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View Full Version : Pathfinder Aegis build. The Hull Buster - Master of Reach Weapons



ghysch
2018-07-04, 09:38 AM
This is my first post, so bear with me here. I'm looking for some feedback on a build for a Starjammer campaign.

Half orc Aegis with a Lucerne Hammer for a large creature and spiked gauntlets. I'll address why half orc and lucerne hammer rather than other choices at the end. I'm going to leave out magic items for now for sake of ease.

Str 18 (w/ +2 from Astral Armor)
Dex 16
Con 16
Int 13
Wis 13
Cha 11

Astral Armor gives Improved Damage for free, which adds +3 damage to 2H weapons.

Feats at 9th level are Power Attack, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Vital Strike, Mobility (working on Whirlwind for later)

Armor customizations at this point are as follows

(1) Energy Protection (Fire - 10)
(1) Energy Protection (lightning - 10)
(1) Push (free CMB check with every melee attack to push creature your size or smaller directly away from you 5ft)
(2) Powerful Build (may wield weapons for creatures 1 size larger with no penalty)
(2) Flight
(2) Increased Size (aegis and all his equipment go up one size)
(4) Free Customization points to assign based on situation.

Flight and the two energy protections are primarily because it's a futuristic campaign. Most energy weapons do electric or fire damage, and is there ever a time when flight isn't practical for the heavily armored guy in the campaign?

So; if I've mathed this all out correctly, I will be a large sized creature with a huge sized lucerne hammer. My damage will be 8d6+ 18 (lucerne hammer base is 1d12 which goes to 4d6 for 2 size increases which then becomes 8d6 with Vital Strike +6 2H Str +9 power attack +3 Improved Damage). Average of about 46 points of damage per swing.

My threatened range will be 15ft, which means I will be able to make attacks of opportunity in an area 40ft across on the board.

Dodge and Mobility are of course leading up to Whirlwind some day, because at that stage, why the heck not?

The Push customization applies to all my melee attacks, so if someone closes to melee I use my attack of opportunity to smash them with the spiked gauntlet, which then (hopefully) pushes them back 5 ft and on my regular turn I hit them with the hammer, which will (again hopefully) push them back another 5 ft, meaning they will always provoke an attack of opportunity for approaching me. It's a free action to grip or ungrip the lucerne hammer with a spiked gauntlet so I should be good there. That's discussed in another thread, so I won't go over it here.

The reason I call this Build the Hull Buster is because I have a vision of a half orc with a hammer that is actually capable of smashing his way through the hull of an enemy ship.

So what does everyone think? What kind of equipment should I be using to optimize this build? Whirlwind is pretty feat intensive, but with the threatened area I'll be enjoying it seems worth it. Is there something better I could be going for with feats?

Also: if my GM lets us go mythic I am going to take Mythic vital streak and change the name of the build to world breaker.

Thanks in advance everyone!

Andor13
2018-07-05, 10:02 AM
It all looks pretty good to me.

However, if you also have access to Path of War materials in your campaign, I would probably spend my customization points on those, and save feats for things they can't replicate.

Since you're going for "Big Smashy Orc" Primal Fury (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/disciplines-and-maneuvers/primal-fury-maneuvers/) is the place to look. the 3rd level Stance "Primal Warrior Stance" give you another stacking size bonus you can turn on or off with a swift action, and the 5th level maneuver "Cornered Frenzy Strike" (which you can't take until 11th level, granted, but then you didn't have whirlwind attack yet either) is an excellent stand-in for Whirlwind attack if you don't need to use it that often.

You're limited to the archetype progression chart (except for Advanced Study) but you have the most flexible Discipline access in the game so you can branch out to add extra defenses or offenses.

Then you could spend feats on things like Deep Impact (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/feats/deep-impact-psionic/) or Quicken Suit.

Mathias1313
2018-07-05, 10:54 AM
Like the build so far, just a quick question? How are you calculating your threaten range? Your base should be 10 (x2 for reach weapon). You should have a threaten range of 20ft. Do you have something that I missed?

ghysch
2018-07-08, 09:18 AM
Like the build so far, just a quick question? How are you calculating your threaten range? Your base should be 10 (x2 for reach weapon). You should have a threaten range of 20ft. Do you have something that I missed?

The increased size customization gives you a reach of 10ft, which would be taken to 20 using a reach weapon. That's what I took from the space/reach templates on the srd anyway. I suppose if I count the 10 feat that I fill, I actually threaten an area 50ft across.

Elricaltovilla
2018-07-08, 09:28 AM
The increased size customization gives you a reach of 10ft, which would be taken to 20 using a reach weapon. That's what I took from the space/reach templates on the srd anyway. I suppose if I count the 10 feat that I fill, I actually threaten an area 50ft across.

Because you have a reach weapon, you actually only threaten any squares 15-20 ft. away from you. Reach weapons don't affect adjacent squares. In the case of doubling your reach, it means you don't threaten enemies within 5-10 ft. of you (adjacent and first square out). Once you reach 5th level, you should consider the haft strike (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/path-of-war/feats/haft-strike-combat/) feat so that you can threaten the full 20 ft. radius around you. It will make your life much easier than trying to deal with juggling between your reach weapon and your spiked gauntlet, which, according to paizo's FAQ/errata you can't do anyway. (http://paizo.com/paizo/faq/v5748nruor1fm#v5748eaic9qw9)

ghysch
2018-07-08, 09:39 AM
It all looks pretty good to me.

However, if you also have access to Path of War materials in your campaign, I would probably spend my customization points on those, and save feats for things they can't replicate.

...

Then you could spend feats on things like Deep Impact or Quicken Suit.

I hadn't really looked at things from Path of War, but I have now and you are correct. There are awesome options here. Not to mention, being able to temporarily but limitlessly change out my situational customizations as a standard action !?!? Reconfigure is almost unnecessary at that point. I can just dump my spare points into Flight and be incredibly fast until i need it to be something else for 1 minute or so.

And I was definitely feeling feat starved. I really wanted to work Furious Focus in somewhere. From what I can tell it combos with Vital Strike and then that combined with all my attacks of opportunity make any additional attacks per round I get from leveling just icing on the big smashy cake.

Besides I'm also our ships engineer (don't ask. I don't know why...) I should probably take a feat or two so I can actually repair our ship.

Elricaltovilla
2018-07-08, 09:46 AM
Besides I'm also our ships engineer (don't ask. I don't know why...) I should probably take a feat or two so I can actually repair our ship.

Possibly because you have Astral Repair as an at will ability, a scaling bonus to craft skills, and Master Craftsman as a bonus feat? I don't know what the skill lists are like for Starfinder, but I assume Craft: Starship should allow you to use your craft skills effectively to repair and upgrade your ship.

ghysch
2018-07-13, 08:38 PM
"Possibly because you have Astral Repair as an at will ability, a scaling bonus to craft skills, and Master Craftsman as a bonus feat? I don't know what the skill lists are like for Starfinder, but I assume Craft: Starship should allow you to use your craft skills effectively to repair and upgrade your ship."

Yes. The original 'dont ask me why' was mostly meant to be humorous rhetoric based on the fact that my other role in the party is smash half orc. However the limitations on astral repair make it prohibitive for use on the scale of a starship. It can put peices back together but not fix anything that's been warped. 2hp per standard action is quite slow. Etc.

And as it turns out repairing starships is hard. It takes 2 feats and 12 ranks between 2 skills. The reasons you listed are valid, but to really be effective in that capacity I have some work to do.