The Darkwall Defender is the dowdy champion of a dark dwarven god. Well trained in his deity's chosen weapon and able to resist a great deal of damage, he can prove a balanced defender and attacker. He is strongest when backed into a corner or guarding a narrow mountain pass, which is when he enables his powerful defensive stance for extra power and defense. In addition, he can call upon the power of his deity by way of his great charisma and devote that power to either defense or offense as is needed.
Obviously this build is not as well rounded as some other dwarven defenders. But no one had made one of these yet, so I wanted to see what one could be like. I'm working on another build in which I replace Fighter with Cleric to see if I can get more out of the Blackguard/Dwarven Defender. Any critique is welcome, I don't feel 100% certain that this build would be competitive. On the other hand he did manage 2 Pit Fiends and an Epic Pit fiend in the Novice To Epic Character Builder module. Then again, they don't run away to try shutting down his defensive stance.
Thanks to Bromium for suggestions, particularly ER: Fire.
Edited By Ythaniel on 03/24/06 18:00
Nice! Really nice, actually. Great concept, congratulations, and nice work building around it, too.
A-hum, I'm sure you can think of a better feat than GSTR at level 39. No point in ending with 21 STR, IMO. Take BG5 at 39 and go for ESF: Taunt, that's always nice. Or take another EER: Fire, that mitigates Flame Weapon/Darkfire quite effectively.
You could also start with 13 CHA/12 CON to hit 500 HPs, and change the level 39 GSTR to GCHA.
Well, good job! _________________ The world is grey, the mountain's old The forge's fire is ashen and cold No harp is wrung, no hammer falls The darkness dwells in Druin's halls...
Nice! Really nice, actually. Great concept, congratulations, and nice work building around it, too.
A-hum, I'm sure you can think of a better feat than GSTR at level 39. No point in ending with 21 STR, IMO. Take BG5 at 39 and go for ESF: Taunt, that's always nice. Or take another EER: Fire, that mitigates Flame Weapon/Darkfire quite effectively.
You could also start with 13 CHA/12 CON to hit 500 HPs, and change the level 39 GSTR to GCHA.
Well, good job!
Thanks much! Those are some very good suggestions. I guess I put too much stock in actually getting a +5 bonus from Bull's Strength, which is why I took that extra Great Strength.
I'd like to add that the Darkwall Defender can get 24 AC with Full Plate. I guess I was focusing on the dex bonus matching up with chain mail dex bonus allowance.
Edit: I think I'd stay with CON as it is and take ESF: Taunt instead of that extra point of Strength. With 14 Defensive Stances per day, this guy's hp will mostly be above 500.
Edited By Ythaniel on 03/24/06 19:03
Yes, I'd go for ESF: Taunt, too One thing I forgot to mention was an Epic <insert-random-saving-throw-here> feat _________________ The world is grey, the mountain's old The forge's fire is ashen and cold No harp is wrung, no hammer falls The darkness dwells in Druin's halls...
Yes, I'd go for ESF: Taunt, too One thing I forgot to mention was an Epic <insert-random-saving-throw-here> feat
Yeah, I suppose Will or Reflex saves could be a little better.
Heh, I also forgot to note the +1d6 sneak attack damage from 4th level Blackguard. (Just wait till I post the cleric version...)
Looks good. I like it. It's ashame about that 10 Con. You could start with 12 by lowering Str to 15, and then keep Epic Feat selection the same. I would probablt take the HPs and the +1Fort save for the life of the build over a level 39 ESF Feat. _________________ Got Hommlet? World of Greyhawk Action Server (with 1/2 price ales on Mondays!)
Looks good. I like it. It's ashame about that 10 Con. You could start with 12 by lowering Str to 15, and then keep Epic Feat selection the same. I would probablt take the HPs and the +1Fort save for the life of the build over a level 39 ESF Feat.
Ah yeah, that's a good point as well. Its hard to see all these potential tweaks right away from the start.
That's the same thing I did, I just said CHA because you don't need CHA when you start, but STR is much more useful _________________ The world is grey, the mountain's old The forge's fire is ashen and cold No harp is wrung, no hammer falls The darkness dwells in Druin's halls...
Ariel, Ookla, RIDE!
It's a great build, however, let me try to improve it.
Let's see, to get the 18/- Damage Resistance you need only 26 Dwarven Defender levels, not 27, I think you can gain some benefit if you drop 1 level from Dwarven Defender and 1 from Blackguard to increase fighter to 10, thus gaining an extra feat, I would go for Blind-Fight, but do as you prefer. You would lose the skill dump on taunt...... so, it's not a win/win advice.
As for the odd STR at the end, I know of another solution similar to what Finn said in his first post, lower DEX to 13 instead of CHA, since you'll be wearing full plate, and 14 is not needed, just keep 13 for Dodge, although you will lose 1 Reflex, and use it to increase CON (11), take CON and at the end (12), instead of STR, that way keeping STR high on lower levels and also ending with 20, anyway, Grizz's option is better, since you would retain the Reflex, my CON progression enters too late but makes STR enter a little bit earlier, it's just another option... since I wanted to say something.
It's a cool build, but do you have a specific weapon in mind? I mean, this way everone that would like to use your build could choose easily, yeah, but you've got to have some preferences, and I'm curious about how you visualize it. You take exotic, so I would take a scythe, since I like scythes, but you could well use something else, or shield and a bastard sword (or katana) for AC, or drop exotic for a greatsword, or another one handed with shield.
I don't think Improved Critical should be a possibly replaceable feat though.
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 03/24/06 23:11
Why lower DEX, when you can lower CHA for no penalty whatsoever. If you start at
16 STR 14 DEX 12 CON 12 INT 08 WIS 13 CHA
and end with 20 STR, 26 CHA by taking GSTR I and GCHA 6, and placing 3 stat raises on STR and 7 on CHA. I still think it's the best solution if you're willing to break 500 unbuffed HP. _________________ The world is grey, the mountain's old The forge's fire is ashen and cold No harp is wrung, no hammer falls The darkness dwells in Druin's halls...
It's a great build, however, let me try to improve it.
Let's see, to get the 18/- Damage Resistance you need only 26 Dwarven Defender levels, not 27, I think you can gain some benefit if you drop 1 level from Dwarven Defender and 1 from Blackguard to increase fighter to 10, thus gaining an extra feat, I would go for Blind-Fight, but do as you prefer. You would lose the skill dump on taunt...... so, it's not a win/win advice.
Also lose 1 Defensive Stance per day (total 13 afterward). Besides the potential for 2 more HP, I chose Dwarven Defender again just because I noticed I got one more defensive stance at DwD 27. I like your suggestion though.
Quote: It's a cool build, but do you have a specific weapon in mind? I mean, this way everone that would like to use your build could choose easily, yeah, but you've got to have some preferences, and I'm curious about how you visualize it. You take exotic, so I would take a scythe, since I like scythes, but you could well use something else, or shield and a bastard sword (or katana) for AC, or drop exotic for a greatsword, or another one handed with shield.
I don't think Improved Critical should be a possibly replaceable feat though.
Well Improved Crit might be replaceable if you specialize in a weapon that only crits on a 20 to start with. I originally envisioned the character using a dwarven waraxe or warhammer, though obviously something with 2 damage types is more versatile. Halberd or Scythe would work as well I guess...though I think it really breaks his 'dwarven' character to give him the latter.
*notes further stat tweakage suggestions*
Oh right, just one more thing, if you do like to take the feat with the fighter level change, the remaining skill points lost on Taunt would go well on Tumble for 4 AC, so it's not really bad, and come on, only 2 HP is nothing, it won't be the difference between winning or losing and 1 defensive stance less is not so great either, just rest once in a while, you still have a respectable amount of them.
good concept, but it pains me to see a dawrf with 10 con...or anything below at least 16 *cries*
Quote: Posted 03/25/06 04:24:09 (GMT) -- Dizzy-D
good concept, but it pains me to see a dawrf with 10 con...or anything below at least 16 *cries*
Hehe. My apologies, friend. This was the best I could do. Lots of Dwarven Defender levels seems to almost make up for the lack of HP, though I would probably add 2 CON as posters have suggested if I were to rebuild him.
The real point of the build was to make him Charisma focused, which is pretty ironic when you're talking about dwarves. This build would obviously be best with a Gold Dwarf.
*cries*