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ChrisDemilich
2009-12-20, 01:12 AM
In another thread, I tried looking into making a pixie/half dragon. In the end, I decided to kill that idea, and have instead decided on making a Pixie Rogue.

Now help me break it. XD

I have decided to use a +1 great crossbow of shock. I have 50 +1 keen arrows. That is 2d6 damage, with a 15-20/x2 crit. And an extra 1d6 electric damage. I can also add 2d6 sneak attack for having rogue levels.

My dex is 26, plus 4 for gloves of dex, giving a +10 dex modifier. So my attack rolls are 15. 17 if invisible(which I will always be).

I took 2 flaws, so I have 4 feats available. I took exotic weapon proficiency(Great Crossbow) already.

Now, what other feats should I use? What can they offer me? Any other equipment ideas? Help me break my pixie!

Edit: 4 rogue levels only.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 01:18 AM
Any reason you took a Great Crossbow? Your weapon damage is going to be negligible to the point of nonexistence in relative terms to your Sneak Attack, so it's really a wasted feat if you want to be powerful, let alone broken. Just use a light crossbow.
18-20 Crit range, I see. Keep it then.

Get the Craven feat (+character level for sneak attack damage), Weapon Focus (Great Crossbow), Crossbow Sniper (1/2 Dex damage on Crossbow shots, make Sneak Attacks at 60ft. with your crossbow), and Rapid Reload (so you can fire on the move).

Instead of a Shocking Great Crossbow, make it a +1 Quick-Loading Great Crossbow, letting you reload as a move action, downgraded to a free action with Rapid Reload.

To save you the math, that would be an attack every round with a bonus of +18 for total of 1d8+2d6+10 damage per hit, with a 15-20 crit range. Average of 21 damage per shot, 35 on a critical, and you can get one shot off every turn from up to 60ft. away while moving and being almost impossible to find, let alone hit.

golentan
2009-12-20, 01:27 AM
Get yourself a claw attack. Use a Dive Attack, while invisible. This gives double damage, which I believe will multiply sneak attack (it's not a critical, it's just a multiplier).

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 01:38 AM
Bonus dice are never multiplied, only static bonuses. So he would, say, get double the claw damage plus double his Craven damage if he did a Dive attack, but not double the Sneak Attack dice-based damage.

golentan
2009-12-20, 01:49 AM
Bonus dice are never multiplied, only static bonuses. So he would, say, get double the claw damage plus double his Craven damage if he did a Dive attack, but not double the Sneak Attack dice-based damage.

Hmm, but double craven is still awesome. Craven by itself is an average of a bonus die every few levels, doubling it would be a great boost.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 01:51 AM
True, but even while invisible, having to end each turn in melee range of an enemy just to get a few extra points of damage isn't a great plan for someone so fragile. I'm not exactly unbiased, but I like my idea better, particularly with the changes I've made - 21 damage/round is roughly 6d6 to 7d6, far more than any Tiny claw attack is going to get him even when doubled, and he's got much more survivability.

golentan
2009-12-20, 01:55 AM
True, but even while invisible, having to end each turn in melee range of an enemy just to get a few extra points of damage isn't a great plan for someone so fragile. I'm not exactly unbiased, but I like my idea better, particularly with the changes I've made - 21 damage/round is roughly 6d6 to 7d6, the damage output of a 11th or 13th level pure rogue, and his survivability is vastly higher compared to said rogue.

Hold up, flyby attack remedies that completely. Swoop and lift. I'm not saying ignore your strategy, (because versatility is awesome) but a combinatorial thing is always good to have, and I think the damage output quickly gets higher.

Edit: Or we could combine the two. Would an aptitude weapon allow counting a crossbow (or for melee better yet a lance) as a claw attack?

Lycanthromancer
2009-12-20, 02:09 AM
Little characters do generally make good rogues, but that +4 LA is gonna be killing you.

If you have a really good Int score, what about a multiclass factotum/warblade and/or crusader? You get +Int to pretty much everything (including attacks and damage), have a great skillset, and can likely still use Craven to sneak attack. You also will get healing, turn undead (granted, these aren't as great as they could be if you had less LA, but they'll do in a pinch), and you get spells to cast yourself. As a ToB character, you can take White Raven maneuvers to use your stronger allies to your benefit.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 02:20 AM
Hold up, flyby attack remedies that completely. Swoop and lift. I'm not saying ignore your strategy, (because versatility is awesome) but a combinatorial thing is always good to have, and I think the damage output quickly gets higher.

Edit: Or we could combine the two. Would an aptitude weapon allow counting a crossbow (or for melee better yet a lance) as a claw attack?

True, except by the wording of Fly-by attack, you can't use it with a Charge, since Charge is a Full-Round action and Flyby Attack requires specifically a combined move+standard.

As for the aptitude weapon thing - I've always been strongly against that interpretation, personally viewing it as only applying to things like Weapon Focus/Specialization. For maximum cheese, I guess a lance could be counted as a claw, but I can't endorse it myself.:smallfrown:


@Lycan: Minor point, but Craven actually requires the sneak attack class feature, I checked once.

golentan
2009-12-20, 02:27 AM
It's not a charge, it's a dive attack. It functions like a charge, but flyby has a specific exception, and it deals double claw or talon damage.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 02:36 AM
And I had specifically looked for a Dive-related exception in Fly-By Attack before I posted, and missed it. Consider me corrected.:smallcool:

The only problem at that point would be getting his fly speed up to where he could safely withdraw, since he has to move at least 30-40ft. (I hate 3.5 and its screwy diagonals) before attacking, then be able to safely withdraw another 30ft. if he wants to be able to attack every turn instead of every other turn. But Pixies have a 60ft. natural fly speed, so that's not a problem either. We may be on to something here.

Lycanthromancer
2009-12-20, 02:40 AM
@Lycan: Minor point, but Craven actually requires the sneak attack class feature, I checked once.You mean, from the class feature that grants sneak attack?

Ganurath
2009-12-20, 02:44 AM
Find a way to get an Invisible [fog spell that can center on an individual] permanencied. If the opponent can't see what's invisible, use your greater invisibility SLA. If they can... You're a fog cloud that kills things inside it.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 02:46 AM
The class feature a Factotum doesn't have. He has the Cunning Strike class feature, which lets him deal 'Sneak Attack damage', but as it's written, he doesn't actually have the Sneak Attack class feature. Not that it'd be an unreasonable modification to make by any means, but strict RAW denies it. Then again, sufficient RAWtardedness also denies Sudden Strike users Craven due to the over-specific wording of the sidebar on CAdv pg8.

^If you can figure out a way to make that work, it's awesome. At that point, I think only a dedicated Mage Slayer build with Pierce Magical Concealment could target you with anything except AoE nukes...

Krazddndfreek
2009-12-20, 03:00 AM
The problem with fog is that it grants concealment. You can't use sneak attack against creatures with concealment.

EDIT: and technically, you can cast an Invisible Darkness. It would still give concealment and stuff. It would be like a 2nd level Sphere of Invisibility that goes out to 20ft. instead of 10.

Ganurath
2009-12-20, 03:01 AM
The problem with fog is that it grants concealment. You can't use sneak attack against creatures with concealment.Ah, but the fog is invisible, so the pixie can't see it.

Krazddndfreek
2009-12-20, 03:02 AM
Wait, if making it invisible makes it so that you can see through it, then everything else can see through it...:smallannoyed:

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 03:05 AM
But then they can't see the Greater Invisible Pixie, that's the genius of it. If they can't see through Invisibility, the Pixie is Invisible to them. If they can, the Fog is visible to them, preventing them from seeing the Pixie...who can still see them, because he can't see the Invisible Fog.:smallcool:

Krazddndfreek
2009-12-20, 03:11 AM
Oohhh... In that case, Darkness would work as an alternative and my above post's edit should be ignored.

Darkness can be permanencied if applied to an item. Cast it on your armor or something. Invisible version of course.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-12-20, 03:35 AM
A one-level dip in Warlock gives you some tasty interesting things...

1) a 1d6 RTA to sneak attack with. It's a touch attack, which is made of win. Useful for those situations when you are facing stuff with high AC, or high DR (which it also ignores). You can grab a neck-slot toy to increase this by +2d6 to a total of 3d6 + Sneak Attack. Oh, and since it is untyped, it also is unaffected by any kind of DR or resistance of any sort (other than Magic Resistance). In fact, I believe there's a feat to turn it into a (Su) ability, which means it even penetrates SR.

2) an SLA at-will. Personally, I'd grab Darkness in your case, but you can also grab Darkvision/See Invis permanently. For a two-level dip, you can get both Darkness and Devil's Sight, which can be a tasty combo when facing See Invis monsters, although you may not want to sacrifice your Rogue levels that much. Another fun option would be Eldritch Glaive, which would give you a fun melee option if something does start trying to close with you. Plus a Tiny Pixy wielding a 10' glaive of pure energy is just... giggle-worthy.

So, Rogue3/Warlock1. You'd get 2d6 SA + 1d6 EB (possibly 2d6 EB if you have the cash for a +1d6 neck). You'd have the same damage output, with a better shot at hitting what you aim at, and less likely to run out of ammo at an inconvenient time.

Krazddndfreek
2009-12-20, 03:39 AM
Darkness doesn't work so well unless you can see through it normally. You can't do sneak attacks against creatures with concealment, and if you're in the sphere of darkness, everything gets concealment against you. Unless its been invisibled with the Invisible spell metamagic. Then you're fine.

EDIT: Oh, and see invisibility would break the purpose of the earlier discussion. But otherwise, eldritch blast and such would be a very good idea IMO.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-12-20, 03:47 AM
Darkness doesn't work so well unless you can see through it normally. You can't do sneak attacks against creatures with concealment, and if you're in the sphere of darkness, everything gets concealment against you. Unless its been invisibled with the Invisible spell metamagic. Then you're fine.

Darkness can, however, be used to avoid critters with See Invis. Drop a Darkness, and suddenly you ALSO have Concealment, which means you can make a Hide check. You can also pop other Darkness spheres at random areas, and start playing a shell game, or dodging between covers, being a significant distraction with harrying fire while your allies mop up.

Besides, like I said, if you want a two-level dip in 'lock, you can get Devil's Sight, which sees through magical darkness anyways.

Cute_Riolu
2009-12-20, 04:37 AM
Darkness can, however, be used to avoid critters with See Invis. Drop a Darkness, and suddenly you ALSO have Concealment, which means you can make a Hide check. You can also pop other Darkness spheres at random areas, and start playing a shell game, or dodging between covers, being a significant distraction with harrying fire while your allies mop up.

Besides, like I said, if you want a two-level dip in 'lock, you can get Devil's Sight, which sees through magical darkness anyways.

I believe there's also a feat to grant you an invocation.

ShneekeyTheLost
2009-12-20, 04:39 AM
I believe there's also a feat to grant you an invocation.

Yes, but unfortunately it can only grant an invocation one tier lower than your maximum, with a prerequisite of Lesser Invocations.

Foryn Gilnith
2009-12-20, 09:13 AM
(I hate 3.5 and its screwy diagonals)

You mean the diagonals which have only a 6% divergence from the square root of 2?

Nich_Critic
2009-12-20, 11:34 AM
You might want to look into exploiting your tiny size to get enemies flat footed. In particular, underfoot combat (prereq, but good in it's own right) and confound the big folk, from RotW. The first one lets you enter an opponent's square without attacks of opportunity, giving you soft cover against his and everyone around him's attacks. The second one makes him flat footed against all your strikes, as well as a couple of other tactics. Since you're tiny, this works on enemies who are medium or larger.

Fitz10019
2009-12-20, 12:27 PM
The MIC has "Gauntlets of Giantfelling" (2k gp) adds up to 3d6 damage (1d6 per opponent's size greater than yours) per use, usable 3x per day. This is not limited to giant types -- it's only giant in the relative sense, which for a pixie is almost everyone.

The Glyphstone
2009-12-20, 01:55 PM
You mean the diagonals which have only a 6% divergence from the square root of 2?

I mean the diagonals where moving on one diagonal is 5ft., but doubling that distance and moving two diagonal squares suddenly becomes 15ft. I'm not even sure it's possible to have a right triangle with sides of 10ft, 10ft., and 15ft.

If that's the same thing, sure...math is not my favorite subject here, unless it involves Power Attack multipliers.

Douglas
2009-12-20, 02:14 PM
I'm not even sure it's possible to have a right triangle with sides of 10ft, 10ft., and 15ft.
Of course it isn't, but it's pretty close. A right triangle with sides 10' and 10' will have its diagonal side slightly over 14' long. 15' is a reasonable approximation on the scale D&D combat typically deals with.