What are the best D&D (NWN) Builds?

[ramza]

I had an argument last week with one of my friends about what could be the ultimate powergamer build in NWN 1. We had different views on the subject and we couldn't find an answer to our question. That is how I thought that maybe other people had some cool ideas about how to make a powerful character

 

I am still playing some NWN 1 fan-made modules, so I could really use some original builds.

Here are some ideas of what I have already thought of:

 

+Paladin 5/ champion of torm 10/ sorcerer 25

 

My character's highest stat is CHA so that each class can gain benefits from it. Paladin gains cool bonuses that can even stack with those of a champion of storm. Champion also gains bonus feats, which can be extremely useful. With the sorcerer class going into epic levels, I can cast up to lv9 spells, I can pick an epic spell and I can also pick the Automatic still spell I-III feats.

If my character is an Aasimar, he gains even more bonuses, and I thus have the ultimate armored mage.

 

I can also use variations of that build: I take 10 levels of RDD instead of Champion of Torm, or I take 25 levels of Bard instead of sorcerer, I can even make a mix between those 2 things. But I don't know what the result would be.

 

+Simpler but not less powerful builds could be

Fighter 30/ weapon master 10 (tons of feats, max weapon specialisation)

Monk 30/ fighter 10 (max out monk's abilities and get a few useful fighter feats including weapon spe for unarmed attacks)

 

+My friend was suggesting making a Fighter 10/Barb 5/ Sorcerer 25. It's a similar build to the very first one I mentioned but my friend claimed his was more powerful (more HPs basically). What do you think guys?

 

+Another interesting build could be Monk/ Sorcerer or Bard/RDD , but I need to put more thought into this...

 

Please, feel free to post all the builds you have tried or thought of. Your character can be of any race and any class/prestige class contained withing the PRC pack. Please try to plan how your character will be at level 40. Try posting the main pros and cons, and you can even post your character's eventual stats.

 

link to the PRC website

http://nwnprc.netgamers.co.uk/manual/index.html

 

Let the fun begin! Cheers.

Edited March 7, 2007 by ramza

[Volourn]

Pretty much any character build can be made 'all powerful'. Espicially if you throw in magic items otherwise the spell casting classes have the edge.

 

I even had a full bard with like 6 con be one of the more powerful characters on an action focused PW.

[Sand]

I personaly like the greatsword swinging wizard.

 

Class: Wizard

Race: Human

 

Str: 14

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 16

Wis: 10

Cha: 10

 

Starting feats: Martial Weapons Proficiency, Spellcasting Prodigy

 

I alternated between Item Creation Feats and combat feats like Power Attack, Cleave, and Weapon Focus (Greatsword). When I qualified for Eldritched Knight I started taking levels in that, along with Practiced Spellcaster (Wizard). Effective casting level 20th with 19th level spell progression... With a greatsword.

[Atreides]

This is NWN2 but I'll join in with some of my ideas.

 

Warlock/Rogue

Low lvl tech's using Leaps and Bounds for a +4 to dex with weapon finesse.

Idea's to get cast Darkness with the ability that lets me see in the dark. While enemies fumble I sneak attack them in the face.

Other idea's to get the Improved Invisibility effect and sneak attack people in the face.

 

Fighter/Frenzied Berserker

Dual wielding machine of crazy number of attacks per turn.

[Sand]

Its all about sneak attacking people in the face with you, isn't it, Atriedes.

[Atreides]

It is, but the warlock/rogue build ain't working out well. I need a min of lvl16 before I get the improved invis invocation, which leaves a pretty lame lvl4 rogue. I've picked the warlock abilities to complement a melee rogue but they're still pretty lame. I love the Beguiling Influence of +6 to Diplomacy, Bluff and Intimidate though.

 

Edit: I decided to go lvl10 Warlock lvl10 Rogue and spam an Improved Invisibility wand. But still, I'm not having as much fun as I should be having.

Edited March 8, 2007 by Atreides

[Spider]

Also, you can get a similar effect by taking assassin or shadowdancer levels. Hide in Plain Sight is all the invisibility you'll ever need.

[Atreides]

Wouldn't you lose the affect after you've attacked?

[Spider]

Yeah, but then it's just to hide again.

[ramza]

Pretty much any character build can be made 'all powerful'. Espicially if you throw in magic items otherwise the spell casting classes have the edge.

 

I even had a full bard with like 6 con be one of the more powerful characters on an action focused PW.

 

How can a single bard be that much powerful? I don't know if epic bards rock (never tried one), but I remember playing a bard/harper scout/pale master for the NWN OC, and I can't say I was overly satisfied with her. Maybe I picked the wrong spells...

 

Just a note about my paladin/champion/sorcerer, I forgot to mention the fact that I also picked the divine might and divine defense feats, which greatly improve my character in combat (since he has a high CHA). Picking the extra turning feat also allows me to use more often these priceless abilities. I wish I could use that character in a pvp server: time stop, summon dragon knight, etc etc

 

I have heard of players combining rogue levels and bard levels, but I don't know if the final result is satisfying. Has anyone tried this?

[Lokey]

+Paladin 5/ champion of torm 10/ sorcerer 25

 

My character's highest stat is CHA so that each class can gain benefits from it. Paladin gains cool bonuses that can even stack with those of a champion of storm. Champion also gains bonus feats, which can be extremely useful. With the sorcerer class going into epic levels, I can cast up to lv9 spells, I can pick an epic spell and I can also pick the Automatic still spell I-III feats.

If my character is an Aasimar, he gains even more bonuses, and I thus have the ultimate armored mage.

Spell resistance being your Achilles heel? If you're casting practically anything besides Acid Arrow at your enemies, eep.

 

Many things are module specific to determining a best or even better build. What items are available, how specifically have Bio mistakes been fixed, etc...

 

Bard is good all around, always has been. For example, your mage is cursed and taunted (well auto-still probably negates the spell failure portion of taunt in NWN1 or 2) being among other things at -12 ac or so, while the bard probably has his pretty much equivalent BAB to a gish boosted by song, warcry and so on.

[ramza]

+Paladin 5/ champion of torm 10/ sorcerer 25

 

My character's highest stat is CHA so that each class can gain benefits from it. Paladin gains cool bonuses that can even stack with those of a champion of storm. Champion also gains bonus feats, which can be extremely useful. With the sorcerer class going into epic levels, I can cast up to lv9 spells, I can pick an epic spell and I can also pick the Automatic still spell I-III feats.

If my character is an Aasimar, he gains even more bonuses, and I thus have the ultimate armored mage.

Spell resistance being your Achilles heel? If you're casting practically anything besides Acid Arrow at your enemies, eep.

 

Many things are module specific to determining a best or even better build. What items are available, how specifically have Bio mistakes been fixed, etc...

 

Bard is good all around, always has been. For example, your mage is cursed and taunted (well auto-still probably negates the spell failure portion of taunt in NWN1 or 2) being among other things at -12 ac or so, while the bard probably has his pretty much equivalent BAB to a gish boosted by song, warcry and so on.

 

interesting... Then I could make a paladin/champion/bard character to get the song bonuses (and the curse song feat which is equally useful). Good point for the spell resistance issue: in other words, my character needs to invest two feats for spell penetration and improved spell penetration... Other thoughts?

[Sand]

Bards can't be lawful.

[Dark_Raven]

Bards can't be lawful.

Not even 3E rules?

[Sand]

Nope. Not even in the 3.5e rules either.

[ramza]

Bards can't be lawful.

 

True but i have already thought about that... Let's say you start as a bard, gain 25 levels and after that become lawful good through your actions. That means that I will be able to take paladin levels without losing my bardic abilities, and voila.

 

On the other hand, I think one loses his paladin abilities, if he suffers an alignment change... no?

Edited March 8, 2007 by ramza

[Dark_Raven]

Nope. Not even in the 3.5e rules either.

Being based off the thief class it would make sense they can not be lawful.

[Xard]

Bah, boring powergaming :sad:

[Dark_Raven]

Powergaming is fun.

[ramza]

Bah, boring powergaming :sad:

 

Powergaming is not only making characters with munchkin abilities and uber stats. You can also make a character with a nice selection of skills, thus allowing him to get through many kinds of situations/obstacles without resorting to combat (which is not always the best solution). Of course, such a build would be more successful in a p&p session, rather than in the nwn games.

Edited March 9, 2007 by ramza

[Omnifarious]

my personal opinion of what the best NWN build is... 16 bard 10 red dragon disciple 14 cleric because you have so many options to destroy people with there are about 20 different variants in which you can make it but the levels stay the same the only thing that changes is what feats you take and the clerical domains I personally found great success with this build because I can use greater sanctuary then I buff up with divine favor and divine power to max out my attack bonus then while your casting true seeing I use a harm then I use a curse song and your dead this build also has word of faith to blind your victim for even more of a bonus to hit (FYI blind fight only stops invisible opponents) for your domains I recommend strength and knowledge you don't need to take the trickery domain because you already get imp invisibility from your bard levels your stats start like this

Race: Human

16 STR

8 DEX

10 CON

15 WIS

12 INT

14 CHA

 

there is no need to take 2 points in Charisma because you already get 2 CHA from RDD the first 2 things you should take are 2 points in wisdom to get 7th level cleric spells then from there just put all the rest of the points into the STR stat you take divine shield don't bother with divine might you will not have enough feats for this because you need still spell weapon focus imp critical heavy armor proficiency curse song and power attack so that you can get divine shield start 1 cleric and take power attack and divine shield on the first 2 feats then go 4 bard on your 4th level of bard take 8 points in LORE and go 10 RDD, from there go 13 cleric then 15 bard levels to finish it off you can easily get 50 strength with +12 bonus from items I warn you now that this build only has 3 Attacks Per Round but divine power fixes this because it gives you 1 extra APR in campaign naked and buffed with maxed out STR and no weapon I had 64 AB and my Ac is very high because of heavy armor tower shield divine shield and bard song for AB just use War cry from bard levels divine favor divine power if you try and use bless aid and prayer in PVP it would take way to long first thing I use is divine shield and bard song then curse song then I go from there  

 

People like to argue that all your AB is dispellable and that's the major flaw in the build but they only say that until you shove a Word of Faith down there throat with a darkness and a harm on top of it and a curse song to finish them off in 3 seconds but that's not the only way you can win

 

its impractical to try and take devastating critical on this build but you can do it you can also take the magic domain so that you can use negative energy burst and then balagarns iron horn combination to PWN dex based builds

[Keyrock]

Not going to look up the specifics, but a single minded human fighter/weapon master is an insane killing machine.  Two ways to go, in my opinion.  Either scimitar or rapier for insane critical chance, or scythe for insane critical damage.  Either way, you'll easily be able to get every feat you could ever possibly want and your chance to hit, number of attacks per round, and damage per attack are going to be so ridiculous that you'll be practically insta-killing even super tough beasties.  You'll brute force through even tough damage reduction/absorption spells with childish ease.  Plus, great armor and good hit points for survivability.  Augment with items giving various immunities (e.g. freedom of movement, immunity to mind control, etc.) and you become nearly unstoppable.  It's not pretty or fancy, it's the straight up brute force approach, but it's very effective because the steady damage output is just so staggering.

Edited July 1, 2013 by Keyrock

[Rosbjerg]

Holy Necroposting Batman! almost gave me a heart attack when I saw Sand...

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Not going to look up the specifics, but a single minded human fighter/weapon master is an insane killing machine. Two ways to go, in my opinion. Either scimitar or rapier for insane critical chance, or scythe for insane critical damage. Either way, you'll easily be able to get every feat you could ever possibly want and your chance to hit, number of attacks per round, and damage per attack are going to be so ridiculous that you'll be practically insta-killing even super tough beasties. You'll brute force through even tough damage reduction/absorption spells with childish ease. Plus, great armor and good hit points for survivability. Augment with items giving various immunities (e.g. freedom of movement, immunity to mind control, etc.) and you become nearly unstoppable. It's not pretty or fancy, it's the straight up brute force approach, but it's very effective because the steady damage output is just so staggering.

If you have Kaedrin's Prc, a Fighter/Tempest/WeaponMaster is incredibly effective. Throw in the monkey grip feat and dual-wield Greataxes(12*4>8*5) and you are unstoppable, although almost any melee weapon will do the trick.

 

Hmmm, oddly this discussion makes me feel like or GMing a PnP game set in Forgotten Realms or D&D planes using the Pathfinder rulesets with gestalt characters.

Edited July 2, 2013 by KaineParker

[Omnifarious]

between you and your friend our build is more powerfull but he has a point that he has more HP but if your build has divine might and divine shield divine might will just rip through his hp like a hot knife through butter and your ac will be higher so he will hit you less because of divine shield also your saves are superior because of cha bonus and paladin levels try 17 wizard 7 weapon master 16 fighter dex based with duel wielded kukri's that sounds much better don't bother with ac on that build just make sure you get knockdown and true strike as a feat so you can knock him down with 70 AB and then pwn him with duel wielded kukri's with a 10-20 crit threat