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Author Topic: Build: Warlock 27/Warblade 7/War Mind 6 (War Cubed)  (Read 2907 times)

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May 28, 2022, 04:09:46 PM
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I made this build as an upgrade to my War Squared build.  It focuses on the same three playstyles: 1) warlock invoking, 2) instant death attacks through PRC Vorpal, and 3) high damage output through martial maneuvers and damage boosts.  You still get all those highlights plus Sweeping Strike, allowing you to potentially hit two enemies on every swing, and you only really lose 4 warlock caster levels and Path of Shadows (which no longer heals) in the bargain.  Plus, the names of all the classes start with "War," which is cool.

What this build gives you: 17 pre-epic BAB; dual keen, vorpal kukris; great attack and damage bonus (Lolth's Meat and Blood in the Water); very high damage output - between Lolth's Meat, (Epic) Weapon Specialization, Two-Weapon Fighting, Epic Crafting, Power Attack (from Blooded), Sweeping Strike, Maneuvers, and Blood in the Water, this character can average ~5200 melee damage a round (~6250 if you begin combat with a pounce) and ~1600 on a single pouncing charge***; the damage caused by this build is persistent and not constrained by abilities limited to times/day; you also get an army of meat shield skeletons (The Dead Walk); immunities (Curst) and the ability to pass every save (Diamond Defense and Lolth's Meat); great spell resistance (Curst); at-will Creeping Doom (Verminlord); at-will 50% miss chance and invisibility (Retributive Invisibility), and before this you can get a 50% miss chance with Concealing Amphora, Greater; at-will healing for you and all your skeletons (Utterdark Eldritch Doom); healing once per minute when recovering maneuvers (Vital Recovery); at-will short-range teleport and my favorite ability for kiting (Flee the Scene); minor psionic powers, class ability buffs, and DR 2/- from War Mind; and tentacles!

Weakpoints: not the best AC - get equipment to boost AC (Curst and Blooded help with this as well); low saves on invocations, but only one useful invocation uses a save (Frightful Blast), so this really doesn't matter

Build Name: War Cubed

Race: Half-Drow
Alignment: Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil
      
Strength 16
Dexterity 16
Constitution 10
Intelligence 14
Wisdom 8
Charisma 10
      
Lvl   Class
1   Warlock 1: Lolth's Meat, Invocation: Frightening Blast, Skills: Concentration, Lore, Spellcraft, UMD at each level (Blooded Template)
2   WL 2: Invocation: Eldritch Glaive
3   WL 3: Two-Weapon Fighting
4   WL 4: Invocation: Summon Swarm, 17 STR
5   WL 5
6   WL 6: Craft Magic Arms & Armor, Invocation: Eldritch Chain
7   WL 7
8   WL 8: Invocation: The Dead Walk, 18 STR
9   Warblade 1: Weapon Focus (Kukri), Stance: Blood in the Water, Maneuvers: Sudden Leap, Emerald Razor, Action Before Thought
10   WL 9
11   WL 10: Invocation: Flee the Scene
12   WL 11: Wild Talent, Invocation: Chilling Tentacles, 17 DEX
13   WL 12
14   War Mind 1: Psionic Power: Force Screen
15   WM 2: Improved Critical (Kukri), Psionic Power: Precognition, Defensive
16   WB 2: Maneuver: Pouncing Charge, 18 DEX
17   WM 3
18   WM 4: Improved TWF, Psionic Power: Prescience, Offensive
19   WM 5
20   WM 6: Psionic Power: Concealing Amphora, Greater, 19 DEX
21   WL 13: Invocation: Vitriolic Blast, Greater TWF
22   WL 14
23   WL 15: Invocation: Eldritch Cone
24   WL 16: Invocation: Eldritch Doom, Epic Weapon Focus (Kukri), 19 STR
25   WL 17: 28 Lore and Spellcraft, no more Spellcraft but I keep investing in Lore (not required)
26   WL 18: Invocation: Utterdark Blast (Curst)
27   WB 3: Craft Epic Magic Arms & Armor, Maneuver: Raging Mongoose
28   WB 4: Stance: Pearl of Black Doubt, 20 STR
29   WB 5: B: Vital Recovery, Maneuver: Diamond Defense
30   WB 6: Weapon Specialization (Kukri)
31   WL 19   
32   WL 20: Invocation: Tenacious Plague, 21 STR
33   WB 7: Epic Weapon Specialization (Kukri), Maneuver: Time Stands Still
34   WL 21
35   WL 22
36   WL 23: Verminlord, B: Eldritch Sculptor, 22 STR
37   WL 24
38   WL 25
39   WL 26: Great Strength, B: Epic Extra Invocation (Retributive Invisibility)
40   WL 27: 24 STR

Readied Martial Maneuvers: Pouncing Charge, Raging Mongoose, Time Stands Still, and Diamond Defense

Notes: buyoff the LA from Blooded at level 3 - you can buyoff the LA from Curst, but it will only amount to about a 9% or less XP reduction by the time you take it. Taking Curst at 9 would allow full buyoff early and allow much more top-end XP for kukri crafting - the ones I'm using (+10, keen, vorpal, psychokinetic, sonic blast) eventually cost around 40k XP each... As a general strategy, this build should begin combat by charging the strongest opponent, initiate raging mongoose as soon as possible, then recover maneuvers, repeat.  Once you get Time Stands Still, Pouncing Charge into an immediate Raging Mongoose on-hit (no action required), then immediately initiate Time Stands Still and then as soon as you see the first hit from Time Stands Still, recover maneuvers.  Always make sure to recover your maneuvers immediately at/near the end of each combat - otherwise you will have to wait a full minute while they recover.  You can use Power Attack to transform the attack bonuses you get from (Epic) Weapon Focus into damage - Lolth's Meat and Blood in the Water will keep you hitting on every attack.  For super tough, crit-immune enemies, you can drop several Creeping Dooms, let them build up to high damage, then kite the bad guys through the AOE while it slows them to a crawl.

***Damage calculations updated after the scripted combat system was updated to pull in all the damage boosts.  They assume max level, that enemies are not crit-immune, Sweeping Strike hitting something on every swing, and +20 damage from Lolth's Meat (which seems like a good average that I am doing in combat-heavy modules).
« Last Edit: May 29, 2022, 12:34:46 PM by ebonfowl »


May 31, 2022, 10:55:18 PM
Reply #1

I like the fact that CD / Verminlord allows this build to damage practically anything, even the uber high AC.

I hated the way high Dex monks could dodge almost any physical attack and with max spell resistance builds, shrug off almost any spell.
Fermi was a Pyrokineticist


June 03, 2022, 01:21:08 AM
Reply #2
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Yeah, Creeping Doom is an excellent catch-all. It’s even better here since you can use tentacles to slow movement even more, or stop it altogether.  It is my go-to for prismatic dragons along with vitriolic blast.

I made a script that makes it work like the BioWare description as well (since it doesn’t work like the description at all), which is even better!


June 03, 2022, 10:56:20 PM
Reply #3

Did this build get the Vorpal crafting spell access using UMD + scrolls or are there equivalent invokes?

This thread (2009) had the costs, which seemed low for a DC70 effect:
http://nwnprc.com/index.php?topic=72.0

Curious which opponents Vorpal does not work against.

Just saw the Vorpal DC was Flex. Looks like monks are still the best. Some things never change.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2022, 02:43:05 PM by ThE LoSt BoY »
Fermi was a Pyrokineticist


June 13, 2022, 12:13:13 AM
Reply #4
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Why does the save being reflex mean monks are better? Nothing can pass DC70, reflex or not.

The ability to craft vorpal comes from Warlock. Imbue Item lets them sub UMD checks for spell requirements. Like artificer-lite.

Vorpal works in the exact same cases where devcrit works. And the same enemies are immune. Like constructs and undead. And the DC was made enormous to create the best approximation of PnP vorpal which gives no save.