Defeating/Avoiding Robilar's Gambit

[Jarmen4u]

Hi gitp, I'm playing in an arena type campaign, and I know one of the players' character runs both Robilar's and Karmic Strike. As a mostly physical character (no spellcasting), what items/feats/things can I build to avoid triggering these when I attack?

As an aside, what are your opinions on how they work together? Is it "One AoO if they miss, two if they hit" or something else?

[ApologyFestival]

I don't think there's any room for opinion in how Karmic Strike and Robilar's Gambit interact. It's one attack of opportunity if the attacker misses, two if they hit.

Shutting down an attack of opportunity character isn't that hard, though your character is limited by being "mostly physical". So you're going to be inundated with suggestions. I'll start you off:

The simplest option is to simply get your character's AC so high that you can largely ignore your opponent. Also consider exotic defences such as blinking, which most melee characters struggle to counter. This is not particularly clever, and as a non-spellcaster it is limited by your character's wealth, the availability of magic marts, and whether your character has Use Magic Device or not. A second option, in the same vein, is to bring so much force to bear on a single attack that your opponent does not get the opportunity to counter with an attack of opportunity. Optimising for damage is one of the easiest things you can do, assuming access to most 3.5 sources.

If your opponent is going to charge to get into melee range, pick up a reach weapon and the hideously underpriced steadfast boots (Magic Item Compendium) to be permanently set against the charge.

The level 4 White Raven maneuver Covering Strike (Tome of Battle) will deny an opponent all of their attacks of opportunity for three rounds if you can hit them. You can access it with the Martial Study feat or the Crown of White Ravens magic item, if your character level is 14 or higher.

Consider using poisons to paralyse your opponent, or cause so much ability damage that they drop dead or helpless. Poisoned arrows are great.

If your opponent's damage output is low, then you can tactically teleport away from him every time he closes into melee range and plink away with ranged attacks.

High-level arena combat is a bit of a ****-show and largely dependent on who spent their wealth the wisest. Whoever wins, I would expect the fight to be over on turn one.

[DarkSonic1337]

It's one AoO if they miss, two if they hit.

As for avoiding them. One way is to have more reach than them, so they cannot actually use the AoO that you've triggered. Another would be to use one of the two White Raven maneuvers that deny the opponent the ability to use attacks of opportunity.

You could hit their dex hard enough with ability damage/penalties that they can't properly use combat reflexes.

You can throw DR at them to make the damage from their attacks of opportunity pretty negligible (if they're power attacking, grab dodge and elusive target to negate said power attack).

You can hope for a debilitating rider effect like stunning surge.

Or you could just not engage the guy specifically built to counter melee....in melee.

[Segev]

Ranged attacks. He can't take AoOs against you when you're outside of his melee reach.

[Extra Anchovies]

Take Stand Still and outreach them. Aberration Blood+Inhuman Reach is nice, or Willing Deformity+Deformity (Tall) if you don't mind being evil. Take both if you have room. With a reach weapon and armor spikes, you threaten up to 10 feet away. Inhuman Reach increases this to 20. Both Inhuman Reach and Deformity (Tall) gives you a total reach of 30 feet.

In a 1v1 you won't need more than the one AoO against them, but if you qualify and have room in your build for Combat Reflexes you might as well take it in case they provoke twice in one turn.

Make sure to have three levels of Knight. Tumble can still get past you, but they're moving at one-quarter speed.

Dip a level of Crusader to pick up the following stance and maneuvers:
-Martial Spirit and Crusader's Strike to keep your HP up
-Douse the Flames to prevent them from making AoOs for a round
-Foehammer and/or Mountain Hammer to bypass DR and hardness
-Stone Vise to immobilize them for a round

Wait for them to charge you, and Stand Still them as soon as they provoke. They've wasted their turn, and are inside your melee reach. Stand Still them again every time they try to move. Full attack with impunity, or use one of the strikes at your disposal. If they tumble closer to you, single-move until they're at the edge of your reach and use a strike. Be sure to say "gg easy" when you kill them.

It's worth noting that this build hard-counters any other melee that doesn't have A) equal or longer reach or B) the ability to teleport.

Alternately, just play an Idiot Crusader (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=3939.0) and use White Raven Tactics for infinite turns.

[Jarmen4u]

I'll definitely look into boosting miss chance and reach might be useful as well. As for boosting AC, I've seen this guy rolling at a +34 (+38 for AoOs) during other sessions and I can only get my AC up to 32 right now, with magic armor and dex. Is there a way I could get a Shivering Touch effect applied to a weapon? That would solve the dex issue, and keep him from rolling so many AoOs.

[Telonius]

Remind me, do Karmic Strike and Robilar's Gambit work against Sunder attempts? EDIT: Yeah, looking at this, he's going to have some trouble connecting if he doesn't have Improved Unarmed Strike along with Robilar's. With a Dex that high I'm assuming he's got two weapon fighting; meaning at least one of them's probably a Light weapon. Bonuses to Sunder, low weapon hit points, means most likely after a single attack he'll be holding half a weapon, and those feats he took for TWF suddenly become a lot less awesome. And since it's Arena, you don't need to worry about destroying your loot as much as usual. Sunder it from reach for added giggles.

[sovin_ndore]

Yeah, if his To Hit already exceeds your AC, there is not alot to be done for that and equipment would be better applied elsewhere. I will second outranging him and preventing him from getting into melee range with you. Your best friend is the previously mentioned Stand Still feat, making your AOO stop them from continuing their movement and reaching a point where they can attack you. You may also try to shoehorn your way into the Thicket of Blades stance.

Alternately, outranging via exceptional movement rate or alternate movement modes (ex. flight) with ranged weapons that make it a one sided exchange is a viable strategy. I doubt the arena would allow some of the movement rate shenanigans to hold, so that may be worth considering.

I would suggest avoiding strategies built to spells or saves because you are item dependant and cannot really crank those save DCs like a spellcaster could. You might be able to fit in some 'demoralizing' effects or meta-stunning fist options, but there is nothing in there that will be much less than sub-par.

[Segev]

You could also go for an Ubercharger build. Those deal so much damage in the one hit they get that he will be dead before he can counterstrike.

[tonberrian]

Have total concealment or cover. He can't make an AoO against you if you have total concealment or cover. Greater Invisibility is easily wandible.

[Telonius]

Ooh, here's a nice one from Magic Item Compendium: Shadowstrike enhancement. Adds 5k gp to the cost, but 1/day you get to attack at +5 reach, and deny your opponent his Dex.

[mabriss lethe]

This is almost picture perfect for a something I've sketched out that I'm calling "The False Dragon." It's not a full build, as such, but I've been aching to playtest it for a while. The core concept is a poison using crossbow fighter build wielding a +3 aptitude distance sandblaster(plus your damage boosting property of choice) and either nets or lassos if you deal with evasion. The base I prefer is Zhentarim soldier Fighter. You'll definitely want Master of Poisons, Rapid Reload, Far Shot, and Superior Expertise. apply your poison of choice to your entangling weapons as well as the ammo for the sandblaster. Dump all of your BAB into Superior Expertise, you won't need it, your sandblaster doesn't use an attack roll. Distance plus Far shot will give you a 30 ft cone to play with, and Rapid reload+Aptitude will let you fire off your sandblaster with iterative attacks. Boost your damage by tacking on damage boosting properties to both the sandblaster and its ammunition, and acquiring a greater cold assault crystal (Greater requires a +3 weapon but also adds movement penalty rider effect.)

Your AC will be nigh untouchable and you'll be able to force several saves per round between the sandblaster's native ability, poisons, and any other feats you might add on (Boomerang Daze is nice if you can work it in.) You'll be layering on penalties and debuffs to pretty much everything an opponent can do, once they get within range. With the addition of an item that will grant you a miss chance, you'll have very little to fear from an AoO opponent.

[Rubik]

Don't just add the cold crystal. Add all of the crystals to a single weapon augment crystal. At least, all of the ones that are useful to you. It's an extra 50% surcharge to everything but the most expensive one, but it's still super-cheap and adds quite a large number of benefits.

[Jarmen4u]

Don't just add the cold crystal. Add all of the crystals to a single weapon augment crystal. At least, all of the ones that are useful to you. It's an extra 50% surcharge to everything but the most expensive one, but it's still super-cheap and adds quite a large number of benefits.

What crystals are you referring to? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term.

[Socratov]

What crystals are you referring to? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term.

Weapon Crystals are found in Magic Item Compendium and are like exchangeable weapon enhancements depending on which crystals you are willing to socket to your weapon.

[mabriss lethe]

The important part of that build is to boost the sandblaster's range and add as many debilitating rider effects as possible as many times as possible. Couple that with Superior Expertise to dump your entire BAB and add it as a dodge bonus to your AC, normally not a very good choice, but since your primary weapon doesn't use attack rolls, it actually scales pretty well. (If you can squeeze it in,you could also double-dip your Attack penalty with Stone Power to add another layer of durability, SP also counts as power attack for prerequisites, so you can pick up some other goodies that way as well.) It's feat and BAB intensive, so you'll benefit from a heavy investment in Fighter. The good news is, a lot of nasty feats you can pick up don't directly apply to the sandblaster (and require Aptitude to combine them.), meaning that you have (mostly ranged) backup strategies for when your primary shtick doesn't work out. Working in Warblade levels (or tacking on more feats and ToB items) can let you snag some defensive Ironheart and Diamond mind maneuvers to cover the holes in your saves.

[Rubik]

What crystals are you referring to? Sorry, I'm not familiar with the term.As Socratov said, they're items in the MIC that you can attach to a weapon (or to one end of a double-bladed weapon, or to all three parts of an elvencraft longbow, bow, staff side 1, and staff side 2) that carry weapon enhancement effects, such as +1d6 fire/cold/electricity/acid damage (with rider effects on more powerful weapon crystals), Quickdraw, the returning enhancement, ghost touch, bane (evil outsiders/undead), and more. More powerful weapon crystals require more powerful weapons in order to be attached, such as a higher level energy damage crystal requiring a +3 weapon in order to be used.

And since you can combine multiple magical item effects into a single item for a +50% surcharge on everything but the most expensive effect, you can add ALL of those to a single weapon crystal.