Rukia
2011-07-27, 07:58 PM
I'm looking for the best way to make my swordsage character a bit more resilient that normal using whatever means appropriate. I've discussed it in another thread, but basically my level 3 swordsage has been raised as a "half undead" and had some drastic ability score changes. My con was dropped from 15 to 11 but HD was raised to 12. Problem is we have to actually roll our hit points so I can either come out ahead or behind. He does however have a bunch of boosts and immunities to disease, mind spells and even 25% fortification so all is not lost. The worst part is that I cannot be healed via positive OR negative energy, though I was given fast healing that scales up with my HD. So I'll always start an encounter at full and unless I get taken to -10 in a single hit I'll survive, but no emergency healing whatsoever so I need to stay above 0 for as long as possible.
So basically what are my options into making him the absolute most survivable as possible via maneuvers, dips, etc..? I realize that some of these options may hamper my damage output, but I have to actually alive to do damage so I'd like him to have some fall backs to overcome the drawbacks.
My current AC is 18 (chain shirt +4, dex +2, wis +1, natural ac +1 via amulet). Next level I'm going to put another into dex and it will go to 19 and hopefully I can get ahold of some dex/wis/con items to up my hps and ac rather soon.
My current plan is to dip into warblade at opportune levels and use his maneuvers mostly for defensive stuff that he always has readied while using most of my swordsage maneuvers for utility and offense. At level 5 I could take warblade 1 and pick up stance of clarity for times when I have a monster singled out. Wall of blades and moment of perfect mind are great for emergencies if I simply need to avoid a bad situation, and sudden leap for all around utility.
For swordsage I was thinking of taking baffling defense next level for another line of defense, and possibly zephyr dance at some point down the road even though I know it's normally not the best maneuver. Reasoning is that my DM rolls out in the open and so I generally know just how close to hitting or missing the monster is when attacking me. If something barely hits me I can simply use zephyr dance to completely avoid it, and if he completely blows through my defenses I can pull out baffling defense for at least a second chance.
Other options are using child of shadow whenever I move into range of an enemy for that one round of 20% concealment, using a spiked chain to fight at a distance and get some free AoO's when a monster comes into my range and even dipping into some other class for some sort of bonuses to defense.
Anything else that I'm obviously missing? I know my situation may seem a bit harsh, though I'm stubborn and sort of welcome the challenge. I want to be able to brush off some attacks through use of maneuvers and tactics instead of just being expected to slink around trying not to get hurt like a rogue would be expected to do.
So basically what are my options into making him the absolute most survivable as possible via maneuvers, dips, etc..? I realize that some of these options may hamper my damage output, but I have to actually alive to do damage so I'd like him to have some fall backs to overcome the drawbacks.
My current AC is 18 (chain shirt +4, dex +2, wis +1, natural ac +1 via amulet). Next level I'm going to put another into dex and it will go to 19 and hopefully I can get ahold of some dex/wis/con items to up my hps and ac rather soon.
My current plan is to dip into warblade at opportune levels and use his maneuvers mostly for defensive stuff that he always has readied while using most of my swordsage maneuvers for utility and offense. At level 5 I could take warblade 1 and pick up stance of clarity for times when I have a monster singled out. Wall of blades and moment of perfect mind are great for emergencies if I simply need to avoid a bad situation, and sudden leap for all around utility.
For swordsage I was thinking of taking baffling defense next level for another line of defense, and possibly zephyr dance at some point down the road even though I know it's normally not the best maneuver. Reasoning is that my DM rolls out in the open and so I generally know just how close to hitting or missing the monster is when attacking me. If something barely hits me I can simply use zephyr dance to completely avoid it, and if he completely blows through my defenses I can pull out baffling defense for at least a second chance.
Other options are using child of shadow whenever I move into range of an enemy for that one round of 20% concealment, using a spiked chain to fight at a distance and get some free AoO's when a monster comes into my range and even dipping into some other class for some sort of bonuses to defense.
Anything else that I'm obviously missing? I know my situation may seem a bit harsh, though I'm stubborn and sort of welcome the challenge. I want to be able to brush off some attacks through use of maneuvers and tactics instead of just being expected to slink around trying not to get hurt like a rogue would be expected to do.