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Venger
2011-02-20, 11:09 PM
after looking at the picture in complete scoundrel, I thought this was an interesting class and wondered what a good build for it might be. here is what I was contemplating:

hexblade 2/paladin of tyranny 3/ avenging executioner 5/ ??10

the hexblade lvls are for arcane defense that gives cha bonus to saves against spells and SLAs, and the PoT lvls are for divine grace (cha mod to saves) and aura of despair, which gives enemies within 10 ft a -2 penalty to their saves.

AE 1 gives me a sudden strike which works exactly like sneak attack but can't deal nonlethal damage. whenever I hit someone with it, bloody blade says people within 30ft have to make a will save (10 +cha mod+AElvl) or be shaken. this applies to the target too.

AE 2-3 gives rapid intimidation and lets me demoralise with a move action, which is nice enough, but becomes more useful at AE lvl 4

AE 4 gives dread blade, which lets me treat shaken, frightened, or panicked targets as flat footed for sudden strike

AE 5 gives bloody murder which functions like bloody blade but applies whenever I drop a foe.

basic strategy is shank with sudden strike, scare everyone, hopefully have victim 1 fail his save so I can treat him as flat footed on subsequent turns. if he fails his save, he can become frightened next turn since I can demoralise as my move action and attack as my standard action. if he tries to flee, I can get an AoO and add sudden strike dice since he'll be treated as flatfooted

hexblade/PoT are primarily there for defense saves wise, and the aura of despair will make enemies more likely to fail their saves.

how is this build? what should I use for the remaining 10 lvls? I'm thinking something with full sneak attack, but I can't really think of anything but rogue and assassin. how would either/both of those fit in this build? should I go rogue 5/assassin 5? pure rogue? pure assassin?

any help would be appreciated

Hazzardevil
2011-02-21, 06:38 PM
Just so you know you get mettle at hexblade 3, It is definitly worth taking the 3rd level of hexblade. I reackon that instead of taking 3 levels of paladin it is better to take 3 levels of prestige paladin of tyranny, (Well prestige paladin and just trade all the inappropriate class features for paladin of tyranny stuff.) the problem with this is you need a way to get turn undead or rebuke for it, a pro is that you can get the mount with it and if you do this combo I'll put here you have a uber mount:

Take levels in Ur-priest, as little as possible, (AKA: 2)
then take 3 levels in prestige paladin and keep taking various prestige classes that increase CL, this is because when you take holy mount, a feat that adds your divine caster level to your paladin level to calculate how powerful your mount is.

Let me just tell you how powerful a level 20 person's paladin mount can be:

4 levels to get into it, thats 2 CL from Ur Priest+2 from Ur priest itself, take 3 levels of prestige paladin, thats 1 Cl from the class feature of ur priest and 2 from prestige paladin. then 7 more CL from any prestige class you choose really and another 4 from a level from earlier and the last 4 levels in the levels. Thats just the caster level and then add 3 to the essential level of the paladin's mount.

This adds up to the mount of a level 28:
This gives:
10d8 extra HP,
12 extra natural armour,
5 extra str,
10 int,

Thats pretty good I think and It gets a lot better over the epic levels.

tuesdayscoming
2011-02-21, 07:27 PM
Might want to check out the synergy between Imperious Command (feat), Never Outnumbered (Skill Trick), and (IIRC) Dreadful Armor (DoTU armor enhancement). Fits the flavor of your build like a glove, and magnificently effective against crowds that aren't immune to fear.

edit: Also, +1 on getting Mettle from Hexblade 3

edit: as pointed out below, it is actually Fearsome Armor, yes

Venger
2011-02-21, 11:11 PM
Might want to check out the synergy between Imperious Command (feat), Never Outnumbered (Skill Trick), and (IIRC) Dreadful Armor (DoTU armor enhancement. Fits the flavor of your build like a glove, and magnificently effective against crowds that aren't immune to fear.

edit: Also, +1 on getting Mettle from Hexblade 3

oh wow! that's a great idea. I had been considering Never Outnumbered and Imperious Command, but I didn't know about Dreadful Armour.

hmm. looking in DoTU, the only thing I see is "Fearsome Armour" it's the one that gives a +5 bonus to intimidate checks and lets you do it as a move action. is that the right one?

if I have this that lets me do it as a move action and then the ability from AE that lets me do it as a move action, do the abilities "stack" and let me intimidate as a swift action or free action or do I still just do it as a move action?

ThirtyThr33
2011-02-21, 11:14 PM
It's actually called Fearsome (not dreadful) and its an armor Enchantment, not a piece by itself. Gives +5 to intimidate and armor spikes.

Edit: check out http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3809.0 for more stuff about fear/intimidate optimization.

Edit Edit: They don't stack. You can't intimidate as a swift action without many levels in Fighter.

Ganurath
2011-02-21, 11:15 PM
I'd quote from my previous advice (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=5819580&postcount=12), but the thread was recently closed due to thread necromancy. So, instead I'll link it.