Blessed Slicer

[phlinn]

Not currently posting a full build as I'm still trying it out and it's easier to manually describe the interesting bits. I may post once i hit level 20 or so. The basic idea is dual wielding 2 weapons boosted by bless weapon.

Race: Demon. Dual wielding blessed weapons is a reliable method to overcome the weakness to light. I like the immunity to dark, as well the ability to fly. The other demon stats are largely useless to me. maybe if I jumped to int caster instead of wis caster, but I want to add kensai abilities as well so wis is a better choice. Dwarf, half elf, or human were other choices I considered.

Sabers: The damage formulas of sabers makes the increase in die size very effective. I wanted to be able to parry, and it only takes 10 skill points. Daggers were an alternative choice for the brand damages, greater to-hit and greater number of swings, but wouldn't work with kensai. By the time I have 30 points in bless weapon, I will have at least the 120 skill to decompose and make mithril sabers on a whim. 10d2 > 22d3 (craft) > 22d6 (blessed). That's just nuts.

Almost all points in crafting skill: The ability to add tweak points on top of what bless weapon gives me is awsome. Currently no alchemy, but I'll eventually pick up the enchanter class. I also intend to put at least 20 into dual wield eventually. I can't convince myself that 70 in dual wield would be worth it. 40 might be if I tweak myself with enough combat feats to dual-strike with every blow.

Ability picks:
1 point resist impure. Currently 10 in bless weapon, at level 11. Bless weapon is the primary choice for some time to really make this build interesting.

Any thoughts, suggestions, or feedback?

[challtdow]

Using Bless Weapon as a means of overcoming the light susceptability is something I hadn't though of before. I'm currently playing a Celestial Kensai, I really need some good Darkness resistance.

Chall T. Dow

[Gando]

Maybe Im just being dense but I dont get how the blessed weapon helps you against say Light Dragon's breath... but otherwise the build sounds interesting.

[sekira]

I considered the exact same build. heh, thats kinda funny. I was going to go with dwarf though... the extra crafting just makes sense...

at level 30, with all 30 AP in bless weapon, I would have 20 dual wield, 20 swords, 20 alchemy, 1 agility, and 89 crafting (155 with racial and class bonuses) that makes for items with 31 tweak points and with pretty good bonuses to their base stats.

Crafted Mithril sabers would be 25d5 before bless, 25d8 after bless. (112.5 average roll) Thats assuming that the material type doesn't affect the boost to dice... but that might have changed... I don't remember now.

considering a crafted, blessed mithril halberd would be 17d23 (204 average roll), I think the sabers are pretty good.

This is an interesting build, and would be fun to play.

The big weakness is the AP investment... It is really tough to put 30 AP in anything, so you will basically be playing an APless build that can enchant weapons a little better than other crafters.

This is hard because normally you get special attacks from 1 of two places... skill feats or Class Abilities. You won't get them from class abilities because you will be putting all your AP in bless weapon, and you won't get them from skill feats (not much anyway) because you will be mostly pumping crafting, instead of other skills for the feats they give.

Of course, you really only need 1 special weapon attack to get by physical returning, and your brands don't return magic damage, and will help you defeat physical immunes... So just choose a special attack (feat or 1 AP in a class ability) and stick with that. You will also need 1 natural point in Agility to unlock jump and some tweaked points in combat feats to let you use special attacks and also jump away in the same combat round when the situation calls for it. That isn't so bad I suppose.

Should be quite fun.

EDIT: I guess I don't get the 1 AP in resist impure... you already have immunity to dark, and 25% resist to the other types doesn't seem like enough to really change anything. I mean, if they could kill you with magic when you had 0% resist, then it is quite likely they can kill you with magic when you have 25% resist. Getting to 30 AP in bless weapon makes spending ANY AP elsewhere VERY expensive, that is one more level before you get your magic 30 AP in bless weapon. I honestly would put all AP in bless weapon and rely on feats to get my 1 special attack to defeat physical returning. But thats just me.

[phlinn]

It's mostly for the poison resistance to be honest. I bought it after getting fed up with excessively long poison durations. Probably should have saved the point.

I agree the point investment is big. I definitely want some enchanting and kensai abilities, but I think I can make it to 30 before picking them up.

My understanding is that material does affect it after the last build. but past release notes are no longer available so i can't confirm it. Mithril (rather, depth 40 components) give 1% damage per point. I would have liked the extra craft points from one of the other races.

Gando, after 10 points in bless weapon the blessed weapon gains 2% light resistance per AP. So at 30 points, each weapon has 60%, bringing the total up to 20% for a demon. If I pick up essence trasfer, i have a nice reliable source of light branded potions to use too. Edit: I also intend to see if transfering to a potion and then applying that potion to a weapon gives more of a light brand than the default.

[Gando]

Ah ok I didnt realize it would be per weapon for some reason

[T10]

Add some shinig armor and your character will be nearly 100% immune to light:)

[sekira]

more points in Blessed Weapon would pay off better. You can only wear 1 shining armor, but you can wear 2 blessed weapons. Also makes sense, since he is going that way already anyway.

[phlinn]

although I doubt the character will be around that long, I'm trying to decide if 60 points is worth shooting for. Defense reducing, Hit-Rate reducing, demon and undead slayer, light resistance, light brand, and the base damage boost aren't quantifiable in terms of tweak points, but at that point I've gotten a free 124 tweak points worth of bonuses on top of the tweak points for each item. 248 isn't quite as good as the 310 (10 items?) that the level 10 enchanter ability would give for the same number of AP, but the extra abilities make up for it I think.

Shining armor would be a better fit for a celestial for the dark resist, although not sufficient by itself. Actually, I think shining armor is generally weaker than bless weapon. It's nice that every point in the ability is worth 1.25 AC on each other crafted item when combined with defense trasfer, but it feels like there should be more benefits as you accrue points.

[challtdow]

The Protection ability would be really nice, but 70 points is really steep. Maybe when we start having to go to lvl 200 it might be worth it.

Chall T. Dow

[skyghene]

Takeing advantage of the dice like that is very clever. I knew there must have been a reason for a 4d2 instead of a 2d4 XD

[challtdow]

I was just thinking, the Shining Armor ability wouldn't be that bad for a Kensai. It would give you a way to get high base AC out of light armor which could then make the Defense skill and the Defender abilities tied to base armor AC useful.

Chall T. Dow

[phlinn]

Unfortunately, a lot of the defender abilities only work with heavy or dragon armor.

[challtdow]

Oh yeah, I'd forgotten that. Since they just say dragon armor, does that mean the abilities work with the soft dragon armors as well as the hard?

Chall T. Dow

[Variaz]

I think the soft dragon armors are considered "Soft Armors", and not actual dragon armors.