Optimizing Aleval or Inlindl Schools

[GhengisConrad]

So, any idea on how a character with 2 claw attacks can totally pwn with those two schools from page 56 in drow of the underdark? Some kind of a way to make one of these feats worth something, anything optimized is my last hope....

Aleval:
When you deal sneak attack or sudden strike damage, you can sacrifice 1d6 points of this extra damage to bestow a —2 penalty on one of the target's three saving throws (your choice) for 1 round.

Inlindl:
At the start of your turn, you can choose to sacrifice your shield bonus to AC in exchange for a bonus on melee attack rolls equal to one-half that bonus. This bonus applies only on attacks made with light weapons (or other weapons to which Weapon Finesse applies). This effect lasts until the start of your next turn.

[TuggyNE]

Behold MMB (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=10372.0).

[Fax Celestis]

How big are you? If you're Small or smaller, you could use Underfoot Combat and Confound the Big Folk with Aleval School to flat-foot big enemies and destroy their saves. Unfortunately, it's still limited to once per round, but it can help.

If you're gishing, you could couple that with Battle Mage Tactics (MMV):

Each time you cast a spell that requires a target to make a saving throw, that target gains a battle magic tactics token after the spell resolves. A creature gains a token whether the creature succeeds or fails, but a creature that avoids a spell through spell resistance does not gain a token. Each battle magic token imposes a cumulative -1 penalty on saving throws against the spells of spellcasters who have this feat. At the end of the round all battle magic tactics tokens disappear.

Alternatively, if you're not dead-set on using your claws, you could get yourself a quarterstaff, coupled with the above, and use Eilservs School:


When you strike a creature with a magic staff, you gain a bonus on damage rolls equal to +1 per 10 charges remaining in the staff (rounded up).
If you strike a foe with both ends of a magic staff in the same round, you can immediately activate one of the spells from the staff as a swift action. The spell must target or be centered either on you or the target struck (or on any corner of your or your target's space, in the case of an area spell). This feat doesn't let you activate a magic staff that you wouldn't otherwise be able to activate. Staffs without charges (such as a simple +1 quarterstaff) gain no benefit from this feat.

...using, obviously, a magic staff. My recommendation would be for lower spell resistance (Clr/Sor/Wiz 4, Draconomicon):


This spell reduces the subject's spell resistance by 1 per caster level (maximum reduction 15).

This reduction can't lower a target's spell resistance below 0.

The target of the spell takes a penalty on its saving throw equal to your caster level.

[T.G. Oskar]

So, any idea on how a character with 2 claw attacks can totally pwn with those two schools from page 56 in drow of the underdark? Some kind of a way to make one of these feats worth something, anything optimized is my last hope....

Aleval:
When you deal sneak attack or sudden strike damage, you can sacrifice 1d6 points of this extra damage to bestow a —2 penalty on one of the target's three saving throws (your choice) for 1 round.

Aleval School works as a nice starter for a penalty cascade. For example: take Aleval School,Terrifying Strike, Brutal Strike and a poison that weakens Constitution. This will probably require a two-handed bludgeoning weapon, but it's for the best. If you sacrifice 2 SA dice, both Aleval School and Terrifying Strike come in play; then, if you ALSO activate use PA, you activate Brutal Strike. Then, it's order of operations: Aleval Strike comes first (aiming Fortitude), followed by Terrifying Strike making your target automatically shaken. Brutal Strike has a saving throw, but fortunately, it's a Fortitude save: if you make sure the attack hits, with a 2H weapon you'll have a nice save DC, but most importantly your target will have a penalty to its Fortitude save, so it's even EASIER. Brutal Strike sickens your target, so that's yet ANOTHER -2 penalty to all saving throws. THEN, you deal poison damage, which benefits from the -6 to Fortitude, so it's even easier to poison the target. Since the poison will damage Constitution, so as long as you deal 2 points of Constitution damage (or enough to lower the score from an even number to an odd one), that's another penalty to Fortitude saves. As you can see, the saving throw penalty grows progressively worse, even if it's only once per round, but the benefit is that you only need one successful attack to pull it off. Against a target vulnerable to all those effects, it's a pretty dangerous move; at the very best, Aleval sweetens the target for a nasty SoD. Because of "order of operations", you can enable the penalty from Aleval (and probably the other penalties around) BEFORE you even force a saving throw (or at least, a weaker one), so you can keep adding penalties all around (a Cursespewing weapon, for example).


Inlindl:
At the start of your turn, you can choose to sacrifice your shield bonus to AC in exchange for a bonus on melee attack rolls equal to one-half that bonus. This bonus applies only on attacks made with light weapons (or other weapons to which Weapon Finesse applies). This effect lasts until the start of your next turn.

Inlindl is harder to pull, but it's good if wielding a buckler, casting the Shield spell, and using an Elven Courtblade for PA (a Spiked Chain or Drow Scorpion Chain, the latter from Secrets of Xen'drik, works fine too). The idea is that you can use this weapon as a two-handed weapon, but the effect of Weapon Finesse can be applied to them. A buckler explicitly allows you to wield a two-handed weapon, so you essentially sacrifice your shield bonus for an attack bonus, which offsets the penalty of Power Attack. It can be done with a Tower Shield and an Elven Thinblade, since the latter explicitly counts as a one-handed weapon, so it allows for Power Attack.

The problem is that both grant penalties to your attack rolls, but the reason I mention buckler is for the lesser penalty and the ability to let you use a 2H weapon, with Imp. Buckler Defense retaining your shield bonus. Now, it mentions specifically your shield bonus, but any enhancement bonus from your shield counts, so a +5 buckler ends up translated into a +2 (accounting for the loss of attack bonus) to your attack rolls, which means you technically get 4 points for free when wielding one of these weapons I mentioned.

The other reason is that, if you lack a +3 or higher Buckler, since it specifically mentions that you sacrifice your shield bonus, you can use the bonus from the Shield spell instead. This ruling is a bit flimsier, but it can work the opposite way: the Shield spell and the buckler's shield bonus to AC overlap, but if you lose your buckler shield bonus to AC and turn it into attack bonus, you can end up with the bonus from the Shield spell nonetheless (you don't sacrifice both, you only sacrifice one). It depends on the same ruling, but it's less flimsier as you're sacrificing the bonus from your real weapon, not the spell. That said, Inlindl isn't as easy to optimize as Aleval, which is a pretty awesome weapon style.