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Rogue 10 / Blackguard 20 - "Happy New Fear!"

Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2022 4:50 pm
by MRFTW
Hi folks,

Thought I'd share one I've been working on. I wanted a Banite build where you could really feel the fear, so I made this.

This serves as a variant to FTR 6 / Cav 4 / BG 20 and other similar deep BG builds. Like those, this focuses on getting the most out of the other 10 levels, since BG 20 comes with the hefty drawback of no epic tumble dump. I first messed with this build after BGs first got access to +6 corrupt weapon, but the recent rogue change to add dirty fighting and a bonus feat at level 7 really helps bring this variant forward as an option. The aforementioned cavalier build is likely stronger in a straight fight, but this has tricks up its sleeve and can even make a passable sneaker with a bit of work.

"Happy New Fear!"
Rogue 10 / BG 20
Human, any evil
Playable 1-30 PvE (1-9 can be rough)

Ability Scores:
24 STR (15 + 2 + 7)
8 DEX
16 CON
14 INT
8 WIS
16 CHA (14 +2)
Gifts: +2 STR, +2 CHA, +6 Spot
or
Earth Genasi, +2 STR, +6 Spot (Straight upgrade, costs normal award)

General Feats:
1: Expertise
1: Power Attack
3: WF
6: Blind Fight
9: Imp. Expertise / SF: Intimidate / KD *
12: Imp. Crit
15: Divine Might
18: Divine Shield

Rogue Bonus Feats:
7: Slippery Mind
10: Gruesome Technique (PvE) / Crippling Strike (PvP) *
10: Keen Senses (Take spot gift + max spot/listen)

Epic General Feats:
21: Armour Skin
24: ESF: Discipline
27: ESF: Intimidate / Great STR I *
30: ESF: Spot / Great STR II *

BG Bonus Feats:
13: EWF
16: Epic Fiendish Servant
19: Epic Prowess

Skills: 309
Discipline 33
Listen 33
Spot 33
Lore 33
Intimidate 33
Heal 33
Tumble 20
Spellcraft 16 (32)
UMD 9
Open Lock 1 (2)
Disarm Trap 1(2)
Hide 0 *
Move Silently 0 *

* - These feats and skills are pretty flexible, and can be changed around. I really like the gruesome technique in combination with dirty fighting for generating sneak attacks, and found that investing the level 9 feat into SF: Intimidate and levels 27 and 30 to ESF: Intimidate and ESF: Spot to be a reasonable sacrifice. KD is nice to have, but dirty fighting does fill that niche to a certain extent.

Sneak skills cap at 23 so stealth is useable with some skill point juggling, but not advisable against anything with a good spot/listen. If you want sneak as an option, take the +4 hide/ms gift, take 33 points from spot, 10 from heal and 3 from UMD to take the 23 ranks in hide/MS. Seriously consider investing in ESF: Hide/MS to boost numbers to a more useful level.

With some deeper investment in UMD (45) the build can access +4 full plate items restricted to other classes, which may be a tradeoff you wish to consider. This would be more accessible to a crippling strike user, as they aren't required to take a social skill. Such a variant could trade both Great STR feats for ESF: UMD (needing only 3 from gear) and another feat of choice.

AB Comes in 3 lower than FTR 6 / Cav 4 / BG 20, but AC is the same (I think). It also gets a better reflex save, evasion and slippery mind, as well as the on-kill fear which is a 30+ DC will save vs melee opponents. This build suffers more against sneak/crit immune foes than the FTR / Cav version, but that is to be expected when you're playing a rogue. It makes up for this by having a much easier time generating sneak attacks solo, and having them total 11d6 instead of 6d6.

Happy to hear thoughts and feedback from the community, especially about which of the options they'd personally prefer and if there's one that seems numerically best. I suffer from a deep, deep hatred of stacking Great STR feats but it might be the optimal choice, especially with 17 BAB.

A potentially less-readable google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... sp=sharing