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Savage Sun

Level 30
Longtooth Shifter Paladin (Barbarian)/Morninglord/Chosen of Amaunator
Special Daily: Ardent Vow

Final ability scores:

STR 28, CON 16, DEX 12, INT 10, WIS 26, CHA 15

Starting ability scores:

STR 18, CON 14, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 13

AC: 47 Fort: 45 Ref: 35 Will: 44
HP: 225 Surges: 13 Surge Value: 56

Ardent Vows/day: 8 (+1 per milestone)

Regular attack bonus: +36

Trained Skills:

Religion +20, Endurance +21, Heal +28, Insight +28, Perception +28

Crazy assumption:

Amaunator has the Sun domain. While not explicitly stated anywhere (yet), if you're playing domains in the Forgotten Realms it's obvious enough that I think you could consider it a given.

Feats:

Lv. 1: Weapon Proficiency (fullblade)
Lv. 2: Solar Enemy
Lv. 4: Weapon Expertise (heavy blade)
Lv. 6: Virtuous Recovery
Lv. 8: Mighty Challenge
Lv. 10: Weapon Focus (heavy blade)
Lv. 11: Honored Foe
Lv. 12: Pervasive Light
Lv. 14: Armor Specialization (plate)
Lv. 16: Untiring Virtue
Lv. 18: Berserker's Fury
Lv. 20: Novice Power
Lv. 21: Divine Mastery
Lv. 22: Tireless Wrath
Lv. 24: Crusading Wrath (and retrain Pervasive Light -> Punishing Radiance)
Lv. 26: Glorious Channeler
Lv. 28: Robust Defenses
Lv. 30: Paladin's Truth (and retrain Divine Mastery -> Adept Power)

Powers:

Lv. 1: Holy Strike (A-W), Ardent Strike (A-W), Divine Pursuit (E), Blood of the Mighty (D)
Lv. 2: Bless Weapon (U)
Lv. 3: Strength from Valor (E)
Lv. 5: Arc of Vengeance (D), Blazing Brand (D, replaces Blood of the Mighty)
Lv. 6: Virtue (U)
Lv. 7: Thunder Smite (E)
Lv. 9: Knightly Intercession (D)
Lv. 10: Call of Challenge (U)
Lv. 13: Zealous Smite (E) (replaces Divine Pursuit)
Lv. 15: Divine Vengeance (D) (replaces Blazing Brand)
Lv. 16: Divine Aegis (U)
Lv. 17: Mark of Terror (E) (replaces Thunder Smite)
Lv. 19: Smite the Soul (D) (replaces Arc of Vengeance)
Lv. 20: Storm of Blades (E, Barbarian 13) (replaces Zealous Smite via Novice Power)
Lv. 22: Holy Wings (U)
Lv. 23: Resounding Smite (E) (replaces Strength from Valor)
Lv. 25: Exalted Retribution (D) (replaces Knightly Intercession)
Lv. 27: Hurricane of Blades (E, Barbarian 27) (replaces Storm of Blades)
Lv. 29: Prostration (D) (replaces Exalted Retribution)
Lv. 30: World Serpent Rage (D, Barbarian 29) (replaces Prostration via Adept Power)

Items:

Armor: Agile Godplate Armor +6 (in Heroic/Paragon, used Bloodiron Plate/Warplate)
Weapon: Bloodclaw Fullblade +6
Arms: Iron Armbands of Power +6
Feet: Winged Boots (Lv. 13)
Hands: Strikebacks (Lv. 10)
Head: Circlet of Indomitability +2 (Lv. 18)
Neck: Brooch of Vitality +6
Rings: War Ring (Lv. 16), Shadow Band (Lv. 27)
Waist: Belt of Vim +2 (Lv. 18)
Wonderous Items: Salves of Power x3 (Lv. 10), Solitare (Aquamarine)

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My goal here was to come up with a build that takes advantage of the many ways Paladins, especially their STR-based form, can boost their damage with Divine Power now out. Divine Power aimed to steer Straladins in the direction of a secondary Striker, rather than Leader, and I want to see just how well they can do, while still defending.

This Longtooth Shifter (for the STR and WIS bonuses) Straladin starts off like most others. At Lv. 2 he gets Bless Weapon and the Sun domain divinity feat Solar Enemy. One encounter per day, he can start out the battle with Solar Enemy to enforce permanent, unavoidable radiant vulnerability 5 on targets in range, then casts Bless Weapon, which will easily get all its perks in that fight, including the lovely 18-20 crit range. Bless Weapon and radiant vulnerability is the recurring theme of this build, all the way to Lv. 30.

If this Paladin is going to deal that much damage, he'd better be able to take it as well. Especially since he's using a Bloodclaw Weapon. Enter Virtuous Recovery and the Lv. 2 encounter utility Virtue both taken at Lv. 6 (yeah, I took another Lv. 2 power instead, it's that good), which lets you be proactive about burning through your healing surges. Virtuous Recovery also synergizes with Virtue, so not only are you getting the proactive temp HPs, they're not going to come off very easily (especially with your secondary stat being WIS). At Lv. 11, he also gets Honored Foe, which further protects him against marked foes once his Virtue points do become exhausted.

The Savage Sun takes yet another Lv. 2 utility at Lv. 10 (what can I say, Divine Power treated Paladins nice at that level). Call of Challenge is an unavoidable mass-Sanction, which along with Honored Foe will also help him live longer, kill longer.

At Lv. 12 he takes Pervasive Light, which lets him deal extra damage against a radiant-vulnerable even if the attack itself isn't radiant. This is good for when you don't have Bless Weapon activated. By this point he has at least one Salve of Power to replenish Bless Weapon for another encounter per day. He'll get more Salves of Power as he gains levels (and thus resources).

At Lv. 16 he gets Burning Radiance from his Morninglord PP. This is where things get really fun. If it's one of the two fights where he has a Bless Weapon to use, he starts off with that. Bless Weapon has the Radiant keyword, and so applies the keyword to all attacks with the buffed weapon. Then the Savage Sun attacks. If he doesn't have a Bless Weapon ready, he still has Holy Strike, at least. If he hits, he forces radiant vulnerability 10. Then he casts Solar Enemy at the start of his next turn to up that vulnerability to 15 for his next attack. For the rest of the fight, the enemies affected by Solar Enemy will have some sort of radiant vulnerability all the time; 10 if the Savage Sun hits with an attack, 5 if he misses.

Radiant vulnerability not only helps his attacks, it makes him a better defender because his Divine Sanction and Divine Challenge do more damage if violated.

At Lv. 18 he takes the Barbarian multiclass feat, and at Lv. 20 he uses Novice Power to get Storm of Blades. Even two attacks on one enemy isn't so bad and is good for the one time in an encounter he may force vulnerability 15. At Lv. 21, his CON becomes 16, so he gets three attacks with that power to take advantage of the vulnerability 15, when it starts getting devastating.

In Epic Tier, the Savage Sun picks up both Divine Strength-enhancing feats, making Divine Strength a better option than Solar Enemy against a solo creature. Tireless Wrath can apply your STR mod extra up to two rounds' worth of attacks; make sure one of those is Storm of Blades, and Crusading Wrath puts a supercharged encounter-long Divine Sanction on the enemy you're about to whack.

He also retrains out Pervasive Light for Punishing Radiance at this point, since by now he should have enough Salves of Power to have a Bless Weapon on almost every encounter.

At Lv. 26 he gets Glorious Channeler, allowing him to use both his enhanced Divine Strength and Solar Enemy every encounter. And the following level, he gets Hurricane of Blades, which for him is an upgrade over Storm of Blades (6 attacks in one standard).

Now he can setup the vulnerability 15 for Hurricane of Blades, as before. After he hit with a previous Radiant attack to force vulnerability 10, he's ready to use it, he can move (if needed), minor action Solar Enemy (increasing to vulnerability 15), minor action Divine Strength, spend an action point, and then use Hurricane of Blades.

Just to review, here's what he's stacking on every one of those six attacks (without any further Leader help, etc.):

6.5 (fullblade die)
+ 3.5 (average die for Bless Weapon damage increase)
+ 18 (2x STR bonus at Lv. 28, from using his Tireless-enhanced Divine Strength)
+ 6 (enhancement bonus)
+ 3 (Weapon Focus)
+ 18 (Bloodclaw bonus)
+ 6 (Iron Armbands)
+ 15 (radiant vulnerability from a previous Radiant hit, followed by Solar Enemy on the next turn)

= 76 damage every time it hits. It can deal 456 points of damage if all the attacks hit, overkill on one standard enemy at this level and well on your way to working on a second. It reduces an Elite Brute by over two-thirds. If you get proper setup from a Leader, that could happen. Even if you're only attacking at 50% without the setup, this is doing well over 200, which will make said standard enemy sweat and remove about a third of an Elite's HPs.

Oh, and every one of those also crits on 18-20. With a high-crit weapon and a War Ring, as well.

So we know he can nova. This is his biggest one. He also has 8 or more Ardent Vows per day to play with for lower-grade novas if needed.

The Savage Sun's melee basic attack on hit can do:

13 (2x fullblade die)
+ 3.5 (Bless Weapon)
+ 9 (STR)
+ 6 (enhancement)
+ 3 (Weapon Focus)
+ 18 (Bloodclaw)
+ 6 (Iron Armbands)
+ 5-10 (vulnerability 5 for Solar Enemy if no attack hit the round before, 10 from Burning Radiance if it did)

= 63.5-68.5 on hit. Assuming 50% hit rate, that's roughly 32-34 DPR on a melee basic.

His Divine Challenge does 25-30 if violated, depending on which vulnerability applies at the time. Most of his Sanctions will do 16-21 if violated. His Crusading Wrath Sanction deals 24-29.

At Lv. 30, when he gets Divine Miracle, he retrains Divine Mastery for Adept Power so he can swap for World Serpent Rage, which makes him incredibly sticky.

As for defense, he's about what you'd expect. An Ancient Red Dragon and Orcus need a 10 to hit his AC. One's a Soldier of his level, the other's a Brute 3 levels higher. Not terrible. Orcus' Touch of Death needs a 12 to hit his Fortitude. His Will is also solid. Of course, this is all before you start abusing the Shadow Ring. Good times.

So fire away, ladies and germs. Comments welcome.

Could I ask for a casual opinion or two, as to whether a Charisma based paladin would have more potential going down the path of inflicting radiant vulnerability in such a fashion?

Also, is the starting Cha of 13 necessary to qualify for a feat(s)?

I made one change so far: At Lv. 30, my retraining of Divine Mastery now goes to Adept Power to power-swap for World Serpent Rage.

Tal'eth wrote:

Would a halfelf picking up twin strike be able to take greater advantage of the radiant vulnerability offered in this build?

He would, but I went for the better nova with a fullblade, instead. Plus the Longtooth Shifter has better STR, which means his Tireless Wrath is stronger.

Have you considered the Punishing Radiance? With Bless Weapon this build will hit quite so often and there is few things better that adding 10 more radiant vulnerability for your Nova Round.
I'm also not quite sold on the usefulness of Tireless Wrath (by itself its good, but I find the opportunity cost too high), Crusading Wrath and Glorious Channeler... Primal Resurgence, Epic Fortitude and Epic Will seem better overall to me. And replace Mighty Challenge with Punishing Radiance, since Mighty Challenge does not help your sanction and Ardent Vow overwrites your buffed divine challenge with sanction.