sly_1 1213039126|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
This build is a different take on the conventional dual wield builds you see out there. Now with MotB crafting you can just add crazy ridiculous damage to weapons, but normally, dual wield builds rely on stealth and sneak attack damage to survive. From there, you typically rely on dex based skills like hide in plain sight and, due to the lack of str, you normally rely on sneak attacks to produce damage.
Sooo, here's the idea: high str, but with enough defense to simply stand in the face of an enemy and deliver the blows. You sacrifice some attacks per round, and have no stealth, and in exchange you have a high damage output character that retains solid melee defense.
Bard 7/swiftblade 10/tempest 5/fighter 8
Feats in no particular order:
dodge
mobility
spring attack
2wf
i2wf
extend
practiced bard
blind fight
weapon focus
gr focus
epic focus
prowess
luck of heroes
able learner
kd
ikd
feat of choice is left over
race: drow
stats:
str 17 +7 from levelups
dex 17
con 12
int 13
wis 8
cha 12
With those stats you just need a cha +4 item to be able to cast 1 lvl 3 spell per day and thus qualify for sb. I'm assuming this build will have access to +8 cha items, thus the 12 cha it starts with. If not, it must have a higher starting cha score. One option would be to remove kd and ikd from the build as otlined below, drop int to 10, and possibly drop con to 10. This would allow a starting cha of 16 with 1 point to spare, so the build would then only need a +4 cha item to cast 1 lvl 5 spell per day.
The ideal armor would be mithral breastplate coupled with a +3 or better dex item or even just a potion or spell of cats grace.
The build ultimately gets:
+28 bab
+11 ab from str (assuming +8 str item)
+5 from epic weapon focus and epic prowess
+2 from SB
+2 Tempest
+1 from bard inspiration
+4 from greater heroism (requires a +8 cha item with the stats here, but the build can be tweaked to have more cha if +8 cha items are not available)
+8 weapon enhancement
+1 haste (cannot be dispelled after SB level 6)
-2 dual wield malus
60 ab with a potion of aid and one of bless (available in most mods) its 62 ab. Even dispelled it's ab is still an impressive 56, because the only thing in there vulnerable to dispel is the greater heroism.
Ac (assuming MotB crafting):
+10 base
+18 total ac benefit from +8 mithral breast plate and 20+ dex
+2 swiftblade
+3 Tempest
+5 natural armor amulet
+8 deflection ac
+5 dodge boots (sun soul +5)
+3 tumble
+1 haste
+1 Luck of Heroes
=56
I debated lowering the int and taking 2 weapon defense along with greater 2wd instead of kd and ikd. also the spare feat could go to armor skin if more ac is necessary. Alternatively, with all that ab, you could take combat expertise or even take combat expertise along with the 2wd feats.
On the whole I feel that 56 ac is probably viable, though, simply because the build will have the swiftblade Haste bonuses. With 7 bard levels, practiced caster, and 10 sb levels the build enjoys 13 base caster lvls and an effective caster level of 17 so that's:
- Haste = normal duration of 51 rounds (5 minutes, 6 seconds) extended duration of 107 rounds (over 10 minutes)
Thus with 5-10 minutes of undispellable 50% concealment. Bards also get mirror image, so between mirror image and 50% concealment and 56 ac, most foes won't hit you enough in order to kill you before you kill them.
I don't have time for a damage calculation atm, but it will be impressive thanks to +11 damage from str per blow (again assuming a +8 str item).
6 attacks on the main hand, 3 offhand = 9 attacks per round plus haste (iirc haste gives 1 attack per hand per round) so that's 11 attacks per round. Not as impressive as a kaze build or most p2wf full dex builds, but most dex builds can't compete with this builds ab and can't deal as much damage per blow without sneak attacks. Thus this build fares well against foes that give dex builds problems (high spot/listen critand/or sneak immunes).
I also don't have time to work up it's skill points and progression, but able learner + bard levels = awesome skill set. at the least you can get:
concentration 33
spellcraft 15+
tumble 30
perform 1
other useful skills = UMD, taunt (to further increase your effective ab), spot and/or listen.
Main cons to the build:
- must be drow to achieve the stats I recommend = slow leveling and you incur a xp pen unless you keep bard and fighter within 1 lvl of each other.
- no real defense against spellcasters except spell resistance (no mantles, mediocre saves, no evasion).
Overall I think it's a decent 2 weapon fighting build!