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[personal profile] subplotkudzu
fortyyearsagotoday decided that to prep for the duel his PC Hriam (Bard 7) has in his future he needed to get special training. The character found a surly but effective fencing master in Scournbul, the docks quarter of the city, to prep him for the fight, which will likely be in a few months of game time and at 10th level.

Essentially, 40YAT farmed out his character leveling to the GM for a few levels rather than study the rulebook. I can accept that.

So Hiram took 8th level as Fighter (they leveled up that session), retrained his Toughness in the face of a spiffy new d10 on HP and now has Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus (rapier). He has a 14 Dex and 12 STR, meaning he's got a minimum 2 point increase with his rapier. Lots more if he starts remembering to cast Cat's Grace before getting into fights (or, indeed, at any point). Next level he goes up in Bard again and takes his 9th level feat in Improved One Handed Combat (see below) and 10th level is fighter for Improved Critical (Rapier). By that point the magically biffed Bard is going to be a pretty daren formidable swordsman!

I created the Improved One Handed Combat feat to capture a certain style I felt was needed in 3E. It combines Improved Unarmed Strike (so you can attack without drawing down an attack of opportunity) and Improved Two Handed Fighting, but only with unarmed attacks. By the time of the fight Hiram will be able to make 2 attacks with his sword at +12/+7, or those attacks at +10/+5 and also punch, kick, head butt, knee, elbow or otherwise strike at +10. Yes, the damage is only d3 stunning, but it's the exact style used by movie fencers over the last 20 years - cross blades, close, punch or kick the mook to drop them, and move on. For all that his fencing master tells Hiram that he's teaching him how to kill people, he's actually teaching him how to stay safely in the PG ratings!

Date: 2008-09-15 07:01 pm (UTC)
mneme: (Default)
From: [personal profile] mneme
Curious if the toughness of opposing mooks is going to be in the right range that the d3+1 * 2 damage will either be enough to take them out, or be the difference between not taking them out and doing so (such that they are injured, but unconcious, not dying). Of course, what he could really use is an equivalent of the "Dashing Swordsman" feature (in Order of the Stick) allowing you to use your charisma to get a damage bonus (aside from mabye taking Improved Feint to get feinting as a move action, is there any way his presumably-by-me decent Charisma can be useful in a fight beyond powering spellcasting? I know you did a lot of stuff regarding powering up skills in Emerikol).

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subplotkudzu: The words Subplot Kudzu Games, in green with kudzu vines growing on it (Default)
Brian Rogers

March 2025

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