Chat Hels Chatroom IV: Helen High Water

Let's name our Half-orc something silly. How about Gruna Smashyerface.

Let's pick up immediately where I left off, shall we?

You're going to want the feat Bludgeoner. Remember how we have a blunt weapon? Well, now we won't take any penalties on attack rolls for using a lethal bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal damage! Wait, what? Why would we want that? Where am I going with this? Well, Bludgeoner has a special fine print that reads, "Special: A rogue with this feat can use a lethal bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal damage with a sneak attack." Hmm.

Just bear with me here. This is where things might sound a bit weird. Normally, without this feat, you can't use lethal weapons to make nonlethal sneak attacks--only nonlethal weapons, such as a sap, whip, or unarmed strike.

Well, those weapons deal normally pitiful amounts of damage (1d4+STRmod being the best I can recall), and there are plenty of times where you want to take your enemy alive. And if they're nonlethally KO'd, they're pretty much as good as dead anyway. Let's do some math.

Well, right now you can deal 2d6+1.5*STRmod+1d6, with your +3 to STRmod going to be +5 while enraged. This means the formula is now 2d6+1.5*(5)+1d6 or 3d6+7. That's a range of 10 to 25. As compared to your at-best 9 from using a sap, this is consistently going to be always better. Forever. Plus 1d4+5 bite damage. (6 to 9 hp or 16 to 34 for a full attack.) Additional damage from Power Attack. You get the idea.

So, as you can see, we're only level 3 and we're already doing relatively silly things. LET'S KEEP GOING!

6) Take another level of Rogue. Nothing special comes from the Thug and Scout archetypes, so nothing too unusual here. You get Evasion (Successful reflex save vs effects where a save would deal half damage now deals no damage) and you can select a Rogue Talent. We're going to take the Combat Trick talent, earning us one Combat Feat of our choice. How about... Furious Focus?

Because when we're using a two-handed weapon and using the Power Attack feat we gained at 1st level, we'll no longer suffer a penalty to melee attack rolls for the first attack we make each turn! So now we get all the benefit of Power Attack, with no penalty! Since our BaB is +3, that's an additional 3 damage without the -1 penalty. And next level? It's going to get better. Your character's level also hits 4, so increase your CHA by 1, making it 15. Why CHA? Intimidate is CHA based. Make sure you're putting points into the skill every level. Every. Level.

7) 2 Barbarian/3 Rogue now, after leveling up. Our BaB is now +4, meaning we get another +3 damage to Power Attack, for a total of +6, and we can ignore the -2 penalty to melee attack rolls. Sneak Attack increases to +2d6. We also get Brutal Beating, which grants us the ability to inflict the sickened status for a number of rounds equal to 1/2 of your rogue level at the cost of 1d6 of our Sneak Attack damage. An opponent can be both shaken/frightened and sickened, so in addition to the ridiculous amount of damage you're doing, you're also debuffing your opponents pretty hard now.

Sickened characters also deal 2 less damage, which, when combined with your Barbarian's DR, means you're taking 3 less damage per hit now. And you get bonus HP from being raged. Take the feat Sap Adept. Now, whenever you use a bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal sneak attack damage, you gain a bonus on your damage roll equal to the number of sneak attack damage dice you rolled (max of +2 at this level). Starting to see where we're going with this?

8) 2 Barbarian/4 Rogue. We get another Rogue Talent, as well as Scout's Charge (whenever you make a charge, your attack deals sneak attack damage as if the target were flat-footed).

Wait, what?!

Remember all that crazy stuff from before? Guess what? Now you can make your attack on the run! And here's a good Rogue Talent for this level to complement it: Offensive Defense! With this, whenever you hit anything with a melee attack that deals Sneak Attack damage (which will be every attack you do at this point), you get a +1 dodge bonus to AC for each Sneak Attack die rolled for one round. That's a bonus +2 AC. Given that a charge gives you an inherent -2 AC penalty, you've just negated that penalty. Whaaaaat.

9) 2 Barbarian/5 Rogue. This level is kinda meh. Kinda. It's another regular rogue level. Your Sneak Attack increases to +3d6, at least. And you get a feat. Let's take up Sap Master. With this, whenever you use a bludgeoning weapon to deal nonlethal Sneak Attack damage, you get to roll your Sneak Attack dice twice and combine the total.

...

Did I say this level is kinda meh? That's freakin' awesome.

Let's do some math again!

Alright. So.

Your BaB is +5, increased to +7 on a charge. While enraged, your STRmod becomes +5 (because your STR is 20 while enraged).

The basic idea is to select your opponent, rage as your free action, charge and smash for nonlethal damage (full round attack action, double move speed [which is 80 feet, possibly more if you have acquired movement enhancing items by this point, plus a bite attack). You'll sicken your opponent for 2 rounds while still retaining +2d6 Sneak Attack.

So your melee attack is 2d6+7 (two handed melee strike) +6 (Power attack) +2 (Sap Adept; +3 if you forego inflicting the sicken status) +2d6 (Sneak Attack; +3d6 if you forego inflicting the sicken status) +2d6 (or +3d6, as with Sneak Attack) +1d4+5 bite.

(g2g, continued in next post)

 

If I had superpowers I'd probably sit in a corner and watch, and try to beat the crap out of whoever goes too far out of line.
Unless they interrupt my music. If they do that then so help me God, they will feel pain without end.
Like


I'm off. G'night or what have you, ladies and gentlemen, catladies and snekmeisters, animu~-ones and wafflemasks. And Jim.
Baaaaaaiii~~

 

Mods for what?

My mistcloak held up worse than I had hoped, but better than could be expected. It's still a bit thready, but that's the only issue with it.

 

Hi everybody
I haven't been doing much talking here lately

 

Hayo peeps.

@Hel even without keys there are ways to get out of those

 

Nirning there!

 

Why would you cuff him to you? Need him to escort you to deliver a ransom payment?

 

Mods for Starbound - I've been avidly avoiding mods that add blocks or items, to avoid multiplayer problems.
But since I'm not likely to play MP anyway, I've grabbed a couple of them so I have more power in custom ship building.

Also, hooray! Did it look cool?

I dunno man. Sawing off arms seems like a drastic solution.
Take what you learned from Fallout and embark in some bobby pin action.

That's a fat cat.

That's certainly one reason why people cuff two people to each other.

EDIT: I always forget my daily greeting when responding to something.

G'morning (with a minute left to spare) or what have you, everybody!
How's you all doing?

 

Can I count that as an offer?

 

Wink wink nudge nudge ay ay!
Just kidding. Howdy everyone!

 

I need to go ask someone, but based on the reactions I got yeah, it looks cool. (Also looked like I'd been attacked by a pack of badgers, but he still thought it was cool looking.)

Sorry I've not been posting my nirnings here lately, I've had some busy days. Mainly though I've just been up till late, and then I feel too tired to send the nirnings.

Anyway, Nirning guys and waffles.
Nirning Valak.
Nirning charlatan.
Nirning Surneu.
Nirning EMag.
Nirning Hidari.
Nirning Firepaw.
Nirning Milkcalf.
Nirning Blaze.
Nirning Metaface.
Nirnign Hel.
I don't know why I avoid this, it takes less than a minute.

 

Well, being shredded by badgers was a pretty real risk back in ye olden days. So it only adds to the authenticity.

 

It doesn't help that in the cloaks current state it picks up debris, so I'm also covered in small leaf fragments like I've been in a scuffle.

 

Uhm, nirning all, how's it going?

 

That reminded me of bill bailey singing a death metal song called "ripped apart by badgers!" :D

 

It's going well. How's it going for you?

 

Finally outta the wild wild world of middle schoolers, and enjoying it

 

I was just kidding, Cupcake.