Playable 1-40 PvE. Untested in PvP.

No fun story... I saw a post in the general forum that made me think "Hmm dwd + assassin = ..." and this is the answer.

Dwarf, Lawful Evil

Str 15
Dex 15
Con 16
Wis 10
Int 14
Cha 6

1 ftr: weapon focus (mace), luck of heroes*
2 ftr: dodge
3 ftr: two-weapon fighting
4 ftr: +1 str, weapon specialization (mace)
5 ftr:
6 ftr: ambidexterity, tough
7 ftr:
8 ftr: +1 con, power attack*
9 dwd: improved two-weapon fighting
10 dwd:
11 dwd:
12 dwd: +1 con, cleave*
13 dwd:
14 dwd:
15 dwd: knockdown*
16 dwd: +1 con
17 dwd:
18 dwd: improved knockdown*
19 asn:
20 asn: +1 con
21 asn: epic weapon focus (mace)
22 asn:
23 asn:
24 ftr: +1 con, epic weapon specialization (mace)
25 ftr: blind-fight*
26 asn:
27 asn: epic damage reduction 1
28 asn: +1 con
29 asn:
30 asn: great str 1
31 asn:
32 asn: +1 str
33 asn: epic damage reduction 2
34 asn: epic reflexes+
35 asn:
36 asn: +1 str, epic damage reduction 3
37 asn:
38 ftr:
39 asn: improved sneak attack 1+, improved sneak attack 2*
40 ftr: +1 str, epic prowess

* feat can be changed to combat feat of choice
+ epic assassin bonus feat

Ending vitals:
Str 20
Con 22

AC 20 naked (10 +2 dex +8 tumble) - 27 in mundane plate
15/- Damage Reduction
628 max hp
+38 AB single wield, +36 AB dual wielding mundane maces
+11 damage to main hand +8 to off hand
11d6 Death Attack with Save DC 30
Fort 30 Ref 25 Will 20

Pros - Very good melee defenses, high hitpoints, good sneak attack dice, usefully high death attack save DC, workable damage against sneak-immune targets.

Cons - Low AB, low will save, medium-low AC.

FAQ:

Q: Why didn't you build for a higher AB?
A: I had thought my fighter/DWD levels would give me a BAB high enough to compensate for a lower strength... it turns out I was wrong.

If I were going to do it over and keep the Epic Damage Reduction feats, I would consider making it a dex build using finesse in order to keep dual wielding (generating more sneak attacks per round) while boosting my AB. This would be most viable if the environment didn't have many sneak-immune enemies.

But it would also be possible to drop Epic Damage Reduction and use a lower Con in return for a higher Strength. This might be the best idea if you were going to fight a lot of sneak-immune enemies.

Q: This guy isn't meant to be very sneaky for an assassin if you have him wearing plate... where do you put your skill points?
A: Tumble, UMD, and Discipline are the "must haves" - beyond that you'll have enough points to raise one more skill fully, or spread the points out. Good choices are set trap and disarm trap.

Q: Why assassin instead of rogue?
A: Because this way you get darkness and improved invisibility. With the attacker miss chance stacked with the conceal bonus, stacked with defender damage reduction, it's highly unlikely that you'll be killed in melee. Also, with a save DC of 30 on your death attack, if you can surprise many rogues and casters, you have a chance of ruining their day with your first shot.

Q: Why dual wield since you have a low AB?
A: Well, it's a tough call. Dropping dual wield would free up feats that might be arranged better to raise strength and end up with a higher AB. However, having ITWF has one advantage in a low-AB build: if you can only hit on a 20, the extra attack with the offhand weapon gives you another chance per round to roll that 20.

Still, if you can get your AB to +40 or +41 by dropping the dual wielding feats, it's probably a better idea to drop them than to keep them.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.

Edited By griphook on 10/11/05 20:00

Keep in mind that until it is fixed in one of the next patches Improved Sneak Attack feats don't function without at least one rogue sneak attack feat (at least one rogue level or sneak attack feat on an item).
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Character Build Calculator(works with Excel, Open Office) 2.83: updated to NWN 1.69. Didn't know that... that's kind of a bummer, especially because the assassin epic bonus feats this build has available are pretty poor.

Thanks for the info. That would encourage me to work more Great Strengths into the build, possibly changing it to use a greataxe or greatsword.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience. Interesting build X. I've thought of coupling DwD with Assassin before, but never got around to it. But no character story? Bah! Now you've made me grumpy....

What do 10 levels of DwD bring to this build? Obviously Defensive Stance (which is of questionable value since it's so easily broken) and d12 hit dice.

I have to ask this since I once tried to put 10 levels of DwD into a build. It now sits in my NWN/Char Sheets folder called:
"Ftr 8 - WM 22 - DwD 10 - Bah, DwD does little.xls"

Couldn't you build a more effective Assassin going Rogue-Blackguard-Assassin that effectively does the same thing as this guy, but with more skill points and more Assassin levels (thus better Death Attack)? Or perhaps Fighter-BG-Assassin?

Kaliban.
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What I'm reading now:
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer. Well you get 6 of your 15/- DR in this build thanks to DWD, and immunity to flanking sneak attacks, in addition to defensive stance. So DWD brings a pretty strong defensive component to the character. You can stand your ground in the middle of a fight and beat on your enemies with sneak attacks. When you get a death attack off, it might actually work.

An interesting idea I had while reading your comment would be to try ranger 9/DWD 14/assassin 17. The assassin bonus feat I'd be losing isn't an issue because of the improved SA thing, and I'd be able to keep dual wielding while dropping my dexterity to 13 and having a higher starting strength, helping AB along. Of course, I'd lose weapon specialization. But gain ultravision as a ranger spell. So, tradeoffs would abound.

In the end... the build turned out a little weaker than I'd hoped on the AB side, but is really different from other builds I've made and other than that I'm pretty happy with it. I'm looking at the ways I can refine it to a higher AB just because I think it's an interesting concept.

The way I viewed this build while making it was to create a combatant with a versatile offense using fighter bonus feats and assassin special abilities, and using DWD and damage resistance for defense. I particularly wanted a character that could deal ugly sneak attack damage, but who wasn't reliant on it (thus the choice of strength and weapon specialization), and who favored blunt weapons (because of slash/pierce immunity).

Really the only thing I don't like is the low AB. When I have more time I'm gonna come back to this one and figure that out.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Quote: Posted 10/11/05 16:51:48 (GMT) -- Xylophone

Well you get 6 of your 15/- DR in this build thanks to DWD, and immunity to flanking sneak attacks, in addition to defensive stance. So DWD brings a pretty strong defensive component to the character. You can stand your ground in the middle of a fight and beat on your enemies with sneak attacks. When you get a death attack off, it might actually work.

Ah, good info. Since you whipped that out so readily you should have put it in your original post for ignoramuses like me

As for Assassin bonus feats, you could take two Great Dexes or Epic Skill Focus: Hide or ESF: Move Silently. This would give you more operational flexibility (as Grizzled Dwarflord has pointed out in his builds) to either wear light armor and gain Dex bonus, or to utilize stealth skills while wearing heavy armor.

I like this build. I have a fond place in my heart for Assassins. Maybe I'll start working on that Fighter/Blackguard/Assassin build since there aren't any out there....

Kaliban
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What I'm reading now:
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer.