The “Combo” The goal of this character is to force monsters to try to approach him/go through him, and stop them from doing so.
A. Really high OA attack value. Great wisdom and +3 to OAs from feats means we’ll probably never miss an OA attack. B. Heavy Blade Opportunity, which lets us use an at-will power, notably tide of iron. (There may of course be times when cleave is the proper one to use - but you also have that option). C. Spear Push, which will let us push them farther away from us after having stopped their move. D. Polearm Gamble to give us an OA whenever a creature moves next to us. Note that taking the gamble and using Tide of Iron via Heavy Blade Opportunity then lets us push them away from us, ending their move out of attack range. So much for the gamble part.
Of course, depending on terrain, we may just want to keep enemies near us (and some of the power choices below reflect that) so we can keep them from going anywhere, and that works just fine as usual. However, in ideal circumstances we can hold a choke point and generate many attacks of opportunity and use that to hold back the melee monsters (and keep them away from the casters!)
A controller can help create suitable terrain with spells that impede movement – creating a corridor down which monsters need to come in order to have a chance of getting anywhere fast. Guess where the glaive fighter stands?
And yes, this is a build focused on using an at-will power. Admittedly, its focused on using that at-will power many times in one round, but still.
Finally, note that this build only gets stronger if a second identical build (ok, probably some encounter and daily power swaps... maybe) gets used. In fact, in a party of only this build enemies will have to approach at least one of them, and the pushing away can commence without worrying about allies getting rushed. (Of course, you'll have to be especially careful about closing the distance on ranged attackers and dealing with them fast).
Races In order of awesome for the concept.
Longtooth Shifter (str/wis), LLV, longtooth shifting, +2 ath/end Attributes: Str 18 Con 11 Dex 15 Int 8 Wis 16 Cha 10
Bugbear (str/dex), LLV, predatory eye, +2 ste/int, +1 size weapon Attributes: Str 18 Con 11 Dex 15 Int 8 Wis 16 Cha 10
Elf (dex/wis) LLV, spd 7, elven accuracy, +2 per/nat, wild step, group aware Attributes: Str 18 Con 10 Dex 15 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 10
Human (str) +1 feat, +1 skill, +1 at-will, +1 all defenses Attributes: Str 18 Con 11 Dex 15 Int 8 Wis 14 Cha 10
Dragonborn (str/cha) dragon breath, +2 his/int, drag fury, drac heritage, Attributes: as human +2 cha.
Anything else with a strength bonus.
The Elf has slightly worse attributes but the best racial abilities set. Longtooth and Bugbear have equal abilities – the bugbear does slightly more damage, the longtooth has a better racial encounter and better skill bonuses. The human has the worst attributes, but arguably the best racials + feats. Dragonborn has the same liabilities as a human with the only true advantage being his breath, which is awesome but possibly insufficient.
End Stats: Shift/Bugbear up +1 wis mod over others Elf up +1 dex mod over others (uses last pump on str/dex) Hum/Drag down 1 point in relevant attribute mods.
It goes without saying you pump str/wis every opportunity.
Paragon Path: Either Kensei or Pit Fighter is useful – Pit Fighter seems to be slightly better overall because the encounter power is superior.
Kensei Spending an action point to re-roll a roll is useful, but its not something for nothing like most PP ‘action’ features are.
+hit/damage is good, especially +hit.
Masterstroke is boring, but accurate. Not bad, not good.
Ultimate Parry is good.
Weaponsoul Dance is good for disabling multiple opponents, which is a useful function. However, it does compete with our desire to have enemies move adjacent to us, ie, its not the *best* kind of disabling for our concept.
Overall: 2 features we really care about, and nothing objectionable.
Pit Fighter +1 AC is good but not that exciting
+1/2 level to damage when you spend an action point is quite awesome. Approval.
Adding wis mod to damage, given the quite high wisdom modifier that the glaive fighter is going to end up with, is quite nice.
All Bets Are Off is exactly the type of disabling we’re looking for – dazed monsters can still *try* to charge or move.
Deadly Payback is a nice boost when necessary.
Lion of Battle is actually quite amazing. Definite approval.
Overall: 2 features we really care about, and one power we really care about. Nothing objectionable about the rest.
Note that you should retrain at the tier boundaries whatever unspecified feats you have for the non-? feats so you can get going as fast as possible, especially in paragon tier where you acquire the major basis of the combo. You can always take some heroic feats again later if you need to.
Powers Aside from the at-wills (where the listed two are really the correct ones to have), the powers were mostly chosen to provide a decent range of options and synergize with the desired role (keeping the enemy at arm's length) while also planning for when that result wasn't going to be possible. Choice of powers aside from at-wills isn't actually that critical to the build.
That and I possibly have an inordinate fondness for stances.
Daily 1st: villain’s menace 5th: rain of steel 9th: shift the battlefield 15th: villain’s menace -> serpent dance strike 19th: rain of steel -> devastation’s wake 25th: shift the battlefield -> reaper’s stance 29th: serpent dance strike -> force the battle
Utility 2nd: get over here 6th: unbreakable 10th: into the fray 16th: surprise step 22nd: act of desperation *Possibly swap a utility power for a cleric utility – especially at level 10 the utility powers seem fairly weak.
I seem to recall there was a glaive fighter post on CO already, but I couldn't find it and hadn't read it, so if someone already thought of this I'd be happy to link you/give credit as appropriate.
As for what is ideal for it, I dont' really know. I used the Longtooth Shifter build, but there's plenty of decent possibilities - you outlined both of them.
I'm kind of torn on how good Dragonborn are - on the one hand, they're always there, and their breath weapon is REALLY good (extra attack? AoE? Multimarking! Woo!) but on the other hand, they're always getting that completely useless +2 to charisma (well, nearly - they can train intimidate).
Tide of Iron requires the use of a shield. Glaive is a two-handed weapon.
Whoops, missed that. That "requirement" line is really easy to glaze over - why couldn't they put it somewhere more eye catching like just above the Attack line? (Two above and I miss it because I more-or-less start reading at the attack line unless i'm looking for particular keywords).
You'd think it would be easier to push someone back with a big two-handed weapon too...
Well, guess that means the idea has to wait until power creep to offer up an appropriate at-will power.
Edit: Anyone want to place bets on how long it will be before we get one?
favored enemy]Cool idea. Initiate of Faith sounds good. Do you really need to start with an 18 strength?
I wouldn't recommend starting with less, honestly. I mean, the goal here is to hit consistently, and you really don't care about any other stat nearly as much as you do st wrote:
Cool idea. Initiate of Faith sounds good. Do you really need to start with an 18 strength?[/quote] I wouldn't recommend starting with less, honestly. I mean, the goal here is to hit consistently, and you really don't care about any other stat nearly as much as you do strength.
B. Heavy Blade Opportunity, which lets us use an at-will power, notably tide of iron. (There may of course be times when cleave is the proper one to use - but you also have that option). C. Spear Push, which will let us push them farther away from us after having stopped their move. D. Polearm Gamble to give us an OA whenever a creature moves next to us. Note that taking the gamble and using Tide of Iron via Heavy Blade Opportunity then lets us push them away from us, ending their move out of attack range. So much for the gamble part.
As pointed out you can't use Tide of Iron on an OA, so you won't push them away.
I have a build on BG that uses either Spear & Shield (with Shield Push) or Longspear to do something similar, but of course they don't get Heavy Blade Opportunity.
Swap tide of iron for sure strike - Combat Superiority only stops movement on a hit, and, as noted by Digital_Justice, you can't use tide of iron anyway
Alternatively, build him as a sword and board fighter - tide of iron really is that nice. Make sure to have gauntlets of the ram, and add shield push for those 1/round combat challenge attacks.
Your best bet with a glaive right now is to bull rush a foe - combined with spear push and gauntlets, that gives a 3 square at-will push, and makes them come to you again, setting up the OA combo again.
Arguably, Polearm Gamble lets you stop them one square out if you hit with the OA; if so, the build is quite nice enough already, and would be positively unbalanced with an at-will 3 square push on each OA.
Swap tide of iron for sure strike - Combat Superiority only stops movement on a hit, and, as noted by Digital_Justice, you can't use tide of iron anyway
Alternatively, build him as a sword and board fighter - tide of iron really is that nice. Make sure to have gauntlets of the ram, and add shield push for those 1/round combat challenge attacks.
Your best bet with a glaive right now is to bull rush a foe - combined with spear push and gauntlets, that gives a 3 square at-will push, and makes them come to you again, setting up the OA combo again.
Arguably, Polearm Gamble lets you stop them one square out if you hit with the OA; if so, the build is quite nice enough already, and would be positively unbalanced with an at-will 3 square push on each OA.
Not that that's a bad thing, on these boards.
Polearm Gamble is a reaction to them moving next to you, not an interrupt that catches them one square out, so it does not stop them from ending next to you.
That said, I think I'll leave the post as is so I can bump it when they inevitably release an at-will power or other ability which lets you push opponents on a hit. Heck, he can full-class multi to get an at-will from another class, he doesn't need his current PP options for anything.
I'm just now exploring using a minotaur as base race, and wielding a reach weapon in one hand. Not quite sure it'll work, but it's an interesting line of prototyping.
I'm just now exploring using a minotaur as base race, and wielding a reach weapon in one hand. Not quite sure it'll work, but it's an interesting line of prototyping.
Can Bugbears/Minotaurs wield a reach weapon in one hand? Its not clear to me the rules allow that, but I'm willing to be convinced.
