Epic Character Builds – Blade Juggernaut
By Christopher “cdaulepp” Aulepp
The Blade Juggernaut is an intelligent and wise combatant who realizes that true combat mastery comes not through strength of arms alone but through the combination of martial might, divine and arcane spell casting, and inspirational song. Possessing powerful combat capabilities, the Blade Juggernaut can augment himself to the point that he can strike 6 times each round with each hit doing a minimum of 68 points of damage.
Blade Juggernaut
Overview
Cleric: 15
Bard: 15
Red Dragon Disciple: 10
Race: Gnome
Alignment: True Neutral
Starting Stats
Str: 14
Dex: 8
Con: 10
Int: 12
Wis: 16
Cha: 14
Final Stats
Str: 30
Dex: 8
Con: 12
Int: 14
Wis: 18
Cha: 16
Concentration: 31
Discipline: 40
Lore: 8
Perform: 24
Spellcraft: 20
Tumble: 40
Use Magic Device: 15
Equipment
Scimitar
Robe
Blade Juggernaut Abilities
Draconic Abilities: Blade Juggernaut is a half-dragon and has rather striking wings. His draconic ancestry gives him added hit points, a boost to AC, and immunity to paralysis, sleep, and fire. A great combo for this character is casting Maximized Flame Strikes. Flame Strike will normally do divine and fire damage to enemies, and fire damage to allies, but the Blade Juggernaut is immune to the fire damage, so he takes no damage from the spell.
Breath Weapon: Blade Juggernaut can breathe a cone of fire once per day doing 6d10 Fire Damage.
Spell Casting: Blade Juggernaut combines a cleric’s divine spell casting with a bard’s arcane spell casting, providing him with a diverse repertoire of spells to select from.
Key Bard Spells: Blade Juggernaut knows the following key bard spells that are integral to his combat performance. Other spells in addition to these can be selected based on whatever is most appealing, but these spells are mandatory:
Level 1 – Mage Armor
Level 2 – Invisibility, See Invisibility, Owl’s Wisdom
Level 3 – Haste, Keen Edge
Level 4 – Improved Invisibility, War Cry
Heal: Blade Juggernaut can heal himself with the Heal spell or with Greater Restoration. In multiplayer, mass heal can help the party defeat even the toughest opponents.
Harm and Word of Faith: When either of these two spells lands, any enemy will surely die soon afterwards.
“Buffing” Spells: Blade Juggernaut can augment his formidable combat The Blade Juggernaut In Combatabilities with his cleric and bard spells, providing all sorts of nifty benefits. Blade Juggernaut has the capability to raise his Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution on his own to the maximum stat boosting limits. Thus, items boosting Charisma and Wisdom should be sought first. Each boost to Charisma will increase damage from divine might and will make the Strength and War Domain Powers last longer. Wisdom boosting items will increase the DC on Blade Juggernaut’s spells and give him bonus spells per day.
Bard Song: 15 uses per day to raise Blade Juggernaut’s and his allies’ attacks, damage, saves, hit points, and an extra 4 Dodge AC.
Curse Song: Can be used to lower the enemies attacks, damage, saves, hit points, and more importantly their Dodge AC by 4 points.
Devastating Critical: With the bard spell “Keen Edge”, Blade Juggernaut lands critical hits with his scimitar on a 12-20, or approximately 45%, of the time.”
Minimum Damage Calculation:
+1 Physical 1d6 Scimitar
+15 Physical Base
+10 Physical Improved Power Attack
+9 Physical Raising strength by 12 gives 6 * 1.5 = +9
+5 Physical Greater Magic Weapon
+6 Fire 6-11 from Darkfire
+5 Magical Extended divine favor lasts 20 rounds
+2 Magical Extended battletide lasts 30 rounds
+2 Slashing Extended war cry lasts 30 rounds
+1 Slashing Extended prayer lasts 30 rounds
+3 Bludgeoning Bard song lasts 10 rounds
+4 Bludgeoning War domain powers lasts 10 rounds
+5 Divine Divine might lasts 5 rounds
68 Minimum damage per hit
Blade Juggernaut’s attack schedule using improved power attack is still very good: +55/+50/+45/+55/+55/+55.
When fighting enemies with a high armour class, the Blade Juggernaut can turn off Improved Power Attack. Although that reduces the damage by 10 points, the Blade Juggernaut will enjoy an excellent +65/+60/+55/+65/+65/+65 attack schedule.
When the short term buffing spells wear off, the Blade Juggernaut can keep on going strong. He can dish out an impressive 46 minimum damage per strike when only using the long duration buffing spells, though at just 3 attacks per round and at a reduced attack bonus.
Character Advancement History
Following is the path of the Blade Juggernaut during the first forty levels of his life.
| Character Level | Class | Skill Increases | Feat Selection | Attribute Increase |
| 1 | Cleric | Concentration 4, Lore 4, Spellcraft 4 | War Domain, Strength Domain, Extend Spell | |
| 2 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Lore 1, Spellcraft 1 | ||
| 3 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Lore 1, Spellcraft 1 | Weapon Proficiency: Martial | |
| 4 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Lore 1, Spellcraft 1 | Strength | |
| 5 | Bard | Lore 1, Tumble 4 | ||
| 6 | Red Dragon Disciple | Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Spellcraft 1 | Power Attack | |
| 7 | Red Dragon Disciple | Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Spellcraft 1 | ||
| 8 | Red Dragon Disciple | Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Spellcraft 1 | Strength | |
| 9 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Spellcraft 1, Save 1 | Divine Might | |
| 10 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 4 | ||
| 11 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 3 | ||
| 12 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 3 | Cleave | Wisdom |
| 13 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 3 | ||
| 14 | Red Dragon Disciple | Concentration 1, Discipline 1, Spellcraft 1 | ||
| 15 | Cleric | Concentration 2, Spellcraft 1 | Maximize Spell | |
| 16 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Spellcraft 2 | Wisdom | |
| 17 | Cleric | Concentration 2, Spellcraft 1 | ||
| 18 | Bard | Tumble 5 | Improved Critical: Scimitar | |
| 19 | Bard | Tumble 5 | ||
| 20 | Bard | Tumble 5 | Strength | |
| 21 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 3 | Weapon Focus: Scimitar | |
| 22 | Red Dragon Disciple | Discipline 4 | ||
| 23 | Cleric | Concentration 2, Spellcraft 2 | ||
| 24 | Cleric | Concentration 1, Spellcraft 2, Save 1 | Great Cleave | Strength |
| 25 | Cleric | Save 4 | ||
| 26 | Cleric | Save 4 | ||
| 27 | Cleric | Save 4 | Overwhelming Critical: Scimitar | |
| 28 | Cleric | Save 4 | Strength | |
| 29 | Cleric | Save 4 | ||
| 30 | Bard | Discipline 9, Tumble 14, Use Magic Device 4 | Devastating Critical: Scimitar | |
| 31 | Bard | Discipline 1, Tumble 1, Use Magic Device 4 | ||
| 32 | Bard | Discipline 1, Tumble 1, Use Magic Device 4 | Strength | |
| 33 | Bard | Discipline 1, Perform 4, Tumble 1 | Epic Weapon Focus: Scimitar | |
| 34 | Bard | Discipline 1, Perform 4, Tumble 1 | ||
| 35 | Bard | Discipline 1, Perform 4, Tumble 1 | ||
| 36 | Bard | Discipline 1, Perform 4, Tumble 1 | Improved Power Attack | Strength |
| 37 | Bard | Discipline 1, Perform 4, Tumble 1 | ||
| 38 | Bard | Perform 4, Use Magic Device 2 | ||
| 39 | Bard | Concentration 6 | Curse Song | |
| 40 | Bard | Concentration 5, Use Magic Device 1 | Strength |