PvM Melee - Ranger 21 Paladin 1 Assassin 18

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Yune
Knight
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PvM Melee - Ranger 21 Paladin 1 Assassin 18

Post by Yune »

Half-Orc, start 20 STR, 8 DEX, 16 CON, 6 INT, 12 WIS, 6 CHA. All ability increases in STR.

1: Ranger 1, Exotic Weapon Prof
2: Paladin 1
3-20: Ranger 2-19, Weapon Focus X, Power Attack, Cleave, Great Cleave, Improved Critical X, Toughness, (Favored Enemy Outsiders, Undead, Monstrous Humanoids, Humans)
21: Ranger 20, Epic Prowess, Ranger bonus: Epic Weapon Focus X
22-23: Assassin 1-2
24: Ranger 21, Bane of Enemies
25-40: Assassin 3-18, Overwhelming Critical X, Devastating Critical X, Great Strength I-II, Improved Sneak Attack I (at level 39). Assassin bonuses: Epic Reflexes at 14, Improved Sneak Attack II at 18. There's nothing better at 14 than Epic Reflexes, sadly.

End with 32 base STR.

Assuming +12 STR and CON, and a +20 weapon with Bane active:

AB: 30 (base) + 17 (STR) + 20 (weapon) + 6 (feats) = 73 with a two-handed weapon or sword and board, or 71 with a double weapon. Dual wielding dwarven waraxes or similar would cost another 2 AB to 69.
HP: 728

The single Paladin level allows Holy Avenger weapons, which give +5 physical and 1d6 divine for very little item value. This is more efficient than Epic Weapon Specialization which requires 3 more level for +6 physical but cost 2d6 sneak attack and 1d6 acid. It also allows pushing Ranger 20 to epic to take Epic Weapon Focus instead of a favored enemy.

Damage output is weapon + 17 STR + 5 favored enemy + 2d6 bane + 11d6 sneak attack + 6d6 acid, with 7 attacks per round (assuming dual-wielding).

The build is quite easy to level solo, especially with the ranger bear companion acting as a second party member. The bear is very tanky since it gets 50% physical DI and you can full heal it for free out of combat. You'll probably want to level as sword and board or a two-handed weapon so you can use heavy armor for the AC with your nonexistent DEX. Don't dual-wield with heavy armor, it turns off the ranger feats.
Yunim
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Re: PvM Melee - Ranger 21 Paladin 1 Assassin 18

Post by Yunim »

I had a similar build idea, but I went with a Human Ranger 21 / Paladin 4 / Assassin 15. Combining Divine Might with the Assassin bonus damage allows it to outdamage a Figh/WM/Pal against most bosses.
itchyfunk
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Re: PvM Melee - Ranger 21 Paladin 1 Assassin 18

Post by itchyfunk »

Was actually toying with the idea of a bane boss build but talked myself out of it because I thought the boss DI would basically negate the damage leaving the AB as the only upside. Figured WM was still a better way to go in that situation. The extra sneak damage makes this interesting.
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Yune
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Re: PvM Melee - Ranger 21 Paladin 1 Assassin 18

Post by Yune »

Oh, WM is better than Bane in a vacuum. But it requires 13 DEX and 13 INT and 5 junk feats. Ranger also ignores the DEX prereq for the dual-wielding feats.
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