Proposed Perversity

Lately, I’ve been finding myself making what I’ve started calling “perverse” builds.  Things that shouldn’t work, or are just plain silly, or doing things specifically for the sake of doing things instead of going for what works already and what’s proven successful.

The most recent completed entry in this list is Adipostal’s current life, as a scimitar-wielding (because I hadn’t made a scimi build yet) wizard (because I haven’t played one in ages) with a small shield (to prove my own biased opinions that small shields were pointless wrong) who could front-flip (because a buddy of mine had made his toaster arti backflip, and I can’t not one-up that) that wasn’t a Bladeforged (because reasons) that could trap (because 30% free XP and why not).  That bizarre list of criteria wound up being the Warforged 13 Wiz/6 Ftr/2 Rog speed-striking monster with a massive crit profile with shield bashing and… oddly became one of my more enjoyable toons to play, once I figured out how to make it work for me.

My current project is an Aasimar scourge, purely Wisdom-based (thanks to half Favored Soul levels), dual-wielding heavy maces, going up the Tempest ranger tree with a heavy splash into Warpriest (I refuse to call it ‘war soul’) to double-up on the deity weapon damage, and a splash of rogue to keep the trapping up.  It’s holding sixteen at the moment and thus far appears to be quite an enjoyable little bucket of what-the-heck.  However, it’s not scratching my perverse build itch, since it’s still heavily focused on Warpriest, and as War Divines are kind of my thing, it’s not that unusual.

So, lately, I’ve taken to thinking out loud about some things I wanted in this next bout of strangeness:

• A falchion build – because I’ve never done one before, and the collection of unused ones is getting a bit ridiculous, and it should actually go Strength-based for once
• No divines or monks – because I’ve done loads, they’re proven successful, and it needs new and twisted
• No dwarves – I’ve only played like 10,492 dwarf lives already. (Okay, it was only 108. -Ed.)  I will never speak ill of my stumpy brethren, but it needs to be new and twisted
• No iconics – gotta start in K-town to get the full experience
• Don’t care about Reaper with a silly build, but still needs to be self-sufficient in Elite
• Most importantly, it has to make someone go ‘why the..’ when they look at the build

In order to address all of these concerns, I worked in reverse.  Starting with the thought something that would immediately catch your eye, I came up with a melee artificer that doesn’t use a rune arm.  Because, you can’t use a rune arm with a falchion, as it’s a two-hander.  So that was a great start.

But self healing?  Warforged is too obvious.  There are loads of new options in the Renegade Mastermaker tree, and with recent changes to Improved Construct Essence allowing full self-healing from Repair sources at level 12, that’s an option.  Taking Artificer to 15 grants access to Reconstruct, which is more than sufficient to crank out massive repair-based healing.

So, what, then?  Clearly this line of thinking is going fleshy.  But as I’ve already set aside, my beloved dwarves are out of the question.  A half-orc with a two-handed weapon is – even though the class is wrong – still far too cliché for it to be considered perverse.  Halfling?  No, I already have a few of those.  Gnome?  Perhaps, but that leans a bit too much to going Intelligence-based in the Harper tree, and I don’t want it to be a non-standard ability score (because at this point, going standard ability score is almost counter-culture).  What about… a drow?

Drow have no racial inclinations towards falchions (bonus), they tend to lean more towards Dexterity builds in melee combat (bonus), and have little to no synergy with a front-line Artificer.  I think we have a winner!

So putting everything together, I’ve come up with…

• Drow, possibly Envenomed Blades if enough points?
• Front-line melee, Falchion user, Strength based, no rune arm
• Shuriken for ranged damage solution (specifically because it’s not a crossbow)
• Heavy Armor, but still tumbling, because backflipping heavy armor arti, that’s why
• No Evasion because no evasion on purpose
• Improved Construct Essence for self-healing and toaster benefits while still fleshy
• 16 Artificer for access to Reconstruct + Deadly Weapons (both 6^th level spells)
• Artificer focusing on Renegade Mastermaker for defense and party benefits
• 4 Fighter for Kensei bonuses and free feats (yeah, yeah, low hanging fruit, I’m cheating a little bit)
• No clue what Destiny to go in yet

That’s what I’ve got thus far.  Well, and a whole chest full of falchions waiting to be used.  Let me know what you think.