Character help

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Yes, it's quite a surprise to see me playing this again considering how much I bash it, but I'm REALLY bored and I can't really remember it anyway as I only played it once when it first came out.

Anyway, what would be a good character? Please keep in mind god items that come out in the game (preferrably early) and that I'm melee oriented and don't want to have to keep casting buffs in order to kick major ass. I'm playing an unmodded/no SoU/no HoU OC game. Please make the character as specific as possible, like include stats, feats, skills, etc. Thanks all.

 

OK, you don't want to have to keep buffing? So Cleric and Druid are out then. That leaves either the meathead warrior build or the sneaky rogue build. Without any expansions, this becomes even simpler because we don't have to worry about things like Shadowdancer (which make the sneaky build more viable).

So, Paladin would be my choice because that is a good melee character that can use most of the items and has a few special abilities / spells to make up for your lack of main spellcasting ability. Only problem would be if you don't want to be Lawful Good.

I would then take Tomi the thief as a henchman as he can handle all the locks and traps and also provide useful ranged attack backup.

 

What about multi-class warrior builds HB? I saw a Ranger2/Barbarian3/Fighterx build mentioned, that sounds pretty good..

 

Play a Rogue/Assassin/Shadowdancer...

Sneak, attack, hide...rinse and repeat.

 

Shadowdancer? I'm playing an unmodded game with neither SoU and HoU, is that still a viable option?

 

No, if you don't have any expansions then Shadowdancer is out (as is Assassin). I'd probably advise against playing with a Rogue as many enemies become Sneak Attack immune as the game progresses and you cannot hide in sight as you have no Shadowdancer levels.

Tomi is a good choice of henchman, Grimgnaw and Daelan are also good. Avoid spellcasting henchmen if possible.

As you don't want to continually buff, then one of the four warrior types may be best: Barbarian, Ranger, Fighter and Paladin. I enjoy playing as a Paladin and, to be honest, have little experience playing the other three as pure classes (simply running in and hitting things gets boring after a while). A Paladin can work without extensive buffing, but the spells and special abilities are what makes the class- IMO anyway- superior to a normal Fighter. It is quite possible to beat the game with any class so you don't need to worry too much about playing with a lesser powered class.

 

ok, thanks for for the advice. i think i'll go with a Barbarian 3/Fighter 2/Ranger x character. What skills and feats should I get? I remember taking parry when I played through the first time, but a forum search about feats showed that a lot of people found it pretty useless. Also, what is better, cleave or improved knockdown? and which weapons should i specialize in? I'm planning to dual-wield.

 

Longswords are a good bet as there are plenty of them around the game.

I've never found parry to be very useful- the best defense is a good offense.

Both Cleave and Improved Knockdown are very useful. I think I'm going to go for IK being the better of the two as your opponents are pretty helpless when sitting down and it is great for disrupting spellcasting.

Cleave, IK, Improved Critical and all the dual-wielding feats would be good. To get all that you will need 8 feats which would take you most of the game. If you had 4 levels of Fighter and took Weapon Focus (which is pretty decent too), then you could take Weapon Specialisation, giving you a +2 bonus to damage.

 

Any form of Knockdown is truly devastating against nasty spellcasters. I never had problems with the standard Knockdown, unless you are planning to use it against other warriors with high Discipline.

Cleave is very good if you're only using a single weapon. Fighting with two weapons, or with a double-sided weapon, you get an extra attack per round anyway. In any case, the OC is full of fights against weak enemies and Cleave helps making short work of such fights.


About parry: my rogue/ranger swears by it. Sure it's only good for the first 3 attacks in the same round, but that's what high AC and feats like Dodge are for. A high-dex rogue with two weapons and a decent level of Parry can keep a warrior entertained for some time (unless said warrior connects a couple of criticals), while his/her henchperson clears up the room.

I wouldn't consider Parry as a feat for any tank, though. Expertise is a better defensive tecnique, which soon overcomes the meagre 5-point attack penalty. Five extra points to your defense can make a difference when you're surrounded by many enemies.

 

Hmm, I decided to go with more of an offensive melee fighter with the aforementioned build of Barbarian3/Fighter2/Rangerx

Right now I'm in Blacklake, the first district I chose to go to and I've got a Barbarian 3/Fighter 1. I just (as in just now ) got my fighter level. The 3 feats that I've taken so far are power attack, weapon focus and wepon specialization on long sword. my stats are:

str: 16
dex: 16
con: 12
wis: 13
int: 10
cha: 10

and as a barbarian and fighter, i've been sinking my skills into lore and discipline. so far, i am FAR from being an offensive weapon. The half-orc Loxar(sp?) had me reloading several times. Tomi basically saved my ass there. He saved my ass in all the gauntlet matches as well, although we managed to beat Claudius.

That's my char so far, do you guys have any comments or suggestions on what I should do?

Also, it's been a while since I played this, so I can't really remember; what should be my first racial enemy?

 

Are you going to use the free light arnoured ranger dual wielding or go for the real unrestricted fighter feat versions?

 

Whatever you get that requires a detailed listing of feats and all will require micromanagement. Otherwise, it's just a plain Joe Fighter with maxed physical stats and not much of a combat style apart from making him tough. Actually, just grab Power Attack, Cleave, Toughness, Weapon Focus, Specialisation and Improved Criticals in something of your choice and you're set. For sheer power, that would either be two light weapons for dual-wielding or something big with big damage. And I would suggest the latter unless you're going to find awfully powerful short blades to overcome the huge damage reduction everyone and everything seems to have.

If you have the expansions, do install them before playing the OC. They will give you new skills, spells, prestige classes, feats, whatever. If you don't, well, I suggest getting them.

 

Yeah, in NWN, I would go for one big two handed heavy whacking weapon rather than two rinky dink light ones. Damage is everything in NWN.

 

If you're planning on using heavy armours, drop your DEX to 10 or 12, heavy armours negate DEX bonus. Put them in CON for additional hit points and fortitude saving throws or INT for more dialogue (?) options and more experience points instead.

Skills, the only real important skill for me is PERSUADE. But it costs 2 skill points a piece for the non-Paladin fighter type. It can be important during some quest, or makes some quests easier or more profitable. Second would be appraise... that is if you value gold, buy and sell at better prices. I never bother with parry anymore. And I hardly put points in Discipline and I've yet to experience any knockdowns or disarm, although, Tomi does. Concentration might be useless unless you plan on casting during battle. Hide and Silent skills are pretty useless when your a clanking tank. Using Tomi sure get a lot of things done, like automatic detect traps, disarm traps, unlock chest/doors. Heal, if you want to use healing kits.

Feats, I always get Luck of Heroes at first round. And if I play human (additional Feat), Silver Palm. I find Cleave and Great Cleave very usefull especially when you are outnumbered... which is almost the entire game. Iron Will is also quite a nice feat, fighter-types don't usually have a good Will Saving Throws, so mind-affecting spells can be irritating. Lightning Reflex, it's up to you, iirc, it improves your trap avoidance but you're suppose to be a tank, let your HP take the trap damage and get another feat instead.

I usually am a Paladin with a couple of Fighter levels, actually just for the extra Feats. I love the Paladin's bonus like Aura of Courage (immunity to fear), Divine Health (immunity to diseases), Smite Evil can be usefull at times. CHARISMA bonus applied to AC. If only Paladins have immunity to poison...

Don't waste Feats on missile weapons, you won't use them that often. Weapon, in NWN OC, great sword would be best. If you have the expansion, the Holy Avenger (longsword) can be a great weapon, making longsword/shield a nice combo for Paladins.

[ August 22, 2006, 07:38: Message edited by: nior ]

 

Hmm, you're even making me want to play NWN again. I would make a heavy hitting meathead like the ones described in this thread if I was to play again. Last time I had a Ranger / Rogue / Shadowdancer which was cool as well, but I think I'd choose power over finesse next time.

 

Thanks for all the tips guys. I'll consider getting the expansions. They have the same system requirements as the OC?

But I'll finish this character first. To answer your questions, I'm planning on playing with light armor in order to get the ranger's 2-weapon fighting/ambidexterity feat. What qualifies as light armor? just leather and studded leather?

Also, where is the improved ciritical feat? what are it's stat or feat pre-requisites? I can't seem to find it.

 

I think the expansion have a higher system requirements than OC, but if your PC model is less than a couple of years, it should work fine.

Light armours includes leather, studded leather, and hides. To take advantage of 2-weapon/ambidexterity of rangers, I suggest go for 2 small weapons, preferably the same kind. Saves you on weapon focus/specialization/criticals, and go for Weapon Finese, Dodge, Mobility, Spring Action (? - the one that allows you to move around during combat without giving hit opportunities to your enemies).

And if I may, I love having rangers too... Animal Companions (free at level 6) are fun, my personal favorites are panther. And choose Humans as you Favored Enemy, funny if viewed from the Role Playing point of view but you'll be fighting about 65-75% humans in the game.

 

Can't I dual-wield longswords in both hands? Oh, I may not be able to run them then because I'm already running the OC on minimum system requirements..

 

You can, but the penalties increase with weapon size.

Two small weapons and the Weapon Finesse feat provide minimal penalties. Rapiers are the only medium weapons that act as finessed in the main hand, but give you penalties if you dual-wield two of them. You can go the disabling way dual-wielding Namarra and Feyduster.

With a high to-hit bonus, you can equip a medium sized weapon in the main hand, and a small or tiny offhand weapon. Desert Wind and a kukri +3 are good for the increased critical range and the extra fire kick.

 

hmm, wish i'd known all this before i got this far along.. i guess ill just have to take the penalties. im planning to dual long-swords since i've already taken 2 fighter levels just to get weapon specialization in long swords. but there are a number of good long swords early on, right? because i've just cleared out the docks (after blacklake) and the only long sword i've found was the one at the smuggler's auction. still looking for another one for my off hand. also, if my dex is equal to my strength, i don't really need weapon finesse anymore because the str and dex bonus to hit would be the same, right?