The Poison Master In-Depth

I know building is not always this easy. I wish it were.

Normally, I’m not much into describing build data. I’m bad and lazy at it. I also think it takes away from the organics and serendipity of designing a character.

Nothing at all against RJ Cyberware’s excellent Character Planner, but I haven’t used it for some time.

I tried using the latest version to partially assist me, I realized it wasn’t updated yet for Update 23 and the Harper tree. (I’m aware that Ron has passed the torch to a co-developer.)

But a kind person PM’ed me to detail what I’m doing with Ryncletica by specifics as I train her to be a master poisoner.

So, here goes.

Drow 32-point build, third life. Base stats:

STR: 10, DEX: 17, CON: 12 , INT: 10 , WIS: 18, CHA: 10

The high WIS is to ensure strong DCs to use finishing moves. DEX is critically important for modifiers for damage and to-hit, to, AC and Reflex. Tomes for DEX and WIS are important.

I’m sure tome bonuses are missing a bit in this, but I’m winging it here. If you can max out an ability with tomes, get them. None of Ryn’s attacks or abilities are prohibited with lower DEX or WIS, but they will be more effective.

Ryncletica is a stock Ninja Spy except in these key areas.

• Drow racial enhancements
  • As a Drow, she gains Shuriken Expertise as a free feat, generating more stars on an average throw than in her Half-Elf past life.
  • She also gains +1 to-hit and to damage bonuses from at least 3 levels of Xen’drik Weapon Training for her shortswords (primary weapon) and shuriken.
  • Key to the poison-master build is the Update 23 changes to Venomed Blades, the same ability shared with the Rogue Assassin. Venomed Blades adds 200% to Melee Power, which aids Ninja Poison as well as any other poison damage. Both Ninja Poison and the Venomed Blades boost stacks, quickly yielding purple numbers as the poison vulnerability of Ninja Poison quickly applies.
• Harper Agent enhancements
  • Up to +7 Melee Power points added through this tree to take advantage of the Venomed Blades boost. (This is better than my initial build calculation.) It’s a heavy AP load since the build still wants 41 AP in the Ninja Spy tree for the complete Ninja Master core ability (Vorpal, +2 DEX and +1 competency to shortsword crit threat range and +2 to bonus for shuriken threat range).
  • Several enhancements add to Universal Spell Power, which may help in general healing and damage.
  • A point of DEX comes from this training from the second core training.
• Ninja Spy enhancements
  • Ninja Training and Advanced Ninja Training cores use DEX-to-hit and DEX-to-damage, and add a chance for an additional star to be thrown per attack (in addition to Shuriken Expertise). Ryn will be a weaker star-thrower than Shuricannon Szyncletica but far stronger than half-elf Kiricletica.
  • Only two Ninjutsu abilities are trained: Poisoned Soul and Poison Exploit. Other AP that would train the line, including Touch of Death, are ignored. Poisoned Soul injects 5 stacks of Ninja Poison on each Touch of Despair finisher. Poison Exploit rips out all Ninja Poison at 1d20 damage per stack. In training the Deadly Exploits enhancement, the Poison Exploit damage rises to 1d50 per stack…and is magnified by Venomed Blades and Melee Power for potentials of thousands of points of poison damage. Ryncletica can still deliver negative energy damage but poison is the primary death dealer.
  • With up to 20 stacks on an enemy, combined with Melee Power and Venomed Blades, a 100% poison vulnerability of Ninja Poison increases from the Venomed Blades as well as weapons with Poison enhancements. At level 11, Ryncletica still uses two of the Tiefling Assassin’s Blade, which has Wounding (CON damage that reduces Fortitude saves) and Poison (stacks with Ninja Poison effects and Venomed Blades). Any living creature gets shredded quickly by these effects. Tough enemies like duergar are easy prey with these blades and DEX-to-damage.
  • No Mercy enhancement adds an additional 30% more damage to helpless enemies.
  • Finishing Moves are central. Dark finishers can paralyze, mute or blind. These increase the speed of the poison-master’s work. Common finishers are also applied.
  • The Unyielding Strike ki attack is a quick and powerful Diversion/Bluff effect that not only helps me charge the paralyzing Freezing the Lifeblood finisher but twists enemies around very reliably, allowing me more free attacks, even against undead and elementals.
  • Shadow Double will help with burst DPS from doublestrike to deliver more poison with dual blades.
  • A little Sneak Attack is trained for prerequisites and will add some DPS when enemies are helpless, stacking with No Mercy.
• Weaponry
  • Poison damage stacks. Some enhancements and weapons that claim to give poison damage often are stat-damaging effects and not Poison damage as a separate property as is elemental, negative energy and Force damage. Ninja Poison magnifies any Poison damage, including its own, from allied attacks (including the Poison spell) and effects.
  • The Tiefling Assassin’s Blades used have a Ruby of the Endless Night slotted, energy draining enemies while the blades have Wounding, a very useful property that damages CON (thus reducing Fortitude) and deliver Ninja Poison.
  • At level 16, two of the Envenomed Blade will be used for greater Poison damage and armor-piercing, with Paralyzing as a side benefit. The hunt is on for Shards of the Envenomed Blade to make an Epic version(s) of this weapon that will take it through to level cap.
  • The Snowstar is in use for tactical ranged fighting, but Ryn owns a few crafted stars that will deliver Ninja Poison at range (as a bug in Sting of the Ninja still  prevents named stars and challenge-crafted stars from doing this since Update 21). High DEX and Shuriken Expertise aids with faster kills with more stars per throw.
  • The hunt is on for a Quiver of Poison. This adds Poison damage to thrown weapons.
• Feats
  • Two Weapon Fighting line. Off-hand damage is helpful here.
  • Ten Thousand Stars. Ryncletica skips Stunning Fist to add more damage with thrown weaponry. Against enemies with poison immunity, distance with damage is paramount.
  • Dodge, Mobility, Spring Attack, Combat Expertise, Whirlwind Attack. Miss-chance effects are excellent for this build. At level 11, Ryncletica uses a Green Steel helm with DEX skill bonuses and permanent Blur (20% Concealment). Dodge should be at least 25% by level 20, and Ninja Spies can use Shadow Veil for 25% Incorporeality. Combat Expertise will be trained once INT reaches 13 for an AC 10% boost. Whirlwind Attack is this build’s only tactical melee attack that can dose multiple enemies.
  • Improved Critical: Piercing for the shortswords.

It looks like my initial calculations for AP underestimated my available points. I have a few more AP for Harper.

So, 41 points minimum required to add the Ninja Spy enhancements. Bracketed numbers show total AP in the tree to that point:

• Basic Ninja Training (core): 1 pt
• Poisoned Soul: 2 pts
• Stealthy: 3 pts [6]
• Advanced Ninja Training (core, 5 AP spent, Monk level 3): 1 pt
• Faster Sneaking: (3 ranks) 6 pts [13]
• Sting of the Ninja (tier 3, 10 AP spent): 1 pt
• Shadow Veil (core, 10 AP spent, Monk level 6): 1 pt
• Unbalancing Strike (tier 2, 5 AP spent): 2 pts
• Poison Exploit (5 AP spent): 2 pts [17]
• Flash Bang (tier 3, 10 AP spent, 3 ranks): 3 pts
• Sneak Attack (tier 1): 2 pts
• No Mercy (tier 4, 20 AP spent, 3 ranks): 6 pts [28]
• Deadly Exploits (tier 4, 20 AP spent, 3 ranks): 6 pts
• Poisoned Darts (core, 20 AP spent, Monk level 12): 1 pt
• Diversion (core, 30 AP spent, Monk level 18): 1 pt [36]
• Shadow Double (tier 5, 30 AP spent): 2 pts [38]
• Sneak Attack (tier 2, 5 AP spent): 2 pts [40]
• Ninja Master (core, 40 AP spent, Monk level 20): 1 pt

To get maximum Venomed Blades, I needed 18 AP in the Drow enhancements:

• Spell Resistance I (core): 1 pt
• Xen’drik Weapon Training (tier 1): 2 pts
• Drow Dexterity (core): 2 pts
• Vermin Lore (tier 1): 1 pt [6]
• Venom Lore (tier 2, 3 ranks, 5 AP spent): 3 pts
• Xen’drik Weapon Training (tier 1): 2 pts [11]
• Xen’drik Weapon Training (tier 2, 5 AP spent): 2 pts
• Xen’drik Weapon Training (tier 3, 10 AP spent): 2 pts [15]
• Venomed Blades (tier 4, 15 AP spent, 3 ranks): 3 pts [18]

The remaining 21 AP struggles to activate as much Melee Power with a few side benefits:

• Agent of Good (core): 1 pt
• Traveler’s Toughness (tier 1, 3 ranks): 3 pts
• Awareness (tier 1, 3 ranks): 1 pt
• Versatile Adept I (tier 2, 3 ranks, 5 AP spent): 3 pts
• Harper Leadership (tier 2, 3 ranks, 5 AP spent): 3 pts [11]
• Versatile Adept II (tier 3, 3 ranks, 10 AP spent): 3 pts [14]
• Harper Training I (core): 2 pts [16]
• Agent of Good II (core, level 6, 10 AP spent): 1 pt
• Highly Skilled (tier 3, 10 AP spent, 3 ranks): 3 [20]
• Versatile Adept III (tier 4, 20 AP spent, 3 ranks): 1 pt [21]

Challenges

Ryncletica the poison-master is intent on using Melee Power and Venomed Blades to increase her already-heavy poison damage. There’s insufficient AP available to train other Monk trees to add more passive ki regeneration, Concentration skill, or Dodge. No other enhancements outside of the Drow, Ninja Spy and Harper Agent trees can be trained.

Ryncletica must rely on only +2 total passive ki regeneration from training the Stealthy enhancement in the Ninja Spy tree and Greater/Ultimate Ocean Stance once at level 12 (at this writing, she’s 11). Since she is a melee character, ki shouldn’t be major concern as she rises in level. She may gain more ki regeneration in Epic play.

A handful of enemies are completely poison-immune. These include non-Warforged constructs, devils, demons and undead. Ryncletica will fall back to DR-bypassing weaponry, including unarmed fighting. She should hold her own, through not be exemplary in such battles, although her Drow weapon attack bonuses will make her slightly superior to other races with blade fighting.

Thankfully, enemies with high poison resistance can be weakened and overcome with enough poison, which a Ninja Spy is built to do. As with most Ninja Spies, Ryncletica is best against living, non-outsider enemies.

Ryncletica has no wand or scroll ability. She must rely on potions, clickys and her innate Monk skills for healing and other needs. Her very-strong miss-chance defenses should offset damage as her poison attacks rapidly degrade the enemy (as well as good tactics, picking when and where to fight).

Skill points are devoted to Hide and Move Silently, Concentration and Jump. What few benefits Ryn could gain from cross-class training Use Magic Device are offset by her own innate abilities or items (Blur and Invisibility are standard tools).

Ryncletica, as neither Human, Half-Elf or Shintao Monk, gains no healing amplification bonuses. She must fight carefully as battle damage is not easily and quickly restored. If any skill points aren’t used as noted above, she might consider adding them to the cross-class Heal skill for 1% positive energy spell power per point for a slight improvement to battle healing. Ryncletica’s motto is “kill fast, escape faster.” It would be interesting to contrast a double-bladed Ninja Spy like Ryn against a Tempest Ranger.

Ryncletica could retrain as a Single Weapon Fighter for much greater innate Melee Power bonuses that would allow the 11 AP in Harper Agent to be allocated elsewhere. As Kiricletica is already a SWF build, I wanted to test the TWF benefits, especially with Epic play. This is a personal preference. Ryncletica is built to maximize poison damage, not overall attack speed.

Other Equipment

Ryncletica owns an Icy Raiment that will do nicely from level 14 in most instances. She may own a White Dragonscale Robe for better AC protections.

Short of the Icys, her gear is rather off-the-shelf. I’m not going to go down this complete list as it is laughable to most, but I’ll note the highlights.

• Icy Raiment or White Dragonscale Robe. High Dodge/AC or higher AC.
• Nightforge Gorget: Heavy Fortification with a Deathblock augment gem combines an essential protection.
• Jidz-Tet’ka: Still useful in mid-Heroic game as its Tri-Kreen poison helps in paralyzing while in Ocean Stance, as well as other stance benefits such as Jump in Wind Stance and healing amp in Fire Stance.
• Green Steel DEX helm: Permanent Blur and a 2-click Displacement for emergencies.

In short: Any equipment that boosts AC and miss-chance are a plus. Any gear that increases WIS and DEX and saves are a plus. Any gear that adds Poison is a plus. Any gear that damages CON is a plus. As a melee character, increases in Fortification beyond 100% is critical as you head to Epic play.

Epic Play

I’m fond of Shadowdancer with this build for its stealthy controls, especially with high Dodge, Improved Invisibility and Shadow Manipulation.

However, the damage benefits of Primal Avatar look very attractive, particularly with abilities such as Insidious Spores, which spreads nasty Poison damage that can be amplified by Ninja Poison’s vulnerability. The Avatar’s Epic Moment, Avatar of Nature, also has a Poisoning attack that adds stacking damage that, combined with the perfected Heroic Poisoner training, should cause incredible Poison DOTs (200+ or more) per 2-3 seconds. The standard training of Rejuvenation Cocoon is also important. Primal training also adds more WIS if desired.

Grandmaster of Flowers remains a strong cross-train to improve ki regeneration and as a destiny for use in high-combat situations.

I see 150% or greater Fortification is critical to survive. Training the Unyielding Sentinel destiny and using any tricks learned from forum user and Master Assassin Nokowi to gain very high fortification will reduce the high-crit damage that Epic monsters can do.

Currently…(Updated from First Post)

Ryncletica is still doing very well. She’s getting some push-back in damage as she nears level 12. Concentrating on getting No Mercy trained and Greater Ocean Stance for more ki. Once that’s reached, a couple more Melee Power points are planned before continuing Ninja Spy training, then more Harper Agent points gradually through L16.