Dwarf Tempest Flavor

[Kevingway]

As a Dwarf, I love heavy armor. I'm not going to do anything without wearing heavy armor.

That said, Tempests hate heavy armor. They want it to go die in a hole.

Well, yeah. I'd like to combine both of them. I can easily make a set of heavy armor count as medium through crafting this heavy armor out of Mithral, but I need it down one more size category in order to wear it and gain Tempest benefits. I'm determined to become a Tempest despite its drawbacks, so this is worth doing for me.

I'd like the armor to be nonmagical in nature if possible, at least for the purposes of this exercise.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Darrin]

I can easily make a set of heavy armor count as medium through crafting this heavy armor out of Mithral, but I need it down one more size category in order to wear it and gain Tempest benefits.


If we skip over my usual rant about Tempest... well, alrighty then.

First, there's the Halfweight armor property (+3 enhancement) from the FR Underdark book. A bit on the pricey side, but allows any armor to be treated as light in every way.

Second, Dragon #355 p. 92 has a Fighter ACF called "Armored Savant". It allows you to swap your 1st level Fighter Bonus feat for the ability to treat armor as one category lighter for the purposes of movement. Stacked with mithral, darkleaf, firebrass, blue ice, or glassteel, this would let you treat heavy armor as light, so long as your DM isn't being persnickety over the exact wording. It works with any armor, magical or otherwise, but for some reason is a (Su) ability, which means you risk losing your Tempest class abilities in an AMF.

Other suggestions:

Use darkleaf (A&EG) instead of mithral, save yourself 6000 GP.

Ask your DM if you can switch your weapon familiarity from dwarven urgrosh to dwarven buckler-axe (as per Complete Warrior pp. 154-155). The buckler-axe can be worn and enchanted as a shield (even while you're wielding other weapons), but doesn't incur the -1 penalty that a buckler normally applies to your attacks. This lets you double up on wand chambers, augment crystals, and help spread the cost of your armor/shield enhancements.

You may also be able to swap your tower shield proficiency for an exotic shield proficiency. The extreme shield and rider shield don't really help Tempest all that much, but you could argue that the buckler-axe should count as an exotic shield.

Consider adding Cavestalker 4 (Drow of the Underdark): TWF with a spiked chain in each hand. Then add a little dash of Exotic Weapon Master for Uncanny Blow (two-handed Power Attack damage for one-handed exotic weapons).

[sonofzeal]

Honestly, there might be something somewhere, but I'd just ask my DM if I could take a custom feat to count Medium Armor as Light for the purposes of class features. Maybe add "dwarf" as a prereq. It's quite reasonable, adds options, and fits the fluff. Why dig through splatbooks when you can just agree on something with your DM?

[Kevingway]

If we skip over my usual rant about Tempest... well, alrighty then.

First, there's the Halfweight armor property (+3 enhancement) from the FR Underdark book. A bit on the pricey side, but allows any armor to be treated as light in every way.

Second, Dragon #355 p. 92 has a Fighter ACF called "Armored Savant". It allows you to swap your 1st level Fighter Bonus feat for the ability to treat armor as one category lighter for the purposes of movement. Stacked with mithral, darkleaf, firebrass, blue ice, or glassteel, this would let you treat heavy armor as light, so long as your DM isn't being persnickety over the exact wording. It works with any armor, magical or otherwise, but for some reason is a (Su) ability, which means you risk losing your Tempest class abilities in an AMF.

Other suggestions:

Use darkleaf (A&EG) instead of mithral, save yourself 6000 GP.

Ask your DM if you can switch your weapon familiarity from dwarven urgrosh to dwarven buckler-axe (as per Complete Warrior pp. 154-155). The buckler-axe can be worn and enchanted as a shield (even while you're wielding other weapons), but doesn't incur the -1 penalty that a buckler normally applies to your attacks. This lets you double up on wand chambers, augment crystals, and help spread the cost of your armor/shield enhancements.

You may also be able to swap your tower shield proficiency for an exotic shield proficiency. The extreme shield and rider shield don't really help Tempest all that much, but you could argue that the buckler-axe should count as an exotic shield.

Consider adding Cavestalker 4 (Drow of the Underdark): TWF with a spiked chain in each hand. Then add a little dash of Exotic Weapon Master for Uncanny Blow (two-handed Power Attack damage for one-handed exotic weapons).

Good stuff!

Yeah, I'm honestly not a fan of the Tempest, myself, mainly because I can't in any possible way figure out how to make Spring Attack useful. I'm playing as a Lesser Duergar converted to a Lesser Psionic Duergar, so I'll eventually have a Huge size category running. The reason I'm TWFing to begin with is for Anvil of Thunder, which has such a nice dwarven flavor to it that I can't resist (and I love dazing). With Robilar's Gambit combined with Double Hit, I already have some very nice ways of dazing as soon as something decides to take an AoO on me, but Spring Attack doesn't even let them take one, technically.

I can't quite explain my reasoning for Tempest, but it's just so darn hard for me to play Warblade for the same reason (not going to get into details, but I just get annoyed keeping track of maneuvers is why I chose Tempest), and I figured there'd be some way to at least try to make use of the occasional Spring Attack, but eh.

[Darrin]

Yeah, I'm honestly not a fan of the Tempest, myself, mainly because I can't in any possible way figure out how to make Spring Attack useful.


You need to add hustle to make Spring Attack useful. There's a quirk in the wording... Spring Attack specifies that you can take an attack action during a move action. Normally this restricts you to a standard action attack, but unlike FlyBy Attack, you can't use just any ol' standard action, so stuff like ToB strikes and weaponlike spells/SLAs can't be combined with Spring Attack. However, if you use hustle to give yourself a move action as a swift action... a full attack also counts as an "attack action", and this allows you to combine TWF with Spring Attack. (Tempo bloodspikes from Magic of Eberron could also be quite handy.)

[Kevingway]

You need to add hustle to make Spring Attack useful. There's a quirk in the wording... Spring Attack specifies that you can take an attack action during a move action. Normally this restricts you to a standard action attack, but unlike FlyBy Attack, you can't use just any ol' standard action, so stuff like ToB strikes and weaponlike spells/SLAs can't be combined with Spring Attack. However, if you use hustle to give yourself a move action as a swift action... a full attack also counts as an "attack action", and this allows you to combine TWF with Spring Attack. (Tempo bloodspikes from Magic of Eberron could also be quite handy.)

Well hot dog. I'm not sure if I have room in my build to incorporate Hustle, but I'm sure I can figure something out. Thanks!

I was going to avoid asking the question in its own thread because Google comes up with countless Spring Attack complaints, but this is the first good explanation I've read that justifies the entire feat chain.

[Darrin]

Well hot dog. I'm not sure if I have room in my build to incorporate Hustle, but I'm sure I can figure something out. Thanks!


Ardent or Mantled Warrior ACF (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20070214a) can pick it up from the Freedom mantle with a 2-level dip.



I was going to avoid asking the question in its own thread because Google comes up with countless Spring Attack complaints, but this is the first good explanation I've read that justifies the entire feat chain.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it justified the entire feat chain. You can get a little more mileage out of it with Snap Kick/Oxyrhynchus, but yeah, it's hard to fit everything in. Elusive Target is kinda the apology for having to take Dodge/Mobility, but that's more useful for trip-based builds than TWF.

[Kevingway]

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to say it justified the entire feat chain. You can get a little more mileage out of it with Snap Kick/Oxyrhynchus, but yeah, it's hard to fit everything in. Elusive Target is kinda the apology for having to take Dodge/Mobility, but that's more useful for trip-based builds than TWF.

I have my eyes set on Word Given Form, actually. It's an even deeper feat investment, but apparently dwarves love solving the Truename puzzle or whatever in the fluff, so taking this feat chain for a flat 50% miss chance and other things is nice. Trying to double up on as many uses for the chain as possible.

I'd love Elusive Target to combine it with my dazing, but the wording seems slightly less workable with Desert Wind Dodge/Expeditious Dodge than Word Given Form; at least with WGF, I'm not "specifying any targets" so much as "using" the feat, which I think I can get away with by moving a certain distance in order to activate it.