Ultimate Melee Character build: The Kaze no Kama

[DirtyFinger]

The Kaze no Kama is a Monk 11 / Fighter 12 / Invisible Blade 5 / Divine Champion 2 build with Deep Gnome as a chosen race for power builds.

This build is a late bloomer and very very hard to play from level 1 upwards.
It get's a bit easier in Mask of the Betrayer, but still, the critical levels where feats become available that make the Kaze rule the battlefield start at 21.

However, if you manage to survive up till then and equip your character with good gear (the build is heavily gear dependent), then you will get the strongest melee build you'll ever see.

Assuming a level 30 character fully equiped with items you'll either find in the game or be able to create, you'll end up with these combat values:

Main Hand Attack Bonus: +55/+55/+50/+50/+45/+40/+35/+30/+25/+20
Damage: 1-6 +12 +8(slashing) +5d6(fire) +5d6(cold) +5d6(lightning)
Off Hand Attack Bonus: +50/+45/+40/+35/+30/+25/+20/+15
Damage: 1-6 +9 +8(slashing) +5d6(fire) +5d6(cold) +5d6(lightning)
AC: 74
HP: 438
Fortitude: 29
Reflex: 31
Will: 25

The elemental damage comes from self enchanted kamas+8.
And yes, that's 18 attacks per round, starting with AB 55.
The AC 74 is no typo either.
And don't forget the extremely high saves.

The character is - apart from a haste spell - unbuffed.

The equipment however includes items that give +8 attribute points to at least DEX/WIS/INT.
The idea behind the build is this: Maximize the bonuses you can get from attribute bonuses.

DEX improves attack bonus (weapon finesse) and AC for every 2 points.
WIS improves AC (monk) and saves.
INT improves AC and damage (Unfettered Defense,combat insight)
CON improves HP (no surprise there).
STR improves the amount of stuff you can carry (and nothing else)
CHA only social value, unless you take a drow with paladin levels instead of divine champion. in that case, CHA improves saves.

You start out with
STR 6
DEX 18
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 18
CHA 4

and continually raise DEX to 26. Here you can see why playing the Kaze from the start is rather hard: STR 6
STR won't matter later, once you pick combat insight, but before that, battles will be hard unless you get some elemental damage kamas.

Monk 11 will give you greater flurry, Fighter 12 gives access to epic weapon focus and epic weapon specialization.
Invisible Blade gets you an additional AC+5 and divine champion +1 to saves and an extra feat.

So, if you want to ever get the feeling that you could really take on a certain god and win, then this is the character for you.
If get's to level 30 well before the end, despite the ECL 3, so no worries.

Cheers !

[Lord_Arokh]

So, a good lvl 30 build, but has a low range for when you can use it. Some ideas for making it better would include:
-nuking the con a bit to increase strength so that you can carry all the gear you want to equip. You won't need the con since you will very rarely get hit.
-Since the race you chose is small, the kama will not be considered light in the off hand. According to the IB description, which states that you must only be wielding light weapons for bleeding wound to work, you would not get those dmg bonuses.
-Choosing a different race (Drow or Tiefling) would allow for the kama to be light in the off hand. Both would allow you to get higher int, and there for more skills, dmg, as well as ac (going duelist rather than IB). You get the haste and hp benifits which are nice, and you don't waste weapon focus on a weapon you won't use. Yes you will lose 5 ac do to race, but you make up for it with 10 uncanny defense bonus.

I ran out of time but I have more to say later.

BTW I am only trying to be constructive/helpful.

[DirtyFinger]

Originally Posted by Lord_Arokh

So, a good lvl 30 build, but has a low range for when you can use it. Some ideas for making it better would include:
-nuking the con a bit to increase strength so that you can carry all the gear you want to equip. You won't need the con since you will very rarely get hit.

Well, there are things like traps, magic missiles and natural 20s. I usually avoid sacrificing too much constitution for frontline fighters.

-Since the race you chose is small, the kama will not be considered light in the off hand. According to the IB description, which states that you must only be wielding light weapons for bleeding wound to work, you would not get those dmg bonuses.

Actually, bleeding is nearly irrelevant due to too many damage resistant mobs. You can as well just take 5 levels of duelist (which would even be slightly better). Although I admit that I didn't think of that ... might explain why I never saw any bleed damage. I always thought that was because very few opponents survive round 2.

-Choosing a different race (Drow or Tiefling) would allow for the kama to be light in the off hand. Both would allow you to get higher int, and there for more skills, dmg, as well as ac (going duelist rather than IB). You get the haste and hp benifits which are nice, and you don't waste weapon focus on a weapon you won't use. Yes you will lose 5 ac do to race, but you make up for it with 10 uncanny defense bonus.

The drow is actually the second best race for power builds and works best with Paladin instead of Divine Champion Levels due to higher charisma which means even better saves. The drawback significantly lower AC and light sensitivity. But way better attributes.
And it's a matter of preference if you want to take Duelist 5/Paladin 2 or Duelist 7. On the whole, the better saves are worth more than +2 AC. Sacrificing Monk levels is impossible and sacrificing fighter levels will cost you Epic Weapon Specialization. This will lower damage output a bit but might be acceptable for the boost in AC.

Way I see it, best race for power builds is Deep Gnome because of the +5 AC bonus.
Next comes Drow because of the stat bonuses and better AB (due to size).
Third is a tie between Tiefling and Halfling (the one with the extra feat).

And if you want to play the original campaign and want to gain strength quickly, then the best race is the Air Genasi.
With that one you can raise Monk levels straight to 11 without alternating with Fighter levels to avoid XP penalties, because the Air Genasi is the only DEX+2 race with fighter as preferred class.