Piggy Knowles
2014-08-20, 02:21 PM
http://www.burdr.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/golden-eagle-attacks-cameraman-2.jpg
Birdman Stunna
Or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Punch Evil in the Face
So, a while back, I was messing around with getting stunning fist DCs as high as possible using, of all things, Ascetic Hunter. Stunning attacks are like the one cool thing about monks... but unfortunately, they kind of suck. It's too hard to get the DC reasonably high, too feat intensive to build around, too hard to slap onto an actual monk, who already needs all the help he can get. There are a few exceptions, like God Hand (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3647091) (a stun-focused Tashalatora build... is there anything monkly that Tash doesn't fix?), but I wanted to go in a different direction.
I did finally end up with a build I really liked, a character that checked off all the "monk" boxes without being, er, boxed in - a monkish character that wasn't MAD and actually had decent BAB and some versatile options. It's no wizard, but it's a fun little build that feels fresh and would fit in fine in just about any tier 3 group.
Here's what I've got. (I'm going to steal some of the formatting from Stormwind & co.'s Weekly Showcases, because I like it.)
The basics:
Race: Azurin. You'll need both the bonus feat and the point of essentia.
Build: Monk 2/Ranger 16/Stalker of Kharash 2. EDIT: Per Zaq's suggestion, moved Stalker of Kharash to the main build, rather than keeping it as a variant.
ACFs: Shapeshifting ranger (UA, lose combat styles, gain fast movement and wild shape as a druid but restricted to small or medium forms), Shooting Star ranger (CoV, lose Endurance and animal companion, gain weavespeak and bonus spells), Arcane Hunter (CM, gain arcanists as a favored enemy), Invisible Fist monk (EE, replace Evasion with the ability to turn invisible every 1d4 rounds), Decisive Strike (PHB2, replace flurry with the ability to make a full round attack for double damage and +2 stun DC).
Ability scores: Maximum Wisdom, to the exclusion of basically anything but Con. You need a 13 or higher in Con, and you'll eventually want a 14 in Int to get the most out of SotAO, which you can buy now with all those spare PB points you're not wasting on Strength, or you can pick up a headband of intellect to cover it. With 32 PB, I'd suggest 8/14/14/12/18/8 with a +2 headband of intellect down the road, or swap Dex and Int if you don't want to worry about getting your hands on the headband.
Alignment: You're an exalted monk. Lawful Good all the way.
Skill notes: You'll have a lot of free skill points, so feel free to build out as you'd like. Skills that take advantage of your Wisdom make a lot of sense here, so feel free to build out Survival, Listen and Spot (which are further boosted by Alertness). Stalker of Kharash requires 8 ranks in Hide/MS, so you might consider continuing those if stealth is something you're into. Getting 5 ranks in Balance is easy for you, and more or less mandatory for anyone who can afford it. But again, you've got a lot of freedom here to build out as you'd like.
Basic equipment: You're an unarmed, armorless monk who likes to wild shape. There's not a ton you really need.
Magical gear goals: A necklace of natural attacks, preferably with the hunting enhancement, will be pretty clutch, as will ki straps. Get some wilding clasps to use them even in wild shaped form. You'll also want to boost Wisdom as high as humanly possible, so a +6 periapt and a +5 tome are definitely things you should be looking out for. An essentia helm is a steal at 3000gp and functionally offers you +2 to your attacks and stun DCs 3/day, so I'd get a couple of them. As for the standard utility... well, SotAO ranger and wild shape actually shore up a lot of the holes in the monk chassis that usually need to be compensated for with gear, so you're not nearly as item-dependent as most.
There are also some other items that will increase your FE bonuses, which in turn increase your stun DCs. Enemy Spirit Pouches from the MIC are pretty cheap and improve your FE bonus by +2. Each is keyed in to a specific favored enemy, so they're a bit limited in use, but they're cheap enough to grab a couple of them and swap out as needed. The Girdle of Hate from Dragon Compendium doubles your FE bonuses against a particular enemy, and even works with Stalker of Kharash's FE (evil). That's a huge boost - but watch out. It's not an evil item, but the fluff has a decidedly non-Exalted feel to it. The build snapshots below are only assuming Ki Straps, Essentia Helm and the hunting enhancement, but with some of these other items, you can put out even more impressive numbers.
THE BUILD
Build Stub: Monk 2/Ranger 16/Stalker of Kharash 2.
Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Feats
Class Features
1st
Monk 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Improved Unarmed StrikeB, Stunning FistB, Sapphire Fist, Alertness
Decisive strike, unarmed strike
2nd
Monk 2
+1
+3
+3
+3
Fiery FistB
Invisible fist
3rd
Ranger 1
+2
+5
+5
+3
TrackB, Intuitive Attack
Fast movement, wild empathy, 1st favored enemy
4th
Ranger 2
+3
+6
+6
+3
5th
Ranger 3
+4
+6
+6
+4
Weavespeak
6th
Ranger 4
+5
+7
+7
+4
Ascetic Hunter
Bonus spells, improved spellcasting
7th
Ranger 5
+6/+1
+7
+7
+4
2nd favored enemy, wild shape 1/day
8th
Ranger 6
+7/+2
+8
+8
+5
Wild shape 2/day
9th
Ranger 7
+8/+3
+8
+8
+5
Favored of the Companions
Wild shape 3/day
10th
Stalker of Kharash 1
+9/+4
+8
+10
+5
Scent of evil
11th
Stalker of Kharash 2
+10/+5
+8
+11
+5
Favored enemy (evil)
12th
Ranger 8
+11/+6/+1
+9
+12
+5
Sword of the Arcane Order
Bonus spells, expanded spell list
13th
Ranger 9
+12/+7/+2
+9
+12
+6
Evasion
14th
Ranger 10
+13/+8/+3
+10
+13
+6
3rd favored enemy, wild shape 4/day
15th
Ranger 11
+14/+9/+4
+10
+13
+6
Natural Spell
Bonus spells
16th
Ranger 12
+15/+10/+5
+11
+14
+7
17th
Ranger 13
+16/+11/+6/+1
+11
+14
+7
Camouflage
18th
Ranger 14
+17/+12/+7/+2
+12
+15
+7
Improved Favored Enemy
Bonus spells, wild shape 5/day
19th
Ranger 15
+18/+13/+8/+3
+12
+15
+8
4th favored enemy
20th
Ranger 16
+19/+14/+9/+4
+13
+16
+8
Build snapshot
First of all, let's address the basics. You've got +19 BAB and the unarmed strike of an 18th-level monk. That's got to be worth something, although to be honest, it's the least exciting thing about this build.
You're also a wild shaping Shooting Star ranger. While you're restricted to small and medium animal forms, there are a lot of great choices here. Because of Intuitive Attack and Wis to AC, you're less concerned about high Strength forms. At low levels, the best bet is probably the desmodu hunting bat, while at higher levels, the legendary eagle is hard to beat - 30 Dex, decent natural armor and 100' fly speed is just too good to pass up. Don't forget that you can still make an unarmed strike with IUS, so you don't have to rely on the fairly mediocre eagle claw attack.
Shooting Star for all its bonus spells and SotAO alongside a huge Wisdom for bonus spells means that you've got pretty solid utility spellcasting as well. You'll need to borrow a spellbook from your order to make SotAO function properly, but as you're technically a member of the Mystic Fire Knights (the Shooting Stars are a rangerly offshoot of them), that shouldn't be a problem.
I didn't list favored enemies because they're pretty campaign-dependent. Your best bet is to consolidate your extra +2s into one single favored enemy (probably arcanists, but again, this is campaign-dependent) and then spread around your remaining bonuses to cover as many foes as possible. So, you'll have a +8 base FE damage bonus versus your primary favored enemy, and +2 versus three secondaries, or +11 and +5 with Improved Favored Enemy. You also get +1 from your Favored Enemy (evil) feature against all evil foes, which is also improved by Improved Favored Enemy... and this explicitly stacks with other FE bonuses you have. So, against evil foes, you're effectively doubling up on any FE improvements you make.
But all of that is just the opening act. Here's the main event: you can stun the world.
You've got a lot built into your stunning attacks. Sapphire Fist alongside your four points of essentia gives you +4 to attack rolls while stunning and +4 to the DC, which is a pretty nice boost. Even better is the boost you get from Ascetic Hunter, which gives you a bonus when stunning a favored enemy equal to one half your FE bonus to damage rolls. That last one is huge, especially thanks to the fact that you'll be doubling up with Stalker of Kharash's favored enemy (evil).
So how does this all break down?
Assuming max Wis at start, +6 enhancement bonus and a +5 tome, that's a Wis of 34. Toss on Ki Straps for the +2. Use one of your essentia helm charges to max out Sapphire Fist, which amounts to an extra +2. Against our primary favored enemy, assuming it is evil, that means stun DCs of...
DC 10 +10 levels +12 Wis +4 Sapphire Fist +5 favored enemy +2 favored enemy (evil) +2 Ki Straps = DC 45.
Against our secondary favored enemies, this drops to a "mere" 43 - which is still so high that a balor will only suceed on a natural 20. But hang on, it gets better. See, Ascetic Hunter bases the boost to your stun DCs off of the bonus damage you do to your favored enemy. There's a neat little +1 enhancement in MIC called hunting that improves your damage against all your favored enemies by +4. Of course, since Stalker of Kharash lets you double up on favored enemies against evil creatures, this is effectively a +8 if your favored enemy is also evil - not only will that improve your damage by a pretty decent amount for the cost, it will also improve your stun DCs by +4 across the board. Toss that on a necklace of natural attacks and now you've got a stun DC of 49 versus your primary, and 47 versus your secondaries. That means that a CR 26 great wyrm red dragon needs a 17 or better to save against your stun.
Again, that's an 85% chance to stun a CR 26 great wyrm red dragon. Still not 100% though... unless you use a full round action to make a Decisive Strike, in which case the DC is 51, and the dragon only saves on a natural 20. You can even pump this further still by casting mark of the hunter, a third level spell that increases your favored enemy bonuses by +4. So, theoretically, you can get as high as DC 55! Of course, that requires a buff round and a full round action attack, so realistically, you're stuck with "only" 49.
This, once again, is on top of the fact that you're a fairly versatile tier 3 character in your own rights, thanks to SotAO spellcasting, decent unarmed damage, excellent BAB, fantastic defenses and wild shape.
Variants
First of all, if you play with Dragon Magazine material, there is absolutely no reason to not use the Mystic Ranger. I don't play with such material, so I didn't include it here, but that shouldn't stop you if it's allowed. It is in every way a strict upgrade from the above build.
Second, if flaws are allowed, there are a few feats that would go a long way for you. Pain Touch is the biggest feat this build is missing, as it effectively doubles the duration (and hence effectiveness) of your stuns by adding on a round of nausea after recovering from the stun. Nauseated foes can't do anything but make a single move action, so you've still effectively locked them down. Ability Focus is a flat +2 to your DC, which is pretty nice. Extra Stunning brings you from 7 stuns/day to 10 stuns/day. Extra Favored Enemy increases the swath of enemies you can apply your heft Ascetic Stalker bonuses toward. Pharaoh's Fist lets you stun groups, but beware - technically it's not a stun attack, so your Ascetic Hunter and Sapphire Fist bonuses won't apply. Finally, Nemesis gives you an auto-detection of your favored enemies, which is just fantastic alongside Arcane Hunter and FE (evil).
You can even drop Natural Spell if you don't plan to cast in combat, and prefer your spells to be used for utility and buffing purposes only. Again, picking up Pain Touch would be a huge boon for the build.
Finally, you can free up a feat by taking the Urban Companion ACF from Cityscape. This grants you a familiar-like companion that gives you many of the benefits of a standard familiar, which includes the Alertness feat. However, this means foregoing the Shooting Star ACF's bonus spells or CL boost. That's a big loss - but this build is feat starved, and you can actually make OK use out of an urban companion. Choose wisely.
Things to watch out for
Stun-immune foes are obviously a problem. Be sure to pack command undead with your SotAO slots to take on undead foes that will laugh at your super-charged DCs. Watch out for anything that looks like an odd, out of place third eye - it's probably a Third Eye: Clarity, which can allow someone to take an immediate action to avoid a stun. It has some drawbacks, though. Because it requires an immediate action, it can't be used while flat-footed, so surprise rounds are still fair game for stunning attacks. Also, it's only usable once a day, so if they avoid your stunning attack, you can just try again next round. Finally, it's easily sundered, and they're cheap enough that you don't need to feel too bad about sundering loot.
Birdman Stunna
Or, How I learned to Stop Worrying and Punch Evil in the Face
So, a while back, I was messing around with getting stunning fist DCs as high as possible using, of all things, Ascetic Hunter. Stunning attacks are like the one cool thing about monks... but unfortunately, they kind of suck. It's too hard to get the DC reasonably high, too feat intensive to build around, too hard to slap onto an actual monk, who already needs all the help he can get. There are a few exceptions, like God Hand (http://community.wizards.com/content/forum-topic/3647091) (a stun-focused Tashalatora build... is there anything monkly that Tash doesn't fix?), but I wanted to go in a different direction.
I did finally end up with a build I really liked, a character that checked off all the "monk" boxes without being, er, boxed in - a monkish character that wasn't MAD and actually had decent BAB and some versatile options. It's no wizard, but it's a fun little build that feels fresh and would fit in fine in just about any tier 3 group.
Here's what I've got. (I'm going to steal some of the formatting from Stormwind & co.'s Weekly Showcases, because I like it.)
The basics:
Race: Azurin. You'll need both the bonus feat and the point of essentia.
Build: Monk 2/Ranger 16/Stalker of Kharash 2. EDIT: Per Zaq's suggestion, moved Stalker of Kharash to the main build, rather than keeping it as a variant.
ACFs: Shapeshifting ranger (UA, lose combat styles, gain fast movement and wild shape as a druid but restricted to small or medium forms), Shooting Star ranger (CoV, lose Endurance and animal companion, gain weavespeak and bonus spells), Arcane Hunter (CM, gain arcanists as a favored enemy), Invisible Fist monk (EE, replace Evasion with the ability to turn invisible every 1d4 rounds), Decisive Strike (PHB2, replace flurry with the ability to make a full round attack for double damage and +2 stun DC).
Ability scores: Maximum Wisdom, to the exclusion of basically anything but Con. You need a 13 or higher in Con, and you'll eventually want a 14 in Int to get the most out of SotAO, which you can buy now with all those spare PB points you're not wasting on Strength, or you can pick up a headband of intellect to cover it. With 32 PB, I'd suggest 8/14/14/12/18/8 with a +2 headband of intellect down the road, or swap Dex and Int if you don't want to worry about getting your hands on the headband.
Alignment: You're an exalted monk. Lawful Good all the way.
Skill notes: You'll have a lot of free skill points, so feel free to build out as you'd like. Skills that take advantage of your Wisdom make a lot of sense here, so feel free to build out Survival, Listen and Spot (which are further boosted by Alertness). Stalker of Kharash requires 8 ranks in Hide/MS, so you might consider continuing those if stealth is something you're into. Getting 5 ranks in Balance is easy for you, and more or less mandatory for anyone who can afford it. But again, you've got a lot of freedom here to build out as you'd like.
Basic equipment: You're an unarmed, armorless monk who likes to wild shape. There's not a ton you really need.
Magical gear goals: A necklace of natural attacks, preferably with the hunting enhancement, will be pretty clutch, as will ki straps. Get some wilding clasps to use them even in wild shaped form. You'll also want to boost Wisdom as high as humanly possible, so a +6 periapt and a +5 tome are definitely things you should be looking out for. An essentia helm is a steal at 3000gp and functionally offers you +2 to your attacks and stun DCs 3/day, so I'd get a couple of them. As for the standard utility... well, SotAO ranger and wild shape actually shore up a lot of the holes in the monk chassis that usually need to be compensated for with gear, so you're not nearly as item-dependent as most.
There are also some other items that will increase your FE bonuses, which in turn increase your stun DCs. Enemy Spirit Pouches from the MIC are pretty cheap and improve your FE bonus by +2. Each is keyed in to a specific favored enemy, so they're a bit limited in use, but they're cheap enough to grab a couple of them and swap out as needed. The Girdle of Hate from Dragon Compendium doubles your FE bonuses against a particular enemy, and even works with Stalker of Kharash's FE (evil). That's a huge boost - but watch out. It's not an evil item, but the fluff has a decidedly non-Exalted feel to it. The build snapshots below are only assuming Ki Straps, Essentia Helm and the hunting enhancement, but with some of these other items, you can put out even more impressive numbers.
THE BUILD
Build Stub: Monk 2/Ranger 16/Stalker of Kharash 2.
Level
Class
Base Attack Bonus
Fort Save
Ref Save
Will Save
Feats
Class Features
1st
Monk 1
+0
+2
+2
+2
Improved Unarmed StrikeB, Stunning FistB, Sapphire Fist, Alertness
Decisive strike, unarmed strike
2nd
Monk 2
+1
+3
+3
+3
Fiery FistB
Invisible fist
3rd
Ranger 1
+2
+5
+5
+3
TrackB, Intuitive Attack
Fast movement, wild empathy, 1st favored enemy
4th
Ranger 2
+3
+6
+6
+3
5th
Ranger 3
+4
+6
+6
+4
Weavespeak
6th
Ranger 4
+5
+7
+7
+4
Ascetic Hunter
Bonus spells, improved spellcasting
7th
Ranger 5
+6/+1
+7
+7
+4
2nd favored enemy, wild shape 1/day
8th
Ranger 6
+7/+2
+8
+8
+5
Wild shape 2/day
9th
Ranger 7
+8/+3
+8
+8
+5
Favored of the Companions
Wild shape 3/day
10th
Stalker of Kharash 1
+9/+4
+8
+10
+5
Scent of evil
11th
Stalker of Kharash 2
+10/+5
+8
+11
+5
Favored enemy (evil)
12th
Ranger 8
+11/+6/+1
+9
+12
+5
Sword of the Arcane Order
Bonus spells, expanded spell list
13th
Ranger 9
+12/+7/+2
+9
+12
+6
Evasion
14th
Ranger 10
+13/+8/+3
+10
+13
+6
3rd favored enemy, wild shape 4/day
15th
Ranger 11
+14/+9/+4
+10
+13
+6
Natural Spell
Bonus spells
16th
Ranger 12
+15/+10/+5
+11
+14
+7
17th
Ranger 13
+16/+11/+6/+1
+11
+14
+7
Camouflage
18th
Ranger 14
+17/+12/+7/+2
+12
+15
+7
Improved Favored Enemy
Bonus spells, wild shape 5/day
19th
Ranger 15
+18/+13/+8/+3
+12
+15
+8
4th favored enemy
20th
Ranger 16
+19/+14/+9/+4
+13
+16
+8
Build snapshot
First of all, let's address the basics. You've got +19 BAB and the unarmed strike of an 18th-level monk. That's got to be worth something, although to be honest, it's the least exciting thing about this build.
You're also a wild shaping Shooting Star ranger. While you're restricted to small and medium animal forms, there are a lot of great choices here. Because of Intuitive Attack and Wis to AC, you're less concerned about high Strength forms. At low levels, the best bet is probably the desmodu hunting bat, while at higher levels, the legendary eagle is hard to beat - 30 Dex, decent natural armor and 100' fly speed is just too good to pass up. Don't forget that you can still make an unarmed strike with IUS, so you don't have to rely on the fairly mediocre eagle claw attack.
Shooting Star for all its bonus spells and SotAO alongside a huge Wisdom for bonus spells means that you've got pretty solid utility spellcasting as well. You'll need to borrow a spellbook from your order to make SotAO function properly, but as you're technically a member of the Mystic Fire Knights (the Shooting Stars are a rangerly offshoot of them), that shouldn't be a problem.
I didn't list favored enemies because they're pretty campaign-dependent. Your best bet is to consolidate your extra +2s into one single favored enemy (probably arcanists, but again, this is campaign-dependent) and then spread around your remaining bonuses to cover as many foes as possible. So, you'll have a +8 base FE damage bonus versus your primary favored enemy, and +2 versus three secondaries, or +11 and +5 with Improved Favored Enemy. You also get +1 from your Favored Enemy (evil) feature against all evil foes, which is also improved by Improved Favored Enemy... and this explicitly stacks with other FE bonuses you have. So, against evil foes, you're effectively doubling up on any FE improvements you make.
But all of that is just the opening act. Here's the main event: you can stun the world.
You've got a lot built into your stunning attacks. Sapphire Fist alongside your four points of essentia gives you +4 to attack rolls while stunning and +4 to the DC, which is a pretty nice boost. Even better is the boost you get from Ascetic Hunter, which gives you a bonus when stunning a favored enemy equal to one half your FE bonus to damage rolls. That last one is huge, especially thanks to the fact that you'll be doubling up with Stalker of Kharash's favored enemy (evil).
So how does this all break down?
Assuming max Wis at start, +6 enhancement bonus and a +5 tome, that's a Wis of 34. Toss on Ki Straps for the +2. Use one of your essentia helm charges to max out Sapphire Fist, which amounts to an extra +2. Against our primary favored enemy, assuming it is evil, that means stun DCs of...
DC 10 +10 levels +12 Wis +4 Sapphire Fist +5 favored enemy +2 favored enemy (evil) +2 Ki Straps = DC 45.
Against our secondary favored enemies, this drops to a "mere" 43 - which is still so high that a balor will only suceed on a natural 20. But hang on, it gets better. See, Ascetic Hunter bases the boost to your stun DCs off of the bonus damage you do to your favored enemy. There's a neat little +1 enhancement in MIC called hunting that improves your damage against all your favored enemies by +4. Of course, since Stalker of Kharash lets you double up on favored enemies against evil creatures, this is effectively a +8 if your favored enemy is also evil - not only will that improve your damage by a pretty decent amount for the cost, it will also improve your stun DCs by +4 across the board. Toss that on a necklace of natural attacks and now you've got a stun DC of 49 versus your primary, and 47 versus your secondaries. That means that a CR 26 great wyrm red dragon needs a 17 or better to save against your stun.
Again, that's an 85% chance to stun a CR 26 great wyrm red dragon. Still not 100% though... unless you use a full round action to make a Decisive Strike, in which case the DC is 51, and the dragon only saves on a natural 20. You can even pump this further still by casting mark of the hunter, a third level spell that increases your favored enemy bonuses by +4. So, theoretically, you can get as high as DC 55! Of course, that requires a buff round and a full round action attack, so realistically, you're stuck with "only" 49.
This, once again, is on top of the fact that you're a fairly versatile tier 3 character in your own rights, thanks to SotAO spellcasting, decent unarmed damage, excellent BAB, fantastic defenses and wild shape.
Variants
First of all, if you play with Dragon Magazine material, there is absolutely no reason to not use the Mystic Ranger. I don't play with such material, so I didn't include it here, but that shouldn't stop you if it's allowed. It is in every way a strict upgrade from the above build.
Second, if flaws are allowed, there are a few feats that would go a long way for you. Pain Touch is the biggest feat this build is missing, as it effectively doubles the duration (and hence effectiveness) of your stuns by adding on a round of nausea after recovering from the stun. Nauseated foes can't do anything but make a single move action, so you've still effectively locked them down. Ability Focus is a flat +2 to your DC, which is pretty nice. Extra Stunning brings you from 7 stuns/day to 10 stuns/day. Extra Favored Enemy increases the swath of enemies you can apply your heft Ascetic Stalker bonuses toward. Pharaoh's Fist lets you stun groups, but beware - technically it's not a stun attack, so your Ascetic Hunter and Sapphire Fist bonuses won't apply. Finally, Nemesis gives you an auto-detection of your favored enemies, which is just fantastic alongside Arcane Hunter and FE (evil).
You can even drop Natural Spell if you don't plan to cast in combat, and prefer your spells to be used for utility and buffing purposes only. Again, picking up Pain Touch would be a huge boon for the build.
Finally, you can free up a feat by taking the Urban Companion ACF from Cityscape. This grants you a familiar-like companion that gives you many of the benefits of a standard familiar, which includes the Alertness feat. However, this means foregoing the Shooting Star ACF's bonus spells or CL boost. That's a big loss - but this build is feat starved, and you can actually make OK use out of an urban companion. Choose wisely.
Things to watch out for
Stun-immune foes are obviously a problem. Be sure to pack command undead with your SotAO slots to take on undead foes that will laugh at your super-charged DCs. Watch out for anything that looks like an odd, out of place third eye - it's probably a Third Eye: Clarity, which can allow someone to take an immediate action to avoid a stun. It has some drawbacks, though. Because it requires an immediate action, it can't be used while flat-footed, so surprise rounds are still fair game for stunning attacks. Also, it's only usable once a day, so if they avoid your stunning attack, you can just try again next round. Finally, it's easily sundered, and they're cheap enough that you don't need to feel too bad about sundering loot.