Is the Adamantine Armor worth it? (potential spoilers)

[clayartist64]

Lae'zel is my only regular who can wear it. My party is casters and dex-based, most mobs can only crit me with arrows because their dead before coming into melee range.
I'm on my third time going to the forge which is a pain, with the elevators and misty steps and all that's required to get there. I cleared out the Derugar and did the Creche--only the Golem is left is that adamantine armor essential? or do you get better armor coming up?

[We Live In A Soul Society]

its essentially the best mid game heavy armor (up to end of act 2) afaik

[Chouckles]

I would argue that dual wielding Adamantine scimitars is probably OP, since every time you hit with the weapons its a crit. So rather than looking at it as 1d6+1, its actually 2d6+1 (roll extra damage die for a crit).Putting it in both hands means that you attack with your action+bonus for 4d6+2 for damage overall. If you take a barbarian with the Brutal Critical at lvl 9, every time you hit with dual scimitars its going to be 1d6+1, +1d6 (normal crit), + 1d6 (brutal critical), so per swing you get 3d6+1, or with two swings you deal 6d6+2. If you are playing as a half-orc, then when you crit you do an additional damage die due to savage attacks, a half-orc passive. The feat great weapon master also gives you a bonus attack when your weapon attack kills OR crits.

So, if you are playing a half-orc barbarian with two adamantine scimitars with the great weapon master feat you do, with a action attack and a bonus weapon attack

1d6+1 (adamantine scimitar)
1d6 (normal crit)
1d6 (savage attacks racial passive)
1d6 (brutal critical, barb lvl 9)

Then the second swing (as your normal bonus action) = above x2

Then with great weapon master, you trigger a bonus action with your attacks when you crit or when you kill a creature, which makes the
x2 to a x3.

With barb extra attack at lvl 5, you turn the x3 to a x4.

If you take fighter after lvl 9 barb to a lvl 3 fighter and take battle master, you can add a +1d8 to your attacks with the battle maneuvers, turning the x4 to a x4 + 1d8. Then you have an action surge, giving you another attack, turning the x4 +1d8 to a x5 1d8
Then, you can add things to do additional damage, like casting elemental weapon on your swords for a 1d4 bonus to damage and a +1 to attack, caustic band for a +2 to damage, etc.

If you do not want to play as an Orc, you just take 1d6 out of the above tabulation. For your second feat, you could take something like dual wielding to give you a better chance to hit or savage attacks to increase the minimum damage you do.

So, in a turn as a half orc you would do, at minimum by level 9 16d6+4 damage or 19-96 damage. At level 12 with a battle master maneuver it would be the 16d6+4+1d8, or minimum 20-104. Not being a half orc would reduce it to 12d6+4+1d8

The only question i have is how often GW master pops, and if it pops off the original bonus attack, only off the first attack that crits, or only off attacks from actions. I haven't tested the build yet but I am going to this run, but not as a half-orc (do not like the aesthetics). If you take tiger heart as a barb to level 9 and get the bleed effect, you are more likely to hit overall after the second hit.

[A Disembodied Intelligence]

Publicado originalmente por Chouckles:

I would argue that dual wielding Adamantine scimitars is probably OP, since every time you hit with the weapons its a crit. (...)

Heartbreaking to have to tell you this (as I know how much fun it can be to theory craft a build, and how much of a bummer it can be to have it not pan out), but I think it only always crits against Constructs.

So it'd be great vs Steel Watch, and possibly great against the Adamantine boss golem (pretty sure you can loot the thing you've forged mid battle for free then equip it for 1 action), but, unless I'm horribly mistaken, I think it has normal crit chance against almost everything else.

[TruXurT]

Let's not forget there is a medium armor that can be made there as well. Perhaps not so OP as end game magic medium armors, but still very solid and with crit immunity.

Bottom line, whether you want to use heavy or medium armor or a shield, those are very good choices at this point of the game. They are free and definitely worth the effort. You will also get a free crit resisting helmet as a part of crafting process.

I guess the only reason to hesitate doing this, would be playing in honor mode, but honestly, if you are in honor mode, you probably played before and should know what to expect there.

[anachoret]

The Adamantine weapons ignore resistance to their damage type and always do critical hits to objects (like chairs). Good for hitting walls. Maybe Scrying Eyes? Don't know for sure about that.

[Chouckles]

Welp, looking up the thing that ruins my theory. Back to the drawing board. Thanks A disembodied intelligence for letting me know. Apparently creatures are not objects, which sucks.

[Chouckles]

Publicado originalmente por A Disembodied Intelligence:

Publicado originalmente por Chouckles:

I would argue that dual wielding Adamantine scimitars is probably OP, since every time you hit with the weapons its a crit. (...)

Heartbreaking to have to tell you this (as I know how much fun it can be to theory craft a build, and how much of a bummer it can be to have it not pan out), but I think it only always crits against Constructs. ...

Just looking it up now, apparently creatures and objects are different things. Thanks for replying before I sunk like 30 hours into a build that isn't viable. I know I can re-roll with withers, but it screws up the RP a bit on my end.

[anachoret]

The Adamantine Shield is not bad either if you are using shields, because its effect is one of those feedback loops where the more they miss you, the more they will miss you next time, etc... (also you can't be crit)

[[TG] zac]

The armor is nice as it can save you easily in a few fights.

Shield is probably the best option though.

[[TG] zac]

Publicado originalmente por TruXurT:

Let's not forget there is a medium armor that can be made there as well. Perhaps not so OP as end game magic medium armors, but still very solid and with crit immunity.

Bottom line, whether you want to use heavy or medium armor or a shield, those are very good choices at this point of the game. They are free and definitely worth the effort. You will also get a free crit resisting helmet as a part of crafting process.

I guess the only reason to hesitate doing this, would be playing in honor mode, but honestly, if you are in honor mode, you probably played before and should know what to expect there.

Honestly the magic scale armor you can get in the refugee camp by this point is better.

Medium armor with no dex cap is broken.

[TamTroll]

my lae'zel wears the heavy armor and the helmet basically all game. never find anything better for her.

[Mike Garrison]

Publicado originalmente por TG zac:

Medium armor with no dex cap is broken.

Only if you build for it.

If you build for medium armor you will usually only put 14 points into Dex, knowing you can't make use of more.

[Mike Garrison]

Publicado originalmente por TamTroll:

my lae'zel wears the heavy armor and the helmet basically all game. never find anything better for her.

There are better sets of heavy armor late in Act 3.

Raphael's armor is better in every way, although because you can put it on *anybody*, it doesn't actually have to replace the adamantine armor.

However, there are other sets of heavy magic armor in Act 3 that are still better. Dammon, for instance, will just sell you a set that is better than the Grymforge set.