(ab)using Dance of Death[3.5]

[gomipile]

I'm trying to think of entertaining ways to use the vestige Paimon's Dance of Death ability.

So far, the best I've come up with is a cleric with Bind Vestige, Improved Bind Vestige, and DMM:Persist. The idea, of course, is to persist he flying version of Footsteps of the Divine, and fly over every single enemy of an opposing army, attacking each of them with a polearm in a single round(preferably while buffed by a Dragonfire Inspiration bard.)

That should be doable at level 6, I think.

Does anyone else have any other low-to-mid-level ideas to top or complement that one?

[Thurbane]

I'm pretty sure the Bind Vestige feat chain won't get you Paimon's DoD ability. You'd require (at least) 3 levels of Binder with Improved Binding, or 5 levels without.

[gomipile]

I thought Improved Bind Vestige let you get one ability of any vestige that a level 5 binder could bind?

Edit: Ah, I see what you mean now. I didn't realize the Bind Vestige feats were so crappy as to give you a table of what you could get. I actually thought you cold get anything out of what the vestiges offered a binder.

[Thurbane]

Edit: Ah, I see what you mean now. I didn't realize the Bind Vestige feats were so crappy as to give you a table of what you could get. I actually thought you cold get anything out of what the vestiges offered a binder.

Yeah, they are very limited compared to true binding.

If you do want to go Binder/Cleric, the Tenebrous Apostate PrC might be worth looking at.

[mabriss lethe]

Some of the standard tactics:

-Reach weapons- A pretty obvious one. The better reach you have the less likely you'll get into range for AoOs

-Mount- More movement means more attacks.

-Scout Skirmish damage- If I remember correctly the scout's skirmish damage stacks with Dance of Death. It gives you more bang for your buck and maybe grants the extra damage you need to one shot an enemy.

-Debuffing- Is actually a pretty good 'outside the box' option. Unless you've got lots of bonus damage, you probably won't do more than soften up your opponents, which isn't a very good strategy compared to one shotting someone. Trip weapons are a cheap, low level option. Strafe your opponents with something like a guisarme, tripping as many as possible. At higher levels, look for weapon enhancements that inflict penalties as opposed to inflicting extra damage. Death Devotion is a nice touch, since it lets you bestow negative levels with your attacks.

[Douglas]

Sorry, but Persistent Footsteps of the Divine got hit with errata. The 1-round boost feature now uses the specific game term "discharge", which makes it not eligible for Persistent Spell due to that feat's requirement of "non-dischargeable".