Red.Tide
2015-12-20, 09:17 PM
I've been trying to figure out how to make Vital Strike as effective as possible. The key to this, of course, is to make your base damage dice as large as possible. Abyssal Bloodrager gets free Enlarge Person during rage, and the Impact weapon enhancement is key here. To get my base weapon as strong as possible, I have two options (avoiding both cheese such as the Tiefling racial variant that you have to roll for, and 3rd party materials)
Option 1. Take EWP: Bastard Sword and wield a Large Bastard Sword at -2 for 2d8. This becomes 3d8 when Enlarged or with Impact, and 4d8 with both.
Option 2. Dip a level of Titan Fighter to wield a Large Greatsword at -4 for 3d6. This becomes 4d6 when I'm Enlarged or with the Impact enchantment, and 6d6 with both.
Option 2 does an average of 3 more damage when I hit (multiplied by each feat in the VS chain), but I have an additional -2 to hit. It also means I get my Bloodrager class abilities one level later, although it does free up a feat relative to option 1.
Human is probably my best option (this build requires a lot of Feats). Here are my must-have feats:
- Power Attack
- Furious Focus (basically negates Power Attack to-hit penalty with no downside when using Vital Strike)
- Vital Strike
- Improved Vital Strike
- Greater Vital Strike
- Furious Finish
My feats would be as such, assuming I chose option 1:
1: Power Attack, Furious Focus
3: EWP(Bastard Sword)
5: ?
7: Vital Strike
9: Furious Finish
11: Improved VS
13: ?
15: ?
17: Greater VS
19: ?
Assuming I can get my hands on a large bastard sword with impact by level 7, I will be dealing 8d8 base damage while raging. By level 11, it will be 12d8, and at 17 16d8. With Furious Focus and all my raging bonuses (Abyssal bloodline gets huge Str bonuses when raging), I will almost always be hitting. I will also have reach.
I'm looking for tactics/spells/feats/etc. that will either improve Vital Strike, or give my character something useful to do with a move action.
Some options I'm already aware of:
Devastating Strike: pretty lackluster +6 to damage.
I could pick up Intimidating Prowess as a Bloodline feat at level 6; this would make my Intimidate skill very high. I would then take Intimidating Glare (as a Primalist Bloodrager) at level 8 instead of energy resistance. I can now attempt to intimidate as a move action, while still hitting the opponent for Vital Strike damage.
I could pick up Cleave as a Bloodline feat. While Cleave does not work with Vital Strike, I could then take Cleaving Finish; this would allow me to make an additional attack to another enemy within reach after dropping an enemy with Vital Strike. This has synergy with my Large size/reach while raging. On the other hand, I don't believe I would be able to Vital Strike the second hit.
I'm also thinking of tactics that I could use to abuse my ability to move while hitting harder than anyone else could as a standard action. Here's what I came up with:
Against a medium-size opponent, I could Vital Strike and then move away, eating an AoO. On their turn, they would have to charge me, eating my AoO and only hitting me with a single attack. Essentially, we would be trading AoO/Standard attack actions, which would be very much in my favor, since I've optimized my attack action.
My questions for this forum are as follows:
Does the partial build as posted seem like a good start?
What other options (meaning feats/spells/etc.) do I have to optimize my damage from Vital Strike?
Does my build more-or-less keep up damage-wise with a typical full-round-attacking melee character? If not, how badly does it do, and can I do anything useful with my extra move action often enough to make it worth the loss in damage? Keep in mind that I am very likely to hit my single attack (and there are plenty of ways of boosting the to-hit of a single attack), have the option of Furious Finish, and am not as bothered by DR/crit immunity/etc.
What options do I have to fully take advantage of my move action each round?
What other options would go well with my build in a general sense?
Option 1. Take EWP: Bastard Sword and wield a Large Bastard Sword at -2 for 2d8. This becomes 3d8 when Enlarged or with Impact, and 4d8 with both.
Option 2. Dip a level of Titan Fighter to wield a Large Greatsword at -4 for 3d6. This becomes 4d6 when I'm Enlarged or with the Impact enchantment, and 6d6 with both.
Option 2 does an average of 3 more damage when I hit (multiplied by each feat in the VS chain), but I have an additional -2 to hit. It also means I get my Bloodrager class abilities one level later, although it does free up a feat relative to option 1.
Human is probably my best option (this build requires a lot of Feats). Here are my must-have feats:
- Power Attack
- Furious Focus (basically negates Power Attack to-hit penalty with no downside when using Vital Strike)
- Vital Strike
- Improved Vital Strike
- Greater Vital Strike
- Furious Finish
My feats would be as such, assuming I chose option 1:
1: Power Attack, Furious Focus
3: EWP(Bastard Sword)
5: ?
7: Vital Strike
9: Furious Finish
11: Improved VS
13: ?
15: ?
17: Greater VS
19: ?
Assuming I can get my hands on a large bastard sword with impact by level 7, I will be dealing 8d8 base damage while raging. By level 11, it will be 12d8, and at 17 16d8. With Furious Focus and all my raging bonuses (Abyssal bloodline gets huge Str bonuses when raging), I will almost always be hitting. I will also have reach.
I'm looking for tactics/spells/feats/etc. that will either improve Vital Strike, or give my character something useful to do with a move action.
Some options I'm already aware of:
Devastating Strike: pretty lackluster +6 to damage.
I could pick up Intimidating Prowess as a Bloodline feat at level 6; this would make my Intimidate skill very high. I would then take Intimidating Glare (as a Primalist Bloodrager) at level 8 instead of energy resistance. I can now attempt to intimidate as a move action, while still hitting the opponent for Vital Strike damage.
I could pick up Cleave as a Bloodline feat. While Cleave does not work with Vital Strike, I could then take Cleaving Finish; this would allow me to make an additional attack to another enemy within reach after dropping an enemy with Vital Strike. This has synergy with my Large size/reach while raging. On the other hand, I don't believe I would be able to Vital Strike the second hit.
I'm also thinking of tactics that I could use to abuse my ability to move while hitting harder than anyone else could as a standard action. Here's what I came up with:
Against a medium-size opponent, I could Vital Strike and then move away, eating an AoO. On their turn, they would have to charge me, eating my AoO and only hitting me with a single attack. Essentially, we would be trading AoO/Standard attack actions, which would be very much in my favor, since I've optimized my attack action.
My questions for this forum are as follows:
Does the partial build as posted seem like a good start?
What other options (meaning feats/spells/etc.) do I have to optimize my damage from Vital Strike?
Does my build more-or-less keep up damage-wise with a typical full-round-attacking melee character? If not, how badly does it do, and can I do anything useful with my extra move action often enough to make it worth the loss in damage? Keep in mind that I am very likely to hit my single attack (and there are plenty of ways of boosting the to-hit of a single attack), have the option of Furious Finish, and am not as bothered by DR/crit immunity/etc.
What options do I have to fully take advantage of my move action each round?
What other options would go well with my build in a general sense?