44 Chapter Forty-Four – About Them Advanced Classes… (1/2)
Renewal came. I reached out to Tremble as I blinked and made sure I still had a face and not a caved-in shell.
”Ouch!” he said for me.
”They're using Teamwork Feats.” I shook my head. ”Improved and Superior Aid Another, Improved Flanking. Each attack is an aid attempt, and gives a +4 bonus. +4 to hit when flanking. +20 to hit, it couldn't miss.” I sighed despite myself.
Uncanny Dodge came with Scout/4, but their MAB and flanking level were obviously way above mine, so no help there.
”This is one mean Curse,” Tremble murmured.
”It figured that out, so we can expect a lot more of that proliferating. It might not be able to mess with default templates of creatures much, but with the extra Olympian Hit Dice, it can pop the Feats in with no problem.”
”Oww…” he said again. ”So, this just got harder, even without changing what we fight?”
”Yes.” I sat up, and creaked my neck, began to do my stretches.
”How do we fight?”
”Well, I was intentionally stupid. I wanted to see all their fighting styles and if going outside evolved anything. Obviously, it did.” Actually, getting a good stretching involved a lot of twisting now. I had Escape Artist Ranks and a 25 Dex. I was naturally as limber as the finest human contortionist ever, which was just awesome on the face of it. Being able to casually rest my buns on the back of my head and do my toenails was a nice perk of being superhumanly flexible and coordinated. Polish up the black things to keep that razor edge and all…
”Go back along the side of the house?” he piped up immediately.
”It was too late for that. The topiaries could animate the shrubs there, like they did the grass and hedgerows. I should have been hacking them down as I killed the ants. Going back would have resulted in a major pile-on, and that walnut tree could have reached most of the length of the house to hit us.”
”Yeah, what a monster.” We had carved some pretty huge gouges in it, but with iron-hard bark four inches thick, it just didn't care. I could hew through a foot of wood with a normal swing, and twice that with a One Strike, but when you're a dozen feet across, you just laugh. ”Wasn't expecting the exploding walnuts, either,” he added.
The nuts were the size of softballs, hit like shotputs, and exploded when they hit you… and it threw dozens at a time in an AoE effect. DR took care of some of it, but man, that was one wicked walnut tree! The explosions weren't even magical, either. It must have loaded them with a wad of C4 or something...
”Other then being outsized, outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and overpowered, I think we did pretty well,” I extemporized.
”Me, too!” he agreed, without missing a beat.
”The Curse probably thinks it's found a new trick, so its going to be using them in the room situations, especially with the annis hags and the bogeymen. I am going to be doing a lot more running around than before.”
”Awwww. I was enjoying tanking them and slaughtering them while their claws crashed on me uselessly.”
”Yeah, we're going to be focusing even more on fast kills. The Curse is trying to template us out of range of two-hit kills, but is having problems keeping up with Profound Artisan.”
”That IS a seriously over-powered ability,” Tremble agreed.
”Weaponizing Skills is pretty monstrous. I am so happy I took Profound Artisan from a mere +synergy damage Feat to Sage of Swords.” Eff them Dragon Warriors and their +15d6 combo moves. At range. While walking on air. As an AoE.
”So, you gonna start taking them Advanced and Combo classes?” he wondered.
”I have been. But the benefits are hard to see, because I'm not a Ten, I don't have Gear, and I'm mono-weapon focused right now, with no Crafting. The +2 bonuses to Skills for Favored Terrain and FE: Stalker/Hunter aren't really all that noticeable, you see…”
”Oh, you took your Ranger Levels?”
”All two of them.” I could tell he was making adjustments to our ersatz Stat list of me. ”All the Favored Enemy stuff was subsumed by Courtier of Death. I wasn't able to just pick something and get the benefit… except for one thing.”
”Oh?”
”Human.” I could feel Tremble momentarily blink. ”Yeah.”
”I suppose that's better then having to kill fifty people…” my Sword mused. ”What about Skill Points? Lots, right? Tracking, hunting, all the good stuff.”
”Nope. Advanced Classes only modify the main class. No Skill Points. They usually have Class abilities that modify skills, but it's up to you to acquire the points to put into them.”
”….wow?”
”There's a reason people take the Expert Class, you see.
”Likewise, no weapon profs, armor profs. If you don't have them going in… well, usually you can't get in.”
”But… you described Rangers as this massively multi-talented class for solo play, and that's pretty much what you are in, right?”
”Oh, that's the magical Ranger class.” Tremble was silenced. ”Seriously, they get ranger spells, automatic animal companion, free favored enemy advances, favored terrains, bonus Feats in ranger weapon styles, and other class abilities related to wilderness movement and living.
”Now, the no-spell Rangers… well, you don't see me Summoning up a critter to make my Animal Companion. I actually have to train them up, not 'Poof! You are perfect Kombat Kompanion Kitten, Komrad Dire Tiger! Fight vit me!'” I made clawing motions in front of me. ”As for the Feats, well, they're a dumbed-down assortment of what Melees get, so guess what?”
”You already had them.”
”I got the Karma back for them, however!”
”So, you got two Ranger Levels for FE: Human and Favored Terrain?”
”Favored Terrain, Urban.” I gestured at our misty home. ”Because, required to have experienced the terrain. Couldn't even take the second advance.”
”No spells, no Feats… wow, that's a whole lot of nothing. Um, same with the Warden, I suppose?”
”Rangers are Melee, Wardens are Archers. Rangers do tend to rove or be suborned to druidic orders, and Wardens do tend to be attached to areas and serve under civilized lords as agents of the crown and land. Other then that, not a lot of difference. It's basically because Skill-intense Scouts tend to be products of civilized peoples, and warrior-types can come from anywhere.”
”Ugh. But there's so many Advanced Classes…”
”Most of them are used to shore up the weakness of a Secondary Class. Warden, for instance, will advance your RAB, but not your MAB. +4 to your RAB will certainly get you to +10 if you have Archer at Six and reach Ten in another class. There'll be a couple extra Archer Feats for you, which is nice, but if you don't have the chance to practice ranged combat…”
”You won't notice and they'll be redundant.” I made a gesture of agreement. ”Is there any that do give a bonus?”
”Well, Warsmith would, if I was a hammer wielder. If you wield a hammer, you can add your smithing Ranks to your damage with it. Briggs took that all the way to Sage of the Hammer, grabbing every hammer-using Skill and building on it for some horrific damage boosts. Mastersmith, Sculptor, Miner, Lumberman, Carpenter… I think he got to +80 damage or something just taking Warsmith, melding it to Skills, and running with it, much like I did with Profound Artisan.
”As for the rest… most of the Classes simply refine specific skills or skill sets, or offer a very distinct benefit derived from two complementary classes, or let you take a Secondary Skill effect to Ten. There are almost none that have direct combat effects.
”Warsmith has a nice thing where you can apply Naming Karma to both a Weapon and an Armor item that you made and bonded. I'm not wearing armor, and I don't have a shield.”