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And now that I've got your attention with an utterly ridiculous title... This thread is meant to showcase a small Theoretical Optimization trick that has hilarious results (not unlike SpellbladeTennis). And it is surprisingly easy to pull off.
Blood in the Water
Those who use ToB should be familiar with this level 1 Tiger Claw stance. When you score a critical hit against an opponent, you gain a stacking +1 bonus to hit and damage. This can be taken by either a level 1 Warblade or Swordage, or by any character willing to sink 2 feats into Martial Study + Martial Stance.
Coup De Grace
As a fullround action, you can Coup De Grace a helpless creature. This automatically counts as scoring a critical hit. Now if only we had an infinite supply of creatures to Coup De Grace...
Bag Of Tricks
Not truly infinite, but you can still draw up to 10 animals per week for a mere 900 gp. Also, you can only get them to do things covered by Handle Animal, so you need one more step before you can Coup De Grace them. Specifically, you need to knock them out with non-lethal damage. They aren't endless, but they can be used as a stop-gap measure during certain situations.
Malphas
This is a Vestige from Tome of Magic. He can be bound by:
1) A level 3 Binder
2) A level 1 Binder with Improved Binding
3) Any character willing to sink 3 feats into the Bind Vestige chain of feats.
Binding Malphas lets you summon a Raven at will as a standard action. The text states that you control the actions of the bird. So after summoning it, you can have it go to sleep, thereby rendering it helpless. Then you can Coup De Grace it to trigger Blood in the Water as a full round action. Even if you don't allow the Raven to sleep, you can knock it unconscious first with non-lethal damage. This effectively nets you a stacking +1 bonus to attack and damage every 2 or 3 rounds. After a couple of hours, you should be able to drop a Tarrasque with 1 hit. Most characters however, cannot keep this up indefinitely: they usually need to sleep sometime...
Maintaining Frenzy Overnight
Lets say you are playing something that does not need sleep (e.g. a Warforged). Would it be possible to ensure a constant supply of ravens, such that you can keep stacking Blood in the Water bonus day after day after day? Binding a Vestige normally takes a minute to draw the seal, which alone is long enough for Blood in the Water to expire. After that, it requires another minute to carry out the binding, although this second step can be rushed into a full round action at the cost of a -10 penalty to the binding check.
The easiest way to do this is to split the work across 2 party members (and possible even other sentient minions). Have 2 warforged: A Binder (with Improved Binding) and a Warblade. The Binder can spam ravens the whole day for the Warblade to Coup De Grace. When Malphas leaves the Binder, the Binder can (re)start the binding process, which still takes 11 round minimum. In the interim, the Warblade can keep Blood in the Water active, by using a Bag of Tricks. Total Cost: 2x ECL 1 characters and a 900 gp item.
It is also possible to carry out this exploit with just 1 character. The work to draw the seal, can be negated by a Seal Of the Spirit (6k gp). It hence becomes possible to bind Malphas in 2 rounds. You can hence bind Malphas, slaughter ravens for 24 hours, and then bind Malphas again the very next day, before Blood in the Water expires. Total Cost: 1x ECL 2 Warforged with 1 Binder (Improved Binding) / 1 Warblade, and a 6000 gp item.
Chicken Infested
Another potential source of infinite helpless avians. This (in)famous flaw requires at least 1 level in Commoner, and in exchange you can pull out limitless number of Chickens, possibly as a free action. Much like the Bag of Tricks, you have to knock the chickens out first with non-lethal damage, before you can Coup De Grace them.
Unlike Malphas, Chicken Infested is available 24/7 without needing to pause to rebind Vestige. Hence, a Warforged Commoner with this flaw, can supply chickens non-stop, even at level 1. And since this is technically a flaw, it grants our Warforged Commoner a bonus feat, which he can use to buy up Martial Study -> Martial Stance: Blood in the Water feat chain! Total Cost: Level 1 Warforged Commoner, but requires a flaw from Dragon Magazine.
Other Notes
*A Psicrystal technically can take feats. A mid-level Psion can have his Psicrystal bind Malphas. This has the added advantage of limiting Malphas influence to a pet rock.
*If you can get this onto a rabbit (or a Hare Hengyokai), you get the Vorpal Bunny.
Notes/History
Spoiler
This mini-guide can be found on both GITP and Minmax.
8 Oct 2012: Added note on using Chicken Infested
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Any DM that lets you try this without being slapped across the side of the head should be slapped across the side of the head.
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Originally Posted by Chained Birds
Just one of those guys vs girls things. Guys like giant, fighting robots that shoot lazerz out their eyes while girls like pretty jewelry that sparkle in the moonlight after having a romantic interlude with a charming gentleman.
Any DM that lets you try this without being slapped across the side of the head should be slapped across the side of the head.
That's cute, but what he said. Good find, but it falls into the category of joke TO, nothing that a person who values the look of his face as it is should say to a DM on any day but April 1st.
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It's an amusing trick, but I don't know if the ravens count as opponents.
Mechanically speaking an 'opponent' is whoever you say it is, just as an 'ally' is who or whatever you choose to define as such. If you want to limit an effect to actual enemies, you have to add limiting language such as the 'foe must present a direct immediate threat to you or an ally' stuff in the healing strikes from Devoted Spirit.
I think the best use of insane builds like this is for the DM, when players engage in excessive munchkinry. Oh, you abused a bunch of obscure items and feats to get your AC too high to hit? Well, this guy can hit you, and he'll take you out in one shot!
This is supposed to be in the league of Idiot Crusader, D2 Crusader, and Candle of Invocation or Pazuzu infinite wish loops.
Definitely the first two, not the latter. There's a big difference between gate-chaining to turn Celestia inside-out and throw uncountable numbers of Solars at any task you want in a single round and "spend days on end soaking the earth in the blood of countless corvidae to auto-kill something, if I can get to them, hit them with an attack, and don't get my combo interrupted in the meantime".
Personally, I think it's pretty hilarious.
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Definitely the first two, not the latter. There's a big difference between gate-chaining to turn Celestia inside-out and throw uncountable numbers of Solars at any task you want in a single round and "spend days on end soaking the earth in the blood of countless corvidae to auto-kill something, if I can get to them, hit them with an attack, and don't get my combo interrupted in the meantime".
Personally, I think it's pretty hilarious.
That doesn't address Idiot Crusader and his infinite actions.
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[D&D 3.5] Sleeping Raven Infinite Blood Frenzy
