So while I already have a THW warrior I wanted to find a home for my two moon broadswords so I rolled up a new TWC warrior and he just reached level 20 today. I'm looking to do a few 'odd' things with this character and was hoping some folks could chime in with some additional feedback on CMAN training choices and skills training if you'd like as well.

Basic concept/thoughts for this character:
- The character concept is to try and emulate a wind-dancer or similar lightly armored / hard to hit / evasive fighter style.
- He is dual wielding broadswords - this takes quite a lot of AGI/DEX in order to achieve 5 second RT so in order to achieve this and still have stats set for capping at 100 I went with an Elf.
- I've chosen to have his end game armor to be brigandine (oddly enough 6xHCP armor for the time being) with the thought that his Redux combined with the armor padding should provide adequate secondary defense to his primary dodge and parry skills. Additionally I am counting on the low armor maneuver penalties to help in his defense as well. I'm not interested in going the plate route but if someone wants to make a case for chain or doubles I'd be interested in hearing it.
- I do have some concerns about TD defense later in life with the lighter armor and will probably look to address that at some point via Ensorcell and potentially CMAN training as well.

Skill at level 20:
Skill Name | Current Current
| Bonus Ranks
Two Weapon Combat..................| 144 44
Armor Use..........................| 120 30
Combat Maneuvers...................| 144 44
Edged Weapons......................| 144 44
Multi Opponent Combat..............| 96 22
Physical Fitness...................| 114 28
Dodging............................| 130 35
Magic Item Use.....................| 96 22
Survival...........................| 96 22
Perception.........................| 96 22
First Aid..........................| 96 22

Skill Notes:
- Armor training stopped at 30 but may look to over train to reduce maneuver penalty and add more ARMOR skill down the road.
- MOC: Short term goal to get to 30 Ranks so I can begin training CMAN: Whirling Dervish!
- PF: Stared pushing this with leftover points the last few levels to help achieve / improve redux sooner.
- Dodging: Started at 1x and recently pushed to 1.5x. Longer term goal of getting this to 2x.
- MIU: Since this character will be hunting in the East (lots of spellburst later in life) and my characters tend to hunt with only wizard spells and are otherwise self sufficient I thought 1x MIU would help with the spellburst as well as add some time when using small statues.
- Survival/Perception/First Aid: 1x in each to support doing herb and skinning bounties.

CMAN Training and goals through cap:
Skill name Mnemonic Ranks
Specialization I wspec1 2
Surge of Strength surge 1
Parry Mastery pmastery 2
Evade Mastery emastery 2

Available Combat Maneuver Training Points: 12

CMAN Notes:
- Pushed pmastery and emastery to 2 ranks right out the gate to increase his defense. Looking to leverage pmastery with Spell Parry Rank 3 eventually as well.
- He's in a good place at the moment so saving the CMAN points to put into Parry Mastery Rank 3 at 23 (when Rank 3 becomes available) and to train up quickly in Whirling Dervish once I hit 30 ranks in MOC.
- pmastery Rank 3 ASAP (strong defense to offset the lower armor) with twice the benefit due to using dual blades.
- emastery Rank 3 later on to again build on the defense side.
- Whirling Dervish Rank 3 - Best defense is a good offense. This seems like a fun CMAN and one that plays well with the character I have in mind.
- sparry Rank 3 This seems like a natural tie in with the pmastery 3 training and the dual blades.
- Surge of Strength will eventually go to 3 ranks since it provides a bonus to both weapons and helps provide more up-time. Plus it's useful towards the end of a hunt when you sometimes pick up one box too many but aren't ready to leave.
- Wspec1 eventually to 4 ranks for the +8 bonus to both weapons.
- Combat Toughness Rank 2 - provide some additional health to increase survival for this elf! I could scale back to 1 rank if I needed the points to do something different.
- Combat Mobility Rank 2 - More training to help offset being in lighter armor / no shield.
- Combat Focus Rank 4 adds +8 TD to help offset lighter armor TD penalty.
- Stance of the Mongoose - I'm still torn on this one - it can't be up at the same time as Whirling Dervish but seems like it might have its place as well where I could choose between Dervish and Mongoose based on where I was hunting. Thoughts on this maneuver?
- Oddly, I am seriously considering NOT training in weapon bonding. I feel the other CMANs support the overall character concept better. Dropping Mongoose entirely and dropping Combat Toughness down to Rank 1 would allow me to pick up this skill for full benefit though.


Any and all feedback requested and appreciated!

-- Robert

>> Highly recommend hamstring as a disabler.

I'll give it a try! I dropped Mongoose from my list, dropped Combat Toughness to Rank 1 on my list, which gives me enough points to take 5 ranks of Hamstring. I'll take a couple ranks out the gate and see if the 'sizable' bonus for having two weapons makes it usable early on or not.

-- Robert

Any particular reason you went with warrior for this? If so, follow through on that. I'd need a reason to rule out first rogue, then monk before looking at a warrior for this style.

So I've been playing around with Hamstring (up to 4 ranks in it now) and it seems pretty effective.

One of my original goals for this character was to have them make use of Coup de Grace but at the time I hadn't factored in an effective tool to set my opponent up (they need to be incapacitated). With hamstring being only 3 seconds RT and very reliable at causing at least 1 round of stun (based on my limited testing so far) it seems like a natural setup maneuver for Coup de Grace.

So with that in mind, here's the current CMAN training plan/goals for my moon-blade wielding warrior:

Whirling Dervish: 3
Hamstring: 5
Coupe de Grace: 5

Weapon Specialization: 4
Surge of Strength: 1

Evade Mastery: 3
Parry Mastery: 3
Combat Mobility: 2
Spell Parry: 3
Combat Toughness: 1
Combat Focus: 1

I'm still not sure if I will get the mileage out of Spell Parry or not but it seems like a natural when you wield two weapons and have 3 ranks in Parry Mastery.

Any thoughts or suggestions on the revised plan?

-- Robert

* Wyrom was just vaporized!

Looks like not - not sure if that's a huge concern or not though.

>cman hamstring
You quickly dart behind an ogre warrior and try to hamstring it with your blued steel broadsword and blued steel broadsword!
[Roll result: 130 (open d100: 9) Bonus: 18]
With a vicious double-strike you slash at the ogre warrior's right hamstring!
... 21 points of damage!
The ogre warrior falls to the ground grasping its mangled right leg in agony!
The ogre warrior is stunned!
Roundtime: 3 sec.
>look
[Neartofar Forest, Stockade]
Within the stockade's high log walls, bare soil has been trampled into firm pavement by thousands of booted feet. In the center of the square courtyard stands a squat wooden blockhouse, apparently constructed with neither windows nor doors. A steep, shallow stairway cut into the logs runs parallel to the wall, leading to a rampart above. You also see an ogre warrior that appears stunned.
Obvious paths: northeast, northwest, up, out

>cman hamstring
The ogre warrior is already lying down!

Robert



* Wyrom was just vaporized!

Is there an alternative Warrior CMAN that might fit in with this build better?

-- Robert

* Wyrom was just vaporized!

Thanks. It isn't THAT critical. I'll wait and see how annoying it is in practice once I get the skills trained.

I mean... if they are already prone there's nothing wrong with just stabbing them a few more times either. :p

-- Robert

* Wyrom was just vaporized!