Sword Saint Build (INT?)

[Divine Vaszer]

Hey Guys,

I'm pretty new to DnD and would like some build advise. I really wanna do a Sword Saint since he looks like a fun and strong Class (later in the game at least) but I have no Idea how to build him...

Can someone help me out? I like the thought of mainly going int, since a lot of his stuff scales with it, can I do so? Also what feats benefit me the most? And which weapons are the best to choose? i was thinking about using bastard swords since they deal a lot of Damage and look pretty cool. Any other suggestions? I am pretty set on playing Human btw and I'm also going to torture myself with Hard Mode.

Thanks for reading.

[Vip]

bump, I'm looking for tips on doing a Sword Saint too.
Cheers.

[For_Science!]

I haven't tried it out in play yet, but a sword saint looks like a fun main character. If I read it correctly, she can get Int to AC both from the Sword Saint class, and then AGAIN from the Duelist prestige class.

I would go low-Str, very-high-Dex, very-high Int. You can dump Wis and Cha if you like. Take Dueling sword as your chosen weapon, and the Weapon Finesse and Slashing Grace feats ASAP (to apply Dex to both your hit and damage rolls.)

Take levels in Sword Saint at first, but whenever your Sword Saint level starts to surpass your current Int bonus, switch over to Duelist. At level 20 (which you won't hit in this game, but might in later DLC), I would aim for Sword Saint 10 / Duelist 10. As long as your adjusted Int score is 30 or more at that point, you'll have +20 to AC from Int alone, plus Dex and other bonuses, and of course lots of buffs both from your own spells and from your companions. You'll have 4th level Magus spells, and the full set of Duelist tricks. You can cast Mirror Image yourself, which increases survivablilty (and is worth a specific mention only because allies can't cast it on each other.)

In battle, enter the fray a few second ahead of your friends, to get the enemies focused on you. Most of them will keep attacking you even once other targets are available, and breaking their claws against your high AC and defensive buffs. It won't be an overwhelmingly powerful build, but I think it looks like fun!

[Vip]

Thats great thanks.

[For_Science!]

Gladly. One more piece of advice -- in the early game, you will feel quite squishy without armor (because your Int-to-AC bonus is capped at your number of Sword Saint Levels. So don't forget the Mage Armor spell. It has a high duration, and is useless to anyone already wearing physical armor -- they don't stack -- but exactly what a Sword Saint needs, until you can eventually replace it with some high-bonus Bracers of Armor.

With +4 Mage Armor, +4 to +5 dex, Tartuccio's ring, and one-level-at-a-time Int bonus, you'll start off with an AC in the low 20s, and improve rapidly from there as your Int comes fully online and you find other bonus types. Don't forget to plan a transition to Duelist once your Sword Saint level is close to surpassing your (adjusted) Int bonus.

[sdf_momar]

Just to provide other options, rogue is a pretty good class to grab a few levels with for a sword saint. Unless they've change or fixed something, canny defense (INT to AC) works with light armor, you just aren't proficient with it to start. 3 levels of rogue gives light armor, weapon finesse, and dex to damage- the equivalent of three feats. On top of that, you get 2d6 sneak attack, with the option to get another die for a feat if you feel like it. Sneak attack works fairly well with magus spell strike ability, as you get the bonus dice both on your weapon attack and the touch spell delivered.

The duelist mix is best for defense, but will cut you spell casting (so would rogue). Arguably it doesn't matter much since the later levels don't have many touch spells for you to use, but you can fill those slots with metamagic enhanced spells. You might want to consider the party you're planning to play with and decide if the magus needs to be highly tanky or if you want to use them as more of a damage source.

If you're interested in being super defensive, monk is another good class to look into a level or so in. Wisdom to AC isn't going to be huge since you don't have time to focus on it, but the game has enough stat boosting items that even a 12 starting wisdom character will can have a +5 or +6 bonus. You also get the most efficient access to the crane style this way, which makes defensive fighting better by reducing the penalty and increasing the bonus.

[BrownChief]

My sword saint is hilarious fun so far.

Got to the big bad that carved my party up numerous again and again last time around & buff Val and the Saint up like Christmas trees. Val runs in first while the saint is doing that spell thing magi do and takes a decent number of hits before duly keeling over. Saint is up. The big bag misses. The big bad misses again. I check the stats: the big bad needs more than 20. I make myself comfy and break out the popcorn.

Admittedly I am only level 6 on normal, it does get harder than that I know. But still. There's a lot to like.

[BrownChief]

So what I did was:

Str 7 Dex 17+2+1 Con 14 Int 16 Wis 14+2 Cha 7

+2s are from Aasimar plumekith, +1 from levelling.

1 level of traditional monk (at level 2)
Rest sword saint

* Fantastic AC when buffed, good AC otherwise too
* Defensive buffs, including the elusive Mirror image, although I almost never need it
* Doesn't do a ton of damage - nowhere near enough spells for that magus shocking grasp thing, but
* Seems to hit really well so I think damage is good for such a good tank
* Pretty good saves - not quite a paladin but I haven't noticed myself standing around paralysed or running away in terror like the other main characters I tried.

I was inspired by NerdCommando's Kensai repost

I didn't go duelist, it sounds pretty cheesy. I am scared my monk AC will get nerfed and I'd be even more scared if I went into duelist as that there's a consensus that shouldn't happen whereas for monk people don't seem so sure.

Not claiming I am optimal but it's going well once I hit level 3 and got slashing grace. Also I welcome any advice on where to go next with this.

[Vip]

Stat wise I'm thinking 18 in dex and 18 in int, should I just pump dex with the ability points every 4 levels?

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

EDIT: posted before I saw BrownChief's post. Cheers.

[BrownChief]

If only there was a DEX INT Aasimar (it's probably called a Tiefling?)

[Vip]

Thanks :D