confused

[ThePaganKing]

The only big drawback I see with dex based characters is the damage they do. They can kill; however, they take a damn long time to do it, which gives critters more of a chance to hit.

Saying that, my rogue Salagar, once he gets his first Invisible Blade level, can get, with buffs, his AC up to 34. That includes the 3 bonus he gets from taking combat expertise.

With that type of AC, you don't get hit very much and he has improved evasion, so that is very nice also. If he ever makes it to epic levels, he can take epic dodge and every first attack automatically misses............so, dex based your AB and AC continue to go up whereas the tanks are basically static, unless they take other classes or expertise and improved expertise.

[ipsissimus]

strange, i swore when I was using a tower shield with an alt I was suffering -2 attack bonus.

It's all a matter of style and perspective on how you utilize a fighter. As far as a fighter not being able to get some might ACs? Seriously, with imp combat expertise and heavy armor/tower shields it's pretty damn good without any magical means.

Lyonette's fighting style alone reinforces my point.

[Machiavelli]

Bear in mind that using a tower shield and improved combat expertise gives -8 to your BAB. This is the assembly line style of fighting. *hides behind halfling door strapped to arm, swings sword mechanically around the edge in a chopping motion without actually looking*. Blegh!

[ipsissimus]

for a pure fighter factor in a potential +2 to attack with the weapon you took greater weapon focus in.

And in parry mode, though the battle may be long and grueling your chances for survival are very high.

...of course you could also not opt for AC and go 2h improved PA but that's a totally different thread.

[Machiavelli]

for a pure fighter factor in a potential +2 to attack with the weapon you took greater weapon focus in.

And in parry mode, though the battle may be long and grueling your chances for survival are very high.

...of course you could also not opt for AC and go 2h improved PA but that's a totally different thread.

Parry mode doesnt work with all that armour and stuff (something like a -18 penalty in full plate and tower shield if I remember right). If you want to talk parry mode, then dex based wearing light armour and dual wielding is the go... My previous character had +30 parry when buffed (and higher using certain items), pretty much nothing gets past that

[ipsissimus]

there's your other option.
I dont have the rule book infront of me atm.

[Machiavelli]

there's your other option.
I dont have the rule book infront of me atm.

Hehe, don't even own one... but now that parry mode's fixed, the effective ac of a dex based fighter is huuuggggeeee!

[Fajitaduke]

Hehe, don't even own one... but now that parry mode's fixed, the effective ac of a dex based fighter is huuuggggeeee!

It's fixed?

How does it work now? My understanding of the problem was that it stopped parrying when you had attempted to parry a number of attacks equal to you attacks per round. Is that accurate?

[Machiavelli]

It's fixed?

How does it work now? My understanding of the problem was that it stopped parrying when you had attempted to parry a number of attacks equal to you attacks per round. Is that accurate?

It kept parrying (as it's meant to) and applied a cumulative penalty for anything beyond your attacks per round (as it's meant to)... unfortunately it didn't register the beginning of a new round and the penalties just kept stackin' away. However this is no longer the case!

Always remember that your opponent is facing a dropping BAB with each attack, whereas your parry score remains the same (until the number of incoming attacks exceed yours then the parry starts to drop). It's pretty nasty in fact!

[Fajitaduke]

It kept parrying (as it's meant to) and applied a cumulative penalty for anything beyond your attacks per round (as it's meant to)... unfortunately it didn't register the beginning of a new round and the penalties just kept stackin' away. However this is no longer the case!

Gotcha. Does the counterattack work as intended, or are you stuck in a defensive stance while parrying?

[Xanderleo]

Riposte attack works as it should.

[Machiavelli]

Riposte attack works as it should.

Yup, and your chance of getting one just keeps going up and up when fighting one opponent (plus you can get parry significantly higher than anyones BAB with high dex and the right feats/items). And even if you miss the parry, they still need to get past whatever your AC is.

[Fajitaduke]

Ok, now my mind is spinning from all manner of possibilities for my character.

[Fajitaduke]

I just gave duelist a quick try in the early going of MOTB, and it worked rather well.

One thing I've noticed is that my low level test character on Sundren (who has no parry skill and is never in parry mode) was able to parry arrows from time to time, but the duelist was not able to do so (deflect arrows being a skill picked up by the duelist at higher levels than I tested).

Was my low level character parrying arrows by holding a shield?

Defense against missile weapons seems like one area a parry-based defender might be relatively weaker than an armored equivalent.

[Xanderleo]

Parry only works against melee attacks, so I'm pretty sure that's graphical, Fajitaduke. Some times when an arrow misses the AC of a character holding a sheild, it looks like it hits the shield. This is just to mix things up a bit visually. (just like characters do different attack and dodge animations).

A good way to see if you're actually deflecting the arrows is that you'll see it fly off in a different direction when it gets deflected.

The nice thing about the Duelist granted Deflect Arrows is you don't need to meet the feat prerequisite of Improved Unarmed strike.