d20radio.com

I'm going to be very busy for the next few days so I'm posting this now. The DNDsheets will be delayed a few days.

Corrections from the Podcast:

There is a significant error in my rules checking of this build that I recently found. It doesn't make sense logistically to re-record the episode, so I'll be discussing the correction here.

Piranha Strike specifically works only for melee attacks with light weapons. I had missed that when I read the feat. Frankly, it won't break the game if you let it apply to all light weapon attacks including ranged attacks, DMs.

However, to stay within the rules and be effective at both TWF and ranged combat a character should take power attack OR piranha strike, as well as deadly aim. (depending on their ability scores. Power attack is strictly better if you qualify for it.)

The Classes:

A rogue, a fighter, and a ranger can all accomplish this character concept fairly quickly, especially as a human.

Rangers can skip point blank shot entirely for quite a while, though it might be worth acquiring anyway given your range increments on thrown weapons are typically less than 30 feet.

Rogues will need to hold weapon finesse off until level 2, at which point they can take it as a rogue talent. At level 4 they can take combat trick and they've now got the same two extra feats a ranger would grant them. Remember that you can only take a rogue talent once, so you can't just combat trick each even level. Rogues also have enough skills to imitate a ranger fairly well, and sneak attack is really Favored Enemy (Things that bleed).

A fighter can easily get all the feats in the feat skeleton rather quickly aside from improved precise shot. A fighter is also one of the few classes that two weapon fighting can work for almost immediately.

The Feats:

Ranger: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=5009
H - Weapon Finesse
1 - Power Attack / Piranha Strike
2 - Precise Shot (Archery Combat Style)
3 - Two Weapon Fighting
4 - No Feat (You get spells and an animal.)
5 - Quick Draw
6 - Improved Precise Shot (Early Entry by 5 levels!)
7 - Deadly Aim

Rogue: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=6147
H - Point Blank Shot
1 - Precise Shot
2 - Weapon Finesse (Finesse Rogue)
3 - Power Attack / Piranha Strike
4 - Two-Weapon Fighting (Combat Trick)
5 - Quick Draw
6 - Survivalist
7 - Deadly Aim

Fighter: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=6146
H - Weapon Finesse
1 - Power Attack / Piranha Strike
2 - Point Blank Shot
3 - Precise Shot
4 - Two-Weapon Fighting
5 - Quick Draw
6 - Deadly Aim
7 - Improved Two-Weapon Fighting / Double Slice

Fun Fact: Monks can do this type of character with fists and shuriken rather simply as well. They get all the two weapon fighting feats for free when flurrying.

Monk: http://www.dndsheets.net/view.php?id=5019
H - Point Blank Shot
1 - Precise Shot
2 - Throw Anything / Deflect Arrows
3 - Power Attack
4 - No Feat
5 - Quick Draw
6 - Combat Reflexes / Snatch Arrows
7 - Deadly Aim

It is important to note that only rangers can get to Improved Precise Shot before level 11, as they get early entry at level 6 (Which is why the archery path is almost always always better than the two weapon fighting for this type of character). The precise shot tree also requires the point blank shot feat (again unless you're a ranger). Considering you're going to want to be within 30 feet anyway with thrown weapons, this is not a bad feat choice.

You may ask why I take two weapon fighting so late. Two-weapon fighting penalties tend to make these feats bad choices until a few levels after they become available. It's not all THAT important to get an extra attack at +1 attack bonus at level 7. It's rarely going to land.

You might also ask why I take Quick draw late as well. You can combine moving and drawing weapons at level 1 with a fighter or ranger, and at level 2 as a rogue. Until level 5, unless you have two weapon fighting there is never a reason to commit to a full attack, thus drawing a weapon is never really a big deal until you have either taken two-weapon fighting (at level 3 or 4) or you have a BAB of 6. You could argue it makes level 1 easier, but I think that precise shot at level 1 is far more important to the rogue, and the extra damage/attack bonus from piranha strike is far more important to the fighter/ranger. At level 1 you can afford a little action economy loss. It isn't going to kill you, and you shouldn't be good at everything right off the bat.

I should also note that weapon finesse may not be required for extremely high strength characters. However, later progression down the Two-Weapon Fighting trees require a relatively high Dex and there are some great feats sitting on Dex 17 requirements. Non-Rangers need Dex 19 for improved precise shot by level 11, which really does matter more often than one thinks. (Your allies provide soft cover to enemies!)

Skills:

The following skills are good choices for this character concept:

Acrobatics
Appraise
Climb
Craft (Alchemy)
Craft (Traps)
Diplomacy
Disable Device
Handle Animal
Heal
Knowledge (Engineering)
Knowledge (Geography)
Knowledge (Local)
Knowledge (Nature)
Perception
Stealth
Survival
Swim

Gasp, that's a lot of skills. Remember that traits can get you some extra class skill access.

Survival, Stealth, Heal, and Perception are all important, as are most of the mobility skills (Acrobatics, Climb, Swim). Remember, the Mwangi expanse is out to get you, even while you're out to get it back.

Knowledge (Nature) and (Geography) will save your life in Mwangi. Twice. In the first session. Seriously. This place is mean.

Knowledge (Engineering), Craft (Alchemy), Craft (Traps), Disable Device, and Handle Animal are your lifeblood. They're how you capture the prey and bring it back alive. (Fun fact. This concept easily becomes a bounty hunter outside of Mwangi. Pick a different favored enemy... like say, humans.)

Diplomacy and Knowledge (Local) are going to help you make and deal with the contacts who buy your wares.

Poison:

If you want to play this as a poison using character, you need to clear that with your DM. Inform your DM that poison costs are too high for continuous use if purchasing them from suppliers. You should take Craft (Alchemy), which is used to create poisons (Page 558 of the Core Rulebook). This will cut your costs by 1/3rd. Additionally, try to work out with your DM some method of harvesting your own materials.

Neutral or good characters using poison likely would not use a deadly poison that attacks the constitution score of the victim. However, sleeping poisons like a drow poison (rename it to fit setting, use the same stats) or slow paralysis poisons via strength or Dex damage make perfect sense. Poison should not see common use prior to third level. Cheap poisons such as giant wasp, centipede, or spider poisons are perfect examples of poisons that are perfect for consistent use by PCs so long as the DM doesn't make them cost a large sum of gold to acquire. The save DC's are low enough and the damage is low enough that they won't really cause a problem.

DMs: Poison use is a perfectly good example of a rogue talent that should exist but does not. (It may well exist in the APG. We'll see in a few weeks.) There is no reason an assassin can use poison, an alchemist can use poison, but a rogue who deals with poisoned traps all day cannot use poison. Treat poisons like you would potions. Figure out how many you want a party to have access to a day, and give them ways to replenish to that many. Use local economies to your advantage. Poisons aren't common, and are illegal in many places. The materials to make them can only be procured by hunting insects at certain times of day (Survival rolls while the casters prepare spells!) or by finding vendors who ply their wares in darker alleys (Diplomacy to gather information while the casters sleep!). Once the materials are on hand, the player needs to craft the poisons themselves. If a player buys a poison at full price make sure it's a doozy. Give it an unusual medium to high DC. If a player harvests material from a combat encounter, allow them to make special, more potent poisons.



Traps:

Traps are a deep deep topic. Again, like poisons, your DM is going to be heavily involved in anything you do here. A good trapper designs their own traps, and Craft (Trapsmith) definitely is required to set traps. Disable device is all about taking them apart. Putting them together is much more specialized.

Remember, crafting your own objects reduces the cost by 1/3rd. It makes sense to craft portable, reusable, and debilitating traps such as bear traps and snare lines. Damage is not always the goal of a trap, in fact the best traps incapacitate rather than kill. Unlike poisons, traps should never be considered consumable. Deploying a trap may take time in the field, but the act of crafting a trap is all about bundling up the ropes, tools, sharp objects, mechanical systems, and chemicals used to deploy them in the field. Once used, most traps should disassemble back into a "trap kit".

DMs: Unlike poisons, which are consumable, traps should act like low level magic items. Indeed, as a player becomes a better trap smith, they should be able to create magical "trap kits" with assistance from spellcasters. Rangers in particular are excellent for this as they could easily take a crafting feat later in their careers (around level 11 or 13).

Fun Fact: I will likely cover traps in even greater detail after the APG releases.

Weapons:

I noted in the cast that weapon choice doesn't really matter for this character. That's partially true. Obviously, a weapon should really have a range increment if you're throwing it. You can easily use the "throw anything" feat on a character like this to throw weapons with no range increment. (Along with random objects as well)

Combat mobility is key to this character, so you're probably in medium or lighter armor anyway. All your weapons should be light (in terms of weight) because carrying around 50 javelins gets heavy, even if you can draw them all in a round. However, your off-hand thrown weapons should always be light weapons.

The two-weapon fighting rules give a breakdown on the standard ranged weapons weight categories:

Light weapons: Dart & Shuriken
One Handed Weapons: Bolas, Javelin, Net, Sling

Apologies for the delay with the sheets, but I have a reason!

The APG has released to subscribers in PDF form!

The Rogue, Ranger, and Fighter have been updated with variant class options on their sheets!


Rogue:

The poisoner grants poison use at level 1! (Finally!) In fact, it even makes Craft (Alchemy) particularly easy at level 3. These replace trapfinding and trapsense.

The Scout allows you to sneak attack on a charge and while moving! Uncanny dodge is definitely nice, but the Mwangi trapper often must chase their prey.

The Survivalist talent in the APG also gives access to heal and survival as class skills, very useful for the Mwangi Trapper.

There are several interesting feats in the APG, and the rogue build stands poised to take advantage of them as power attack / piranha strike / Deadly aim matter far less when you're adding +Xd6 Sneak attack dice every round. However, I have yet to fully consume this book, and cannot make many reccomendations at this time. So. Much. Book.


Ranger:

The Guide replaces favored enemy and gives you a much more focused favored target. Favored Enemy (That One). For a trapper who never knows what the jungle will throw at him, this is an excellent choice, if a bit limited by a times/day usage. The Terrain Bond ability also allows the trapper to extend his improved jungle senses to the party rather than take an animal companion.

The Skirmisher replaces the spells of the Ranger. I've always been fond of playing rangers without spells, as I usually play martial classes to get away from bookkeeping. The skirmisher has a ton of fun tricks for the trapper, including Hobbling Attack and Chameleon Step to catch that elusive prey.


Fighter:

Oh my did they make this work. The Two-Weapon Warrior variant removes the standard armor and weapon training progressions. Instead, you gain the ability to do ridiculous things with two weapons. You still effectively gain the attack and damage bonuses whenever using two weapons, rather than to a specific weapon group. In addition, you gain an AC bonus when attacking with both weapons!

Do you have any suggestions for higher level play with this build? My GM is starting us at 9th and though you can never be 100% sure, I believe we will be going to 20.

Thanks for the help and I'm a big fan of the show. You guys are really growing things.