Only one of this class combo in the guild, Finn's Singing Assassin, which goes heavy Bard for the Bard spells/Song and is also STR-based. Death's Lullaby takes only 2 Bard levels in order to leave lots for Assassin and a good Death Attack DC, and opts for the DEX route instead.
A few comments: this build, while high DEX does not have a number of the normally taken DEX-based feats. No Epic Dodge, no SC, and no Evasion. While this is lamentable, it's not actually as bad as it appears. No SC is mitigated by the Improved Invisibility of the Assassin, the Reflex save is extremely high, which means he'll almost never fail a Reflex save (other than autofail), so that means he takes no damage almost all the time anyway, and he has a good AC, so he shouldn't be hit all that often. Taking Rogue instead of Bard would get Evasion, but I felt the ability to top up Discipline and Spellcraft was something I was willing to trade.
HPs are decent, but his Fort and Reflex saves are woeful. Spellcraft vs spells and UMD can help to cover those to some extent though.
Trap skills (with a modest +2 boost from items or DEX boosters) allow him to set all traps except epic trpas and the deadly gas trap. He can disable his own traps, but has only minor capability of disarming others.
The Epic Skill Focus:Discipline feat actually gives him an okay Discipline score, despite his low STR, so he should be capable of resisting many KD attempts.
2 levels of Bard Song allows him to boost AB, damage, and Will saves by 1, twice per day for 10 rounds. With no magic gear whatsoever, he can use the Song to get a +42 dual-wielding AB, which should be quite handily able to dish out a Death Attack. The DC is 40, which is high enough to be very effective, and 14d6 sneak dice will drain your opponent's HPs rather quickly.
Against sneak-immune and paralysis-immune mobs, he's going to have some trouble, but that's where UMD and traps come into play. WS and EWS also help to give a damage boost in those situations, but he doesn't really want to get into a long drawn-out melee if he can possibly avoid it.
*edit* And big thanks to Mithdratates for looking over the build, catching some errors, and making some suggestions for tweaks. _________________ It's rogue, dammit, ROGUE!!!
Edited By Cinnabar Din on 09/01/06 19:46
You are some sort of building bender, huh?
Nothing much to add. A solid assassin.
-cs
Really good assassin, variantly, you could take Exotic Proficiency to use kurkis, if you would accept to change Stealthy or Expertise for it. Not really big change though.
Hmmm, discipline is a catch, 51 isn't that good, but it isn't bad at all, a regular non-focused STR based melee shouldn't get more than 55... but what happened to Armor Skin? I could imagine it as a substitute to ESF: Discipline without much problem or Armor Skin/ESF: Hide or MS at the loss of 2 GDEXes wouldn't be bad. I know... I rant a lot...
Really good assassin, variantly, you could take Exotic Proficiency to use kurkis, if you would accept to change Stealthy or Expertise for it. Not really big change though.
Yep, you could definitely do that if you like at virtually no loss to the build. I'm not a fan of kukris though (and I almost never burn a feat for exotic weapons).
Quote: Hmmm, discipline is a catch, 51 isn't that good, but it isn't bad at all, a regular non-focused STR based melee shouldn't get more than 55... but what happened to Armor Skin? I could imagine it as a substitute to ESF: Discipline without much problem or Armor Skin/ESF: Hide or MS at the loss of 2 GDEXes wouldn't be bad. I know... I rant a lot...
Yeah, that Discipline's dicey, but it could be if use. You could swap ESF:Disc for Armor skin, which would serve to free up skill points (since 43 Discipline would be basically worthless). I considered the ESF Hide and Move as well, but he's got 58 in both those skills and there aren't a helluva lot of builds that will beat that, so they may turn out to be superfluous. Definitely a viable option though.
Quote: Me likes it
Thanks for the input, guys. _________________ This signature will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
Discipline has two benfits:
One is that an opponent who can only hit on 20, might as well spam knockdown. If you get knocked down, you lose your dodge AC and they get a +4 against you, so you'll take damage. Without epic dodge, which drastically reduces your chances of being hit under those circumstances, discipline could negate some of those knockdowns. Also until your AC reaches 61 or there abouts, the skill retains its usefulness.
The second benefit is that for a dex build, your AC doesn't reach high levels until you get into epic levels and your dex gets over 26 and tumble starts kicking in. Until you get your AC up there, discipline is very nice to have. _________________ Two wrongs don't make a right but three lefts do.
*personal thing*
I'd drop expertise and stealthy for Luck of Heroes and Iron Will. I'm a sucker for atleast saves over the 20 (hitting 30 with spellcraft) at lvl 40.
And as suggested by others, perhaps take Epic Skill Focus Hide and MS, so you can hide properly in full plate.
Discipline is btw always usefull, even if its a bit. Works also vs the Called Shots etc., so I'd rather keep 10 Discpline (Epic Skill). 2 AC can be easily get in most modules.
All in all a solid build if you ask me though! Gonna try it with BOTD, we gave Assassins a boost, making them receive free scrolls. So will see how he does
// Maniac_Mailman aka Nr|Five _________________ "Omnes morimur et quasi aqua dilabimur in terram, qua non revertuntur..." - Maniac_Mailman aka Nr|Five
I'd drop expertise and stealthy for Luck of Heroes and Iron Will. I'm a sucker for atleast saves over the 20 (hitting 30 with spellcraft) at lvl 40.
Yeah, that's an option. I slipped Exp in there since I had the FTR bonus feat and I also felt the AB was reasonably high, so he could afford the AB hit if he needed tat extra AC for some reason.
Quote: And as suggested by others, perhaps take Epic Skill Focus Hide and MS, so you can hide properly in full plate.
Full plate wouldn't do anything for this build since his DEX bonus is so high at +13 to AC, and plate would only add +9 (including the DEX bonus). Besides, at 58 unbuffed in those skills, he's not going to be detected by many builds.
Quote: Discipline is btw always usefull, even if its a bit. Works also vs the Called Shots etc., so I'd rather keep 10 Discpline (Epic Skill). 2 AC can be easily get in most modules.
Aye, good point on CS (and Disarm).
Quote: All in all a solid build if you ask me though! Gonna try it with BOTD, we gave Assassins a boost, making them receive free scrolls. So will see how he does
// Maniac_Mailman aka Nr|Five
I'd be very interested to hear how he works out. Cheers. _________________ This signature will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
