Back with another dex build, I wanted to make something special this time.
What about a scary little savage that appears out of nowhere to tear apart all who get in his way?
A protector of his tribe, this savage little thing is not the usual halfling you are accustomed to... definitely not!
Sure you could easily go elf with this build (wild elves are there for that, no?) but that would take all the fun out of playing this little mean thing
A short story is coming too...
Here we go now:



The Ghost of Fear
PvM playable 1-40

Race: Halfling
Alignment: any non lawful (NN or CN and you are immune to smites)

Stats (ending):
STR 10
DEX 20 (32)
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 8
CHA 8

1 Barbarian 1 Weapon Finesse
2 Barbarian 2
3 Barbarian 3 TWF
4 Barbarian 4 (Dex)
5 Barbarian 5
6 Barbarian 6 WF (short sword)
7 Barbarian 7
8 Barbarian 8 (Dex)
9 Barbarian 9 IC
10 Barbarian 10
11 Barbarian 11
12 Barbarian 12 Ambidexterity, (Dex)
13 Barbarian 13
14 Barbarian 14
15 Barbarian 15 Dodge
16 Barbarian 16 (Dex)
17 Fighter 1 Mobility
18 Sh. Dancer 1 ITWF
19 Sh. Dancer 2
20 Sh. Dancer 3 (Dex)
21 Fighter 2 Great Dex I, EWF
22 Sh. Dancer 4
23 Fighter 3
24 Fighter 4 WS, EWS, (Dex)
25 Sh. Dancer 5
26 Sh. Dancer 6
27 Sh. Dancer 7 Great Dex II
28 Sh. Dancer 8 (Dex)
29 Sh. Dancer 9
30 Sh. Dancer 10 Epic Dodge
31 Sh. Dancer 11
32 Sh. Dancer 12 (Dex)
33 Sh. Dancer 13 SCI, SCII
34 Sh. Dancer 14
35 Sh. Dancer 15
36 Sh. Dancer 16 SCIII, SCIV, (Dex)
37 Sh. Dancer 17
38 Sh. Dancer 18
39 Barbarian 17 Terrifying Rage
40 Sh. Dancer 19 SCV, (Dex)


BAB: 29
AB:
43/38/33/28
41/36/31/26/41/36 dual wielding
41/36/31/26 ranged
Damage: 1d6+3 (1d6+6 w/rage)

AC (naked): 29

Saves (+4 vs spells):
For 25
Ref 30
Will 16 (18 vs fear)

HPs: 436 (556 w/rage)

Skill points: 288

Move Silently 43 (54)
Hide 43 (56)
Tumble 40 (51)
Spellcraft 18 (20)
Intimidate 42 (41)
Taunt 42 (41)
Discipline 42


Advantages

1) Good AB, even ranged. You can hips, hit from afar then relocate and hit again if you want

2) Decent saves (will apart)

3) Good naked AC. Get yourself some nice robes, bracers, amulets, rings to boost it

4) Epic dodge and SC5: you won't get hit often

5) Hips, uncanny dodge, improved evasion, slippery mind, defensive roll, shadow evade 12/+4, shadow daze, summon shadow, darkvision: the full shadow dancer package!

6) Greater rage and terrifying rage. Walk unseen among your enemies and then rage and scare them off...at that point they are dead meat

7) Maximized taunt: up to -6 AC + 30% spell failure to your foes


Disadvantages

1) Low will save, against spells it gets better...luckily there's slippery mind to help

2) no UMD: no way to wear those nice monk robes ... too bad SD don't get the skill!

3) a little tight on feats: no epic shadow lord (altough you can drop EWS and swapping the last fighter lvl with a SD lvl you can get it)

4) one level short of shadow evade 14/+5

5) mediocre HP

6) mediocre damage output


Possible changes to the build are choosing elf instead of halfling, dropping dual wield and going sword (rapier?) and board (this frees up 3 feats pre-epic: maybe LoH, iron will and toughness?), dropping EWS for Epic shadow lord.
I would have liked to get the 20th SD lvl for the increase in shadow evade but I couldn't find a way to do it without having to drop either terrifying rage either WS/EWS.

Comments are of course welcome as any suggestions on how to improve the build.


*Edit: edited typos*
_________________
Dilegua notte
Tramontate stelle
Tramontate stelle
All'alba vinceṛ
Vinceṛ
Vinceṛ

Edited By griphook on 10/30/05 21:10

You only need 15 barbarian levels to get terrifying rage... so you can go 16 barb/20 SD/4 fighter, possibly at the cost of a point of AB, by going 15 barb/4sd/1 fighter pre-20, then taking your 16th barb level at 39 for terrifying rage and maxed out intimidate.
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Experience is the mother of good judgement; bad judgement is the father of experience.
Quote: Posted 10/17/05 00:54:19 (GMT) -- Xylophone

You only need 15 barbarian levels to get terrifying rage... so you can go 16 barb/20 SD/4 fighter, possibly at the cost of a point of AB, by going 15 barb/4sd/1 fighter pre-20, then taking your 16th barb level at 39 for terrifying rage and maxed out intimidate.

You need 10 points in hide which is a CC skill to qualify for SD, correct me if I'm wrong but that means 17 non-SD lvls preepic. I take only one lvl of fighter preepic so that I can use the bonus feats to be able to get EWF,WS,EWS in epic lvls.
Quote: Posted 10/16/05 23:51:34 (GMT) -- Kail Pendragon

6 Barbarian 6 WF (short sword)

Are you proposing dual wielding Short Swords? Aren't Short Swords considered Medium-sized weapons for Halflings? And thus would bring a -4/-4 dual wield penalty?

Methinks Halflings need to stick with tiny weapons in the offhand (Dagger, Kukri, 1d2 Twig) when dual wielding.

Kaliban.
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What I'm reading now:
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer. If that twig is a whip - they can't be dual-wielded so it's only dagger or kukri.
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.:\_/:. Only those who have known darkness in
(OvO) their hearts will see the shadows in life...
(|__|)
.."..".. I wasn't sure about short swords myself, but if they are indeed considered medium weapons for halflings then they should be switched to daggers (and the same goes for WF,EWF,WS,EWS of course).
If building an elf you can keep the short swords instead.
Thank you for pointing it out
_________________
Dilegua notte
Tramontate stelle
Tramontate stelle
All'alba vinceṛ
Vinceṛ
Vinceṛ As a meat shield the level 10 Shadow summon is defensively as effective or more effective than the Epic Shadowlord level 19 summon, which lacks concealment. Other than that the defenses are identical. Only the hit points are increased (balanced by the concealment it evens out, and the AB and dmg is increased by the epic shadowlord.

Syrath
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It's SHADOWDANCER, dammit, shadowdancer!!! Heh, I've built a few of these feral-eyed freaks. You did a fairly decent job at putting this guy together, good job. I have only one suggestion, and you can take it with a grain of salt.

Rogue over Shadowdancer. Perhaps the build's biggest drawback is damage output and lack of UMD. While you're tough defensively, you lack any real offensive threat.

You could go Barbarian16/Rogue24 (Barb15/Rogue25), still get enough bonus feats to get Epic Dodge and SC V, obtain more skill points, grab Terrifying Rage at Lvl24, still be able to top out Intimidate at the end via Rogue class skill, get 13d6 sneak attack (91d6 per round hasted) and avoid an Experience point penalty. You'll further have a great UMD score, top out all your Trap skills, and have an excellent way to generate sneaks through your Terrifying Rage.
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Ariel, Ookla, RIDE! Thanks syrath for the clarification about the epic shadow lord...guess I'll keep EWS then

Grizz, thanks for the compliments...a praise from the dwarflord is something indeed
Your suggestion is a real good one, lack of UMD and damage output are indeed a problem with the build. Defenses are good as you said, but this little savage is lacking in dishing out pain. I would still keep 1 lvl SD for Hips, so I would build something on the lines of Barb 15/Rogue 24/SD 1.
One could also drop fighter altogether at the cost of WS, EWS and get 3 lvls rogue instead (and raising SD to 20th) at the right moment to get SD earlier and UMD/Set traps plus a weak sneak.
Among the reasons I went SD heavy there are RP reasons and the fact I didn't see this class combo used on a dex route up to ED/SC5.

An off topic question (please forgive me...somehow it is related to the build anyhow ): is it true that true seeing doesn't reveal concealed characters anymore? I read somewhere they changed it recently...
_________________
Dilegua notte
Tramontate stelle
Tramontate stelle
All'alba vinceṛ
Vinceṛ
Vinceṛ C'est génial! Amazing, I like this alot The dwarflord is right about your damage, though - you can't really hurt anything.

I changed your pre-epic leveling (well feats) to what I think is more efficient:

1. Barbarian1 - Weapon Finesse
2. Barbarian2
3. Fighter1 - Two-Weapon Fighting * Ambidexterity
4. Barbarian3
5. Barbarian4
6. Barbarian5 - Weapon Focus
7. Barbarian6
8. Barbarian7
9. Barbarian8 - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
10. Barbarian9
11. Barbarian10
12. Barbarian11 - Dodge
13. Barbarian12
14. Barbarian13
15. Barbarian14 - Mobility
16. Barbarian15
17. Barbarian16
18. SD1 - Improved Critical
19. SD2
20. SD3

But yeah, I think the Rogue one would be better overall
_________________
Now is my day's work done;
I'll take good breath:
Rest, sword; thou hast thy fill of
blood and death.
Quote: Posted 10/17/05 13:50:11 (GMT) -- Kail Pendragon

Among the reasons I went SD heavy there are RP reasons and the fact I didn't see this class combo used on a dex route up to ED/SC5.


Everytime someone does a halfing sneak barbarian , I keep thinking chucky ).

Syrath
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It's SHADOWDANCER, dammit, shadowdancer!!!
Quote: Posted 10/17/05 08:14:52 (GMT) -- Jennalee

If that twig is a whip - they can't be dual-wielded so it's only dagger or kukri.

No, not whip. Just the proverbial twig wielded by one of Grizz's tree-hugging assassins

Kaliban
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What I'm reading now:
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer.
Quote: Posted 10/17/05 14:02:50 (GMT) -- FinneousPJ

C'est génial! Amazing, I like this alot The dwarflord is right about your damage, though - you can't really hurt anything.

I changed your pre-epic leveling (well feats) to what I think is more efficient:

1. Barbarian1 - Weapon Finesse
2. Barbarian2
3. Fighter1 - Two-Weapon Fighting * Ambidexterity
4. Barbarian3
5. Barbarian4
6. Barbarian5 - Weapon Focus
7. Barbarian6
8. Barbarian7
9. Barbarian8 - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
10. Barbarian9
11. Barbarian10
12. Barbarian11 - Dodge
13. Barbarian12
14. Barbarian13
15. Barbarian14 - Mobility
16. Barbarian15
17. Barbarian16
18. SD1 - Improved Critical
19. SD2
20. SD3

But yeah, I think the Rogue one would be better overall

Thanks, I didn't put much effort in the pre-epic lvling, eh, eh! Your improvements are cool

I agree that the rogue route would be better and in fact I'm making a 2nd version of the Ghost of fear with rogue instead of SD.
Thanks to all for the suggestions/feedback