poweredIC you beat me to the punch, but since mine feels and plays a LOT different from yours, being non-divine and working a bit different, I'll post it anyway.
THIS CHARACTER IS FUN. I can't stress this enough, and you won't really know this untill you play it. I started out with the mission of making the whip effective, and not only do I think I pulled this off, but I managed to create a horribly fun to play combat demon, who at the end only has 280ish hit points, because it needs no more.
stats: str : 14 dex : 18 con : 12 int : 14 wis : 10 cha : 8
all stat points in dex
important skills:; discipline tumble use magic device
stats by 40th level str : 14 dex : 32 con : 12 int : 14 wis : 10 cha : 8 naked ac with just a mundane buckler : 30 hp without reroll : 272 saves: fortitude : 20 reflex : 32 will : 16 attack bonus with a mundane whip : 40/35/30/25 damage : 1-2 +8 (20/x2)
tactics : start the fight with a disarm, you have a +25 to initiative, you will win and get sneak attack on the first hit, while disarming your opponent and dealing 2 points of strength damage. Disarming with this character and a whip is 98% effective and gives you attacks of opportunity untill they re-equip, which of course we don't plan on letting them do, because the next hit is a knockdown. Less of a chance of this, but still fairly decent because of a high base attack bonus. while the opponent is knocked down, called shot to the arms for cumulative attack penalties. Target numbers to hit are -4 when the opponent is on the ground, nullifying the penalty for the called shot. While the opponent is on the ground, and you are making these called shots, you are also doing 20d6 sneak attacks, and 2 points of strength damage / 1 point of attack penalty per hit. After a round of this, the opponent will be lacking on offense, and epic dodge will allow you to ignore the first attack, so you can re-focus on another knockdown, and repeat the process.
I LOVE PLAYING THIS CHARACTER.
(edit : and come on bioware, how about that arterial strike? I want to do wounding while doing this as well ) (edit 2: and this character is my answer to "how can melee beat a mage?". When I beat you at initiative, your cross class discipline ranks (if you even have them) won't resist my knockdown, and time stop doesn't work when you are on your back. Even if you have the ball of cheese that is epic warding up, it's a round per level and I've got an average of 60 points of sneak attack damage. As for 30th level pale masters, unless you cast your 1 round per level demilich summons before you go everywhere, you won't even get to use it before I knock you down, and even if you do I've still got a fair chance of killing you before it kills me. All invisibility effects are also 1 round per level, so even that isn't too bad most times. IGMS still sucks though) _________________ Save yourself some arm strain. Call me Phrost.