Contents 1 Description 2 Character Creation 3 Overview 4 Dark Strike 5 Skills: 6 Character Progression

DescriptionEdit

Favored_soul 20 / Sorcerer 3 / Blackguard 3 / Red dragon disciple 4

The Dark Striker is a being who follows a dark deity. Taking his Deity's divine power, and amplifying it with a small amount of arcane magic, he is able to execute a powerful signature attack: Dark Strike.

Note

This build has since been shown to be based on a seriously flawed premise. Specifically, there is a 20 point enhancement cap, so that True Strike does not stack with anything else. Also, the Character sheet does not display the correct AB, so you have to take it for a combat run in order to see the actual AB. The use of this build is not recommended.

Character CreationEdit

	Initial Values	Final Values
STR	16	22
DEX	12	12
CON	14	14
INT	12	12
WIS	8	8
CHA	15	22
Base attack bonus		22
Fortitude save		25
Reflex save		24
Will save		22
Spell resistance		0
Hit Points		316
Natural AC

• Race: Human
• Classes: Favored_soul 20 / Sorcerer 3 / Blackguard 3 / Red dragon disciple 4
• Cleric Domains: -
• Build Nature:
• Alignment: Any Evil
• Deity:

• additional +6 saves against spells with Spellcraft
• If you want more skill points, you can transfer 1 point from Str to Int. You still can qualify for Epic Divine Might, but you lose 1 Str bonus.

OverviewEdit

Feats

Character Feats

1. Luck of heroes

1. Power Attack

3. Cleave

6. Practiced Caster Favored Soul

9. Blind Fight

12. Extend Spell

15. Divine Might (Must take on Blackguard 3)

18. Quicken Spell

21. Persistent Spell

23. Great Cha

25. Great Cha

27. Autoquicken I

29. Epic Divine Might

• At FS 1, 3, and 12, this gains Weapon proficiency, focus and specialization, with his Deity's favored weapon. The weapon you choose will depend on what you know is available. In the MoTB campaign, the Gith Sword counts as a longsword, so you may wish to choose that. Alternatively, choosing a Deity with exotic favored weapon grants you Exotic Weapon proficiency for free.

• At FS 20, this gains 10/Silver or Cold Iron Damage Reduction. Combine this with 10/adamantine DR from Stone Body, and you have pseudo-universal DR that can block any physical attack, simply because a weapon may be adamantine, or silver, but not both.

• Extend and Persistent Spell are needed for your Favored Soul buffs.

• EDM adds +12 damage per hit

• Get +8 Cha equipment to boost EDM to +20 damage per attacks, and another +4 to all saves.

• This also gains 3 elemental DR at FS 5, 10, and 15

• For your Sorcerer level 1 spells, remember to select True Strike, as it forms the Backbone of Dark Strike.

Dark StrikeEdit

This is the Build's signature attack of sorts. The original idea was to stack True Strike on top of all the other Favored Soul Buffs to achieve extremely high AB. It combines Favored Soul buffs, Epic Divine Might, and auto-quickened True Strike, so that the next few attacks are almost garunteed to hit. But that has since proven to be impossible as True Strike does not stack with any of the other buffs.

Some brief calculations of the total resulting AB:

With Mundane Equipment:

• 30 BAB from (extended) Divine Power
• 6 (Unbuffed Str bonus)
• 1 from weapon focus, if using Deity's Favored Weapon
• 20 True Strike

• 3 Persistant Divine Favor
• 2 Battle Tide
• 1 Persistent Prayer
• 1 Bless

Theoretical Total (Listed on Character Sheet): 64

Actual Total (as tested in combat): 57

Why the difference? The bonuses from Weapon enhancement. Persistent Divine Favor, Persistent Prayer, Bless, Battle Tide and does not stack with True Strike. The Character sheet is inaccurate, and lists that they do, but if you actually run put it through combat, the true values will be shown on the combat log.

If you have all the cleric buffs and high magic gear (total 15 AB bonus), it in effect only adds +5 to AB (raises it to 20). If you only have your buffs and mundane equipment (7 AB bonus), then it adds a comparative +13 to AB. It seems that this build performs relatively better on a low magic setting.

If using epic gear

+5 Str bonus (with belt of Storm Giant Strength +10)

Total: 62

With Haste effect of Battle tide, and 6 attacks from Divine power, your attack schedule will be: 62 / 62 / 57 / 60 / 55 / 50 / 45. However, casting Autoquickened True Strike takes up the bonus haste attack in the first round. However, True Strike lasts 9 seconds (originally supposed to last from the middle of the round when it was cast, to the end of the round after that), so your overall attack schedule will be:

1st Round: Cast / 62 / 62 / 57 / 60 / 55 / 50 / 45

2nd Round: 62 / 62 / 57 / 60 / ?? / ?? / ??

Against mid or low AC targets, most of the attacks will hit. Even against high AC targets such as the Immortal Treant and the Lord of the mountain, ~1 of your attacks should hit (see calculations below).

With Sorcerer 3, you have 5 level 1 spells. With 22 Cha, you have 2 bonus level 1 spells. With +8 Cha and a Cha of 30, this improves to 3 bonus level 1 spells. You can perform this 7-8 times a day.

Some figures on damage:

With Basic Gear

7 Great Sword

9 Str Bonus (6 base x 1.5 for using a 2 hander)

3 Persistant Divine Favor

10 Epic Divine Might

Total: 31

With Epic Gear

6 Str Bonus (with +8 Str gear)

8 EDM (with +8 Cha gear)

8 Enhancement Bonus

2 from weapon specialization if using Deity's favored weapon

35 Elemental Damage

Total: 88

It is also possible to activate power attack for another +6 damage at the cost of -3 AB.

Against Lord of the Mountain AC 75:

AB / Chance to hit

62 / 0.35

62 / 0.35

57 / 0.10

52 / 0.05

47 / 0.05

42 / 0.05

37 / 0.05

~1 hit

Skills:Edit

• This only has 4 skill points per level.

• The must-have skills are Concentration and Spellcraft.

• You also need 8 points in lore for RDD, 10 points in hide to unlock Blackguard.

• This leaves you (33 + 15) points leftover. Enough to max out 1 more class skill (Diplomacy for campaigns and modules, Heal or Craft for PWs) and some left over.

Character ProgressionEdit

CL	Class	Feat	Bonus/Class Feats	Attributes
1	Favored_soul 1	Luck of Heroes, Power Attack	Weapon Proficiency: Deity's Favored Weapon
2	Favored Soul 2
3	Favored Soul 3	Cleave	Weapon Focus: Deity's Favored Weapon
4	Favored Soul 4
5	Favored Soul 5		1st Energy Resistance
6	Favored Soul 6	Practiced Spellcaster: Favored Soul
7	Favored Soul 7
8	Favored Soul 8	-
9	Blackguard 1	Blind Fight	Use Poison
10	Favored Soul 9
11	Blackguard 2		Smite good x1, dark blessing, bull's strength x1
12	Favored Soul 10	Extend Spell	2nd Energy Resistance
13	Favored Soul 11
14	Favored Soul 12		Weapon Specialization: Deity's Favored Weapon
15	Blackguard 3	Divine Might	Turn Undead
16	Favored Soul 13
17	Sorcerer 1	-	Familiar
18	Favored Soul 14	Quicken Spell
19	Red dragon disciple 1		Natural armor increase I
20	Favored Soul 15		3rd Energy Resistance
21	RDD 2	Persistent Spell	+2 Strength
22	Favored Soul 16
23	RDD 3	Great Charisma	Breath weapon I x1
24	Favored Soul 17		Haste x3
25	RDD 4	Great Charisma
26	Favored Soul 18
27	Sorcerer 2	Automatic: Quicken Spell
28	Favored Soul 19	Natural armor increase II, +2 Strength
29	Sorcerer 3	Epic Divine Might
30	Favored Soul 20		10/alchemical silver or 10/cold iron Damage Reduction

Class Level	Class	Feat	Free Feat	Attributes
1	Favored_soul 1	Luck of Heroes, Power Attack	Weapon Proficiency: Deity's Favored Weapon
2	Favored Soul 2
3	Favored Soul 3	Cleave	Weapon Focus: Deity's Favored Weapon
4	Favored Soul 4			+1 Str
5	Favored Soul 5		1st Energy Resistance
6	Favored Soul 6	Practiced Spellcaster: Favored Soul
7	Favored Soul 7
8	Favored Soul 8			+1 Str
9	Blackguard 1	Blind Fight	Use Poison
10	Favored Soul 9
11	Blackguard 2		Smite good x1, dark blessing, bull's strength x1
12	Favored Soul 10	Extend Spell	2nd Energy Resistance	+1 Cha
13	Favored Soul 11
14	Favored Soul 12		Weapon Specialization: Deity's Favored Weapon
15	Blackguard 3	Divine Might	Turn Undead
16	Favored Soul 13			+1 Cha
17	Sorcerer 1		Familiar
18	Favored Soul 14	Quicken Spell
19	Red dragon disciple 1		Natural armor increase I
20	Favored Soul 15		3rd Energy Resistance	+1 Cha
21	RDD 2	Persistent Spell	+2 Strength
22	Favored Soul 16
23	RDD 3	Great Charisma	Breath weapon I x1
24	Favored Soul 17		Haste x3	+1 Cha
25	RDD 4	Great Charisma
26	Favored Soul 18
27	Sorc 2	Automatic: Quicken Spell
28	Favored Soul 19	Natural armor increase II, +2 Strength		+1 Cha
29	Sorc 3	Epic Divine Might
30	Favored Soul 20		10/alchemical silver or 10/cold iron Damage Reduction

Levelling Notes Grab 2 points in strength early on, to make life easier. Then the rest of your Stat points are put in Cha. You can scramble the levels as you wish as long as you meet the following requirements:

• By all non-epic feats by level 21

• Blackguard 3 on a feat level (to grab divine might)

• You need to raise FS high enough, to unlock spells of appropriate level for the meta-magic feats. Quicken Spell needs FS 8, Persistent Spell needs FS 12, and Auto-quicken needs FS 18.