Advanced Guide to Neverwinter Nights 2 Character Builds.
Version 1.0 - Initial Revision.
Version 1.1 - Added Pokey and Thuggie builds with minor edits.
Version 2.0 - Added a large build section!
Version 3.0 - MOTB Update in progress.
Version 3.1 - Lots of build updates.
Version 3.2 - Should be the final update except for corrections.
NOTE: Feel free to contact me (info at end of guide).
I expect that this is my final update (Dec 2007), but I will still be happy
to chat with you via email if you have any corrections, comments, additions,
or questions for the foreseeable future.
I'll try to get back with you within a day or two in most cases.
This guide is a complete manual for creating your own builds. It tries
to show you the tools you have available for making builds, and explains
how they can fit together. The guide now includes a complete walkthrough
of making a specific character along with thought processes behind it.
In addition, it is a repository of various builds which I have found to be
solid for Neverwinter Nights 2... or at least the best of their type.
These builds are usually powergamer types, and typically have several
mechanisms that make them superior to other similar ones, which I will
explain. These are based on my NWN1, D&D, and NWN2 experience, as well
as persistent world forums that I was active in during NWN1.
I have tested all of these builds and in some cases talk about the differences
between the NWN2 version and NWN1 equivalents, if any.
For a beginner, the best way to use this guide is to look through it, and
try out any build(s) that may interest you. An intermediate approach is
to examine each build and learn why particular combos are chosen and then
modify a build to their liking. Read the specifics on how to make a build
and learn. An advanced player may just look through and pick up a few new
build ideas.
Once you have picked a build, TEST IT! The best way is to go to NWN2vault
and download a trainer module.
In fact, I recommend the following:
Vordan's Hero Creator - Easy and streamlined. Has a great arena program to
spawn stuff to fight according to your preferences.
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=NWN2ModulesEnglish.Detail&id=14
and
Mithdrades Hall of Training (use the 2.0 MOTB updated one) - Has customized
equipping, multiple arenas, and more difficult foes with full AI routines,
and all kinds of stuff. A bit weighty though and harder to use.
http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=nwn2reviews.Detail&id=11
Alternatively, you can start any new campaign/module and do this:
Hit ~ key to bring up console.
type DebugMode 1 (which enables commands)
type giveXP 600000 (which gives you lots of XP)
type DebugMode 0
Hit ~ to disable console.
Table of Contents:
------------------
I. Introduction to MOTB Character building
II. What changed in MOTB
III. Where to Find More Builds
IV. The Rules Explained
V. Choosing Stats, Race
VI. Equipping Your Dude.
VII. Weapon Selection for warriors: Dualwield, 1h+shield, 2hander?
VIII. Scaling explained.
IX. Class Overviews.
In Alphabetical Order, from a) to zj). Big section.
x. Putting it all together.
XI. Complete Sample Build Methodology
XII. Level 20 Builds and How to Upgrade Them to MOTB lvl30.
A) Bruiser. Bard1/Fighter4/RDD10/FrenzBers5
B) Shooter Bard3/Rogue4/Fighter4/Arcane Archer9
C) Tricky Wiz6/Rogue3/PaleMaster1/Arcane Trickster10.
D) SuperSorc Sorceror18/Paladin2
E) BadBard Bard16/Fighter1/Blackguard3
F) Reaper. Fighter8/WpnMaster7/FB5
G) Shiftey Druid18/Monk1/Cleric1
H) Dodgey DeepGnome Monk16/Duelist4
I) Kamakaze Cleric13/Fighter6/Monk1
J) WizWar Wizard8/Fighter2/Eldrich Knight10
K) Thuggie Fighter4/Rogue3/Blackguard10/NWnine3
L) Pokey Fighter8/Duelist10/Monk1/Wizard1
M) SuperSaver Cleric15/Paladin2/Blackguard2/Warlock1
XIII. New MOTB 30 Level Builds.
a) Warrior Sorceror - Template. Example: Sorc 12/EK 10/Pally 4/RDD 4
b) Caster Sorceror - Template. Example: Sorc 23/PM 5/ 1Lock/1Cleric
c) Caster Wizard - Template. Ex: Wiz5/AScholar10/ Palemaster10/Red Wiz 5
d) Warrior Wizard - Template.
e) KamaKaze II - Cleric17/Monk11/DivChamp2 - dualwield kamas with 18 attacks!
f) Tuffie2 - Fighter8/bard2/RDD10/DwDefender10 - High Dmg Reduction, AC, HPs
g) SuperSaver II - Sp Shaman 25/Pally2/BG3- Hard to kill caster hybrid.
h) Sneaky - Rogue16/Fighter8/Shadowdancer1/IB5 - Stealthy rogue with good AB.
i) Thunder Cleric8/Stormlord8/WPriest6/Fig8 - High AB warrior cleric.
j) Tricky II - Wiz6/Rogue4/EldKnt10/ArcTrick10 - Improved BAB rogue/mage.
k) Pious Pugalist - Cleric9/Monk11/SacFist10 - Optimal cleric/monk hybrid.
l) BadBard II - Bard23/BG3/Fighter4 - High Aura skilled warrior w/deadly songs.
m) Holy Hacker - FavSoul 16/BG3/Bard1/RDD10 - Epic Divine Might at level 21.
n) Smiter - Paladin20/DivChamp10 - Huge +330dmg smites to take out bosses.
o) SpearCleaver - FS12/Stormlord10/Frezerker5/BG3 - Heavy dmg 2h spear user.
p) MysticTheurge - Cleric9/Wizard5/Scholar10/RedWiz6 - Mage w/cleric spells.
q) Dodgey Mk II - Monk10/Duelist10/Assassin2/Fighter8 - Hard to hit melee.
r) The General - Human FS14/Bard16 - Buff/healing 2xcast aura support character.
s) BattleLok - Drow Warlock26/Blackguard4. Melee Warlock w/ good ranged zap.
t) Bruising Reaper Fig12/bard1/RDD10/Wpnmaster7 - General purpose solid melee.
u) Shootist 2 Drow bard10/AA9/RDD10/C1 - Archer with Epic Div Might for dmg
v) Dualcaster - sorc6/Shaman4/ASoc10/EK10 - CHEATING SS/Sorc 9th lvl spells!
w) Tree-Fu - Druid12/Fight8/Monk1/SFist9 - Hi AB/AC Treeform melee w/spells.
XIV. Copyright, Contact Info, etc.
I. Intro to MOTB character building
------------------------------
This guide is meant to teach how to multiclass properly to make a "build" for
Neverwinter Nights 2. It is meant to be used in tandem with the build
repository later in this guide, and is intended to break down how I come
up with these builds. The character system is very complex, and I provide
rules and suggestions to break it down into building blocks.
The guide has several sections. First, I go over some basic rules for
multiclassing. The next section is a breakdown of ALL character classes,
including generally how many levels of each class to take, and why this is so.
The third section talks about synergy, and how to choose classes that work
well with each other.
Finally, I give a discussion of why some builds work better in worlds where
more powerful items are found, and how to adjust a build to these worlds.
A build is nothing more than 30 levels of different classes taken together in
a specific order, with certain stats, feats, skills mixed in.
In general, you can exclude MOST skills from your build, as they are usually
not all that important to the actual build. In other words, the build is not
overly influenced by your skills one way or another whether you take
diplomacy or healing.
In my builds, I show recommended skills, but these are very dependent upon
how and where you are playing. Some servers practically
require Spot to avoid pickpocketers, whereas others are in love with locked
unbashable doors and chests. The large variety of skills and applications is
why we can exclude most skills. There are some important skills that are
specific to a build and are usually prerequisites for some prestege class.
II. What changed in MOTB
------------------------
MOTB now allows 30 char levels. This causes a bit more complication, and many
things change in this guide.
First, the campaign starts at 18(or 20). This means that you have 20+ builds
that basically are good at 20 thru 30. These same builds might be HORRIBLE
from 1 to 20 tho. So there is a clear difference between a full 1-30 build,
and one that is optimized to work best from 20 to 30.
Second, many of my recommendations get changed due to the extra levels. As
an example, my previous guide would tell you that you NEVER use a full caster
in combo with back-ended classes. A RDD would NOT go with a sorc ever.
After 10RDD levels, you would only have 10 sorc levels... not nearly enough
to make a functional build.
But now, a sorc9/barbarian1/EK10/RDD10 would be a reasonably effective build
from 20 to 30. However, I would hate to play it from 1 to 20! You would
either take RDD levels and gimp casting progression, OR not gain any RDD
benefits all the way through 20.
Therefore, I try to be generic with my comments and relax some of the "rules"
that I had introduced in my first guide.
You will notice MANY more caster-oriented builds now, since it is very possible
to make casters that can fight well too. There is actually little advantage
in making a pure melee character anymore now that so many benefits can be
had for a relatively low pricetag. Even 12 favored soul for example can
add quite a bit of power for only a 3BAB hit, and 18 levels left for warrior
abilities.
III. Where to find more builds, and random tips.
-------------------------------------------------
There are a few other good places to find builds for MOTB. These are as
follows:
- Epic Builders Guild (Note: requires registered login)
http://nwn.bioware.com/guilds_registry/viewforum.html?forum=26365&gid=14504
- Wikipedia
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Character_builds
Remember when you examine these builds to use the ideas in this guide. Keep
this in mind:
a) Watch for suxtill30 syndrome. Many many builds are made to have impressive
endgame stats. They might not be so fun to level up from lvl1 or even
from lvl20! One dead giveaway is that at level 20, a caster may only cast
level 3 spells for example. These builds are great for a persistent world,
but NOT great for the MOTB campaign most likely.
b) Lookout for over-buffed chars. Some of them have like 5 short term buffs
all active at once! Obviously, this makes for a lousy character to play,
even though the stats look great.
example: abilities like Divine Power, battletide, haste, divine wrath,
divine might, divine shield, rage, frenzy, stormlord buff, etc.
These are limited use per day, and last under 2 minutes (at best). Having
multiples of these is usually lousy.
At the beginning of a battle, you can only use like 1 or maybe 2 of these
until you start becoming ineffective cuz your character is standing around
buffing instead of actually fighting.
c) Watch for cheeze-stats. A build that has awesome AB that includes Frenzy,
Rage, Div Wrath, and assumes a Taunt active looks great. However, their
AC analysis happens to NOT include the penalties from the very same rage
and frenzy!
d) Remember your ideal goal. Dont use an "Uber self buffed with no equip!!11"
build, if you are playing the official campaign with tons of equipment
available. Those impressive stats are meaningless since a +8STR item gotten
right off the bat overrides those impressive supreme frenzy stats.
e) Expect a lot of the same ole stuff. Look at all them bard1/RDD10, and Eld
Knight class builds... Granted, I am kind of guilty of the same thing
despite my best efforts to show a diversity of builds. ;-)
Basically, do not focus on the level 30 stats too much, and think before
picking any build to work with. This applies to ANY build that you pick up
either from this guide (I'm not perfect after all), the 2 sources above or
anywhere else. Imagine how the character plays from 1 to 30, or 18 to 30, or
whatever your intended usage is.
IV. The Rules Explained
-----------------------
This section goes over the rules, or general guidelines that I follow when
creating a new build. Later on I will apply these when we create a new
build.
a. Rule of 1 Opening Action
---------------------------
In MOTB with 30 levels, there is a lot more room to gain multiple class
abilities. This can sometimes work out poorly. Imagine a
cleric/barbarian/stormlord/DivChamp who sees an enemy group charging towards
him. Time to buff up! First, they cast Divine Power to set BAB to 30.
Then, they cast Battletide for the aura. Next, barbarian rage! Then, click
the Stormlord's sonic,lightning damage spear ability. Finally, activate
Divine Wrath. 5 rounds later, all the enemies are mostly dead by the time
this build is ready to enter combat!
Clearly, this is not the way to go. You want to avoid overly depending on
short-term buffs. In fact, when you see a group of baddies, you have about 1
round to do 1 action. That may be a short-term buff, or a blade barrier.
I like having options as much as anyone, but you want to ask yourself: How
does this build do assuming I have 1 round before combat starts? Do not make
the mistake of adding up 8 different short term buffs to arrive at the build's
"stats", then be all impressed by the huge AB,AC,dmg, or whatever.
Also, make sure to value stuff appropriately. The stormlord's 1d8sonic,zap,
2d8 massive crits pump is great! Having to click it before every fight? Not
so great... Keep it in mind if you also are having to click Divine Might,
and keep Divine Power up because your BAB stinks.
a2. Rule of Four
---------------
The first rule is the RULE OF FOUR. Classes with a medium Attack Bonus (AB)
give the character +1 Base Attack Bonus(BAB) on every level except the 1st,
5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th. Hence, in most builds you will see people take
these classes in FOURS. In any case, you will almost NEVER see 5, 9, 13, or
17 levels in such a class.
This rule is STILL in effect for MOTB, as you gain more BAB and attacks all
the way to level 30.
This rule is irritating as in many cases, that 5th,9th,13th,17th level can
provide some strong benefits, as you will soon see.
For example, a monk gains Spell Resistance at level 13 instead of 12 like it
is supposed to. RDD gets blindfight at 5 instead of 4.
Assassin gets improved invisibility at 9. You will see many other such
annoying examples as you work on builds.
Note that this rule is ONLY applicable for characters that plan on fighting
at all. Pure casters typically disregard this rule.
Also note that low-progression classes gain 1 BAB ONLY on even levels. So, a
8Wizard,2fighter,10Eld Knight has a 16bab, whereas a 7wiz,1fighter,10ek,1PM
only gets 14!
This rule is one that limits splash classes. For example, a
17warrior, with 1 bard for an aura, 1 cleric for domain bonuses, and a
single rogue level for skill access and 1d6 sneak would have a 17BAB instead
of a 20BAB. This makes it less attractive to toss in 1 level of those
classes.
On the other hand, a 17fighter with 1barbarian for faster move and rage,
1 ranger for favored enemy, and 1 dwarf defender for 1AC and stance would
still have a 20BAB. (Yeah, I know the alignments aren't compatible...)
b. Rule of Highest Class Favor.
-------------------------------
The second thing to examine is XP penalties. This is how it works. Look at
the highest level class. Compare the highest level class to EACH other class.
For every one that is more than 1 level apart, apply 20% XP penalty, which is
cumulative. Example: 5cleric,1monk,1fighter = 40% XP penalty!
There are a few exceptions fortunately.
First, ALL PRESTEGE CLASSES are exempt.
They are treated as if they do not exist for XP penalty purposes.
So a 5cleric, 1assassin, 1 blackguard = 0% XP penalty.
Secondly, there is the "favored class" for each race. This class is also
eliminated from consideration completely. Here are examples.
Assume a 8 rogue,4fighter,4monk,4druid. If we play a halfling, rogue is
their favored class. Therefore the game reads the character as having
4fighter,4monk,4druid. Works great with 0 XP penalty.
What if we played a dwarf? The class is seen as a 8rogue, 4monk, 4 druid,
which is a 40% XP penalty. Oops. This leads us into the rule...
The RULE OF HIGHEST CLASS FAVOR says that if you have more than 2 main classes
(i.e. not prestege classes since they are immune to XP penalty), you want
your HIGHEST level class to be the favored one.
A note here is that humans always have their highest level non-prestege class
as their favored class. This means that they usually get maximum benefit
from favored class.
Of course, there is a rare exception. Consider a 12cleric/12monk/6fighter.
The human would eat a 20% XP penalty since cleric or monk would be favored.
The dwarf would remove fighter (their favored), and the 12/12 resultant char
would have NO XP penalty! As long as they keep their cleric/monk within 1
level of each other on the way up...
Half-elves also gain this ability, but are a pretty weak race that I never
consider for character building.
c. Rule of Initial Skill Boost
------------------------------
Our next concept is that Class Order Matters. The 8rogue,4fighter,4monk,
4druid example used previously will be our example. We will start out with
our next rule and go from there.
The RULE OF INITIAL SKILL BOOST states that you usually want the class with
the most and most useful skillpoints or skill access taken at level 1.
At level 1, skillpoints are multiplied by 4.
Hence, assuming no INT modifier, a 1st level rogue gets 32 skillpoints. A
first level fighter gets 8, and a monk gets 16.
Clearly, you would want to start with the rogue. Remember also that at level
1, you can put 4 points into a skill, since they are capped at CharLvl +3.
If nothing else and you wont have enough skillpoints later on, you can at least
pick up 4 points in several useful skills like open lock, spot, UMD, etc. Then,
you can carry over up to 5 skillpoints to the next level-up.
d. Rule of Weaving Class levels for Optimum skill access.
---------------------------------------------------------
Skill access is another reason for taking levels in certain orders. In our
example, you would not want to take all 8 rogue levels, then 4 monk, then
4 fighter, and 4 druid. As such, your 1st 12 levels would have access to
rogueish skills, but after that they all cost TWO points per skill-up.
Let's back up for a minute. Normally, 1 skill rank up cost 1 point, IF it
is a class skill. Open lock for rogue for example.
If it is a cross-class skill, it costs TWO skillpoints to get +1 skill rank.
In addition, you are CAPPED at 1/2 the normal value rounded down. A 3rd
level druid can get 6 concentrate, but only a 3 in Open Lock since it is
not a class skill. 7th lvl druid can have 10 concentrate, and 5 open lock.
There is 1 more wrinkle though. If you have EVER had access to a skill as a
class skill, then you can always get the full capped value for that skill,
although it may be a double cost.
As an example, taking 1 rogue, then 29 cleric lets you put up to 33 points in
tumble, open lock, and other rogue skills that clerics do not have class
skill access to. However, the cleric will have to pay TWO skillpoints per
rank. Since clerics only get 2 base skillpoints per level, you can see how
this would not work out so well...
This leads to our next rule, which is the RULE OF WEAVING CLASS LEVELS FOR
OPTIMUM SKILL ACCESS. Using our example, the player would want to ensure
those 12 rogue levels are interspersed such that you can carryover points and
spend them during rogue levelups to get the skills as cheaply as possible.
Conversely, this allows you to use the monk and druid levels to crank up
your heal skill. Hence, you level up different skills during different
class level-ups.
e. Rule of weaving class levels to avoid XP penalty.
----------------------------------------------------
Now, we cover the RULE OF WEAVING CLASS LEVELS TO AVOID XP PENALTY. In our
example, the worst possible place to be is to have 3fighter,1druid,1monk with
how ever many rogue (assuming halfling so rogue is favored). This gives you
a 40% XP penalty, and is totally unnecessary.
All you have to do is simply keep all the non-favored, non-prestege classes
within one level of each other for 0 XP penalty.
In other words, plan on alternating your class level ups to keep them all
within one level of each other.
f. Rule of Highest Gain class order
-----------------------------------
Next up is the RULE OF HIGHEST GAIN CLASS ORDER. This indicates that you want
to level up the classes in the order that is most useful for character
growth. Unfortunately, this causes a lot of contradictions even in itself.
Lets look at a cleric16/fighter4 build. So what order do you do things in?
If you put 4 fighter early on, you get 3 feats and early wpn spec access.
However, you severely limit cleric spell progression. Taking fighter late
means no improved weapons/feats for a long time. So you compromise and
take 1 cleric at 1st level, then 1 fighter at 2nd level to get the wpn feats
and 1 free feat. Then, take say 11 cleric to get most of the useful buffs,
then take 3 more fighter, then finish up with cleric.
Question: So lemme get this straight... you want me to make a 8rogue,
4monk,4fighter,4druid and make sure to keep the minor classes within one
level of each other? AND, also weave them to make sure I can maximize the
right skills that I want? AND take the most useful class up front?
Answer: Yep. As you can already see, the rules contradict each other.
We will address this in the rule of tradeoffs.
g. Rule of Caster 16ish.
----------------------
Next up is the RULE OF CASTER 16ish. This rule states that if you are
making a character that primarily casts spells, then you want them to have
as high of spell access as possible. A bard gets his 6th level spells at
level 16. A warlock maxes at 15. A sorceror gains 9th level spells at 18. A
wizard gets them at 17, as do clerics and druids. Paladins/Rangers get
their max at 15. Favored Soul gets em at 18.
At the least, you want 16 caster levels so you can use Practiced Caster feat
to give them 20 caster levels FOR the purpose of damage and duration only!
So 16 should be a minimum for offensive casting.
In MOTB, you want more than 20 levels... I would say 24 is a minimum for
offensive casting due to spell resistance. Plus, a few spells scale all the
way to level 25. (i.e. 25d6 damage)
Many buffs max out at level 20, which is doable with 16 caster levels and
the practiced caster feat. (example: Magic Vestment, Greater Magic Wpn)
Let's say you are making a wizard. You need to retain 17 base caster levels
to keep access to 9th level spells. This gives you 3 levels of wiggle room.
If you take Palemaster, every even level costs one of these 3 wiggle levels,
because Palemasters only get a casting level on ODD levels.
So a 13wiz,7PM is effectively a 17th level caster and has 9th level spells.
With practiced caster, you cast as a 20th level caster. However, you do NOT
gain SPELL PROGRESSION as a 20th..only a 17th.
Still, you only lose out on a few 9th level slots, and pick up some nice AC
bonuses from Palemaster.
A 10wiz/10PM may be tempting, but would be crippled to 15 caster level, or
8th level spells maximum, with a casting level of 19 maximum for damage.
Now in MOTB, you have a bit more latitude. A 20wiz/10PM would have a caster
level of 25; 29 with prac caster feat.
h. Rule of Warrior 26BAB
------------------------
This used to be the rule of 16, and is RELAXED IN MOTB. Remember that for
every 5BAB past 1, you gain an extra attack. (i.e. 6,11,16,21,26 bab)
With a level 20 cap, going from 3 attacks to 4 attacks (at 16bab)
was a 33% increase. Sure, that 4th attack was at -15ab, but still might hit.
In MOTB, going from say 5 attacks to 6 is only a 20% increase, and that 6th
attack is at -25AB!! It is unlikely that will hit anything.
Therefore, the usefulness of the 6th base attack is much less than when we had
a level 20 cap. It is nice, but you will not see nearly as many builds
shooting for that magical 26bab anymore.
i. Max's Maxim of Maximums
--------------------------
Our next rule is MAX's MAXIM OF MAXIMUMS. This states that you only want to
take an optimum number of class levels to gain the major benefits.
For example, taking 3 fighter is a bad idea. This is because the 3rd level
does not get you anything. It is 1 past the 2 feats for 2 levels mark, and
falls short of wpn spec access. Take 2 or 4 but NOT 3 if you can help it.
Similarly, 20 fighter is a loser. This is because all those feats are
overkill and just not necessary. By 12 fighter, you will be taking some
real garbage feats since you have ran out of useful ones.
WHEW! As you can see, there are a LOT of rules to keep in mind. Not all
apply for a specific character of course. These rules tend to work
against each other, and it is up to you to follow as many rules as possible
and decide which ones are most important. It all comes down to a lot of
compromise.
-----------------------
V. Choosing Stats, Race
-----------------------
Stats:
This is how to add stats to your builds. You get 32 points to spend. All
values ASSUME HUMAN. Racials scale as appropriate. (For half orc, 17STR
written here = 19 STR for you)
1) You generally have 1 main stat. For platemail warriors it is STR. For
most rogues it is DEX. Casters use WIS,INT,CHA depending on their class.
Set your main stat to 17 (or 19 with racial advantage). This allows you
to add +5 to it as you level up and wind up with an even number.
It costs 13 points to do this.
In MOTB, you will get up to +7 points from your usual pump ups every 4 lvls.
In addition, you can use Great Whatever-Stat epic feats to pump up that
attribute even more.
2) All platemail users set their DEX to 12. This gives +1AC which is the
max allowed with full plate. You can skimp on this value in most cases
if you can get an item or buff to make up the difference.
Also, you will likely want Mithril Plate which allows +3AC from DEX. In MOTB
the +8dex item is easily acquired early on. So even with a starting DEX
of 8, with an item at level 18 you will have the maximum needed 16DEX.
3) Mages will probably go 14DEX naturally. Since you usually do not wear armor
other than robes, or light armor like mithril chain shirt, you want decent
starting DEX, up to the point where it costs 1charpoint per 1 point of dex.
14 is the maximum base you can get without costing extra points.
4) ALL characters want 14 CON, which costs 6 points. You rarely have enough
points for higher, but do not want to skimp either. (that is 12 for elves,
16 for dwarves, etc)
5) Your WIS,CHA are DUMP-STATS for most builds. Leave them minimized. Sure,
it affects a few skills but not enough to matter.
Many people HATE having a negative modifier, but a 10WIS vs 8WIS only is
a 1 point difference in Will Saves and a few skills. Use the points to
pump something more worthwhile.
6) INT should be 10 for humans, 12 for others. This gives a +1skill per level
bonus. Depending on the base skillpoints for the build, this may go
up or down. You will usually never exceed 14 for a non-wizard.
Of course, this depends on your skill-access and base skills for your main
class and may need adjustment. Example: A sorc needs spellcraft, concentr,
and would like tumble, and UMD, but only gets 2 points per lvl. So more INT
will be needed.
7) You usually wind up with 1 leftover point. It will go like so:
-- If you are DEX-based or caster, add it to STR for more carrying capacity.
-- Add 1 to get 13 dex if you can get dodge feat.
-- Add 1 to get 13 Int if you can get Disarm or Imp KD feat.
Choosing Race:
--------------
In most cases, I select Human as my race of choice. This is for several
reasons.
-- They effectively get +2 INT for non-wizard/duelist builds due to their
bonus skill point per level.
-- The bonus feat is anywhere from nice to really important. A build with
few feats or that does a lot (mage/warrior hybrids) will find this
especially valuable. Not only do you get an extra feat choice, but all
your feats are Bumped up some, so you benefit from them earlier.
-- The universal Favored Class allows funky builds with less or no XP penalty.
For spellcasters that are primarily interested in casting offensive spells and
maximizing their spell DC, consider the classes with natural bonuses in
that class' attribute.
This means Aasimir, Drow for CHA-based sorcs,bards, and warlocks.
Sun Elf, Drow for INT-based wizards.
Deep Gnome, Aasimir for WIS-based clerics/druids.
Warrior types that are STR-based will want to consider Half-orc.
The CHA loss is usually not a problem, although the INT loss is unfortunate.
For stat-heavy builds (cleric/fighter,etc) human is better. For most
builds, the loss of INT is easy to overcome and the +2STR is worth it.
Earth Genesai is tempting since they gain STR AND CON! They lose WIS,CHA which
are both dump-stats. They make excellent warriors, with the only drawback
being the +1Effective Character Level (ECL)
I don't recommend Wood Elf since I dislike losing CON, even though they are
a better value than half-orcs by adding +2 to both STR and DEX.
DEX-based types will want to consider a small-framed class. They add a
free +1AB and AC due to size. The new halfling
is a great value as his free feat is better than "lucky" most of the time.
Deep Gnome is always a strong pick, ONLY IF you have some resources to
help you level up. Such as lots of magical items in storage, buddies, etc.
That gets you the best possible character at 20 thanks to the extra
+4AC and spell resistance, in addition to standard small-character bonuses.
-------------------------------------
VI. Equipping Your Dude (or Dude-ette)
-------------------------------------
This info is not really advanced, but I wanted to add it for completion sake.
a) Armor Class
In general, AC is your highest equipment priority, as it does a LOT to keep
your character alive, and even 5 points can mean the difference between
getting hit 30% of the time, and 5% of the time! You want the highest value
you can find in the following categories. NO AC stacks within its specific
category except for Dodge AC. So a +3 deflection ring and +4 deflection hat
will give you +4deflection only. Don't stack AC types.
-- Natural AC comes from Amulets only. Equivalent spells are barkskin,
spiderskin, shadow shield, tortise shell. Elephant Hide is a feat that adds.
DO NOT confuse this category of AC with so called "natural armor bonuses".
These are NOT the same. All "NACbonuses" FULLY STACK with Natural AC in
this category. These include Red Dragon Disc, Palemaster bonuses, and
the Armor Skin feat.
-- Deflection AC comes from everything except Amulet,Boot,armor,shield,
and bracer. Spells include Shield of Faith, and some other crappy spells
that give insignificant amounts of deflection ac.
-- Armor Bonus - This refers to the natural ability of armor to protect. Plate
gives 8 points. Robes give 0. Chain shirt gives 4. The higher, the better
but it will limit DEX AC bonuses. In general, wear the best armor you can.
There are NO equivalent spells.
-- Armor Enhancement Bonus - This is the ENHANCEMENT value of your armor.
+5 chainmail will give an extra +5AC ABOVE the 4AC from the chainmail.
Equivalent spells are Mages Armor, Magical Vestment.
Both Armor AND BRACERS can provide Armor enhancement bonus.
-- Shield Bonus - This is the total armor from a shield. It is 1,2, or 4
points base for a light, heavy, tower shield. THEN, add the ENHANCEMENT
bonus of the shield for the total Shield AC Bonus. Since ONLY a shield can
add shield enhancement, it is easier to just combine the base shield AC and
the enhancement.
-- Dodge AC is an unusual case in that ALL sources stack with each other, up
to the AC cap of 20 points per category. Boots are the only item slot, and
thus the reason why Sun Soul boots are so popular (and the UMD to use them).
Boots of Hardiness are a 2nd choice.
Spells/feats that add Dodge are Bard AC Aura, Luck of Heroes(I think),
dodge feat, Haste, Divine Shield.
-- DEX AC comes from your DEX modifier. It is limited by your Armor Bonus, in
that full plate allows 1 point max, and robes(0 Armor) allows unlimited
DEX AC. You typically want to get a DEX item enough that your allowed DEX
AC bonus is maxed. Note: If you are "flat footed", which usually comes from
stun or paralyze, you LOSE this bonus! This is why a stunned rogue is a
dead rogue usually.
-- Bonus AC is a wierd category that includes stuff like the WISDOM AC bonus
for monks, and also INT bonus for Duelist and Invisible Blades. The +1ac
per 5 monk levels applies too. This AC seemingly has no category and
stacks with everything else. It also includes Palemaster/RDD "natural AC"
bonuses. This stuff just "works" and can be considered category-less.
b) Attribute Items - This should be pretty obvious, but you want items that
boost your attributes, depending on class.
The first priority for a warrior is STR, except for a dex-based warrior of
course. The bonus AB is very important.
You want enough DEX to max out your possible AC bonus as discussed
previously. A warrior with 8DEX will want to get to 12 for full plate, or
16 with mithril plate.
Everyone can benefit from CON items.
INT items do no good at all, except for wizards(duh), and Invisible Blades.
WIS items are almost worthless for all non-pally/cleric/monks.
CHA items are useful for paladin,blackguard,warlock,FavSoul,Sorc, and bard
to varying levels. Rarely, a warrior might use a CHA item to pump their UMD
skill a couple of points to use a particular item.
c) Immunities - Spells take care of these in most cases. However, in case of
dispel, it is nice to have certain immunities. I consider them lower
priority though, since spells duplicate their effect. Notable exceptions
are Immune Crits/Sneaks, Immune Knockdown, and Damage Resistance/Reduction.
d) Clickies - These cover any item that you can use an ability from. These are
often overlooked. For example, a low level Brooch of Shielding can pump the
AC by +4 for 3minutes for a dualwielder or 2handed user. This is a very
strong ability! Other powerful clickies are Displacement or Imp Invis which
can make you take 1/2 damage in hard fights. The Rod of Ghostly Visage
gives a long lasting damage reduction for early/mid levels.
Healing items can be handy when rest is restricted. A single Wand of cure
critical wounds can provide quite a bit of out of combat healing for only
1 slot and no weight used.
Scrolls can be carried by rogue-ish types with High UMD, although many chars
will already be able to use several scrolls. These can be really handy for
when not in a party... or for limited use spells.
Imagine a mage that carries some Mord Disjunction scrolls. They wont want
to waste their slots on a spell that is so rarely used. BUT, if vs some
boss with heavy buffs and/or uber spell resistance, the Disj scrolls might
be really handy.
On a persistent world where death = big XP and gold penalties, a single
scroll of Etherealness to bail you out when attacked by PvP, or when you
are losing can be extremely worthwhile to have.
Said scrolls will have HORRIBLE DCs, so should be used only for buffs, and
spells that require no save.
e) Abilities - Sometimes you can find items that give you feats/abilities.
These can be very powerful, such as the Improved Evasion ring you can find.
A warrior type might find an item that lets them Whirlwind. Look for these
items, as they can provide mighty abilities.
f) Regeneration - Excellent for out-of-combat healing. Regeneration is just
the thing for keeping your HPs up when crawling through the dungeon fighting
weaker foes. Especially lategame, take regeneration when possible.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
VII. Weapon Choice for Warriors: Dualwield, 1h+shield, or 2hander?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This is a pretty common question and the decision is usually made randomly,
based on gut-feel, or personal preference.
Here is the SHORT VERSION:
-Warriors with great strength and/or frenzied berserker go 2hander.
-Warriors with spellcasting abilities or damage boosters go 1h+shield, since
they get shield benefit when casting (when wpn dmg is irrelevant)
-Warriors with high DEX always go dualwield.
-Dualwielding becomes stronger as static bonuses increase. These are things
like divine favor, bardbuff, wpn specialization, higher enhancement weapons,
weapons with elemental damage. Anything that boosts damage per hit.
Here comes the LONG VERSION:
Onehander and Shield obviously provides a large amount of AC. Up to +7 when
a +5 heavy shield is obtained, and even more into epic levels.
This can be helpful or not, depending on the situation. Lets look at the
best-case and worst-case scenarios.
Monster hits you normally on a 13/13/18/20 per round. With +7AC shield, that
becomes 20/20/20/20. The cumulative toHit chances went from 35+35+10+5 = 85
to 5x4=20. Clearly you can see that you will take approximately one FOURTH
the damage by wearing a shield.
This is a best-case analysis.
Worst case would be where the monster has a 60/60/55/50 and you only have a
30AC, so you get beat up no matter what. This is extremely unlikely however,
only happening vs a few party-only boss-monsters.
More likely is the case where monsters have a 30/25/20 and you have a 50AC
already. Cranking it up to 57 does not buy you anything at all.
You can usually expect a shield to reduce your damage taken by about 50% in
most situations. There are some exceptions though.
1) If your foes include casters, then having a shield is irrelevant. Only
doing damage is relevant to kill them quicker.
2) If you are not being actively attacked and the monster is beating on your
wizard buddy lets say, then a shield is not helpful.
On the other hand, if you are casting a spell or using an item/ability, then
your DAMAGE is irrelevant. In this case, the shield is very very useful
and much better than either dualwield or 2hander.
Two Handed Weapons provide a damage bonus. The bonus however only comes from
three possible sources. Hence, it is not always a good idea to sacrifice
shield for a 2hander. Note that 2handers are better at Disarming due to
increased weapon size.
1) Base Weapon Damage - A greatsword does 2d6 or 7 average dmg. Compared to
a longsword with 4.5 this grants 2.5 extra damage per hit. Great at level
one, but that 2.5 bonus damage becomes irrelevant as levels are gained.
2) 50% more STR bonus. For every 2 points of STR damage done, add 1 bonus
point from 2handed. It is useful, peaking around level 20 then becomes
less useful later on.
3) Power Attack - Gains +6dmg instead of +3 for 1handed. This makes power
attack much more useful for 2handers, since they gain double benefit.
Note that frenzied berserker pumps this to +10 or +12 even. Improved
power attack doubles the penalty and benefit on top of that.
Dualwielding adds lots of extra attacks. You must have a 19dex to get all
3 bonus attacks, with 17 needed for 2, and 13dex for just 1 decent attack.
Therefore, only DEX-based characters should dualwield.
It is just dumb for a level 30 STR-warrior to have 7 mainhand attacks at a
penalty, and sacrifice a shield for only 2 offhand attacks.
In MOTB, with a possible 7 attacks including 1 from haste, only 3 offhand
attacks is not very impressive. Therefore, you have to take it a step
further...
With MOTB, you can get Perfect 2wpn fighting. This basically says that you get
the same number of OFFHAND attacks as mainhand attacks! The beauty of this,
is that it includes BONUS attacks!
Example: Take a lvl16monk/14fighter with 26bab. That is 6 base attacks with
a shortsword.
Normal attk sequence is: 26/21/16/11/6/1.
With Greater 2wpn that adds: 26/21/16 and ALL attacks gain -2 AB penalty.
Perfect 2wpn changes this to 26/21/16/11/6/1, thus granting 3 extra attacks.
One might note that gaining attacks at -15,-20, -25AB penalty is not really that
fantastic. Thus perfect2wpn isnt needed. WRONG!
Take the same char w/kamas, haste with greater flurry: 26/26/26/26/21/16/11/6/1
Perfect 2wpn buffs grants 26/26/26/26/21/16/11/6/1!!
The 3 bottom-feeder attacks are mostly worthless, but the Haste and Flurry
matched attacks are awesome!
Since EVERYONE will be hasted at higher levels, perfect 2wpn adds AT LEAST
1 attack at full AB, along with up to 3 heavily penalized attacks.
Conclusion: Perfect 2wpn fighting is worth it, and should be a priority if
dualwielding. Dont dualwield without it.
Note that ALL attacks get at least a -2 penalty, plus the need for extra
feats taken to support dualwielding.
An important note on dualwielding is that the offhand attacks are at 50%
STR penalty. In other words, bonus damage from STR is cut in half.
It is therefore dumb for a STR-based warrior to take a penalty to all 4
base attacks, and sacrifice the 150% STR bonus on 2handers, just to gain
1 extra attack at 50% STR value.
Dualwielders with little STR bonuses gain 3 bonus attacks, basically increasing
offense by 67% (4 attacks to 7), or 60% with haste (5 to 8). This does not
factor in the -2 penalty of course, since that becomes complicated.
Suffice to say, that dualwield results in a large offensive gain.
Dualwielding is ideal for any character with big static bonuses, such as
heavily enchanted weapons or sneak attack.
Let's run some examples:
Feel free to skip this section as it is mathematical.
Assume 3 characters.
X is a cleric with 22STR, 13DEX
Y is a frenzied berserker with 42STR (RDD, max enhancement), 13DEX
Z is a shortsword-dexfighter with 10STR, 34DEX
Weapon is a longsword/greatsword with +5 and 1d6sonic.
base wpn dmg = 4.5longsword +2wpn spec(assume 4 fighter somewhere) +5wpn
+3.5sonic +STR bonus = 15 +STR.
X uses divine favor for +5dmg and Battletide +2dmg
X 1hander = 28 damage x5 = 140 and +7AC
X 2hander = 33.5 damage x5 = 167.5
X dualwield = 28 dmg x5 + 25offhand = 165 -2 hit penalty.
Y uses frenzy and normal power attack, with level5 enhancement from FB.
Y 1hander = 36 dmg x5 = 180 +7AC
Y 2hander = 51.5 dmg x5 = 253
Y dualwield = 36 x5 + 23 = 203 -2 hit penalty.
Z 1hander = 14 dmg(shortsword) x5 = 70 +7AC
Z 2hander = N/A, since not finesse-able.
Z dualwield = 14 x5 + 14x3 = 112 -2hit penalty.
If we gave everyone +10 weapons with 7d6 (24.5) elemental damage,
X 1h = 54 x5 = 270 +7AC
X 2h = 59.5 x5 = 298
X dw = 54 x5 + 51 = 321
Y 1h = 62 x5 = 310 +7AC
Y 2h = 77.5 x5 = 387.5
Y dw = 62 x5 + 54 = 364
Z 1h = 40 x5 = 200
Z 2h = n/a
Z dw = 40 x5 + 40x3 = 320
I am too lazy to run the calculations with minimal weapons, but we can
draw some conclusions easily enough.
1) You can see that as static bonuses (Wpn Spec, enhanced wpns, bonus wpn dmg,
etc) are increased, the benefit they get from 2handed is reduced, and
benefit from dualwield is increased.
2) Weaker weapons and lower stat bonuses greatly reduce dualwield benefits and
improve benefits of 2handed.
--------------
VIII. Scaling.
--------------
This section is an overview of why certain builds are used on
particular worlds, based on scaling. It is intended to give a feel for
what build to use, for a particular server. Feel free to skip to the builds
section.
There are many modules for NWN, some with mighty magical items,
and others with weak items. Each server is different, but I will classify
them as low to high magic worlds. My median point would be the NWN2 Original
Campaign, with +5 equipment, and up to +8 or +10 stat items. Low magic
servers tend to favor casters, and certainly encourage party buffing. To
compensate the monsters(mobs) usually have higher magic resistance, or hit
softer but have lots of hitpoints (so more spells are needed to kill).
In some cases, the ability to rest and recover spells is limited. The high
magic servers make warrior types much more powerful, since they can acquire
items that grant tons of immunities and make many spell buffs redundant.
Some of these servers do the opposite and allow resting often, and/or make
really hard to hit monsters that are vulnerable to magic.
You will discover that some builds do really well with more powerful items,
while some do not. I will explain why this occurs here.
First, we discuss weapon scaling. Our baseline is a keen scimitar.
It has a 30% crit (15-20), and does +100% extra dmg. Its normalized value
is then 130%. That means, a typical fighter gets about 130% out of his
weapon, when you average out crits.
A weaponmaster however makes that a 13-20 (40%), and does +200% dmg.
So the wpnmaster has a wpn value of 180%.
This is why many high magic servers are dominated by weaponmasters, because
they gain a lot more oomph out of the really high end weapons, and +STR items.
Another factor is number of attacks. A strange monk/wpnmaster dexfighter is
weak on a low magic world. Those 9 kama attacks seems strong, but when
each one only hits for 10 damage it is not so effective.
Add super weapons and tons of +STR and all the sudden those 9 attacks are
very powerful! This is why Haste and similar bonus attacks such as
from dualwielding are so strong on higher magic worlds.
On the defensive end, dex-based characters really shine on high magic worlds.
Normally, a warrior in full plate and 12dex has 19 AC, plus any shield.
Extra attribute pumps will not affect this warrior's AC.
The monk/wpnmaster with 22dex and 14wis has 18AC (excluding other bonuses).
Basically, he barely breaks even on low/mid magic worlds with weaker items.
However, imagine the same char on a world with easily accessible +12 stat
items. With +12 wis and dex, the base AC rises to 30!
Let's look at static buffs. These do NOT scale well. The cleric with
divine favor gets some amazing capabilities on low/mid magic worlds.
Tons of great buffs including +5dmg from divine favor, and automatic +5 wpns
and armor with buffs.
However, these are less powerful on higher magic worlds. Example:
cleric with +5 buffed wpn and +5div favor does great damage as opposed to a
wpnmaster with +1 weapons on low magic worlds.
On the high magic world, the +5 wpn bonus is redundant, and the +5dmg from
div favor isnt so strong when wpns are +10 and hit for 4d6 elemental. In
this case, the weaponmaster crit bonus that multiplies weapon damage is
stronger than a static +5 buff.
Barbarians really get the shaft. If they can get +12STR/CON items, there is
no point in Raging...its just an AC debuff! This is even more the case with
MOTB where you can get huge STR items quickly.
Casters are similarly affected. When weapons hit for 20 damage, those 20d6
polar rays and chain lightings are impressive! When warriors do 200 damage
in 1 round, then the same spells seem rather lacking.
--------------------
IX. Class Overviews (still under construction)
--------------------
This section reviews every class, and explains in general, how many levels
one might wish to take in the class, and why.
a) Arcane Scholar - An offensive caster class. It requires Empower which you
should have anyways, plus two weak skill focus feats. However, at level 1, it
gives you back 1 feat (maximize) so you are only out 1 net feat to qualify.
Well, plus the 8 spellcraft which is trivial... and useful anyways.
The main ability of note is the improved empower. The downside of the class
is no melee or real defensive capabilities at all.
3: Gives improved empower, which is really nice. Gaining 50% more power for
only 1 additional spell level slot is very powerful. This allows for a
36d6 horrid wilting!
10: Anything past 3, you mine as well take it all the way to 10 to get the
improved maximize and free quicken.
b) Arcane Archer - The only useful attribute of this class is the enchanted
arrows. Every odd level, the arrows gain +1AB and damage. Note the damage
is not shown on the character screen! AA has a high BAB, so any number
of levels may be taken, with heavy emphasis on the odd levels.
The prereqs are rather steep, so only a dedicated archer would ever take
any levels in AA. Therefore, you should take 9 levels if possible.
Unfortunately, in MOTB, archery is even weaker than ever. Since AA is capped
at 10 levels, you cannot continue the enhancement bonus.
c) Arcane Trickster - This is an unusual combination of rogue and mage. Wizards
are most qualified since they can take the best advantage of the high
skill access granted, thanks to their high INT. The class grants sneaks as if
a full level rogue, and casting ability at full level too.
Therefore, I can see no reason
at all to take less than the 10 full levels in the class. The bad news
is that the BAB of the class is really bad, as are the HPs.
Pre-epic, there is not much room for character design if you choose to
be a trickster with 9th level spells. Post epic, a lot more possibilities
are opened.
10: Should always take the full 10 due to the strong abilities.
d) Assassin - This class is basically a prestege version of the rogue, with
fairly easy skill-only requirements. It is mostly used to avoid XP
penalties that might occur if rogue was used instead. The death attack is
same as sneak and stacks fully. The DC of the save is pretty low,
increasing as the assassin level increases, but can be disregarded.
In MOTB, the capped 10 assassin lvls ensures that your death attack will very
rarely succeed. Still, if you get lucky and they DO roll a 1, it makes for
a really easy fight!
Note that taking assassin AND rogue together is usually a bad idea, since it
will cheat you out of your rogue bonus feats.
2: Minimal death attack, Uncanny Dodge. Used by casters or dexfighters that
want uncanny dodge without XP penalty for only 2 levels.
8: Gives Hide in Plain Sight, as well as a few useful spells such as Invis
if the hide fails. Improved Uncanny is pretty nice too.
9+ RARELY taken, since it penalizes -3bab for a fairly short duration
Improved Invisibility.
e) Barbarian - A so-so base class with a Rage bonus that STACKS with those
gained from items or spells. While the high HPs are good, as is the gained
damage reduction at higher levels, multiclassing is definitely useful.
1: A single level for weapon/armor proficiencies AND the +10% movespeed is good.
At low levels, the rage is sometimes useful.
f) Bard - A good base class that gets solid bonuses evenly throughout its
levels.
The bard has decent spell progression with a lot of buff-type spells, but
rather few good offensive choices. Bards get short range auras that buff
buddies and their most powerful ability is the Curse Song, which is a
hugely powerful debuff that maxes out at level 16. These usually mean the
bard is included in warrior type builds. Bard spells are best used to
buff and not offensively. In fact, my bards usually wear platemail and
only cast before combat to buff.
The best bet is to take 1 level or 16. With MOTB, 21 bard is very viable.
Note that battlecaster can be used to cast spells in mithril plate & shield.
1: Used for skill and RDD access by warrior builds. +1 ab/dmg aura is nice
too, and this is a very popular choice.
2: Gives a few 1st level spells. Rarely used except to even out an odd number
of class levels.
16: Maximum curse song power, 6th level spell access, strong auras.
This is the best warrior choice as curse song is awesome.
21: Gains access to Hymm/Song of Requiem which is pretty powerful, plus a few
aura pumps and access to the legionairre bardsong at level 18.
g) Blackguard - A good class with several nice advantages. The 5 hide is a
rather stupid prereq, so don't forget about it. BG is taken by casters and
warriors alike. They get a lot of abilities, but there are only 3 that
are significant: wpn/armor proficiencies, Turn Undead, and +CHA to saves.
Most of their good abilities are front-loaded and obtained early on.
After 4, there is little reason to level BG.
2: wpn/armor feats. +CHA Save bonus! Taken by warlocks, sorcs, bards since
they can get extra utility out of their high CHA which they need anyways.
3: Turn Undead, which gives Divine Shield access. Divine Might is also
available, but generally much less useful than Shield. Be SURE to take your
3rd BG level on a FEAT level (9,12,15,18) to get Shield/Might access.
4: adds 1d6 sneak on top of other stuff. Useful for rule of 4. i.e.
16bard/4bg for 16bab. In other words to round out odd number of class lvls.
7: 2d6 sneak.
10: 3d6 sneak. Used only by rogue types to increase BAB without losing
too much sneak attack progression.
h) Cleric - An excellent class that works well as a warrior type or a caster.
Clerics can use Warpriest to gain more caster levels, which is often done
if focused on fighting. Otherwise, they are splashed since even a level 1
cleric gets 2 domains with appropriate abilities.
Note that clerics gain NOTHING past level 1, so many clerics seek to multiclass
with warpriest, stormlord, sacredfist to get more abilities.
1: Mainly the 2 domain feats. These include
-- toughness (earth)
-- uncanny dodge (air)
-- evasion (water)
-- 10% movespeed (travel)
-- feint (trickery)
-- Weapon Focus and proficiency in martial or exotic (War)
-- Luck of Heroes (Luck)
-- Blindfighting (darkness)
13: Just enough to get persistent divine favor for permanent +3ab/dmg bonus.
It got nerfed from +5ab/dmg.
i) Divine Champion - Easy prereq class that is based on having good CHA in
theory. It grants feats as a fighter on even numbers, as well as a saving
throw bonus every 2 levels. Hence you ALWAYS take even numbers of this class.
Basically, you take this class if taking fighter would cause XP penalties.
Note that taking DC levels at lvl21+ will promote the bonus feats to EPIC,
allowing you to take a short list of epic feats including great wisdom.
Any even number works well.
6: Picks up Divine Wrath for free, which is a nice bonus for bards,FavSouls
and other CHA-heavy classes.
j) Druid - A good class that is similar to cleric. Gets a free pet, wildshape,
and decent buffs through spells. It would be very rare to see low
levels of druid taken, since cleric would buy a lot more. Most druid
special abilities are found at higher levels.
Note that druids have much fewer self-buffs than clerics, and tend to play
a lot more like a hybrid rather than specializing in either combat or casting.
5-8: Wild Shape - Quite rare. Only used to burn Wildshape to get Elephant
Skin for immunity to crits by a defensive warrior type. Druids also
get a buff that makes one immune to knockdown for 1 round per lvl.
12: Dire wildshape. Tempting for fighter/monk/druid that optimize wildshape
for offensive fighting. Note that Treeform is gained here too, which is a
big improvement over wildshape.
A Treant is actually considered an ANIMAL, so many of your buffs work just
as well as on the bear, but with better AC and immunities.
16: Elemental shape. Combined with warrior levels to get 26BAB at level 30.
20: Elder elemental shape. Works great with 30 level maximum. Elder elemental
plus monk is pretty strong.
k) Duelist - I am not a huge fan as duelist is pretty picky about prereqs and
how their stuff works. Dexfighters and monks benefit the most.
The main advantage you get is your INT bonus applies to your AC.
Items count now. This ONLY works if you have no armor or shield though.
Plus, the 1d6 to piercing weapons is kind of worthless since you CANNOT
dualwield and keep the bonus.
1 or 2: Not worth taking, since AC is capped at +INT OR duelist lvl.
3: A wizard could squeeze 3 AC out of this.
4: Good for a monk and most characters as they wont have more than 4 INT bonus
anyways, and works well with the rule of 4.
6: Gains 1d6 to piercing wpns and NO OFFHAND equipped. Note that SPEAR works
too. Also flourish which adds 2d6 for 1 hit. Also, gives a reasonable
6 round haste.
7: Elaborate Parry gained so any parry-based char takes at least 7 duelist.
10: Precise strike to +2d6.
l) Dwarven Defender - This class was quite strong at epic levels. Since it is
capped at 10 levels, it loses a lot of power. Requires dwarf obviously,
and a 13DEX for dodge prereq.
The damage reduction is still pretty powerful, so this class works well for
a more defensively oriented warrior.
New in NWN2 is a nice static dodge bonus that improves as you level.
NOTE the LAWFUL alignment restriction to this class!
1: +1AC that stacks and the Defensive Stance. The prereqs generally mean
you will take more than just 1 level though unless a caster.
2: Adds uncanny dodge. Well worth it for a dex-based character.
4: Another +1AC.
6: Gain 3 damage reduction and improved uncanny dodge.
7: +1 AC.
8 levels gains not much new.
10: DR goes to 6, and you get +4AC.
m) Eldritch Knight - Easy prerequisites overall. This is a great class that
improves HP some, and a huge AB boost. The first level taken gimps your
casting by 1 level. From there on out, it is basically a superior version
of wizard or sorceror. Hence, there is no reason not to take all 10 levels
of it. Thus, EK replaces any wiz/sorc levels after 5/6 respectively.
Seriously, do you want 4HP per lvl and 1/2BAB or 6HP per lvl and full BAB?
All a sorc loses for example is their worthless familiar progression.
The EK ALSO works for bard, but you lose Auras and Songs. So it is rather
wasteful for a bard to take this.
10: No reason to take less. Seriously, EK is an incredible class!
n) Favored Soul - A divine sorceror that is pretty much forced to be
melee-oriented. They have several nice abilities as they level (opposed to
clerics that get all their goodies like Turn Undead, and domains at level 1).
FS should almost always be combined with Paladin or Blackguard to gain a
big saving throw bonus (due to CHA), and also access to Divine Might/Shield
through Turn Undead. Take advantage of their high CHA in these ways, and
remember to take a bit of UseMagicDevice skill since your CHA will boost it
substantially for free.
NOTE: Be sure to choose your diety wisely, as their favored weapon will be
what you get weapon proficiency/focus/specialization in!
At epic levels, those level 5,10,15,20 elem resists can be used to take EPIC
SPELLS instead! (assuming your character qualifies for them)
12: Access to wpn spec. The ideal level if you are taking stormlord or sacred
fist.
16: Ideal if going warpriest to keep a 26bab. (i.e. 16fs/8fighter/6WarPriest)
20: You get a permanent damage resistance plus a possible free epic feat instead
of the elemental resist.
o) Fighter - An excellent class that is taken for free feats, and access to
weapon and armor feats, including tower shield for defensive types. The
class is rather front-loaded and most builds take 8 or less.
NOTE: When you take fighter after char level 20, the free fighter feats get
"promoted", and you can take them as EPIC feats from a short list including
epic prowess, armorskin, epic toughness, epic wpnfocus/spec, damage reduction.
Many builds frontload 2 levels of fighter for bonus normal feats, then use
6 more levels after 20 to take Prowess,ArmorSkin, and Greater WpnFocus
for free.
1: Wpn/Armor proficiency +1 free feat. Casters may take this.
2: 1 extra feat for only 1 extra level.
4: Access to weapon specialization for +2dmg per hit.
8: A great pick which allows access to Greater and EPIC weapon focus. That is
a +3AB advantage over a standard wpnfocus-only character!
12: Fairly rare except for dualwielders, or wpnmasters with access to
Greater/Epic Wpn Specialization for another +6 dmg per hit.
Don't take more than 12 fighter. You should never need THAT many bonus feats
and can get a lot more out of using other classes instead.
p) Frenzied Berserker - This class is taken by warrior builds that wield
2handers and/or hit really hard. The main ability is to gain a bonus
attack through their frenzy. It is actually lousy with -4AC and a STR
bonus that does not stack with any items. Hence, one needs to hit hard
to make that extra attack worth it. Note that this becomes useless in epic
levels since you are bound to have haste instead... which does NOT stack.
Supreme cleave is only useful if you hit hard enough to get the killing
blow most of the time.
It is a very front-loaded class and should never exceed 5 levels.
2: Adds frenzy, toughness, Supreme Cleave. rarely taken.
5: Free immunity to deathmagic when frenzying. Also, improves power attack
a lot! For a -3ab penalty, it adds +10 damage per hit. This is the most
commonly taken level point.
Any more points is usually wasted, as increased frenzy is rarely useful,
and extra +2 from power attk is not worth 5 more levels.
q) Harper Agent - A truly bad prestege class with heavy requirements. The
prereqs are horribly bad too, using feats that nobody ever uses. Its one
saving grace is that it now adds caster levels after 1st lvl.
Therefore, a wizard could use his bonus feats to offset the prereq garbage
and use his high INT to offset the prereq skills. For -1 casting level,
a wizard could take all 5 harper lvls and pick up nice skill access, with
some bonus abilities and slight HP increase. I'd rather just take duelist
for tumble, AC.
r) Invisible Blade - This is a good class for rogue or dexfighters to take. It
allows these to continue their rogue-ish skills, and provides a nice AC pump
based on INT. Best of all, the high BAB progression makes it a great 5 level
class to round out an odd number of class levels in a build.
Note that the Bleed sneak attack thing will NOT penetrate damage reduction and
is almost always useless.
5: If you are going to take IB, go ahead and max it out.
s) Monk - Monks have three purposes. First is unarmed fighter, which means lots
of monk levels. Second is a kama fighter, which can mean anywhere from
1 to 16 levels... usually 11 for greater flurry.
The third is to add a big AC bonus to unarmored characters. The tumble
skill access usually adds in an extra 1 or 2 AC points.
Monks have High saving throws for ALL THREE TYPES!
Monks are also used with the new Sacred Fist class.. typically 11 levels worth.
1: Big AC bonus from Wisdom. Flurry of Blows, and Kama usage. Typically
taken from shapeshifting druids, and sometimes from dexfighters or
unarmored mage types and even clerics on high magic worlds.
Note that the wisdom AC rarely exceeds that of a shield however, and so is
only useful for those that cannot use a shield (dualwielding, mage, etc)
2: Adds deflect arrows and Evasion.
11: Gives Greater Flurry for 2 bonus attacks at no penalty! +2 free AC,
and improved monk speed.
16: Solid unarmed damage, spell resistance, +3 AC, even better monk speed.
This level is common for unarmed fighters that want a 16BAB for another
attack.. i.e. 16monk/4fighter = 16bab, and comes with admantite weapon
penetration ability.
t) Neverwinter Nine - Prereqs are either really easy or really hard for most
servers/modules. Solo, don't be shy about using the console to add the
prereq background feat needed to qualify. The NW9 pack quite a bit of utility
into their 5 levels including full BAB progression.
3: Adds 10% move and 2d6 sneak without taking the BAB hit of rogue. Can be used
by rogue types to gain some BAB and keep heavy sneak dmg. If you have access,
this is an excellent way to round out a rogue-based build.
5: Guess I need to test if All Out Assault maxes sneaks or elemental dmg.
I doubt it. Good for other odd-level-classes like 7 weaponmaster.
u) Paladin - A weak base class with some casting ability. Fortunately, the
high level spells are fairly strong. Note that your casting level is ONE HALF
of your pally level. Practiced Caster can add 4 effective levels though.
Example: lvl16 pally with Prac Cast has a casting lvl of 16/2 +4=12.
Pally is more often splashed by cha-based casters.
1 level in paladin is worthless.
2: Taken for CHA bonus to saving throws. Very common among high CHA chars
such as warlocks, sorcs, bards as it gives them armor feats as well.
4: Gains turn undead which gives access to Divine Shield, Divine Might feats.
YOU MUST take the 4th pally level on a feat-giving level to get access!!!
Most go with 3 blackguard instead for the same benefit.
v) Palemaster - Easy requirements for a casting prestege class. They give
casting levels every odd level. I would expect every even number, but
whatever.
In any case, taking too many levels gimps your casting ability. Note that
the summons and death touch are complete garbage. However, their defensive
capabilities are awesome, and the +6 stacking AC is the best benefit in most
cases.
With MOTB's level 30 cap, a pure caster has much more latitude to take PM
levels without gimping their offensive casting power too much.
A 20wiz/10PM for example with prac caster has a 29 caster lvl, and gains LOTS
of immunities and AC.
1: The most common for pure casters. Sure you lose 1bab, but gain +2AC and
dont lose anything, except for BAB. Heck, you even gain slightly better
fort saves.
5: Another +2ac, and +4 fort saves for -2 casting levels.
7: Gains immunity to stun,paralyze effects for another -1 casting level.
10: Immune to crits is amazing, as is another +2AC. But, your casting is
gimped, and your AB is horrible so this rules out bard/warrior types.
w) Ranger - Another weak base class with limited and mostly useless casting.
In MOTB, they got a big boost from perfect 2 wpn fighting at level 21.
Remember that their casting level is 1/2 of their ranger levels, and their
animal companion is similarly gimped. They get less HP than other
warrior classes, but gain many more base skillpoints.
They are similar to a fighter/rogue multiclass in one base class, and their
favored enemy becomes exponentially better as they level up.
Note that their archer,duelwield feats do NOT work in medium+ armor.
However, they do have excellent skillpoints per level.
1: Favored enemy. Weak.
11: Gains Improved Rapid Shot or Greater 2wpn fighting. This is handy for
STR-based warriors that do not want to have to get 19 natural DEX for
the dualwield. Then, use a mithril chain shirt (light) and a DEX item
to retain decent AC. Free Evasion doesn't hurt either, as does +3 to
3 favored enemies.
17: Hide in Plain Sight - Great ability, but 17 levels in ranger seems
excessive since they have no sneak attack to really take advantage.
21: Gain Perfect 2 weapon fighting, WITHOUT needing 25 dex! Does not leave
much room to work with, but is the best way to make a STR-based dualwielder.
x) Red Wizard of Thay
A wizard-extension class that improves spell power for a specialist wizard.
The primary bonus is a +1DC for all specialized spells, AND extra +DC bonuses
at epic levels. At level 10, the RedWiz adds 5 bonus caster levels.
Normally this would be worthless as there is no difference between 30 and 35
caster levels for a 20d6 maxed spell, right? Wrong! Spells gain +1DC for
every 3 levels past 20, so the RW can potentially increase spell DC a few
extra points. Plus, it increases spell penetration even moreso.
Take any even number of levels in RedWiz. 6 or 10 are the best points as you
gain the bonus free feats at 5,10. NOTE: Once you take a red wizard level,
you will be UNABLE to learn any further spells in the new excluded spell
school! For this reason, and that most benefits occur in epic levels, I
recommend backloading RW levels until past 17.
y) Red Dragon Disciple - RDD is a very strong prestege class with 1 annoying
requirement. It is clearly a warrior-only class, but requires a spellcasting
class to qualify. This means that almost all RDD builds are bards.
In MOTB however, sorcerors can toss in 4 levels of RDD to pump their fighting
capability.
They gain AC bonuses that stack with EVERYTHING, plus attribute bonuses
that act as if they were naturally part of the character.
In other words, the +2INT gained provides spell access (if any) and gives
a bonus skillpoint on level-ups.
In MOTB, melee-oriented sorcerors can take some RDD levels to pump up their
AC, HPs, and stats. 4 RDD levels works best.
4: +2AC, +4STR for only 4 levels and -1BAB is a great deal for warriors that
need lots of other levels such as weaponmasters. With MOTB, mainclass sorcs
and bards also can take 4 levels for the nice benefits.
8 should NEVER be taken since it provides not much more than level 4.
10: The standard, comes with immunities, and a huge stat boost of +4STR,
+2INT,+2CON,+2CHA, and another 2 points of AC.
z) Rogue - Just about any number of rogue levels are taken, with exception of
1,5,9,13,17. Rogues get bonus feats at 10,13,16,19. Even levels usually
do not provide anything and thus are only taken to satisfy rule of 4 (BAB),
as Odd levels provide the sneak attack damage increments.
Rogues give 8 skillpoints per level and are taken at level 1 if possible
for maximum skillpoints.
1: ONLY gives access to skills, 1d6 sneak. not used much due to -1BAB.
3: Gives 2d6 sneak and evasion. A solid choice.
4: Gives uncanny dodge and helps satisfy rule of 4.
7: 4d6 sneak. rarely taken, as it gobbles lots of levels, but does not quite
make it to the point of getting free rogue feats.
11: 6d6 sneak PLUS a free rogue feat like improved evasion.
16: Adds a 3rd rogue feat, and helps with rule of 4. Solid choice with 4
warrior levels to get a good BAB.
za) Sacred Fist - A monk/divine hybrid that works best for clerics. Druids are
so-so, but lose out on a lot of their abilities. Fav Soul/Spir Shaman lose
abilities and have lower WIS normally, and are not the best choices.
Pally/Ranger are poor choices.
This class is powerful, but limited. You pretty much have to play with
unarmed (monk) style combat, but with clerical buffs.
I recommend 11 monk levels for greater flurry and 9 clerical levels, which
gives 9th lvl spells, with 10SF of course. Add more monk for more damage at
the cost of spells, or less monk for better spell-power at the cost of unarmed
damage/speed/AC.
Note: SF gives 80% clerical progression. 10SF = 8 cleric levels basically.
SF also adds FULL BAB progression. However, equipping ANY WEAPON will cause
a -8AB penalty!
10: Always max out Sacred Fist levels.
zb) Shadow Thief of Ahn - Basically a bad version of assassin.
You gain free feats at 2 and 4 which looks desirable.
In general, this class is worthless because it requires a garbage feat as
a prereq, AND requires a LOT of useless skills.
A caster looking for an easy way to get Tumble,UMD access should go with
assassin instead.
zc) Shadowdancer - This class is kind of like a rogue, but without sneak
attacks. It seems to defeat the whole purpose. It has rather hefty
requirements. They are a front loaded class, so typically only a few levels
are taken usually by rogue types.
1: Hide in Plain Sight - This is the key ability and the only real reason to
take shadowdancer. It is a REALLY good ability for a rogue.
2: Most will already have this, but can pick up evasion and uncanny, as
well as a probably useless darkvision.
3+ They get a few more things, but nothing worth taking more levels for.
Avoid anything past level 3 in shadowdancer.
zd) Sorceror - Arcane casting class. CHA based, which is not a useful
attribute at all by itself (as opposed to Wizardly INT used for skillpoints)
They typically multiclass by tossing in either paladin, blackguard, or
warlock to get a big saving throw bonus. In addition, pally/BG or even
1 level of cleric is enough to gain access to Divine Shield. This is an
amazing ability for surviving tough fights, and puts their high CHA to work.
Note that you must have 18 sorc casting levels to use 9th lvl spells!
With MOTB, sorcs now can retain solid casting power and also fight relatively
well by multi-classing to Pally,Blackguard, Eld Knight, and even Red Dragon D.
Note that sorcs gain NO abilities as they level up, so taking Eld K, Arcane
Trickster, or even Palemaster/Harperscout levels is almost a given.
ze) Spirit Shaman
A druid class with sorceror spellcasting system. They lack wild shape and a
pet, but pick up some other interesting abilities. The best way to go is to
get just enough WIS to have spell access(including using items), then max out
your CHA for the highest possible spell DC. Combo it with Warlock, Pally,
Blackguard, cleric to take advantage of the high CHA with +saves, or divine
shield. I recommend using spirit shaman as a CASTER moreso than a warrior,
as it has the best synergy.
As SS gain most of their really good abilities later on (free heal upon death,
free Ethereal spell as needed), I would take 20 levels... or at least avoid
multiclassing too much with the other divine PrCs.
(i.e. SS10/Warpriest10/Stormlord10 would be a loser)
zf) Stormlord - A strong divine class that focuses on spear for melee, and 3
throwing weapons. Stormlord is ideal for Favored Soul and clerics, and ok
for druids and spirit shamans.
I highly recommend monkey grip for 1handed spear +shield in most cases.
It is possible to make an adequate "throwing cleric" build that acts much like
an archer, using rapid fire archery feat OR with tossing shurikan with flurry
of blows from monk levels.
Note that you have to CLICK the spear power-up every 20 rounds or it wears
out.
8: Gives most benefits of the class and is ideal for a 26BAB build.
(such as cleric8/stormlord8 and 16warrior levels)
10: Usually the best choice, as the Storm Avatar for immunity to knockdown is
really a NICE ability for a hard fight. Lightning immune is great too, as
is the final favored weapon enchantment bonus for only 2 more levels.
zg) Warlock - Once considered the worst main class in the game. They have
two roles. First is to use Dark Ones Own Luck to add big save bonuses to
high CHA characters. Second is to go all out in warlock and zap stuff.
It is better to avoid multiclassing when going mainclass warlock, since so
many of their abilities scale with level. However, you might consider using
blackguard for even more +saves and some armor/wpn feats.
A single cleric level can be used to gain Divine Shield access and also score
two bonus feats from the domains, although watch XP penalties.
In MOTB, they become one of the BEST classes. Go figure. This is because a
lot of their stuff continues to scale past 20. With 1 epic feat, they get a
50% bonus to their offense which is ridiculously good.
1: Sorcs and bards especially love taking 1 Lok for the +save bonus.
zh) Warpriest - With moderate requirements, this is a useful but narrow class.
The main and really only advantage is that it lets divine classes that
are more warrior specced to gain casting levels without losing any BAB.
i.e. A 16cleric/8Fighter/6WarPriest has 26bab, AND level 19 casting power.
Any even number of Warpriest can be used. Their abilities are pretty weak, as
they are cast at WARPRIEST level, NOT character level.
(warpriest 4 gains a 4 round haste.. woopie.)
Note that warpriest benefits druids, shamans more since the granted abilities
are not normally accessible (mass heal, battletide, fear), at the cost of
losing the special abilities of the druid,shaman.
zi) Weaponmaster - Great on higher magic servers where they can multiply the
damage of an attack. With insane feat prereqs, there is no reason to not
max out weaponmaster functionality. This means exactly 7 levels...
No More...No Less.
7: Gains both extra crit damage and bigger crit range.
zj) Wizard - Standard arcane casting class. Requires 17 caster levels to get
9th level spells. High INT means lots of skills, and is a good candidate
for a rogueish multiclass for very high skill access, especially with the
Able Learner feat. One level of a warrior class may be taken to gain
weapon and armor feats.
Generally, you want to take even numbers of wizard levels if you plan on
fighting to max BAB gains. Don't forget your free feats every 5 levels.
Note that if you have a 21+ lvl character, you can use those free wiz-feats
for EPIC feats! (i.e. a 14wiz/6fighter that takes 15th wiz at lvl21)
There is no set number of wizard levels typically taken. They can gain
casting levels through the following:
-- eldrich knight (1 for 1, except 1st level)
-- harper scout (3 cast levels for 4 harper lvls)
-- Arcane Trickster (full casting, 1 for 1)
-- Pale Master (every odd level)
Just make sure you take practiced caster if you multiclass, so that your
spells get the full damage and effect.
--------------------------
X. Putting it all together
--------------------------
This rule is the most important and says that every build has tradeoffs. The
difficult part is determining the best way to gain the most good, and
minimize the bad. This depends greatly upon the environment where you play.
The Original Campaign is much different than a persistent world. Each world
is different, and so are downloaded modules.
This is why I go to the trouble to provide this guide, so that you can tune
your OWN builds instead of relying on one-size-fits-all build solutions.
There are several steps you can go through to help kick off a build.
1) Determine the concept. This is done by thinking of generally what
kind of character you want. For example, a warrior-mage or a rogueish-mage,
or a warrior-rogue, or a hulking brute, and so forth.
Alternatively, you can decide on classes or tools you wish to employ. For
example, how to use the blackguard's sneak attack to make a better thug or
how to use warlock/bg/pally to pump up a sorceror's saves. Or, simply how
to make a better monk.
2) Find synergies. I have several such listed in my detailed analysis.
For example, a few Pally,BG, Lock levels are great with a class that
relies heavily upon CHA.
Blackguard works great for a warrior-bard for example that is STR-based.
They will take powerattk/cleave prereqs anyways and benefit. A straight
up casting-based sorceror however is poor synergy since they would have
to raise STR to 13, and take 2 worthless feats, just to access BG
and get the +Save bonus.
3) Make note of alignment issues. The barbaric paladin isn't going to work
out so hot most of the time. It IS possible to change alignment in some
places, but it is usually a 1 way street. I.E. Start as paladin for 4
levels, take 12 fighter, take 4 levels of Blackguard. That might work.
Weaving pally and bard together would not work at all... you would start
with bard for skills, then pally for armor/wpn feats quickly, then bard
some more, and so forth. Hence, you would have to toggle between lawful
and non-lawful several times rapidly.
4) If your build has less than 4 classes, reconsider it. Think about other
good candidates and determine if you can toss in any other classes to
improve the character. While you dont HAVE to have 4 classes, and indeed
can sabatage a good build doing so. It is a good idea to consider the
possibilities before finalizing the build though.
5) Consider also how much tolerence you have for leveling difficulty. This
includes buddies and other characters on persistent worlds and so forth.
While a deep gnome druid27/monk1/cleric1/fighter1 may be strong, leveling
it would be very very painful. Plus the build would likely be close to
worthless until very high levels.
A STR-based fighter starts out with high AC thanks to plate & shield and
does decent damage. Plus, can carry lots of stuff.
A DEX-monk gets none of the above.
From there, you can use the Rules provided to start choosing classes and
filling out the build.
Now, we will create a build from scratch using several of these rules!
XI. Sample Build Creation Methodology
-------------------------------------
NOTE: This is a LEVEL 20 capped build! I am too lazy to make up a new
comprehensive example at the moment... sorry.
Our concept will be a thug. A character with heavy sneak attack that is also
a good frontline warrior.
Right off the bat, this gives you an idea of using some version of Rogue
classes, and some fighter-ish classes.
Our first decision is: STR or DEX based?
STR-based means easier leveling and using plate/shield. It also adds solid
damage to foes that are immune to sneak or that won't turn their back on you.
It means a much better solo character.
DEX-based means poor AC early on and weak damage. Later on, with dualwielding,
it is possible to generate higher total damage due to more sneak attacks
landing per round.
We decide a thuggish character should be STR-based, as this fits our
concept better. I should note however that this build is great for 1 to 20,
but loses ground from 21 to 30.
Now, we need some class ideas. Lets start with fighter-ish ones.
The following come to mind, as having solid advantages potentially:
Note we exclude ones like paladin, ranger since they have no synergy.
--Fighter - Weapon Spec for more dmg and free feats. However, since we are
NOT dualwielding, we may not need the feats so much.
--Blackguard - It's a high HP,AB class that also grants sneak attack.
The prereqs are easy and make sense for a thug. Worth trying.
-- Neverwinter 9 - 3 levels of NW9 grant 2d6 sneak, which is very strong for
a high AB class. Worth considering.
--Barbarian - rage is nice, as is the faster movement bonus. If we have a
level or two left over, this is worth considering.
Frenzied Berserker is tempting, as we can get nice benefits for a few levels.
We ditch Dwarf Defender, Wpnmaster as they dont really fit either.
RDD is ditched as it takes up a lot of levels and requires bard as a prereq.
Ok, now for rogue:
--Rogue - Nice sneak, free evasion, free feats at 10,13,16. Solid choice.
--Assassin - Improved sneak, with some prereqs. Taking this may preclude
the rogue free-feats however.
-- Shadowthief - Not bad, but doesn't buy us much for the prereqs.
The Rule of 4, says we will take rogue levels in 4s.
The question becomes... how much AB do we want to sacrifice for sneaks?
The Rule of 16 says we cant go below 16 BAB.
We could go 16rogue/4fighter for 8d6 sneak and 6 free feats @ 16BAB.
We don't really need the feats, and want higher AB since we have no buff
spells.
4rogue/16fighter - 19bab, but only 2d6 sneak. Way too many unneeded feats.
Seriously, a non wpnmaster/dualwielder does NOT need 16 feats!
2d6 sneak is pretty weak besides.
So we need a compromise. Say 12rogue/8fighter. Thats 17bab and 6d6 sneak.
Not bad. We will go with that.
Now, we want to tune it up some. Can we improve this build?
Let's explore using blackguard.
12rogue/4fighter/4BG - 17BAB with 7d6 sneak!
The bad news is that we lose greater weapon focus access which costs -1ab.
However, we want higher sneak so we will need to drop having 8 fighter.
BG buys us AB AND Sneak all in 1 class. Let's max it out and see what happens.
10BG/8rogue/2fighter - 18BAB with 7d6 sneak? Hmm. All that did for us is
lose our weapon specialization.. and bonus rogue feat for +1BAB.
I am unconvinced that losing 2 guaranteed damage for 1d6 sneak is worth it.
Hence, 12R/4F/4BG is our best so far. We need a better way to incorporate BG.
Let's plug in NW9, 3 levels worth.
The question is... where do we put it?
Replacing 3 rogue levels violiates rule of 4, since it leaves 9 rogue.
Replacing fighter costs us feats and wpn spec.
Replacing BG costs sneak.
We are not very feat-intensive anyways, so lets go with rogue and
add 1 bonus level of NW9 for now as filler.
8R/4F/4BG/4NW9 = 7d6 sneak at 18bab! Without sacrificing the wpn spec.
Better!
Let's mess with BG some more.
4R/4F/7BG/3NWN (where do my last 2 lvls go?)
Ya know, that 4th rogue level is not really needed... it gives no extra sneak,
and we don't need uncanny dodge. And the 4th NW9 is filler...
3R/4F/10BG/3NWN
Ah ha! 19BAB, 7d6 sneak. Our best yet.
As a bonus, it has no XP penalty if leveled up correctly.
What about say.. barbarian instead of fighter?
That is not a bad idea, as we get Rage and more skill points. However,
we lose 3 feats, including a permanent +2dmg per hit bonus.
Rage adds +2ab/dmg and -2ac for 8 rounds usually, compared to a flat +2dmg
that always is in effect.
It is tempting, but fighter just buys us more, ESPECIALLY since we have
access to special feats due to 13dex,13Int.
Do we want to try 3 assassin instead of 3 rogue?
Gains:
- ethereal visage spell
- death attack instead of sneak.
- Worthless uncanny dodge
Losses:
- Eats up tons of skillpoints.
- Cant get until much later level.
- No evasion.
I do not see taking assassin as a big advantage myself. Starting with
rogue gives 32 skillpoints, which would not be possible with assassin.
Let alone taking 8hide/8move silently as cross-class skills.
Lets imagine that we did want to go assassin. Can you see the pitfall?
Doing so gives us only 4 fighter and 3 prestege classes. That won't
work out too well. :-)
Ditto with replacing fighter with any prestege class.
You have to have enough base classes to qualify for at least 1 prestege.
Verdict: stick with rogue.
We already have 4 classes, so we can skip the step where we see if we can
gain anything by squeezing in another class.
Time to pick race and stats.
Races:
human - always strong. However, we dont really need the extra feat badly,
nor will skills be overly important.
Half-Orc - A contender. The extra STR may be worth the INT/CHA loss.
Dwarf - Decent, but +2CON isnt worth -2INT, -1 feat, -1CHA in my opinion.
Any small race with -2STR is out.
Elves are out as we don't need their DEX or INT.
First cut at stats... assume human.
STR: 17 +5=22 final.
DEX: 12 (plate)
CON: 14
INT: 10 (so-so skills)
WIS: 8 (dump stat)
CHA: 8 (partial dump-stat)
Thats 25 points. We have lots of room!
STR: 17
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 13
WIS: 8
CHA: 12
That gives a max of 22 STR, good skillpoints, access to disarm and Imp KD,
and even a +1bonus to saves built in from BG.
OR, we can remove 4 CHA and pump CON by 2. That might be worth it.
You are trading +1will,reflex saves for +1 HP per lvl.
STR 17
DEX 12
CON 16
INT 13
WIS 8
CHA 8
Lets look at half-orc:
STR 19
DEX 12
CON 16
INT 11
WIS 8
CHA 6
So we gain +1AB/Dmg, in exchange for -2 skills per level and a seriously poor
CHA (not much hope of improving saves with that!)
We can disregard CHA, drop CON and focus on better skills and feat access.
Now we have.
STR 19
DEX 13
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 8
CHA 6
That looks pretty good. Remember, depending on your server you might be
able to take away 4 DEX to add 2 to CON. This relies on you finding a
+4 dex item quick that doesn't take up a valuable item slot (like amulet).
A good example is boots of sun soul +5. Adds 5 dodge and 3 DEX from 9 to 12.
What skills do we get?
First off, how many points do we have?
Take rogue 1st level for 8+1 x4 = 36
2 more rogue = 18
4 fighter = 12
10BG = 30
3NW9 = 15
total = 111, or about 4 1/2 maxed skills.
Hide = 5 (prereq)
Tumble = 20 (probably takes a good 25-30 points)
UMD = 22 (Remember -2CHA penalty. Takes 30ish points)
Other skills as desired.
Level-up Order:
Taking rogue at level 1 is a no-brainer.
You need to follow the Rule of XP weaving to keep fighter and rogue
within 1 level of each other.
Alternate them and you will be in good shape.
This also serves to help us level up our skills easier, utilizing class-skills
for incrementing tumble and the like.
NW9 and BG can be taken any time, although you MUST have the prereqs for
one of them (preferably NW9) by level 8 when you run out of fighter/rogue
levels.
What about feat choice?
As halforc we have 7 base.
Add 3 from fighter = 10.
Our 10 will likely be from this list:
*Luck of Heroes
*Pwr Attk (prereq)
*Cleave (prereq)
*WpnFocus:whatever
*Weapon Specialization:whatever
-Blindfight
-Toughness
-Knockdown
-Improved Knockdown
-Disarm
-Improved Disarm
-Dodge
-PowerCrit:whatever
-Improved Crit:whatever
- Able learner (if human)
Weapon choice?
I would recommend shield since a lot of your damage comes from sneak attacks.
This means that 2d6 for a greatsword instead of 1d8 for a longsword is
meaningless since you add 7d6 per attack.
However, if you love improved Disarm, you may want to take a heavy weapon
since it gets a +4 bonus to the disarm attempt.
So there we go. We are done!
We have 19bab, 7d6 sneak, 2 summons, 2 auras,24 base strength, and some nice
utility feats, plus evasion, bull's strength casting, and potential to get
a small save bonus from a high CHA item.
You can write out the build, making sure to include reminders such as
take rogue level 1, and grab 4 hide since you need it later.
Remind to get 5hide sometime before the BG levels during a rogue lvl-up.
Order the feats as you see fit, remembering the prereqs for certain feats.
(i.e. cant take wpn spec until 4th fighter, and BAB prereq for some feats)
BE SURE TO TEST the build after you have written it out! There are a lot
of different prereqs and gotchas that can ruin a perfectly good build.
Final Build: Rogue3/Fighter4/NWN3/BG10
HalfOrc
STR 19 +5 = 24
DEX 13
CON 14
INT 13
WIS 8
CHA 6
1 rogue - Luck of Heroes
2 fighter - Weaponfocus: Longsword
3 fighter - Power Attack, Cleave
4 rogue
5 rogue
6 fighter - Blindfighting
7 fighter - Weapon Specialization
8 Blackguard
9 BG - Knockdown
10 BG
11 BG
12 NWN - Improved KD
13 NWN
14 NWN
15 BG - Improved Crit
16 BG
17 BG
18 BG - Toughness
19 BG
20 BG
XII. Level 20 Builds and How to Upgrade Then to MOTB 30.
--------------------------------------------------------
This section is NOT INTENDED to give you good builds for MOTB. Instead, it
suggests ways to upgrade existing characters that you may have played before,
and want to carry over to MOTB campaign. Or upgrade them on a persistent
world.
Each build starts with build instructions, THEN gives upgrade suggestions.
A) Bruiser - 1bard/4fighter/10RDD/5FB.
This build is excellent for low/medium magic worlds and is a well rounded
warrior with the highest possible strength. He has solid immunities,
very high HPs, good AB, great damage, and solid AC with full plate.
He is very easy to level, due to his extreme damage.
Note the 20% XP penalty, in its unmodified form however.
Half-Orc, Any Non-Lawful.
MUST be non-lawful to go Bard!
str 20 +5 = 25 ->33(from RDD)
dex 12
con 14 ->16(RDD)
int 12 -> 14(RDD)
wis 8
cha 6 -> 8 (RDD)
Note: you must start out as FIGHTER, or you are forced to take
11 CHA! Don't go lawful!
Option1: Go Human for no XP penalty, -2 STR, +2 skills per lvl, +1feat
Option2: -4dex for +2CON. Only do this if you can get +4dex item
early on to cover AC loss.
DO NOT gimp INT to 6! You require Perform5,Lore8 really early on.
Detailed lvling instructions:
-----------------------------
1: Fighter (nonlawful) - Wpnfocus, luck of heroes
Lore 4. Tumble 2 save 4 points.
2: bard
PERFORM 5, tumb 5, UseMagicDevice3
(you MUST have perform 5 (-2 cha) to get the +1ab/dmg aura!)
3 fighter - Power attk, Cleave
4 fighter (+1 STR)
5 fighter - **wpn specialization**
Tumble to 7, LORE to 8!!!
6 RDD - great cleave
*Work toward skills shown at level 10
7 RDD
8 rdd (+1 STR) (Free blindfight feat somewhere along here)
9 rdd -- Power Critical.
10 rdd
Tumble should be 10, UMD7, Spellcraft 2
11 rdd
Increase spellcraft now. Ignore other skills.
12 rdd -- (+1STR), Knockdown
13 rdd
Spellcraft should be at 10.
14 rdd
You get 1 extra skill per lvl now. Increase tumble.
15 rdd -- Extended Rage
Increase tumble to 20, and UMD to 11, as you level up.
16 fb (free tuffness feat)
17 fb (free supreme cleave feat)
18 fb -- Improved Power Attk or Improved Crit Range.
19 fb
20 fb (+1 STR)
Final skills:
tumble 20 - +2 AC and immunity to attk of Opp even in full plate!
Spellcraft 10 = +2 saves vs spells.
UMD11 (-1 cha)= 10. Use scrolls, wands, and some clickey items or
monk boots.
Lore8 - required for RDD
Perform 5 - required for bardic aura.
Weapon Choice:
1h/shield - great combo for tanking, due to immunities, high HP, and
+7 bonus ac from dragon, tumble, luck of heroes.
I recommend scimitar due to crit range, although longsword/warhammer
are ok. You have the option to unequip shield and go 2handed, for
50% more STR dmg, and extra +5/10 dmg from pwr attk/imp PA over 1handed.
You retain all feats bonuses when doing it this way.
2handed - Scythe or Falchion for best crit power. Scythe if you like
big bursty numbers, falchion for more constant damage. Upside is
more base dmg (5 vs 3.5 2handed scimmy), downside is equipping shield
and 1hander removes your weapon-feat bonuses.
Final notes:
-- Knockdown works very well due to extremely high strength.
-- immune to paralysis, mind, fire.
-- Immune to deathmagic when frenzying.
-- 5th free attack when frenzying.
-- Supreme cleave works well with high dmg attacks for more free attks.
-- Dont forget free bardic aura for +1ab/dmg.
-- PowerAttk/Imp PA has big bonuses, esp for 2handed mode.
-- DO NOT DUALWIELD! This gimps you bigtime, trust me.
base HP = 306 at lvl20.
AB = 16bab +1bard aura +1 wpnfocus + 14str (in frenzy) = 32
AC = 10base +8plate +1dex +4dragon +2tumble +1luck = 26 + shield +extras.
UPGRADES:
---------
You do not want to upgrade the bard levels, since it does not buy you much.
Upgrading FB to 10 would improve your power attack... but not by much. You
gain only +2 extra damage for 5 levels.
RDD is capped at 10, and you can only have 4 classes. So...
I would take 10 fighter levels. This will give you 5 bonus feats, which are
promoted to epic feats. At fighter 8, you gain Greater Wpn Focus for another
+1ab. Then, you qualify for EPIC Wpn Focus for +2more! You can also take
greater and epic weapon Specialization as well, if desired.
B) Shooter. Moon Elf, non-lawful. Bard3/Rogue4/Fighter4/AA9
This is a well rounded archery build. While archery is fairly weak, this
build is the best I've been able to come up with so far. It has a nice
range of skills, good AB, and reasonable damage that combines bard aura,
sneak attk, wpn specialization, and Arcane archer damage, with a few spells.
Note that the Arcane Archer arrow enhancement damage bonus is NOT shown
on the character display, but it is there.
STR 14 (for mighty bow damage)
DEX 19 +5 lvlups = 24
CON 12
INT 12
WIS 8
CHA 11 (required for casting)
Level up plan: This EXACT order is optimized for no XP penalty.
Rogue is taken first for maximized skill points.
All bonus Attributes go into DEX.
1: rogue, nonlawful - Take natural leader background.
take Luck of Heroes feat.
2: fighter - wpnfocus:longbow.
3: fighter - Pointblank, rapid shot.
4 rogue
5 bard - take Perform skill of 4.
6 bard - weapon finesse.
7 rogue (free evasion feat)
8 fighter
9 bard - Many Shot(prereq)
10 Arcane Archer
11 fighter - weapon spec:longbow (+2 dmg)
12 AA - Improved Rapid Shot.
13 aa
14 aa
15 aa - toughness
16 aa
17 rogue - (free uncanny dodge), skill maxing.
18 aa - wpn focus: rapier
19 aa
20 aa
Skill Note: You have 123 skill points, though it requires a careful
plan due to all the cross-class skills, different classes,and carryover.
I recommend Tumble as a no-brainer for AC and avoid attks of opp.
Rogue skills such as Open Lock, DisarmTrap, Search are recommended so
you can act as a rogue.
-- Dont forget your bard aura. You have a +skill one, and the +ab/dmg one.
-- Position your archer to take advantage of the 2d6 sneak when possible.
-- Stay in improved rapid shot mode for more damage.
-- Spells: pick Identify, grease, amplify for most utility.
With +3CHA item, you can get 1 2nd lvl spell if desired.
Heroism is the best choice due to long duration.
-- Note AA DOES give bonus damage, but it is not shown I believe.
-- Any armor is acceptable. No need to stay in light armor, although
the AA chain shirt has 4ac +6dex ac and is really good.
AB: 18bab +1focus +1nat leader + 7dex +5aa +1bard = 33
dmg = 5 ave longbow + 2 wpn spec +1bard +5aa +2d6 sneak +Mighty
UPGRADE:
--------
Archery stinks in MOTB even more, and this is kind of a dead-end build.
The only option is to go: bard,fighter,rogue,b,f,r,b,f,f,r
This lets you get +3AB from greater/epic wpn focus, in exchange for a 40% XP
penalty at level 29 and 30.
C) Tricky. Tiefling, Wiz6/Rogue3/PaleMaster1/Arcane Trickster10
Most warrior/wizard builds are weak. This is because they are dex-fighters,
which do horrible melee damage. Or they gimp their casting abilities
to attempt to fight. I like this build because it can do
adequate melee damage(7d6sneak), replaces a rogue with full skill access
and plenty of skillpoints, and provides spell support.
It is difficult to level, but is a very unique character and playstyle.
The idea is to use the wizard spells to buff Tricky and his buddies, as
well as disable baddies to allow for sneak attacks and crowd control.
Stats given are for tiefling.
str 11
dex 18
con 14
int 19 +5 -> 24
wis 8
cha 6
Dont forget the non-good, non-lawful alignment part!
Race selections:
Human - extra feat is really nice, but you get no bonus stats.
The extra skillpoint is not really needed with this build.
Tiefling - +2dex,+2INT is great, and -CHA is a perfect dumpstat.
I think it is worth the +1ECL.
Drow - You gain spell resistance, but lose CON, 1 more ECL, and
have a daylight penalty. Not worth it to me.
Deep Gnome - +4AC is the main advantage, followed by spell resistance,
and size advantage, plus illusion focus. 3ECL is harsh though.
Halfling - solid, with free feat, +2dex, and -2STR which isnt a big deal.
A better choice over rock gnome, and no ECL penalty or XP penalty.
Overall a better choice than Sun/Moon elves in my opinion.
There are several decent choices on Race, although I
prefer Tiefling or halfling.
Note: All attribute points go into INT.
1: rogue - for maximum skillpoints. Spellcasting Prodigy.
[lore 4, disable device 4, tumble 4]
2 wizard - specialize in necromancy. [spellcraft 4]
3 wiz - wpn finesse (unless you expect to find an item quick that gives this)
4 wiz
5 rogue
6 wiz - practiced caster (makes up for lost wiz lvls)
7 wiz - (wiz feat: extend spell)
8 rogue [ ensure Lore7, Disable Device 7, Tumble 7, Spellcraft4]
9 Arcane Trickster - 2wpn fighting.
10 AT
11 AT
12 AT - improved 2wpn fighting
13 PaleMaster (free +2AC)
14 AT
15 AT - spell focus: your choice.
16 AT
17 AT
18 AT - persistent spell.
19 AT
20 Wizard
Note on skills: You have a LOT! 238 total.
Take all rogueish ones, plus concentration, spellcasting, tumble.
Appraise for cheaper merchant prices, pickpocket as needed.
Take UMD for using monk boots and other goodies, tho its double
the cost for AT levels!
AB = 10bab +4dex = 14 -2(2wpnfight) = 12. Pretty bad. Needs buffs.
HP = 86 +20beetle familiar = 106 Awful. Needs buffs.
Spell notes:
You have close to maximum DC on spells, due to max INT + prodigy feat.
Use spells that ENTANGLE, STUN or DAZE opponents to make them
vulnerable to sneaks! Prone causing spells is nice for the +AB bonus,
but no sneaks automatically result from that (unlike NWN1).
You go with Necro specialization for the extra spell slots. DO NOT go
necro FOCUS though! Dont get those confused. Necro spec means you cant
use divination spells (which mostly suck anyways)
Choose a focus that has the most disabling spells, such as Enchantment or
Conjuration. Illusion is decent too, as Shadow Conjuration makes a
very high DC illusionary "web" spell.
For familiar- take beetle for HPs.
Persistent Haste is your big main ability at level 20. use it!
You NEED buffs to be able to fight at all:
Dont forget extended greater heroism on yourself to improve hitting ability.
Extended haste of course, until you get persistent.
Use Shield as it fully stacks. Get improved mages armor and keep it up.
extended greater invisibility is awesome too, as is stoneskin.
You can use Shades(9th lvl) on Self to get Premonition (normally excluded
due to necro spec!)
Final Note: look for a server that has the AT mod that allows sneak attk
from Ray Spells. This makes polar ray, vamp touch, etc MUCH more useable!
UPGRADE:
--------
This is not optimal, as in MOTB you would want EK levels to buff your fighting
ability. A DEX-focused build would go with perfect 2wpn fighting.
Adding 1 rogue (for uncanny dodge), and 9 PM for the big AC buffs and immunes
also pumps your casting level to 25, and BAB to 16 for 4 main attacks.
You can also add 4 wizard levels and use the free feat as EPIC, then take 5rogue
and 1PM which pumps BAB to 17 while cranking sneak by 2d6.
D) SuperSorc Aasimir Paladin2/Sorc18.
This is a simple one. Two levels of paladin provide a huge saving throw bonus
for the sorceror at a cost of delaying spell progression, or not gaining the
saving throw bonuses until close to endgame.
No XP penalty with this build, and provides max CHA. The pally also
provides weapon,armor,shield feats for free.
This becomes very useful if mithril non-arcane failure gear is available.
I would recommend taking the paladin levels at around 11
lawful good, aasimir.
str 8
dex 14
con 15 +1levelup = 16
int 10
wis 10
cha 20 +4levelup = 24
There is quite a bit of latitude in the starting stats. You can remove
some DEX for INT if you desire more skillpoints. This is a good idea if
you reasonably expect no-arcane penalty armor, and a dex-booster item.
Or, go with 19CHA, 14CON and you get 5 points to work with.
Simply toss in the 2 pally levels somewhere along the way, and include
Practiced Spellcaster to compensate for pally levels. Yer done!
Otherwise, do like a normal sorc, with standard feats.
*Note that you need 4 in spellcraft to take Practiced Caster!
Variants:
There are tons of sorceror variants out there. Most of them involve
sacrificing higher level spells for stronger defense, or for fighting
ability, or both.
You want to have an even number of caster levels, ideally 18 for 9th lvl
spells. Fighter types can go down to 16 but I would not go any further.
If focusing on casting, you definitely want 9th level spells. Even warrior
types need 9th level spells for persistent haste in my opinion.
Typical classes used are:
1 Warlock - Dark Ones Own Luck for +saves bonus, plus light armor.
2 or 4 Paladin - Save Bonus + lots of free armor/wpn feats + possible
Divine Shield access with 4 lvls.
2 or 3 Blackguard - Save Bonus + free armor/wpn + divine shield with 3 levels.
Requires 2 prereq feats.
10 Eldrich Knight - More HP, AB in exchange for -1casting level and martial
wpn prereq.
1 or 2 Fighter - Lots and lots of armor/wpn feat + 1 freebie feat for no
prereq.
1 Barbarian - Limited armor/wpn feat +10% move +rage. Alignment not work
with pally.
UPGRADE:
--------
There is TONS of room to work with now.
You want Paladin 4 or BG3 for sure, which will give you Divine Shield access.
Now, you definitely want EK or even Scholar or Palemaster instead of sorc
levels.
Unfortunately, most of these will require you to rebuild the character.
More info in the upgrade section below.
This one is not optimal, but is the best I can come up with. It is a STR
fighter-oriented build using still spell with plate/shield. It also gets
Divine Shield and a big saving throw bonus. It has caster level 20, with
level 16 spell access (8th level max), and a 16BAB. I would prefer paladin,
but that means no divine shield. You can go 2pally/1fighter to replace BG
if you wish and pick up a few more feats. Take 1 pally early on to get
free wpn/armor feats.
SuperSorc2. Any race is fine,at cost of 1 feat and skillpoints.
Human, aasimir, drow are best.
EK10/Sorc7/BG3 (16bab, caster 16 +4)
(assuming human)
STR 17 +3 (decent AB and dmg)
DEX 9 (use cat's grace or item to pump to 12 for AC)
CON 14
INT 10
WIS 8
CHA 16 +2
1 Sorc - pwr attk, cleave
2 sorc
3 sorc - martial wpns
4 sorc
5 sorc
6 sorc - still spell
7 EK
8 EK
9 EK - practiced caster(sorc)
[ 5 hide]
10 BG (armor feats)
11 BG (+saves)
12 BG - Divine Shield or Might
13 EK
14 EK
15 EK - wpnfocus: whatever
16 EK
17 EK
18 EK - toughness
19 EK
20 sorc
UPGRADE:
--------
10 PaleMaster would be a great upgrade. It pumps your AC bigtime, and
increase caster level to 25 with full spell access.
4RDD is another option for some easy stat pumps. Take 5 sorc and 1 BG to
pump your spellcasting and gain a respectable 7BAB.
Also consider Divine Champion as this would have no XP penalty, and pump your
BAB nicely, PLUS give you 5 epic bonus feats.
E) BadBard Bard16/Blackguard3/Fighter1, Human, evil, non lawful
BadBard is a solid bard build that relies on pre-battle buffs. He acts
as a strong fighter in full plate and shield, that can also support his
friends with solid skills, bardic auras, and spell buffs. He gets very
high saving throw bonuses thanks to the blackguard levels.
He does not use many spells in battle due to his armor. However, he
gets Curse Song which is the most powerful debuff spell in the game!
In addition, Divine Shield greatly increases AC temporarily, as needed, and
a few spells are castable even in armor, such as Displacement and Darkness.
He is easy to level, since he is STR-based, uses plate and gains
the ability to use it early on.
In my experience, "caster bards" are just plain bad. They need to be in
battle for their auras and curse song to work well with others.
They dont have enough casts per day to buff parties AND cast offensively.
Besides, 1 area effect spellcast, and ALL the enemies charge you anyways...
str 16 +5levelup = 21
dex 12
con 14
int 10
wis 8
cha 16
1 bard - evil, nonlawful. Natural Leader background.
Take Luck of Heroes and Power Attack feats.
2 fighter - Cleave feat. Gains wpn/armor feats free.
3 bard - wpn focus: whatever
4 bard
5 bard
6 bard - Curse Song
7 bard
8 bard - [Ensure 5 HIDE skill here!]
9 Blackguard - practiced caster
10 BG (gains massive saves bonus)
11 BARD (NOT BG!!!)
12 BG - Divine Shield feat - MUST be taken exactly at 3rd BG level.
13 bard
14 bard
15 bard - extend spell
16 bard
17 bard
18 bard - Choose:Toughness,PowerCrit, or Lingering Song
19 bard
20 bard
Feat Choices: Lingering Song is mainly used for Curse Song extension.
Most other bardsongs are pretty weak.
PowerCrit is ok, but not really that necessary. Good if you used a
scimitar or rapier.
Toughness is +20 HP. Always a nice boost. I don't see a clear preference.
Skill choices:
you have 165 skillpoints.
Maximize tumble for +2ac, avoid attk of opp.
Maximize Perform for maximum Curse Song debuff
Take 5 HIDE for Blackguard prerequisite.
UMD for device usage would be very nice.
Some lore is convenient since you get +16 for being a bard anyways.
Rogue openlock,disarm trap is handy, but are cross skills so you can
only get 11 ranks (instead of 23)
Spells:
You have to take off armor/shield to cast most of these.
Hence, use only buff/utility spells. Consider a mithril shield so you
do not have to remove the shield also.
My recommended list:
1: identify, dispel lesser, cure light wnds, amplify
2: Heroism!, mirror image, ghostly visage, darkness(Castable in Armor!)
3: See Invis, Haste(extend it), Find Traps, Displacement(castable in armor)
4: Greater Invis maybe, Warcry?(extend), Neut Poison, Freedom Movement
5: ethereal visage(extend), greater Heroism, mass cure light wnds, dispel
6: (used only for extending 5th lvl spells mainly)
take Energy Immunity(situational), mass charm(castable in armor!)
Bulls str is nice, but by the time you get it, you probably dont need it.
(can use the low duration Blackguard version if REALLY needed)
Combat "Spell": Curse Song. 16 uses per day.
At lvl16, 30 perform it hits all baddies in decent area for:
-2ab
-3dmg
-3saves
20 sonic dmg.
-5 AC!!
No saving throw allowed, which makes for a VERY powerful debuff spell.
Combat spell #2: Divine Shield. 6 to 12 uses per day.
Gain CHA bonus to dodge AC for CHA bonus rounds.
You want to grab a +CHA item as soon as possible, as it makes the shield
very powerful, plus pumps spellcasting, AND adds +saving throw bonus.
Other combat spells: Darkness, Mass Charm, Displacement.
(all are non-somatic and castable in armor)
Weapon Choice: Doesn't really matter all that much. I would go with
1hander+shield personally. Scimitar,longsword,warhammer are best.
AB = 16bab +5str +3aura +1leader +1focus = 26.
(+4 greater heroism, +1haste, +5 curse song effectively)
AC = 10 +2tumble +8plate +2shield +1dex +1luck = 24
(plus 4bard aura if needed, +up to 9 from divine shield, and
effectively 2 from curse song)
UPGRADE:
--------
There are lots of ways to go with this build.
Going from 16bard to 21 would let you pick up Hymm of Requiem which is pretty
strong, as well as pump up your auras and songs.
Some more fighter levels would add bonus feats that would be promoted to epic.
You won't easily be able to hit Greater/Epic weapon focus, so I would avoid
trying for it.
4 levels of RDD would also be an ideal way to cheaply gain some nice bonuses.
So, I would plan to go 21bard,2fighter,3BG,4RDD as this scores a good balance
of these different upgrade paths. You have enhanced bard casting, Hymm,
auras, and plenty of skillpoints to use. 4 RDD adds +4STR,+2AC which is solid,
and the 1 fighter level adds 1 bonus epic feat.
NOTE: This will impact your BAB bringing you down to 23BAB max.
Another plan is to stay 16bard,3BG, then add 7 fighter and 3 NW9, which keeps
a high 26BAB for 6 attacks.
F. Reaper. HalfOrc Fighter8, WpnMaster7, FB 5.
This character is similar to Bruiser, except intended for a higher
magic environment. He is overall weaker due to less HP, AC, and
immunities. However, he has extremely high offensive potential,
and scales very well with powerful weapons. With a keen scythe,
he has a 17-20 x5 crit range, with supreme cleave. A hit with
improved power attack on for +20 damage at x5 multiplier is truly
fearsome. His Whirlwind attack is quite formidable also. If you
like seeing big damage numbers, this is the character for you!
str: 19 -> 24
dex: 13
con: 14
int: 13
wis: 8
cha: 6
note: MUST have 13 natural DEX and INT for needed feats!
1 fighter - (nonlawful!) wpnfocus:scythe, dodge.
Take 4 skillpoints of Intimidate!
2 fighter - mobility
3 fighter - expertise
4 fighter - wpn spec
5 fighter
6 fighter - spring attk, Whirlwind
7 fighter
8 fighter - imp wpnfocus
-- intimidate 4 if not already.
9 wpnmaster -- pwr attk
10 wm
11 wm
12 wm cleave
13 wm
14 wm
15 wm - great cleave
16 FB (free tuffness)
17 FB (free supreme cleave)
18 fb - choose: power crit, or Improved crit:scythe
19 fb
20 fb
Nonbuffed highest hit with nonmagical scythe:
8base +15STR(frenzy) +20 imp Pwr Atk +2Wpn Spec = 45 x5crit = 225!
UPGRADE:
--------
I would take 2 levels of barbarian. This is mainly for the +10% movespeed
bonus. The rage might be rarely useful.
Then, I would take 8 more fighter levels. This gives you 4 more bonus feats,
which are promoted to epic ones. You also retain a solid BAB for hitting
stuff.
You can pick up greater/epic weapon specialization if desired.
Another path would be to take 5 more FB levels to pump power atta
