My first build posted here, yay! ____________________
Many Rangers are good-natured guardians, protecting nature and all who live with it against the dangerous influence of civilisation and the corruption of evil. Some Rangers however will regard any intrusion in their sacred forests as a crime. Their overzealousness slowly corrupts their minds, changing carefulness into distrust and distrust into outright hate. Eventually, they become closer to the forces of Death than the forces of Nature. Anyone lost in the forest of such a Ranger will not find a kind hand to lead them back out, but cold steel between their shoulderblades in stead. The Corrupted Stalker can track a dangerous victim for days when he has to, staying out of sight while waiting for a chance to strike. The rotting corpses dumped at the edge of the forest are a clear message to those who stumble upon them: No trespassing. ____________________
Corrupted Stalker Ranger10/Monk1/Assassin29 Playable 1-40 PvM, untested in PvP
Race: Human Alignment: Lawful Evil only
Str 10 Dex 16 (34) Con 14 Int 14 Wis 14 Cha 8 ____________________
01: Ranger(1): Luck of Heroes, Weapon Finesse, Favored Enemy, {Dual Wield} 02: Ranger(2) 03: Ranger(3): Dodge 04: Ranger(4): DEX+1 05: Monk(1): {Cleave, Evasion, Improved Unarmed Strike, Stunning Fist} 06: Ranger(5): Weapon Focus: Kama, Favored Enemy 07: Ranger(6) 08: Ranger(7): DEX+1 09: Ranger(8): Toughness 10: Ranger(9): {Improved Two-Weapon Fighting} 11: Assassin(1) 12: Assassin(2): DEX+1, Knockdown, {Uncanny Dodge I} 13: Assassin(3) 14: Assassin(4) 15: Assassin(5): Blind Fight 16: Assassin(6): DEX+1 17: Assassin(7) 18: Assassin(8): Improved Initiative 19: Assassin(9) 20: Assassin(10): DEX+1 21: Assassin(11): Armor Skin 22: Assassin(12) 23: Assassin(13) 24: Assassin(14): DEX+1, Epic Weapon Focus: Kama, Great Dexterity I 25: Assassin(15) 26: Assassin(16) 27: Assassin(17): Great Dexterity II 28: Assassin(18): DEX+1, Great Dexterity III 29: Assassin(19) 30: Assassin(20): Great Dexterity IV 31: Assassin(21) 32: Assassin(22): DEX+1, Great Dexterity V 33: Assassin(23): Great Dexterity VI 34: Assassin(24) 35: Assassin(25) 36: Assassin(26): DEX+1, Great Dexterity VII, Great Dexterity VIII 37: Assassin(27) 38: Assassin(28) 39: Ranger(10): Epic Will, Epic Prowess 40: Assassin(29): DEX+1
Discipline: 42 (42) Hide: 43 (55) Move Silently: 43 (55) Pick Pocket: 4 (16) Spellcraft: 20 (22) Spot: 43 (45) Tumble: 43 (55) Use Magic Device: 43 (42) (apart from Spellcraft, max skills only when they are Class Skills)
Ranger Spells: lvl1: Ultravision, Camouflage lvl2: Cat's Grace, One with the Land ____________________
Discipline: 42 Hide: 71 (75 in wilderness areas) Move Silently: 61 (65 in wilderness areas) Pick Pocket: 18 Spellcraft: 22 Spot: 45 Tumble: 57 Use Magic Device: 42 ____________________
Variations:
Being an Elf in stead of a Human gives you +2DEX (+1AB, AC, Ref save) and several racial feats at the cost of -2CON (-40HP, -1 Fort save), Luck of Heroes, and 1 less skillpoint per level (which probably means dropping Spot). You'll also have to deal with an Exp penalty almost the entire life of the build.
Being a Dwarf in stead of a Human gives you +2 CON (+40HP, +1Fort Save) and several racial feats at the cost of -2CHA(who cares), Luck of Heroes, and 1 less skillpoint per level (which probably means dropping Spot).
Choosing Fighter in stead of Ranger gives you a few more feats (including Weapon Specialisation and Epic Weapon Specialisation for +6 damage) at the cost of 20 skillpoints and Ranger Spellcasting.
The skillpoints in Spot and Pick Pocket can be put elsewhere without damaging the build.
If you do not care about maxing Discipline, you can take the 10th Ranger level at character level 21, getting Epic Prowess and a 2nd lvl2 spell a lot earlier.
Many feats in this build can be swapped out for other feats without too much trouble, if you want to take anything that is currently not in the build. ____________________
This build plays pretty much the same as any Assassin-based build. Improved Invisibility and Darkness will keep you safe even when fighting large groups of enemies, and the Ranger spells can be used to buff yourself a bit before entering combat. Try to always fight within the area of effect of your Darkness spell to get the most out of your Death Attacks. Knockdown helps a lot as well, so use it if you can. Enemies with True Seeing can easily be defeated if you manage to knock them down before they get too dangerous, and the samge goes for spellcasters. Enemies that are immune to sneak attacks will be very hard to beat with this build. Either avoid them or let someone else (henchman or party member) deal with them, because without your Death Attacks your damage will be very low. If you meet an enemy with True Seeing who is either immune to knockdown or immune to sneak attacks (or both even)... start running.
All stats as written here are calculated using only the character's own buffs and without magical equipment, but with the high UMD skill you'll be able to use any scrolls or items to your advantage, adding to the build's power and versatility.
Edited By LuckyNephilim on 12/12/06 11:23
Congrats with your first build!
A slick assassin build with a slice of monk cheese.
10 attacks per round should give 4 death attacks in the first flurry!
If I should add anything... I would have gone ranger9/monk1/assassin30 and dropped the skill dump at lvl 39. The 30th assassin lvl improves the DC of the death attack with +1. It also adds a bonus feat that let you get an extra great dex. If you also sacrifice either epic will or armor skin, you can get great dex X, ending with dex 36 instead of 34 for +1 to AB and AC.
At what point you start taking assassin lvls pre epic is IMO a matter of taste. Some prefer starting as soon as possible to get the death attack DC up and to get "rogue" skills earlier. But there is nothing wrong with going for early AB and ITWF like you do. _________________ The curve is more powerful than the sword -- BG courtesan
Edited By Mick Dagger on 12/12/06 12:45
Quote: Posted 12/12/06 12:40 (GMT) -- Mick Dagger If you also sacrifice either epic will or armor skin, you can get great dex X, ending with dex 36 instead of 34 for +1 to AB and AC.
I guess you lose a ranger feat and have to sacrifice both of the feats above. But probably still worth it if death attack is your game. _________________ The curve is more powerful than the sword -- BG courtesan
Edited By Mick Dagger on 12/12/06 12:56
Taking Assassin in stead of Ranger on that last level would allow you to switch Epic Will and either Armor Skin or Epic Prowess for Great Dex feats...
If dropping AS it will mean +1AB, -1AC If dropping EP it will mean +1AC
Either way it will also mean +1Ref, -4Will, +1DADC, -4HP, and you lose one Ranger spell (leaving you with only one lvl2 spell a day)
I don't think it's worth it, to be honest.
Quote: Posted 12/12/06 12:40 (GMT) -- Mick Dagger
At what point you start taking assassin lvls pre epic is IMO a matter of taste. Some prefer starting as soon as possible to get the death attack DC up and to get "rogue" skills earlier. But there is nothing wrong with going for early AB and ITWF like you do.
With the first version of the build I had Monk at Clvl 2 and started taking Assassin levels at Clvl 6, but when I was writing down the variations I figured I'd put Monk at 5 and move back Assassin a bit. This way you can simply switch out all Ranger levels for Fighter ones if you choose to, without having to move anything else around. But you're right, the level order is pretty easy to make changes to without changing the final result. If you want Death Attack and the other Assassin feats early you can take Assassin at levels 6-15.
Just what I was going to say. With only 10 ranger levels I'm pretty sure you'd get more from Fighter. EWS comes to mind, and still 1 extra feat on top of that. You'd loose some skillpoints though. Ranger10/SD1/Asn29 is more powerful 8-out-of-10 times than going the monk attack-schedule I might add. _________________ We are sons of Odin, and the fire that we burn inside is the legacy of warrior-kings who reign above in the sky I will lead the charge, my sword into the wind Sons of Odin fights to die and live again
I kind of like it, as Grim said, Fighter bonus feats will net you the Two Weapon Fighting feats, EWS and still 1 more feat, so it's probably worth the change IMO, that extra feat could be well invested in IKD. I'm not sure how important are Ranger's spells for you.
SD is generally better since HiPS is really good for the sneaks, but I like the Monk cheese for a change, I once made a similar Assasin focused - monk cheese build, it's really fun, since one death attack leaves space for an enormous amount of pain with that APR.
Edited By Thaxll'ssyllia on 12/13/06 02:34
I did consider using SD in stead of Monk, but decided against it for a number of reasons. First, while I do like a bit of cheese now and then, I don't like HiPS. Any build can kill using HiPS. Second, many servers (including the ones I usually play on) have nerfed HiPS in one or more ways. Third, you're supposed to be fighting in the Darkness, and when you're in the AoE of Darkness you don't need HiPS to hide while near an opponent. Last, if you want to use HiPS to run away you can use Invisibility, which you should keep unused just for that purpose IMHO. And of course, 10*15d6 is quite a bit more damage than 7*15d6.
The Ranger spells aren't really necessary, but especially Ultravision and Cat's Grace help a lot, which is why I listed Fighter as an alternative in stead of making it the main build (that, and the fact that it started as an RP build). IKD is nice if you're fighing lots of big enemies, but the +2AB bonus from Cat's Grace compensates partially for the +4 from IKD (of course the DEX bonus doesn't count if you can get +12 from other sources easily, but I wouldn't consider Assassin a great choice for high-magic worlds to begin with), and Ultravision is a great spell in Darkness. Add to that the sneaking bonuses, the extra skillpoints, and the two Favoured Enemies, and the difference becomes a lot smaller. EWS will help a bit against sneak-immune creatures, but otherwise an extra 6 damage will pale in comparison to the 15d6 sneak. It may be personal preference in the end, but I'd still go with Ranger. Going Fighter is also a good choice though, which is why I listed it as an alternative in the first place.
BTW, I noticed I forgot to mention in the first post that the Dwarf also gets an Exp penalty (which is pretty much the only reason I didn't make Dwarf the main build). However, if you choose to go Fighter in stead of Ranger, Dwarf is probably the better choice. Dropping Spot and/or Discipline isn't too much of a sacrifice, and Luck of Heroes is in most cases worse than the Hardiness racial feats anyway.
[EDIT]
If you want to play this build on a high-magic world, I'd advise switching Ranger for Fighter (don't need the spells if you can get scrolls/items easily), and the Assassin for Rogue (again, you probably won't need the spells if you can get a good supply of scrolls, and your Death Attack will become less useful as higher +save items, immunity items, and True Sight items/scrolls are available). Going Rogue will also allow you to pick up skills like Imp Evasion and Epic Dodge, and not to mention Imp Sneak Attack, which is nice as well of course. But doing that would pretty much make it an entirely different build so I didn't list it as an alternative.
Edited By LuckyNephilim on 12/13/06 10:11
This build should either be STR based or FTR/Monk/Asn. I mean, in terms of power, and IMO _________________ "With Europe liberated, the people of the world turned their attention to that old devil, the United States of America [...] We taught that monster of old the true meaning of freedom." Star Wreck
STR based would mean really low AC, and wearing armor to remedy that would nerf the build by disallowing Ranger TWF and Monk APR...
STR based would mean really low AC, and wearing armor to remedy that would nerf the build by disallowing Ranger TWF and Monk APR...
Yes, but as it stands, there really is no argument to make RGR better than FTR. _________________ "With Europe liberated, the people of the world turned their attention to that old devil, the United States of America [...] We taught that monster of old the true meaning of freedom." Star Wreck
IMO Ranger/Monk works well in an assassin build. I posted above about how one can tweak the build to improve the AB and DADC (at a cost ). But that doesn't change the fact that I do like this build as it is
Dual wield gets the TWF job done. With Assassin you want to go dex based so you can choose greater dex through the epic bonus feats for highter AB. Fighter won't give you Ultravision and Cat's. UMD won't give you the caster level this character has for longer duration of the spells.
As noted above: Darkness and invisibility is the "HIPS" of the assassin (at least in NWN1). The darkness will last one round per assassin lvl. Of course a shadowdancer will be more flexible, but you won't need SD to make the build work.
Monk will allow more attacks per round. This build should be able to generate 4 death attacks in the first flurry. Anyone not immune to paralysis will have serious problems resisting 4 cumulative rolls if you only make sure the DC is high (with as many assassin lvls and as high int as you can get). Even characters with a fair fort save bonus should have problems saving against the death attacks of this build.
Let the force of the fighter (EWF and str bonus) be for the fighter. The role of this char is death attacks. Against immune creatures like the undead you should use scrolls of flame weapon and what not. You can even pick them as FE for +2/+3 to damage - you're a ranger after all. _________________ The curve is more powerful than the sword -- BG courtesan
Leave it as it is with Ranger, it's a matter of taste, I like to make relatively high base damage for the immune stuff, say, in a sneak build like this you'll be crap against constructs, undead, elementals and dragons, (Druids, and shifters in PvP btw, plus RDDs are immune to stun) so it's completely valid to go Fighter, you see, +6 damage is one of the higher boosts in the game for the low amount of levels needed for it.
). But that doesn't change the fact that I do like this build as it is