Crippling Wind Ro(19),F(10),SD(1)
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Rogue 19 / Fighter 10 / Shadowdancer 1
The Crippling Wind [1] relies on sneak attack damage to quickly take down most foes, while avoiding most (if not all) damage.
With Epic Precision, she can sneak attack any opponent in the game, and with Hide in Plain Sight, she can execute a sneak attack every 6 seconds. While not sneaking, she can use Expose Weakness to "soften up" her unfortunate targets. Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting also allows her to make 10 attacks per round: 5 in her main hand and 5 in her off-hand, both at full base attack bonus.
Her high INT score allows her to be a very strong utility rogue, able to handle just about any lock or trap, and maxed Tumble allows her an edge to avoiding damage in the rare situation where she fails. Fully trained in Use magical device, the Crippling Wind can use almost any item in the game, allowing her to perform as a backup spell caster (arcane and divine) through the use of scrolls, wands, and rods.
There is no XP-penalty due to multiclassing and ECL 1 is neglegible.
Unfortunately, she's a rather "ho-hum" (although useful -- this is where utility is handy) in early levels -- with the exception of Hide in Plain Sight, which she gets at CL8. She doesn't really start to shine until epic levels. However, at that point, she gets some really impressive abilities:
- Epic Precision, Epic Prowess, and Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting insure she'll sneak attack (and hit) almost any enemy, this makes all but a few fights a 1 or 2 round affair.
- Expose Weakness can bleed out enemies while she waits for her stealth timer to reset.
- Epic Dodge makes her almost immune to damage: foes who are actually able to overcome her AC had better do it more than once per round, or she can simply ignore the damage!
When playing: hide, sneak, expose weakness, and repeat. The only buff you could ever need would be Haste, but 12 attacks per round would be almost unfair.
The only real disadvantage she has is the paltry 1d4 on her dual kukris. You'll be much more reliant on the sneak damage as your main damage dealer, with elemental enhancement providing a delicious gravy.
Character CreationEdit
| Initial Values | Final Values | |
| STR | 12 | 12 |
| DEX | 19 | 26 |
| CON | 14 | 14 |
| INT | 16 | 16 |
| WIS | 7 | 7 |
| CHA | 8 | 8 |
| Base attack bonus | 24 | |
| Fortitude save | 16 | |
| Reflex save | 25 | |
| Will save | 9 | |
| Spell resistance | 0 | |
| Hit Points | 282 | |
| Natural AC | 26 | |
- Race: Air Genasi
- Classes: Rogue 19, Fighter 10, Shadowdancer 1
- Cleric Domains: -
- Build Nature: PvM
- Alignment: Any
- Deity: Any
Why these classes/races?
- The Air Genasi gets DEX+2, INT+2 bonuses, where INT is useful (for skills) and DEX is critial.
- Prefered Class: Fighter. This allows for no XP penalties.
- WIS-2, CHA-2: The WIS-2 is inconvenient for a class with low Will saves. Charisma penalty hurts dialogue options but can be countered by skills and items.
Alternatives: Tiefling
- Level 10 for Crippling Strike Feat
- Level 16 for Defensive Roll Feat (pre-req for Epic Dodge)
- Level 10 for Epic Weapon Focus.
- Level 1 for Hide in Plain Sight
NotesEdit
Without any magic items (wielding dual, mundane kukri), the character looks like this:
AC: 26 Main Hand Attack Bonus: +34/+29/+24/+19/+14 Damage: 1-4 Off Hand Attack Bonus: +34/+29/+24/+19/+14 Damage: 1-4
That's 10 attacks. Buff with Haste and you get 12. Include Sneak Attack damage for an additional 10d6 for each successful sneak attack.
Epic Equipment Examples:
If you equip +8 DEX/STR gear and wield two Kukri +8, you get:
AC: 30 Main Hand Attack Bonus: +46/+41/+36/+31/+26 Damage: 1-6 +12 +8 Off Hand Attack Bonus: +46/+41/+36/+31/+26 Damage: 1-6 +9 +8
Skills
| Skill | Value | Modified Value |
| Disable device | 30 | 33 |
| Hide | 33 | 41 |
| Listen | 30 | 28 |
| Lore | 25 | 28 |
| Move silently | 33 | 41 |
| Open lock | 30 | 38 |
| Search | 30 | 33 |
| Spot | 30 | 28 |
| Tumble | 30 | 38 |
| Use magic device | 30 | 29 |
The Crippling Wind has literally hundreds of skill points to distribute amongst her many skills.
These should be distributed as one might expect for a utility rogue General Skill Distribution
- Hide and Move silently for Sneak attack and successful Hide in Plain Sight
- Disable device and Open lock are a utility rogue's primary function, and to support those, you need
- Listen, Spot, and Search
- For every 10 ranks of Tumble, you get a free +1 AC, so there's no reason not to max this (to 30, not to 33) **MAKE SURE TO HIT 30 BY LEVEL 27 (for Epic Dodge)**
- Use magic device is the Rogue's great equalizer. Maxing this opens up countless choices in gear as well as backup spell slinging.
Optional Skill Choices
The Crippling Wind is built with a high Loreskill, but this can be swapped for any skill of your choice. Notable options would be
- Diplomacy (or any of the "conversation skills")
- Parry would have good synergy with the Two-Weapon Defense feat.
- Bluff which does double-duty as a conversation skill and a combat skill. It's unused here because Feint is not taken.
- Craft trap (or other crafting skills, which are heavily featured in the game)
- Appraise may not be as useful in a Monty Haul campaign such as MotB, but might be necessary in other worlds.
- Taunt might be useful against those few foes which she cannot quickly overcome with sneak attack or expose weakness.
Character ProgressionEdit
| CL | Class | Feat | Bonus/Class Feats | Attributes |
| 1 | Rogue 1 | Able Learner | Sneak attack, Trapfinding | |
| 2 | Fighter 1 | Weapon Finesse | ||
| 3 | Rogue 2 | Dodge | Evasion | |
| 4 | Rogue 3 | Trap sense | DEX +1 | |
| 5 | Rogue 4 | Uncanny dodge | ||
| 6 | Fighter 2 | Mobility | Weapon Focus | |
| 7 | Rogue 5 | |||
| 8 | Shadowdancer 1 | Hide in Plain Sight | DEX +1 | |
| 9 | Rogue 6 | Two-Weapon Fighting | ||
| 10 | Rogue 7 | |||
| 11 | Fighter 3 | |||
| 12 | Rogue 8 | Improved Two-Weapon Fighting | Improved Uncanny Dodge | DEX +1 |
| 13 | Fighter 4 | Weapon Specialization | ||
| 14 | Rogue 9 | |||
| 15 | Rogue 10 | Two-Weapon Defense | Crippling Strike | |
| 16 | Fighter 5 | DEX +1 | ||
| 17 | Rogue 11 | |||
| 18 | Rogue 12 | Improved Two-Weapon Defense* or Combat Expertise | ||
| 19 | Fighter 6 | Greater Two-Weapon Fighting | ||
| 20 | Rogue 13 | Improved Evasion | DEX +1 | |
| 21 | Rogue 14 | Epic Precision | ||
| 22 | Rogue 15 | |||
| 23 | Fighter 7 | Epic Prowess | ||
| 24 | Rogue 16 | Defensive Roll | DEX +1 | |
| 25 | Rogue 17 | Expose Weakness | ||
| 26 | Fighter 8 | Greater Weapon Focus | ||
| 27 | Fighter 9 | Epic Dodge | ||
| 28 | Fighter 10 | Epic Weapon Focus | DEX +1 | |
| 29 | Rogue 18 | Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting* or Combat Insight | ||
| 30 | Rogue 19 | Armor Skin |
- You can swap Improved Two-Weapon Defense and Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting for Combat Expertise and Combat Insight to add your +3 INT bonus to damage instead of your +1 STR bonus at the cost of +2 AC and you lose the benefits of Perfect Two-Weapon Fighting.
ReferencesEdit
Authorkishar
