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Rising Phoenix
2009-09-04, 05:30 AM
Hello Playgrounders,

As a DM I need help materializing this fairly stereotypical character concept:

Lv: ~8
Race: Human, Elf, Half-elf and if you can make it awesome (Strongheart) Halfling
AL: Uncaring Neutral
Sources: Any except Psionics and Magic Incarnum as they don't fit my concept (ToB=YES!)
Ability Scores: I am the DM :smallwink:
Wealth: I am the DM, but roughly equivalent to a PC of the same level would be good.
Must be able: i) To fight effectively using the two weapon fighting tree, using a slashing, bladed weapon
ii) Land crits fairly often. I am undecided whether I'll house rule stacking of the keen enchantment and the improved critical feat.
iii) Be able to teleport short distances, ninja style, preferably as an ability rather then via the use of a magic item
iv) Some nifty tricks such as trip and disarm would be nice, but since this will be obviously a starved for feats build I can live without them...Edit1: If you can make him be able to disarm full plate that would be really cool!
v)Skill wise be athletic (tumble, jump etc), have some perception capabilities and ranks in intimidate (I can flesh out the skills myself once I have a build)

Ideas thus brewing in my head thus far: Fighter/Swordsage, Dervish, Tempest... I am not familiar with every magic item in MiC...

Thanks for your time and help!:smallsmile:

R.P.

Edit2: Before this is inevitably asked: I'd like to avoid flaws and traits please.

kamikasei
2009-09-04, 05:48 AM
Should be doable with a Tiger Claw/Shadow Hand/Setting Sun Swordsage. I'd say you're better off staying single-classed, as the variety of maneuvers for the abilities you want will be better than some extra BAB.

For crits, keen kukris and... is it Blood in the Water, the crit-confirmation boosting stance?

edit: Chief difficulty I forsee is choosing a stance - ideally you'd be in a Shadow Hand stance all the time so that you could use Shadow Blade and be effectively DEX-SAD, but you may want to be using Tiger Claw stances instead. On the other hand, if you stay in Assassin's Stance all the time the sneak attack damage may make up for the reduction in crits.

sofawall
2009-09-04, 05:48 AM
Throwing ideas at the moment, but Shadow Hand has teleport maneuvers and keen kaorti resin kukris give it a 15-20/x4 crit. Make them aptitude (from ToB) and use the Lightning Maces feat. Every crit gives another attack.

Rising Phoenix
2009-09-04, 06:48 AM
Thank you both for your input.

@Kamikasei: I see what you mean and unfortunately kukris aren't on the shadowhand favourite weapon list...Guess their going to have to be keen and aptitude and if this is the case then I might as well make them scimitars. =)

@sofawall: Though your suggestions about kaorti resin and the Lighting Mace feat would make the NPC quite effective, I am aiming to impress the PCs enough so that they attempt to hire him/befriend him, I don't want him to out shadow them. (They are quite unoptimized) I may save this for a BBEG though, thanks. =)

sofawall
2009-09-04, 06:50 AM
I thought he was a BBEG >.>

Master_Rahl22
2009-09-04, 08:10 AM
I like the Swordsage idea with Tiger Claw maneuvers and Blood in the Water stance. You might also look into Bloodclaw Master. You can qualify for it at level 6, so you'd have 2 levels of it, which arguably gives you the best stuff from it anyway. It lets you add your full Str to offhand damage, and removes all penalties to attack for using two weapons.

Eloel
2009-09-04, 08:24 AM
Lightning Maces, +1 Aptitude Kukris, Blood in the Water Stance, Improved Critical, go to town, crit people up and down.

Douglas
2009-09-04, 08:37 AM
Strongheart Halfling Swordsage 6/Bloodclaw Master 2. Use the fractional BAB variant so you don't lose a point of BAB just for having the exact same BAB progression split over two classes. Or is Bloodclaw Master full BAB? I think it's medium, but I don't have my book to check right now.

Feats: Adaptive Style, Two-Weapon Fighting, Weapon Finesse, Shadow Blade.

Use daggers, as they are just about (or actually? not sure) the only weapon that can benefit from both Shadow Blade and Bloodclaw Master abilities.

House rule that Martial Adept PrCs continue the maneuver swapping mechanism that the base classes have, because anything else is a ridiculously huge nerf unless you really believe that the PrC class features are that much better that they're worth giving up half of your high level maneuvers known.

Get Burning Blade, Flashing Sun, and Shadow Jaunt as some of your maneuvers. Child of Shadow or Island of Blades for a 1st level stance, Assassin's Stance for your 3rd level. Blood in the Water probably won't be worth giving up Shadow Blade's bonus for.

Pick Desert Wind for your damage bonus Discipline Focus at 4th level.

Stats: Dex > Wis > Str = Con > Int > Cha.

This gets you dex and wisdom to AC while wearing light armor (so up to a mithral breastplate), dex to attacks, dex and str to damage with wisdom added on top when you use Flashing Sun or other Desert Wind strikes, a pretty powerful per attack source of bonus fire damage, a little sneak attack (also per attack, so works well with TWF), and it actually completely eliminates the attack penalties for TWF.

Your most powerful attack is combining Burning Blade with Flashing Sun while in Assassin's Stance and flanking someone. This gets you four attacks at +6/+6/+6/+1 base, with base dagger damage plus dex, strength, wisdom, 2d6 sneak attack, and 1d6+8 fire, all on a per hit basis.

He can teleport 50' with Shadow Jaunt as often as once every other round if he doesn't have to do anything else.

Daggers are not 18-20 crit weapons, sadly, but they are at least 19-20 and with the number of attacks a two-weapon fighter makes even a 17-20 crit range from keen daggers will crit fairly often.

You have quite a few more maneuvers known to use for other nifty tricks, and the Swordsage's base 6 skill points per level is fairly high, with a decent selection of class skills too.

If you bump it up one level, you would be able to grab both Improved Two Weapon Fighting and either Dancing Mongoose or Pouncing Charge. I'd go for Pouncing Charge. You might want to go back to Swordsage, though, I'm not sure how much more levels of Bloodclaw Master would be worth it.