The Tectonic Dragon (RDD/Blackguard Knockdown Build)
Description
The Tectonic Dragon
The Tectonic Dragon is a heavy-duty melee build that capitalizes on what's arguably the most powerful melee feat in the game right now - Knockdown.
It can literally knockdown CR 20 dragons on a consistent basis (Reds go down about 20-30% of the time, blacks about 50%). It also builds around a very solid melee core, with the ability to reach high saving throw, AC, to-hit and damage marks thanks to the benefits of divine grace, shield and might.
Progression is VERY sensitive here, as you not only have multiple pre-reqs for various PrCs, but you have feats dependent upon classes being taken at the right levels, and you have feats with stat pre-reqs that in turn are dependent upon a PrC. As a result, there's not much room for deviation.
NE/CE Wood-elf
Str 17 +5
Dex 14
Con 10
Int 12
Wis 8
Cha 16
1 Brd - Luck of Heroes
2 Ftr - Power Attack
3 Ftr - Cleave, Knockdown
4 Brd
5 Ftr
6 RDD (be sure you have 8 lore) WF: Scim
7 RDD
8 RDD
9 RDD Power Crit: Scim
10 Blck (5 ranks in Hide)
11 Blck
12 Blck (Divine Shield)
13 RDD
14 RDD
15 Blck (Divine Might)
16 RDD
17 RDD
18 RDD (Imp Knockdown)
19 RDD
20 Fighter (Imp Crit: Scim)
If you want more a little more DPS and less KD, you can ditch Imp KD for Imp Crit at 18 and take WS: Scim at 20.
Strengths: RDD works very well with knockdown due to the strength bonuses. Knockdown is currently amazingly powerful, and this build puts you extremely close to the maximum available knockdown clout. High AC, high to-hit, high damage, moderate-high saving throws.
Weaknesses: Irresistable spells, though the RDD does have a number of impressive immunities. Low movement speed - I wish I had room for Dash w/o sacrificing core clout. Saves are a little lower than I like, though still fairly impressive compared to most melee.
http://nwn2forums.bioware.com/forums/myviewtopic.html?topic=523876&forum=109
Thanks for the cha update, Blash. I've been negligent in maintaining this and the *very* active build thread over on the official forums since version 1.04. You actually can buy the ranks in lore as a fighter, though you do waste a skill point to do so, which is a better option in my opinion than losing the XP if your base classes get more than 1 level apart. It's not an issue in auto-level servers that use level rather than fixed XP as the limit, but it makes a big difference under other circumstances.
The alternative build you've posted would be nice, but has too many classes: remember that there's a 4 class limit. (Unless they removed that in 1.06). Bard ties up one, RDD and Blackguard another, which leaves one to float.
Damn - I just read in several places that there is a +12 limit on stats, and that the frenzied berserker is broken, only good for pwr attack. In that case, this build still has a few advantages over wm/ftr/fb, more hitpoints, more skills, way more saves, immunities, breath weapons, extra item spaces, and does VERY well against creatures immune to critical hits. Also much more conversant.
Two things I would point out, the first is that if you wanted to absolutely maximize strength, knockdown, damage, you would use a falchion instead of a scimitar, take barbarian/frenzied berserker, stack the rage/frenzy (i am positive they do in 1.06, contrary to what the manual says). I admit that would interfere with lore, have you tried your current build? I dont think a fighter can put you lore ranks from 7 to 8 in the first place, since a cc skill would limit it to 4. Also, Int needs to be 13 for IMP KD. So here's how I would change it:
Str 18 +4 Dex 12 Con 10 Int 12 +1 Wis 8 Cha 16
1 Brd Luck of Heroes
2 Ftr Pow Att
3 Ftr Cleave, KD
4 Barbarian - fast movement, rage, 12 hp, vs. song of competence, 1 first level spell.
5 Ranger - Lore, all the skills you need (hide 5 anyone?) and more hp than bard. I think you must take a class with lore as class skill to reach 8. Notice you only need 5 ranks here-4 lore 1 hide.
6 RDD Great Cleave (used to OC where this is more useful than WF)
7 RDD
8 RDD
9 RDD WF Falchion
10 Frenzied Berzerker
11 RDD
12 Blck - Divine Might
13 RDD
14 RDD
15 Blck - Extend Rage
16 RDD
17 RDD
18 Blck - Imp KD
19 RDD
20 Frenzied Berserker Supreme Cleave I find is more useful than 1d6 sneak attack.
Also notice I dropped imp. crit - it doesn't stack with Keen. While Divine Shield give you a great bonus to AC, maybe +12 with the best nymph cloak, I felt stylistically 5 more rounds of extra attacks and plus 10 strength was better. Note, in OC there is frenzied berserker hide, which you should look into. In summary, you have in Strength alone:
18
+4 ability points
+8 RDD
+10 rage/frenzy
+4 at least item
=44 --> =17!!
BAB: 16, +5 keen weapon, wf, gives +39/39/34/29/24 imp. pwr att: +33/33/28/23/18
Dmg: 2d4 15-20/x2 +25(str)+5(wp)+3(cha)+12(pwra) avg.: 55
saves, 3 cha, fort, re, will: 23/12/12
It's an interesting one. I like to do Paladin-Sorcerer-RDD, which is a spin on this one, but the Fighter ranks help with the number of Feats on your build. Paladin adds Bless Weapon which is really nice with Undead. With NWN2, at Epic levels, I could move to Fighter to get more Feats and Weapon Specialization...anyway, thanks for the build.
Not crazy about how the format came in, so here's a cleaner write-up:
The Tectonic Dragon is a heavy-duty melee build that capitalizes on what's arguably the most powerful melee feat in the game right now - Knockdown.
It can literally knockdown CR 20 dragons on a consistent basis (Reds go down about 20-30% of the time, blacks about 50%). It also builds around a very solid melee core, with the ability to reach high saving throw, AC, to-hit and damage marks thanks to the benefits of divine grace, shield and might.
Progression is VERY sensitive here, as you not only have multiple pre-reqs for various PrCs, but you have feats dependent upon classes being taken at the right levels, and you have feats with stat pre-reqs that in turn are dependent upon a PrC. As a result, there's not much room for deviation.
NE/CE Wood-elf Str 17 +5 Dex 14 Con 10 Int 12 Wis 8 Cha 16
If you want more a little more DPS and less KD, you can ditch Imp KD for Imp Crit at 18 and take WS: Scim at 20.
Strengths: RDD works very well with knockdown due to the strength bonuses. Knockdown is currently amazingly powerful, and this build puts you extremely close to the maximum available knockdown clout. High AC, high to-hit, high damage, moderate-high saving throws.
Weaknesses: Irresistable spells, though the RDD does have a number of impressive immunities. Low movement speed - I wish I had room for Dash w/o sacrificing core clout. Saves are a little lower than I like, though still fairly impressive compared to most melee.
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10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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at 2007-09-12 16:02:38
