Devastating Critical, biggest chance for a critical strike possible, epic spells, lvl 9 mage spells, ability to cast in armor, improved combat casting and decent fighting capabilities - all in one character! It's hardly possible to find a better spellsword.
Fighter 10/ Wizard 23/ Weapon Master 7 Race: Human Equipment: Scimitar, Tower Shield, Full Plate Armor
Str 16 (ends with 25) Dex 13 Con 13 Int 16 (ends with 19) Wis 8 Cha 8
Skills: (* - my suggestions) Spellcraft 42 - take only on Wizard Levels *Spot 23 - take only on Weapon Master Levels *Healing 35 Tumble 20 Concentration 43 - take only on Wizard and Fighter Levels Discipline 43 - take only on Fighter and Weapon Master Levels *Lore 43 Intimidate 4
Level Progression: 1. Fighter: Dodge, Mobility, Weapon of Choice (Scimitar) 2. Wizard 3. Fighter: Expertise, Power Attack 4. Fighter: +Str 5. Fighter: Weapon Specialisation (Scimitar) 6. Wizard: Spring Attack 7. Wizard 8. Fighter: +Str 9. Wizard: Whirlwind Attack (have 4 Intimidate at this moment) 10. Weapon Master 11. Weapon Master 12. Wizard: Cleave, Still Spell +Str 13. Weapon Master 14. Weapon Master 15. Weapon Master: Improved Critical (Scimitar) 16. Wizard: + Str 17. Wizard 18. Weapon Master: Great Cleave 19. Wizard 20. Weapon Master: +Int (have 23 Spot at this moment) 21. Wizard: Great Intelligence I 22. Wizard: Great Intelligence II 23. Wizard 24. Wizard: Combat Casting +Str 25. Wizard 26. Wizard 27. Wizard: Maximize Spell, Improved Combat Casting 28. Wizard: +Str 29. Wizard 30. Wizard: Automatic Still Spell I 31. Wizard 32. Wizard: Automatic Still Spell II +Str 33. Wizard: Automatic Still Spell III 34. Fighter: Overwhelming Critical (Scimitar) 35. Fighter 36. Fighter: Epic Weapon of Choice (Scimitar), Epic Weapon Specialisation (Scimitar) +Str 37. Wizard 38. Fighter 39. Wizard: Epic Spell (Epic Warding), Epic Spell (Epic Mage Armor) 40. Fighter: Devastating Critical (Scimitar), +Str
How would you compare this to Mith's Magical Marauder and why would you advise people to choose this build over his? Under what conditions would you say people were better off with Mith's Magical Marauder?
Nicely done!
Thanks, K.
Magical Marauder, wielding a greatsword, has a 30% chance for a critical hit. Arcane Knight has 55%, and his critical hit deals x3 damage, not x2. Arcane Knight has Epic Mage Armor, and uses a shield - his AC is much greater then this of Magical Marauder. Arcane Knight has 51 AC when fully buffed, and without magic items. Magical Marauder has 43 AC with +5 items.
Magical Marauder has better saves, slighly more HP (when fully buffed), and access to feats like Improved Knockdown and Blind Fight. So if you think that you will be fighting enemies immune to critical hits, he's a better choice.
Edited By Tengudor_t on 10/25/04 07:15
Hi Tengudor_t ,
Very nice build and great replies to the questions above!! Thanks again for sharing the build. I like it alot and may try it out as my next build. I've never tried a caster before because of liking the melee too much. This build is a great mixture where I can focus on playing like a wizard, but kick a little *** physically if I want to.
Thanks, Mano _________________ A Man of War who treads the world's roads alone, as I do, must be quick. Long ago I learned to strike swiftly and without scruple. I trouble no man without cause, but one who attacks me had best resolve himself to die!
Hi Tengudor_t! I used to solo a figter6/wm7/wizard 27 in the OC. It looked something like this: Str17, Dex13, Con10, Wis8, Int16 and Cha8 Lvl proression: 1 F1 doge, mobility, wpn focus (greatsword) 2 F2 power attack 3 F3 expertise 4 Wiz1 str+1 (18) 5 Wiz2 6 Wiz3 springing attack 7 Wiz4 8 Wiz5 still spell, str+1 (19) 9 Wiz6 whrlwind 10 Wiz7 11 Wm1 12 Wm2 cleav, str+1 (20) 13 Wm3 14 Wm4 15 Wm5 greater cleave 16 Wm6 str+1 (21) 17 Wm7 18 Wiz8 improver crit 19 F4 wpn specialization (greatsword) 20 F5 str+1 (22) 21 Wiz9 greater str (23) 22 Wiz10 empower/maximize 23 Wiz11 24 Wiz12 overhelming crit, int+1 (17) 25 Wiz13 26 Wiz14 27 Wiz15 greater int (18), epic wpn focus (greatsword 28 Wiz16 int+1 (19) 29 Wiz17 30 Wiz18 automatic still spell I 31 Wiz19 32 Wiz20 automatic still spell II, str+1 (24) 33 Wiz21 epic warding 34 Wiz22 35 Wiz23 automatic still spell III 36 F6 devastating crit, epic wpn specializatioin (greatsword), str+1 (25) 37 Wiz24 38 Wiz25 39 Wiz26 epic mage armor, epic prowess 40 Wiz27 int+1 (20)
I found this build somewhere (maybe named wargeneral by someone)on the forum and realy realy enjoyed playing him. Now i'm about to start playing online on a server wirth pw and pvp. What do you think, is your build better or should i stick with my old one? Appreciate an answer thank yoo.
There are some minor differences, but the biggest one is that your character has about 100 HP less when fully buffed.
I'd stick with Arcane Knight.
Ok, thx. I'll try yours then.
I have to say that on the same night that you posted this, i had exactly the same idea! I have a nice bastard sword on the pw i play so i made mine to use that (so mine has to be more melee based, loosin a few caster feats).
I thank you for posting yours though cuz i did learn alot from it! The way i did mine originally i didnt think about gettin mage armor! I took most of my wiz lvls after 20 (i think i had 3 wiz lvls before 20) so i was short at 39 and had to take auto still. I had already created my char before i saw yours, and I started with str 17 int 16 dex 13 which left my con 10. To make up for this i am debating on taking Toughness as a feat.
Thanks again.
Peace
I hope you plan on playing this on a server without Dev Crit but since it's in your build I'm guessing you aren't. A Dev Critter will take this char out quickly with a fort save that low.
A dev critter would take almost any character out very fast - when it comes to close combat. But Arcane Knight has ways of fighting that kind of opponents:
-with full buffs and Expertize on, he has 57 AC without any magical items. Every attack on him has also 50% chance to miss anyway, if the opponent has no Blind Fight. This means that enemies with Dev. Critical, but not the highest AB, will have trouble hitting him - especially when you cast Bigby's Interposing Hand at them. -Why not take enemies out from the distance? Cast Bigby's Grasping Hand or Bigby's Crushing Hand on them and then spam maximized IGMS on them. Ordinary warrior will die after 2-3 IGMSs. -Cast Time Stop, run to them and attack them in melee. Ig your opponent is not critical immune or does not have giant AC, it is unlikely that he will survive this. -Use Invisilibity, Greater Invisilibity and Greater Sanctuary to attack them when they don't expect.
PS. I consider servers that ban Devastating Critical absurd - almost as much as this feat.
Magical Marauder, wielding a greatsword, has a 30% chance for a critical hit. Arcane Knight has 55%, and his critical hit deals x3 damage, not x2. Arcane Knight has Epic Mage Armor, and uses a shield - his AC is much greater then this of Magical Marauder. Arcane Knight has 51 AC when fully buffed, and without magic items. Magical Marauder has 43 AC with +5 items.
The Magical Marauder does have a 3 point higher AB. A 37 AB is not that high (I consider the Marauder's AB about 4 or 5 points lower than I would like), meaning that you're probably not going to get full use out of your 55% crit. range against most opponents. Epic mage armor is okay, but doesn't give you a straight +20 AC modifier, instead it gives you 4 +5s, the one to dodge is likely the only one that will count, assuming +5 magical equipment. That's the reason I avoided it. I agree your build has a higher AC, but when you can cast Mestil's Acid Sheath, Elemental Shield and Death Armor getting hit isn't that bad. If you're fighting an opponent with devastating critical, you can just cast those spells folowed by shapechange and change into a golem, odds are they'll die before you do. As you noted in another post, these characters have multiple means of defeating an opponent with devastating critical as opposed to duking it out with them. The trick is to let your magic immobilize or otherwise disable your opponent, and let your weapon do the killing.
Quote: Magical Marauder has better saves, slighly more HP (when fully buffed), and access to feats like Improved Knockdown and Blind Fight. So if you think that you will be fighting enemies immune to critical hits, he's a better choice.
All things considered I like your build, but I'm not sure the Weapon Master levels add that much to it (think of the feats you spent). Your AB isn't high enough to benefit from the extended crit. range. Maybe a battle axe would be a better choice than a scimitar, you would only have a 25% crit. range (though you would probably land a similar number of critical hits) but you would have a x4 critical multiplier and a bit more damage in general. _________________ Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
Edited By Mithdradates on 12/22/04 00:15
45 AB (not 37, 37 is without buffs - and most of them are cast on your weapon, which is rarely dispelled by dispel spells) is very decent - many fighters have that much of it. Also, you can always cast True Strike - +15 to AB (60), propably all your blows will land, and 55% of them will be critical hits. But if you prefer, you can always play this character with other weapon - I don't like the "critical strike: better chance vs better counter" debate, and I will not fall into it here.
Devastating Critical, -biggest chance for a critical-
Partial correct, because the character with WM lvls for ki strike + rapier with keen, has the greatest chance of scoring a critical, because he will have better AB. The more AB, the better chance you have of scoring the crit.
My mistake, I should have written "biggest critical range possible" - and that will be correct. But this character still has a very big chance of scoring a critical - with 60 AB for those more demanding enemies, only other spellswords (from characters with dev. crit) can have more - but their critical range would be possibly lower.
Great build Tengudor_t, I have a similar build but with two main changes: 1. Replace expertise, combat casting, and imp combat casting with two weapon fighting, ambidex, and imp 2 weapon. This will give you 2 more attacks per-round to use that dev crit.
2. Replace autostill3 with imp knockdown, or imp expertise, with a free feat (allow for an elf build). My justification for this is you can 'normal still' all spells up to level 8. Level 9 spells are mostly verbal so you don't loose out much. Also, with dual wielding build, it's more combat oriented so you should buff before fight. So you really don't need autostill3/combat casting.
Those changes may require switching feats around a little, maybe a level or two.
Q.
These improvements would result in lowering your AB by 4 (unless you choose Exotic weapon proficiency for kukris, in which case it's only -2), your AC by at least 3 (ordinary tower shield) and your HP by 80 (because you somehow have to gain this 15 dex), and without Expertise it would not be possible to have WM levels. However, if someone likes double-wielding VERY much, this might be a good variation for him - but I'd stick with one-hander.
Non-automatic still spell has benefits, but also drawbacks - you have less spells (you never have more spells of level n+1 the of level n), and True Strike (essential for this character) cannot be cast as an ordinary still spell (at least used to in 1.64, no idea if now too). You'd also lose Maxed IGMS and Greater Spell Mantle, which both requires somatic component.
Make potions of Truestrike.
Well, it would require to change one of his feats into Brew Potion - one I don't really like (mostly because of the experience loss when creating potions), although other might consider it more useful then I do.
In some situations the dual-wielding build without auto still spell would be better, is some - the more classical one. I'd advice to stick to the one you like more.
True Strike on a Potion is pretty much worthless, by the time you drink your potion, the spell effect ends.
Also depending on server difficulty your inviteing an attack of opertunity, and if you want to do some serious melee your chugging potions pretty much constantly, meaning that your looseing attacks, chaces to cast spells, there getting a ton of free attacks on you.
All in all, Potions for a Melee/Mage are not a good substitute when you have better alternatives available.
