I like having even integers for my numbers. This way when I get the full benefit from ability modifiers. My other build doens't have even integers.
Why some of you might prefer this build to my weapon master/PM build. You critical hit on a 12-20/x2. This is 45% of the time. That is better than daggers. You don't have to worry about finding a keen dagger. You CAN cast keen edge on your scimitars. You do more damage this way if you don't critical hit. Greater Magic Weapon will add more with 6 levels of wiz than with 3. Flame Weapon will add 3 more fire damage than with 3 levels of wiz. You have weapon specialization from fighter = 2 more dmg. Your spell buffs that would have lasted 3 rounds with my other build, using extend spell will last 12 rounds now. That is plenty of time to get the battle over with. 3 rounds is not enough time if there are lots of monsters. You have better spell penetration (especially important for monsters with Spell Resistance). You have a lot more hit points than my other build. You still have the toughest summons in the game (Demilich). You get spells per day as though you were a level 21 wizard. This means you get all your spells per day. My other build only got spells per day as though you were a level 18 wizard.
Minimum Dmg. Calculation: Primary Hand +1 1d6 Scimitar +8 Strength Modifier +2 Weapon Specialization +2 Greater Magic Weapon +1 Minimum roll of a 2 from Bull's Strength. +6 Fire (Flame Weapon spell) ---- 13 Slashing 6 Fire dmg.
Off Hand comes to 11 Slashing, 6 Fire damage minimum.
Using True Strike you will be able to hit most stuff. Or cast Greater Ruin, Hellball, and your other attack spells. Your normal spells are cast at level 6 instead of 3.
You still have 2.5 times more damage reduction than a dwarven defender with epic warding. You also have acid sheath, elemental shield, death armor, etc. You may notice I went for more Energy Resistance to Fire in this build than I did in the other one. That's because if you cast Mordenkainen's Disjunction as your first action when you are up against a mage, Acid Sheath should go away. I figured more mages would be hitting me with Firebrand, Fireball, Flame Arrow, etc. so the Fire Resistance might be more handy. Which energy resistance you choose depends on you and where you play.
This build incorporates everything my other build did, except you don't have whirlwind attack, and you don't have ki damage from the weapon master. You do have knockdown, and a couple other feats that can be useful that my other build doesn't.
Using True Strike your attacks will be like this: +53/+48/+43 Primary Hand +48 Off Hand
Of course if you get items that raise strength or give more enhancement etc. you can easily get to +60-70 on your to hit.
Well folks, I gotta run. I will post the Sorcerer/Paladin/Blackguard build I have in a couple hours or maybe tomorrow.
cdaulepp
Edited By Cinnabar Din on 02/26/08 07:49
Improved Version, also by cdualepp
4/6/30 ftr/wiz/Palemaster
I have made several improvements to this build. It was extremely powerful before, and now it is even tougher. To see the original version go to page 5 of this topic and look at the very bottom of the page.
I changed the build because, after testing, even though when you look at your character sheet using the "c" button and it says you get a +20 from True Strike you don't really get the full +20. If you use a weapon that has any enhancement on it, cast spells like Bless and Aid, or use other attack enhancing methods, the maximum attack bonus you can get is +20. So suppose you have Aid, Bless, Divine Favor, and Greater Magic Weapon cast on your character. Suppose all that adds up to +8 to attack. When you cast True Strike you don't get an additional +20. Your character sheet will say you have an extra +20, but when it rolls you don't get the +20 from true strike. In this case you'd only get +12 from True Strike.
Some stuff had to be changed on my build. I would easily be able to hit things with an AC of 70 if True Strike stacked with the other buffs, but since it doesn't I had to get rid of the dual wielding part of the old build to add more to the attack with the new version.
Next, if I'm not going to dual wield then I might as well use a Shield and Full Plate Armor for an extra 15-30 AC.
Starting stats and ending stats will be the same, but feat progression is different. When you bump strength and intelligence differs as well in the version 2.0. I also retested a couple things and you should take your levels in a different order than the original build to get the most from your fighter's good attack bonus. So here is the part that has changed:
Take levels like this: *1 Ftr. *3 Wiz. *10 PM *2 Ftr. *3 Wiz. *1 Ftr. (max discipline to 23 when you take this level.) *20 PM
Feat progression should look like this: LVL____Feat 1 Power Attack 1 Cleave (human bonus) 1 Weapon Focus: Scimitar (ftr bonus) 3 Spell Penetration 6 Extend Spell 9 Great Cleave 12 Greater Spell Penetration 15 Still Spell 15 Improved Critical Scimitar (ftr bonus) 18 Toughness 18 Empower Spell (wizard bonus) 20 Weapon Specialization (ftr bonus) 21 Overwhelming Critical: Scimitar 23 Epic Spell Pentration (PM bonus) 24 Great Strength I 26 Epic Mage Armor (PM bonus) 27 Devastating Critical Scimitar 29 Epic Spell Greater Ruin (PM bonus)* 30 Great Intelligence I 32 Epic Spell Warding (PM bonus) 33 Auto Still Spell I 35 Auto Still Spell II (PM bonus) 36 Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar 38 Auto Still Spell III (PM bonus) 39 Armor Skin*
*note: This build does not absolutely need these to be viable, but these are the ones I chose. You can easily switch Greater Ruin for Hellball and if you don't want Armor Skin and want to go for a different feat that's fine too. It depends on what you want your character to be more focused in.
Old version: +31 AC naked +0 Robes +0 No shield because Dual-wielding +4 Haste +1 Dodge Modifier from Mage Armor (lvl 1) ----- 36 AC total.
Granted this number can be risen by finding items with AC modifiers, but the new version gets a bonus to AC from plate armor, a shield, any shield modifiers, and +5 dodge bonus from epic mage armor that stacks with other dodge modifiers. The old version doesn't have that.
New version: +31 AC naked +8 Full-plate +3 Tower Shield +4 Haste +1 AC Dodge Modifier from Mage Armor (lvl 1) +5 AC Dodge Modifier from Epic Mage Armor +5 AC Deflection Modifier from Epic Mage Armor +5 AC Natural Modifier from Epic Mage Armor +5 AC Armor Modifier from Epic Mage Armor ----- 67 AC total.
Don't forget to cast Bigby's Interposing Hand on people. That lowers their attacks by 10. That is the same as having an AC of 77. (With items you can get this easily to above 80. That will make you very, very hard to hit).
You may notice that the old version chose Knockdown as a feat. That was a waste. The new one doesn't have it. It was a waste because if I want to knock someone down it is much more effective to use Bigby's Forceful Hand to put them on their back. Plus, if I lose the strength check, they can still be dazed. Using "knockdown" (the feat) forces me to do an opposed discipline check. Thus, people who put skill points in "Discipline" are much more likely to resist the knockdown attempt than if I use Bigby's Forceful Hand. The spell has no discipline check and no save. It just has a strength check.
You can knock down anyone with Bigby's Forceful Hand with this build, unless they have immunity to knockdown items. My strength with items is 38. Empowered Bigby's Forceful Hand gives me a +21 to strength check. That is 59 strength total for me. The highest possible strength on any character, including the +12 from items is 57. So you'll never lose the strength check with this character.
This build gets +6 for beating SR because of epic spell penetration. The other build only got a +4.
I also hear that Epic Prowess doesn't stack with other attack bonuses like weapon focus and epic weapon focus, so epic prowess was a waste in the old build.
The newer version doesn't suffer the dual wielding penalties either.
I think this version is much better than the old one.