We all like stunning enemies right? But most classes only get 1 or 2 stunning encounter powers or else the stunning only occurs if certain conditions or build requirements are met. So the goal of this build is to get as many stunning encounter powers as possible, as soon as possible, without having to jump through any conditional hoops or take powers that don’t match the role well. By the end I was able to get a defender that still defends very well and gets about 7-9 (depending on build variants) uses of stunning powers in a typical encounter at level 23. In epic you treat your stunning encounter powers anvil of doom, mark of terror, staggering strike, and stunning smite almost like at wills since you get to use them so often.
Most current version with about 8.5 stuns an encounter at 24 with Planeshaper ED. Or 7.5 Dominates an encounter with reincarnate championED/tiefling as your first race choice, which is the build the version below uses.
1st level: Dropping The Hammer
Basic Chassis Human Paladin/Fighter hybrid with a warhammer. Str 18 con 13 dex 10 int 8 wis 16 cha 11
You want these two because they lose little hybridding and have good power selection and this build is all about exploiting power selection and power recharging. You want human for the extra at will, skill, feat and eventual paragon path. The only drawback is that a con or wis bonus would be nice, so if you were to go hammer of moradin instead of adroit explorer dwarf would work at the cost of some stunning in epic, but with a +1 to hit. I went with 1 handed weapon talent for the hybrid feat because the build needs to use a hammer or mace and you want the extra to hit bonus, but combat superiority also works to help make you sticky. With bludgeon expertise you have good forced movement with footwork lure. I orginally posted this before devout protector expertise was published and it also a good choice now since you should probably go with a shield. A 2 handed hammer could work if you wanted a little bit more damage, but I think devout protector exptertise is your best expertise choice since this isn't really a damage focus build.
Knockdown assault is there for the occasion charge MBA. Holy strike starts out strong, but you want to retrain it in paragon since this build needs a good constitution later on so you are putting all your boost until epic into strength and con. Deity does not matter, but moradin is what I started with and is good for some variants. You divine challenge is weak, but gets better with mighty challenge at level 2. Later on you will want a superior bludgeon weapon, either craghammer for damage or singing stick to up your to hit a little bit. This build goes for craghammer, but I would probably switch to a singing stick around level 17 or so since you care more about the extra accuracy than damage at around that point.
I also posted this before themes were out so you can add whatever you want. It doesn't really use its immediate actions much so that is an option to look at. Or else maybe something with a controlling weapon attack or something to toughen you up. Earth forger, elemental initiate, knight hospitaler, ironwrought or sohei all work.
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Hammer Time, level 1 Human, Fighter/Paladin Hybrid Paladin Option: Hybrid Paladin Will Hybrid Talent Option: Fighter Combat Talent Fighter Combat Talent Option: One-handed Weapon Talent (Hybrid) Human Power Selection Option: Bonus At-Will Power Chessenta (Chessenta Benefit)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES STR 18, CON 13, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 11
STARTING ABILITY SCORES STR 16, CON 13, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 11
ITEMS Warhammer x1 Scale Armor x1 Heavy Shield x1 Throwing hammer Adventurer's Kit ====== End ======
Paragon: Hitting the Nail on the Head
At level 13 you are pretty solid at defending. You have temp hitpoint generation from 2 encounter utilities and some good multimarking and immobilization to make up for your hybrid defender faults. The barbarian mc gives you perception and access to your epic destiny and a power swap at level 23. You have boosted your defenses with plate proficiency, improved defenses, and superior will, though plate proficiency isn't essential. This is about the time for you to consider switching out holy strike since you have been boosting con instead of wisdom, probably for Forbidding Strike. You also have some good pushing and movement action going on and might want items like rushing cleats or ring of the ram.
You took adroit explorer for your paragon path. The damage resistance from the action point feature is nice, but Adroit Explorer also lets you take hydra charge with ambitious effort, or maybe Ravenfrost Strike or Armored Assault, while still taking come and get it at 7. At level 21 you switch that out for Anvil of Doom. You also take Anvil of Doom as your level 13 encounter power and never let go since it is the beginning of the stunning goodness. You have Spirit Harrow too, but it does not always stun. By level 17 you have 2 stunning encounter powers and start the day with two action points. By level 20 you are using about 2.5 stunning attacks an encounter when you count your 3 dailies that can stun. No recharges yet, but a respectable amount of stunning.
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ====== Hammer Time, level 13 Human, Fighter/Paladin, Adroit Explorer Hybrid Paladin Option: Hybrid Paladin Will Hybrid Talent Option: Fighter Combat Talent Fighter Combat Talent Option: One-handed Weapon Talent (Hybrid) Ambitious Effort Option: Ambitious Effort New Power Human Power Selection Option: Bonus At-Will Power Chessenta (Chessenta Benefit)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES STR 21, CON 16, DEX 11, INT 9, WIS 17, CHA 12
STARTING ABILITY SCORES STR 16, CON 13, DEX 10, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 11
ITEMS Heavy Shield x1 Adventurer's Kit Bloodthirsty Craghammer +3 x1 Translocating Plate Armor +3 x1 Badge of the Berserker +3 x1 Rushing Cleats (heroic tier) x1 Circlet of Indomitability (heroic tier) x1 Belt of Vim (heroic tier) x1 Iron Armbands of Power (heroic tier) x1 Symbol of Hope +1 x1 Gauntlets of Ogre Power (heroic tier) x1 Potion of Clarity (level 5) ====== End ======
Epic: Hammering the Point Home
Reincarnate champion to give +2 strength and to give you access to tiefling and dwarf feats and racial abilities: Royal Command of Asmodeus and eventually dwarven weapon training (if you don't want to go with a singing stick) and dwarven durability.
At level 21: You get anvil of doom two times an encounter and it recharges on an action point. You have mark of terror, which recharges on an action point. At 22 your crit range is 19-20 and your first crit each encounter recharges an encounter power. At 23 you swap out your level 23 fighter power for staggering strike. At 24 your stuns dominate (Royal Command) and anvil of doom becomes reliable (practiced reliability). You don't have to do it in this order and it is a good idea to maybe take Royal Command of Asmodeus at 21, but its a close call to pick which feat to take first.
Plus 3 of your dailes stun. You retrain out your level 14-20 feats as soon as you can, but I took ones like action surge and durability. Plate proficiency isn't really needed either and can be retrained out if you want to.
ITEMS Heavy Shield x1 Adventurer's Kit Moradin's Craghammer +5 x1 Battleforged Legion Plate Armor +5 x1 Cloak of Arachnida +5 x1 Ring of Ramming (paragon tier) x1 Ring of Shadow Guard (paragon tier) x1 Circlet of Indomitability (paragon tier) x1 Belt of Vim (paragon tier) x1 Iron Armbands of Power (paragon tier) x1 Symbol of the Champion's Code +3 x1 Rushing Cleats (heroic tier) x1 Strikebacks (heroic tier) x1 Pierced Heart Tattoo (paragon tier) x1 ====== End ======
Basic Epic Tactics at level 24: Please Hammer Don't Hurt Em
Start each fight off by getting next to at least one enemy, but preferably two or more. Then attack with anvil of doom, possibly marking another adjacent enemy with divine challenge or using daring shout. Keep attacking with anvil of doom until you hit with it once, then attack with Mark of Terror.
When you dominate with any of your powers you have the enemy either attack another enemy or walk away from you and then back without shifting. That triggers combat challenge so free basic attack and sometimes when they attack another enemy it will trigger your divine challenge as well if you had enough minor actions to apply it.
The same round you use Mark of Terror you will want to try to action point with Staggering Strike. That recharges both Anvil of Doom and Mark of Terror. So at this point you still have your paragon path usage of anvil of doom, a recharge use of anvil of doom, and a recharge use of mark of terror. For the encounters where you don't use an action point that is when you try to use dailies that stun.
If you ever get a crit, which should about 10% of the time, you will recharge one of your uses of Anvil of Doom through epic resurgence, so you again attack with that until you hit. The reason you pick that for your recharge is that Anvil of Doom is reliable and marks. If it is towards the tail end of the fight you might want to recharge Staggering Strike since it targets fort instead of AC and does a little more damage.
Level 30: Its Hammer Time
For this last section you take advantage of going dwarf for your third race and get dwarven durability and DWT. At level 27 you get stunning smite which should now be the first power you use most encounters: weapon vs will aginst one target that dominates, with a secondary power that is also weapon vs will other adjacent enemies that dominates. You can recharge this at least once most unencounters.
Your level 25 power doesn't stun, but Exalted Retribution gives you extra effective OAs that go off when your dominated enemy attacks his allies so that is fun and a good one to action point with after dominating someone with anvil of doom. And your level 29 power, Titan's Hammer, is a weapon vs fort dominated save ends that you can use on a charge for those times you have trouble reaching enemies.
ITEMS Heavy Shield x1 Adventurer's Kit Brilliant Energy Craghammer +6 x1 Battleforged Tarrasque Plate Armor +6 x1 Torc of Fortune +6 x1 Eye of Awareness (epic tier) x1 Diamond Cincture (paragon tier) x1 Fey Warrior's Boots (epic tier) x1 Ring of the Radiant Storm (paragon tier) x1 Golden Ring of Teros (epic tier) x1 Iron Armbands of Power (paragon tier) x1 Gauntlets of Blood (epic tier) x1 Symbol of the Champion's Code +4 x1 Distance Throwing hammer +5 Tattoo of the Wolverine (paragon tier) x1 ====== End ======
Variant 1 Dwarf paladin/fighter mc barbarian hammer of moradin reincarnate champion: Slightly more accurate with a +1 to hit with hammers through the path, dwarf feats in heroic and paragon, a 2 higher wisdom overall, and proning action points. At the cost of a use of anvil of doom in epic that you got from adroit explorer, no daily encounter power as a reaction power with your level 20 daily, 1 fewer feat and at will, and 1 fewer action point each day. I think in epic you have enough uses that this is a slightly more practical path since you will still be averaging around 6.5 stunning attacks an encounter. The other one is better from 16-20, but they are about equal in epic. I think this one is better in heroic.
Variant 2 Human Brawler fighter with mc barbarian adroit explorer reincarante champion. That frees up a few paladin feats: mighty challenge, hybrid talent, and divine mastery and you get the full fighter option of ha ing combat challenge. You use viscious uppercut and hammering pommel, which also lowers your to hit by 1 since you don't get weapon talent. The other cost is only 1 fighter power can recharge with martial mastery with no divine mastery and you don't get a divine challenge. Better for those where hybrids are not open or for darksun where there are no paladins.
Variant 3 Human paladin/fighter with mc barbarian adroit explorer planeshaper. You don't get dominate this way and you get an int boost instead of strength boost in epic so make dex you dump stat. But you can pick an encounter power and use it twice an encounter so eventually you will be getting about 3 uses of stunning smite an encounter. This is the way to get the most stuns an encounter, with a realistic average of about 9 stun attacks an encounter at 23. But it is also the least accurate of all the builds since you don't get a useful stat bonus and I would not use this one. It is only here to show how much stunning you can squeeze out of the idea.
Start with Fighter/Paladin hybrid (regular brawler fighter also works as noted below). They each have stunning powers, where the only requirement for the powers to work is that you are wielding a hammer for anvil of doom. They only use strength for the powers I am going to take and you get scale and shield proficiency, along with both the paladins marking mechanic and the fighter’s combat superiority from your hybrid talent. Multiclass barbarian for a power swap at level 23. That gives you the fighter’s anvil of doom for your level 13 power, paladin’s Mark of Terror for your level 17 power (retrained at 27 for terrible charge), and barbarian’s Staggering Strike for your level 23 power.
At level 21 Take Martial mastery and retrain something for divine mastery. At level 22 take bludgeon mastery and retrain something for epic resurgence to recharge an encounter power when you crit. That way you recharge both a martial encounter power and a divine encounter power when you spend an action point and when you crit on a 19-20 you also recharge an encounter power. For your dailies, include ones that stun: 19 Smite the Soul and 29 Titan’s Hammer. So in a 6 encounter work day with at least 5 rounds each at level 23. You would get 3 regular stunning encounter powers, 2 of which recharge every other encounter when you spend an action point, and 1 recharges every other encounter assuming one crit every other encounter. And 1 daily stunning power out of 3 encounters, which you would use in encounters where you don’t use action points or haven’t had a crit yet. That averages to just under 5 stuns an encounter, more if you have party members helping you out with things like symbols of victory (more action points) or prophetic guidance (more crits).
I went with hammer of moradin for the paragon path for the +1 to hit with hammers and since the action point feature dazes/prones and the encounter power dazes and is ranged so that is kind of close to stunning and adds something for ranged situations. I went with Destined Scion to up hit chance, but was tempted by harbinger of doom for its 1 in 20 chance enemy that attacks you is stunned until beginning of your turn.
Brawler hybrid opens up a couple of other powers including another daily, at the cost of slightly lower defenses overall and no combat superiority. Going single class with a brawler build with a paladin power swap at 17 would give you a very similar outcome and free up the hybrid talent feat slot at the cost of getting divine challenge/sanction at will and you would get religion instead of perception.
Options: Shield adept is the only paragon path with a stunning encounter power that uses strength, but the stun does not last long and is not guaraunteed to go off and its not a good path overall. If you worship Sulne you could go Silverstar for tears of selune, but that is a wisdom implement power so you would need to get a weapliment and take versatile expertise. Going dragonborn would open up the fearwalker paragon path and that adds another Daily stunned power keyed off of strength and the stats work fine, but you will have to tweak them a little. Giant slayer works well with another daily stunned if the target is large.
====== Created Using Wizards of the Coast D&D Character Builder ======
FEATS Level 1: Hybrid Talent Level 2: Dwarven Weapon Training Level 4: Bludgeon Expertise Level 6: Berserker's Fury Level 8: Superior Will Level 10: Mighty Challenge Level 11: Dwarven Durability Level 12: Commanding Vow (retrained to Novice Power at Level 23) Level 14: Wary Fighter (retrained to Epic Resurgence at Level 22) Level 16: Improved Defenses Level 18: Armor Proficiency: Plate Level 20: Toughness (retrained to Martial Mastery at Level 21) Level 21: Divine Mastery Level 22: Bludgeon Mastery Level 24: Wary Fighter Level 26: Commanding Vow Level 28: Weakening Challenge Level 30: Knock-Back Swing
POWERS Hybrid at-will 1: Ardent Strike Hybrid at-will 1: Tide of Iron Hybrid encounter 1: Steel Serpent Strike Hybrid daily 1: Shove and Slap Hybrid utility 2: Vice's Reward Hybrid encounter 3: Staggering Smite Hybrid daily 5: Frenzying Smite Hybrid utility 6: Daring Shot Hybrid encounter 7: Come and Get It Hybrid daily 9: Spirit Harrow Hybrid utility 10: Defensive Advance Hybrid encounter 13: Anvil of Doom (replaces Steel Serpent Strike) Hybrid daily 15: Sudden Opportunity (replaces Shove and Slap) Hybrid utility 16: Tyrian Battle Stance Hybrid encounter 17: Mark of Terror (replaces Staggering Smite) Hybrid daily 19: Smite the Soul (replaces Frenzying Smite) Hybrid utility 22: Inspired Resurgence Hybrid encounter 23: Battering Shield (retrained to Staggering Strike at Novice Power) (replaces Come and Get It) Hybrid daily 25: (replaces Spirit Harrow) Hybrid encounter 27: Stunning Smite (replaces Mark of Terror) Hybrid daily 29: Titan's Hammer (replaces Sudden Opportunity)
ITEMS
Bloodthirsty Craghammer +6, Battleforged Godplate Armor +6, Stormwalker's Cloak +6, Rushing Cleats (heroic tier), Eye of Awareness (epic tier), Gauntlets of the Ram (heroic tier), Ring of Ramming (paragon tier), Iron Armbands of Power (epic tier), Ring of Shadow Guard (paragon tier), Heavy Shield, Adventurer's Kit, Symbol of Scorned Fate +1, Diamond Cincture (paragon tier), Distance Throwing hammer +5
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Have you considered windrider as your PP. For the accuracy/damage boost? Toss a reserve manuver -> rain of blows/come and get it. It's not stun, but they're great powers anyways.
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
Didn't look too thoroughly, but do you need dwarf for any stunning? If you go human you'll have an extra feat to play with, and Adroit Explorer for Anvil of Doom x2 at level 21. You could at least add this to the options section.
Adroit explorer is a good choice! It also gives you an extra action point for another encounter with recharges. The main drawback is stats, so you will need a different starting array or else you need to not put as many bumps into wisdom as I did.
Dwarf got picked because it has good stats, racial features, DWT, and dwarven durability. The big problem is that there is no way I know of no other way, besides bludgeoning expertise, to boost your crit rate for martial melee powers while wielding an hammer or a mace since an unforgetable cudgel only does it with divine powers. I might even use a singing stick at higher levels to up your hit chance if you were not going dwarf since this is not really a damage focused build.
And for the non directly associated build features, I did not put much thought into those. There are probably better utility powers since I mainly picked fighter powers I know are generally good and ignored paladin utility powers for the most part.
I hadn't thought of planeshaper, but if all I was trying to do was maximize stunning it would be a good choice.
Assuming 6 encounter day, level 23 human adroit explorer/planeshaper would give up 2 uses of anvil of doom, 1 use of mark of terror, 2 uses of staggering strike. Recharge anvil of doom and mark of terror on an action point 4 out of 6 encounters=1.333_ uses/encounter. Recharge one of them on a crit every =.55 uses per encounter (that is assuming 10% chance of crit, with 5.5 attack rolls per 5 round encounter). That would be 6.883 stunning encounter powers each encounter. For a 5 encounter long day that would be 7.15 encounter power usages. And with dailies that is another .333 stuns per encounter for a six encounter day.
A new feat to add would be practiced reliability to anvil of doom, which means its not expended when you miss. Someone else can do the math on that, but we are getting close to 8.5 stuns a round.
Another variant, which does not work until level 27, is to multiclass monk and power swap for part the seas and then take form mastery. That would recharge a martial, divine, and monk encounter power when you spend an action point.
F-111 Interdictor Long (200+ squares) distance ally teleporter. With some warlord stuff. Broken in a plot way, not a power way. Thought Switch Higher level build that grants upto 14 attacks on turn 1. If your allies play along, it's broken. Elven Critters Crit op with crit generation. 5 of these will end anything. Broken. King Fisher Does an excellent job at keeping an enemy disabled in a few ways. Strong. Boominator Fun catch-22 booming blade build with either strong or completely broken damage depending on your reading. Very Distracting Warlock Lot's of dazing and major penalties to hit. Overpowered. Pocket Protector Pixie Stealth Knight. Maximizing the defender's aura by being in an ally's/enemy's square. Yakuza NinjIntimiAdin: Perma-stealth Striker that offers a little protection for ally's, and can intimidate bloodied enemies. Very Strong. Chargeburgler with cheese Ranged attacks at the end of a charge along with perma-stealth. Solid, could be overpowered if tweaked. Void Defender Defends giving a penalty to hit anyone but him, then removing himself from play. Can get somewhat broken in epic. Scry and Die Attacking from around corners, while staying hidden. Moderate to broken, depending on the situation. Skimisher Fly in, attack, and fly away. Also prevents enemies from coming close. Moderate to Broken depending on the enemy, but shouldn't make the game un-fun, as the rest of your team is at risk, and you have enough weaknesses. Indestructible Simply won't die, even if you sleep though combat. Sir Robin (Bravely Charge Away) He automatically slows and pushes an enemy (5 squares), while charging away. Hard to rate it's power level, since it's terrain dependent. Death's Gatekeeper A fun twist on a healic, making your party "unkillable". Overpowered to Broken, but shouldn't actually make the game un-fun, just TPK proof. Death's Gatekeeper mk2, (Stealth Edition) Make your party "unkillable", and you hidden, while doing solid damage. Stronger then the above, but also easier for a DM to shut down. Broken, until your DM get's enough of it. Domination and Death Dominate everything then kill them quickly. Only works @ 30, but is broken multiple ways. Battlemind Mc Prone-Daze Protecting your allies by keeping enemies away. Quite powerful. The Retaliator Getting hit deals more damage to the enemy then you receive yourself, and you can take plenty of hits. Heavy item dependency, Broken. Dead Kobold Transit Teleports 98 squares a turn, and can bring someone along for the ride. Not fully built, so i can't judge the power Psilent Guardian Protect your allies, while being invisible. Overpowered, possibly broken Unnamed Avenger|Runepriest/Hammer of Vengance Do lot's of damage while boosting your teams. Strong to slightly overpowered. Charedent BarrageA charging ardent. Fine in a normal team, overpowered if there are 2 together, and easily broken in teams of 5. Super Knight A tough, sticky, high damage knight. Strong. Super Duper Knight Basically the same as super knight, only far more broken. Mora, the unkillable avenger Solid damage, while being neigh indestuctable. Overpowered, but not broken. Swordburst Maximus At-Will Close Burst 3 that slide and prones. Protects allies with off actions. Strong, possibly over powered with the right party.
Combat Challenge adds insult to injury for making the dominated creature attack itself. So you have 5 rounds of triple attacks (stun attack, cc attack, dominate attack). You may have to ditch paladin and go straight fighter though.
And while I hate to abuse Kulkor, if you went that way instead of adroit explorer (as yet another option), with Tail Trip, you could add another attack.
