My take on Sacred Fist Pally Stick Build

[jasonayoung]

Still way too much Sacred Fist. I mentioned earlier, "All in, maximum investment" in Sacred Fist, with a Favored weapon, is 33 AP, and that is only if you do not have another staff tree to use, if you have access to ANY staff tree at all (including Tabaxi Trailblazer's tree), drop those AP in Sacred Fist to 23 AP.

Have a look at my build idea for staff in this forum for some ideas, and also I am looking for feedback if you are going staff, if you have ideas for anything I could improve upon. For 36 point build for my main, stat distribution would be different, so not worried about that, but just feats/enhancements, concepts, etc.

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...lways-hi-on-Ki

I love it! And i agree tabaxi trailblazer racial is best for optimized stick. I just cant be a cat. I was a cat last life and hated it. I also need to level from 1 to DUO with my buddy so i couldnt be iconic. Let us know how yours plays!

[dogsoldier]

I love it! And i agree tabaxi trailblazer racial is best for optimized stick. I just cant be a cat. I was a cat last life and hated it. I also need to level from 1 to DUO with my buddy so i couldnt be iconic. Let us know how yours plays!

If you really want to go Quarterstaff and use most of the stuff in Sacred Fist, but hate being a Cat, then I think you want to start at level 1 Monk or Rogue anyway, 2nd level Favored Soul, then go Sacred Fist up until you meet key BAB requirements, Split would be something like 16/3/1. Don't forget the monk stance feats at levels 6/12/18. It will push a combat feat out to 21 without a fighter level, but I think stances are totally worth it, especially if you are going into epics and into Grandmaster of Flowers.

Or, if you can live without the left side of Sacred Fist (it is easy to do if you have another tree), then make it something like 16/4, or 15/5 Sacred Fist and Monk, forget Favored Weapons, can add them in at 23 if you want, but assuming you have a solid staff tree to go along with Sacred Fist, you will be fine.

You cannot go below 15 Sacred Fist because you need Holy Sword, and just 15 levels gives you only two level 4 spell slots. So Holy Sword is locked in, second one, either Zeal or Ki Explosion. The one advantage of pure Sacred Fist is you end up with 4 spell slots here, so you can take all of the essentials easily, but then pure sacred fist does not get enough ki generation to even make much use out of Ki explosion.

Vistani frees up a spell slot with it's level 12 core (you don't need holy sword), which helps a ton.

Edit: Also look at the Update 56.1 release notes, sounds like we may be able to pick a deity with a divine after taking sacred fist levels since they are removing the deity conflict, but we need to test that out.

[surm]

Why are you taking 2 rogue for Evasion? SF gets Evasion already.

I'd go with 1 rogue (if you want to do traps) and 1 cleric(or dark apostate for lols) and take few points of Warpriest. Otherwise you could go with 1 monk somewhere for a free stance.

[dogsoldier]

Why are you taking 2 rogue for Evasion? SF gets Evasion already.

I'd go with 1 rogue (if you want to do traps) and 1 cleric(or dark apostate for lols) and take few points of Warpriest. Otherwise you could go with 1 monk somewhere for a free stance.

Staff build, he is getting things from the rogue Acrobat tree.

[Maelphistez]

For me, I think the sweet spot for a Cat-Person SF is the 16 SF / 3 Monk / 1 FvS split. 1 FvS gives you access to Aureon to make your staff a Favored Weapon and the Cha trance. 3 Monk gives Contemplation x3, Path of Light, and Lighting the Candle (mostly for the +1 Ki/hit). 16 SF is actually not really any better than 15 SF while +1 level in either Monk or FvS is also +1BAB. The only thing that is "worthwhile" to me would be to take a second level of FvS in order to get to Smite Weakness and Wall of Steel.

[dogsoldier]

For me, I think the sweet spot for a Cat-Person SF is the 16 SF / 3 Monk / 1 FvS split. 1 FvS gives you access to Aureon to make your staff a Favored Weapon and the Cha trance. 3 Monk gives Contemplation x3, Path of Light, and Lighting the Candle (mostly for the +1 Ki/hit). 16 SF is actually not really any better than 15 SF while +1 level in either Monk or FvS is also +1BAB. The only thing that is "worthwhile" to me would be to take a second level of FvS in order to get to Smite Weakness and Wall of Steel.

He had said that the could not be a Cat for this like though, and wanted to start at level 1 though, so the initial post was more sketching out an idea. I know he TR'd into Sacred Fist already that started at 1, but not sure on what split and AP distribution he settled on. I hadn't thought about Lighting the Candle because I had just remembered how bad the damage add was, but if it has a Ki bonus that could be great, Sacred Fist could use all the extra Ki it can get, especially when it picks up Ki explosion.

16/3/1 is the split that I planned out for my second Sacred Fist life, except no Divine Class, it misses Divine Might, but picks up a feat, ignores the entire left side of Sacred fist and takes 23 points for the level 12 core and the T4 upgrade making your Ki spells deal Light Damage. And then that Trailblazer tree is not a bad staff tree. Full Combat Feats, Two Metas, Full Monk stance upgrades. 2-3 sources of passive Ki generation on creation at level 15, 3-4 with Grandmaster of Flowers at 20, and since this will have full stances, can take full advantage of the GMoF tree, which will be the main tree for it in epics. It could take a favored weapon at 23, but I don't think I will since that locks up two trees. I wanted to mix and match the other two trees to go with GMoF. I think if I go Divine Crusader, which I might for the 3rd life, I would make that my main tree, and might not have too much left for GMoF. I see that 15 MRR can in GMoF T5 required if you are wanting to play Sacred Fist at cap, as well as the +10 MRR cap in the 4th core. For me, that tree is totally locked in as the main one in this setup. Can Divine Crusader in cloth overcome the -15 MRR cap from not taking GMoF to T5? I am not sure, but it could be interesting to find out. A lot more smites with DC as the main tree.

https://forums.ddo.com/forums/showth...lways-hi-on-Ki

[Maelphistez]

If I'm not going to do a cat life, then I throw the staff build out the window and go with Daggers. At that point, I likely do a 16 SF / 2 Rogue / 2 Fighter since I'm going to go T5 in Vistani anyway.

[dogsoldier]

Yep, my other two Sacred Fist lives (one done) are SWF and TWF Vistani.

He had wanted to use Quarterstaffs as well though. Pretty sure he has 2 Rogue, not sure about what split he settled on. Yeah, feats are pretty tight and fighter helps. I also think he doesn't care if it is optimal 1-22, as long as he can pickup a favored weapon at 23 with Divine Crusader.

[Maelphistez]

Yep, my other two Sacred Fist lives (one done) are SWF and TWF Vistani.

He had wanted to use Quarterstaffs as well though. Pretty sure he has 2 Rogue, not sure about what split he settled on. Yeah, feats are pretty tight and fighter helps. I also think he doesn't care if it is optimal 1-22, as long as he can pickup a favored weapon at 23 with Divine Crusader.

I just can't make myself do TWF... Sacred Fist is already so MAD that the Dex requirement doesn't make it for me. I prefer to go SWF because all I really need is that 7 balance and then if I got tired of daggers I could pretty easily go with BSword (would need to feat swap for BS proficiency) so that I use it as a Favored Weapon at 23 and add Two Handed Specialty in Legendary.

[dogsoldier]

I just can't make myself do TWF... Sacred Fist is already so MAD that the Dex requirement doesn't make it for me. I prefer to go SWF because all I really need is that 7 balance and then if I got tired of daggers I could pretty easily go with BSword (would need to feat swap for BS proficiency) so that I use it as a Favored Weapon at 23 and add Two Handed Specialty in Legendary.

Yeah I agree for most races. I went SWF on the 6 DEX Blade forged. TWF isn't too bad on 10 DEX races like Tabaxi. Personally, I would like to see them remove all stat requirements for combat styles. It doesn't make much sense to me at this point with all of the different ways to get alt stat to hit/dmg. STR is going to still usually be higher given all of the stacking sources of it, so it seems balanced enough without making everything more MAD just for lore flavor.