Vorpal Scimitar Build

[Zene]

I've been trying to come up with an optimal build to take advantage of a vorpal scimitar. This is what I've got so far; your feedback/suggestions appreciated. Note that I want to keep this AL legal, so no UA.

Vorpal procs on a roll of 20. So I want to maximize advantage. And the Lucky feat will help. For race, I'm thinking Kobold for that sweet Pack Tactics. Sure, I'll have disadvantage in direct sunlight, but I'll avoid it when I can, and use Lucky when I can't.

I want to maximize attacks/round, so fighter is the obvious choice. For subclass: Champ's increased crit range doesn't help since Vorpal needs a natural 20. Neither does BM's Precision. EK seems to be the best option, for a few reasons. A familiar can help activate pack tactics; Fog Cloud can help block Sunlight Sensitivity. And eventually, waaay up there in the teens, I can cast Haste on myself for an extra attack if I don't have a party member casting it for me.

Scimitar is finesse, so I can dump Str --and thank god for that, since I'm a Kobold.

Interestingly, I can also dump Dex, since rolling a natural 20 is independent of attack bonus.

Still, I figure 16 or 17 dex is a good investment. Next priority is Con, then Wis. If at any point pick up a belt of Giant Str, I can attack with Str and wear plate. Otherwise it's Dex and Med armor.

For ASIs/Feats: Definitely Lucky, and Resilient Wis. Probably Shield Master. Maybe spend a few ASIs on bumping Dex and Con. Possibly Alert, possibly Mobile --not sure.

What do y'all think?

[Innocent_bystan]

I want to maximize attacks/round, so fighter is the obvious choice.

Another, less obvious choice, is Ranger. With the Horde Breaker ability they get a second attack at level 3, before the fighter does. When a fighter gets his second attack, a Hunter has 3.
And at level 11, they get Whirlwind attack, which is potentially 9 attacks in one round (8 for Whirlwind and 1 for Horde Breaker).

[Innocent_bystan]

You might want to look out for ways to attack on your Bonus Action and your Reaction.

Frenzied Berserker gives a Bonus Action attack at level 3 and a Reaction attack at 14 (or so). Also: easy Advantage.

Battle Master has the Riposte manoeuver.

The Sentinel Feat also add a way to attack on your Reaction, and makes it more likely to get an Opportunity Attack.

Shield Master turns your Bonus Action into Advantage, which is also something to consider, if you're not playing a Kobold.

Haste gives a free attack, but let the caster cast it on you. By the time you can cast it yourself, you lose 3 attacks by casting it. And by the time you've made up the difference, combat has ended or you've lost concentration, and lose another 3 attacks.

[Coranhann]

You sound pretty set on being a Kobold (god, "pack tactics" and all of a sudden a lot of people draft Kobold characters...) but I fully agree with Innocent_bystan:

- You could go Frenzied berserker. 3 attacks per turn as soon as level 5. And you don't need to be Kobold to get advantage.
- If you go for Shield Master, I would recommend on going for a STR build. The bonus action shove is great (gives you advantage, the one thing you want to optimize), but you need STR for it to be efficient: You take the attack action, then use your bonus action to shove, target goes prone, then you attack with advantage.
- You could always go for fighter. Battlemaster for more attacks (Riposte). Doesn't help for advantage, but gives you 3 attacks per level 11.

First two ideas work very well for a Str build. Third one comes online late, but works well with a Kobold.

[Innocent_bystan]

Another big advantage of Ranger is that you can dip Fighter and Barbarian.

A possible build is Ranger 12/ Fighter 4/ Barbarian 4.

You don't lose ASI's. Whirlwind Attack, Horde Breaker, Frenzy, Riposte and Action Surge. You can potentially open combat with:
Whirlwind (8 attacks)
Horde Breaker (1 attack)
Frenzy (1 attack)
Action Surge
Whirlwind (8 attacks)
Haste (1 attack, provided by caster)
Reaction Attack (almost guaranteed by Sentinel and Riposte)

For the grand total of 20 potential attacks.

Also: Lucky is a good feat, but not for crit fishing. Even with the 'turning disadvantage into super advantage' exploit, Shield Master probably gives more d20 rolls over the course of an adventuring day.

[Easy_Lee]

Is UA allowed? If so, you want a revised elven hunter ranger with the following feats:

Blade Mastery (UA): opportunity attacks with this weapon have advantage.
Elven Accuracy (UA): when you have advantage, you roll three die instead of two.

Ranger gives you access to spells like entangle and ensnaring strike that can restrain targets, giving your attacks against them advantage. Horde breaker at 3 and extra attack at 5 give you all the extra attacks you'll need. Whirlwind attack at level 11 will let you use this maneuver against up to eight targets at once.

In short, you get your third attack much earlier than a fighter does, provided you're attacking more than one foe, and you can potentially make nine attacks in the same round.

Ranger also provides advantage on initiative and advantage against foes who haven't acted yet at level 1. Put that on a Dex build, and you're usually going first in combat.

Also, the UA fighting style tunnel fighter gives you unlimited opportunity attacks. With Blade Mastery, those attack have advantage. And with eleven accuracy, you roll three dice instead of two. For best results, team up with a caster who can use command or similar to make targets flee.

Cheesy, I know, but you did ask for optimal.

[PloxBox]

Is UA allowed? If so, you want a revised elven hunter ranger with the following feats:

Blade Mastery (UA): opportunity attacks with this weapon have advantage.
Elven Accuracy (UA): when you have advantage, you roll three die instead of two.

Ranger gives you access to spells like entangle and ensnaring strike that can restrain targets, giving your attacks against them advantage. Horde breaker at 3 and extra attack at 5 give you all the extra attacks you'll need. Whirlwind attack at level 11 will let you use this maneuver against up to eight targets at once.

In short, you get your third attack much earlier than a fighter does, provided you're attacking more than one foe, and you can potentially make nine attacks in the same round.

Ranger also provides advantage on initiative and advantage against foes who haven't acted yet at level 1. Put that on a Dex build, and you're usually going first in combat.

Also, the UA fighting style tunnel fighter gives you unlimited opportunity attacks. With Blade Mastery, those attack have advantage. And with eleven accuracy, you roll three dice instead of two. For best results, team up with a caster who can use command or similar to make targets flee.

Cheesy, I know, but you did ask for optimal.

He also asked for as much AL legal as possible.

As for OP, I'd say much like others have said. Ranger up to whirlwind, throw in fighter 3 for BM early so you can trip opponents for free advantage. I don't recommend Kobold unless you know the campaign is going to take place mostly underground or at night.

[Easy_Lee]

He also asked for as much AL legal as possible.

As for OP, I'd say much like others have said. Ranger up to whirlwind, throw in fighter 3 for BM early so you can trip opponents for free advantage. I don't recommend Kobold unless you know the campaign is going to take place mostly underground or at night.

Roger, missed that part. In that case, it's all about getting advantage and more attacks. You also want to be sure that no one takes your shiny vorpal scimitar away, something you can't guarantee in AL. With AL, you also run the risk of inexperienced and killer DMs, DMs who don't understand the conditions, DMs who won't let you grapple, DMs who throw too many encounters per day at you and exhaust your resources, etc.

With that in mind, hunter is still good. But you might also consider blade pact warlock. That gives you invocations and spells to go invisible, see through magical darkness, jump long distance or levitate, and other measures to ensure you're able to get to the foe you want to hit. It also gives you the ability to hide the vorpal scimitar in an extradimensional pocket when you're not using it. You can get advantage on a more consistent basis this way, since warlock spells and invocations provide a variety of ways to do it.

[Zene]

Awesome feedback, thanks all. Lots of interesting points.

I do think y'all are undervaluing fighter a bit. With action surge, by level 5 you can make 4 attacks in the first round; At Fighter 11, that jumps to 6 attacks in the first round; at 17, you get your second action surge, which means you can make 12 attacks in the first two rounds; and by 20, we're talking 16 attacks in the first two rounds. Not counting haste. Against any target you can reach. With Vorpal, that many attacks that early probably means the fight's over. Plus fighter gets subclass features on top of that, and gets a whopping 7 ASI's in total.

Warlock is a cool class, but is only getting 2 attacks per round, even at 20. Not really a contender.

The Ranger's Whirlwind is nice, but you only get that wonderful 8-9 attacks from it if the enemies are perfectly clumped together; AND you are also able to position yourself perfectly in the middle of them, since you can't move between attacks. And only one attack on each target, so if vorpal doesn't proc, unlike the fighter's ridiculous number of attacks, you can't keep going for the main target until it drops. That perfectly-clumped-together, perfectly-accessible thing only happens like twice a campaign IME. It's more like 3 enemies in reach, tops, in most fights... and even then only in the first round, before they realize you can whirlwind and then spread out for the rest of the fight. Sure, the Ranger can do it all day, and sure, he also gets horde breaker (again, situationally), but still it seems like it'll be a rare situation where he outperforms the fighter in actual non-theorycraft encounters.

That said, Ranger gets lots of other tricks/features that fighter doesn't, and it'll certainly be a more interesting playstyle --working to line up whirlwind as much as possible, instead of just running up and rolling multiple attacks the same way every turn.

For that reason, I'm now leaning a little less toward straight Fighter, and a little more toward a build of vHuman (mobile) Ranger 11 -> Barb 2 (for Reckless) -> Fighter 2 (for Action Surge) -> Barb 3 (for Frenzy) -> Fighter 3 (for subclass). Inserting those 12th/4th/4th levels whenever I feel like I need a feat or ASI. I like that it allows for interesting play 1-11, then ramps up from there; and that it frees up the race choice to anything (since Reckless replaces Pack Tactics). I'm a little apprehensive of having to explain and defend a complex MC build to DM after DM (I already have to do too much of that with much simpler multiclasses, unfortunately); but I think the fun will be worth it.

[Joe the Rat]

It also gives you the ability to hide the vorpal scimitar in an extradimensional pocket when you're not using it. You can get advantage on a more consistent basis this way, since warlock spells and invocations provide a variety of ways to do it.

This is a boon in favor of Eldritch Knight (or at least EK 3) - bonus action summonable from anywhere on the same plane. 3 levels of either one secures your weapon.