Heavyhitter Sword Saint
19 Bastard Sword Saint / 1 Traditional Monk
Alignment: Lawfull for Monk, preferably Lawfull Good for Protector Robes
Aasimar, Garuda-Blooded
Str: 16+4
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 14
Cha: 7+1
Or perhaps better yet, a more min-maxed Hungerseed Tiefling
Str: 17+5
Dex: 14
Con: 12
Int: 16
Wis: 16
Cha: 5
Pick Bastard Sword as your chosen weapon. This both offers high base damage, takes advantage of a Sword Saint's Perfect Strike/Critical abilities and is a really versatile choice: there are nice regular, one handed bastards, as well as Large Bastard Swords that deal very high base damage (6d8 with Legendary Proportions and Lead Blades!). Ovinrbaane can also cast some nice buffs on you (Shield, Stoneskin) many times per day, so you conserve spell uses.
With Greater Vital Strike that base damage gets quadrupled to 24d8 and Perfect strike lets you simply deal 192 damage + modifiers (possibly x3 with Perfect Critical). Only once per round... but that's a good opportunity to burn a Lesser Rod Quickened True Strike to make sure such a heavy, slow hit lands.
I recommend using the Eldritch Arcana mod for Intensified Spell metamagic (really gives Shocking Grasp a kick, try also Magical Lineage or Metamagic Master traits with it to make it basically free) and maybe late game Spell Blending Arcana to learn the likes of Echolocation and Sense Vitals.
Having a better source of Lead Blades then the initial wand you find would be nice, so I also recommend getting the Craft Items mod to have your party ranger make some extra Lead Blade wands.
You could pick ~5/6 ranger levels yourself... but it's very suboptimal, weakens and delays progression of all abilities and GVS.
Again, you will want to have a dedicated aoe Intimidation character in your party with Dazzling Display, good Cha and/or Str, Skill Focus Persuasion an/or Intimidating Focus. Shatter Defenses will not only make hitting enemies a much easier afair, but will also trigger Lethal Focus (Int to damage) all the time.
Feat Guide:
1 Arcane Strike
2
3 Pick Traditional Monk. Standard feat: Intensify Spell; Monk bonus: Crane Style
4 Magus Arcana: Pick Arcane Accuracy or Wand Wielder... or even a familiar for that matter if you have the EA mod. I prefer Wand Wielder, prefer to burn Arcane Points on weapon enchantments and Perfect Strikes.
5 Outflank
6 Magus bonus: Empower Spell
7 Dazzling Display; Magus Arcana: Pick Enduring Blade
8
9 Shatter Defenses
10
11 Vital Strike
12 Magus Bonus: Imp. Vital Strike;
13 Improved Crit.; Magus Arcana: Pick Ghost Blade (Ghost Touch will be very useful from now on till the end; I was excited thinking about the Brilliant Energy and I guess it will help in Chapters IV and V - when you need it the least - but sadly it does nothing in endgame, even Wild Hunt mobs have no armor and Brilliant weapons harmlessly pass trough ghosts)
14
15 Blind Fight;
16 Magus Arcana: Pick Bane Blade (also gives +2 attack!)
17 Greater Vital Strike
18 Magus Bonus: Weapon Spec.
19 Wings; Magus Arcana: If you have EA mod, pick Spell Blending (Echolocation, Sense Vitals); otherwise maybe Dimension Strike (good but a bit costly) or Devoted Blade (a bit meh at this point).
Important spells: Shield, Enlarge (best to have someone else cast it, you have limited slots best used for damage) Intensified Shocking Grasp (With Magical Lineage or Metamagic Master), Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasps (same as above, also use Lesser Maximize Rods), True Strike (use with Lesser Quicken Rod and Improved/Greater Vital Strike with a big, size-boosted weapon), Mirror Image (Important!), Blur (best subcontract), Frigid Touch (could be nice for some bosses to badly debuff them with no save), Haste (subcontract; you may also use a Speed weapon like Ovinrbaane or self-enchant with this property), Displacement (best subcontract), Vampiric Touch (use Lesser Maximize Rods), Empowered Vampiric Touch (again, use Maximize Rods or maybe Leviatan Robes), Improved Invisibility, Transformation (go to town in two-handed stance), guess also Scirocco, Ice Storm, Cloudkill; if you have EA mod also Echolocation and Sense Vitals with Spell Blending Arcana;
Important 3rd party buff: (Greater) Heroism/Good Hope/Heroic Invocation, Legendary Proportions, Death Ward, Freedom, Magic Vestment. If you use another level 16+ Alchemist with Infusion, he could buff you with Transformation late game.
Important equipment:
Best Bastard Sword you can find. There are several pretty good ones, they have decent progression as far as weapons go, though if you're unlucky with artisans, there is a big gap between +1 and +4. After establishing Barony you buy +1 Flame from capital. Then pamper Sahiya artisan to make a +4 Oppressor (also +6 Cha and +2 Will) - she can make it really early - if you're lucky.
At the end of Act IV you can get Ovinrbaane, a pretty great Oversized Anarchic Bastard Sword +5 of Speed, that also lets you cast many spells. After size increases, this will be a great Vital Strike weapon. It's supposed to "try to take over" but I haven't noticed anything adverse. Perhaps bugged? You also can get a +4 Frost or Furious Oversized one from Amiri's questline - that is rather inferior to Ovinrbaane (but may be useful if the deves ever "fix" the former to become less usable/reliable). In Act V you can find Ravenna's Kiss, a +5 Adamantine that also lets you cast Harm and later on in Pitax Palace also Unstoppable Khanda - a pretty great looking +4 one, with a big +8 bonus to Will saves vs Mind Affecting (nice!), DR5/piercing, +4 Persuasion, that can also poison enemies (not that I ever expect this last property to be useful). In Act VI you can supposedly get the final Amiri's upgrade: Graveyard of the Giants: +4 Oversized (but with no penalty!) Greater Frost, Furious (with the Oversized penalty removed, this is probably better then Ovinrbaane; you can easily fix the missing +1 and Speed as an SS; you could even sometimes cast Transformation and use Rage bursts with some items to also take advantage of Furious).
Besides that:
1. AC bracers, highest enchantment (hint: there is a cave in the east you can reach in early Act 2 with +5 bracers you can grab, just don't try to fight the Dweomerlion). If you're brave the lich at Lonely Barrow has +8 bracers.
2. Best Physical Belt you can get. Remember that you can buff one (initially maybe even two) of them with spells early on. I think Hargulka troll has +4 Str +4 Con? Although the Greater Belt of Physical Components would be pretty sweet also. But would need to do some serious shuffling then. There are some +6 or +8 Dex Gloves, but we also need Str...
3. Best mental Hat/Crown you can get. Prioritize Int (and remember about early buffs). Again, lich at Lonely Barrow has a +8 hat that brave can get early.
4. Monk Robes, depending on alignment. Lawful Good Protector's Robes are best and available earliest. Before you can wear Censor's robes for +2 AC, if the artisan makes them for you. Occasionally Leviatan's Robes to maximize some spells would be nice. Possibly Robe of Arcane Annihilation to overcome the SR of some enemies and boost Spellstrike damage.
5. Ring with Deflection & Resistances and some other goodies. You can win a +4/+4 one at Rushlight Tournament, eventually you find a +5/+5 one.
6. Gyronna's Amulet for +5 Inherent AC plus free Mirror Images
7. Manticore Skin Boots for +4 Natural Armor; before wear Natural Armor necky
8. Ring of Circ*mstances - can take a while to afford it, might be difficult at the Tournament, but still, it will be for sale in Pitax later. Before that, the +2 attack ring from artisan would be nice.
Early on Opportunist Boots are handy and should be trivial to get if you ask Varrask for Kelid style weapons, as its his lowest tier item.
Bokken's masterpiece potion would obviously be very welcome as well.
Apart from GVS, its a fairly standard Str SS build, really.
Usually fight one-handed, with SpellCombat and Spellstrike active. Autocast Touch of Fatigue for extra Spellstrike attack. Use defensive buffs, Mirror Image and Shield are your friends. Magic Vestment is nice also. Early on also Shield of Faith, Cat's Grace, Owl's Wisdom (I expect you will have an Int circlet and Str & Con belt). At the beginning of the game also gulp Mage Armor pots (they last a long time) or have Octavia cast it on you. Fight Enlarged (later Legendary Proportione'd) for reach and considerably improved damage.
Charge between enemies when practical to avoid "stand away from enemies, cast and then casually walk towards enemies effect" - you can also temporarily disable autocast for that, but it's more clicking.
Oh, and re-enable Arcane Strike after every swift action (such as weapon enhancement).
You also have 2 nova modes: One uses 1-handed stance and Spellstrike to deliver damaging spells, mainly Intensified Shocking Grasp (With Magical Lineage or Metamagic Master), Intensified Empowered Shocking Grasps (same as above, also use Lesser Maximize Rods), Vampiric Touch (use Lesser Maximize Rods), Empowered Vampiric Touch (again, use Maximize Rods or maybe Leviatan Robes). You can also use TrueStrike Wands and Mirror Image Wands with Spell Combat with Wand Wielder.
The other one disables Spell Combat and autocast. Grab your weapon two-handed, maybe also switch to a Large/Oversized Bastard. When practical use also Lead Blades from wand to boost the damage further. Toggle Perfect Strike, optionally also Perfect Critical. Go Vital Strike (optimal use of those Arcane Points you're burning on PS/PC). If the enemy is tricky to hit or needs to die fast, use Lesser Quickened True Strike. You also may use Transformation in that mode, but that'd block TrueStrikes.
Note this 2nd nova mode is not subject to Spell Resistance icon_smile.gif
Other weapon categories I can recommend: longswords - but you will rely on getting the Redeemer from Nazrielle and that's quite random, haven't gotten it the last time. Good chances for Perfection tho, and that's technically a +7 sword (and there's a trait in EA that adds +1 Attack to longswords and duelling swords).
Falcatas - only if you have the 2nd DLC. Lion's Claw is really good. Falcatas look kinda puny though.
I guess Bloodhound Duelling Sword would be decent also. And good for crit fishing.
Blinding Light estoc - if you start the game in Act VI, estoc selection is terrible before that.
If you move away from bastard swords, I would probably skip the Vital Strike line, though. Could then pick Wings and Weapon Spec (+Greater) much sooner. If you don't have another dedicated Intimidator or want to be self-sufficient, then Intimidating Prowess and Power Attack -> Dreadful Carnage are recommended.
Alternatively maybe Combat Reflexes (pretty meh on a SS) plus Seize the Moment.
