Dark Moon Agent (Monk2/Cleric8/Assassin30)

Human, lawful evil alignment
Lvl 1-40 PvM
Lvl 11-40 PvP

Str 10
Dex 16 (36)
Con 14
Int 14
Wis 14
Cha 8

Levelling guide:
01 Monk 1 Ambidexterity, Two Weapon Fighting
02 Cleric 1 Strength and Animal domains
03 Cleric 2 Weapon Finesse
04 Cleric 3 Dex 17
05 Cleric 4
06 Cleric 5 Extend Spell
07 Cleric 6
08 Cleric 7 Dex 18
09 Monk 2 Blind Fight, (Skilldump: Hide and Move silently)
10 Assassin 1
11 Assassin 2
12 Assassin 3 Knockdown, Dex 19
13 Assassin 4
14 Assassin 5
15 Assassin 6 Improved Two Weapon Fighting
16 Assassin 7 Dex 20
17 Assassin 8
18 Assassin 9 Weapon Focus Kama
19 Assassin 10
20 Cleric 8 Dex 21, (Skilldump: Spellcraft)
21 Assassin 11 Epic Weapon Focus Kama
22 Assassin 12
23 Assassin 13
24 Assassin 14 Epic Prowess, Great Dexterity I*, Dex 23
25 Assassin 15
26 Assassin 16
27 Assassin 17 Great Dexterity II
28 Assassin 18 Great Dexterity III*, Dex 26
29 Assassin 19
30 Assassin 20 Great Dexterity IV
31 Assassin 21
32 Assassin 22 Great Dexterity V*, Dex 29
33 Assassin 23 Great Dexterity VI
34 Assassin 24
35 Assassin 25
36 Assassin 26 Great Dexterity VII, Great Dexterity VIII*, Dex 33
37 Assassin 27
38 Assassin 28
39 Assassin 29 Great Dexterity IX
40 Assassin 30 Great Dexterity X*, Dex 36

* Assassin bonus feat

Skills:
Hide 43 (56)
Move silently 43 (56)
Spellcraft 23 (25)
Tumble 40 (53)
UMD 41 (40)
Listen 43 (45)
Free skillpoints 52, e.g. for trap skills
Skills can be buffed further with ability increasing cleric spells

Combat vitals:
Hitpoints: 340
Saves F/R/W: 24/35/24
Saving Throw bonuses: Spells+5, Traps+2, Poison+15

AC naked/robes: 33. Can be buffed with Cat’s, Owl’s and cleric AC buffs.
AC with +5 equipment and capped dexterity and wisdom (+12 from spells/items): 65

AB mundane kama: +41/+38/+35/+32/+29
AB dual wielding mundane kamas: +39/+36/+33/+30/+27/+39/+34
Buffs: Bless+1, Aid+1, Prayer+1, Divine favour +2, Divine power +6, GMW +2, Cat’s +1-2.
Buffed AB, two mundane kamas with flurry and haste (from a scroll/potion/item): +54/+51/+48/+45/+42/+56/+51/+46/+54/+49
Capped AB: +67

Damage mundane kama: 1d6 (20/x2).
Buffs: Prayer+1, Divine favor+2, GMW+2, Max buffed strength (Divine power and Str domain power or Bulls) +6, Darkfire 1d6 +4
Death attack: 15d6, DC 42 fort save against paralysis. DC 48 with capped intelligence (+12 from spells/items)

Spells:
lvl 0/1/2/3/4: 6/6/5/4/3 slots
Divine power in lvl 3 slots and lvl 4 slots extended.
Darkness in lvl 2 slots and lvl 3 slots extended.
True seeing in lvl 3 slots, Ultravision in lvl 2 slots
Other spells: Aid, Bless and Prayer for higher AB against difficult enemies. Sanctuary as invisibility spell. Hold person as a ranged paralysis attack against characters with low will save (DC 14)
Assassin spell like abilities: Ghostly visage, Invisibility, Darkness, Improved invisibility. Duration as a lvl 30 caster.

Pro’s:
The character can get 10 attacks per round. That gives 4 uninterrupted attacks in the first attack flurry, increasing greatly the chances of landing a stunning attack when attacking from stealth.
Cleric spells increases AB and DC of the Assassin attack, and let you cast darkness more often
High Death attack DC
High unbuffed AB, almost par with a fighter type
Uncanny dodge and Evasion

Con’s:
No Epic Dodge
Low cleric caster lvl is easily dispellable


Discussion:
I wanted to make another Cleric8/Assassin30 build using monk this time instead of ranger: Night Ranger.
The Idea is to get as many high AB, high DC Death Attacks as possible in the first flurry when you attack an unsuspecting victim, increasing the chance of landing a stunning Death Attack.
ITWF, Divine Power, Haste and Flurry add 5 attacks to the normal monk attack table. You end up with 10 attacks per round, 4 of them in the first attack flurry when the opponent is flat footed and vulnerable to the stunning effect of the death attack. That gives the best chances of pinning him down.
The build has a high Death attack DC and a good AB for an assassin.

In some fighting situations you may want to drop flurry to increase the AB of all the other attacks by +2, sacrificing only 10% of your attacks.

There is no Discipline or Concentration skill in the build. There are skillpoints to spare if you feel you need them. You need a late lvl of cleric/monk for the skilldump, reducing the Death Attack DC by 1.

If you can accept the xp penalty, this build will get +2AB and +2AC as a halfling because you will have Dex 18 (38) and small stature. You will lose one pre epic feat (e.g. Knockdown), one skill and have to live with lower strength. It can be painful to level the character, but if you make a straight lvl 40 build, halfling may be the way to go.
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan

Edited By Mick Dagger on 01/29/07 21:10

Was Animal domain chosen for True seeing @ lvl 3?

If not, I'd go with War for the Dex/Con/AB buff. You'd still have Cat's Grace Spell.
Quote: Posted 01/29/07 21:02 (GMT) -- Mick Dagger

If you can accept the xp penalty, this build will get +2AB and +2AC as a halfling because you will have Dex 18 (38) and small stature. You will lose one pre epic feat (e.g. Knockdown), one skill and have to live with lower strength. It can be painful to level the character, but if you make a straight lvl 40 build, halfling may be the way to go.

Halfling also gets an additional -2 AB penalty for dual wielding small sized weapons, so AB winds up a wash and you end with just +2 AC. I think Human or Elf is the way to go here. I do kind of like the idea of a halfling with a single kama, though that would ruin the point of the build .
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Quote: Posted 01/29/07 21:15 (GMT) -- Bromium

Was Animal domain chosen for True seeing @ lvl 3?

If not, I'd go with War for the Dex/Con/AB buff. You'd still have Cat's Grace Spell.

You're right, it was for TS at lvl 3.
I only have 8 cleric lvls here allowing for lvl 4 spells, so Aura of Vitality is out of the question. The War domain power Battlemaster would give +2 to dex, con, attack and damage for 4 rounds once per day.

I prefered the early TS (and some powerful summons for all round playability in the early stages of the game)
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan
Quote: Posted 01/29/07 21:24 (GMT) -- koolthursday

. . . a halfling with a single kama, ... .




Looks good, Mick. And I echo Bromium (that's some great thinking, re: war domain (battle master); +2 dex/con/ab and damage, w. access to cat's, as he says, and also (at level 7 cleric spell though), would get Aura of Vitality (another +4 con/dex/str - def. worth considering me thinks.

Otherwise, tis a cool build (me likes

Edited By TyrTemplar on 01/29/07 22:05

Quote: Posted 01/29/07 21:24 (GMT) -- koolthursday
Halfling also gets an additional -2 AB penalty for dual wielding small sized weapons, so AB winds up a wash and you end with just +2 AC. //....// I do kind of like the idea of a halfling with a single kama, though that would ruin the point of the build .
True, but I tested a bit, and to my surprise I found that there is another option.
You will get the monk attack table as long as the main hand weapon is a kama.
If you wield a tiny weapon (Dagger) offhand, you won't get a size penalty on your AB, and you get all the attacks of the monk table. The two off hand attacks will suffer a bit from lack of weapon focus, but your first 8 attacks won't suffer.
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan I don't know if this has been debated in the general forum.
When I tested the build I found the following attack table:
Buffed AB, two mundane kamas with flurry and haste (from a scroll/potion/item): +54/+51/+48/+45/+42/+56/+51/+46/+54/+49


The first 5 are the normal monk progression: +54/+51/+48/+45/+42/

The next 3 are from Divine power, Haste and Flurry:
+56/+51/+46/
They are all added at the highest AB when alone. But when you use them together you get a -5 penalty for each extra attack. Note also that they start at a +2 higher AB than the first attack in the round.

The last 2 are from the off hand attacks:
+54/+49
The AB penalty of the second off hand attack is -5 as in the ITWF feat description, not -3 as the character sheet says.
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan That's because the offhand weapon never counts Monk AB progression, kama or not, it works the same. And you get the same attack table if the off hand weapon is not a kama, as long as it's a small/tiny weapon and you have the same set of weapon foci in both weapons.

What surprised me more was the middle part, where you get attack penalties on the DP/Haste/Flurry combo. I always thought of them as bonus attacks at full AB, but that obviously only applies when you only have one of them.
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan
Quote: Posted 02/06/07 11:24 (GMT) -- Mick Dagger
What surprised me more was the middle part, where you get attack penalties on the DP/Haste/Flurry combo. I always thought of them as bonus attacks at full AB, but that obviously only applies when you only have one of them.

They are all at full BAB, if you don't see them so there's something modified on your side (or on the server where you play).
_________________
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Whimps and posers
Leave the hall!
Quote: Posted 02/06/07 19:31 (GMT) -- Kail Pendragon

They are all at full BAB...

That's what I thought too, and surprised as I am, I post here asking if this is something new (at least it's new to me).

I read the combat log after battle, going through the AB bonus of every attack - flurry by flurry, round by round.
I tested it thoroughly to be absolutely sure the build would have the attacks it's supposed to in combat.

I played as single player in the monster arena of The Halls of Advanced Training Deluxe - HotU+SoU Edition, using the "core" rules difficulty setting.
_________________
The curve is more powerful than the sword
-- BG courtesan

Edited By Mick Dagger on 02/06/07 20:24

Quote: Posted 02/06/07 20:23 (GMT) -- Mick Dagger

Quote: Posted 02/06/07 19:31 (GMT) -- Kail Pendragon

They are all at full BAB...

That's what I thought too, and surprised as I am, I post here asking if this is something new (at least it's new to me).

I read the combat log after battle, going through the AB bonus of every attack - flurry by flurry, round by round.
I tested it thoroughly to be absolutely sure the build would have the attacks it's supposed to in combat.

I played as single player in the monster arena of The Halls of Advanced Training Deluxe - HotU+SoU Edition, using the "core" rules difficulty setting.

It's been some time I've not played something going for multiple extra attacks (DP+haste or flurry+haste or DP+flurry+haste or whateevr else) but I definitely remember it worked differently before, that is all the extra attacks at full AB.

I tested it, even emptied my hak and override folders. Now it is as you described (the extra attacks are at +2 AB cause they don't get the dual wielding penalty). Maybe it was 1.68 to introduce this modified behaviour.
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My enemies rise and look to the skies
They pray I will never appear
Their life has no meaning
Awake they are dreaming
They live in a castle of fear