At what level are lockdown builds important?

[Particle_Man]

At a low level I assume that damage is more relevant. At high levels the enemies can just teleport. What is the sweet spot for the effective lock-down build?

[JMS]

Well, the one hit kills of level 1 stop by 3rd or so, and so the earlier the better for lock-down.

[ExLibrisMortis]

Levels 1-8, I'd say, but at lower optimization levels (less ubiquitous flight/teleportation) they will still be important in the low teens. Defensive Sweep is about the last big ability a lockdown build can get (level 12), so that might serve as a nice marker.

[Ramza00]

LVL 5 to 9 is where you get the nice toy of Thicket of Blades.

LVL 5 for a pure crusader, and

LVL 9 for an X 8/ Crusader 1 using the 9th level feat to get an extra stance of 3rd level. You need to use the 9th level feat since Crusader 1 can only choose lvl 1 stances but it can choose lvl 3 maneuvers, under the technical rules of RAW. That said besides getting thicket of blades you also get White Raven Tactics which is worth a 1 level dip and a feat all by itself, getting Thicket of Blades is just super whip cream on top.

[Hackulator]

It really depends entirely on your DM and what sort of things he likes to bring to the table. I play with DMs whose monsters generally fight to the death and I play with DMs whose monsters rabbit at the first sign of the tide turning against them.

[rrwoods]

Also if your party is synergizing with you, you can extend the effectiveness a bit. Anchor effects for example, or stuns to keep the teleports from happening.

You can also transition into some of this stuff yourself, depending on what path you took into level 10 or so. Getting some stun or daze effects natively or via items can put a damper on opponent’s teleportation escapes.

[Gnaeus]

Also if your party is synergizing with you, you can extend the effectiveness a bit. Anchor effects for example, or stuns to keep the teleports from happening.

You can also transition into some of this stuff yourself, depending on what path you took into level 10 or so. Getting some stun or daze effects natively or via items can put a damper on opponent’s teleportation escapes.

Or Polymorph. Get a 30 reach with your spiked chain and Mage slayer and the only place the enemy caster wants to teleport is out of the room. I’ve seen chain tripper/denial builds up into the mid teens.

[tstewt1921]

On this, for lockdown purposes, isn't there a weapon ability that does the Anchor effect?

[Eldariel]

Lockdown is great against big tough enemies. We had a thread about facing a (CR6) young adult blue dragon on level 4 and one of the big things a party can do to take it down is get a lockdown guy in position since its whole game is breath strafing, and winged creatures are trippable. It has a ton of HP; trying to dish out 100 HP in a hurry on level 4 is a bit rough even for chargers and its breaths are a very real threat but a lockdown guy can easily bring it down and smack it to bits. This stays true for a long while and indeed, lockdown is a good auxiliary for almost any build since most of their important stuff is non-actions so you basically get free extra stuff for a bit of an investment but no actions required with it.

[Ramza00]

On this, for lockdown purposes, isn't there a weapon ability that does the Anchor effect?

Binding is a 3.0 and 3.5 weapon ability with slight differences between the sources. MIC is the most recent version. It is a +1 weapon effect where the weapon twice a day can do a swift action activation (to make the effect occur) and then the next successful attack you do with the weapon triggers a dimensional anchor effect that lasts for 10 mins. Except it does not work that well on creatures and objects with high spell resistance for your SR is static and thus your caster level check is 10+1d20 so at higher levels the Binding effect becomes less useful.

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If you are using a one handed (spinning sword) or light handed reach weapon (kursaigama) as your main weapon, you can always...

Choose to get a Binding effect on a secondary weapon you can TWF with 8,000 GP (+2 weapon, +1 for Magic Effects, +1 for Binding Effect) on Ammunition for 8000/50 =160 GP a pop, throw a said Shrunken at your enemy to prevent them teleporting. Contrast that with wand of Dimensional Anchor which is 21,000/50=420 GP a pop and has an inferior action routine (swift+one of your attacks in a full attack action vs standard action). Or a scroll of dimensional anchor which costs 700 GP a pop.

If you go this type of lockdown (one handed or light handed reach with spinning sword or kursaigama) you trade down damage (doing less) but you can TWF with this weapon plus a glove of endless javelins for a ranged form of lockdown. Of course the problem with this build is that it still needs lots of feats to pull off. (TWF, ITWF, GTWF, Rapid Shot, Targetter's Arrow Swarm, etc.)

[MisterKaws]

Well, if you can find a way to become a native to Demonweb you can just get the Wizard to spam Planar Bubble at you and you can be a relevant lockdown tank forever :)

[Elkad]

Anticipate Teleportation extends your lockdown build as well.

If the enemies teleport, you get a buff round. Or a round to kill his friend who didn't teleport. So he may be forced to get past your lockdown instead.

[ezekielraiden]

Yeah, if you build very carefully it can last a long time. You kinda need caster support (or some very expensive custom items), but you can do it. Take away all those fancy teleports, and a Wizard will hate you being in their face. Taking away actions or turns can be very strong with how rocket-tag-y 3e combat can be.