noamineo wrote on Mar 14
th, 2016 at 11:52am:
I'm currently using a triple positive greensteel bastard sword as my main weapon and wandering around with a buckler in the off-hand(I have the thing that lets me do that).
I do, however, have only about 273 hit points. Is that abysmally low for lvl 14? What else can I be doing to not suck?
Consider trying a dex-based 14/4/2 Bard/Fighter/Rogue. I ran a 12/6/2 version in a past life and it was a crit-spamming blender. It has decent saves, evasion, high dodge, displacement and decent PRR (light armor, shield mastery stuff, Stalwart Defense stance). As a bonus, you can do most traps and locks.
Potential changes to this would be 12/6/2 Bard/Fighter/Rogue for the 3rd core in Vanguard and an additional fighter feat. You could also want to swap up the leveling order to take bard levels earlier and drop Magical Training to pick up empowered heal, quicken and/or extend. Magical Training can picked up via tier 1 Spellsinger if desired.
Regarding weapons, there are plenty of good, named rapiers and shortswords to use while leveling. The interesting thing about Exploit Weakness with a Swashbuckler is that it turns even mediocre weapons into crit spammers. Any finessable, level-appropriate weapon with good on-crit effects will put out respectable damage. Once you hit level 23, equip a Balizarde and life is good.
I just threw this together at work but I think it's mostly correct. Leveling order, feats and APs could probably be optimized a bit more with some effort.
BardFtr14/4/2 Bard/Fighter/Rogue
Neutral Good Purple Dragon Knight
Level Order1. Fighter 6. Fighter 11. Bard 16. Bard
2. Rogue 7. Bard 12. Bard 17. Bard
3. Rogue 8. Bard 13. Bard 18. Bard
4. Fighter 9. Bard 14. Bard 19. Bard
5. Fighter 10. Bard 15. Bard 20. BardStats 36pt Tome Level Up
---- ---- --------
Strength 8 +5 4: DEX
Dexterity 18 +5 8: DEX
Constitution 14 +5 12: DEX
Intelligence 12 +5 16: DEX
Wisdom 8 +5 20: DEX
Charisma 16 +5 Skills F R R F F F B B B B B B B B B B B B B B
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
------------------------------------------------------------
Perform 1 1 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 23
Disable 5 1 1½ 1½ 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 23
Search 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1½ 1½ 1 1 1 1 23
UMD 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 23
Heal 2 1 1 1 1½ 1 1½ 1 10
Balance 2 1 1 ½ ½ 1 1 1 1 1 10
Jump 4 1 1 2 1 9
Open Lo 2 3 5
------------------------------------------------------------
16 10 10 4 4 4 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 9 10 10 10 10 10 10Feats 1 : Single Weapon Fighting
1 PDK : Shield Mastery
1 Fighter: Precision
3 : Force of Personality
4 Fighter: Weapon Finesse
6 : Magical Training
6 Fighter: Improved Shield Bash
9 : Improved Single Weapon Fighting
12 : Improved Critical: Piercing
15 : Greater Single Weapon Fighting
18 : Improved Shield Mastery
SpellsBard
Cure Light Wounds, Sonic Blast, Focusing Chant, Merfolk's BlessingBlur, Cure Moderate Wounds, Invisibility, SoundburstDisplacement, Haste, Good Hope, See InvisibilityCure Critical Wounds, Freedom of Movement, Dimension Door, ShoutGreater Heroism, Greater Dispel Magic, Shadow WalkEnhancements (80 AP)
Swashbuckler (36 AP)
- Confidence, Swashbuckling, Uncanny Dodge, Panache
- On Your Toes III, Tavern Shanties III
- Fast Movement
- Elegant Footwork, Skirmisher, Resonant Arms III, Swift Strikes, Dexterity
- Battering Barrage II, Dexterity
- Thread the Needle, Exploit Weakness, Coup de Grace: Melee
Stalwart Defender (21 AP)
- Toughness, Stalwart Defense
- Item Defense III, Durable Defense III
- Resilient Defense III, Armor Expertise III
- Hardy Defense III, Shield Expertise III
- Swift Defense
Vanguard (10 AP)
- To the Fore!
- Shield Specialization, No Weakness II
- Shield Specialization, Missile Shield III
Spellsinger (6 AP)
- Spellsinger
- Studies: Musical III, Lingering Songs II
Kensei (4 AP)
- Kensei Focus: Light Blades
- Haste Boost III
Purple Dragon Knight (3 AP)
- Damage Boost
- Improved Recovery