Advice for these monster builds?

[danielxcutter]

Doing these as a thought exercise, mostly, but I'm going for whatever you'd throw at your players than fun but impractical ones.


Arcadian Avenger + Crusader: It says Crusader is their favorite class if you use Tome of Battle. Makes sense - now, what maneuvers should such an avenger choose? Two-Weapon Defense is better swapped out with Improved Two-Weapon Fighting, but otherwise, feats go unchanged. I don't think there are many Crusader-native maneuvers that are particularly TWF-friendly, but there should be some way to do it.

Ethereal Defiler + Warlock: Apparently, their Tainted Energy stacks with a Warlock's Eldritch Blast! I'm not sure if that means that a defiler just adds their Tainted Energy damage to the blast or vice-versa, or both happen and one level of Warlock means two 7d6 blasts per round. Thanks to their significant number of Abberation HD, they have +16 BAB already - which works quite well with Eldritch Glaive, I imagine, especially since defilers also have some decent physical stats as well. I wonder if this means a tainted energy glaive is possible... how does that work, really? Mostly I'm just curious about that.

Valkyrie + Swordsage: They have an effective Swordsage level of 10. I don't think there's too much to say, but how would you go around with making that kind of elite valkyrie while keeping with the flavor, and utilizing the special abilities as well if possible? At the very least, their 11 Outsider HD means four attacks eventually I guess.

Note that a valkyrie's natural maneuvers are from Setting Sun, Tiger Claw, and Stone Dragon.

Reth Dekala + ???: Similar to Valkyries, but well... a bit weirder. Unlike the Valkyrie, they have an effective initiator of 5... that stacks with all three martial adept classes, so there's some more wiggle room for a build. The natural maneuvers are from Devoted Spirit, Iron Heart, and Tiger Claw, which are all good disciplines. That's good, but... interestingly, their favored class is Sorcerer, and there are apparently actual powerful reth dekala sorcerers in canon. The Jade Phoenix Mage specifically suggests an evil adaption - could that be used to make a formidable gish? How about Reth Dekala(CR 4)/Sorcerer 4(CR +2)/Abjurant Champion +2(CR +2)/Crusader 1(CR +1)/JPM 10 maybe? That's 14 levels of Sorcerer casting and gets 9th level maneuvers as well.

[danielxcutter]

Nobody's answered and it fell off the front page, so bumping.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Arcadian Avenger (MMV) + Crusader (ToB)
They have 8 HD, so the first Crusader level will give them a feat and they can pick 3rd level maneuvers. I'd go Improved Shield Bash, but it's going to turn out weak regardless of what maneuvers/stances are used.

I'd personally give this a bunch of nonassociated Sorcerer levels, at Sorcerer 8 it's CR 10. Give it some strong crowd controls and buffs, and it's going to be a suitable challenge even with the suboptimal TWF build.


Ethereal Defiler (MMV) + Warlock (CA)
Tainted Energy is a swift action, and I believe Eldritch Blast would just stack the damage onto it, in addition to any shapes or essences applied. However, at CR 16 its damage is laughable, I'd probably throw on a template like variant Half-Fiend (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a) for spell-like abilities and flight before giving it class levels.

This would be another great choice for nonassociated Sorcerer levels, at Sorcerer 9 he's CR 20, but still laughable. At Sorcerer 18 he's CR 25, or Sorcerer 21 is CR 26, if I played at epic levels I'd actually consider using that as an opponent. There's not much room for improvement with such a high base CR, though.


Valkyrie (ToB) + Swordsage (ToB)
Class levels means magical gear, I'd give it two Wounding weapons with the Mongoose maneuvers and focus a lot on defensive abilities to keep it fighting as long as possible.

[danielxcutter]

For starters, I do believe you may have misunderstood the last idea - I only considered the Sorcerer levels for the Reth Dekala, not for the Avenger or Defiler.

That being said, thanks for the other advice. Let's begin.


Arcadian Avenger (MMV) + Crusader (ToB)
They have 8 HD, so the first Crusader level will give them a feat and they can pick 3rd level maneuvers. I'd go Improved Shield Bash, but it's going to turn out weak regardless of what maneuvers/stances are used.

Well, it's only a CR 6 base monster, so there's plenty of room for more Crusader levels than that. And the RHD means it can get 9th-level maneuvers before epic CR. I suppose Crusader is pretty meh for a TWF build though. Considering that they get a morale bonus when an ally falls and they often work in groups, perhaps White Raven boosts would work well. One Arcadian Avenger with plenty of Crusader levels and a few who don't or have less levels.[/quote]


Ethereal Defiler (MMV) + Warlock (CA)
Tainted Energy is a swift action, and I believe Eldritch Blast would just stack the damage onto it, in addition to any shapes or essences applied. However, at CR 16 its damage is laughable, I'd probably throw on a template like variant Half-Fiend (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060630a) for spell-like abilities and flight before giving it class levels.

An Ethereal Defiler Warlock 4 gets 8d6 damage as a swift action, including the rider effect of Tainted Energy. Moreover, the BAB is sufficient for four attacks per round with Eldritch Glaive. Claw/claw/tail/Tainted Energy Glaive x 4 as a swift(if the Defiler takes a 5-foot step back) would be nasty.

I mean, the variant half-fiends aren't bad - in fact they're pretty good - but that leaves even less room for class levels. Maybe on a lower-level monster, but for this...

At epic levels or as a boss for a high-level party, an Ethereal Defiler Sorcerer wouldn't be that bad, true. I wonder if you could manage to finagle Eldritch Theurge in there somewhere for a higher-level boss?



Valkyrie (ToB) + Swordsage (ToB)
Class levels means magical gear, I'd give it two Wounding weapons with the Mongoose maneuvers and focus a lot on defensive abilities to keep it fighting as long as possible.

So, nothing especially notable to do aside from the basics? Got it.




Still haven't got anything on that Reth Dekela idea, but thanks for the ones you did give advice for.