Sorry for the brief delay in getting this up - but there's two this week!
Administratively, I'm doing two different things here. One of the builds (Uberflank) uses the new format. The other (Flip the Bird) uses the old format. Both employ a spacing change fix, but I'm not sure which format is more useful to you as a reader. (Old format has level-by-level commentary interspaced with the build, new one has the build presented in a single place with attached commentary). Let me know which one you prefer and we'll use that on future builds.
Before I start, I'd like to say that it's pure coincidence that we have two Kenku builds this week. They'd make wonderful partners, though - hilariously so, in fact. Go ahead and read the MM3's section on Kenku in Eberron; we discovered how perfectly that fit these builds after we wrote them.
As usual for the showcase, these builds are intended to spur discussion and perhaps inspire a few people in the spirit of the old CO boards. They come from members of my gaming group - me, Radical Taoist, DisposableHero_, Andarious, Sionnis, and Seishi - and I'll always identify who wrote the build at the start, so do not assume I'm the guy behind all of them (because I'm not!).
Unless otherwise noted, showcase builds use 28 point-buy, and have their snapshots evaluated using fractional base attack / saves (because it simplifies the math). None of them actually rely on fractional to be built, though. The format I use showcases their progression at key levels rather than just presenting the build and showing off a few tricks at level 20; most of these are capable of being played 1-20 if you so choose.
With that out of the way, let's get started. This week, the first of mine in a long while – although I couldn’t have done this without RT to help get me back in the swing of things. ------------------
FLIP THE BIRD Everyday I’m shuffling
Required Books: Tome of Battle, Monster Manual 3, Complete Adventurer, Complete Scoundrel, Complete Champion, Races of the Wild, Spell Compendium. (Plenty of optional variants – Cityscape and Dungeonscape – are recommended but not needed) Unearthed Arcana used: None!
Background: You’ve seen the Heavy Weapons Elf. While we were setting the writeup for that, I happened on the idea of using Evasive Reflexes – a feat that I’ve always found intriguing but never seen put to much use – with AoO generation methods on a character who relies on distance attacks. The basic idea is Defensive Rebuke (which, as the Heavy showed, is usable with ranged weapons): shoot the enemy team from a range from which they can’t retaliate, and each attack they make gives you a 5’ step. The rest of the build just sort of… happened when I was bouncing this idea past RT (although Andarious pointed out a very nice modification to the endgame). It is, in a sense, the bastard lovechild of the Heavy Weapons Elf and the Gnowhere Gnome, with touches of the Evasion Tank on the side.
The name comes from the race choice, as well as the general nature of how you’d play – combining ridiculous evasive techniques (which trigger off of enemy action) with ranged-weapon harrier effects basically adds injury to prodigious insult. A few of the variants were picked expressly for you to make sure that your taunting gestures cross the language barrier.
For bonus points, dress as an 80s rapper, party rocker, or any other crime against fashion while doing this. I dare you to imagine a bird-man in zebra-print parachute pants extending an expressive, feathery middle digit while he sidesteps your attacks with ease.
The Basics
Race: Kenku (MM3) is by far the best choice for this build. They’re Medium (helps with melee defense, oddly enough), possess natural claw attacks (so you threaten while holding a ranged weapon), and pack a Dex bonus without a Con penalty; the stealth bonuses are much-appreciated gravy. Oddly, Great Ally isn't a huge selling point for you (as you rarely benefit from flanking), but you do have it. There’s a couple uses for Mimicry here, even though this isn’t a build intended to max out that effect. (If you can’t use kenku, the dynamic changes a bit. Strongheart Halfling is my preferred fallback position – the Small size actually works against you defensively and you’ll need to use an Elvencraft bow, and the easier feat burden really speeds the build up, and the low speed, oddly, is not a drawback here.) If none of those work, Human is tried and proven.
Ability Scores: 12/16/12/12/10/12, before racial modifiers (-2 Str, +2 Dex). You’re a total Dexterity bird, so pump and tome that like there’s no tomorrow. Constitution gets second priority. You don’t need Strength at all, but avoid penalties.
Alignment: It’s vestigial at this point, but you’re a crusader under all of this, so you can’t be true neutral. Any other alignment works.
Skill Notes: This depends a bit on which variants you use. We found great results by employing Cityscape and Dungeonscape: exchanging Survival for Sense Motive, Ride for Tumble, Handle Animal for Gather Information, and – most importantly – the ranger’s tracking ability for Disable Device turned out to produce impressive results. However, this produces a dungeon specialist character (which we describe below). Without these variants, the skills get harder to work with, but you get a good set of wilderness class skills. It’s a bit of a tradeoff, largely on how effective you are as a trapscout, so choose based on likely environments and trap rates and go with that.
Basic Equipment: A regular ol’ shortbow or longbow does the trick – I prefer shortbow, since you’ll hardly ever need the longbow’s extended range and the smaller size works well in a dungeon, but you make an incredible sniper if you stick to the bigger bow. You won’t need composite bows (Strength 10), and you won’t need much armor (Dex 18 and it only gets better).
Magical Gear Goals: Beyond absolutely maxing out your Dexterity? Any decent bow is a good place to start (flat enhancement bonus is fine); the Raptor Arrows from the MIC can help save a lot on final costs here. The Fleet Warrior’s set (specifically, the sandals and the vest) are absolute godsends to this build. Similarly, you’ll get great mileage out of a Ring of Wizardry I and anything to improve your saving throws (Ring of Evasion, Crystal Mask of Mindarmor, etc.). You also want to get the cheap Demolition and Truedeath weapon crystals – they free up your favored enemy choices. Generally speaking, you don’t actually need speed boosts or much investment in AC, but they don’t hurt.
…Wow, that’s eclectic. You look at that list and you can’t quite tell who you’re buying for. Archer, Scout, Arcane, Rogue, Tank… yep, touched most of the bases right there. And it’s only because Martial Spirit doesn’t work with ranged attacks that we left out “martial adept” and “healer”. Trust me, it’s more streamlined than it seems.
The Build. Build Stub: Scout 4 / Ranger 11 / Crusader 3 / Sorcerer 2. Note: If the feat timing looks weird, it’s because we’re using the spell-less ranger in Complete Champion – no spells, but each time a spell level is unlocked you get a bonus feat from a list that depends on your combat style. (They don’t skip prereqs like Combat Style, though.)
The first of the totally optional variants,Voice of the City replaces Wild Empathy, which we won’t be using without other animal-related abilities. Most notably, Voice allows basic communication across language barriers. Taunts, insults, and, I believe, MC Hammer lyrics are probably simple enough to translate.
Speaking of the venerable rapper, Evasive is online. Oh, how I’ve grown to love this feat, since it completely inverts how you look at the AoO. At the moment you’re largely lacking in infrastructure to trigger it easily, but it’s best to have it online earlier. (If you want you can switch it with Point Blank Shot.) I’ll go into more detail about this feat as the respective components come online.
4 – Scout 3 – (Dungeon Specialist, Go to Ground) *Show
Dungeon Specialist swaps your fast movement ability (which won’t matter in the long run, since you don’t rely on your speed to move) in exchange for a hard-to-obtain innate climb speed, along with retaining your Dexterity bonus while climbing. This is almost as good as Up the Walls in some places and is a worthy addition to any dungeoneer.
Go to Ground is a Cityscape replacement, done for style. It replaces Trackless Step (something you can more or less outdo with the right equipment, should it matter) with the ability to hide from Urban Tracking (which is something much, much harder to do). It’s an optional swap, so ditch it if you don’t like it.
Swift Hunter has entire handbooks written on its use, so I won’t go much into it here. We do splash quite a bit of non-Scout, non-Ranger in this build, but there’s still enough Ranger to get most of the goodies, including 4d6/+4 skirmish and four favored enemies (the second of which is online now).
This is as close to a dead level as it comes – and even then, you’re getting the second iterative attack (and a boost to Skirmish AC), meaning three attacks with Rapid Shot.
Not only will your sneak attackers grow to love you, this also increases the relative threat of any melee allies you have in the eyes of your enemies, which works out well for you in the long run. (And with Precise Shot, your team doesn’t need to worry about you hitting them if they engage with your targets). Sadly, Great Ally doesn't improve the bonus you give your allies - if it did, your basic attacks would all be Leading the Attack!
And here's where it all comes together. You're a pretty straightforward Swift Hunter before this point, but now, you become something unique.
As was illustrated with the Heavy Weapons Elf, several martial maneuvers (typically boosts or stances) are fully usable with ranged weapons.You have two here which are not – Tactical Strike (it’s a thematic match to your movement-out-of-turn theme, but you’ll rarely use it) and Mountain Hammer (used entirely as out-of-combat support, everyone’s favorite Swiss Army Chainsaw is your final fallback if you just can’t pick that annoying lock).
Your swift/immediates include White Raven Tactics, which I’ll largely skip discussing since it’s used conventionally here (of note is your ridiculous Initiative check). Shield Block gives you some cover against particularly annoying melee defense, such as teleporters – strangely, Shield Block can target yourself and doesn’t require a shield to use (unlike its big brother, Shield Counter). Your stance choices are pretty meager and likely to see use only out of battle; of the crusader stances, Bolstering Voice is the only one that appeals at all (and it provides a vital White Raven prerequisite). Sadly, Martial Spirit won’t work with ranged attacks, or else it’d totally be your choice (and your maneuvers would swap Tactical Strike for Douse the Flames).
The signature boost is Defensive Rebuke, and it’s the repeated use of this boost that motivated the Extra Granted Maneuver feat (spam it every 3 rounds instead of every 4, maneuver-granting permitting). You’re usually out of reach when you use it, and you can easily peg the entire enemy team with it (focus on the warriors). Chances are you’re out of their reach, with your own frontline in their face, so they’re forced to attack your allies.
Here’s where your Evasive Reflexes feat comes in. Normally, Defensive Rebuke and other AoO generators are used to encourage your foes to fight you instead of your allies. Here, it’s flipped around: They’re usually only able to attack your allies, so you reap a benefit. In this case, each time your enemies attack your allies, you get a 5’ step. Not only does this give you near-perfect position control (as pretty much only Thicket outright foils a 5’ step; you’ve got Woodland Stride and likely the Sandals of Light Stepping at the moment, so terrain isn’t a factor), it also makes you deadlier. Go ahead and carefully read Skirmish again – once you move, the bonuses activate and remain active for one round (although the bonus damage only applies on your turn). If you’re able to make two 5’ steps out of turn (thank you, Combat Reflexes), Skirmish activates, boosting your AC, and when your turn comes, you can full attack normally.
How’s that for a twist? Instead of looking to generate extra movement on your turn, you simply generate it out of turn, and use normal full attacks to benefit from Skirmish. Totally unconventional way of working with the scout.
10 – Crusader 2– (Indomitable Soul) (Thicket of Blades) *Show
…Of course, the enemy melee can foil your Defensive Rebuke attacks, assuming you’re still within Skirmish range, simply by rushing you. That’s where Thicket comes in. At the moment you’re lacking the best infrastructure for this, but crusader stance timing is what it is, so you do what you can.
Covering Strike (or, if you prefer, Covering Fire) is used exactly the same way as it was in the Heavy – you open up battles with it wherever possible, and it locks down anyone you can peg from using AoOs for three rounds. It’s alarmingly useful on archers since you can tag multiple attackers with greater ease than a meleeist can, letting your melee allies slip between them with ease (without the risk of early-battle action denial from trips).
These spells are all the arcane support you’ll need, although your spell slots are kind of low.
Enlarge Person plus kenku claws (or an elvencraft bow) gives you reach in tight quarters, which combines well with Thicket – but not to tie down the enemy. Rather, it buys you an easy escape from any enemy approach, including charges (you just step out of the way) and 5’ steps. You can nimbly cross a tight battlefield unscathed this way, despite being a hulking 8’ tall bird-colossus.
Sniper Shot is used in the opposite scenario – when you’re being carried far away on the wings of Defensive Rebuke + Elusive Reflexes, you will probably push yourself outside of Skirmish range. Not any more – this spell lets you make sneak attacks outside the 30’ range for a round. It doesn’t explicitly mention Skirmish (or sudden strike, or insightful strike, or favored enemy, or&hellip, but precision effects are usually perfectly transferrable anyway, so you won’t have a hard case to make.
Your choice of familiar is up to you, as are your cantrips. I don’t think you should replace the familiar with anything, mind – your base attack is very good, you’ve got great skills, and decent saves, and you can use the extra pair of eyes (note that while kenku get low-light vision, both preferred variant races lack enhanced vision, and all race choices here lack alternate sense modes).
The only spell that immediately jumps to mind is Arrow Mind, but that’s more for show than anything else since you’re using your AoOs for other effects. Pick to taste or to match your party; there’s probably an amazing skill-related one I’m forgetting.
We go for another sorc level for the extra spell versatility and the base attack increase, plus the spell slot doesn’t hurt. It also gives you more skill points (a few at least) to put into Bluff, as this is the only class you have with Bluff as a class skill. This is the most transferrable level of the build.
This was Andarious’ breakthrough – now each time an enemy provokes, you can take two 5’ steps instead of one. On top of all the tactical movement this opens up, it allows you to trigger Skirmish off of a single provoke. Its lone drawback is that it eats up your combat stance, so no Thicket here. (Generally you’d use Thicket if you’re in danger of being approached, and use Press if you’re further away.)
If your DM blocks this from working (the only argument for this from the rules is that Press the Advantage uses a colloquial “for the round” in it which doesn’t consider the corner case of Evasive Reflexes), you have a ready alternative: you qualify for Robilar’s Gambit. Skirmish covers for the AC penalty, and while normally you would use this feat to kill the enemy faster, here you use it the way the Evasion Tank does. Anyone who attacks you, hit or miss, in melee or at range, gives you a 5’ step. It won’t foil the first attack, since Robilar’s AoO resolves late, but it shuts down melee full attacks hard and lets you run for cover from distance attacks.
This substitution is optional, but since it swaps for Woodland Stride which you already have, it’s cost-free. It does exactly what you’d think it does, which is useful if you’re using crowd rules.
Reduces cognitive load and amounts to one feat for +2 to all attack rolls. The bonus feat list from the Complete Champion variant isn’t particularly amazing, but choices like this are good standouts once you’ve got your main infrastructure on the line. Anything to improve the math and simplify high-level gameplay is a good thing.
Spell Reflection is an awesome ability from Complete Mage that allows you to go all Jedi and reflect targeted spells that miss you – and look at that, Skirmish improves your touch AC. (Sadly you reflect them at their original attack bonus, and not the insane ranged touch you’d be sporting.) This interesting and difficult-to-obtain ability replaces Evasion, which you can (and probably do) have from a ring at this point, not to mention that rays are deadlier than evasion-compatible effects at this level. Its main drawback is that it takes an immediate action to do so, meaning you can’t use a boost next round. (You also lack Spellcraft to tell when a spell’s worth reflecting or not, but at this level you probably have a telepathic communication system set up with someone who does have the skill.)
I’ve written about Woodland Archer in the past (see the Heavy Weapons Elf), but here the use is more technical. You rely less on Adjust for Range than the Heavy (lacking Mongoose maneuvers or Time Stands Still), but you get better mileage out of Pierce the Foliage, largely due to the See the Unseen skill trick you qualify for, but the Heavy didn’t. (This pairing lets you detect stealthers with ease and bypass their concealment for as long as you keep pegging them). Finally, with respectable stealth skills, you probably can make Moving Sniper see some use – which is a good thing, since I doubt you’d be 5’ stepping your way through snipe scenarios. Sadly sniping takes place in exactly the wrong order for your skirmish ability, but there’s times when it will matter.
Snapshot: Take the +6 on Con and Dexterity, +5 Dex tome, Greater Magic Weapon, and no other gear – this is actually slightly more conservative than our standard fare for snapshotting, since we only hit two ability scores. (If you get a third, it’s Charisma, which gives extra spell slots and Will saves, but is somewhat inefficient at either role.) With this, Flip the Bird finishes with 172 hit points, saves of 16/24/9, and a base attack of +18 (ranged +35, with Improved Rapid Shot and Woodland Archer aiding on iterative attacks). You also pack five favored enemies (against whom you bypass fortification – thank you, Swift Hunter) and Skirmish +4d6/+4 (or +6d6/+6 if you move 20’, thank you Improved Skirmish); remember that both skirmish and favored enemy damage applies to each of your five-ish arrows per turn. Your caster level is irrelevant, but you can cast five first-level spells per day by default, which can aid you in escaping dogpiles or in delivering pain at a distance (it removes the range limit on precision damage, so go ahead and have your cake and eat it too with an Evasive Skirmish).
More to the point, you finish with a +12 Dexterity modifier, Combat Reflexes, Evasive Reflexes, and Press the Advantage, along with a few ways of playing with AoOs. Your combat rounds are usually spent with Defensive Rebuke or Covering Strike and a full attack, or casting a buff or employing White Raven Tactics. (If you’re in close quarters, that buff could be Enlarge Person and you use Thicket of Blades; if you’re at a distance you remain in Press the Advantage and use Sniper’s Shot if you’re outside of 30&rsquo.
In practical terms, this means that you can peg the entire enemy line with arrows that provide Great Ally flanking bonuses to your team. These arrows can either shut down enemy AoO abilities for three whole rounds or can give you prodigious movement and evasion: if the enemy retaliates, you can actually 5’ step over 130 feet on the enemy turn, including over difficult terrain. Yes, you can actually shuffle more distance than many fully-equipped characters can run. Skirmish bonuses last for 1 round after the movement that triggered them, so any time the enemy provokes an AoO from you, they’re giving you serious skirmish bonuses on your AC and next round’s full attacks. If they dogpile you in melee, switching to Thicket with reach gives you the exact opposite of its usual effect of locking down the enemy: you get an escape route, as any form of movement in that area gives you two 5’ steps to escape them. (Remember the Evasion Tank? Attacks aimed at the wrong square flat-out miss. You can even reflect targeted spells in the late-game.)
In addition to the above, your skills work out well: with the variants discussed above, the dungeon-crawler configuration works out with the following configuration, without spending a single cross-class skill point. Spoiler:Show
It’s actually quite respectable even without specific skill boosts (i.e. Shadow/Silent Moves). Favored Enemy bonuses can range from +2 to +8 depending on how you distributed them:
Sense Motive 12 (+12, Favored Enemy)
Search 23 (+24, Trapfinding)
Hide 11 (+25)
Move Silently 11 (+25)
Disable Device 23 (+24, Trapfinding)
Listen 23 (+23, Favored Enemy, Listen to This, Mimicry)
Spot 23 (+23, Favored Enemy, See the Unseen)
Bluff 6 (+7, Favored Enemy, Mimicry)
Tumble 10 (+22)
Gather Information 9 (+10, Favored Enemy)
Climb 0 (+8, Dungeon Specialist)
Skill tricks: Listen to This, See the Unseen. The former works surprisingly well with your Mimicry ability (you can reproduce what you heard in its original voice, leading to all kinds of unusual uses for the skill trick, especially against maxed-out favored enemies (Bluff); the Voice of the City ability may even let you repeat orders you’ve heard before in languages other than your own) and the latter is devastatingly good with Woodland Archer and/or Blind-Fight (anything you continually attack basically is as good as visible to you).
Overall Strengths: Very capable archer even before you factor in Skirmish. Amazing basic defenses, especially after Skirmish triggers (I was able to see AC 45 and 21/29(evasion)/18 saves without any real effort). Skirmish triggers when it isn’t your turn, along with a hilariously good ability to move without spending actions to do so (and with all the benefits a 5’ step brings over normal movement, i.e. no AoOs). Capable party support options in terms of skill list, dungeon-crawling class features, maneuvers (White Raven Tactics, Bolstering Voice, Covering Strike) and Distracting Attack (very useful if you have sneak attackers on board). Nearly the full range of Swift Hunter benefits, along with nearly full base attack. A collection of unusual mechanics apparently unique to the build makes it refreshing to play – imagine switching on Enlarge or Thicket to avoid the enemy, rather than make them not avoid you! (Also, you’re also able to engage in this movement while flat-footed, so if you’re ambushed, you can quickly move for cover or an ideal return-fire angle before even rolling initiative. Thank you, Combat Reflexes.)
Basically, this is a good cross between a ranged warrior-type and a harrier rogue, and it does that job damn well. By straddling those roles without compromising too much from either one, and keeping an array of party support effects in the hole, Flip the Bird fits well into many different parties. From the DM’s side of the table, this can cause some serious table-flipping frustration for experienced players – the more they rely on attacks of opportunity, the more distinctive Flip the Bird becomes as an enemy. Give him proper melee support and watch them weep. (If you’re showing off, have him start in melee with Thicket (and possibly Enlarge) active. His ability to slip away from that unscathed is practically mind-boggling, especially against chargers.)
Overall Weaknesses:You know the mantra, so say it with me now: will save. Resistance items, Crystal Masks of Mindarmor, and similar are good calls. On top of that, he shares a weakness with the Gnowhere Gnome in that any savvy enemy will respond to this shuffling by using AoEs. (We suggest a Ring of Evasion; unlike the Gnome you’re rocking a serious Reflex save, but also unlike the Gnome, you lack Concentration for the cheap Diamond Mind rings.) Lots of competition for your swift action and crusader recovery makes it difficult to employ all of your stunts with reasonable frequency. Long fights do not work out in your favor, since Covering Strike only works once on a given foe (although that’s usually long enough for you to refresh maneuvers, and if it expires that’s actually freeing up your swift). Finally, your HP are a bit on the low side, although you’ll be maddeningly hard to hit if you’re making regular use of Defensive Rebuke or Thicket.
Variants: There’s two discussed above: Swapping Martial Stance for Robilar’s Gambit (shifts you more to Evasion Tank territory – you’ll have to rely on conventional defense to protect against the first attack, but you still get your shuffling, in melee or at range) or switching to Strongheart Halfling (dramatically alters the feat timing by unlocking Point Blank Shot earlier, slightly improves ranged accuracy and your Hide skill, dramatically weakens you if you’re dogpiled by, say, teleporting Lockdown builds, and drops Great Ally and Mimicry). Both are very plausible tweaks, although they do detract a bit from the theme by respectively cutting back on your shuffling and removing your feathers.
Slightly more involved – at least on the skill front – is dropping the collection of variants from Cityscape and Dungeonscape. They’re completely optional. This most dramatically drops your innate Climb speed early on and makes Disable Device a lot harder to max out without cross-classing, but in exchange it significantly improves your tracking ability and Survival skill, and it cuts down on the number of substitutions (which makes it easier to sell to DMs).
Finally, I mentioned the build benefits significantly from flaws (or bonus feat races if you decide to drop that angle). The main reasons why involve standalone feats that probably key off your Dexterity. These get crowded out of the build due to all ranged feats requiring Point Blank Shot, even if they don’t use that ability. Here, I’m looking mostly at Tactile Trapsmith, which works out to a fat +11 to two of your critical skills (hello, +35 trapscout skills! That’s good enough to stand a decent chance against the Uncanny Trapsmith’s work!) and helps foil the evil DM trick of magically invisible traps (er, that is, it helps cover for both Kenku and Halfling lack of darkvision while trapscouting in the dark. Not wanting to give DMs any ideas or anything.).
…As a minor aside, if you have truly every source available to you, the silliest (as in, face-palming silliest) purchase you can make is the Arms & Equipment Guide’s Sparring Dummy of the Master. Clearly intended for monks (yay, we hit another base!), it changes all 5’ steps into 10’ steps. This gives the Robilar’s variant access to Press-the-Advantage-level movement, and makes the Press the Advantage version downright ridiculous. An average round of combat might put enough distance between you and the main fight to start busting out serious Spot penalties. The item was never reprinted for 3.5 and is probably undercosted for its benefit, but it is from an official Wizards source. If you get it, go ahead and use it to Flip the Bird at whoever designed it.
There you have it. This is an alternate take on the ranged Tome of Battle approach, and I think the first one to exploit Evasive Reflexes in this fashion - you get a damn fine archer with a respectable skill loadout and damage capacity, combined with some rather impressive and (to my knowledge) novel mobility techniques. The degree to which this is frustrating depends on the size of the enemy forces as well as how technical they are with AoOs - use it against a team of experienced players with melee characters, and it'll be an evening to remember.
Next up: ...Well, last week, [DH] Eat Sleep Gank won, but I didn't have the writeup ready on time due to unforeseen problems (also why this is delayed). So, in exchange, Eat Sleep Gank goes up next week.
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL - I'll also include one of [RT] Edge of the Light, [AR] Slash and Burn, or [TS/AR/RT] Something Completely Different.... Vote for one of these below - and leave your comments on Flip the Bird!
These are NOT all my creations! The lead authors are identified as follows: [TS] Tempest Stormwind, [AR] Andarious Rosethorn, [RT] Radical Taoist, [SN] Sionnis, [DH] DisposableHero_, [SH] Seishi.
[TS] The Pinball Brothers: Large And In Charge (Melee, Lockdown, Charge, Juggling) [TS] Ashardalon Reborn: I Will Swallow Your Soul (Melee, Fear, Negative Levels, AoE, Theme) [AR] "A"-Game Paladin: Play That Funky Music, Knight Boy! (Team Support, Melee, Theme, Single-Class) [RT] Uncanny Trapsmith: Get in, make it look like an accident, get out. (Skillmonkey, Stealth/Scout/Infiltration, Unorthodox Methods, Theme) [AR] Wizsassin: *Everything* is permitted. (Spellcaster, Support, Sneak Attack, Utility) [TS] Phantom Rush: General Gish Gouda. (Gish, Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Early-Entry PrC) [TS] Storm Knight: Another kind of gish. (Melee/"Gish", Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Unorthodox Methods) [TS] Inevitable Nightmare: The weapon you only have to fire once. (Melee, "Unorthodox" Methods (no charging), Reliability) [AR] Captain Constitution: The number one threat to America. (Melee, TOUGHTOUGHTOUGH, Defense, Theme) [AR] Nuker: I casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down! (Spellcaster, damage, blasting, damage) [TS] Dread Lord of the Dead: Let the Reaping Begin! (NPC-only, Variable (combat/casting/leadership), Iconic Villain, Theme) [AR] Heavy Crusader: No Rest. No Mercy. No Matter What. (Melee, Damage (No charging), Variable, Theme). [TS] Gun Fu: It's bullet time (Ranged, THEORETICAL, Twin weapons, Theme) [RT] Face First: We should talk. (Psionic, social, mind-control, info-management) [SN] Chaingun Porcupine: Never Enuff Dakka. (Ranged, Skirmishing, Spike Damage, Incarnum) [RT] Always On Edge: The Mortal Draw deals death. (Melee, Generalist, Dungeoneering, Stunt) [AR] Feral Druid: Real feral taste. Zero druid calories. (Melee, offense, damage, murder) [RT] Rusty!: Man's Best Friend (Sentry, Support, Backup, Rearguard) [RT] The T3 (Tashalatora Triple Threat): My Kung Fu is More Powerful (Hybrid, Flex-Function, Melee, Caster) [RT] The #1 Snoipah: Boom. 'Eadshot. (Caster, Theme, Spike, Trapscout) [AR] Dreamblade: Rest in Pieces. (Melee, Damage, Single-Class, Combo/Momentum) [AR] Evasion Tank: “When fighting angry blind men, is best to stay out of the way.” (Melee, Tank, Unorthodox Methods (attack negation), Theme) [DH] Psycarnum Warrior: ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA Start (Melee, Tank, Psionics, Incarnum, 1337 h4x) [AR] Heavy Weapons Elf: WHO TOUCHED MY BOW? (Ranged, Cohort, Damage, Unorthodox Methods (ranged ToB)) [RT] Gnowhere Gnome: A little man who wasn't there (Caster, Stealth, Single-Class, Elusive) [AR] Uberflank: I got your back. (Melee, support, stunt, teamwork) [TS] Flip the Bird: Everyday I'm shuffling (Ranged, harrier, unorthodox methods (ranged ToB / off-turn movement), support) [DH] Eat Sleep Gank: Real Ultimate Power (Stealth, Assassination, Spike, Magic Versatility) [AR] Slash and Burn: Mind, Body, Blade, Flame / Aspects of a greater whole / which delivers death. (Melee, Theme (flex-style), Damage, Stunt) [RT] Edge of the Light: Cut, Fade to Black (Melee, Defense/Offense, Momentum, Tactical) [RT] Quiet Murder: Cut throats, not corners. (Melee, Stealth, Harrier, Tactical) [TS] Wand Overdrive: Say Hello to my little friends. (Caster, support/artillery/variable, wand specialist) [RT] God Hand: What did the five fingers say to the face? (Melee/Gish, Unarmed, SAD, Theme) [AR] Zero Buff Time Gish: Try to keep up! (Gish, Speed, Movement, Opportunity) [TS] Robo Tackle: I Am Iron Man. (Melee, setting-specific (Eberron), positioning, theme, stunt)
The Birdman of Alcatraz just got jealous, I think. This is, I think, my favorite build thus far! I like this format better than the new one, though it would be handy if you included class levels along with character level. My vote this week is Slash & Burn.
"Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter." -Condoleezza Rice
"My fellow Americans... I've just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. Bombing begins in five minutes." - Ronald Reagan
This user has been brought to you by the letters "O-R-C" and the numbers "2, 3, 4, and 6"
Resident Pithed-Off Dragon Buttler of the House of Trolls
The whole time I was reading this I was just imagining a bird moonwalking while giving you 'the bird'. Pleasant imagery to say the least. This is the first time I have ever seen a ranged build that actually focused primarily on being defensive while still maintaining acceptable damage.
My vote for next week is slash and burn, which I am going to guess is a single classed swordsage focusing on the fire based maneuvers.
The Birdman of Alcatraz just got jealous, I think. This is, I think, my favorite build thus far! I like this format better than the new one, though it would be handy if you included class levels along with character level. My vote this week is Slash & Burn.
Edited in the class levels. That's a good idea.
The reason the new format exists is to have an at-a-glance look at the whole build, which is hard to view on common screen resolutions otherwise- the one peeve I have at my own format is that it's sometimes hard to get an at-a-glance sense of the progression.
And although I'm no doubt biased, it's one of my favorites too. It went over well with our group - RT claimed he really wanted to play one (which means our highly-experienced, 3/5 melee-focused Dead for Nothing party can probably expect to face something like them real soon...), and Andarious hinted that one of these guys might be competing with the Heavy as a possible cohort. (I'd think the Heavy is better as a cohort myself since it's less cognitively demanding than Flip, who needs perfect situational awareness (especially in close quarters), but I think Flip is perhaps a better fit (largely due to Distracting Attack).)
The whole time I was reading this I was just imagining a bird moonwalking while giving you 'the bird'. Pleasant imagery to say the least. This is the first time I have ever seen a ranged build that actually focused primarily on being defensive while still maintaining acceptable damage.
To be fair, it'll be low over time, since you will frequently find yourself outside the 30' range limit and you might not have your swift available (you use swifts for both Defensive Rebuke and Sniper's Shot). But in tight circumstances, the 30' range limit can be maintained, particularly with Robilar's and either of your stances: you always remain just out of reach.
There are ways to block that, but we'll address this in another thread later on. I want to give Flip's stunts a chance to settle in first before that article hits.
My vote for next week is slash and burn, which I am going to guess is a single classed swordsage focusing on the fire based maneuvers.
I'm not in the habit of giving away hints, but you're right for two out of twenty levels, and two out of nine maneuvers, and even then half of what you were right on is mostly just there to round out the build. :P
These are NOT all my creations! The lead authors are identified as follows: [TS] Tempest Stormwind, [AR] Andarious Rosethorn, [RT] Radical Taoist, [SN] Sionnis, [DH] DisposableHero_, [SH] Seishi.
[TS] The Pinball Brothers: Large And In Charge (Melee, Lockdown, Charge, Juggling) [TS] Ashardalon Reborn: I Will Swallow Your Soul (Melee, Fear, Negative Levels, AoE, Theme) [AR] "A"-Game Paladin: Play That Funky Music, Knight Boy! (Team Support, Melee, Theme, Single-Class) [RT] Uncanny Trapsmith: Get in, make it look like an accident, get out. (Skillmonkey, Stealth/Scout/Infiltration, Unorthodox Methods, Theme) [AR] Wizsassin: *Everything* is permitted. (Spellcaster, Support, Sneak Attack, Utility) [TS] Phantom Rush: General Gish Gouda. (Gish, Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Early-Entry PrC) [TS] Storm Knight: Another kind of gish. (Melee/"Gish", Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Unorthodox Methods) [TS] Inevitable Nightmare: The weapon you only have to fire once. (Melee, "Unorthodox" Methods (no charging), Reliability) [AR] Captain Constitution: The number one threat to America. (Melee, TOUGHTOUGHTOUGH, Defense, Theme) [AR] Nuker: I casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down! (Spellcaster, damage, blasting, damage) [TS] Dread Lord of the Dead: Let the Reaping Begin! (NPC-only, Variable (combat/casting/leadership), Iconic Villain, Theme) [AR] Heavy Crusader: No Rest. No Mercy. No Matter What. (Melee, Damage (No charging), Variable, Theme). [TS] Gun Fu: It's bullet time (Ranged, THEORETICAL, Twin weapons, Theme) [RT] Face First: We should talk. (Psionic, social, mind-control, info-management) [SN] Chaingun Porcupine: Never Enuff Dakka. (Ranged, Skirmishing, Spike Damage, Incarnum) [RT] Always On Edge: The Mortal Draw deals death. (Melee, Generalist, Dungeoneering, Stunt) [AR] Feral Druid: Real feral taste. Zero druid calories. (Melee, offense, damage, murder) [RT] Rusty!: Man's Best Friend (Sentry, Support, Backup, Rearguard) [RT] The T3 (Tashalatora Triple Threat): My Kung Fu is More Powerful (Hybrid, Flex-Function, Melee, Caster) [RT] The #1 Snoipah: Boom. 'Eadshot. (Caster, Theme, Spike, Trapscout) [AR] Dreamblade: Rest in Pieces. (Melee, Damage, Single-Class, Combo/Momentum) [AR] Evasion Tank: “When fighting angry blind men, is best to stay out of the way.” (Melee, Tank, Unorthodox Methods (attack negation), Theme) [DH] Psycarnum Warrior: ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA Start (Melee, Tank, Psionics, Incarnum, 1337 h4x) [AR] Heavy Weapons Elf: WHO TOUCHED MY BOW? (Ranged, Cohort, Damage, Unorthodox Methods (ranged ToB)) [RT] Gnowhere Gnome: A little man who wasn't there (Caster, Stealth, Single-Class, Elusive) [AR] Uberflank: I got your back. (Melee, support, stunt, teamwork) [TS] Flip the Bird: Everyday I'm shuffling (Ranged, harrier, unorthodox methods (ranged ToB / off-turn movement), support) [DH] Eat Sleep Gank: Real Ultimate Power (Stealth, Assassination, Spike, Magic Versatility) [AR] Slash and Burn: Mind, Body, Blade, Flame / Aspects of a greater whole / which delivers death. (Melee, Theme (flex-style), Damage, Stunt) [RT] Edge of the Light: Cut, Fade to Black (Melee, Defense/Offense, Momentum, Tactical) [RT] Quiet Murder: Cut throats, not corners. (Melee, Stealth, Harrier, Tactical) [TS] Wand Overdrive: Say Hello to my little friends. (Caster, support/artillery/variable, wand specialist) [RT] God Hand: What did the five fingers say to the face? (Melee/Gish, Unarmed, SAD, Theme) [AR] Zero Buff Time Gish: Try to keep up! (Gish, Speed, Movement, Opportunity) [TS] Robo Tackle: I Am Iron Man. (Melee, setting-specific (Eberron), positioning, theme, stunt)
Well I am glad I wasn't just completely wrong. So a two level dip into swordsage makes me thing it is some sort of Jade Phoenix Mage gish now. THE SUSPENSE IS TOO MUCH.
I was picturing a Duskblade... Maybe it's a Duskblade/swordsage JPM Gish?
"Today's headlines and history's judgment are rarely the same. If you are too attentive to the former, you will most certainly not do the hard work of securing the latter." -Condoleezza Rice
"My fellow Americans... I've just signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. Bombing begins in five minutes." - Ronald Reagan
This user has been brought to you by the letters "O-R-C" and the numbers "2, 3, 4, and 6"
Resident Pithed-Off Dragon Buttler of the House of Trolls
This is one of my favourite builds to come out on the showcase so far. There's strong combat builds that win fights easily, and then there are builds that make winning fights fun.
Pretty much every martial-type character they have done has involved use of the Tome of Battle, and I expected this to be no different. Assuming you can use channeling strike along with a manuever based attack I could see that being pretty effective really.
If only there was an effect that gave damage on movement...this build could use it to absolutely silly effect provided you maintained Press The Advantage. As it is, it is still very stylish and useful.
As for the vote...going for Slash and Burn this time. Edge of the Light will have to wait a bit.
Mountain Cleave Rule: You can have any sort of fun, including broken, silly fun, so long as I get to have that fun too (e. g., if you can warp reality with your spells, I can cleave mountains with my blade).
If only there was an effect that gave damage on movement...this build could use it to absolutely silly effect provided you maintained Press The Advantage. As it is, it is still very stylish and useful.
As for the vote...going for Slash and Burn this time. Edge of the Light will have to wait a bit.
There's a number of related effects, but how they interact with the rules is dodgy. For instance, damage auras (equipment, usually) don't deal their damage at a consistent time, but to allow for them to work while moving, you might have them deal their damage whenever a target enters their radius. In this case, you can just slide the radius around.
This isn't perfect - reach chargers can still peg you (particularly if you don't use the Robilar's variant at 12th), and you can't move the entire distance unless targets are provoking (meaning you're at best effect in large battlefields littered with obstacles or terrain - these happen a lot, but in dungeon circumstances they can be limited. Interesting note on the dungeoneering bird: You don't have to even see your target to perform Evasive Reflexes, so you can continue to slide around corners, down the hall, and behind cover, only to return with Woodland Archer:Moving Sniper). But it is a rather new approach to gameplay anyway.
@RadicalTaoist: No good can come of this. You've broken the meme barrier. I cannot be responsible for what follows.
These are NOT all my creations! The lead authors are identified as follows: [TS] Tempest Stormwind, [AR] Andarious Rosethorn, [RT] Radical Taoist, [SN] Sionnis, [DH] DisposableHero_, [SH] Seishi.
[TS] The Pinball Brothers: Large And In Charge (Melee, Lockdown, Charge, Juggling) [TS] Ashardalon Reborn: I Will Swallow Your Soul (Melee, Fear, Negative Levels, AoE, Theme) [AR] "A"-Game Paladin: Play That Funky Music, Knight Boy! (Team Support, Melee, Theme, Single-Class) [RT] Uncanny Trapsmith: Get in, make it look like an accident, get out. (Skillmonkey, Stealth/Scout/Infiltration, Unorthodox Methods, Theme) [AR] Wizsassin: *Everything* is permitted. (Spellcaster, Support, Sneak Attack, Utility) [TS] Phantom Rush: General Gish Gouda. (Gish, Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Early-Entry PrC) [TS] Storm Knight: Another kind of gish. (Melee/"Gish", Theme, Setting-Specific(Eberron), Unorthodox Methods) [TS] Inevitable Nightmare: The weapon you only have to fire once. (Melee, "Unorthodox" Methods (no charging), Reliability) [AR] Captain Constitution: The number one threat to America. (Melee, TOUGHTOUGHTOUGH, Defense, Theme) [AR] Nuker: I casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down! (Spellcaster, damage, blasting, damage) [TS] Dread Lord of the Dead: Let the Reaping Begin! (NPC-only, Variable (combat/casting/leadership), Iconic Villain, Theme) [AR] Heavy Crusader: No Rest. No Mercy. No Matter What. (Melee, Damage (No charging), Variable, Theme). [TS] Gun Fu: It's bullet time (Ranged, THEORETICAL, Twin weapons, Theme) [RT] Face First: We should talk. (Psionic, social, mind-control, info-management) [SN] Chaingun Porcupine: Never Enuff Dakka. (Ranged, Skirmishing, Spike Damage, Incarnum) [RT] Always On Edge: The Mortal Draw deals death. (Melee, Generalist, Dungeoneering, Stunt) [AR] Feral Druid: Real feral taste. Zero druid calories. (Melee, offense, damage, murder) [RT] Rusty!: Man's Best Friend (Sentry, Support, Backup, Rearguard) [RT] The T3 (Tashalatora Triple Threat): My Kung Fu is More Powerful (Hybrid, Flex-Function, Melee, Caster) [RT] The #1 Snoipah: Boom. 'Eadshot. (Caster, Theme, Spike, Trapscout) [AR] Dreamblade: Rest in Pieces. (Melee, Damage, Single-Class, Combo/Momentum) [AR] Evasion Tank: “When fighting angry blind men, is best to stay out of the way.” (Melee, Tank, Unorthodox Methods (attack negation), Theme) [DH] Psycarnum Warrior: ↑↑↓↓←→←→BA Start (Melee, Tank, Psionics, Incarnum, 1337 h4x) [AR] Heavy Weapons Elf: WHO TOUCHED MY BOW? (Ranged, Cohort, Damage, Unorthodox Methods (ranged ToB)) [RT] Gnowhere Gnome: A little man who wasn't there (Caster, Stealth, Single-Class, Elusive) [AR] Uberflank: I got your back. (Melee, support, stunt, teamwork) [TS] Flip the Bird: Everyday I'm shuffling (Ranged, harrier, unorthodox methods (ranged ToB / off-turn movement), support) [DH] Eat Sleep Gank: Real Ultimate Power (Stealth, Assassination, Spike, Magic Versatility) [AR] Slash and Burn: Mind, Body, Blade, Flame / Aspects of a greater whole / which delivers death. (Melee, Theme (flex-style), Damage, Stunt) [RT] Edge of the Light: Cut, Fade to Black (Melee, Defense/Offense, Momentum, Tactical) [RT] Quiet Murder: Cut throats, not corners. (Melee, Stealth, Harrier, Tactical) [TS] Wand Overdrive: Say Hello to my little friends. (Caster, support/artillery/variable, wand specialist) [RT] God Hand: What did the five fingers say to the face? (Melee/Gish, Unarmed, SAD, Theme) [AR] Zero Buff Time Gish: Try to keep up! (Gish, Speed, Movement, Opportunity) [TS] Robo Tackle: I Am Iron Man. (Melee, setting-specific (Eberron), positioning, theme, stunt)
, but precision effects are usually perfectly transferrable anyway, so you won’t have a hard case to make.
