My Stormlord needs some more guidance.

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So, I have been doing alot of reading on different builds and mechanics. The more I learn the more questions I seem to have though.


I am trying to figure out what feats my Cleric of Talos should have. Before I start a quick question. Shield Dwarves can't put points into a special spell school right? Like Evocation? Thats why a build for a shield dwarf of Tempus would leave those skills out?


Anyway here is just a rough outline of what I am planning its very open to input and changes though.

1. I took Combat Casting and level 2 Small Blades.

2. Should I take Evocation next or Two Weapon Fighting and Ambidexterity?

Lets say I did this.

3. Two weapon fighting.

6. Dexterity

9. Evocation

12. Evocation greater

15. The feat that increases all lighting damage.

17. Improved Critical

21. Dash ( I miss my boots of speed)


After this I am kind of lost. Should I add another spell school? Spirit of Flame? Discipline? Another weapon feat?



One last thing. How do attack roles work in this game? I see THAC0 is gone so how do they determine what you can hit?


Maceror? Anyone here today?

 

What about giving him some levels of fighter or ranger? With one level of ranger, you will pick up automatic TWF and Ambidexterity, though you'll be limited in terms of the armor you can wear and still get the feats.

If you pick up a couple of levels of fighter, you'll get extra feats and you can use those feats on TWF and Ambidexterity. Plus some extra h.p. With a dwarf, you can take however many levels you want in fighter and you don't need to worry about a XP penalty because their favored class is fighter.

The 3rd edition uses a different mathematical system than 1/2nd edition DnD. Basically, it is Base Attack Bonus (BAB) which is a number between 1 and 20. If you have a 20th level fighter/ranger/barbarian/paladin, his BAB is +20 (which is the highest it will get in the game). The other classes advance slower in BAB and at 20th level they are also as good as they are going to get, something like +12 for a wizard, I think, and +15 for a cleric. In reality, how well your character hits is also modified by Strength, WF, many different magical items, spells, etc, but the BAB is the backbone of how the whole system works. It is indeed maxed out at 20th level. When you are playing a 24th-level fighter, he will hit as well as he did at 20th level, and no better.

The BAB system also determines how many attacks you get. For every "5" in BAB, you get another attack. A 5th-level fighter hits once a round at +5 to hit, while a 6th-level fighter hits twice a round, once at +6 and again at +1. A 20th level fighter, therefore, hits 4 times a round, at +20/+15/+10/+5, while the non-fighting classes will only be able to attack 3 or even just 2 times per round. The number of times you can attack each round is NOT modified by any other factor than your class BAB. That is, a 5th-level fighter with a +1 sword (since he's attacking at +6, in reality) does not get any more attacks.
So it is beneficial to get your BAB as high as possible by 20th level.

 

Hmmmm interesting. If I am human could I take Ranger next level to get those two feats? I believe the reason not to do so is I will be set back when I actually get the best cleric spells.


So, what do others think? Should I take level of fighter or Ranger to get the Dex and Two Weapon fighting feat? Or will I not be able to go back to cleric then? I don't want to waste any feats so please let me know!


Other then that what do you think of the feats I have planned out?



Edit: Try to get the ball back rolling.... so I am a human Stormloard of Talos. Level 2, if I take Fighter or Ranger at level 3 I will have no XP penality BUT the disadvantage is that my cleric skills will be one level behind? But I will have 2 extra feats to choose from? What did you mean it would limit the armor I could wear? If I just switch back to Cleric after what difference will it make? Donts mean to be annoying but I would like to know so I can level up. I was going to take Two Weapon Fighting, but if I would be better off with a level of Ranger I would like to know. I don't want have to take too many levels of Fighter because I figure that will set me pretty far back.

 

A level of ranger wouldn't hurt you much I suppose. You already have a pure Battleguard of Tempus as I recall, so that's your main healer. I think your Morninglord of Lathander is taking a level of Paladin, and if your Stormlord takes a level of ranger, you'll have 1 top level cleric and 2 that are only a single level behind. That's still more than enough divine spell casting to go around.

Or if you really don't want to lose the level, just be patient and take the feats for dual wielding as you can.

The dwarf can certainly take spell focus evocation, but as a battleguard of tempus doesn't get any great evocation spells with the domain, this will be of limited usefulness. A Morninglord of Lathander on the other hand get's a good number of evocation spells, so the feat makes more sense there.

Your feat list seems pretty solid. Sounds like you're on the right track!


By the way, the comment about the having limited armor refers to the fact that the ranger feats that help with dual wielding only work if you are wearing light or no armor. If you put a heavier armor on your Stormlord/Ranger, he will lose the benefit of those feats.

 

Ohhhh Marceror! How I missed your guidance. So, I could take one level of Ranger and that would give m 2 extra feats. BUT, would be a level behind no big deal. My main concern is wouldn't you want your Cleric to use Heavy Armor? Wouldn't just being able to use Light Armor be a major hit?

1. If I took a level of Fighter would I get two extra feats? Are the extra feats worth being a level behind?


2. What spell schools should I focus on? Evocation? Are there any other good ones for a Stomlord of Talos? Spell schools that is.

3. I thought the Cleirc of Lathander was supposed to be the main healer and Cleric of Tempus is more of a tank.


4. What would you do Marceror? Thats probaby what I will do! Hope your still here.


If anyone else is still up feel free to weight in!

 

1 level of fighter would give you 1 extra feat. As to whether or not it is worth being a level behind, it depends on your priorities. Clerics are an amazingly resourceful class that can do so many things extremely well (tank, fight, heal, cast). On this one, I could really go either way.

Considering that you already have 3 characters that will be using heavy armor (battleguard, morninglord and barb/fighter) you already have that category well covered. You don't have really any characters in light armor (unless you decide to give your thief/wizard armored arcana, which is a possible way to go).

For your Stormlord, which will already have high dex you could conceivably use the armor Zuvembie. It's very nice light armor that you can buy once you have enough cash. It grants 6AC and up to +5 dex bonus. So you could reach a total of +11 AC while wearing it, which is as much as most full plate armors grant (typical full plate is 9AC and up to +1 Dex bonus, so 10AC while wearing it). So going with the lighter armor really doesn't have to impede your power any.

Spoiler

It can be purchased from Oswald Fiddlebender, who you will meet in Targos

As for which healer will be the main, in reality they will all be monsters at healing. Don't get overly tripped up on this. Yeah, the battleguard has more of a combat focus. My only point was that *if* you decide to add a level of paladin to your morninglord (which was an idea you seemed enthused about a couple of days ago), technically the battleguard as a pure class cleric would have a slight edge as a healer.

I've never used a stormlord (I really don't play evil characters hardly ever), but my understanding is that they are similar to the morninglord in being nukers, and so evocation is a good school of magic to specialize in. Morninglords are more about fire spells, whereas stormlords are more about lightning.

As for what I'd do in this case... well I'd go a totally different route altogether. I'd probably switch the stormlord to a bard, which would be my party diplomat (and a damn good one), and good dual wielder (my last runthrough I used a TWF bard, actually), and who would have awesome defensive spells for combat (mirror image, blur, improved invisibility), not to mention good buffs (emotion: hope, haste, improved haste), and cure spells. Also, there are plenty of awesome bard songs. This class fits the spellsword concept rather well in my opinion.

Barring that, I guess in your case I might actually drop in the single level of ranger. 2 feats for a single level is extremely powerful. This will free you up to focus more feats on other concerns such as spell focus and the like.

 

Thanks man!


The bard idea sounds awesome but I guess I will save that for my next playthrough. Also want to use a Druid, Monk and Rogue.


I guess one level of Ranger it is! The light armor you mention sounds perfect. Just to make sure it does not matter when I take it and I will be able to go back to Stormlord right after??

 

I think the only possible reason you would want to take ranger at first level is because they receive additional skill points per level (and you get those skill points x4 at level one). Otherwise, yeah, you can splash in ranger any time, and can freely return to leveling up as a cleric.

Only monks and paladins have tight restrictions around multiclassing where in many cases you can no longer level up in these classes after choosing a different class (though paladins do have some exceptions to this).

 

Do you play any current games man? Would love to team up on ME3 MP or Boarderlands MP.


This is to anyone who cares to answer. What would be a good second focus for a spell group? Or would you take Spirit of Flame?




Good Afternoon, so yeah other spell foucs feats?

 

Spell Focus: Enchantment paired with Greater Command (5th level spell) is wondrously powerful, even if you aren't a Dreadmaster of Bane. It's arguably the best area of effect disabler in the whole game, since it doesn't render the enemies immune to your critical hits while it lasts the way Hold Person, Tremor and Symbol: Hopelessness do.

 

I don't play online hardly at all, actually. I'm sort of an old, crotchety single player enthusiast. Even when I played Diablo III (which forces you to be online) I never joined any public games. I play with my son every now and again, but that's about it.

I did play ME2, but I don't have ME3. I'm sort of having a "lover's spat" with Bioware these days, due to them selling their souls to Satan a few years back.

 

Wait, that's a thing? Really? How stupid.