Gromnir

"With perfect dual wielding you get as many main hand attacks as off-hand attacks. So you're going to have at least 8 (or is it 10?) by the time you reach epic levels. Throw in some haste spells, etc... 20 attacks per round seems easy." perfect dw requires dex of 25 and a bucket load of pre-req feats, right? that is a load o' points to dump int dex... and haste don't double your number of attacks neither. still, you get loads o' attacks per round... but the cost is high. 'course one thing that always gets ignored in the dw v 2h weapon debate is fact that virtual all powerful creatures in nwn2 (and d&d in general) has got damage resistance. dr of 10 takes off ten points o' damage whether your average attacks is doing 50 or 25. dr is thus much more effective 'gainst the dw fighter than the 2h fighter. between dr and immunity to criticals, some o' our favorite dw builds just don't work out so hot at epic levels. would be sad to picture our rogue/swashbuckler/duelist going 'gainst those ancient vampires... pick up combat insight at epic levels and with a pretty good int you can be getting an intelligence based character who gets damage bonuses in the mid +20s range without much effort... but only 'gainst creatures subject to criticals. *groan* even so, Gromnir likes his strength based dw ranger rogue, but not 'cause he is insane powerful combatant. is still more than powerful enough to cruise through most nwn2 combats. got big str with perfect dw and the bane of enemies feat to give us an extra 2d6 v. any favored enemy (by epic levels we gots favored enemies: human, undead, outsiders, fey and elementals... pick up constructs for laughs maybe) means that Gromnir is a pretty damn effective damage dealer... but we also got enough spread of skill points to be a dedicated party rogue + max diplomacy, lore, spot and umd. you can sacrifice skill points and go 2/21/8 rogue/ranger/frenzied berserker, but the fb skills points suck. is so many good builds out there... and you not gotta be a power build to still feels like an engine o' destruction in combat, regardless o' the difficulty level you play at. HA! Good Fun!

depends. what do you want from the bard? you want good in combat or you want to be a genuine spellcaster? if you wanna be spellcaster, does you care 'bout spell dcs & caster levels, or is you happy with buffs? bards is pretty damn flexible. you is gonna have a goodly amount of skills no matter what, but the problem with being a spellcaster is that even with practiced spellcaster feat, you shouldn't spend more than 'bout 4 levels on other stuff. 1 level fighter and 19 levels o' bard is good for the oc... makes easier to get battlecaster. you want serious combat? 4 levels o' fighter and 16 bard... is probable essential to take practiced spellcaster if you wanna stay effective as a spellcaster. another option is the 2 levels of cleric and 18 levels o' bard... earth and trick domain is probable best. make sure to take cleric levels at a feat level so you can take advantage o' divine might and divine shield. high charisma pays off pretty good 'tween bard and divine feats. keep in mind that if you wanna play motb with a bard character you will never be able to get epic spells via your bard levels, is not a kiss o' death, but it kinda sucks. if you go epic it almost makes sense to go the rdd route... but Gromnir hates playing characters that genuine only becomes effective at level 16 or so... seems like such a waste. HA! Good Fun! "Then again, using his logic, Brd2/Clrc 'X' would also seem to work sorcerer.gif" would work, but is more of a cleric build than a bard build. is actual not a bad approach, but Gromnir prefers rogue skills and sneak attack... and evasion ain't something to sneeze at. 'course, mc were funning, but he is correct that Gromnir feels that pretty much any cleric build will be paying off big... take able learner with your 2 levels o' bard? why not?

That build is NOT made for power/1337ness etc.. Yep it has flaws etc bitch/whine but It is PURELY made specifically for the OC+MotB and makes the game a blast to play. neither is Gromnir's build made for power/1337n355... but Gromnir does like to know that if he is playing a spellcaster that the spell caster levels and dcs won't be a joke. is 'bout a thousand different builds that is a blast to play... regardless o' power. so don't get all snobby/sensitive. want combat and good skills? probable go with a rogue/swashbuckler/duelist... or even just a swashy/duelist. got lots o' skill points and your main stat is int. want spellcaster and skills? probable go with a rogue/wizard/ek/arcane scholar build. Gromnir likes rogue/cleric 'cause the oc rogue and cleric is the suck. *shrug* is any number o' builds we can put together that got loads o' "blast" potential for the nwn2 oc and motb... am just not particularly liking jaesun's build as it wastes levels. HA! Good Fun!

that is part of her problem. is the only rogue and she is 100% rogue. is a wasted party mate. maybe if she were written better, but she ain't. so why take tiefling rogue joinable npc when you can makes your pc aquire two rogue levels and able learner to provide "all the rogue skills you will ever need to play the OC"? our actual favorite pc for the oc is hardly a power build, but he gets more than enough thiefy skills + umd and maxed diplomacy. worried 'bout other skill checks? lore perhaps? is a bunch o' lore boosting rings in game. use Grobnar to boost skills + heroism/greater heroism + prayer, and you will never miss a lore or appraise check. with gloves of greater artificer and the same recipe o' skill boosting spells/effects, you can pretty much do all the crafting stuff too. 3 levels o' rogue and the rest cleric. make sure you is human and got 14 int. could solo with such a character without much trouble... specially once umd is high 'nuff to use wands. am not a fan o' casavir neither, so we makes him take craft wands feat. look at paladin spell list... is not bad for wand crafting. d&d clerics is a bit overpowered, so take three levels o' rogue and practiced spell caster is hardly gimping. in the oc there is 1 cleric and 1 rogue available to join party. the rogue sucks and the cleric ain't available til last 1/3 or 1/4 o' the game. Gromnir simply creates character that avoids need for either the tiefling trollop or the gith who spouts fortune cookie nonsense. combat efficacy o' our character becomes overkill once you get persistent spell, but that is late in game. jaesun' build gots too many wasted levels for us. bard caster level is diluted and combat abilities is, for at least first half of game, gonna be suck. Gromnir build ain't powerbuild per se, but pretty much any character build with cleric primary is gonna be powerful. HA! Good Fun!

as i recall, you should be well past 7th level by the time you get to fihelis' estate anyway, more like 10-12th or so. particularly so if you only want to go in there with 3 dudes and no summons. taks More like level 8, actually. There isn't much to do before you do this, it's part of the early City Watch/Thieves' Guild questline. The thing is, for some reason, dual wielding is really effective with sneaking characters in NWN2. The enemies in Fihelis' Estate are level 6 rogues with mediocre stats, but if the character they are backstabbing doesn't have a really good spot skill, they will land their sneak attacks for serious damage. They are rarely found alone, so three of these guys can make a number on your party. Here's the fun part - Obsidian went with the lame Bio encounter design method, and gave the rogues undroppable +2 daggers and shortswords and +3 armors. I'm not sure but IIRC, they had +4d6 sneak attack too, instead of the legal +3d6 for level 6 rogues. *sigh* level 8 is indeed a reasonable level. however, have your paladin fight bare fist and makes elanee wear a robe of fire resistance is probable not best route in an area that is being difficult. even so, the rogues were not hitting jebus' unbuffed paladin with main hand roll of 12 and off-hand roll o' 14. simple observation o' numbers in screen shots makes obvious that jebus were purposeful gimping in 2nd screenie. is up to other folks to guess purpose of the charade. HA! Good Fun!

there is some bs in jebus' posts... am just not certain why. look at the two screenies and the attack rolls. paladin character is getting 2 attacks, so is 'tween level 6 and 10, but keep in mind that qara is shown dying in screenie 1... the red number on her portrait (-24) reveals that her character level is 8... qara got a con o' 14, so she gets 6 hps per level. 24x2=48. qara gets 6hp per level... level 8. jebus assimar paladin level is gonna be 7. in first screenie, we see attack rolls modified by +7 and +2. without power attack, those adjustments would be +12 and +7. 'course the later screenie, meant to show difficulty, reveals +9 and +4... which is the unmodified bab results for a 7th level paladin with default strength of 15. initial question is why did jebus gimp self in second screenie? even after advice received, his paladin's attack effective got worse. with bull's strength, bless and a +1 weapon, a 7th level paladin with 15 str is getting attack bonus o' +15 and +10 on 2 attacks. am suspecting that jebus is trying to make a point rather than being complete genuine, 'cause the numbers don't add. HA! Good Fun!

"Why do Captain Picard and Will Riker personally beam down to every ultra-dangerous location they come across instead of sending subordinates down while they deal with logistics and strategy?" you mentions one thing that always bugged us 'bout star trek. is not 'nuff to keep us from watching, but is 'nuff to make us wonder if story would be so much worse if command guys stay on ship while other folks gets sent off on potential dangerous missions. sure, you ends up with more cast members, but get rid o' that worthless empath chick and the pinocchio character and you got space for a couple o' "marines" instead. heck, have a star trek show where you rare see the captain or xo... show up like fred thompson on law and order (though Gromnir has only seen a couple episodes of law and order, so maybe fred is a more frequent character than we s'pose). wouldn't be star trek formula, but am not sure why it would have to be less "sexy." am not too concerned in any event. our original comment were simply to note that we find shep lack o' promotion Less baffling than the ambiguous chain 'o command. keep as a Commander. bust his arse down to honorary LT would make us happier. HA! Good Fun!

am more surprised that shep were allowed to keep his commission. commander o' an Alliance warship gotta take orders from a bunch o' bug-eyed and blue-arsed aliens? wouldn't give him command o' the s.s. minnow much less a warship after he became a spectre. wanna make him Fleet Admiral o' the Klingon or Harkonen navy? go for it, but any Alliance rank should be pretty much honorary after he becomes subject to a different command structure. am not sure 'bout other navies, but the typical rank o' a U.S. Navy officer commanding a frigate is a Commander. pretty much the rank needed to keeps command o' the Normandy. HA! Good Fun!

one other neato combo to consider for melee types who want big skills and great dialogue options is the swashbuckler builds. swashy insightful strike stacks with combat insight. make a tiefling character with good dex and great int... take at least 3 levels o' swashbuckler and add to either pure ranger or ranger/rogue. a character who gots +30 int and benefiting from insightful strike, combat insight & perfect dual wielding, armed with short swords you can craft in motb, makes for a silly powerful melee combatant 'gainst creatures who ain't immune to crits... and your super high intelligence opens up loads o' dialogue options related to int checks and skills checks. can try boosting AC by taking duelist levels, but then you probably ain't gonna be able to get perfect dual wield... is a tough choice. 'course, the problem with swashbuckler is similar to weapon master in that so much o' combat efficacy is based on criticals and bonuses that only affect creatures subject to criticals. is a rapier in motb that can do crit damage to Some crit immune creatures... only elementals. btw, you get the transcendent edge falchion via some berserker lodge stuff... don't skip berserker lodge. HA! Good Fun! ps keep in mind that the ranger takes a major leap forward in combat efficacy when he gets 21 levels in class. perfect dual wielding is nasty powerful with a str based ranger.

you sent Gromnir to the nwn2 board... a game developed by obsidian. freak. HA! Good Fun! Yes, but the nwn2 board is hosted in the Bioware forums and the people who post there are 90% Bio fans (they play nwn2 because of nwn1). your reasoning is... suspect. the only reason they continues to play nwn2 is 'cause they liked nwn1? huh? "I didn't like nwn2, but I liked nwn1 so much that I felt compelled to not only purchase and play its bastardized progeny, but I must continue to visit a developer message board and discuss nwn2 years after its initial release. But keep in mind, I like nwn1, not nwn2." right, gotcha. an obsidian fan mistakenly directs us to a bunch o' clown obsidian fans in an attempt to illustrate a point 'bout wackiness o' bioware fans. ... am thinking that your vol logic proves something much different than what you were intending. HA! Good Fun!

keep in mind that you get perfect 2-weapon fighting for free at ranger level 21... every level o' something else you add is longer you wait for dual wielding perfection. bane of enemies feet is also available at level 21 of ranger. HA! Good Fun!

some peoples don't want to saddle their child with big debt. admirable. 'tween some part-time work and scholies, Gromnir got his undergrad and grad virtually for free. on the other hand, 3 years o' law school at a public school resulted in considerable reliance on student loans. having been down that road our self, am understanding why parents who have the means is willing to sacrifice for their children... am just not sure how they pull it off nowadays. competition for scholarships is getting so much tougher. as a non-resident, it woulda' been a close call for Gromnir to get accepted into Cal without football paving our way back in the 80's. had a 3.85 and ridiculous high sat scores. 'course we hear all sorta anecdotal stuff 'bout how for a California resident to get into Berkeley now pretty much requires a +4.0 gpa and +2000 on the SAT (am not understanding the new sat scores). lord only knows what non-resident requirements is like. makes you wonder why any out-o-state resident would ever go to Berkeley when with same grades and test scores you could go to yale or princeton instead. shoulda' skipped school and become a plumber... or a ups driver. HA! Good Fun!

plumbers can do very well. a friend o' ours from Danville is a plumber... is sending his Second kid to Stanford. obviously he is doing something right. cannot even imagine food/housing costs for 2 kids in palo alto nowadays. tuition is actually relative reasonable at Stanford... something likes 12k a year. HA! Good Fun!

'harsh' or being honest? Why tip toe around the topic? He was a vile man who molested children and IMO got what he deserved. If this guy was some average guy who lived down the street from you all the facts the same except we wasn't a singer/celebrity there would be a lynch mob after him and most everyone would be dancing on his grave. But he had some hits in the 80s and only because of that some of you are blinded by that. Its sick and some of you should be disgusted with yourself for celebrating the life of a CHILD MOLESTER. Unreal how celebrities blind some people. I liked some of his songs in the 80s as well does not make him a good person. ...or the guy simply was never mentally fit to become old. Maybe he stayed at the mental age of 8 for the rest of his life. None of his children is biologically his. I bet that he wasn't even interested in any form of sexuality to begin, because that was icky grown-up stuff. I also bet that he died as a virgin. I wouldn't dispute this and say its just as possible. Have you seen the items in his house? A pic of him as jesus with children following him, tons of collectible kid toys on display, a wall sized print if him dressed as royalty with words implying he is some kind of savior and immortal. It's pretty messed up and creepy. Either case he has at LEAST a unhealthy attraction to young boys or was guilty of molesting them. Either case IMO he got what he deserved like all people like that. Love karma. Many celebrities develop a form of jesus-complex during their careers. am not sure if we would say "many." am suspecting that the vast majority o' celebs never go quite so far as thinking that they is jesus or some kinda messiah. on the other hand, Gromnir, a non-celeb, has a jesus complex... but we thinks we is Jesus Dominguez, a plumber with a wife and five children from Los Gatos California. HA! Good Fun!

you sent Gromnir to the nwn2 board... a game developed by obsidian. freak. HA! Good Fun!

and Gromnir would recommend not using power attack. take a -5 on attack rolls with pa. disable via your little modes menu... bottom right. second symbol from left in the bottom row... picture o' a sword. click so it ain't highlighted no more. HA! Good Fun!

crits is great... save for fact that d&d takes cheese route and makes many (most) high level critters crit immune. elementals and undead and golems and most unique foes all gets crit immunity. is a weapon in motb that lets you crit those critters normal immune to critical hits... and it is a falchion. you want weapon master? our suggestion is to go with the earth gensai fighter(4-6)/weapon master(7)/frenzied berserker... or whatever... specialize in falchion. actually, our favorite melee build for motb is simple strength build ranger with a couple o' levels o' rogue thrown into the mix. the epic ranger feats is excellent, and you gets good skills points availability... can pretty much be party rogue & diplomat as well as a pretty darn good melee fighter. gets the dual wield feats for free without having to put points into dex. Gromnir is at least as concerned 'bout skills checks as he is 'bout melee power, so rogue (2or3)/ranger is a great build for us... but is not the Ultimate Combatant if that is the goal. motb levels is high 'nuff to make those rdd builds useful. rdd melee builds gets real powerful right 'bout level 15 or 16... which is kinda a waste in a game that goes from 1-20... but in motb... *shrug* fighter(4)/bard(1)/rdd(10)/fb or fighter or whatever... use falchion. is some pretty tough skills requirements, so be careful as you build. am personal prejudiced 'gainst all rdd builds, but they does get very tough at high levels. HA! Good Fun! ps... as for paladin stuff, you is gonna have to check with others for the anti-paladin builds as those is the serious power gaming builds. even so, is tough to go wrong with a fighter/paladin/divine champion. typical it not make much sense to take more than a few levels o' paladin. epic divine might is eventual goal that makes you a nasty death machine as you spam turn attempts into melee maelstrom... but you need 21 str AND 21 chr. assimar is probable the easiest route. the thing is that your skills points... suck, and is not smart to put much into wis neither.

am not suggesting a mod. if betehesda did wrong way, then what is correct way? is there a more appropriate raison detre for the player? save-the-world is popular 'cause gives understandable motivation for any character, regardless of moral or philosophical pov... but that gets the cliche label, no? so bethesda story is busted and save-the-world/village/galaxy is tired. so, give Gromnir a broad stroke sketch of right way, given the limitations noted in our previous post. HA! Good Fun!

Fallout 3's major failing: the game is built around your love for your father and doesn't even try to act as if one could feel anything else than unrestricted, completely compassionate love for that character. fix it. am no more a fan o' fo3 plot than is most in this thread, but if you see busted, then fix... but keep in mind that you got a protagonist-centric, character driven story. now, make compelling. keep flexible so that Mikael can play how he wishes to, but gotta also work for vol and aristes and a few hundred thousand other folks. fix it. for the nonce, ignore whether or not a crpg needs to be story driven. also, assume that the player's character has gotta be more important to story simply acting as the means by which plot points is advanced. now, fix. find a way to make story compelling And universal flexible. o' and mere fact that player is the protagonist will not result in a compelling story anymore than story o' your pong paddle becomes inherent compelling. am not a fan o' protagonist focus in a crpg story, but most developers start with such stuff. assuming you start as does bethesda and bio and so many other developers, come up with a story that retains protagonist focus and considerable flexibility while achieving emotional impact. HA! Good Fun!

is backtracking a bit, but anybody that believes that a game is made superior by including a definition o' "knife" (sans humor or some other similar secondary aspect) is embracing some kinda definition o' gaming goodness that is so alien to Gromnir that we cannot comprehend. fact that the knife nonsense were embraced by numerous folks is what genuine disturbs us. ... the kinda stuff some o' you people sees as essential or meaningful is baffling to Gromnir. "knife"? HA! Good Fun!

"I believe the main reason to have six origins is to show that there

"am thinking that maybe Bio's got the right of it (maybe), despite the inherent limits of the approach." bio thinks like does you... and that is why we will never see no genuine improvement. the inherent limitations is insurmountable. a new approach, player focused or otherwise, is necessary to make actual progress. iwd is an interesting case. black isle hurts self by calling it a dungeon crawl 'cause most story elements were superior to bg. even so, once you label as a dungeon crawl, you is telling fans and critics that story is not a strength. mistake. in addition, the lack o' vacuous party banter, necessary given iwd's streamlined production, were also much missed by fans. in spite o' such, iwd were black isle's most successful game... period. regardless, bio puts lots o' effort and considerable hype into a DA feature that is ultimately broken. is not an improvement on bhaalspawn, so much as it is a multiplication. actually, this is one of those situations that requires pre-game hype to be successful. the typical player only plays a game once, so the average player is unlikely to get any use out of the other 5 origins. if you is able to convince fans Before they play game that those 6 origin choices is meaningful, then as a developer you has already won. player feels as if their character is more special because they gots an opportunity to choose something important. ultimately not matter if developers convince fans through content or guile, 'cause if player actually believes the origin choice were meaningful, then it IS meaningful. given the "inherent limits" of the approach, is gonna be real interesting to see if this feature is actual 'bout genuine improvement, or is more a matter o' smoke n' mirrors. HA! Good Fun!

"Can we call criticism where we see it is warranted, such as cliched stereotypes," is not possible to see such until game is played. is only cliche if is done poor. back in the other thread we addressed the Ancient Evil complaints. is more than a few fantasy and sci-fi stories that is considered groundbreaking in spite of Ancient Evil. in any event, Gromnir is unimpressed with the notion o' origins. sure, you get six origin choices 'stead o' one, but those six origins is still gonna have to be written with general appeal in mind... and as Gromnir and others point out, you is not gonna have true 6 different stories. is gonna be some key plot points that is common to all six origins. is a bass akwards approach. sure, is intuitive, but you simply multiply vague bhaalspawn into six near equal vague da protagonists... 'cause regardless of origin choice, developers is still gonna leave up to the player to decide if you is a tough guy or a sneaky bastard. maybe you is helping little old women across the street... or maybe you punt puppies into oncoming traffic... just for fun. maybe you does a little o' both help and punt? try to write compelling story wherein the protagonist can be nice, naughty, tough, cowardly, boastful, humble, aggressive, passive, or a combination of any of the aforementioned. go ahead, we dare you. fact that the hypothetical protagonist is a dwarf noble or a human peasant not make writer's job markedly easier. am fully understanding why bio did origins... 'cause it is an obvious approach. the problem is that the bio origins approach not genuine solve problems involved in making a story 'bout a vague protagonist. 6 vague origins is better than a single vague bhaalspawn? maybe. keep in mind that Gromnir has always complained 'bout overemphasis on a necessarily vague and fluid crpg protagonist. is a dead end from a writer's pov. 'course, 'stead o' having 6 different protagonists why not instead has 3 different antagonists that change depending on gameplay choices? actual meaningful bifurcations 'stead o' inevitable chokepoints and merging regardless of origins. villains not need to be vague... can be static. *shrug* am thinking that best we will be able to say 'bout origins is that 6 is maybe better than 1. am thinking that more than a few people will complains of linearity regardless o' origin choices. am betting that more than a few will be disappointed by lack o' choice the origin options genuine provide. am betting that many o' the complaints would be heard regardless o' how good or bad the origins is implemented. nevertheless, the origins options is a safe approach that will not doubt be lauded by many, and criticized by a few. 1) 6 is better than 1. 2) 6 or 1 doesn't make for a genuine difference. get to wait 'til october to see if Gromnir prognostications is the typical scary accurate. HA! Good Fun!

the katana is a very nice sword for cutting up lightly armoured and unarmoured foes. geometry makes it an inferior thrust weapon and it is deficient as a parry weapon. the folding stuff is mostly symbolic, but originally got started 'cause japanese ores were inferior. katanas were surprisingly fragile, and if you ever get a chance to see katanas that were ever used in combat, you sees that they looks a bit like a dog's chew toy... is hardly the indestructible weapon that they is portrayed to be. the katana is not gonna cut an opponent's weapon in half and is not gonna cut through any serious armour neither. is surely not gonna cut roof off of a car, or cut through steel doors n' such. have seen some interesting theories 'bout how the katana myths got started, but have never seen any explanation that seemed to fully make sense o' the vast gulf 'tween katana myth and katana reality. is a good design for combatants facing typical japanese unarmoured and lightly armoured opponents... which is not a criticism. as for some o' the other weapons... *shrug* dunno. Gromnir is extreme unimpressed with big handguns... too easy to make a freudian argument. even so, fo is not 'bout reality or realism... is bout kewl. HA! Good Fun!

am thinking o' building a cheap gaming pc... not wanna spend more than 'bout $600 on this thing.. preferably $500. to that end, we is using the amd phenom ii x2 550 black edition cpu on an asus m3a78-em mb... use radeon hd 4770 'cause is a pretty good card, but also 'cause o' size and power considerations. am gonna use the antec sonata iii case with the earthwatts 500 psu. the thing is, the sonata cases is sometimes a little tight on space. could save a couple bucks-- use stock heatsink, but Gromnir rare skimps on heatsink. only other stuff that is gonna take up space in the case is the memory, and that is kinda standard. hd and optical is in bays, so ain't genuine a factor. probable use on-board sound as this computer ain't gonna be using 5.1 or 7.1 surround... got klipsch promedia 2.1. even so, we not want some monster heatsink in this thing. anybody got some recommendations for good heatsink? would prefer something that not sound like a cesna engine. HA! Good Fun!