Good Melee and ranger characters stats?

[Skeeter]

I know strength for melee characters and dex for ranged characters. But what kind of stats should they have to make them good at either melee or ranged?

 

Also what kind of weapons are good and also what kinda upgrades are best and for which weapons?

 

Just i started my 2nd run through kotor 2 and want to be better at setting up and equiping characters this time. I want to know what stats and feats and that are good for either melee or ranged and what weapons (upgraded) are best.

 

If you can help with tips and what not i would be appreciated.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Melee characters can be fine with high dex, not strength, if you choose the melee/lightsaber finesse feat.

 

Other than that, I don't think stats matter that much, because the bonuses from lightsaber crystals and other items quickly overwhelm them.

[Darth Frog]

Melee characters can be fine with high dex, not strength, if you choose the melee/lightsaber finesse feat.

 

Not really. A turtle takes hardly any damage and so there is no urge to dispatch enemies quickly, but you cannot really call something a 'melee character' if the melee damage output is on the same level as that of a pure-bred spell caster like a Consular/Jedi Master.

 

Despite the insanely powerful upgrades and booster items (and not to forget some of the new feats and lightsabre forms), roughly one third of the damage output for a high-damage melee build is still from STR, like in the original KotOR. Guardian-type classes (Guardian, Weapon Master, Marauder) with Dark Side mastery get a good damage bonus and so the relative proportion of the STR bonus may be a bit less than one third for them.

 

One third is not a whole lot but enemy stats are what they are, and so only a dedicated high-damage, low-AC melee build will be able to get single-round kills reliably throughout the whole campaign, from Peragus to Malachor. A more balanced build that trades some STR for WIS/CHA (Force DC) and/or INT (for skill/attribute checks) will achieve mostly the same effect but there will be times where single-round kills cannot be achieved reliably. That is, it can happen that you need two rounds for an enemy if you roll an automatic miss or get a bunch of low damage rolls (or no criticals, if you are a 'critter' :D ).

 

This is for non-bosses. Some of the bosses still go down in a single round (sleeps-with-vibros, Greater Storm Beast ...) but most take two, and there are special grunts that have no teeth but plenty of VP and these can take even more rounds. I think the fattest is Colonel <willyoudiealready> on the Ravager, who has about 2000 vitality and takes four rounds to cut down. There are also occasional Cannoks and Sith Assassins that seem to have more than double the normal VP and thus take two rounds.

 

DEX builds can still get plenty of single-round kills, especially on lucky rolls with critical damage. But they don't get single-round kills reliably, except against the lowliest grunts that are served en masse (e.g. Jekk'Jekk Tarr, Trayus Academy) and which even a flat-out melee fighter with the lowest possible WIS/CHA will dispatch with area spells anyway instead of slaughtering each one individually and personally. On the other hand, a 'full' DEX build is a turtle and thus untouchable; unlike low-AC builds they have no pressing reason to dispatch enemies quickly.

 

Other than that, I don't think stats matter that much, because the bonuses from lightsaber crystals and other items quickly overwhelm them.

 

Natural attributes and feat selection do matter during the early game, until you hit level 15 or so and get all the master powers (and phat lewt). You almost always have a party with you and so you can muddle through in any case, but it is more fun if you have an able build who can pull her weight. And then there's the sparring in the, errm, polar region on Telos which holds the one true test for the fighting abilities of your character; for melee fighters the moment of truth is the last round, for squishy types like Consulars it is in the earlier restricted rounds. The Battle Circle in the Dxun camp serves the same purpose to a lesser degree.

 

During the late game a good part of the 'build' is in equipment selection as you said. For example, you can turn a decent STR build into a somewhat decent DEX build and vice versa simply by switching some equipment around. However, the results are 'only' serviceable but not completely convincing insofar as bosses can still breach the defense of the of the ex-damage-dealer turtle on high attack rolls, and if the dice aren't smiling upon the ex-turtle damage dealer then she may need more than one combat round for enemies like sleeps-with-vibroblades.

 

Also, class selection is somewhat important. Guardian and the fighter-style prestige classes have an extra edge in melee combat, from selectable feats, class bonus feats and class-specific lightsabre forms (Juyo), and alignment mastery bonus (STR for LS, extra damage for DS); Marauders get an extra edge on top of that with Fury (w00t :D). For Consulars and mage-style prestige classes it is similar with regard to spell-casting, with the most important thing being enhanced Force DC to make powers stick.

 

I think a good plan would be to pick a theme for the Exile - like 'turtle' - and to select class, attributes and feats such that the key ability is emphasized and the rest rounded out a little. The key attribute(s) for the build should probably be set to somewhere between 16 and 18, followed by hearty 14s for the supporting attributes and disdainful 8s for the rest. Setting the primary attribute to 18 can be somewhat tricky because it is rather expensive in terms of creation points and thus can easily lead to a stunted character; however, in this game it is the way to go if you have already learned the ropes and want to explore what it feels like to be a really good fighter or a really squishy spell caster. :D

 

The class choices for pure-bred melee fighters and for master Force users are self-evident but not so for high DEX turtles or blaster Jedi. If you want to play all three then it is probably best to do the turtle first and to make it a Guardian with a Scoundrel-type prestige class (Force Jump plus Sneak Attack :D) although Sentinel is also okay if you play DS.

 

If you haven't any plans regarding gender and alignment yet: turtle and mage profit from Battle Precognition, so make them male and the fighter female. The dark side power you get shortly before the end game fits the theme of the mage, so you could make him evil; the dark side bonus carpet makes a nice tank which is another plus for an evil mage. :D The downside is that the DS mastery bonus for Consular-type classes is just some useless force points while LS master mages get +6 to WIS which translates to increased Force DC and an even higher FP bonus (level 18+). So it is okay either way but leaning towards LS, I guess.

 

A Sentinel turtle with Scoundrel-type prestige class will like the DEX bonus for evil mastery more than the useless CON for LS mastery, so I'd say this is a tentative evil. An evil Guardian turned Sith Assassin should also work rather well (1-8 extra damage for Guardian, +3 DEX for Assassin).

 

A fighter will appreciate the light side bonus power much more and the +6 STR bonus for LS mastery is okay; on the other hand, DS master fighters are a bit more powerful as they get 2-16 extra damage per attack. The Marauder's Fury adds even more power but a Marauder does not have to remain evil; you just have to put on an act for Kreia's benefit until level 15 because she won't make you Marauder unless she sees you as at least half evil. If you have already done Citadel the evil (Czerka) and the light (Ithorians) way then the LS master Marauder to-be is a perfect opportunity for being evil on the light-side path (Ithorians). There is some DS stuff that you don't get to see/do if you are evil for Czerka.

 

Some musings on melee fighter details: a good choice for a high-damage low-AC melee fighter is Guardian followed by Weapon Master or Marauder, and the key attribute is of course STR. Flurry as primary attack feat will serve you well throughout the game, although you get enough feats to master the other two (Critical Strike, Power Attack) as well so that you can experiment which you like most. The latter two have their ups and downs while Flurry is always decent and dependable. Two-handed fighting does not become attractive before the midgame, earlier it is much more efficient to use a single vibro/sabre with (Master) Flurry and (Master) Duelling. So I'd follow the Flurry and Duelling feat chains first, and if they are stalled or complete then two-handed fighting and Power Attack. Stay away from the prestige class feats that increase attack bonus; they're useless because you'll have sufficient attack bonus when the feats become available and plenty to spare during the later game.

 

The Heavy Armour feat is so-so; during the earlier game it can be fun if you find a decent suit and beef it up with some good upgrades (the Heavy Bonded Plates type overlays are cheap to make and fairly effective), because then even a STR build can be near unhittable. With Kreia supplying buffs via Force link the Exile becomes one mean and unstoppable tank. But I'd rather follow the theme and use either a STR-enhancing robe (Matukai) or something that can hold a strengthening underlay and does not restrict Force buffs (e.g. the Jal Shey or Zeison Sha type Jedi armours). Dead enemies don't deal damage, so who cares about defense ...

[Darth Vader]

I unfortunately didn't write down some stats.but in my last game Mira was very Very powerful with blasters.

She was using a mandalorian blaster and a disintegrator upgraded with powerful stuff.And basically she was more powerful than me with my lightsabers for a long part of the game.

I will have to try to specialize the exile in ranged weapons at some point to see how powerful he could become.

[Arkendale]

A high dex worked well for my Jedi Weaponmaster.

 

Maybe Darth Frog already said something about that in his insanely long post, but I'm too lazy to bother reading it

[Darth Frog]

Well, I could have posted

 

18+8/12/16/8/8/8 (melee)

14+3/8/14+4/15+1/14/12 (melee, beat all skill checks)

8/18+?/8/8/16+?/12 male (mageish turtle)

8/15+?/14/8/16+?/14 male (turtlish mage)

 

Each of those would be perfect in some sense and not in others. There is no 'best' config for any purpose, just plenty of trade-offs. I see little value in posting concrete recipes without the reasoning behind it ... Everybody has to decide for themselves which combination of trade-offs they find most pleasing. And for an informed decision you need to know a little about pros and cons.