Stasis_Sword

But if you're going the blast mage route, you'd still benefit particularly from WF: Noble. You still need to hit stuff first to blast properly after all, and Wizards are hardly blessed with an innate sense of accuracy. 100% agree with you that you should use the appropriate weapon focus for the character. I read the original quote as a critique on making all the casters in the party melee characters with melee weapon focus. Which if you were blindly grabbing builds from the build list is what would likely happen.

I could be wrong Boeroer but I believe baldurs_gate_2's point was that almost all the currently posted wizard/priest builds (except your Hurtstacker) recommend melee weapons rather than ranged ones. While these weapon choices work for the builds listed (and I love melee wizards) I think most of us would consider the "traditional" wizard build is probably ranged with implements and blast.

The are several difference between this and the other IE games: 1). The is one companion for each class and only one companion for each class. Removing a lot of the who's better at class ____ debates. 2). You don't need a rogue in this game. It's helpful to have someone who specialize in the mechanics skills for traps and locked objects, but any class include priests can be lock pickers (if trained correctly). 3). There are much less "silver bullet" spells/abilities than BG2. Every enemy can be beaten in a variety of ways and while an enemy might resist fire of physical attacks or something there aren't any "you need a wizard" battles. 4). There is an option to retrain/respec characters so you're choices aren't written in stone. My main advice is meet the different companions and see who you enjoy (and who you can't stand).

I agree with AndreaColombo that normal might be a good place to start as you're learning the mechanics of the game. If you're still interested in shapeshifting druids I recommend looking at the Hungry Like a Wolf build and there is a scepter that can give you a second shift per encounter. If you're still interested in monks I recommend looking at the Juggernaut build. Monks play different than monks in other games and their ability to soak up damage is directly tied to how much damage they can do. Think of all those anime characters that magically get stronger as they're beaten to within an inch of their life. Having said that the most important thing is to find a main character whose concept and mechanics makes you happy. As you play through the game and learn more you can respec your main characters stats and abilities, but you can never change their class. As you learn more about the various classes and your preferences you can swap companions in and out fairly easily so don't worry too much about party composition at this point.

Monk - As mentioned above they are a great class. They can be very durable (see juggernaut build) and also provide a range of active abilities. In addition to doing great damage with their quick auto attacks they can do AOE damage with torment's reach, dash around the field with flagellant's path and CC a target with Force of anguish. Their abilities use a resource called wounds which you accumulate my taking damage, while this might sound undesirable it's actually nice because you take damage almost every encounter and can use their abilities without needing to hold back. Cipher - Is powerful but not enough to avoid it. The cipher gets a powerful damage multiplier for both melee and ranged attacks. They posses a fairly diverse range of powers which can charm, debuff and deal raw damage to multiple targets. Their abilities use a resource called focus which you accumulate by dealing weapon damage. Like wounds you can (and should) spend focus as soon as you get it because it won't carry over to the next battle. The only downside to focus is that unlike a high level wizard you can't fire off a bunch of your highest level powers at the beginning of an encounter. Wizard - Much like BG they begin kind of weak and get much stronger as the game progresses. They have a huge range of spells for every situation including incredible CC, AOE damage, debuffs and amazing self buffs. Wizards use a per rest spell system similar to BG which means you need to careful consider how many spells you want to use in any given encounter. When they get to those higher levels in addition to having more spells per rest they also develop spell mastery where they can cast certain spells once per encounter for no cost. For example at level 9 you could pick slicken (a 1st level spell) as your per encounter spell and be able to cast it for free once per encounter. Eventually you can master a level 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th level spell which makes normal encounters much more fun. Also you will eventually meet companions of every class (although Monk, Rogue and Barbarian come later) so don't let having two of a class worry you.

Are the monk only accessories (Sandals of the Forgotten Friar, Blood Testament) worth using? Any other equipment recommendation for the 3.0 build?

MaxQuest thanks for that very informative post.

In my defense I said I was having trouble trying to work through MaxQuest's formula. So to summarize with a two handed weapon zero recovery is only really possible in clothes (which matches up with my quick gameplay test), unless the weapon has an inherent attack speed bonus.

I tried to use one of the formulas in the thread to calculate attacks speed for a two hander but it didn't quite work. For a durganized tidefall with gloves of swift action and potion I thought it would be: (1.5-1) + (1.15 * 1.15 * 1.5) = 1.48 Also is there anything else a non dual wielding character can do to speed up their attack?

2). Most spells attack/damage spells can cause friendly fire. When you go to cast AOE spells you should see two targeting circles. Any area in the circle that is red will effect allies or enemies in the area, yellow will only effect enemies. If both circles are yellow the spell will never cause friendly fire.

You should map you skills too Stealth - How are you on sneaking up on people? Lore - Military history counts as lore right? Athletics - Sounds like at least a 3/4 Mechanics - How are you at picking locks? Survival - How much camping do you do?

One thing to remember is that base stats are not the be all end all they are in other games. Most of these builds can also be used with the NPCs who have fairly different stats, so if swapping 3 points of dex to 3 points of con on the lady of pain makes you sleep better at night do it. Also you can change your stats using the retrain option in game if something isn't working for you. Also tankiness is really a combination of three factors: defenses (deflection, reflex, will, fortitude), damage reduction and endurance. The lady of pain relies on having descent defenses, high DR armor (doesn't need to be sanguine plate) and constant healing from Tidefall which makes it's slightly smaller endurance pool a non-issue.

My general skill build looks like this: Stealth: 1 Athletics: 3-4 (for fatigue) Lore: 2 Survival: Remainder Survival is useful because it can provide a variety of combat benefits including DR, accuracy boosts, ect. I also have three skill specialist (take points from survival): Mechanics - traps and locked objects Athletics* - event checks Lore - scrolls * Does anyone know the max required score for all athletics checks?

So here is a quick outline of what you could do. I'm going to heavily reference the Build List Ranger - Storm and Plague Caller Fighter 2H - Lady of Pain Paladin - The Fire General (might take a forum search, requires Pallegina) Wizard - Zeblastian Hurtstacker? Druid - Hungry Like the Wolf Priest - How I Buffed the Others Or you can completely ignore my recommendations and play however you want. Unless you're playing POTD you don't need super optimized stats.

I ended up sneak attacking Penhelm and Osric gave me the armor as recommended earlier in the thread. I received a minor reputation hit with the dozens but still got access to the store. Surprisingly their was no defiance bay reputation hit. Two observations: 1). It appears you get a "quest item" from Penhelm not the actual armor. Previously I thought you could just keep it and not complete the quest, but that wouldn't work. 2). I love the writing for this quest. Osric calls you a psychopath for killing a guy over a fetch quest. It's pretty refreshing to have a quest giver say that what they asked you to get might not be the most important thing in the world.

Perfect. Thank you

Just to confirm that won't get me kicked out of the Knights or close their quest line?

I'm trying to figure out the cleanest way to get access to all three faction shops while still getting the armor. By cleanest I mean least net reputation loss for the various factions and Defiance Bay. I know there is a lying option which I don't have enough deception to pass. I've heard that if you can start combat with the NPC carrying the armor without triggering dialog that Osric will just let you keep the armor? Is that true? Do you still get access to the store? How big is the faction penalty with the Knights? Are there other possible solutions?

For me personally it all comes down to the summoning time. I feel like I could prone 4 enemies with force of anguish and turn the tide of the entire encounter before those twins show up. Don't get me wrong they're great when they get there, but surviving until then can be a pain.

Pallegina is arguably competitive with choosing a hired paladin just 'cause she has great Order talents. I give the edge to PC Paladin though of course, due to Faith and Conviction bonus advantage -assuming you select favored disposition dialogue options and avoid disfavored. Sub-optimal might not even be the right word, maybe "not min-maxed". They are perfectly usable and I personally prefer them for the story interaction and banter.

First there are two types of companions: 1). Pre-made story companions 2). Custom companions Story companions Pros: Interact with quests and have banter, free to recruit Cons: Sub-optimal stats, may not be recruitable for awhile Custom companions are basically the reverse. They can be whatever you want, but will always be silent companions. If you want a silent optimal party you can generate them all in the first town (might need some quests for money). If you want a story party you can recruit 4 companions before the first major combat quest. Stick to the roads to avoid extra fights. EDIT: Sub-optimal means not perfect/ideal, not horrible/unplayable.

I agree with Boeroer that Druid would be the most logical pick for your party. It will help with AOE damage, healing, and CC all of which you could use. I personally would pick something ranged for your other open slot. I find the AI pathing frustrating when there are too many melee characters.

Returning to the core question what's the magic number to get all the loot (including the expansion, ignoring floor traps)? Is 14 (including modifiers) enough?

Personally I don't feel the need to be able to disarm every trap, but I want all the loot from hidden/locked objects. Are there any hidden objects that require more than 12 mechanics to spot? Are there any locked objects that 12 + 2 lockpicks can't open?

1). I wasn't sure if there were any fancy tricks to get them to respawn or show up more frequently. Good point about the midnight vendor.