Crit Fiend

Summary
The Crit Fiend is all about dealing damage and de-buffing his enemies, in that order. He achieves both of those objectives by getting critical hits through a high threat range and multiple attacks. To this end, the Crit Fiend uses dual wakazashis, weapons with d6 damage and a threat range of 18-20. After the threat range is doubled to 15-20 at level 8, the Crit Fiend is virtually guaranteed at least one critical on his multiple attacks when using his full round action to slice away. At higher levels, these criticals blind, stun, stagger, and bleed his enemies.

Stats
The Crit Fiend is a specialist, but he requires both a high strength and a high dexterity to get moving. A high constitution will also help keep him alive. Charisma, Inteligence, and Wisdom are all potential dump stats, with Charisma being the dumpiest of them all.

Str>Dex/Con>Int>Wis>Cha. The only wrinkle here is that Dexterity must be at least 17.

Point Buy 20 with a +2 racial bonus to strength looks like this:

STR:18

DEX: 17

CON: 11

INT:10

WIS:8

CHA: 8

The first two stat advances should go to Dexterity, and the second two to Strength. 19 is the magic number for dexterity at level 8, while strength should simply be as high as you can make it.

If you cannot start with at least 17 dexterity and 18 strength, then the Crit fiend is still a valid option. Favor strength over dexterity, and make sure that your dexterity is at least 15. You will be unable to qualify for some of the higher two weapon fighting feats, but take what you can, and replace what you can't. This is another approach to the Crit Fiend and almost as deadly.

Skills
Skills are not the Crit Fiend's specialty. He will have a low inteligence score, and his +2 bonus for being a fighter isn't really helping. The only skill to really focus on is Intimidate. After that, advance the usual - perception, sense motive, and anything campgain related.

How to Play
The Crit Fiend should always be using full round actions to attack with both his weapons. Because of this, moving around the battlefield will be a challenge - make sure to use your five foot steps strategically. If you have to enter combat adjactent to one enemy, try to step around him during combat to get ready to attack a second enemy when the first one falls.

Rationale
If we are dual wielding, why not use the Ranger? The simple explanation is feats. The Crit-fiend is going to eat up a lot of feats: Crit feats, Weapon specific feats such as focus and speicalization, and Two-Weapon fighting feats. Rangers simply cannot get that number of feats.

Why Humans? This build does not depend on a human to play it. However, gaining the extra feat right off the bat is nice, and the +2 to strength is key.

'''Why Two of the Same Weapon? Why not a Light weapon for the off hand?''' There are many feats and abilities that will only effect one specific weapon, such as Weapon focus and the entire Weapon Master Archetype. By specializing in one weapon for both hands, we can double the effectiveness of those feats. Also the wakizashi is awesome.

Why the Wakizashi? Because it's awesome? Yes. The wakizashiis a light, d6 weapon with a crit range of 18-20/2. The fact that it is light makes it easier to dual wield, and the crit range is key. d6 damage isn't half bad either.

But the Wakizashi only has a x2 critical multiplier. Why not use something with x4? The important thing about this build is the critical range, not the critical multiplier. The wakizashi has a critical range of 18-20, and when that is doubled by improved critical it becomes 15-20. Scoring criticals allows the Crit Fiend to stagger, blind,stun, and bleed his opponent. We have to favor scoring criticals over the damage they deal.

'''Okay, these feats mostly make sense. But Lunge?''' The Crit Fiend is going to have some trouble moving around the battlefield, given that he should use full round actions to make his attacks. Lunge helps make sure that he can make attacks without using move actions.

Traits? If your Gm lets you choose traits, choose Anatomist. Anatomist gives you a +1 on rolls to confirm critical hits (which you will be doing a lot of).

What He Looks Like at Level...
At level 1 - At Level 1, the Crit fiend is already impressive. He's a viable option from level one out. As a full round action he makes Two wakizashi attacks at +3 each, dealing d6+4 on each hit. Additionally, he has a 28% chance of scoring a threat on at least one of these hits. He has 11 hit points and a "naked" AC of 13

At Level 6 - At level 6, the weapon master makes a +11/+11/+6/+6 attack, dealing d6+8 on each successful strike. Each hit has a 3/20 chance of getting a threat, meaning that the Crit Fiend has a 48% chance of getting at least one threat. He has 16+5d10 hp(about 44) and a naked AC of 16. But as soon as he hits level 8, he will get much, much better.

At Level 12 - Level 12 is the Crit Fiend hitting his stride. He attacks at +21/+21/+16/+16/+11/+11, dealing d6+13 on each hit. Each hit has a 3/10 chance to be a threat, which means that there is an 88% chance that he will get at least one crit. In addition to dealing double damage, each crit also deals 2d6 bleed damage, and that bleed damage stacks with sucessive crits! He has 21+11d10hp (about 83) and a naked AC of 16.

At Level 18 - At level 18 is the Crit Fiend really knows how to deal some damage. He attacks at +31/+31/+26/+26/+21/+21/+16, dealing d6+17 on each hit. Each hit has a 3/10 chance to be a threat, which means that there is an 92% chance that he will get at least one threat. Each threat has a +8 chance to be confirmed. In addition to dealing double damage, each crit can do any two of the following things: Stun, Stagger, 2d6 Bleed (stacks), and Blind. If he hits with at least one main hand and one off hand attack, he deals an additional d10+19 damage. He has 27 + 17d10 hp (average 122), and a naked ac of 16.

Drawbacks
Full round actions means less mobility around the battlefield. Try to reposition yourself with five foot steps - make sure that when you kill one enemy, you can tear into another enemy without using a move action.

The Crit Fiend is overly reliant on his specific fighting style - Dual wielding, with wakizashis. Because most of his feats either boost dual wielding or the wakizashi specifically, getting disarmed or fighting with alternate weapons poses more of a problem for the Crit Fiend then it does other fighters.

Obviously, the Crit Fiend will be significantly less effective against enemies that are immune to critical hits.

Alternatives
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