First-play character build suggestions

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I have just discovered the half-orc barbarian with a greataxe ... using the monkey grip feat ...

Sounds fun.

 

I've the completed the game with a Wood Elf Fighter(12)/ Weapon Master(7)/Neverwinter nine(1). Used a scythe, intimidate, taunt and lore to my advantage. Won the court case easily with both lore and intimidate. Lore also has other uses besides identifying items, a book in particular later in the game and some conversation skills. And I like the taunt options in conversation more than others. After the court case you engage in a fight and some of the taunt options are dead funny.

I agree with sir fink about crafting. Other characters can do this for you but it's a definite need for the game as many powerful items are crafted from recipes found. I even guessed a powerful recipe for enchanting armour from comparing these recipe books. Also there are items in the game that enhance crafting and conversation skills.

 

BTA wrote:
quote:
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I had no diplomacy/intimidate at all and everything turned out OK.
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Wow! Just like my real life!

[Corrected the missing "my" typo -BTA]

[ December 29, 2006, 20:44: Message edited by: Blackthorne TA ]

Wish I had mod skills...Rat bastard!

Happy New Year!

 

It doesn't really matter what class you use, strictly speaking, the game is designed so that all classes can win the game, some just have an easier time at it than others. If it's a first-play character, take whatever looks good. Sure, you could probably shoot yourself in the foot and stuff-up your character something shocking, but, it's only your first run through, so it's okay.

On Speech skills; Diplomacy, Bluff and Intimdate
You don't actually need them to win the game, but, it makes it a fair bit easier in some situations. As previously mentioned, it's quite possible to run through the game as a Half-Orc Barbarian (low INT/CHA I assume) and still have a fun time.

Lore and Appraise are fairly useful too.

Crafting;
It feels almost like cheating to me, as you can make a few quite powerful items fairly early in the game when you're about level 10 or so...In PnP games, if you could russle up a +5 Longsword that could do +2D6 vs. Evil and Elemental Damage on top of that...At level 10, you would...Well, you'd soil yourself.
The PC in NWN II doesn't really need crafting skills, your friends can do it instead.

Prestige Classes are pretty fun - if you know what you're doing. The duelist seems pretty crappy on paper, but, it's actually quite good...Except it's bugged to poop. Hopefully that gets fixed. RDDs are still good - even if they don't get wings.

My first character went something like this;
Sun Elf; Rogue (2) / Wizard (x)
Get a whole bunch of skill points at the start of the game, max out Search and Disable Device - which are both INT skills. Take whatever speech skills you like. Take a few points in Tumble for the AC bonus. Then Wizard all the way, and as you gain INT, you can put more points into your Rogue skills. Plus at Rogue (2) you get free Evasion, it's win-win! And, if I didn't have enough ranks in DD, I just got Khelgar to run through the trap (The game has a stupid approach to 'dying'...It doesn't even matter)As for locks, I had a fair few points in Open Lock and my DEX bonus wasn't too bad. If I couldn't open it, there were plent of Thieve's Tools sets around. I also bashed open locks too. Except things got broken sometimes.
HOWEVER; Major Magic Items (i.e; Not just 'Longsword +2') and Key Items never get broken.

Human; Druid (x)
I like Druids, always have. Except Jaheria...Errrgh! Body of the Sun is fun!

Human; Fighter (x) / Rogue (x)
By far the easiest time I had, but, that could possibly be due to the fact that I'd run through the game twice by this point.
Rogue gives a lot of skills, and Fighter gives a lot of feats. He could talk, he could fight, he could scout, he could do pretty much do everything except Spellcast - and even then he could Use Magic Device on some scrolls. Sneak Attacking with Greatswords! Go team!

Now I might try going through the game with a multiclass Warlock (I've heard that the NWN Engine doesn't let them work the way they do in PnP though)...Just haven't figured out what. It seems to me that a Warlock's strength is NOT in it's Eldritch Blasts...But in his/her ability to Spam Darkness spells and such. A rogue who can cast Darkness and Invisibility - at will, and as many times a day as s/he like - sounds pretty 'fun time' to me.

Anyway, hope that helps.

~ Cheesegear

[ January 01, 2007, 11:01: Message edited by: Cheesegear ]

 

Ok... I played the game with a Bard and he owned things just as good as the assortment of "other" damage dealers available in my "party". Honestly you can make even the Wizard class a powerful melee fighter in this game, simply because of all the feats/skills/item/spells options available in the game. Anyway it's not like you need to make one though.

IMO though the Rogue Class would probably have the most access to all the game's options, as befits it. But I don't recommend you making one unless you actually *like* playing a Rogue.

Just go with a Sorc like you mentioned - you won't regret it even if you've been playing sorc since NwN1 there are a lot of new stuff to play with. I hear Druids are great too, and Clerics. There's also the Warlock class - I've never played one and so I really don't know how good it is. So far more experienced people seem to be avoiding him though.

 

I personaly go alright with a pure wizard or sorcerer, I'm sometimes a sorcerer/RDD (Don't ANY of you say a word about that!) and I love tieflings.

Say, would anyone here know how you can give your tiefling character a tail?

 

A note on Rogues; Their Sneak Attacking ability takes some getting used to. It requires you to move around a LOT. Dodge/Mobility and at least 10 ranks in Tumble is a must.
One of the most annoying things about Neeshka (The Tiefling who gets a tail for some reason) is that she hardly ever got Sneak Attack damage.

Bards are also pretty neat. A Bard/RDD make a pretty good character (Not as good as a Sorcerer/RDD though). Making them a Battle Caster significantly improves their usefullness and survivability.

On the Warlock note, they're bugged and they don't work like they're supposed to. That's why the experienced players stay away from them. But, I'm convinced that a Warlock's strengths in NWN-II lie in it's invocations other than Eldritch Blast.
They would be a lot better if Eldritch Blast worked as a continuous attack, instead of having to seperately cast it every round like normal attacks. Once you get Word of Changing though, the game should be cake.
Maybe Fighter, Rogue or Bard (4) / Warlock (x)

~ Cheesegear

 

A fun char is this one: Strongheart halfling str 13, dex 18, con 14, int 14, wis 8, cha 10 - starting as a fighter, then adding ranger levels, archery style.

At lvl 18 the char has finesse, specialisation and naturally focus in short swords and short bows, dodge, mobility, spring attack, power attack, cleave and expertise, maybe whirlwind attack - not to mention the special ranger feats like toughness, rapid shot, many shot etc.
One could go so far and eventually add weapons master prestige class to max out the melee ability. That would make for an outstanding melee and ranged fighting character.
Only, that then the x-cap is so close that it hardly makes sense

Should be easily be able to get through the game. High dex allows for light armor and also helps archery and melee skills. Ability-wise this sort of char should be easiest to make. To improve the char first invest in dex, and then beef up either wis or int, depending on wether you prefer more skill points or better saves and spells.

One could also use a tiefling for such a char but the halfling wins out IMO, just like when compared to the elf, because of that extra skill point, the bonus feat and no xp malus in case of the Tiefling.

[ January 02, 2007, 05:00: Message edited by: Ragusa ]

 

Human Fighter & Weapon Master

str-18++, dex 13, con 16, int 14?

falchion WF, WS, GWS, GWF, improved crit, power crit
power attack, cleave, great cleave
dodge, mobility, expertise, spring attack, whirlwind attack

Thinking about it, he's fighting in late medieval German style. Let's call him Johann Lichtenauer, for he is wielding a Großes Messer

 

For my first try I used a rapier wielding Duelist 10/Rogue 9/Shadowdancer 1. You are weak at first but eventually you are virtually untouchable in melee combat. Also, you can handle most of the locks/traps and have the skill points to invest in conversational skills so it is a pretty well rounded character.

For my second time through I am thinking of trying a Fighter 8/Weapon Master 7/Divine Champion 3/Frenzied Berserker 2. I maxed diplomacy and appraise last time so I figured a maxed intimidate and taunt build would be a good change.

 

I'm playing as a Bard and its going pretty good... I ussually switch out Elanee & Qara as blasters, because I find that Casavir and I are good enough healers.... But I've also been looking at a Sorcerer game (Talon Sorcerer ) there isn't much chance for Arcane with the Companions.

 

I feel intrigued by two paladin builds:

• A paladin-divine champion would be a poor undead turner, but he'd have good saves and would be quite good in melee. For that build I recommend to choose human to get as many feats as you can get.
• Aasimar or human paladin with cleric level(s) in the sun domain. Sun domain powers compensate for the pally's lower turning level. A lvl-10 pally + lvl-1 Cleric would have TL 7 + 1, whereas with sun-domain he'd have effectively TL 9 + 1. Also nice is that the cleric's and pally's abilities stack nicely. You can focus on concentration, diplomacy, lore and heal uninterrupted.

Have fun.

 

it's impossible to fully experience the game by just going through once, because dialogue and events change depending on what members are in your party

also, if you want to experience romances you need to play as male and female char, so twice minimum

i'd recommend a cleric/druid or sorcerer/wizard kind of char and make sure you take diplomacy because that's the most used dialogue skill
although in reality you can just take any char you want because NPC's who join you are very powerful in this game

 

This is my first run through the game (well...second...but I abandoned my Wizard at Fort Locke) and my character is a Rogue 6/Assassin 10/ Fighter 4...dualweilding the Astral Blade and a crafted dagger +1 with fire damage enchantment...pretty awesome so far (I'm a lvl 6 Rogue)...

I just sneak into a room, hit the big bad guy for a ton of sneak attack damage and then run for it, leading the enemies into my own crafted traps (mostly fire and spike traps as of now) at the end of which Khelgar is waiting with the Bone Phoenix and Elanee with her spells...

 

I haven't played for the entire february, and have just started yet another conversational lvl-2 rogue/ lvl-4 fighter, this time wielding a bastard sword. Just finished the Fort Locke quests.

IMO it's better to replay altogether than just reload an old savegame - I feel like I'm out of it. It's no fun anymore.

 

I started the game with a Sorcerer (my class of choice), which I intend to take through Mask of the Betrayer, too. And I didn't decide exactly how am I going to build it. First, he's a drow, because it is one of the only two races (beside Aasimar) which have bonus on charisma; and the Magic Resistance bonus that improves with level is way too nice to resist. My skill points are going into Bluff, Concentration, Spellcraft, Lore and Craft Alchemy. I would've used Diplomacy instead of Bluff (Bluff makes my character Chaotic, and he has Lawful Good alignment), but it's not a class skill, so I'm sticking to Bluff for the moment; Lore was chosen more because of the roleplaying value (I think there are some dialogues that could benefit from this skill) than of its usefulness. Also, maybe Craft Alchemy wasn't such a good choice... but there was no other class skill that could fit my needs. So, I picked up this one. Any sugestions on skills are welcome.

I'm planing to focus mainly on Evocation spells and make my Sorcerer the spellslinger of the group. Neeshka is a must for the party (from what I've read on the message boards, I understand that you can't romance her, which is a pitty), Khelgar or a Paladin (that I understand I'll meet later in the game) will cover the front melee and Elanee or some other Cleric will take care of the support, healing and the summoning spells. Sugestions on party members are also welcome.

However, my main concern is multiclassing. I'll not pick another level in other default class, since a Sorcerer needs all the levels he could get to become really powerful. But, once I hit level 20... Should I stick to just being a Sorcerer until level 30? If not, what prestige class is the best suited for this style of gameplay? Is Red Dragon Disciple a good choice? What other options are there for an offensive spellcaster?

 

I had a good boy palie for my first character. He was more for getting the feel of the game. And didn't even reached Fort Locke. Right now, I'm playing a Rogue (2)/Fighter (5)/Deulist (1), a dexterity-based rapier/dagger dual wielder. Right now, he's doing a lot of Sneak Attacks, so I'm planning on adding a few more Rogue levels later to enhance that department and getting some evasion skills.