Elves
2021-03-02, 11:01 AM
Build concept: Iaijutsu shadowpouncer who does a lot of damage.
1
Stub: monk 7/totemist 2/cleric 1/shadowlord 4/warblade 1/iaijutsu master 5 (16 BAB)
ACFs: optionally, martial monk
Sub Levels: Darkmoon disciple (monk 7th), Hin disciple (monk 1st), halfling totemist
Variant Class: sidewinder monk, cloistered cleric
Race: Magic-blooded necropolitan draconic unseelie half-fey (w/LA buyoff) strongheart halfling
(if you don't want to be undead you have to find some other means of Con damage immunity, like UMDing sheltered vitality)
Without LA buyoff you have to drop draconic and half-fey, which lowers the numbers but doesn't break the build. LA buyoff is assumed for slightly more impressive numbers.
RACIAL TRAITS
Small size: +1 atk/ac, +4 hide
+1 atk with thrown, ranged
Fly 120 ft. (good)
Immune to enchantment
DR 15/cold iron
Darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision
SLAs from half-fey (charm spells synergize with your high Cha)
Undead immunities
Winter Chill (Su): Living, nonfey creatures within 5 feet suffer a morale penalty on saves equal to the unseelie fey's Charisma bonus.
28 point buy: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 18; racial mods -2, +6, -2, 0, 0, +10
Stats @ 20th: Str 6, Dex 26 (20) Con -, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 44 (38)
Cha buffs: mertoran leaf (+2), potentially aging bonuses (+3) , faustian pact (+1), can UMD transfusion (+1-+5), snowsong (+4), greater visage of the deity (+4)
BAB 16; base saves Fort 14, Ref 16, Will 9; hp 135; init +28
R: Quick Draw
F: Weapon Focus (light mace, something else @ 1st then swap w/ weapon aptitude)*
F: TWF
1: Unorthodox Flurry*
3: Craven
6: Sun School*
9: Staggering Strike
12: Planar Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus)
15: Lightning Mace
18: Confound the Big Folk
--
B: Imp. Unarmed Strike (mnk 1)
B: Underfoot Combat (mnk 1) ( from Hin disciple)
B: Combat Reflexes (mnk 2)
B: Mercurial Strike (mnk 6)
--
B. Weapon Focus (katana) (clr 1, War, swapped w/ weapon aptitude)
B. EWP (quickrazor) (clr 1, Revered Ancestors, swapped w/ weapon aptitude)
B. Knowledge Devotion (clr 1, Knowledge)
--
B: Dodge (iaijutsu 4)
--
B. Mobility (golden dancing pegleg)**
B. Spring Attack (golden dancing pegleg)**
B. Blind-Fight (fiendish ear)**
B. Improved Initiative (bracers of the blinding strike or silverhelm of the guardian)
*These feats are initially used for Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack, then retrained or psychic reformed when you can obtain those feats from the pegleg (ECL 14+) and iaijutsu master (ECL 19th).
**Per Sword & Fist, virtual feats (“benefit of x feat”) fulfill prerequisites.
Other Feats that Would Be Nice to Have: Hidden Talent (dimension hop), Power Attack > Divine Might, Robilar's Gambit. Gravy: Snap Kick, Azure Talent, Bonus Essentia, Multiattack.
Heroics for one of the above. Possibly trade Underfoot Combat & Confound the Big Folk for two more. (Could be PA>DM using martial monk ACF.)
Had to get rid of Hidden Talent to fit Lightning Mace. Anklets & belt of battle give you 5 swift action teleports per encounter -- enough for a 10 round fight, which is plenty -- but it's unfortunate that it means you are fully item dependent for swift action teleports.
Underfoot Combat>Confound the Big Folk included so the build can perform in situations where there is no way to use shadow blend and foes are both paralysis immune & have true seeing (so paralyzing enhancement and invisibility don't work either). In practice, I might swap those feats out and focus on more ways to make sure you’re in darkness.
Ranks: Arcana 11, dungeoneering 6, hide 18, iaijutsu focus 23, local 6, move silently 10, nature 3, perform (dance) 5, planes 8, religion 6, tumble 15, UMD 12
1: arcana 4, hide 4, move silently 4, iaijutsu 2 cc, tumble 4
2: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
3: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
4: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
5: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
6: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
7: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
8: hide 1, planes 5
9: hide 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, nature 3
10: arcana 1, planes 3
11: hide 2, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 2
12: hide 1, UMD 5
13: hide 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 3
14: local 6
15: hide 2, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 2
16: iaijutsu 1, perform (dance) 5
17: iaijutsu 6
18: iaijutsu 4, tumble 2
19: iaijutsu 2, tumble 4
20: dungeoneering 5, iaijutsu 1
Explanation: This fulfills our obligations (10 Hide/MS for Telf; 8 planes for Touchstone; 5 dance for slippers; 9 iaijutsu for Ia Master; 10 tumble for Confound) while also giving ranks in each Knowledge Devotion skill (since we get that feat as a side benefit of the cleric dip).
Maneuvers
Stance: blood in the water
Maneuvers: white raven strike (readied), white raven tactics (readied), shadow jaunt (from item; readied), douse the flames
Blood in the Water will quickly result in large bonuses due to the # of attacks you make.
Incarnum
Your melds are blink shirt to shadow pounce, claws of the wyrm for claw attacks and chaos roc's span (from Dragon Mag) for some extra Staggering Strike procs.
Both essentia in blink shirt for 30 ft teleport range.
WEAPONS (127.5k)
+1 aptitude keen paralyzing Tiger Claw adamantine quickrazor 75k w/ greater truedeath crystal 10k
+1 aptitude keen Tiger Claw quickrazor (for offhand) 18k
two wand chambers 200
+1 shortspear 2k with greater returning crystal 4k
+1 focus (OA) katana 4.5k (+4 insight to Iaijutsu Focus)
UMD (36k)
CL 20 wand of deeper darkness, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of greater magic weapon, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of greater mighty wallop, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of magic vestment, 10 charges 9k
CL 1 wand of weapon shift, 25 charges 325*
CL 5 wand of reduce person, 10 charges 650**
*Use weapon shift on your quickrazors to turn them into bludgeoning weapons, then put greater mighty wallop on them. When weapon shift ends they turn back into quickrazors but now have wallop on them.
**To affect Medium creatures with Confound feat.
ARMOR (10k)
+1 animated mithral heavy shield 10k - add more to it when you have money
WONDROUS ITEMS (339k)
Arms: bracers of the blinding strike* w/ bracers of the hunter, bracers of murder and bracers of Majere added 172k
Body: none
Face: blindfold of true darkness 9k
Feet: slippers of battledancing 33k
Hands: gauntlets of heartfelt blows 12k w/ Shadow Hand gloves (shadow jaunt) 4.5k and gloves of the balanced hand 12k added
Head: 4 anklets of translocation alternate slot 8.5k
Ring 1: ring of anticipation 6k
Ring 2: ring of the darkhidden 2k
Shoulders: shadow cloak (DotU 101) 5.5k
Throat: +1 aptitude necklace of natural weapons (claws) 8k
Torso: rogue's vest 18k
Waist: 4 belts of battle 48k
No slot: handy haversack 2k, 8 minor cognizance crystals (1 pp) 8k (you can fill 2 per day of downtime)
Battle belts and anklets are swapped each encounter.
*from magic of faerun, not “bracers of blinding strikes” from MIC.
GRAFTS (59.5k)
Golden dancing pegleg (Dragon 318 p54) 50k
Long arm* 5k
Fiendish ear 2.5k
Fiendish jaw 2k
*Primarily so that you still threaten spaces (for Mercurial Strike) when affected by reduce person, but good either way.
TOMES (137k)
Tome of Charisma +5 137k
ADDED TO OTHER ITEMS (91k)
Saves +5 25k
Cha +6 36k
Dex +6 36k
EXPENDITURES (2.5k)
Ritual of Shadow Walking (Lords of Darkness p125) 2.5k
Ritual of Crucimigration 3k
psychic reformation for dodge/mobility/spring attack -- gonna be a few k
MUNDANE (1.5k)
Mwk tools for iaijutsu focus, UMD, all K (Dev) knowledge skills 400
A hot stack of mertoran leaf (costs 10gp/hour of use) 1.1k
Wreathed in Darkness. Keep deeper darkness active on yourself via UMD. It both triggers your monk shadow blend and gives you a natural 60-ft radius in which you can use your ritual of shadow walking teleport. The long duration means this spell is extremely cheap to keep up (45 gp/day).
Deeper darkness has a radius of 60 ft but your shadow walking teleport has 100 ft range. How to get the full value? Put deeper darkness on a throwing weapon (like a spear for the long range) with a crystal of return. You can throw it as part of a move or swift action shadow pounce, then use your standard action to shadow walk to that location and shadow pounce the foe in question. Drop it at start of round if you don't need.
Not addressed here: you want a way to summon additional items with darkness placed on them in case of dispels. Maybe instant summons? You can also put deeper darkness on objects and drop them as a free action to create an area you can teleport back to.
Iaijutsu Focus. Your main source of damage is iaijutsu focus. All iaijutsu attacks will also trigger sneak attack. You qualify for the “draw a weapon” part of iaijutsu with quickrazors which are a free action to stow after using. What remains is to render foes flat-footed.
[B]Shadow Blend. You have total concealment except in “full natural daylight” or a daylight spell. Deeper darkness means you have this unless dispelled. Foes who can’t see you are FFed vs you per RC. Note that your concealment from this ability applies even against creatures who can see through darkness.
Act First. Creatures who haven’t acted yet in combat are FFed.
Paralyzing weapon enhancement. Foes struck by your attacks must save or be paralyzed. Paralyzed creatures are FFed.
Confound the Big Folk. You can move into a larger creature’s space and they are flat-footed next round. But see rules issues.
Greater Invisibility. Your telflammar spellcasting lets you cast greater invisibility. Foes who can’t see you are FFed vs you per RC.
Blink: Some argue that blink has the same effect as above because it lets you "strike as an invisible creature", but people can still see you, so it's dubious.
White Raven Strike. Maneuver, requires refresh. Attack flat-foots foe for 1 round. But costs your standard action shadow pounce and only affects 1 foe, so shouldn't be used.
Shadow Pounce. You want to use as many of your actions as possible to teleport and shadow pounce.
MOVE ACTION
Blink Shirt. At will move action teleport, scales with essentia. Must start every turn by using this to move at least 10 feet to activate your slippers of battle dancing.
STANDARD ACTION
Ritual of Shadow Walking. Gained from a ritual on Lords of Darkness page 125. At will 100 ft teleport, but only from shadows to shadows. Deeper darkness gives you a 60-foot radius to use it in. 2 temporary con damage and 3d4 hp loss with each use, but con damage is irrelevant to undead.
Shadow Jump. telflammar class feature, max 80ft/day of dimension door with same shadow restriction as above. But no hp loss.
Shadow Jaunt. Readied maneuver, must be refreshed. 50 ft. Save for if your darkness gets dispelled.
SWIFT ACTION
Anklets of Translocation. 2/encounter (you put on a new pair after each encounter). 10 ft.
Belt of Battle. 3/encounter (you switch belts after each encounter), trade a swift action for a move action and use blink shirt.
Dimension Hop. Base 2/day but cognizance crystals are cheap and let you use it more -- though you can only fill 2 per day of downtime. 10ft.
IMMEDIATE ACTION
Shadow Cloak. 3/day. When attacked, teleport up to 10 feet and shadow pounce. Buy more cloaks if you end up using it a lot.
Paralyzing, Winter’s Chill & Massive Damage. Each attack you make triggers a DC 15 save for death from massive damage and most also trigger a DC 17 save to be paralyzed (from the paralyzing weapon enhancement) for 1 round, which renders foe flat-footed. Those DCs are pretty low, right? Well, due to the winter chill ability from your unseelie fey template, living creatures adjacent to you have a -18 penalty on saving throws, so the save DCs for them are functionally 33 and 35, respectively. This is in addition to the staggering strike saves which will be much higher, and in the case of your iaijutsu attacks virtually unmakable.
Damage values (with slippers activated and GMW/wallop applied):
MH quickrazor 3d6 base + 18 cha + 18 fire + 5 enhance (51.5)
OH quickrazor 3d6 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 5 enhance (42.5)
Claw 1d12 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 1 enhance (34.5)
Gore 1d4 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 1 enhance (30.5)
Wing buffet 18 fire; rest is nonlethal damage, but triggers Staggering Strike
Sneak attack 4d6 + 20 (34)
Iaijutsu 9d6 + 162 (193.5)
These are with mertoran leaf and +6 charisma item; additional Cha boosts raise the values further. Fire dmg is from gauntlets of heartfelt blows.
Aptitude enhancement allows both Lightning Mace and Unorthodox Flurry to apply to all weapons used.
Flurry Nova (Foe(s) are FF): (IA = delivers iaijutsu focus damage)
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (9 main IA (4 BAB, 1 flurry, 1 majere, 1 haste, 1 SunSch, 1 Oxy) + 2 offhand IA + 2 claws + 1 gore + 2 wing buffet.)
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
Swift: WRT
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (as above).
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
Swift: Swift action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
If all hit: 45 main (2318), 10 offhand (425), 10 claw (345), 5 gore (153), 10 buffet (180), 70 sneak (2380), 55 iaijutsu (10,615); total 16,415 plus crits & stance dmg.
With 30% crit rate on quickrazors, that gives 16.5 crits & Lightning Mace procs, which trigger a further 5 crits/LMs > 1.5 crits/LMs > .5 crits/LMs for a total of 23.5 quickrazor crits (1636) and LMs (6512), bringing total to 24,204. Nat weapon crits bring it to about 24.3k. Blood in the water means we also rack up +24 to hit and to damage by the end of this.
The next round sucks in comparison:
Refresh Round:
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (as above)
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above); right before one of your shadow pounce attacks, use a swift action to refresh.
If all hit: 18 main (927), 4 offhand (170), 4 claw (138), 2 gore (61), 4 buffet (72), 28 sneak (952), 22 iaijutsu (4257); total 6,505 plus crits & stance dmg.
Refresh round quickrazor crits & LM procs: 6.6 > 2 > .6 > .2 = 9.4 crits (654), 9.4 LM (2600), bringing total to 9759 (plus 700 bitw damage which we won't factor in). And another +9.5 to hit and damage via bitw for next nova.
So the averaged round-over-round damage against a 0 AC target is about 17k plus blood in the water damage, minus natural 1s (-5% output, which can be roughly offset with +2 Cha). Fire resistance/immunity will reduce the damage from gauntlets.
Crit immune foes aren't a big problem since your crits aren't big damage dealers -- they don't get iaijutsu focus or SA -- and Lightning Mace doesn't rely on being able to actually score crits, just threaten them.
AoOs: The numbers above don't take into consideration AoOs, which deal iaijutsu damage thanks to Mercurial Strike. You're probably using heroics to get Robilar's Gambit. The feat synergizes with your shadow cloak, which you can use to maximize single turn damage at the expense of further rounds (it means you can't refresh on your next turn).
Extra: If you pre-buff with a wand of sadism (BOVD), the nova round grants about +2400 to hit during the refresh round, while the refresh round grants about +1000 to hit during the subsequent nova. The bonus also applies to IF rolls, maxing them regardless of any skill penalties that may accrue. Of course, in real combat the bonuses won't be nearly that high because they're limited by enemy hp.
Telflammar Entry. Totemist's blink shirt qualifies you for telflammar. Per CArc 71, you only need to be able to "produce the required effect" to qualify for a specific spell prerequisite. SLAs are the example given, but the rule is generally stated, so should also apply to su effects that function as a spell.
If the DM rules against this, you need to sacrifice two feats for Fey Heritage > Fey Legacy, which hurts but doesn't ruin the build.
If your blink shirt is dispelled do you cease to fulfill the prereq? No -- you remain inherently capable of producing the required effect.
Uncanny Dodge Uncanny dodge doesn’t counter this build. You can still be FFed with uncanny dodge, you merely “retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if caught flat-footed”. So no sneak attack, but iaijutsu still works.
Confound the Big Folk and Teleports. Rules Compendium says a teleported creature “must arrive in an open location”. I think “open location” is most reasonably read to mean “space you can occupy”, but could also be read to preclude entering a space a creature occupies even if you are able to co-occupy that space due to larger size. Another potential reason not to take those feats.
The thematic match of shadow blend, shadow pounce and the ritual of shadow walking is pleasing. There's also appreciable synergy between blink shirt, slippers of battledancing, iaijutsu focus and shadow pounce.
The build I think is elegant because 19 of the 20 levels are essential. Cleric 1 is chosen for the stray level to get feats. Ideally it would also power Divine Might but you come up short on feats.
This isn't really a high-op build because it's "big numberz"/melee SOLs and little else, but the SLAs from half-fey (dominate spells, at will charm person) combined with a high Cha score give you some utility and winter chill makes you a great enabler for other party members with save-yes effects.
Wish list:
- A way to use turning charges.
- More feats.
- More ways to ensure you're in darkness.
- More natural attacks.
- More Cha to X.
Please critique.
Character portrait (https://i.imgur.com/xZiIn7n.jpg)
Variant build using Ruby Knight Vindicator (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25068630&postcount=36)
1
Stub: monk 7/totemist 2/cleric 1/shadowlord 4/warblade 1/iaijutsu master 5 (16 BAB)
ACFs: optionally, martial monk
Sub Levels: Darkmoon disciple (monk 7th), Hin disciple (monk 1st), halfling totemist
Variant Class: sidewinder monk, cloistered cleric
Race: Magic-blooded necropolitan draconic unseelie half-fey (w/LA buyoff) strongheart halfling
(if you don't want to be undead you have to find some other means of Con damage immunity, like UMDing sheltered vitality)
Without LA buyoff you have to drop draconic and half-fey, which lowers the numbers but doesn't break the build. LA buyoff is assumed for slightly more impressive numbers.
RACIAL TRAITS
Small size: +1 atk/ac, +4 hide
+1 atk with thrown, ranged
Fly 120 ft. (good)
Immune to enchantment
DR 15/cold iron
Darkvision 60 ft, low-light vision
SLAs from half-fey (charm spells synergize with your high Cha)
Undead immunities
Winter Chill (Su): Living, nonfey creatures within 5 feet suffer a morale penalty on saves equal to the unseelie fey's Charisma bonus.
28 point buy: Str 8, Dex 14, Con 8, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 18; racial mods -2, +6, -2, 0, 0, +10
Stats @ 20th: Str 6, Dex 26 (20) Con -, Int 14, Wis 8, Cha 44 (38)
Cha buffs: mertoran leaf (+2), potentially aging bonuses (+3) , faustian pact (+1), can UMD transfusion (+1-+5), snowsong (+4), greater visage of the deity (+4)
BAB 16; base saves Fort 14, Ref 16, Will 9; hp 135; init +28
R: Quick Draw
F: Weapon Focus (light mace, something else @ 1st then swap w/ weapon aptitude)*
F: TWF
1: Unorthodox Flurry*
3: Craven
6: Sun School*
9: Staggering Strike
12: Planar Touchstone (Oxyrhynchus)
15: Lightning Mace
18: Confound the Big Folk
--
B: Imp. Unarmed Strike (mnk 1)
B: Underfoot Combat (mnk 1) ( from Hin disciple)
B: Combat Reflexes (mnk 2)
B: Mercurial Strike (mnk 6)
--
B. Weapon Focus (katana) (clr 1, War, swapped w/ weapon aptitude)
B. EWP (quickrazor) (clr 1, Revered Ancestors, swapped w/ weapon aptitude)
B. Knowledge Devotion (clr 1, Knowledge)
--
B: Dodge (iaijutsu 4)
--
B. Mobility (golden dancing pegleg)**
B. Spring Attack (golden dancing pegleg)**
B. Blind-Fight (fiendish ear)**
B. Improved Initiative (bracers of the blinding strike or silverhelm of the guardian)
*These feats are initially used for Dodge, Mobility and Spring Attack, then retrained or psychic reformed when you can obtain those feats from the pegleg (ECL 14+) and iaijutsu master (ECL 19th).
**Per Sword & Fist, virtual feats (“benefit of x feat”) fulfill prerequisites.
Other Feats that Would Be Nice to Have: Hidden Talent (dimension hop), Power Attack > Divine Might, Robilar's Gambit. Gravy: Snap Kick, Azure Talent, Bonus Essentia, Multiattack.
Heroics for one of the above. Possibly trade Underfoot Combat & Confound the Big Folk for two more. (Could be PA>DM using martial monk ACF.)
Had to get rid of Hidden Talent to fit Lightning Mace. Anklets & belt of battle give you 5 swift action teleports per encounter -- enough for a 10 round fight, which is plenty -- but it's unfortunate that it means you are fully item dependent for swift action teleports.
Underfoot Combat>Confound the Big Folk included so the build can perform in situations where there is no way to use shadow blend and foes are both paralysis immune & have true seeing (so paralyzing enhancement and invisibility don't work either). In practice, I might swap those feats out and focus on more ways to make sure you’re in darkness.
Ranks: Arcana 11, dungeoneering 6, hide 18, iaijutsu focus 23, local 6, move silently 10, nature 3, perform (dance) 5, planes 8, religion 6, tumble 15, UMD 12
1: arcana 4, hide 4, move silently 4, iaijutsu 2 cc, tumble 4
2: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
3: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
4: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
5: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
6: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, religion 2, tumble 1
7: arcana 1, hide 1, move silently 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, tumble 1
8: hide 1, planes 5
9: hide 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, nature 3
10: arcana 1, planes 3
11: hide 2, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 2
12: hide 1, UMD 5
13: hide 1, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 3
14: local 6
15: hide 2, iaijutsu 1 cc, UMD 2
16: iaijutsu 1, perform (dance) 5
17: iaijutsu 6
18: iaijutsu 4, tumble 2
19: iaijutsu 2, tumble 4
20: dungeoneering 5, iaijutsu 1
Explanation: This fulfills our obligations (10 Hide/MS for Telf; 8 planes for Touchstone; 5 dance for slippers; 9 iaijutsu for Ia Master; 10 tumble for Confound) while also giving ranks in each Knowledge Devotion skill (since we get that feat as a side benefit of the cleric dip).
Maneuvers
Stance: blood in the water
Maneuvers: white raven strike (readied), white raven tactics (readied), shadow jaunt (from item; readied), douse the flames
Blood in the Water will quickly result in large bonuses due to the # of attacks you make.
Incarnum
Your melds are blink shirt to shadow pounce, claws of the wyrm for claw attacks and chaos roc's span (from Dragon Mag) for some extra Staggering Strike procs.
Both essentia in blink shirt for 30 ft teleport range.
WEAPONS (127.5k)
+1 aptitude keen paralyzing Tiger Claw adamantine quickrazor 75k w/ greater truedeath crystal 10k
+1 aptitude keen Tiger Claw quickrazor (for offhand) 18k
two wand chambers 200
+1 shortspear 2k with greater returning crystal 4k
+1 focus (OA) katana 4.5k (+4 insight to Iaijutsu Focus)
UMD (36k)
CL 20 wand of deeper darkness, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of greater magic weapon, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of greater mighty wallop, 10 charges 9k
CL 20 wand of magic vestment, 10 charges 9k
CL 1 wand of weapon shift, 25 charges 325*
CL 5 wand of reduce person, 10 charges 650**
*Use weapon shift on your quickrazors to turn them into bludgeoning weapons, then put greater mighty wallop on them. When weapon shift ends they turn back into quickrazors but now have wallop on them.
**To affect Medium creatures with Confound feat.
ARMOR (10k)
+1 animated mithral heavy shield 10k - add more to it when you have money
WONDROUS ITEMS (339k)
Arms: bracers of the blinding strike* w/ bracers of the hunter, bracers of murder and bracers of Majere added 172k
Body: none
Face: blindfold of true darkness 9k
Feet: slippers of battledancing 33k
Hands: gauntlets of heartfelt blows 12k w/ Shadow Hand gloves (shadow jaunt) 4.5k and gloves of the balanced hand 12k added
Head: 4 anklets of translocation alternate slot 8.5k
Ring 1: ring of anticipation 6k
Ring 2: ring of the darkhidden 2k
Shoulders: shadow cloak (DotU 101) 5.5k
Throat: +1 aptitude necklace of natural weapons (claws) 8k
Torso: rogue's vest 18k
Waist: 4 belts of battle 48k
No slot: handy haversack 2k, 8 minor cognizance crystals (1 pp) 8k (you can fill 2 per day of downtime)
Battle belts and anklets are swapped each encounter.
*from magic of faerun, not “bracers of blinding strikes” from MIC.
GRAFTS (59.5k)
Golden dancing pegleg (Dragon 318 p54) 50k
Long arm* 5k
Fiendish ear 2.5k
Fiendish jaw 2k
*Primarily so that you still threaten spaces (for Mercurial Strike) when affected by reduce person, but good either way.
TOMES (137k)
Tome of Charisma +5 137k
ADDED TO OTHER ITEMS (91k)
Saves +5 25k
Cha +6 36k
Dex +6 36k
EXPENDITURES (2.5k)
Ritual of Shadow Walking (Lords of Darkness p125) 2.5k
Ritual of Crucimigration 3k
psychic reformation for dodge/mobility/spring attack -- gonna be a few k
MUNDANE (1.5k)
Mwk tools for iaijutsu focus, UMD, all K (Dev) knowledge skills 400
A hot stack of mertoran leaf (costs 10gp/hour of use) 1.1k
Wreathed in Darkness. Keep deeper darkness active on yourself via UMD. It both triggers your monk shadow blend and gives you a natural 60-ft radius in which you can use your ritual of shadow walking teleport. The long duration means this spell is extremely cheap to keep up (45 gp/day).
Deeper darkness has a radius of 60 ft but your shadow walking teleport has 100 ft range. How to get the full value? Put deeper darkness on a throwing weapon (like a spear for the long range) with a crystal of return. You can throw it as part of a move or swift action shadow pounce, then use your standard action to shadow walk to that location and shadow pounce the foe in question. Drop it at start of round if you don't need.
Not addressed here: you want a way to summon additional items with darkness placed on them in case of dispels. Maybe instant summons? You can also put deeper darkness on objects and drop them as a free action to create an area you can teleport back to.
Iaijutsu Focus. Your main source of damage is iaijutsu focus. All iaijutsu attacks will also trigger sneak attack. You qualify for the “draw a weapon” part of iaijutsu with quickrazors which are a free action to stow after using. What remains is to render foes flat-footed.
[B]Shadow Blend. You have total concealment except in “full natural daylight” or a daylight spell. Deeper darkness means you have this unless dispelled. Foes who can’t see you are FFed vs you per RC. Note that your concealment from this ability applies even against creatures who can see through darkness.
Act First. Creatures who haven’t acted yet in combat are FFed.
Paralyzing weapon enhancement. Foes struck by your attacks must save or be paralyzed. Paralyzed creatures are FFed.
Confound the Big Folk. You can move into a larger creature’s space and they are flat-footed next round. But see rules issues.
Greater Invisibility. Your telflammar spellcasting lets you cast greater invisibility. Foes who can’t see you are FFed vs you per RC.
Blink: Some argue that blink has the same effect as above because it lets you "strike as an invisible creature", but people can still see you, so it's dubious.
White Raven Strike. Maneuver, requires refresh. Attack flat-foots foe for 1 round. But costs your standard action shadow pounce and only affects 1 foe, so shouldn't be used.
Shadow Pounce. You want to use as many of your actions as possible to teleport and shadow pounce.
MOVE ACTION
Blink Shirt. At will move action teleport, scales with essentia. Must start every turn by using this to move at least 10 feet to activate your slippers of battle dancing.
STANDARD ACTION
Ritual of Shadow Walking. Gained from a ritual on Lords of Darkness page 125. At will 100 ft teleport, but only from shadows to shadows. Deeper darkness gives you a 60-foot radius to use it in. 2 temporary con damage and 3d4 hp loss with each use, but con damage is irrelevant to undead.
Shadow Jump. telflammar class feature, max 80ft/day of dimension door with same shadow restriction as above. But no hp loss.
Shadow Jaunt. Readied maneuver, must be refreshed. 50 ft. Save for if your darkness gets dispelled.
SWIFT ACTION
Anklets of Translocation. 2/encounter (you put on a new pair after each encounter). 10 ft.
Belt of Battle. 3/encounter (you switch belts after each encounter), trade a swift action for a move action and use blink shirt.
Dimension Hop. Base 2/day but cognizance crystals are cheap and let you use it more -- though you can only fill 2 per day of downtime. 10ft.
IMMEDIATE ACTION
Shadow Cloak. 3/day. When attacked, teleport up to 10 feet and shadow pounce. Buy more cloaks if you end up using it a lot.
Paralyzing, Winter’s Chill & Massive Damage. Each attack you make triggers a DC 15 save for death from massive damage and most also trigger a DC 17 save to be paralyzed (from the paralyzing weapon enhancement) for 1 round, which renders foe flat-footed. Those DCs are pretty low, right? Well, due to the winter chill ability from your unseelie fey template, living creatures adjacent to you have a -18 penalty on saving throws, so the save DCs for them are functionally 33 and 35, respectively. This is in addition to the staggering strike saves which will be much higher, and in the case of your iaijutsu attacks virtually unmakable.
Damage values (with slippers activated and GMW/wallop applied):
MH quickrazor 3d6 base + 18 cha + 18 fire + 5 enhance (51.5)
OH quickrazor 3d6 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 5 enhance (42.5)
Claw 1d12 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 1 enhance (34.5)
Gore 1d4 + 9 cha + 18 fire + 1 enhance (30.5)
Wing buffet 18 fire; rest is nonlethal damage, but triggers Staggering Strike
Sneak attack 4d6 + 20 (34)
Iaijutsu 9d6 + 162 (193.5)
These are with mertoran leaf and +6 charisma item; additional Cha boosts raise the values further. Fire dmg is from gauntlets of heartfelt blows.
Aptitude enhancement allows both Lightning Mace and Unorthodox Flurry to apply to all weapons used.
Flurry Nova (Foe(s) are FF): (IA = delivers iaijutsu focus damage)
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (9 main IA (4 BAB, 1 flurry, 1 majere, 1 haste, 1 SunSch, 1 Oxy) + 2 offhand IA + 2 claws + 1 gore + 2 wing buffet.)
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
Swift: WRT
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (as above).
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
Swift: Swift action teleport and shadow pounce (as above).
If all hit: 45 main (2318), 10 offhand (425), 10 claw (345), 5 gore (153), 10 buffet (180), 70 sneak (2380), 55 iaijutsu (10,615); total 16,415 plus crits & stance dmg.
With 30% crit rate on quickrazors, that gives 16.5 crits & Lightning Mace procs, which trigger a further 5 crits/LMs > 1.5 crits/LMs > .5 crits/LMs for a total of 23.5 quickrazor crits (1636) and LMs (6512), bringing total to 24,204. Nat weapon crits bring it to about 24.3k. Blood in the water means we also rack up +24 to hit and to damage by the end of this.
The next round sucks in comparison:
Refresh Round:
Move: Blink shirt to activate slippers and shadow pounce (as above)
Standard: Standard action teleport and shadow pounce (as above); right before one of your shadow pounce attacks, use a swift action to refresh.
If all hit: 18 main (927), 4 offhand (170), 4 claw (138), 2 gore (61), 4 buffet (72), 28 sneak (952), 22 iaijutsu (4257); total 6,505 plus crits & stance dmg.
Refresh round quickrazor crits & LM procs: 6.6 > 2 > .6 > .2 = 9.4 crits (654), 9.4 LM (2600), bringing total to 9759 (plus 700 bitw damage which we won't factor in). And another +9.5 to hit and damage via bitw for next nova.
So the averaged round-over-round damage against a 0 AC target is about 17k plus blood in the water damage, minus natural 1s (-5% output, which can be roughly offset with +2 Cha). Fire resistance/immunity will reduce the damage from gauntlets.
Crit immune foes aren't a big problem since your crits aren't big damage dealers -- they don't get iaijutsu focus or SA -- and Lightning Mace doesn't rely on being able to actually score crits, just threaten them.
AoOs: The numbers above don't take into consideration AoOs, which deal iaijutsu damage thanks to Mercurial Strike. You're probably using heroics to get Robilar's Gambit. The feat synergizes with your shadow cloak, which you can use to maximize single turn damage at the expense of further rounds (it means you can't refresh on your next turn).
Extra: If you pre-buff with a wand of sadism (BOVD), the nova round grants about +2400 to hit during the refresh round, while the refresh round grants about +1000 to hit during the subsequent nova. The bonus also applies to IF rolls, maxing them regardless of any skill penalties that may accrue. Of course, in real combat the bonuses won't be nearly that high because they're limited by enemy hp.
Telflammar Entry. Totemist's blink shirt qualifies you for telflammar. Per CArc 71, you only need to be able to "produce the required effect" to qualify for a specific spell prerequisite. SLAs are the example given, but the rule is generally stated, so should also apply to su effects that function as a spell.
If the DM rules against this, you need to sacrifice two feats for Fey Heritage > Fey Legacy, which hurts but doesn't ruin the build.
If your blink shirt is dispelled do you cease to fulfill the prereq? No -- you remain inherently capable of producing the required effect.
Uncanny Dodge Uncanny dodge doesn’t counter this build. You can still be FFed with uncanny dodge, you merely “retain your Dexterity bonus to AC (if any) even if caught flat-footed”. So no sneak attack, but iaijutsu still works.
Confound the Big Folk and Teleports. Rules Compendium says a teleported creature “must arrive in an open location”. I think “open location” is most reasonably read to mean “space you can occupy”, but could also be read to preclude entering a space a creature occupies even if you are able to co-occupy that space due to larger size. Another potential reason not to take those feats.
The thematic match of shadow blend, shadow pounce and the ritual of shadow walking is pleasing. There's also appreciable synergy between blink shirt, slippers of battledancing, iaijutsu focus and shadow pounce.
The build I think is elegant because 19 of the 20 levels are essential. Cleric 1 is chosen for the stray level to get feats. Ideally it would also power Divine Might but you come up short on feats.
This isn't really a high-op build because it's "big numberz"/melee SOLs and little else, but the SLAs from half-fey (dominate spells, at will charm person) combined with a high Cha score give you some utility and winter chill makes you a great enabler for other party members with save-yes effects.
Wish list:
- A way to use turning charges.
- More feats.
- More ways to ensure you're in darkness.
- More natural attacks.
- More Cha to X.
Please critique.
Character portrait (https://i.imgur.com/xZiIn7n.jpg)
Variant build using Ruby Knight Vindicator (https://forums.giantitp.com/showsinglepost.php?p=25068630&postcount=36)