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This build’s #1 focus is to allow your party a critical range of 18-20 but also has excellent healing and saving ability. You have at least 3 attacks per encounter that get your entire party crittin' on 18+ – Focused Sound, Sunder Armor and then the Mageblade minor to change your lvl 11 encounter spell into another Sunder Armor. When you Action Point, you regain Sunder Armor from the Student of the 7 Paragon Path. You also have 1 magic item daily & 2 daily powers that allow you to recover these 18+ crit attacks bringing the total encounter max to, appropriately, 7. Tell your strikers to get Vicious or Rending and High Crit weapons MuwhaaaaaaaaHaaaa.

Level 11 Cunning Bard Gnome, Student of the 7 Paragon Path
Str: 14 (13 +1 lvl11)
Dex: 9
Con: 11
Int: 20 (15+2 race +1 lvl4 +1 lvl8 +1 lvl11)
Wis: 11
Cha: 22 (17+2 race +1 lvl4 +1 lvl8 +1 lvl11)
HP: 84 (Born Under Bad Sign Background)
AC 27 Fort 20 Ref 24 Will 24

Feats:
Lvl 1 – Arcane Implement Proficiency Light Blade
Lvl 2 – Focused Expertise Rapier
Lvl 4 – Student of Battle (MC Warlord – extra heal/day)
Lvl 6 – Combat Virtuoso (take something useful at lvl6 and then retrain to this at Lvl 8)
Lvl 8 – Novice Power (swap your lvl 7 Encounter for Sunder Armor!)
Lvl 10 – Adept Power (swap your lvl 9 for Warlord Recovery)
Lvl 11 – Mark of Healing (extra saves rock…this is ridiculous if your DM allows it to work with things like the Stirring Shout Effect).

At-Will Powers:
Vicious Mockery
Guiding Strike

Encounter Powers:
Lvl 1 – Focused Sound (perhaps the best lvl 1 encounter power in the game…warlords and shamans don’t have access to this until lvl 7!)
Lvl 3 – Song of the New Dawn (I like saves and attacks at range, but Cunning Ferocity is a nice melee option for lots of damage)
Lvl 7 – Sunder Armor from your Novice Power swap (now you have 2 powers that give the entire party a path to 18+ crits).
Lvl 11 – AnySpell (this will usually be sacked in favor of another use of Sunder Armor using the Mage Blade Minor)

Daily Powers:
Lvl 1 – Stirring Shout (healing without surges…very nice)
Lvl 5 – Strictures of Fortune (a way for you to recharge Focused Sound SWEET!)
Lvl 9 – Warlord Recovery from your Adept Power Swap (use when the 18+ crit is active to have an ally beat on the baddie and you recharge Sunder Armor

Utilities:
Lvl 2 - Moment of Escape
Lvl 6 – Ode to Sacrifice
Lvl 10 – Illusory Erasure

Get a striker in your party to take Agile Opportunist. Combine your Virtue of Cunning Class Feature with Majestic Word, Moment of Escape & Illusory Erasure to get extra attacks during rounds when the 18+ crit is active.

Equipment:
Mage’s Rapier +3. Your weapon, your implement and your way to get a 2nd use of Sunder Armor every encounter.
Summoned EarthHide Armor +3
Periapt of Cascading Health +2 –A nice combo is to move an effect on an ally onto yourself with Ode to Sacrifice and use this to end it. Bonus if both of you were under the effect (2 for 1)
Couters of Second Chances – You have to hit to get the 18+ crit up for everyone. These will help.
Light Shield – You can still use the shield hand to hold another item….
Luckblade Dagger +1 – I’ve seen some controversy on this one. Hold in your shield hand to get another daily reroll if your DM allows.
Power Jewel – Another use of Focused Sound

Options: I like the idea of the little BardLord wading into combat and the Gnome’s Fade Away will certainly come into play. However a Halfling would do just as well just switch INT for DEX to keep AC up. The +2 vs. Opportunity Attacks will come in handy as you position yourself for flanking to increase the probability of getting off your 18+ crit attacks. You can also 2nd MC into rogue (lose Mark of Healing for now) and take supah ubah Knockout instead of Warlord Recovery. The low INT does tank your Arcana skill though if you care about such things. Also it lowers the Virtue of Cunning range so you might consider Valor and the 3 temps.

A Tiefling also works nicely. It gets the same stat bumps as Gnome and the +1 to hit vs. Bloodied foes will help land your attacks.

Originally I put ways here to get to 15 wisdom to take the DP avenger MC (oath 1 enemy end of encounter). However you really only need the 13 wisdom requirement (oath 1 enemy end of next turn).

This is much easier to get, just pull off some INT:
Level 11 Cunning Bard Gnome, Student of the 7 Paragon Path
Str: 14 (13 +1 lvl11)
Dex: 9
Con: 13 (12 + 1 lvl 11)
Int: 18 (13+2 race +1 lvl4 +1 lvl8 +1 lvl11)
Wis: 13 (12 + 1 lvl 11)
Cha: 22 (17+2 race +1 lvl4 +1 lvl8 +1 lvl11)
HP: 84 (Born Under Bad Sign Background)
AC 26 Fort 20 Ref 23 Will 24


So for -1 AC, -1 Reflex and -1 Int skills you gain 2 attack rolls for at least 1 of your sunder armor attacks (maybe both if the BBEG survives) and a healing surge. You also have to lose Mark of Healing feat (at lvl 11 maybe pick it up at 12).

SanityFaerie wrote:

Vicious? Why not Rending?

Or Graceful, for Dex boys, or even Stout for Con users (hello, Rageblood). If we're just looking for crit damage I'll take +(stat mod) over a d12 anywhere from mid-paragon onward.

Interesting build, though. Definitely one to use with a coordinated party, and to decide on before everyone allocates stats. Really reduces the need to chase those epic 19+ crit feats, which could free up a lot of stat points for some builds.

No, you only get the bloodiron crits on bloodiron attacks. I was just tossing that in there because bloodiron dagger has to be a dagger, which is by its nature offhand, and makes crit-heavy builds happy. The majority of offhand axes out there are a bit pathetic, and any serious crit-hog build will want to have two weapon opening, which means that you will be taking attacks off of your off-hand.

Someone who likes the numbers better than I might want to run a comparison between axe+bloodiron and the double axe with Deadly Axe feat - but that also requires at least a bit of con. I personally wouldn't be willing to let the spear side of the urgrosh benefit from axe feats/properties any more than I'd let the axe side be used for rain of blows, so I didn't include that option. Still, having every crit you make generate two additional attacks on an 18-20 crit range with rerolls....

It's true, though, a ranger with the avenger MCs (and you'd probably want both of them, because the first guy just isn't going to last the fight, most of the time) with superior rending axes in both hands is a nice little build for exploiting what our bard friend here hands out - and a delightful target for commander's strike, to boot, if you have someone in the party to hand that out. Might even be worth going half-elf (or possibly having someone else in the party go half-elf).

Actually, your numbers are off a tch. If you double-crit on your two attacs, you get 3 additional attacks - MH, OH, OH. The only meaningful difference is that the 6% "both MH" possibility is actually a 6% "both OH" possibility, spawning only two more OH attacks. Amusingly, on this build, you might well want to designate your more powerful weapon as your offhand weapon in cases where you have managed to upgrade the one and not the other.

Also, going with the waraxe, rather than the martial version of Battleaxe only gives you an additional +1 damage to your Ws. You might find yourself better served to go with weapon expertise instead.