[Class Build] The Bronze Gladiator

[limaxophobiacq]

Difficulty: PotD.
Solo: No.

First of this is not a super optimized build, rather it's the result of me trying to build around a pretty mediocre weapon I find aesthetically appealing. The build is pretty effective at what it does but other weapon choices are almost certainly going to be more effective. The weapon in question is the Gladiators Sword (the notable traits of which are +1 Penetration, +5 Deflection & +10% damage when used with a shield), and the result is not all that surprisingly a sword-and-board build with retaliation. Second I ran this build on a hired adventurer so it doesn't include blessing or pet bonuses (best pet would probably be Blinky for the +5 melee accuracy).
 

Race: Hill Dwarf
Culture: Old Vailia

Class: Devoted/Trickster

Fighter/Trickster is a tried-and-true combo for a good tank that can dish out some decent weapon damage, and since we're building around a specific weapon which we're comboing with a shield that can also use the devoted bonus (Tuotilo's Palm), devoted seems a sensible choice for our fighter subclass. The rogue Riposte ability lets us use our defense for offense, and the multiplicative damage boost from Deep Wounds works to make up for the lack of lashes on our weapons.

Attributes: I went with a very conservative attribute spread (12/10/10/17/19/10). Int and Per are the most important attributes by a decent margin, Dex hurts a lot to dump even when you're doing a lot of retaliations, and dumping Might or Con tanks our fortitude defense which is already our lowest. You could dump Con for Might but with how many weapon damage bonuses the build has it wouldn't be very significant.

Core Equipment:

-Gladiators Sword: Duh.
-Tuotilo's Palm: With Monastic Unarmed Training + Two Weapon Style and the fact that it benefits from the devoted bonus, this shield offers a pretty ok damage boost (with the attack speed increase it's about +30% DPS compared to a normal small-shield despite the low base damage) while also offering a 20% chance of a mini-riposte that only uses the shield.
-Champions Helm: 10% chance for a main-hand riposte and a respectable boost to action speed and weapon damage when the character tanking multiple opponents.
-Devil of Caroc Breastplate: +2 class resources is fantastic for any martial multiclass and the -10% recovery combined with Armored Grace means we're still quite fast despite being medium armor.
-Entonia Signet Ring: +2 defenses per engagement, a no brainer for a high-engagement tank.

Party support: I made this build with a priest using DotF in the party, a paladin aura would do but obviously not as good. Beside a party-wide accuracy buff this build doesn't need any other help to be effective. You could have a priest casting Champions Boon on the gladiator but that's usually not going to be the best use of your priests valuable time.

Skills: History for Giftbearer's Cloth to help our non-deflection defenses.

Party Synergies: Thanks to it's very high reflex defense (180+) and the abilty to apply distracted (-5 perception = -10 reflex) to anyone it engages, the build works well with any party-unfriendly reflex-save AoEs which is a nice bonus from not going Unbroken. If your friendly casters have very high accuracy you could dump a passive or two to throw in Adept Evasion or even Snakes Reflexes for a complete overkill reflex defense.

Early Game: Just punch things, early game Monastic Unarmed Training with the devoted bonus plus Crippling Strike is quite effective.

Abilities:

1 Disciplined Barrage | Crippling Strike
2 Monastic Unarmed Training
3 Knock Down

4 Fighter Stances* | Two Weapon Style
5 Confident Aim
6 Dirty Fighting

7 Tactical Barrage | Arterial Strike
8 Riposte
9 Mule Kick

10 Vigorous Defense | Weapon and Shield Style
11 Persistent Distraction
12 Weapon Specialization

13 Unbending | Deep Wounds
14 Superior Deflection
15 Armored Grace

16 Refreshing Defense | Bears Fortitude
17 Hold the Line
18 Mob Stance

19 Unbreakable** | Deathblows
20 Unbending Shield

*Warrior stance early game until your priest gets Devotions, then use Defender Stance for the engagements untill you have room to grab Hold the Line + Mob Stance (the later isn't worth without the former getting you to 3 engagements).

**I know people don't like getting knocked down but given that it's effectively 2.5x the HP of Tough and people take Tough I don't think that's rational.

Helm: Champions Helm (3% speed & damage per engagment, 10% riposte)
Cloak: The Giftbearer's Cloth (+14 Will/Fort/Ref)
Amulet: Ciphers Shackle (+1 Con, Resistance to Dex)
Gloves: Greater Deflection +7
Armor: Devil of Caroc Breastlplate (+2 Class resources, -10% recovery, Resistance to Int)
Boots: Boots of Stone (+1 Dex, +1 Res, Resistance to Might)
Belt: Eoten Constitution (+3 Con)
Ring 1: Entonia Signet Ring (+2 defenses per engagement)
Ring 2: Chameleons Touch (+1 Dex, +1 Might)

Weapon Set 1: Gladiators Sword + Tuotilo's Palm

Weapon Set 2: Fist + Tuotilo's Palm

Weapon Set 3: Pistol/Blunderbuss + Tuotilo's Palm

Buffs: Tactical Barrage, Refreshing Defense, Displaced Image, Unbending Shield, DotF

Attributes (base, gear, buffs)
Mig: 12 +1 +4 = 17
Con: 10 +4 +0 = 14
Dex: 10 +2 +0 = 12
Per: 17 +0 +5 = 22
Int: 19 +0 +5 = 24
Res: 10 +1 +5 = 16

Deflection: 22 +57 (level) +4 (Superior Deflection) +20 (Refreshing Defense) +10 (Displaced Image) +5 (Scrim) +7 (Bracers) +16 (Shield) +6 (Resolve) = 147+2*(Engaging), or 167 with Mirror Image

Fort: 17 +57 (level) +14 (Str) +8 (Con) +20 (Refreshing Defense) +10 (Bears Fortitude) +14 (Cloak) = 140+2*(Engaging)

Ref: 25 +57 (level) +20 (Refreshing Defense) +4 (Dex) +24 (Per) +14 (Cloak) +20 (Displaced Image) +16 (Shield) = 180+2*(Engaging)

Will: 17 +57 (level) +20 (Refreshing Defense) +28 (Int) +12 (Res) +14 (Cloak) = 148+2*(Engaging)

Sword Accuracy: 20 (base) +57 (level) +15 (Legendary Weapon) +12 (Perception) +10 (Devotions) = 114 (65% Graze to Hit, 10% Hit to Crit)
Shield Accuracy: 20 (base) +57 (level) +14 (Monastic) +12 (Perception) +5 (Precision Striker) +10 (Devotions) = 118 (65% Graze to Hit, 10% Hit to Crit)

Sword Damage: 13-19 (base) +60% (Legendary) +21% (17 Str) +10% (Weapon Specialization) +10% (Scrim) +55% (Sneak Attack) +50% (Deathblows) x1.37 (Deep Wounds) = ~54-80
Shield Damage: 8-10 (base) +50% (Monastic) +21% (17 Str) +10% (Weapon Specialization) +55% (Sneak Attack) +50% (Deathblows) x1.37 (Deep Wounds) = ~31-39

Penetration: Sword 13/Shield 13

Edit: Added Hold the Line + Mob Stance.

Edited February 6, 2022 by limaxophobiacq

[Porkchopsandwiches247]

This is actually very similar to how I build Eder usually. Toutillo’s Palm + Monastic Unarmed Training on a Swashbuckler is perfect for making a main tank who can still do good damage and has a ton of retaliation attacks. Hes not as optimized as your build due to no subclasses, but its still very strong.

If you were willing to change up the main weapon (even though that was kind of the theme of your build lol) I think the unique club Kapana Tanga would fit this well too. For one it fits thematically, for two it gives a bunch of engagement slots with bonuses. With the Swashbuckler passives and this weapon, you can have 5 engagement slots, meaning +15% melee damage and 25% recovery speed if you have Mob Stance active and are engaged with 5 guys. AND +20 accuracy if you choose that upgrade. Im actually not sure if ripostes trigger the mob stance counterattack but thatd be pretty sweet, your guy would be getting tons of free attacks in group fights.

I can also see an unbroken being a good fit for this with their extra armor and engagement slot.

[limaxophobiacq]

I think if you were to switch weapon I'd consider going with an axe just for the bleeding cut modal with retaliation.  With a fast low-damage weapon like Kapana Taga (even though it's enchantments are everything the build wants and would be insane if you could get them on an axe) you end up spending proportionally more of you time making weak shield attacks. I also don't want to over-invest in having to engage 3+ opponents to be effective since there's hard fights where that's just not a thing.

Edited February 3, 2022 by limaxophobiacq

[thelee]

as soon as i saw the name of this build, i immediately knew what weapon it was based on. real underrated weapon; it's not flashy and is super early, but that +5 deflection bonus with a shield is real nice. fun riposte build.

 

2 hours ago, limaxophobiacq said:

*Warrior stance early game until your priest gets Devotions, then just use Defender Stance for the engagements

do you find that you really need the extra engagements? if you pick up hold the line you have 2, and then you can switch to mob stance instead for recovery time bonus and free attacks.

[limaxophobiacq]

56 minutes ago, thelee said:

do you find that you really need the extra engagements? if you pick up hold the line you have 2, and then you can switch to mob stance instead for recovery time bonus and free attacks.

 

I've always dismissed Hold the Line (why do fighters, the tank class, get nothing with their extra engagement passive compared to Rogues and Barbarians?) so I kind of forget it exists, but it might have been worth it. The 4th engagement slot isn't bad but the 5th is superfluous.

Also I wouldn't have known how to make this build without your guide making me realise Deep Wounds actually scales with Int. Given the +200% damage modifier with death-blows active, extra points of intelligence adding roughly +0.75% damage per point from the extended Deep Wounds duration ends up being almost as good as Might at +1% per point for weapon damage, in addition to everything else Int does.

Edited February 3, 2022 by limaxophobiacq

[Boeroer]

I think the Gladiator's Sword is actually a pretty good weapon. The deflection bonus is nice of course (increasing returns and so on) but also the +1 PEN (with additional enchantment) is good and maybe underrated.

Stylewise it absolutely cries for Bronlar's Phalanx though.  And the Contender's Helm...

[limaxophobiacq]

27 minutes ago, Boeroer said:

I think the Gladiator's Sword is actually a pretty good weapon. The deflection bonus is nice of course (increasing returns and so on) but also the +1 PEN (with additional enchantment) is good and maybe underrated.

Stylewise it absolutely cries for Bronlar's Phalanx though.  And the Contender's Helm...

Boeroer always the fashionista . 

I actually like the helm, it reminds me of the tiger-guy Russell Crowe fought in Gladiator so it fits the theme. The grey steel of Tuotilos isn't ideal but you can't have everything.

[macexor]

I'm considering adding this character to my party. But there is one problem. I already have Forbidden Fist/Steel Garrote. I'm not sure which character will benefit from the Tuotilo's Palm. I guess this one? Any ideas what to go for on the other character?

[dgray62]

When in doubt, give it to the monk. The balanced shield upgrade, which only works for monks, is amazing, and is much better than the weak retaliation alternative available to other classes.

Edited August 4, 2022 by dgray62
Error correction

[limaxophobiacq]

If the Forbidden Fist is using his fists for combat he should probably use it since the +5 Accuracy with the main-hand fist is too good to pass up. Without the shield this build is probably better of with a different weapon and equipment setup though since other bashing shields are pretty terrible, like f.ex. switching the armor to Casità Samelia's Legacy and dual-wielding Sabres or Axes with monastic fists as backup.