Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Lots of stuff to look over, and some pretty neat build concepts.
I've decided to forgo a 3rd 'power-up' in favor of less diluted stats and more feats to play around with.

I'm thinking a monk-heavy build that uses Combat Strike and Divine Wrath, with the bonus feats from Divine Champion in epics going towards Epic Wisdom. It's the only stat increase you can pick with the DC bonus feats for some reason. Not sure if that's intentional or not.

On that note, one cannot chose any of the combat focus feats with these bonus feats either.
Seeing as Epic Wisdom is available, and the combat focus line has a wisdom requirement..
maybe add those to the DC bonus feat list?

Does the DR from Divine Wrath stack with any other sources of DR?
Does ending Combat Focus to activate Combat Strike also end the Regen gained from Combat Vigor?

Don't forget to spend a feat on Blazing Aura. (Requires 23 Wisdom and Diamond Soul monk ability on this server, if my memory servers right.)

Also Fiery Fists is something you can get pre-epic for your monk.

Sputnik wrote:Does the DR from Divine Wrath stack with any other sources of DR?

I haven't tested, but in general only the highest source of DR applies. The exception is how Epic Damage Resistance stacks with one granted by Barbarian and Dwarven defender.

Sputnik wrote:Does ending Combat Focus to activate Combat Strike also end the Regen gained from Combat Vigor?

It does, you will lose the vigor and save bonuses in favour of that +4 AB and Damage.

Thus, if you fit in Fiery Fists, Combat Strike, Divine Wrath, and Blazing Aura, you character could basically have '4' power ups. Oh, and don't forget Intuitive Strike on your build.

Edit:
Feats could go something like this:
1: Blindfight
3: Intuitive Strike
6: Combat Focus
9: Weapon Focus (Unarmed)
12: Fiery Fist
15: Combat Awareness
18: Combat Vigor
21: Combat Strike
23: Blazing Aura
25: Etc...

Remember that intuitive strike requires you to have 2/3rds of your HD as monk levels to get the wisdom bonus to AB. Thus, if you have 12 levels of Monk, you can have no more than 6 levels of Divine Champion. Or with 18 levels of Monk, you can have no more than 9 levels of Divine Champion.

Thanks for the tips and clarifications, Comments Only!
I've never made a monk build, and had no idea about Blazing Aura for example.
Will be sure to add it now.

Comments Only wrote:I haven't tested, but in general only the highest source of DR applies.

Fair enough. Maybe I'll test it when I get to that level. If I do, I'll let people know the score.

Comments Only wrote:you will lose the vigor and save bonuses in favour of that +4 AB and Damage.

Right. I misread that the first time around. Still nice for the choice of Will saves and regen vs. AB and damage.

Comments Only wrote:Oh, and don't forget Intuitive Strike on your build.

Regarding intuitive strike.. the description is as follows here on the BGtSCC website:

With unarmed attacks, add your WIS bonus minus your STR bonus to your AB. If you've weapon finesse, add your WIS bonus minus your STR bonus to your AB (if your DEX is higher than STR). This feat won't work unless 2/3rds of your character's levels are in the monk class.

This wording is a bit confusing to me. Does it REPLACE your STR modifier on attacks, or merely ADD to it? If Intuitive Strike adds to it, then the STR subtraction make sense.. ensuring that the STR bonus is not added twice. If it replaces the bonus instead, it's basically a less effective version of Weapon Finesse.

I think it adds to it personally, because of the wording regarding Weapon Finesse specifically.
Taking Weapon Finesse on this build would therefore not be a wasted Feat, provided the STR is higher than the DEX (which it will be).

The break down:

1.IS=(WIS-STR)to AB+STR to AB
IS+WF=(WIS-STR)to AB+DEX to AB
or
2.IS=(WIS-STR)to AB
IS+WF=(WIS-STR)to AB (Making WF useless on such a build)

Can anyone clarify?

Alright, let us imagine a character with: Without any feat, you just get +3 AB from your strength modifier.

With Weapon Finesse, you just get +4 AB from your dexterity modifier.

With Intuitive Strike, you get +3 AB from your strength and +4 AB based on the substraction of your wisdom modifier with your strength modifier.

With Intuitive Strike and Weapon Finesse, you get +4 AB from your dexterity modifier and +3 AB based on the substraction of your wisdom modifier with the dexterity modifier.

Thus, if your strength and dexterity modifiers are very similar, it is not worth it to get Weapon Finesse. However, if the two have a noticiable gab, and you have many sources that increase your AB, it might be beneficial to get Expose Weakness because the extra AB you get from Wisdom counts towards the game engine's cap on attack bonus enchantment.

For example, if you would get:
+10 AB from a very high Wisdom
+ 4 (EB gloves)
+ 5 (Divine Wrath)
+ 4 (Combat Strike)
= 23 (This is what you would expect, but because the game engine's caps at 20, you only get +20 to AB instead of the +23. This also means that you will not really benefit from any spells that increase your AB)

But anyhow, as Monk 20/Divine Champion 10, you have the BAB of 25.
25 + 20 = 45, and with Flurry of Blows you get 8 attacks per round.
45, 45, 45, 40, 35, 30, 25, 47

Greater Flurry of Blows extra attacks, and the bugged third attack.

As for damage, with strength modifier of '0'
2d10 (Monk fist)
+1d6 (Fiery Fist)
+1d10 (Blazing Aura)
+4 (Combat Strike)
+5 (Divine Wrath)
+4 (EB gloves)
= 33~ (average hit, 17 - 49 range.)

I hope this clears things out.