Dwarven Defender, Fast Healing

[Vogar Eol]

http://nwn2db.com/build/?261189

This is sort of a variation of Karond's DD. Originally it also used Man-at-Arms but I simply couldn't stand the cooldown timer glitch, and scrapped that class for Dragonslayer (mostly for RP reasons and Tumble). Without EW, the Truestrike actually is a little useful... a little.

I did not want to take a non-Dwarf God, evasion, or Expose Weakness. As a result I took Dumathoin to gain and the domains for free Ironwill and Toughness. Dumathoin's clerics are known for developing new battle tactics to face new enemies to dwarves. That paired well with Dragonslayer and Dwarven Defender RP.

Epic Toughness is a stand-in for Fast Healing I-III.

What I'm not very sure about are Improved Critical, and Knockdown. Knockdown simply seems kind of wimpy on this build in game. He doesn't have a load of Strength, and lacks the size modifier as well. I have tried it with enlarge, and that does help a ton.

Improved Critical... I'm much more mixed about. I have an excellent collection of Waraxes. Improved Critical means I never have to buy a wand of keen. I can instead spend that money on Healing kits, potions, and other things. Still.... a wand -is- cheap. Also, not many other choices to replace it with.

Some possible replacements I've been considering are Fort/Reflex feats, or maybe trying for Epic Skill Focus Healing's prerequisites. I could also drop Knockdown or Improved Crit for Tower Shield Focus for some more AC. Charge feats could be fun, but I'm not familiar with them really.

[chad878262]

If you switch out Improved Critical for Improved Knockdown it should be useful against Casters at least. As stated elsewhere you can get a whetstone in BG to apply keen to your waraxe. Otherwise even without evasion / EW you'll do fine as you have tons of HP and fast healing... Grab a waraxe with vampiric regen and any HP you lose from traps/spells will quickly be recovered through fast healing and vampiric regen.

[7threalm]

you could always play with the combat feats, they give nice regen

Combat Awareness
Blind Fight, BAB 12, Combat Focus
While Combat Focus is activated, you can view the HP of all enemies within 30 feet

Combat Focus
WIS 13
Activate at will. For 10 rounds +1 round for each additional combat feat you possess (Awareness, Vigor, Strike), you gain +2 will saves (+4 if you've all the combat feats). Cooldown at 3,5 minutes.

Combat Strike
Combat Focus, Combat Vigor, Combat Awareness, BAB 15
You can choose to end your Combat focus at any time to gain +4 AB and +4 DMG for the amount of rounds remaining on your Combat Focus.

Combat Vigor
Combat Focus, BAB 9
While maintaining your Combat Focus, you gain +2 regeneration. If you've Combat Awareness, you gain +4 regeneration instead

havent played around with these yet

[Vogar Eol]

Combat Vigor does look like fun, but I really have a hard time justifying 13 Wisdom.

I could possibly justify 13 Intelligence for Improved Knockdown, but I do have several sets of MFP and +3 Dex items. I kind of find it hard to justify changing the base stats.

What can people tell me about the Charge feats in practice? I do use the basic charge Ability everyone gets to cover ground.

[Vogar Eol]

What about "Low Blow"? Assuming fighting Giants a lot... would that be useful at all? The AB of this guy should be fairly high anyway. Sacrificing all those attacks would likely only hurt.

[Sun Wukong]

The charge feats are a lot of fun, but you need to get the right Backround feat (Furious Charger) at character creation and then spend a bunch of feats and it doesn't really shine until you can spend an epic feat on Dire Charge. (Going for Battlerager is soooooo much more convenient.)

Low Blow:

• As a full-round action, you can enter an area occupied by an opponent who is at least one size category larger than you. You can then make a single melee attack at your highest attack bonus against this creature, who is considered flat-footed against the attack. After your attack, you return to the 5-foot square from which you entered the opponent's square. Using this feat does not provoke an attack of opperunity.

That sounds like a really neat feat for an armored halfling-gnome feinter, you know, someone with Crippling Strike and Epic Precision, and at least something like 10d6 Sneak attack.

As for the Combat Vigor, I got those on my Wisdom based ranger. I had feats to spare, and so I got them - and haven't used them because of the timer and just how tanky my buffed up animal companion tends to be.

As for your build, well, it looks more than good enough from where I stand from. Although with base 19 Strength... I could easily skip both Knockdown and Improved Critical Alike. You could spend the feats on anything you fance. For example Power Attack and Combat Expertice. One for little bit extra damage when you got more than enough AC, and the other to give little bit more ac when you need it.

[Vogar Eol]

The problem with adding combat modes is they won't stack with the uses of defensive stance. Which is largely too bad, as power attack would be useful.

Hmmm... maybe Power Attack for Cleave?

[Sun Wukong]

It could be handy to continue attacking another monster standing nearby. Great Cleave would be a colossal mistake though.

[Vogar Eol]

Well, the best thing for Defense Stance is to generally collect a bunch of monsters, then turn it on with your back to a wall or the like. With a bunch nearby, I'd think Cleave would give a slight DPS increase over time.