Playable from level 1 - 40...PvM Build

The Divine Dervish of Torm was designed to be a powerful casting cleric, who can both buff and use offensive spells effectively, as well as being able to wade into melee, slicing up his opponents when he wishes. He has:

26 levels of cleric
- coupled with Epic Spell Penetration, he can handle most spell resistance
- coupled with high wisdom, he gets lots of spells and high DCs, especially for evocation spells due to Epic Spell Focus (evocation), the class for most of the cleric's damage spells.
- his buffs are also very hard to dispel...even a pure mage (well, any mage with at least 20 mage levels) would only have a 20% chance of dispelling any given buff with Mordenkainen's Disjunction. A rogue with a scroll would only have a 5% chance. Any lower level dispel would not work at all.
- Trickery domain for Improved Invisibility, War Domain for Cat's Grace and especially Aura of Vitality

6 levels of monk
- adds his high wisdom to his AC, as well as allowing him to get 40 ranks in tumble and +1 monk AC for another 9 AC
- allows him to naturally have 8 attacks per round with dual wielding, 9 with flurry, 10 with flurry and haste
- gets cleave, evasion, purity of body, and improved knockdown for free
- lets him wear monk gear

8 levels of CoT
- gets him to 16 BAB pre-epic for the full attack schedule
- additions Great Wisdoms as bonus feats
- +4 to all saves


Human, any lawful alignment

STR 14
DEX 15
CON 12
WIS 15 (30)
INT 12
CHA 8

1: Monk(1) - Ambidexterity, TWF
2: Cleric(1) - Trickery and War Domains
3: Cleric(2) - Weapon Focus (Kama)
4: Cleric(3) - +WIS(16)
5: Cleric(4)
6: Cleric(5) - Toughness
7: Monk(2)
8: Cleric(6) +WIS(17)
9: Cleric(7) - Spell Focus (Evocation)
10: Cleric(8)
11: CoT(1)
12: CoT(2) - ITWF, Spell Penetration, +WIS(18)
13: Monk(3)
14: Cleric(9)
15: CoT(3) - Greater Spell Focus (Evocation)
16: CoT(4) - Improved Critical (Kama), +WIS(19)
17: Monk(4)
18: Cleric(10) - Greater Spell Penetration
19: Cleric(11)
20: Cleric(12) - +WIS(20)
21: Cleric(13) - Epic Weapon Focus (Kama)
22: CoT(5)
23: CoT(6) - Armor Skin
24: Cleric(14) - Great WIS I (21), +WIS(22)
25: Cleric(15)
26: Cleric(16)
27: Monk(5) - Great WIS II (23)
28: Cleric(17) - +WIS(24)
29: Cleric(18)
30: Cleric(19) - Epic Spell Focus (Evocation)
31: Cleric(20)
32: CoT(7) - +WIS(25)
33: CoT(8) - Epic Prowess, Epic Spell Penetration
34: Cleric(21)
35: Cleric(22)
36: Cleric(23) - Great WIS III (26), Great WIS IV (27), +WIS(28)
37: Cleric(24)
38: Cleric(25)
39: Monk(6) - Maximize Spell
40: Cleric(26) - Great WIS V (29), +WIS(30)

Skills (190 points total)

Concentration 43
Discipline 42
Lore 22
Spellcraft 43
Tumble 40

Unbuffed, mundane robe and kamas
AB - 30/27/24/21/18/15 for main hand, 30/25 offhand (NOTE: according to my testing, you do not get monk attack progression in your offhand, even if it's a kama)
AB with Flurry of Blows - AB - 28/25/22/19/16/13/30 for main hand, 28/23 offhand
AC - 33
Damage - 1-6 + 2 (19-20/x2) main hand, 1-6 + 1 (19-20/x2) off hand
Max HP - 416
Saves (vs. spells) - Fortitude 31 (39), Reflex 28 (36), Will 37 (45)
DCs - 20 + spell level, 26 + spell level for Evocation spells, 38 for Implosion

Buffed, mundane robe and kamas
AB - 54/51/48/45/42/39 for main hand, 54/49 offhand
AB with Flurry - 52/49/46/43/40/37/54 for main hand, 52/47 for offhand
AC - 51
Damage - 2-10 + 35 (19-20/x2) main hand, 2-10 + 32 (19-20/x2) off hand
Max HP - 682
Saves (vs. spells) - Fortitude 41 (50) , Reflex 38 (47) , Will 43 (52)
DCs - 22 + spell level, 28 + spell level for Evocation spells, 40 for Implosion

Unbuffed, Boots of the Sun Soul +5, Periapt of Wisdom +5, Ring of Protection +5, Robes of the Dark Moon, mundane kamas
AB - 54/51/48/45/42/39/56 for main hand, 54/49 offhand
AB with Flurry - 52/49/46/43/40/37/54/54 for main hand, 52/47 for offhand
AC - 63
Damage - 2-10 + 35 (19-20/x2) main hand, 2-10 + 32 (19-20/x2) off hand
Max HP - 682
Saves (vs. spells) - Fortitude 41 (50), Reflex 38 (47), Will 46 (55)
DCs - 25 + spell level, 31 + spell level for Evocation spells, 43 for Implosion

Note that adding the equipment only adds some to the AC, DC, and Will save, as well as an extra attack from haste. The clerical buffs already max out the rest of the stats.

Steve

Edited By Stravinsky00 on 08/24/05 05:54

Steve,

Nice solid build. It's always interesting to see another Cleric/Monk/CoT variation.

It's too bad you don't have room for one more Monk level to allow you to take Monk 6 early for Improved Knockdown, then maximize Tumble late in life. But that would impact CoT levels, affecting CoT bonus feats (Great Wisdom).

An alternative would be to push for Monk 6 early, and then cross-class Tumble with Cleric late in life. But of course then you couldn't take Tumble so high and get the AC benefits.

Kaliban.
_________________
"Where there is life, there is hope." - Grover i like these monk/cleric builds, but i just worry about losing AC due to hidden opponents. Is there a good way to counteract this. I already asked this question on kaliban's build, but i thought between the two of you i could get some interesting answers.
thanks

-c
_________________
"You cannot pass!" cast true seeing.. if anyone comes to close .. kill them.. even if they are casting light on you..

-DaMouse
Quote: Posted 08/24/05 14:03:56 (GMT) -- Kaliban99

Steve,

Nice solid build. It's always interesting to see another Cleric/Monk/CoT variation.

It's too bad you don't have room for one more Monk level to allow you to take Monk 6 early for Improved Knockdown, then maximize Tumble late in life. But that would impact CoT levels, affecting CoT bonus feats (Great Wisdom).

An alternative would be to push for Monk 6 early, and then cross-class Tumble with Cleric late in life. But of course then you couldn't take Tumble so high and get the AC benefits.

Kaliban.

The other alternative, which I actually meant to post, is to go Cleric 23/ Monk 9/CoT 8. You would lose a bit of casting power, wisdom, spell penetrating power, and your buffs would be a bit easier to dispel. In exchange, you can get monk 6 earlier and also pick up Improved Evasion.

Steve
Quote: Posted 08/24/05 15:17:52 (GMT) -- christian.schnabel

i like these monk/cleric builds, but i just worry about losing AC due to hidden opponents. Is there a good way to counteract this. I already asked this question on kaliban's build, but i thought between the two of you i could get some interesting answers.
thanks

-c

Yeah, as DaMouse pointed out, having True Seeing negates the problem of losing AC to invisible/hidden creatures.

Steve As you might suspect, I like this build. I built a similar build that went cleric18/monk12/cot10 (well, that is how it ended up on the PW -- it didn't get posted here quite the same, as I believe you noted)

-_^.

Nice, nice job.
Quote: Posted 08/24/05 16:23:58 (GMT) -- Ithacan

As you might suspect, I like this build. I built a similar build that went cleric18/monk12/cot10 (well, that is how it ended up on the PW -- it didn't get posted here quite the same, as I believe you noted)

-_^.

Nice, nice job.

Yeah, I had noticed that build when choosing a name for mine. They're basically two ends of the spectrum in terms of cleric/monk/CoT builds. Yours is a strength based, full plate wearing, great sword wielding powerful melee build which uses it's cleric spells for buffing and monk levels for some AC but mostly monk feats. This one is a wisdom based, robes wearing, dual kama attack spammer which is meant to focus on powerful offensive spell casting capabilities with acceptable melee, and also uses monk for feats, WIS based AC, equipment, and attack schedule. It's fun to see how you can have builds using the same classes but go in entirely different ways for different purposes/preferences.

Steve yep. although my build uses robes late for the increased armor class (+4 for 19 innate wisdom, + 6 for buffs/equipped wisdom, +6 for buffed/equipped dex).

everytime i conceive of a caster build, i fall in love with the melee possibilities. so i got that going for (against) me.

cheers.