The tall, blonde haired, leather clad, women sauntered across the tavern floor towards the knife board. Three slender daggers suddenly appear in her right hand and she turns, looking at the dozen or so men stare at her. She smiles seductively, “Whose up for little one on one?”
This is the intro to a character I might get to play one day. The concept came to me a while back when I was thinking of the old 2nd Edition Advanced Dungeon & Dragon rules for multiple attacks – daggers were frightfully fast! So I gave it some thoughts and decided to post it here as an Eclipse build.
Starting off
This build will have no disadvantages and no race, so we start off at level 1 with the base 48cp + 6 for the level 1 feat.
The Basics
Since she only uses knives and daggers, you can get away with a single weapon prof (1 cp) but, I will be a bit wise and take simple weapons for 3cp
light armour for rogues is standard, another 3cp
plus 2 bonus on ref saves for 6 cp
and probably 12cp on skills as this will be a rogue build at the end of the day
Hit dice: d4 most likely. she is a ranged rogue more than melee
That totals to 24cp!
Specials
We take bonus attacks (6cp – dagger/knife only. this applies to both throwing and melee though)
She is a throwing specialist,so lets give her Throwing Master (6cp) – allows her to throw anything.
Finally we give her Block for Missile weapons and Block for Melee (a total of 12cp) note that this is just blocking at this stage.
That totals another 24cp
For the first level feat, we take Combat Reflexes bought as Reflex Training for 6 cp
So she can make 2 attacks per round, one of which must be a dagger or knife. She can block missile weapons and melee attacks quite often, but only 1/round.
Further development
Level 2 we will see her buy Riposte and Catch Upgrades to Block (12 cp) as well as Multiple for one of them (6cp) 18cp
Level 3, will see her gaining the other Multiple on block (6cp), first Augment Attack (part of a chain written as additional damage for each successful attack you had this round already (example: +1d6 if your first attack was successful, +2d6 if 2nd etc… this build up to a max of the Augment Attack purchase) for 3 cp, Base Attack +1 for 6cp, 4cp on Precise Shot (taken as an immunity) – leaving 5cp left over for basics, hit dice, skills
Level 4, will improve Dexterity (free improvement), spend 12cp on Improved Self development again for Dexterity (probably a dex of 20 at this stage) and 6cp for Finesse (Dex damage on throwing items instead of Strength) – if she is more melee orientated at that stage, one should rather take Dex on melee attack rolls
Level 5, BAB +1 6cp, Aug Attack (3cp), Bonus Attack (6cp) – leaving 9cp left for ‘basics’
Level 6, BAB +1 6cp, Far Shot (6cp), Aug attack (3cp) – that’s 15cp left over at this level for basics and an extra feat.
Level 7, BAB +1 6cp. Augment attack (3cp total here of 4d6 but remember it is staggered and the first attack won’t have anything added). Might want to upgrade Bonus Attack to ignore the penalties now or take some movement bonus (a good one could be an Inherent Spell, Hustle (level 2 psychic warrior power that grants an instant move action and is a free action to manifest) – this would only be 2/day but one could always upgrade. thats 9cp or 15cp with the Inherrent SPell
Level 8, Free Self Dev on dex, again spend 12cp to improve again (now a dex of 22, +6 modifier) this improves Armour Class, Initiative, Attack Roll and damage (if that was chosen) as well as extra Attacks of Opportunity (mainly for blocks)
Level 9, BAB bonus for 6 cp (that’s a +5 to hit now) – technically one could be cheeky and just by Augment Attack with daggers (like weapon focus), but keeping that you should be spending 3cp per level on BAB, we buy it here anyway. Again, take another Bonus attack for 6cp (that is a total of 4 bonus attacks – or 5 attacks with a dagger each round!) – Note that GM’s might get a bit nervous about this character at this level. But, one can argue that she has to have daggers to use them, and magical daggers dont just fall out of the sky. (Then again, that could be subject to another ability – Imbuement for daggers only – or the Advanced combat ability of Hurling (the dagger returns to you)
Skill wise, things like perform (juggling), tumbling, climbing, balance, knowledge:gambling, bluff, sleight of hand etc are all good. The basic rogue repertoire of skills would mean she has a ‘place’ in a group and is not just another ‘fighter’. She could be a surprising asset when she gets to show off her skills with the dagger. Upgrades on Augment attack (bleed would be good, and even Dex draining (dropping a targets AC over time), but further development really depends on the style you want.
Styles could include – circus act escapee (my initial thought), street rat with a talent, assassin (you will have to have poisons then!) and a whole lot more.