Of Greater Whirlwinds And Greater Deathblow For Multiclassed Fighter/Mages

[Dundee Slaytern]

Hmmmm... if I am not mistaken, most people who use multiclassed Fighter/Mages dual-wield Katanas and get as many Greater Whirlwinds as possible.

I was pondering over this during my trip back home from an outing, when suddenly, a thought came to mind. What about Improved Haste?

At maximum Xp, dual-wield and Specialisation in a weapon, a Fighter/Mage can have 4 attacks per round( ApR) by default. With Improved Haste, this is boosted to 8 ApR.

We are only getting started however, because Improved Haste can be stored in a Contingency spell, or casted beforehand. It lasts for 3 rounds + 1 round/level, effectively meaning, you will be under the influence of a Moderate Whirlwind for a maximum of 2.3 turns( 2mins 18secs). A Greater Whirlwind by comparison, lasts only for a round.

Gee... but if we are not going to use Greater Whirlwinds, then what do we choose? Critical Strike would be nice, but I think Greater Deathblow will serve you better.

Did you know Greater Deathblow can kill Mind Flayers and Beholders in one hit? It even ignores their Magic Resistance and Spell Protections, so long as their monster level is below 12. This means that you can potentially kill 8 creatures per round, impressive no?

What do you think?

[SixOfSpades]

Hmmm.....I don't know, I'm just so fond of Time Stop/GWW with the Answerer that I see no reason to switch. It will kill dragons, while Greater Deathblow will not, even with a Level-Draining weapon. I happen to think a GWW with one weapon (and shield, giving AC) is better than Improved Haste with 2 weapons.

Your combination is, however, very deadly....although I usually play very defensively, and use Summons against Illithids & Beholders. But now that I consider the merits of Improved Haste & GDB during a Time Stop, I'll have to give it a try.

[Tim Tam]

I mentioned this a while back about the 23 round greater whirlwind substitute. There is no reason to have GWW unless you use a two handed weapon or use a shield. If the char has Use Any Item you can use Scarlet Ninja-To in the off hand and take it up to 10 ApR with Improved Haste without the Grandmastery patch. No need for multi class, have a mage cast IH on a pure fighter kit.

As to the Greater Deathblow, I prefer the death spell instead. Critical Strike is useless against those you want it to work on, anyone with a "helmet" is immune to it. Power Attack and Hardiness are all you really need for an Improved Haste dual weilding fighter.

Speaking of Hardiness, take advantage of the Defender of Easthaven flail from the bonus Joluv merchant and off hand it on a Paladin. Hardiness + Armor of Faith + Defender = 85% resistance to physical damage, thats better than a Barbarian can get.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Except Death Spell is affected by Magic Resistance and spell protections. It also only affects things that have 8 hitdice or less. Greater Deathblow affects far more monsters than Death Spell.

Oh, and I forgot to add. [img]redface.gif[/img] I was talking as though the player is soloing.

[Grindar Silvermane]

Originally posted by Dundee Slaytern: Oh, and I forgot to add. [img]redface.gif[/img] I was talking as though the player is soloing.

Don't you always, Dundee?

[SixOfSpades]

Oh, yeah, wonder why it took me so long to think of this:
There's not much difference between Dual-wield + Improved Haste + Greater Deathblow
and Greater Whirlwind + Shield + Axe of Unyielding+5 Any creature immune to Vorpal hits is going to be over Level 12 anyway.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Axe of Unyielding +5 does not grant a 100% chance to score a vorpal hit. It is only a 10% chance. That is, one vorpal hit on average for every Greater Whirlwind.

Greater Deathblow is a guaranteed one-hit kill, so long as the target is level 12 or below. Killing 5-8 Beholders in one round is just plain INSANE.

It gets even better with an Archer, because you can potentially fire 10 attacks per round! Tuigan Bow anyone? One arrow there, one arrow here, 10 dead enemies per round!!!!

[SixOfSpades]

WHAAA?? GD applies to ranged weapons as well? Now THAT's insane!!!

And, Dundee, your 5-8 dead enemies per round only applies if you can run up to your enemies fast enough. Still, nothing to sniff at, that's for sure.

[Calaethis Dragonsbane]

heh, I take both, but Im a ranger, I like a combo of GD and GWW. lol, its quite funny to cast 'timestop', then have someone cast 'Improved haste' then Ill use GWW, AND if you have the boots of speed, you move *really* *really* quickly. lol, it would be pretty cool for a Fighter/Mage too I guess...