Author Topic: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish  (Read 4419 times)

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duncandun

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Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« on: May 27, 2009, 05:14:20 PM »
Hey guys, Making a new post for the character build itself. If this isn't proper... let me know and I'll try and get a mod to delete it


Well, to start I'll say that as far as I know... all books are allowed. As well as Dragon.

As for what I want... well, A decent character mostly. There are some really powerful characters in the party, a Wizard that casts like a Sorcerer that has 60 million gold and two 'cohorts' that soak up half of any damage directed at him, a ridiculously optimized(mostly item wise... Not even sure most of it's legal) bard... thing. And some other ridiculous characters.  I'd like to be able to compete for the spotlight with such characters. I have a hard time just sitting in the shadow of others.

As for the character himself, I imagine a outlandish swarthy swashbuckler type(swashbuckler is an option I suppose!) on the outside, who also practices the arcane arts and is capable in them(Arcane ranger??)(basically someone that wouldn't look weird when he says 'We Meet tonight at dusk, come to my Mage Spire.'. He doesn't have to be Faerunian, but that is where the game currently is(they traveled her via Planescape). A distinctive dervish, I suppose...

Anyway, on to the meat.

Lvl 10
Stats:
18
16
14
12
10
10
Races: Any, LA adjusted allowed, LA buyoff... most likely not.
Templates: Allowed
Spending Money: 700k
Flaws: Not allowed
Regional Feats:Not allowed(As far as I know, he might come around on this)

Bare bones build I came up with last night:
Scout5/Ranger2/Dervish3
Nothing fancy... probably wouldn't work too great.


House rules... Well, Could be anything. So I don't really know what the houserules are(The DM... He kind of Grew up playing DnD with some of the others in the group, so he DMs using (for the most part) the way he knows how it's played... which isn't always by the book). If you guys know what I mean.

For instance using a weapon in two hands adds 1.5 your str to your damage and attack.

Oh and Swift Hunter stacks scout/ranger for Combat Styles as well as Favored enemy for rangers.

Just an example.

Oh, and just so you guys know, I checked out the Dervish handbook(On CO). It's a little outdated now, that or the author willingly left out alot of potential build options and such. Which wouldn't surprise me, he had some funny ideas on what was considered powerful, and what wasn't. It was almost backwards.

Thanks in advanced guys:D

« Last Edit: May 27, 2009, 05:21:20 PM by duncandun »

Eldariel

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #1 on: May 27, 2009, 05:49:54 PM »
The most important question: Are you married to the idea of being a Dervish? Because unless you're a spellcaster, you're never going to be anywhere near the abilities of the spellcasters in the party.

If so, I'd go:
Ranger 2/Scout 4/Dervish 4 (continuing Dervish until at least level 7)

Improved Skirmish + Swift Hunter ASAP and the TWF-line feats and prerequisites. Skirmish adds a nice bunch of damage making you reasonably efficient offense-wise, but you don't have room for much else in the build. Frankly, to capture the heart of your post, I'd go Scout 3-5/Mystic Ranger 15-17 with Sword of the Arcane Order-feat (with or without one-level Cleric dip to acquire Travel Devotion to activate Skirmish).

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2009, 06:22:56 PM »
What the fuck kind of game has a level 10 with 700k gold and a wizard with 60 million? That's not even D&D anymore...

If that mage has any clue at all what the hell he is doing, there is absolutely nothing you can do to even remotely get close to his power level.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

skydragonknight

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2009, 06:30:38 PM »
Expeditious Dodge(+2 dodge AC as long as you have moved 40 ft in a found) is a superior dodge for this character.

And as always for a mobile character, Ring of Entropic Warding + some item that boosts speed for an easy 50% miss chance against ranged attacks and ranged touch attacks.

For Dervish especially I'd recommend Boots of Speed.

If you decide not to go Dervish, substitute Boots of Speed for Carpet of Flying, take Archery combat style, a bow with Splitting(Champions of Ruin, +3 enhancement for a bow/crossbow that essentially doubles your number or attacks) and take Woodland Archer tactical feat from Races of the Wild, whose "Adjust for Range" will, with Splitting, pretty much guarantee you hit *something* every round.
It always seems like the barrels around here have something in them.

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2009, 06:36:15 PM »
What the fuck kind of game has a level 10 with 700k gold and a wizard with 60 million? That's not even D&D anymore...

If that mage has any clue at all what the hell he is doing, there is absolutely nothing you can do to even remotely get close to his power level.

Basically the DM exposed them at around lvl 7 during their extraplanar romp through Planescape, to a giant room made of gold.

The players surprised the DM by basically sculpting down the room and melting the gold down into coins, they got around 55-60 million a piece I believe.

Honestly, I thought it was kind of ridiculous when I found out, and he gave me 700k as to give me a chance to get near them in terms of power level.

And yeah, generally I would say that the game should just be over by now, but the player of the mage is taking it easy and not trying to end his campaign. I don't really understand why, other than the obvious implications(game ends?), I know the DM wouldn't try to stop him if he did either because they are best friends.

Oh yeah, another DM ruling I just remembered - Candle of Invocation doesn't let anyone cast gate, just people who are already capable of casting gate, cast it free of any potential XP loss, or something(might as well just use a scroll?).


Expeditious Dodge(+2 dodge AC as long as you have moved 40 ft in a found) is a superior dodge for this character.

And as always for a mobile character, Ring of Entropic Warding + some item that boosts speed for an easy 50% miss chance against ranged attacks and ranged touch attacks.

For Dervish especially I'd recommend Boots of Speed.

If you decide not to go Dervish, substitute Boots of Speed for Carpet of Flying, take Archery combat style, a bow with Splitting(Champions of Ruin, +3 enhancement for a bow/crossbow that essentially doubles your number or attacks) and take Woodland Archer tactical feat from Races of the Wild, whose "Adjust for Range" will, with Splitting, pretty much guarantee you hit *something* every round.

Yeah, Actually I was originally going to be a pretty simple 4scout/16 ranger archer build, I was (at the time) remembering some build that involved Flyby Attack or something like that, that basically gave you two standard actions in a round as long as you moved. I think the build involved lots of precision dice and Greater Manyshot for something like 16 shots a round or something.

In anycase, I've decided against that at this point... if Anything I'd just go scout/ranger and use travel devotion, but I really like the flavor of the dervish.

The most important question: Are you married to the idea of being a Dervish? Because unless you're a spellcaster, you're never going to be anywhere near the abilities of the spellcasters in the party.

If so, I'd go:
Ranger 2/Scout 4/Dervish 4 (continuing Dervish until at least level 7)

Improved Skirmish + Swift Hunter ASAP and the TWF-line feats and prerequisites. Skirmish adds a nice bunch of damage making you reasonably efficient offense-wise, but you don't have room for much else in the build. Frankly, to capture the heart of your post, I'd go Scout 3-5/Mystic Ranger 15-17 with Sword of the Arcane Order-feat (with or without one-level Cleric dip to acquire Travel Devotion to activate Skirmish).

Yeah, I'm considering the second option still... I guess it would accomplish what I want reasonably well... but I'm not sure how much better it would perform.

Also, where is Sword of the arcane order?

Salt_Crow

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2009, 06:47:43 PM »
If you had 60mil gold and the wizard had 70k then the power level might remotely resemble but otherwise the heaviest of optimisation won't let you smack hard enough to break the law of physics.

Anyways, Sword of Arcane Order is from Champions of Valor (FR) which allows Ranger or Paladin to prepare wizard spells. Wraithstrike goodness!

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2009, 06:48:46 PM »
Mystic Ranger + Sword of the Arcane Order = uber, but not 60 million gold worth of uber.  :lmao
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2009, 07:31:07 PM »
Mystic Ranger + Sword of the Arcane Order = uber, but not 60 million gold worth of uber.  :lmao

He honestly hasn't done much with the gold besides buy some stuff(stat books, some metarods, etc). I'm pretty sure this is on purpose because hes a smart guy and I'm sure knows what he could be doing with it.

My current character(Gish battlesorc4/fighter1/swordmage1/abjchamp4) could probably do some crazy stuff (and he only has 150k right now) but I'm not sure they would appreciate the new guy destroying the game or what ever.

also thanks for the mystic ranger suggestions, Gonna look into that.

woodenbandman

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #8 on: May 28, 2009, 06:35:07 PM »
Few things: One: why wasn't that gold room protected by walls of force. A person capable of casting the genesis + fabricate combo that likely created that room could've easily created a wall of force + permanency.
2: If the player spends 60 million gold, they'll ruin the economy. You'll have a germany after WWI situation.

So, really, the player has 60 million gold pieces that will become completely worthless if he spends much more than his allotted WBL.

ErhnamDJ

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2009, 07:43:14 PM »
If the player spends 60 million gold, they'll ruin the economy. You'll have a germany after WWI situation.

Infinite planes, yo. You're going to have to spread the wealth around to buy the things you need, anyway.

Unless there's someplace where there's sixty million gold worth of stuff to buy all in one place that happens to have the items you want. And if that's the case, hyperinflation is going to be the least of their concerns.

Emy

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #10 on: May 28, 2009, 08:11:29 PM »
If the player spends 60 million gold, they'll ruin the economy. You'll have a germany after WWI situation.

Infinite planes, yo. You're going to have to spread the wealth around to buy the things you need, anyway.

Unless there's someplace where there's sixty million gold worth of stuff to buy all in one place that happens to have the items you want. And if that's the case, hyperinflation is going to be the least of their concerns.

I think I remember something about a city with no wealth limit for items.

It was probably Sigil.

Negative Zero

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #11 on: May 28, 2009, 09:35:34 PM »
There are several other absurdly large metropolises in D&D. None is as good as Sigil, but there are plenty of places to spend 60 mil.

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #12 on: May 29, 2009, 01:45:06 AM »
Does anyone know what book Mystic Ranger is in?

Also, is there a 'mystic ranger' type alternate feature for Paladins?

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #13 on: May 29, 2009, 02:33:21 AM »
Does anyone know what book Mystic Ranger is in?

Also, is there a 'mystic ranger' type alternate feature for Paladins?
Dragon 336, from the link I provided above:
Mystic Ranger + Sword of the Arcane Order = uber,
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #14 on: May 29, 2009, 03:28:15 AM »
Quote
Dragon 336, from the link I provided above


thanks!

Flay Crimsonwind

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2009, 03:48:38 AM »
Quote
Dragon 336, from the link I provided above
thanks!
God damnit, one more thing I have to make a build of.

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2009, 04:35:49 PM »
So I'm looking at something like this right now:
scout3/mystic shooting star arcane hunter ranger 6/cleric 1

I considered cloister cleric, but I think getting armor(especially shield) proficiencies back is pretty key, I lose the bonus feat from scout, but no longer have to spend a feat on travel devotion.

Oh and I decided on Lesser Tiefling, I'm not sure if this is the best, but the +2 int(for wizard spells) will help mitigate MAD.

feats something like this:
Sword of the Arcane order
Swift Hunter
Improved Skirmish
Travel Devotion(free)

Thats all my feats unfortunately, I wanted to fit in improved buckler defense but alas...

Also, can anyone tell me if you have to sacrifice the corresponding domain to get that devotion feat for free? Like Travel domain for Travel Devotion?


PhaedrusXY

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2009, 04:46:47 PM »
You can't do the Shooting Star sub-level and Mystic Ranger together, as they both lose their animal companion.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]

duncandun

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2009, 05:04:29 PM »
You can't do the Shooting Star sub-level and Mystic Ranger together, as they both lose their animal companion.

Ah dang.

I was going to ask about that, I thought I'd seen it before (people suggesting both together) so I wasn't sure.

Well, you could ... you just couldn't take the 4th level substitution for bonus spells... which kind of removes the point IMO... Otherwise you only get Weavespeak and See invisible and word of recall.

I don't understand the Improved Spellcasting feature however, You can treat your CL as half your ranger level +2? Normally a Level 20 ranger would have a CL of 16, but with This it would only be 12, I don't really get the point...

PhaedrusXY

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Re: Optimize my lvl 10 swift hunter dervish
« Reply #19 on: May 29, 2009, 05:07:49 PM »
Normally a Level 20 ranger would have a CL of 16, but with This it would only be 12, I don't really get the point...
A level 20 ranger normally has a CL of 10. I don't know where you're getting 16. Practiced Spellcaster is a very good feat for a Mystic Ranger.
[spoiler]
A couple of water benders, a dike, a flaming arrow, and a few barrels of blasting jelly?

Sounds like the makings of a gay porn film.
...thanks
[/spoiler]