Please Break This

[Tor the Fallen]

Let's say you're in a game where keen and improved critical stack (3.0), and any critical is an automatic hit. How would you break this (without using a mount)?

I'm thinking scimitars + monkey grip + OTWF + monk's flurry + some feat that flurries with scimitars + power attack. Or would going THF falchion be better?

Remember; 55% of the time, you'll always hit (and do double damage), so penalties are no big deal.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

TWF, OTWF, Keen Vorpal Scims with Improved Critical feat. 3.0, keen and improved critical stacked. Then go with Weapon Master, which 3.0 had crit range and multiplier increases which stacked with both. Find it in Sword and Fist. Finish off with 3.0 Tempest, which pretty much makes you a Dr***t clone as far as TWFing. Up to 8 attacks a round (Tempest gives you Perfect TWF which gives you an offhand attack at every regular attack).

Stack with Thri-Kreen for even more attacks.

Edit: I forgot 3.0 Vorpal was crit = kill... well worth it for a +7 weapon (+1 keen vorpal).

[Lord Lorac Silvanos]

Hitting is not an issue you say?
Does that mean that any threat roll is automatically considered a hit whether it actually hit or not?

Are you using the 3.0 version of Monkey Grip?
The 3.5 version does not apply to your off-hand, which of course does not matter much in the grand scale of things, but still important to remember.

[ByeLindgren]

Keen vorpal bladed gauntlets come to mind.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Keen vorpal bladed gauntlets come to mind.

Oh yes, I forgot about Vorpal... 3.0 any confirmed crit is an auto-kill...

I will go back and edit my entry

[Behold_the_Void]

Why bother with Monkey Grip? The damage return isn't worth the feat. Just grab Power Attack and Leap Attack, you can dump into power attack and still hit most of the time. Get a pounce ability and go nuts.

[Matthew]

Why bother with Monkey Grip? The damage return isn't worth the feat. Just grab Power Attack and Leap Attack, you can dump into power attack and still hit most of the time. Get a pounce ability and go nuts.

Well, if it's 3.0, as the poster indicates, it's totally worth it, as you can use Two Weapon Fighting with two Great Swords or what have you via the 3.0 Monkey Grip Feat.

[JungeonJeff]

Keen Vorpal Bladed Gauntlets, On an X/Disiple of Dispater/Weapon Master, with Improved Crit feat.

Yeah. That should do it...

[Arbitrarity]

Don't forget psionic weapon master!

5-20 threat range, instakills.

[Drider]

Don't forget psionic weapon master!

5-20 threat range, instakills.

Your dm might make you roll a D4 instead of 20 tho

[SpikeFightwicky]

1 - Barbarian/Frenzied berserker with a keen falchion and the improved crit feat. Your power attack gives back something silly like +4 damage for every -1 attack penalty you get, +8 on a crit (-20 attack gives +160 damage).

2 - Barbarian/Frenzied berserker with a keen scythe and improved crit. Crit on a roll of 18-20 (15% of the time), but -20 attack gives + 320 damage.

[elliott20]

most things people have already covered. 3.0 Vorpal will do just fine.

of course, in 3.5 vorpal requires you get a Natural 20 roll to get the desired effect instead of a confirmed crit. This reading has two implications:

1. getting that auto-decapitation is harder
2. it also trumps things like armor of fortification since it's now hinged on the natural 20 roll instead of being a critical hit, making it technically NOT a critical hit but a seperate hit of it's kind.

now, if you're not all that keen (ba-dum-chh) on relying on getting a 3.0 interpretation, you might want to focus on a different direction instead... damage.

seeing as critical hits multiply the damage bonuses and not extra damage die, increasing your damage should be the focus here. after all is said and done, get a scythe for a nifty x4 crit damage. oh yeah, throwing some shocking burst stuff would work too

[ShneekeyTheLost]

most things people have already covered. 3.0 Vorpal will do just fine.

of course, in 3.5 vorpal requires you get a Natural 20 roll to get the desired effect instead of a confirmed crit. This reading has two implications:

1. getting that auto-decapitation is harder
2. it also trumps things like armor of fortification since it's now hinged on the natural 20 roll instead of being a critical hit, making it technically NOT a critical hit but a seperate hit of it's kind.

3. They changed the rules because it was broken 3.0

now, if you're not all that keen (ba-dum-chh) on relying on getting a 3.0 interpretation, you might want to focus on a different direction instead... damage.

seeing as critical hits multiply the damage bonuses and not extra damage die, increasing your damage should be the focus here. after all is said and done, get a scythe for a nifty x4 crit damage. oh yeah, throwing some shocking burst stuff would work too

But why bother with damage when it's an auto-kill reguardless of the damage output? My build crits on a 5+ and auto-kills on confirmed crit. This > any crit damage. Either you hit and crit and kill or you miss. And fortunately, my build has lots and lots of attacks so odds are you're not going to survive it unless it is immune to critical hits, in which case it's no longer abusing 3.0 critical hits rules and so not part of the exercise.

Thri-Kreen Weapon Master/Tempest with four +1 Keen Vorpal Scimitars. It slices, it dices, it even does julian fries.

[Tor the Fallen]

TWF, OTWF, Keen Vorpal Scims with Improved Critical feat. 3.0, keen and improved critical stacked. Then go with Weapon Master, which 3.0 had crit range and multiplier increases which stacked with both. Find it in Sword and Fist. Finish off with 3.0 Tempest, which pretty much makes you a Dr***t clone as far as TWFing. Up to 8 attacks a round (Tempest gives you Perfect TWF which gives you an offhand attack at every regular attack).

Stack with Thri-Kreen for even more attacks.

Edit: I forgot 3.0 Vorpal was crit = kill... well worth it for a +7 weapon (+1 keen vorpal).

Wow, alright, thanks. I'm looking at a huge threat range and triple damage. Very nice.

Hitting is not an issue you say?
Does that mean that any threat roll is automatically considered a hit whether it actually hit or not?

Correct. A falchion ALWAYS hits, regardless of armor class, on a natural roll of 18-20.

Are you using the 3.0 version of Monkey Grip?
The 3.5 version does not apply to your off-hand, which of course does not matter much in the grand scale of things, but still important to remember.

3.0. I'm thinking of stacking it with powerful build. I'm pretty sure it works like that in 3.0. It definitely lets me wield bigger weapons.

Why bother with Monkey Grip? The damage return isn't worth the feat. Just grab Power Attack and Leap Attack, you can dump into power attack and still hit most of the time. Get a pounce ability and go nuts.

Well, power attack and leap attack will both be used, along with dual scimitars, since I can power attack with both. But I'm looking for ways to squeeze more damage out of the build; bigger weapons would be one route. More attacks would be another. Or both.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Don't forget, 3.0 Vorpal = auto-kill on a confirmed crit. So get some Vorpal action going with your TWFing.

If you're wanting bigger weapons, I'd suggest Enlarge Person (or Monster if you go Thri-Kreen) Permenancied and 3.0 Monkey Grip to wield Huge Scimitars.

Congratulations, you pwn Dr***t.

[Behold_the_Void]

If you can, take the Complete Divine Barbarian level that gives you pounce. Being able to full attack on a charge is quite helpful for massive amount of attack builds.

[Douglas]

I think that's in Complete Champion, not Complete Divine.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

And at any rate, it's 3.5 material, and he is specifically asking 3.0

[Sajek]

Even better than originally, take a Nimblewright from MMII. Its natural weapons have a natural threat range of 12-20. Improved Critical with this would make it 4-20. That, combined with Vorpal and Keen Edge, would pretty much assure you a one-hit kill.