The Right Fist of Gond - F(8), DC(8), WM(7), C(7)

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Fighter 8 / Divine Champion 8 / Weapon Master 7 / Cleric 7

by Steelsamurai 15:28, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Contents 1 Description 2 Character Creation 3 Notes 4 Skills 5 Weapons 6 Spells 7 Equipment 8 Character Progression Table 9 Variants

[edit] Description

This is a particularly vicious, burst damage power build, optimized to put a pile of hurt out in a short period of time. It is also tough enough to last on its own and slug it out. It is one of two builds I made based around the Weapon Master combined with Epic Divine Might, and the resulting quadruple epic divine damage criticals are very painful to be on the receiving end of.

From a roleplay standpoint, the The Left Fist of Gond is the fraternal twin sister of the The Right Fist of Gond, when conceived they were Planetouched and destined to bring balance wherever they go. Their patron deity is Gond, he of the hammer, which they carry and use to dispense their particular brand of religious zealotry.

Both have trained and dedicated themselves to their weapon and their patron, following slightly different paths in combat and worship of their deity. The Right Fist is a tankbuster, using 8 levels in Divine Champion to optimize dishing out pain in combination with Weapon Master. The Left Fist goes the route of divine spellcasting through a higher level in Cleric. Both builds have chewn through most of the Battle of the Builds, defeating many (most) of the other power builds very rapidly, in some cases in under 10 seconds.

I built the twins out of an attempt to get something useful out of the Weapon Master class, and the high critical output of the WM features strongly in this build, and it is not out of the question to see over 300-400 melee damage generated in one round against a fully armored and buffed opponent (with a bit of luck). In fighting other WM builds this one seems to chew through them with no problems and without breaking a sweat.

Also, I think critical hits are cool and it makes me happy to see enemies go down in a flurry of *Critical Hit!*.

I recently tweaked the build to up the strength and fix the multiclassing XP problem, there is a little less cleric and fighter, and a little more Divine Champion.

Advantages:

• Fully buffed, +67 attack, 72AC -or- +64 attack 75AC by flipping the combat expertise mode. High attack, high defense, have your cake and eat it too.

• High damage output, using Epic Divine Might and a 4x critical with good chances to hit. Some power builds don't last for more than a handful of seconds against the Right Fist of Gond. It's built to crit, if it hits, it hits hard for 4x on a 17-20 roll, with physical, divine and magical damage from buffs, a crit will land for 200+ points. See image of the Right Fist vs. the Inconvenient Ranger with two crits landing in the same sequence. This is with the elemental damage resisted.

• Has additional toys of Disarm and Knockdown added to the repertoire. Knockdown could be switched for Extra Smiting if this is your style, but Knockdown is pretty vicious.

• Has flexibility in the spell buildout on the cleric side if you want to role play. However, he's pretty weak as a Cleric, he's more of a warrior priest.

• Build starts off as a fighter and is useable throughout the build, should never be gimped or have a multiclassing penalty.

• High saves, with added buffs from Divine Champion, plus Divine Wrath for an ace in the hole or opening flurry to-hit and damage bonus. This build will hit for (23 divine damage + 2 magical) x 4 on a crit for 100 points of unresistable damage.

• It is easy to make minor adjustments in stance from defensive to offensive by switching to two handed use of the warhammer and putting the shield away (more drastic) and by enabling or turning off combat expertise (tilts you +3/-3 on AC/Attack). A harder to hit enemy that is not much of a threat can be dealt with then without having to resort to spell buffs.

• Time domain allows the Right Fist to access Haste as a level 3 spell. More attacks + high crit = more damage.

Disadvantages:

• Might have problems with turtle builds meant entirely for defense that can outlast him.

• Not very strong at detecting stealth, and the clerical spells don't seem to help much though they should according to descriptions.

• AI on my testing doesn't seem to take a lot of advantage of the disarm/knockdown skills which are very powerful, nor does it call Haste. These are underselected by the computer when it plays vs. things in the pack so I think they're using different AI sets (I have the recommended AI pack installed).

• AI will also make use of combat expertise in a defensive stance when it's not necessary, which can cripple what otherwise might be a 10% or 15% chance to hit... making the build perform a bit stupidly at times when controlled by AI.

• Only very minor protection against mages using Bigby's Forceful Hand to get the stun. If anyone has any suggestions other than spell mantles or concealment, feel free to post on the talk page. Building for Weapon Master and Divine Might at the same time doesn't leave a huge amount of room for adjusting but I'd like to see how it could be improved.

• Naked strength of 23 equates to equipped strength of 32, and will lose shoving matches against melee characters similarly equipped with knockdown and strength in the 33-40 range. Building for Epic Divine Might doesn't allow for more power.

• Relatively low constitution makes for kind of a lightweight build as a fighter, but this is more than balanced out by the extreme damage output.

• Those buffs don't last a long time. This could be addressed with practiced spellcaster somewhat, but for the most part he tends to kill whatever he faces before the buffs run out. And if it takes that long fully buffed, he's probably going to lose and 40% more buff time isn't going to help anyway.

[edit] Character Creation

	Initial Values	Final Values
STR	16	23
DEX	13	13
CON	8	8
INT	14	14
WIS	11	11
CHA	18	21
Base attack bonus		28
Fortitude save		24
Reflex save		18
Will save		17
Spell resistance		0
Hit Points		286
Natural AC		15

Race: Aasimar

Classes: Fighter 8, Divine Champion 8, Weapon Master 7, Cleric 7

Cleric Domains: - Time (domain), War (domain)

Build Nature: PvP

Alignment: Neutral

Deity: Gond

Race: Aasimar: the charisma and wisdom bonuses help get this off the ground, since we need to hit required stats on Strength and Charisma of 21 each (Epic Divine Might). We also need Intelligence and Dexterity to hit 13 each to qualify as a Weapon Master. If building with a human it might be possible to go with a lower constitution and/or wisdom to make the whole thing work, or one can take more epic bonuses and sacrifice some of the feats at the end of the build. Elves would also be a good choice, anything with bonus strength or charisma, with negatives in constitution, the only stat we don't care about.

Alignment: Neutral. Gond of the Warhammer is a Neutral god, and these two builds are patterned to serve him. Also, people can't protect vs. neutral alignment which is like carrying a permanent buff with you and is a benefit to going with Divine Champion over Paladin or Blackguard. A similar build to this would be possible by dropping cleric and going with one of those two for a good/evil roleplay. Kind of sucks to face Smite Evil from high level Paladins though, as most Blackguards don't seem to take a lot of levels Smite Good isn't so scary.

Stats: Not much flexibility, you need to end up with Str/Ch at 21, and Int/Dex at 13, and they have to hit these numbers at the right time in the build to unlock WM in particular. I did backflips to get Str up to 23 but that's about it.

Key Feats: Divine Might, Epic Divine Might, Divine Wrath (DC5), and Ki Critical (WM7). Almost feat in this build is pretty essential to making the overall concept work though. Knockdown is optional, and other suggestions might be Practiced Spellcaster to increase the durations of his buffs or Extra Smiting to get 2 more Smite Infidel attacks. In practice those don't seem to add much extra to the effectiveness, and Knockdown is something that can be called every few seconds for a high debuff to AC, irritation, and some breathing space and free attacks. So I went with that as the choice.

[edit] Notes

High damage is great, but you need to hit the target before the target hits you! This build is about putting out a deep hurt, both when it's hard to hit (via the 4x critical factor) and when it's easy to hit (20% of the rolls).

[edit] Skills

Important: We need +4 intimidate to open up Weapon Master. Beyond this, the best build I think will start with 4 in intimidate and then use the minimum required on each level until we get a Cleric level open where we can dump into Spellcraft and Concentration. I built with Concentration 33, Tumble 14, Spellcraft 20, Intimidate 4 (required), Spot 16. This suggested build doesn't use Taunt, but that is certainly an option. I'd have gone higher but with no rogue/bard to open things up and short on feats due to WM's ridiculous requirements, this was the best I figured I could do. I wanted concentration high so I could use buffs in combat of course.

[edit] Weapons

It is possible to build this out two-handed with a Greataxe, which would be pretty scary damage wise. Since the buffed defense is very high at 75, without a shield it would still sit at a respectable 63, and make for monster damage and better accuracy. However, it would be less survivable probably. The reliance of this build on criticals means it always has a puncher's chance unless it comes against someone who is critical resistant. Even so, high accuracy and divine damage tends to overcome these builds. The choice of warhammer may seem odd in a world that loves swords, but the warhammer is a perfect weapon for this task. The higher multiplier and lower range works perfectly with enemies that are hard to hit, where a larger range will not necessarily help you in damage output. It is possible to choose the Dwarven Waraxe which has a similar damage profile to the Warhammer, but is 1-10 x3 (x4 WM) instead of 1-8 x3 (x4 WM). Since this is an exotic weapon, it would mean an extra feat. This can of course be overcome through the choice of the right God in the Cleric domain of War (Gorm has a Dwarven Waraxe), but I got attached to Gond there so Gond it is.

[edit] Spells

For the spell buildout, you are free to pick what you want depending on what you need. For Battle of the Builds, I have been using the following with great success....

• L0: Resistance x6
• L1: Entropic Shield, Bless x2, Protection vs. Alignment, Vigor, Divine Favor x2
• L2: Aidx2, Lesser Restoration, Divine Favor Extended x2
• L3: Blindsight, Remove Blindness/Deafness, Hastex2
• L4: Death Ward, Divine Power, Recitation, Haste (Extended), Prayer (Extended)

[edit] Equipment

For BotB, the specs on the equipment choices are:

• Mithril Full Plate, 28SR, 35HP, Regen+8
• Boots of Hardiness, Reflex+9, Con+9, Dex+8
• Bracers of Armor +10
• Keen Warhammer +8, +5d6 electricity, +7 Vamp (Keen is very important! And Vampirism helps a lot when you're a low HP build.)
• Adamantine Heavy Shield +8, Regen+8, 35HP
• Cloak of Movement +8, Char+9, Acid buffs.
• Ring of Major Cold Resist, +L4 Cleric, Cold Save, Fire Save
• Ring of Major Sonic Resist, +L4 Cleric, Elec Save, Acid Save
• Greater Swordsman's Belt, Str+9, Fort+8, Dex+8
• Natural Armor Amulet +5, 40/Elec, 40/Fire, Wis+9

[edit] Character Progression Table

There is not a lot of room in here for maneuvering, because it is tricky to get all of the feats in while still qualifying for WM and DC while not having a multiclass XP problem. It just barely works.

Remember to use stats sparingly, don't spend any unless you have to. On melee levels just increment Tumble and Spot. On Cleric levels dump out the collected points into Concentration and Spellcraft. Alternatively, Spellcraft could be dumped into Listen to help with detecting stealth.

We're aiming for 33 Concentration, 16 Spot, 20 Spellcraft, 4 Intimidate.

When you play this character, remember to put him into defensive spellcasting mode, it will default in Combat Expertise mode which defeats the entire purpose of the build. It's only in the feat list as a requirement to Weapon Master.

Remember to try to conserve skill points on non-Cleric levels so the Cleric level can dump them all into Concentration without a penalty. Targets are 30 Concentration, 16 Spot, 12-14 Tumble. If you're roleplaying just do what you want of course. High Concentration lets the Left Fist zap her buffs off in combat very reliably. Remember to put her into defensive spellcasting mode as things will default into combat expertise mode which really sucks and gimps anyone who uses it most of the time.

[edit] Variants

You could also change the last two Strength+1 for Charisma+1, and that would give you some extra bonus damage on Divine Might, at the expense of being pushed around a lot more. The extra two points of strength goes a long way in terms of staying on your feet, and as well gives you extra physical damage and to-hit, so better to leave it at that.