Endless Query
2016-06-12, 01:07 AM
Hokay, so, here's the work around. Game I'm heading into is set up to be set in the dark dank corners of the city, we're all rogue-y types to some extent, my character being a backstreets "no questions asked" doctor, we have a sort of "sell you enchantment spells for use on your loved ones and rivals" sort of Witch set up (... I think), and then we have... Batman.
I am a man. Dressed as a Bat.
Sadly, Batman has had a bit more trouble with her (... Batwoman, come to think of it) design. Largely, they like the idea of being all stealthy, and going with the overall rogue-y theme is figuring some sort of easily concealed blades, so they can go heavy on Dex, and then snag Lethal Grace for Finesse and + Damage to make up for their low (I think maybe 12?) Strength. Since we're sitting around the 5-10 range for the campaign (As far as we, the players, understand) our Lady of the Night (... Wait that sounds wrong) was figuring on going for Up Close and Personal, granting them, potentially, 2 attacks per round at full BAB, at least one of which will have their Hidden Strike damage on it.
Because of that they were not going for TWF, and was looking at doing something more with the "Terror of the Night" fear the vigilante thing using Renown's bonus to Intimidate + Twisting Fear for amusing effect, but when charting out their next few levels of progression they found a bit of an... Issue. Dazzling Display -> Violent Display seemed like a desirable chain (our GM was, as I understand it, amicable to counting Hidden Strike as Sneak Attack for these purposes), but then noticed an itty bitty little thing...
To make sure they get their Hidden Strike damage they take a move action + swift action for Up Close and Personal... Which then let's them take an... Oh, wait, no, guess not.
This has caused our fair lady some considerable distress, as her build is already MAD as hell due to being the Party's face, and Vigilante's low will save, and wanting to have HP, and... Well, her closest fallback, at present, seems to be "Power Attack -> Cornugon Smash" (Also comes online at BAB +6, Power Attack gets bonus damage always, compatible with her gymnastics routine), but at present she doesn't actually have 13 Strength and is currently trying to see if she can just shuffle feats to get the desired end result of still having some decent action economy with bringing terror to the hearts of criminals, but I haven't been able to help.
Honestly, I'm not sure there IS help with how much stuff is blocked by Power Attack. Someone in group was joking she should go Stealthy -> Sow Terror and just sneak around enemies until they all pass out from the nonlethal, but... Honestly, that's legitimately the best suggestion I've seen (and one that requires her to either be operating away from the rest of the party, or just kind of... Watching combat bein' spooky in the background, which, ah. . . I dunnoooo. Does avoid the up scaling on Intimidate DCs for multiple applications, at least? And, uh... Doesn't actually roll intimidate which is... Huh. I'm entirely out of my depth here, obviously), outside of just "Eh, just use Dazzling Display, if you're throwing d4s of damage at everyone along with the Shaken it's honestly not that bad..." Which... Just doesn't... Mnnnh, it wouldn't really satisfy me having one of the conceptual aspects of my build functionally cap out at level... 3? Hell, 1 if you were silly an a Human since you could get Weapon Focus and Dazzling Display right out the gate.
But yeah, any suggestions or is the suggestion "Accept the failures of your build or reshuffle your stats and a bunch of other stuff" the end? (... Seems like that 2nd one might be true, but here's hoping, eh?)
Oh, right, and this is more specifically about ways to use a decent Intimidate roll as opposed to get one, if that makes any sense (or just neat ways to inflict fear-type effects, I suppose, since those all apply Twisting Fear so should hopefully be satisfactory?). There's a lot of space for feats in the build, as I currently understand it, and... Well really that's the jist of it, looking for a feat based solution. I haven't been able to find the feats. Do the feats exist?
I am a man. Dressed as a Bat.
Sadly, Batman has had a bit more trouble with her (... Batwoman, come to think of it) design. Largely, they like the idea of being all stealthy, and going with the overall rogue-y theme is figuring some sort of easily concealed blades, so they can go heavy on Dex, and then snag Lethal Grace for Finesse and + Damage to make up for their low (I think maybe 12?) Strength. Since we're sitting around the 5-10 range for the campaign (As far as we, the players, understand) our Lady of the Night (... Wait that sounds wrong) was figuring on going for Up Close and Personal, granting them, potentially, 2 attacks per round at full BAB, at least one of which will have their Hidden Strike damage on it.
Because of that they were not going for TWF, and was looking at doing something more with the "Terror of the Night" fear the vigilante thing using Renown's bonus to Intimidate + Twisting Fear for amusing effect, but when charting out their next few levels of progression they found a bit of an... Issue. Dazzling Display -> Violent Display seemed like a desirable chain (our GM was, as I understand it, amicable to counting Hidden Strike as Sneak Attack for these purposes), but then noticed an itty bitty little thing...
To make sure they get their Hidden Strike damage they take a move action + swift action for Up Close and Personal... Which then let's them take an... Oh, wait, no, guess not.
This has caused our fair lady some considerable distress, as her build is already MAD as hell due to being the Party's face, and Vigilante's low will save, and wanting to have HP, and... Well, her closest fallback, at present, seems to be "Power Attack -> Cornugon Smash" (Also comes online at BAB +6, Power Attack gets bonus damage always, compatible with her gymnastics routine), but at present she doesn't actually have 13 Strength and is currently trying to see if she can just shuffle feats to get the desired end result of still having some decent action economy with bringing terror to the hearts of criminals, but I haven't been able to help.
Honestly, I'm not sure there IS help with how much stuff is blocked by Power Attack. Someone in group was joking she should go Stealthy -> Sow Terror and just sneak around enemies until they all pass out from the nonlethal, but... Honestly, that's legitimately the best suggestion I've seen (and one that requires her to either be operating away from the rest of the party, or just kind of... Watching combat bein' spooky in the background, which, ah. . . I dunnoooo. Does avoid the up scaling on Intimidate DCs for multiple applications, at least? And, uh... Doesn't actually roll intimidate which is... Huh. I'm entirely out of my depth here, obviously), outside of just "Eh, just use Dazzling Display, if you're throwing d4s of damage at everyone along with the Shaken it's honestly not that bad..." Which... Just doesn't... Mnnnh, it wouldn't really satisfy me having one of the conceptual aspects of my build functionally cap out at level... 3? Hell, 1 if you were silly an a Human since you could get Weapon Focus and Dazzling Display right out the gate.
But yeah, any suggestions or is the suggestion "Accept the failures of your build or reshuffle your stats and a bunch of other stuff" the end? (... Seems like that 2nd one might be true, but here's hoping, eh?)
Oh, right, and this is more specifically about ways to use a decent Intimidate roll as opposed to get one, if that makes any sense (or just neat ways to inflict fear-type effects, I suppose, since those all apply Twisting Fear so should hopefully be satisfactory?). There's a lot of space for feats in the build, as I currently understand it, and... Well really that's the jist of it, looking for a feat based solution. I haven't been able to find the feats. Do the feats exist?