Author Topic: A bitter defeat, new beginnings? shadow Sun Ninja Optimization?  (Read 12758 times)

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genuine

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Re: A bitter defeat, new beginnings? shadow Sun Ninja Optimization?
« Reply #20 on: May 04, 2010, 04:43:03 PM »
Sounds about right, I rolled a 1 on the save. My fort was 17. The only magic item I had was a +1 pristmatic burst warhammer.


Ideas for a SA oriented SSN?
Just played a Swordsage/SSN this weekend and had a blast -- he was a mageslayer tripper type for a Diablo-themed game, patterned after the D2 Assassin.

SA and SSN are a bit inimical -- you get a lot of mileage out of what I think of as the core SSN ability (their negative energy touch) from really astronomical unarmed combat damage.  Then again, if that's not super important to you, e.g., if you're going to use it for between combat healing, then go nuts. 

I'd probably do the standard Swordsage SA shenanigans, although having high unarmed combat damage doesn't hurt that either.  There's also their darkness ability, which might be decent at setting up SAs, although you have to check to see if you can actually make a sneak attack in those cases since you're closed off from your senses.  And, honestly, it seems harder to set up an SA w/ that than w/ Island of Blades anyway.  There are lots of good Swordsage sneak attack builds around. 
Out of curiosity, what are the 'standard Swordsage SA shenanigans?

Unbeliever

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Re: A bitter defeat, new beginnings? shadow Sun Ninja Optimization?
« Reply #21 on: May 04, 2010, 04:49:57 PM »
Sounds about right, I rolled a 1 on the save. My fort was 17. The only magic item I had was a +1 pristmatic burst warhammer.


Ideas for a SA oriented SSN?
Just played a Swordsage/SSN this weekend and had a blast -- he was a mageslayer tripper type for a Diablo-themed game, patterned after the D2 Assassin.

SA and SSN are a bit inimical -- you get a lot of mileage out of what I think of as the core SSN ability (their negative energy touch) from really astronomical unarmed combat damage.  Then again, if that's not super important to you, e.g., if you're going to use it for between combat healing, then go nuts. 

I'd probably do the standard Swordsage SA shenanigans, although having high unarmed combat damage doesn't hurt that either.  There's also their darkness ability, which might be decent at setting up SAs, although you have to check to see if you can actually make a sneak attack in those cases since you're closed off from your senses.  And, honestly, it seems harder to set up an SA w/ that than w/ Island of Blades anyway.  There are lots of good Swordsage sneak attack builds around. 
Out of curiosity, what are the 'standard Swordsage SA shenanigans?

The TOB for Dummies in the Handbooks section probably has a bit of them listed, and that old tricks and combos thread probably had a bunch of them before it was sucked up. 

The ones that immediately come to mind are pretty obvious.  You can go Tiger Claw for scads of attacks combined w/ some additional mobility when making full attacks (Desert Wind has a gem or two here, too); Shadow Hand is pretty obvious both for the beauteous Assassin's Stance and also for its means of making your opponent flat-footed -- the low level Cloak of Deception is golden for that -- and there's of course Island of Blades.  That's the big set of combos, I think.  Part of me thinks a Warblade would work better overall, w/ perhaps a dip into Swordsage or something similar to get some Shadow Hand, but I haven't thought it through as of yet.  There's also all the counters that let you hang in there in melee. 

Someone else can give you a more detailed accounting.  Maybe google "beshadowed blade" which I think was Tleilaxu's iconic swordsage SA build.