The eldritch swiftblade

summary:

Sorcerer 6/swiftblade 10/fighter 4/eldritch knight 10

The eldritch swiftblade

sly_1 1213502866|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This build attempts to blend sorcery and swordsmanship into one complete package. It has solid offense and defense, and enough versatility to take on pretty much anything. Generally speaking, this is a melee build, but if it runs into a foe with high end melee defense it is a capable spellcaster.

Sorcerer 6/swiftblade 10/fighter 4/eldritch knight 10

Drow

Stats:
str 17 +7 (levelups)
dex 13
con 10
int 14
wis 10
cha 16

1 fighter — LOH, dodge
2 Sorc
3 Sorc — still spell
4 sorc
5 sorc
6 sorc — mobility
7 sorc
8 SB
9 SB — extend spell
10 SB
11 SB
12 SB — blind fight
13 SB
14 SB
15 EK — maximize spell
16 EK
17 EK
18 SB — practiced spellcaster: sorcerer
19 EK
20 EK
21 EK — quicken spell
22 EK
23 SB - kd
24 EK
25 EK - automatic still spell I
26 EK
27 SB - automatic still spell II
28 Fighter - IKD
29 Fighter- automatic still spell III
30 Fighter - Epic prowess *or* armor skin

The build, as listed, is designed for at least a cha item of +3 or better to alloow it to cast lvl 9 spells. It has 25 caster levels vs dispell magic, and as such is all but immune to greater dispel and only vulnerable to a mords when it comes to dispelling. Even dispelled it has 50% concealment, haste, and freedom for 150 rounds per casting of extended haste (and as a sorcerer it has an LOT of castings of haste per day).

The saves are nothing special: the build relies on multiple spell mantles to survive vs casters. with quicken spell and least, lesser, regular and greater spell mantle it can cast a mantle in any slot from lvl 4+ and cast 12 quickened mantles per day. Superior resistance or greater resistance + 20 or more spellcraft helps to shore up the saves at least a tad. I considered a version that used paladin instead of fighter, and it would be viable that way as well.

For spells I go with mostly buffs, the only real offense needed is ray of enfeeble, bigbies forceful, and igms (tweak as necessary based on the mod/setting at hand, though). A nice spell for rolling through lowbie/effortless foes is firebrand. key buffs include (lesser) mind blank, shades, shadow shield (although that is a tough pill to swallow given the other awesome spells at that level), haste, mirror image. There are lotsa other nice buffs but hey, do whatcha like!

When in doubt a maximized ray of enfeeblement + bigbies forceful will incapacitate the enemy and from there it's gg! super damage resistant/high ac foes can be igms'd to death if need be. On the defense from an extended haste + maximized mirror image + premonition makes you basically immune to melee damage.

Skill points: just needs max concentration, 30 tumble, 20+ spellcraft, and the rest as you please (umd is always good, taunt works for the build as well).

Full plate and tower shield, it has no weapon focus so it uses whatever it finds/likes and can bust out a tower shield if need be.

bab = 27
ac is respectable thanks to swifblade bonus and access to tumble.

Overall a very fun and versatile build!

p.s. another variant would be to go dex based and replace still spell with 2 weapon fighting :)

last edited on 1216180525|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by sly_1 + show more

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

nicethugbert 1213529955|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Displacement?

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

sly_1 1213544079|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The build doesn't need displacement for itself, as a Swiftblade it gets 50% concealment that cannot be dispelled for either 75 or 150 rounds per casting of (extended) haste and it cannot be dispelled. Displacement would be a cool buff to have for party members, of course, so feel free to take it if you please.

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

Kaedrin 1213564240|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

That's a nice build though I would indeed go two-weapons instead of still spell being more martially inclined. ;)

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

sly_1 1213579305|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Ok, in honor of Keadrin here's a 2wf version:

Sorcerer 6/swiftblade 10/fighter 4/eldritch knight 10

Drow

Stats:
str 10
dex 19 +7 (levelups)
con 12
int 13
wis 10
cha 16

1 fighter — LOH, 2 weapon fighting
2 Sorc
3 Sorc — dodge
4 sorc
5 sorc
6 sorc — mobility
7 sorc
8 SB
9 SB — weapon finesse
10 SB
11 SB
12 SB — blind fight
13 SB
14 SB
15 EK — extend spell
16 EK
17 EK
18 SB — improved 2 weapon fighting
19 EK
20 EK
21 EK — greater 2 weapon fighting
22 SB
23 EK - practiced spellcaster: sorcerer
24 EK
25 EK - Perfect 2 weapon fighting
26 EK
27 SB - quicken spell
28 Fighter - weapon focus *or* 2 weapon defense
29 Fighter- maximize spell
30 Fighter - Epic prowess *or* armor skin *or* imp 2 weapon defense

all those feats from lvl 28-30 are non mandatory. Hell even the 13 int p there is non mandatory. But anyway that's a general outline.

last edited on 1216180585|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by sly_1 + show more

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

Anonymous (92.73.205.x) 1216127811|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

you not only have +2 ecl you have 20% exp penalty at lvl 4 till lvl 30 so 26 lvls of xp penalty, in return drow offers not much to this build (except style and a higher sr) maybe i would go with another race instead :>

greetings mafk

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

sly_1 1216180442|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

you not only have +2 ecl you have 20% exp penalty at lvl 4 till lvl 30 so 26 lvls of xp penalty, in return drow offers not much to this build (except style and a higher sr) maybe i would go with another race instead :>

The main thing Drow offers is the stat bonuses, the build has dex, int, and cha as important stats and drow gets bonuses to all 3. I went with drow simply because it will result in the most powerful character at lvl 30, but admittedly it makes getting there a bit of a grind. tbh I designed this build specifically for a pw I play on that has crazy ridiculous insane high xp :P

But the build will work with a different race, no problem, though doing so may very well necessitate dropping a stat here or there. As it is the build requires a +3 cha item just to cast lvl 9 spells, so out of the gate it is setting dependent on gear.

The moral of the story is, make it a human or maybe a gold dwarf if you want to avoid the xp pen, but you probably can't start with str 17 *and* cha 16 that way. If the mod has a lot of decent + cha items you can dump cha some pretty easily, you really only *need* a cha of 13 to qualify for swiftblade and ek (but you will then be dependent on finding a +6 cha item to cast lvl 9 spells). I don't like to dump cha too much cause I like the bonus spells per day (especially if you can find a high +cha item).

Another non xp pen variant I am playing atm is an aasimar that substitutes paladin for fighter and loses out on ikd, kd, and LOH, but picks up some nice paladin perks, only ecl +1.

In other news I'm going to slightly edit both builds: an optimization I have decided is worthwile is to spread out some of the final SB levels in ordeer to make attaining 30 tumble easier :)

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

Anonymous (72.174.75.x) 1217174171|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

An excellent build. One which I, myself, used. Actually, I ended up going…

Wiz 5/Swiftblade 10/Bladesiger 10/Eldrich Knight 5 focusing on 2 weapon fighting :P

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

Anonymous (77.75.160.x) 1217724164|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Nice build but personally I think that this build would benifit more from wiz lvls than sorc, since I find int more useful than cha(more skillpoints never hurts) and the bonus feat is always nice. And I can usually pretty much predict the spells I need anyhow with a buff heavy build like this, but thats obviously a preference issue :P

Anyhow I just saw this post and recalled that I had made a similar build not so long ago: a (5wiz/10 Eldrich knight/10 Swiftblade/5 Tempest) dualwield build, which while it loses a few feats (well actually only 1 since I gain 1 from my wiz lvls and tempest gives imp two-weapon fighting) and 1 casterlvl compared to yours gains the tempest bonuses and bypasses the xp penalty for multiclassing.

just my 2 cents

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

sly_1 1217727717|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Nice build but personally I think that this build would benifit more from wiz lvls than sorc…

I just prefer the spontaneous casting, but yeah going int based is perfectly viable. Hell there are dozens of variations possible from the foundation of base caster class 5-6/sb 10/ek 10/ whatever else 4-5.

I think the moral of the story is that gish's are finally a viable option thanks to the swiftblade class :)

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

Kunikos 1217737886|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

You could swap out 4 levels of fighter for 4 levels of swashbuckler if you were to play a wizard version of this build. :)

last edited on 1217737916|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover by Kunikos + show more

Re: The eldritch swiftblade

mperantie 1226598929|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

This build is similar to one of my builds. My variant uses Paladin instead of fighter. I use Aasimar to avoid the ecl penalty.

My variant loses a couple of feats compared to this build, but has better saves. I also take divine might and divine shield to take advantage of my CHA focus. I think either variant should be fun to play. I love the speed with which the swiftblade moves.