First off, this build is made specifically for the Badlands PW. Badlands has a crafting system that allows competent crafters to cap pretty much all ability scores boni at 12, and to add the attendant AC boni for various “Gear” (+5 Deflection for Belts, +5 Dodge for Boots, +5 Natural for Amulets, +5 Armor for Robes). Rings on Badlands can also be crafted to have a maximum of +10 to saves. That being said, this build will have these boni factored into its final stats, but I will also post ‘naked’ stats as well.
Also, you may note that there are no ranks put into discipline on this build. I assume that people will question this, so I’ll provide an explanation beforehand. Essentially, in a PvP environment you will face 3 things that make Discipline necessary. The first is Disarm, which this build has no need to worry about, being unarmed. (you may sometimes use a bow, and you can obviously wield a kama or two if you prefer). The second is other Combat Feats like Improved Knockdown and Called Shot. Now, even though it doesn’t have Uncanny Dodge, this build has a very high AC, and is incredibly fast. With its low Str score, it’s simply not mathematically feasible to bother with Discipline vs. these Combat Feats, as anything that has a high enough AB to hit you (when you’re not flat-footed, that is), has an AB that is much higher than whatever discipline score you could possibly achieve (unless your PW has items like a belt of discipline or something similar). And third, although this may be different on other PW’s, but on Badlands Bigby’s Grasping Hand rolls a special save vs. Discipline score. With 64 SR, this is not an issue.
A few notes about strategy: This build, while theoretically able to be affected by high level mages with Spell Penetration feats, has more than enough SR at 64. A year now of playing this build regularly against mages of varying skill levels on Badlands has shown me that this is enough. Of the literally hundreds of spells spammed at me, I can think of only 1 time I took damage from a spell other than an Epic one, and it was a whopping 6 points of damage from IGMS. I also have yet to die to any caster by itself.
Basically, this build kills mage by one of 3 simple methods. First, is scroll spamming. On Badlands, I have access to stacks of Flesh to Stone, Finger of Death, Wail of the Banshee, Gate, and many other scrolls. These are bought in large quantities, and spammed mercilessly. It’s rather fun to watch mages get imploded by gated Balor Lords, for instance. I do not, sadly, have access to Breach scrolls, so more often than not, Flesh to Stone is the way to go. A distracted mage, fighting other people, and not keeping his Mantles up, will make a nice statue in short order.
Second, traps. Skillful preparation of traps before a battle with a mage helps immensely, especially if the terrain favors it with small corridors, or tight turns, as these are easy to lead people through when lock onto you. I keep plenty of Epic traps at the ready, and usually stack them so as to increase their deadliness. I find that Epic frost traps work especially well, as you can stand right next to a mage and set them where he’s standing, all the while ignoring his casting.
And finally, your weapons, which should be your last resort against a caster, given that they will assuredly have both a magical damaging shield, and Epic Warding. Many PW’s have gloves that can break the DR of Stoneskins, Shadow Shields and the like. Badlands, in particular, has some +6 gloves that do just that. With a stock of heal kits, you can kit away the damage you take from a mage’s shields, and you can also use a bow or other missile weapons reasonably well, give this build’s high dexterity. Improved disarm assures (depending on your PW) that any mage who resorts to melee against you, will regret it.
All in all, with this build you simply can’t die to a mage unless you want to.
Edited By Hiwatt on 01/04/08 18:26
Neat build. Couple of questions though. You list the top two ways to kill mages as being through scrolls and then by traps. Am I correct in assuming that you cant use scrolls until level 32 and cant set traps until level 40? Or is it different on your PW? Do you have problems defeating mages until you reach level 32?
Quote: Posted 01/04/08 22:10 (GMT) -- galelabriel
Neat build. Couple of questions though. You list the top two ways to kill mages as being through scrolls and then by traps. Am I correct in assuming that you cant use scrolls until level 32 and cant set traps until level 40? Or is it different on your PW? Do you have problems defeating mages until you reach level 32?
That assumption would be correct, yes. The build is meant for level 40 PvP, so if you have the misfortune of encountering a mage before you can use scrolls or traps, you'd best either run, or try using a bow or something. By about level 30 or so, your SR is high enough to keep alive long enough to run from any pking mages, and sure enough, you'll be plenty fast with all that monk speed. Like a lot of builds for Badlands, it's slow to mature, and really only comes into it's own at level 40.
You could, theoretically, take the Ranger level sooner to set epic traps, but that would ultimately be self-defeating, as you wouldn't end up with enough skill points to set traps in combat with a reasonable chance of success.
Also, with regard to Badlands, the monster killing aspect of leveling is quite easy for the experienced (or even the average) player. You could level a build from 1-40 in about 8 solid hours of monster killing. The only thing you have to fear are pkers, which are, oh, shall we say, extremely commonplace?
Still, with all that monk speed (plus a handy-dandy haste cloak), you can outrun most of them by level 12 or so.
Isn't it useless to skilldump spellcraft? with that SR you won't be making saves vs spells. (I could be missing some specially useful spell immune to SR or something? I thought Earthquake was the only spell immune to SR that allowed a reflex save). You could take Wizard sooner to use True Strike on the level-up, just an idea. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Isn't it useless to skilldump spellcraft? with that SR you won't be making saves vs spells. (I could be missing some specially useful spell immune to SR or something? I thought Earthquake was the only spell immune to SR that allowed a reflex save). You could take Wizard sooner to use True Strike on the level-up, just an idea.
You are right that the save bonus from Spellcraft is not needed on this build. The skill dump for Spellcraft is just to use Arcane scrolls. With 35 ranks, you can use every Arcane scroll there is without fear of failure (unless cursed by a Bard). Without it, there would be no scroll spamming for the build. I think you might be right about Earthquake, but the reflex save on the build is pretty high, and coupled with Improved Evasion.
As for fighting, with 38 Stunning Fists per day, someone is bound to roll a 1 here and there. Invisibility purge scrolls coupled with 2x 38 round Empty Body's (and True Strike, of course) help you to hit things a bit easier. I actually don't even use See Invisibility on mine. It ruins my camouflage. My clothes are crafted to blend in to my surroundings, so I run around with Invis Purge and Empty Body going. Pretty much can't see me without Tabbing
Also, with the high AC and speed (so as to run and heal kit spam), the build is frustratingly hard to kill. Only thing you really need to watch out for is getting caught flat within striking distance of someone with Devastating Critical. Of course, you could always to disarm them too...
Edited By Hiwatt on 01/05/08 02:05
Well, running super fast usually works neatly, but your chances against non-casters aren't as good as you make it sound, if you run to use a Healing Kit you give the enemy time to use a Healing Kit as well, and you can't underestimate the different abilities of different builds the enemy might use, you damage is a laugh for a Dwarven Defender and your AC won't save you from an Arcane Archer. I suppose your most feared enemy would be an unarmed Dev Critting Monk/Sorcerer/RDD since you can't disarm him and he's got better fighting stats than you in all terms. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Well, running super fast usually works neatly, but your chances against non-casters aren't as good as you make it sound, if you run to use a Healing Kit you give the enemy time to use a Healing Kit as well, and you can't underestimate the different abilities of different builds the enemy might use, you damage is a laugh for a Dwarven Defender and your AC won't save you from an Arcane Archer. I suppose your most feared enemy would be an unarmed Dev Critting Monk/Sorcerer/RDD since you can't disarm him and he's got better fighting stats than you in all terms.
Correct again. For all of its strengths, and its near immunity to magic, the build is fairly mediocre in a straight up melee fight (excepting maybe other dex builds), particularly against builds that it can't disarm, or Dwarven Defenders. Bard Bg Rdd's should be run from most of the time, for instance. It's just not feasible to face a build like that toe to toe.
I will say this, though, you do have some weapons in your arsenal against stronger meleers, should you be daring enough to try them. Against builds like the Bard Bg Rdd, Pally Sor Rdd, Ftr Bard Rdd, and even some DD's and the like, really any solid melee build lacking monk speed and innate spell resistance, you do have a chance, albeit a slim one, if you play it right. I've held my own against build like that by running and spamming flesh to stone scrolls (or wail of the banshee). You can fire one off and run away before they get close enough to hit you. Granted, it may take a good long while for them to roll a 1 (and in the case of flesh to stone be at your mercy to spam disarm on them, hehe), but if you've got an at least halfway decent lasting song Bard on your side, your AC will hit around 80-81, and you can tank the offending melee build and flank for your bard friend, spamming Stunning Fist all the while for that improbable '1' roll.
Arcane Archers can present a serious problem too, but they're often disarmable, being dex or wis based most of the time. Against those opponents, you'll be chasing them around for a good long while before you get in a hit or two.
Again, though, traps will come in handy against stronger melee builds, too. A good tactic is to stack about 5 or 6 frost traps, and run around shooting at enemies with your bow, all the while luring them closer to your traps. Blind corners will help in these instances, too. Many times I've been almost killed, only to run onto a stack of my frost traps to healkit, and watch the slower, and overeager (they always seem to ignore the possibility of traps when they you see you near death, I don't know why lol) melee build die on the traps just inches from me.
Hey, it's so fun to blast head-on against traps on purpose, you need to try it sometime, get yourself a Monk/Cleric/DwarvenDefender with lots of HP and Heal spells and have a fun time playing stupid, you won't die anyway. _________________ "My name is Thaxll'ssyllia, but you simians may refer to me merely as "Sir", if you prefer a less... syllable intensive workout."
Edwin Odesseiron - Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn
Hey, it's so fun to blast head-on against traps on purpose, you need to try it sometime, get yourself a Monk/Cleric/DwarvenDefender with lots of HP and Heal spells and have a fun time playing stupid, you won't die anyway.
Haha, yeah. I have a couple of DD builds that I run through traps with and don't take any damage. It's rather funny. Sort of a bomb squad build. Badlands in particular has made some changes to the Dwarven Defender class, making them a truly potent Damage Reduction build. Here's a link to the changes if you want to look at them.
And yeah, I wouldn't seriously expect my traps to help me out against DD's. There's no such thing as a perfect build that can beat anything else, and trust me, for as much as I personally like this SR monk, it's nowhere near perfect, lol.
