed

Thanks to the feat line, Fighter gets a lot of bonuses to tactics. That's mostly helpful if you're a Vanguard, since other Fighters have to rely on Stunning Blow or Improved Trip. A Dwarf Fighter Vanguard wouldn't be awful and could use Dwarven Axes just fine. Trapping and self-healing my be tougher to fit in.

Bard and (bear) Druid both have several tactical abilities and self-healing, but neither would use Dwarven Axes. I really enjoy both - Druid will have better self-heals, Bard fits in Rogue more easily (/2 for trapping and evasion, typically, and often combined with at least 5 Barb for handaxes)

[magaiti]

Fighter is the only class that can reliably land tactical feats while leveling in suboptimal gear (which leveling gear tends to be), thanks to Tactical feats.
Other classes have to keep their stats and gear up-to level, and even then it will be hard without past lives and whatnot.

Pure Fighter 20 THF Kensei is a great build, but it's main drawback is lack of self-healing options.
Popular choices are:
- Aasimar with racial cores (Healing Hands)
- Bladeforged with Reconstruct SLA, requires +1 heart
- Halfling with dragonmark of Healing, only has limited amount of heals per rest (3 heals, 4 CSW, 5 CLW iirc)

You can always just team up with a healer, or use a hireling (if you can cope with AI players)

[Deceeve]

Thanks for the reply guys. I actually forgot hirelings and I am fine with using them.

And I do not want to be just ok, if my preferences are sub par. My goal is to do elite/reaper all the way through with a hireling.

Looks like kensai may be the way to go? And a multi-class for self-healing? Traps are not necessary.

Any builds you recommend? I a sorry to ask you to do my job, but I only ever come back after several updates and I do not keep track of those changes well enough to create a character.

Thank you in advance.

[magaiti]

There are several ways to get some self-healing without heavy dip into a casting class:

- play Aasimar race, spend 7 AP into racial cores, pump your Wisdom. Drawbacks: requires Aasimar race. Have to invest into Wisdom.

- play as Bladeforged, spend 11 AP into racial tree for Reconstruct SLA. Wear Wizardry items. Drawbacks: requires Bladeforged race; stuck with a paladin level unless you use a +1 Heart.

- paly as Halfling with Dragonmark of Healing. spend 12 AP into racial Dragonmark enhancements. Drawback: limited to 3 Heal spells (and some cures) per rest.

- use a healer hireling. Drawbacks: have to manage/babysit your hireling. Takes a party slot.


If you want to level up to 30, I recommend going Figther 20, and use one of the options above. Kensei capstone is very strong.
If you only want to go up to 20, you can multiclass. Some rogue levels for traps and Barbarian for fast movement, Blood Tribute as pseudo-self-healing, extra boosts


For a strong tactician build you need:
- THF (so you can hit multiple targets with your tactical abilities, thanks to Strikethrough)
- 12-16 Fighter levels so you can take Fighter-only feats that boost tactical DC (+2 requires 4 fighter levels, +4 requires 8, etc). They do stack.
- Take Stunning Blow as your main tactical feat.
- Use Stunning Blow and Trip as often as you can.
- Sunder/Improved Sunder are optional, mostly for targets with fortification (undead, construct, bosses).

[Enderoc]

Can you do stunning blow with shield bash? If so would Quick draw on a fighter to be able to switch between scroll and weapon quickly ( providing the fighter has adequate UMD) make sense?
I mean shields are the only "weapon" usable with wand or scroll in hand right?