SoZ character build advice

[Monte Carlo]

Hello.

 

I'm not a fan of arcane spellcasters, I sort of take them along grudgingly because you need them in higher level D&D. I've noticed, however, that in NWN2 this isn't as acute as it used to be.

 

However, I do need an arcane spellcaster of sorts to:

 

1. Cast offensive magic (duh)

2. Craft items (for the first time ever I've found a crafting system in a game I like)

3. Provide meaningful combat support for when the spells run out

 

I've tried a sorcerer / red dragon disciple (got him up to level 7) but just got bored of his general crappiness and fragility. Should I be going for an arcane archer or a warrior / bard build?

 

Any ideas would be great.

 

Lastly, I know SoZ has taken a bit of flak on this board, but FWIW I really like it because (drum roll)... it's fun. Am particularly loving the overland map, trading, abbreviated parly / merchant system and that there are loads of easter eggs on the map. I also appreciate the optimization, it runs as smooth as silk with every option cranked up to the max. So, cheers Obsidian.

[Monte Carlo]

I thought it might help to point out that the rest of the party is:

 

Tiefling Ranger / Rogue

Aasimar Cleric (aiming for Warpriest)

Human Fighter (aiming for Divine Champion of Tempus)

 

I'll probably be starting again, as the Tiefling is surprisingly frail in combat, as is the single-class cleric. Probably ECL, I usually avoid subraces with ECL for this reason.

[Walsingham]

What's an ECL?

[Pope]

level adjustment

 

I still haven't started SoZ. I was thinking of a planetouched party with 4 ECL races, but that might not be such a good idea.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Pope

[Darth InSidious]

Hello.

 

I'm not a fan of arcane spellcasters, I sort of take them along grudgingly because you need them in higher level D&D. I've noticed, however, that in NWN2 this isn't as acute as it used to be.

 

However, I do need an arcane spellcaster of sorts to:

 

1. Cast offensive magic (duh)

2. Craft items (for the first time ever I've found a crafting system in a game I like)

3. Provide meaningful combat support for when the spells run out

 

I've tried a sorcerer / red dragon disciple (got him up to level 7) but just got bored of his general crappiness and fragility. Should I be going for an arcane archer or a warrior / bard build?

 

Any ideas would be great.

Warlock might be more like what you're looking for. Less fragile than other spellcasters, gets the crafting skills as class skills, and has no use limit on blasts/invocations.

 

The class gets 2 skill points per level as a base, so be sure to have a reasonable INT score.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Darth InSidious

[Monte Carlo]

^ Yeah, I built a warlock this afternoon and I have to say it's the spellcaster for people who don't really like spellcasters. He can even wear armour.

 

The others are:

 

Human Bbn/Brd/Rog (all even levels, I know it's strange but he really can do everything and is a marvellous overland map leader, we are pinging bonuses and treasure all over the place)

Elven vanilla Cleric (he's got a longbow and luck and war domains, good backup tank / archer)

Human vanilla Ftr (she's just a greatsword-wielding tank, but essential in such a combat heavy game)

[Gromnir]

did warlock crafting get fixed in the new patch? warlocks get imbue item, but in nw2 you can't craft w/o appropriate metamagic feat.. and when soz were released warlocks were still unable to gets crafting feats. made crafting for warlocks kinda useless.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Enoch]

Yeah, sounds like you're talking about either a Warlock (assuming the crafting feat fix has been done) or some variety of Eldrich Knight. A Wizard-based EK could work well-- you can adjust her spell selection based on the situation, depending on whether you want a blaster or a buffed-up backup fighter. They are a bit slow to start-- IIRC, you need 5 wiz levels, martial weapons prof (usually covered by 1-4 levels of a martial class, depending on your preference), and (I think) one or two other feats (which can make it tough to cover all of the crafting bases). But, in the end, they do get you close to the diversity you want.