Less obvious ways to boost attack ?

[Braininthejar2]

So, you're trying to hit a target with high AC

The obvious ways to improve your chances:

- enhancement bonus to attack (easily done with magic weapon)
- morale bonus to attack (easily done with all sort of blesses/bard songs)
- increase strength to add to the attack (enhancement, possibly rage)
- decrease size (might not be worth it, with shrinking your weapon)
- find a way to make your strike a touch attack.

But sometimes there comes a day when a pitfiend decides to wear bracers of armor, and you might need a little extra push. So, what else can be done to improve your chances of landing a hit?

Bonus points if it's:
- good for more than one attack
- could be whipped up by an artificer on a short notice.

[ben-zayb]

Complete Champion has the cleric spell Surge of Fortune, which
1. gives +2 luck bonus to attack rolls for 1 rd/CL
2. can be discharge for a single "natural 20 roll" effect

[Nifft]

(Superior) Invisibility / total Concealment, remove that pesky Dex bonus.

Brilliant weapon, remove that pesky Armor bonus.

Paralysis / lots of Dexterity damage, remove that pesky miss chance and auto-crit the helpless target instead.

[Zaq]

Deny the target their DEX bonus somehow.

Trip them, flank them, get high ground.

[daremetoidareyo]

Aid another for a +2. Good for fams and such

[Cavir]

Touch attacks. Ignore all that annoying armor.

1) Emerald Razor maneuver (Warblade, Swordsage, ToB magic item, Martial Study, UMD martial scroll)
2) Flame Blade spell (UMD a wand) combined with damage maneuvers

[Braininthejar2]

Denying dex bonus is hard with the targets that really matter. :smallconfused: So is stat damage.

Surge of fortune is a nice find. Pity it's range "self". Can you use a swift action and an immediate action on the same round? (using next turn's swift action) if not, it means a cleric would not be able to use tricks for overcoming both high AC and high SR on the same attack. (a harm would get doubled on a crit, wouldn't it? :sabine: )

Emerald razor is good, but it's only good for one attack. :smallannoyed:

Flame blade makes damage fire - which is trivial for the enemy to protect against. :smallfrown:

Brilliant Aura might be what I was looking for - an expensive scroll to make, to be sure, but that's what artificers are for. :smallcool:

[Cavir]

Flame blade makes damage fire - which is trivial for the enemy to protect against.
Can you (generically speaking) do a wand of a spell with metamagic applied (hadn't considered it before)? Energy Substitution with the Flame Blade. It's a +0 level metamagic, so no change in cost. If you have Harm and fighting a pitfiend then having a partial wand for each energy type is pocket change :)


Emerald razor is good, but it's only good for one attack.
True, but should nearly guarantee a hit.


Can you use a swift action and an immediate action on the same round?
That's a high level class ability for martial adepts so without a special way of doing it, no.

Side note- I've never dived into artificers so I'm not clear on their precise abilities. Someday I will, but not yet.

[Nifft]

Can you (generically speaking) do a wand of a spell with metamagic applied (hadn't considered it before)? Energy Substitution with the Flame Blade. It's a +0 level metamagic, so no change in cost. If you have Harm and fighting a pitfiend then having a partial wand for each energy type is pocket change :)

There are core examples of metamagic wands in the SRD, so probably yes.

[Braininthejar2]

Side note- I've never dived into artificers so I'm not clear on their precise abilities. Someday I will, but not yet.

they can make a scroll/wand of anything, can cast a small set of spells. And they can use gold to make temporary magic item improvements - the most boring application of it is that the whole party will usually have bane weapons against whatever they're expecting to face.

[Cavir]

There's Reach (feat, rod, maybe some other ways) on Harm plus True Strike. Yes, only one shot but how many Harm's are needed? Gotta leave something for the rest of the party to do.

[sleepyphoenixx]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Wraithstrike (SpC). It's a 2nd level, swift-action, personal range spell that make all your melee attacks touch attacks for a round.
If you have an Artificer even better. Use Spell Storing Item to make a one-shot wand of it, then have him use Metamagic Item to apply Extend/Persist to it.

[BowStreetRunner]

Artificer already has Knowledge (arcana) and (the planes). Knowledge Devotion grants an insight bonus to attack and damage, plus it makes one more Knowledge skill a class skill. Since (dungeoneering), (local), (nature), and (religion) are the only other Knowledge skills associated with a creature type, that means the Artificer will have half of the relevant skills as class skills.

[ViperMagnum357]

There are a bunch of Devotion feats from Complete Champion that can directly or indirectly boost your attack rolls in short bursts, mostly using Sacred or Profane bonuses: Animal Devotion (Sacred/Profane Strength bonus), Chaos Devotion (Sacred/Profane bonus to attack or AC depending on roll), Destruction Devotion (reduce natural or worn armor bonus on successful hits), Knowledge Devotion (Insight bonus on attack and damage rolls based on knowledge check), Law Devotion (bonus to AC or Attack, can switch each round).

Several require swift actions, so you will be pressed to use them all during a single encounter without Ruby Knight Vindicator, even if you have large Turning/Rebuking pools available.

[noce]

Attacking from higher ground grants +1 to hit.

[Braininthejar2]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Wraithstrike

I did, in the opening post: "making your attack a touch attack"

Thank you for pointing out how to apply it though.


Knowledge Devotion grants an insight bonus to attack and damage

Certainly useful, though it's limited to one character.


There are a bunch of Devotion feats from Complete Champion

A bit too late for it now, but worth looking into in the next campaign.


Attacking from higher ground grants +1 to hit.

At this level everyone can fly anyway. (except poor Anakin)


Okay. Beyond devotion feats and surge of fortune, what sources of sacred / profane / alchemical / luck / insight attack bonuses could you recommend? :smallsmile:

[Powerdork]

Dispelling spells and magic items that the target's using to gain an AC bonus (such as magic armor, bracers of armor, or particularly a ring of protection, since that's usually an AC bonus you can't ignore). Sure, items only deactivate for 1d4 rounds, but three times out of four, that's enough for you to take advantage. Four of four, if it's someone else doing the dispel work, or you're using a spell storing or dispelling weapon.

[Rebel7284]

Dispelling spells and magic items that the target's using to gain an AC bonus (such as magic armor, bracers of armor, or particularly a ring of protection, since that's usually an AC bonus you can't ignore). Sure, items only deactivate for 1d4 rounds, but three times out of four, that's enough for you to take advantage. Four of four, if it's someone else doing the dispel work, or you're using a spell storing or dispelling weapon.

Yeah this. Debuff the target's AC. There are more passive debuffs like Paladin of Slaughter's Debilitating Aura and more active ones like Slow and (aforementioned) Dispel Magic.

[ezekielraiden]

Either divine favor or prayer plus the Fate's Favored trait--both spells give luck bonuses to attack and damage, and prayer also affects saves and skill checks. Divine favor is a 1st level spell only affecting one target for one minute, prayer a 3rd level spell affecting everyone in the party for 1 round/level. Fate's Favored increases luck bonuses from any source by 1. Getting +2 to attack and damage for (essentially) a whole fight at level 1 is Not Bad, and when your first-level slots become largely superfluous, it's a handy buff. If everyone in the party has Fate's Favored, prayer can be especially good because it also inflicts a luck penalty on your enemies, but a wand of divine favor (or some sort of charges/day usable) may be more practical.

[Goaty14]

Denying dex bonus is hard with the targets that really matter.

How is it "hard" to flank a pit fiend? The rogue buddy is going to be doing it anyways, and monsters don't really come packaged with Uncanny Dodge, so...

[Allanimal]

How is it "hard" to flank a pit fiend? The rogue buddy is going to be doing it anyways, and monsters don't really come packaged with Uncanny Dodge, so...

Flanking doesn’t deny the DEX bonus...

[Braininthejar2]

How is it "hard" to flank a pit fiend?

A pit fiend was just an example to illustrate the problem. A powerful enemy with very high ac can come in many flavours, many of which include uncanny dodge, or at least some ways to thwart invisibiity.

[Eldariel]

Well, True Strike plus charge multipliers works really well. A core only option.

Tripping, as mentioned, is pretty easy vs. everything short of Tarrasque if you are e.g. Barbarian. +4 is nice and it works vs. winged flight.

Aid Another can be stacked ad infinitum. Diminuitive Animated Objects, Undead or similar controllables are an easy way to get +20 (or more if desired) particularly with communal buffs.

Polymorphing works if you aren't doing it already. Monster stats + magic items and buff spells = hard to beat.

Simple buff stack can of course be ridiculous. Draconic Polymorph into e.g. Jarilith (Outsider type from e.g. Lesser Holy Transformation) followed by Bite of the Werebear, Holy Transformation and Greater Visage of the Deity is already Str in the 60ish. Add to that Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Recitation, Greater Magic Weapon, etc. and few things have enough AC for you to care.

[Braininthejar2]

Aid Another can be stacked ad infinitum. Diminuitive Animated Objects, Undead or similar controllables are an easy way to get +20 (or more if desired) particularly with communal buffs.

"I will not use hordes of trained squirrells to exploit the grapple rules."


followed by Bite of the Werebear,

And the old favourite - dire bear wild shape followed by bite of the werebear. That's double bear :smallbiggrin: