Need ideas

[qwertyh88]

I think your suggestion of SB/WM7/D7 is very good. Not having to worry about obtaining a specific set of mithril armor and deflection AC item is very appealing. SB/tempest/WM looks pretty good since the requirements and bonus feats have a lot of synergy. I still haven't set in stone what skills Yasha should have and disable device is pretty tempting which means some rogue levels are required for trapfinding because without trapfinding the disable device skill is pretty useless.

Honestly, in my experience, I regret making my first character a Ranger (and he isn't even a pure fighter!) and not listening to the advice of the veterans and go with an easier class like a 26Bard/4Fighter just to learn the ropes of the game.

Playing a pure fighter as the 1st character will be painful. A pure fighter heavily depends on gear & with low or zero UMD; lack of wands/scrolls on equipment choices will make the fighter even weaker.

I would suggest going with SB17/AK 3/ D10 -- much more playable imo as a 1st character if really set on going a pure fighter as a 1st character. (Be sure to get ABle learner & UMD & open locks -- ignore disable devices)

[ajcolt]

Honestly, in my experience, I regret making my first character a Ranger (and he isn't even a pure fighter!) and not listening to the advice of the veterans and go with an easier class like a 26Bard/4Fighter just to learn the ropes of the game.

Playing a pure fighter as the 1st character will be painful. A pure fighter heavily depends on gear & with low or zero UMD; lack of wands/scrolls on equipment choices will make the fighter even weaker.

I would suggest going with SB17/AK 3/ D10 -- much more playable imo as a 1st character if really set on going a pure fighter as a 1st character. (Be sure to get ABle learner & UMD & open locks -- ignore disable devices)

I went with 20 Swashbuckler / 5 Tempest / 5 Weaponmaster and took cross class ranks in spellcraft and umd. In the end I figured it's probably good enough since I'm not chasing ratings in arena or doing hardcore pve timed content or max level difficulty raids.

[Okan]

If you haven't finalized your decision, and take my advice with a grain of salt as I am not an expert on swashbucklers, I'd consider going 3 tempest and 7 weapon master instead of a 5/5 split. You gain +1 ab and ac with tempest 5 but weapon master 7 gives a very welcome boost in critical hit range. Since you are getting the wounding strike from swashbuckler I think that would come in very handy in synergy.

[Hoihe]

Honestly, in my experience, I regret making my first character a Ranger (and he isn't even a pure fighter!) and not listening to the advice of the veterans and go with an easier class like a 26Bard/4Fighter just to learn the ropes of the game.

Playing a pure fighter as the 1st character will be painful. A pure fighter heavily depends on gear & with low or zero UMD; lack of wands/scrolls on equipment choices will make the fighter even weaker.

I would suggest going with SB17/AK 3/ D10 -- much more playable imo as a 1st character if really set on going a pure fighter as a 1st character. (Be sure to get ABle learner & UMD & open locks -- ignore disable devices)

I went with 20 Swashbuckler / 5 Tempest / 5 Weaponmaster and took cross class ranks in spellcraft and umd. In the end I figured it's probably good enough since I'm not chasing ratings in arena or doing hardcore pve timed content or max level difficulty raids.

I'm not sure dropping duelist is a good idea.

It's practically mandatory to get it to 7 as a swashbuckler.

Wounding strike also doesn't really pay off due to many bosses being immune to stat drain. Personally I'd rather go swash14/du7/wm5/tempest4.


Duelist AC works while dual-wielding. Duelist only breaks when dual-wielding for Precise Strike and that's it.

In fact, the Du7/tempest4 would give you at least 14 AC alone (7 from int, 2 from tempest, 5 from deflection) for practically free.

Item-wise, if you got a cheap +3 dodge boot, a cheap +4 set of clothing (50K for a very good one), a cheap nat armor amulet (+3), stats for belt, gloves, rings and helmet -

You'll easily be hitting AC in the 50s with still decent AB.

[Okan]

The AC difference between going duelist or not 2 ac and an item slot devoted to a +4 deflection item, which is not small at all, AC is important. But stopping at 14 swash costs you, Evasion and slippery mind which are great tools against saving throws, also some single targeted AC from Swashbuckler's Dodge. I am a fan of swashbuckler duelist myself but I don't think it is feasible to include it with both tempest and weaponmaster, while retaining the goodies from base class itself.

[qwertyh88]

Honestly, in my experience, I regret making my first character a Ranger (and he isn't even a pure fighter!) and not listening to the advice of the veterans and go with an easier class like a 26Bard/4Fighter just to learn the ropes of the game.

Playing a pure fighter as the 1st character will be painful. A pure fighter heavily depends on gear & with low or zero UMD; lack of wands/scrolls on equipment choices will make the fighter even weaker.

I would suggest going with SB17/AK 3/ D10 -- much more playable imo as a 1st character if really set on going a pure fighter as a 1st character. (Be sure to get ABle learner & UMD & open locks -- ignore disable devices)

I went with 20 Swashbuckler / 5 Tempest / 5 Weaponmaster and took cross class ranks in spellcraft and umd. In the end I figured it's probably good enough since I'm not chasing ratings in arena or doing hardcore pve timed content or max level difficulty raids.

I think you'll better understand what we meant once you have more experience with BGTSCC & get your feet wet.
Go here www.nwn2db.com and select Kaedrin's pack to build a mock up. --It's not perfect --but will get an idea.

[ajcolt]

The AC difference between going duelist or not 2 ac and an item slot devoted to a +4 deflection item, which is not small at all, AC is important. But stopping at 14 swash costs you, Evasion and slippery mind which are great tools against saving throws, also some single targeted AC from Swashbuckler's Dodge. I am a fan of swashbuckler duelist myself but I don't think it is feasible to include it with both tempest and weaponmaster, while retaining the goodies from base class itself.

I think Chad's original suggestion is among the best builds anyone can come up with. There is something to be said though about being unique. Wounding Critical earned at level 19 swashbuckler effectively subtracts 20+ hp and one fortitude save until an enemy sits at 0 constitution. I don't think any primary statistic can be lowered less then zero,so correct me if I'm wrong. If there are 4-5+ enemies an improved whirlwind attack get an extra 2d6 damage and con and strength debuffs for those enemies that aren't immune. Yashavia will scale quite nicely the more enemies you throw at her at least those who are not immune to stat debuffs.

[chad878262]

may be worth it to revisit the drawing board and understand what you want. a couple things for you to consider

- Evasion (and Expose Weakness) are quite important for your PC. Expose Weakness reduces AC and on a build focused on crits that is a very big deal. I would not recommend Hoihe's build for this reason. Stopping SB at 14 when they get Evasion at 16 just doesn't make good sense IMO.

- If you want Greater Two Weapon Fighting there are easier ways to get it and what you are getting from Tempest is not worth it man. While you get Mobility for free as SB7, you still have to take Spring Attack to get GTWF. The extra AC/AB is nice, but what you get from Duelist is better (INT to AC and +5 deflection vs. +4 max from an item is a big deal).

Having said all this, I absolutely agree that uniqueness is important -- and for me at least is a key part of my fun, if everyone else is running around doing the same stuff I'm doing it gets stale, quickly. If you want a crit focused TWF, Wounding Crit SB then SB19/WM7/Tempest 4 is the route I would suggest. Tempest Whirlwind is good, but I don't know that it is critical to your build. You really do not want to be surrounded to make use of it. Consider from an AC standpoint:

Let's assume you go for Perfect Two Weapon Fighting with 26 DEX (30 w/ +4 gloves). AC is 10 + 10 (DEX) + 16 (Armor/Deflection/Dodge/Natural) + 1 (LoH) + 3 (Tumble) + 2 (Tempest) = 42, 48 with ICE, 50 w/ IMA and 54 w/ shield. That is adequate, but you will pretty much ALWAYS have ICE up and IMA applied. Shield will be quite necessary in some epic areas as 52 AC is the sweet spot for ~95% of epic content. With ICE up you have -6 AB which negatively impacts your ability to confirm crits. Your AB will look like (assuming dual kukri's)

30 (BAB) + 4 (EB) + 10 (DEX) + 1 (Weapon Focus) + 1 (Epic Prowess) + 1 (Tempest) - 2 (TWF) - 6 (ICE) = 39. Without HiPS this is pretty low, but Expose Weakness (requires evasion and epic prowess) will apply -3 AC on the first hit and stack another -3 in round 3 when the next hit applies. Especially in long battles this will help to vastly increase the number of crits you can land/confirm.

Your weakness primary weakness is going to be saves so I would recommend prioritizing + fortitude and will in any open item slots you have after you have handled maxing out your AC.

Finally, I highly recommend the "One Weapon" feat which will give you a static +1 AC as well as a chance each round to get additional AC or AB buff. Highly beneficial for your build. Edit: Sorry, this only works with one weapon...Guess I needed another cup of coffee before posting this...

Edit to add: Another option for you to consider if going the TWF with Kukri's route is Invisible Blade You could go SB19/WM7/IB4 and still get 4 extra AC from INT while Feint (when it works) can help you by removing Dodge/DEX AC from enemies. Feint Mastery would be nice to have, but you'd be giving up the improved threat range and thus not worth it since your goal is stacking wounding/weakening crits. Tough call between IB vs. Tempest, +2 AC for IB vs. +1 AB for Tempest, but IB has a greater 'cost' (Feint and no free GTWF). Just throwing it out there to consider because the extra AC will put you in the range where you will rarely ever need shield (IMA and ICE are still likely a constant). I know, a lot to consider, but my recommendation is to pick the flavor that sounds like the most fun for you. Otherwise you'll likely wonder later if you'd be having more fun had you gone with the build you thought sounded cooler. If it doesn't work you can always rebuild later, all part of the learning process.