Favourite NWN2 character builds (excluding SoZ and MotB for now)

[Monte Carlo]

^ From what I've done so far the item recipe is 'the hammer' if that makes sense, you click on it and it becomes an activation icon.

[Gromnir]

"Yeah, that's what I understood as well, I just wasn't sure for the crafting that is not enchantment."

 

still need mold and metal. never ran into a problem with molds, but if you wanna complete outfit your party with mithtril chain shirts and breastplates you is gonna be sol... as there simply weren't enough mithril being sold by merchants.

 

and as far as we know, the character with the feat needs the spell... but there is a good number o' recipes that need no spell at all. your main character is gonna have mold/malleate spirit feats and he/she will be able to add some qualities to weapons using spirit essences. typical you got character with the creation feat and spell enchant an item using your Magical Murder Bag, or whatever they calls it. of course, they make so the red wizard npc already has the feats and she has access to every spell needed to make any item; you ain't gonna have to give multiple party members the craft magical arms and armour feat simply to crank out the weapon you wish.

 

with your magic bag in inventory you not gotta go to a magicians workbench for enchanting. however, for crafting you still need blacksmith area... which ain't hard to find as your motb base o' operations has all the crafting tables.

 

http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=294

 

is a very thorough site related to motb crafting.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Monte Carlo]

^ Grom I think he meant SoZ, which is crafting for dummies

[Kelverin]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

[Gromnir]

soz...

 

http://www.thieves-guild.net/index.php?pid=462

 

still need the right metal. getting appropriate exotic metal until last 1/3 of game were tough. have metal in inventory and appropriate recipe... gotta be near a blacksmith table. no need mold, but good luck finding enough mithril or adamantine 'til late in game. also, is no alchemical silver... not the unmolded metal. you want a magical silver short sword? you gotta buy the silver sword from one o' the few vendors that carrie... cannot craft your own sword. is sources o' every other metal, but not silver.

 

enchanting item requires you to have recipe... which may not be available til late in game. is also some bs 'bout how you not need spells for soz enchanting. HA! for instance, still need eagles splendor to make a nymph cloak... and chances are you need some exotic critter body part too.

 

soz ain't near as easy and streamlined as is often suggested. our recollection is that soz is actually more o' a pain than motb 'cause you need to have multiple characters take creation feats as is very difficult to get a single character to has all necessary spells.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Gromnir]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

"As far as character builds, Someone should show off a good Arcane Scholar build. Not really a power build, but tons of fun."

 

is something strange 'bout the arcane scholar. is seemingly ideal to pair up with a sorcerer as 'posed to wizard, and that seems counter intuitive to Gromnir. sorcerer not get all those bonus feats that does the wizard, so the free metamagic feats is real nifty for sorcerer. 10/10 sorcerer/arcane scholar is swell. am imagining that if you is playing human and add 1-2 level o' rogue + able learner you could probable have a nice spread o' skills too.

 

the second character we took all the way from oc through motb were a 4/6/10/10 rogue/wizard/ek/arcane scholar. were effective in combat, had ridiculous skills, and with practiced spell caster and the safiya (sp?) devotion/love feats we were extreme effective as a spellcaster. am pretty sure we started out 2/5 rogue/wizard, then added 10 ek levels. finished oc with 3 level o' arcane scholar for improved empower.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 4, 2009 by Gromnir

[Kelverin]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

[Gromnir]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

 

or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Kelverin]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

 

or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it????

[Gromnir]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

 

or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it????

 

actually, you brought armour into the equation. Gromnir would ever build his character based on feats received through magic items... particularly if we is planning to use character in motb. if you is building a high dex character who you wish to be combat effective, it makes sense to get weapon finesse... but depend on armour to get it? *snort*

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Kelverin]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

 

or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it????

 

actually, you brought armour into the equation. Gromnir would ever build his character based on feats received through magic items... particularly if we is planning to use character in motb. if you is building a high dex character who you wish to be combat effective, it makes sense to get weapon finesse... but depend on armour to get it? *snort*

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Why not seems like a good idea to me, why waste a feat that is needed if you can get it through other means? I can rely on buff for protection anyway, don't plan to do much toe to toe combat. Hit n run seems to go well with this particular character build no?

Edited August 4, 2009 by Kelverin

[Aristes]

DISCLAIMER: This is a long rant about power builds. It's probably a bit dry and certainly long winded. Read at your peril or simply ignore the wall of text.

 

"Why not conside what armor we'll get during the game?"

 

One reason I might consider at this point is that the games tend to be somewhat modular in that you can play one game and perhaps switch your character around to another. MotB pretty much ends the NWN2 main character line, but that doesn't mean folks don't want to import and play their character in either custom mods or possible future games. If those games don't allow you to keep your gear, then you've lost something you considered when you came up with your build. I don't really have a stake in that particular argument, but I do have some views on character builds in general that bears on gear and other specific events in the game. Any game.

 

First of all, a pen and paper power build should consider what will make your character most powerful under the most circumstances. In computer games, that's a hard line to follow because the game is a static environment. The DM can't see where things are headed and ammend his campaign to fit a changing party dynamic. Even so, CRPG designers should be careful not render any legitimate player build ineffective by denying gear or weighing the monster list with immunities. IWD2 failed in this regard because it did not include what I considered an appropriate amount of arcane spell scrolls. There were enough for mage, but only if the player were careful in looking for them. Similarly, MotB failed in regards to crit immune creatures, although there are ways around such crit immunity in the game. Characters should have steady access sufficient resources to take advantage of the main strengths of their class(es). For example, fighters and paladins should have a variety of weapons, shields, and armor available to outfit themselves and should be able to count on magical variants to come available as they progress through the game. That does not mean that all choices of magical school or weapon specialization must be equally represented, as long as the player can outfit his mage or warrior to suit his particular build. Spells aren't so much an issue now that mages choose spells as part of the level up process.

 

A power build should not be dependent on advanced knowledge of the content. I should not know that I will find a particular sword or armor at a specific place in the game. That's not power-gaming, that's cheating. I don't mind cheating. I use advanced knowledge of games I've played all the time. However, don't call it a power build. Call it cheating. We can all cheat together with honor if we don't call it clever to say whodunnit when we skipped to the end of the book first.

 

However, taking advantage of titles and other clues is perfectly legit. For example, if I'm going to play "Against the Giants," I should be able to expect to fight a good number of giants in the game. I'm not cheating. I'm just taking advantage of the evidence at hand. The design team should also avoid misleading the player in the early game. I shouldn't expect to play "The Fight in the Underdark" ony to discover that the vast majority of the game is played above ground.

 

It's okay if players smack themselves in the head and say, "I wish I would have taken feat x instead of feat y." That's okay, because it's easy to see something mid-game that makes you reconsider your past choices. However, the player should not say to himself, "I chose feat x instead of feat y and now I'm not sure if I can finish the game." Pen and paper is a lot more forgiving in this regard since a good DM can make up the difference. Computer games should not include complete dead ends. Yes, make the player suffer for ingame decisions, but don't let him play a mage if 95% of the monsters are magic immune. That's not clever. It's stupid.

 

All that said, some character builds are simply better than others and some builds are better in certain situations. That's perfectly legit. Your power build for NWN is different from your power build in MotB. However, all power builds will generally fare well in the vast majority of situations because what makes them a power build isn't dependent on the other guy does or can do. Their prowess derives from what they can do themselves.

 

You really don't need to have a particular power build to beat any of the NWNx games I've played. There's a lot of room to make mistakes or even to make goofy choices for the hell of it. However, you can make some terrible choices that make the game much harder at certain points. That's really a problem with playing DnD without a DM anyhow. As long as you aren't completely ignorant of the rules, you'll probably do well enough in any of the games. I've played a lot of MotB and I've beaten the game wtih some seriously gimpy assed characters.

 

However, back to Kel's post, I sometimes make a character specifically because I know what's coming up in a particular game. It's fun. I've done that a lot if I know that there's a scroll with a particular spell on it coming up. I'll choose different spells since I know I'll get a free one (usually fireball).

[213374U]

TL;DR

 

Just kidding. I agree with you about building a character independently of gear. But I do it out of RP reasons. I don't like metagaming and stuff like building a character based on foreknowledge of rewards and items just isn't fun for me. The only exception I remember I have made in recent times to this is choosing falchion for my weapon master because of a certain particular weapon in MotB. But then again, a lot of the design decisions in that campaign were, to me, pretty stupid anyway... (Devastating Critical?!) and falchion is a good choice for a crit-focused build at any rate.

Edited August 4, 2009 by 213374U

[Kelverin]

I agree with you about building a character independently of gear.

I am pretty much building my character as I go along with some general ideas of how to proceed along the way, (I have no knowledge of ingame items) not sure how choosing SD armor conflicts with playing a SD character though

[Gromnir]

Appraise is your friend

So is the Old Owl Well section of the game, must of picked up 150,000+ in items and cash so picked up the armor after taking the SD level.

 

am recalling that for our cleric/monk/sacred fist we enchanted ordinary clothes. makes some +5 clothes with multiple elemental resistances that not got no dex penalty. Gromnir chose clothes to protect monk abilities, but it also makes sense for characters with ridiculous high dex. there is no max dex for clothes.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Mainly purchased it for the "free" weapon finesse feat since I plan to use many, many two-handed feats

 

or you could take the weapon finesse feat through level-up and skip the ultimately less useful armour. just a thought.

 

HA! Good Fun!

I was under the impression I should get all of my feats ASAP, before they become useless, underpowered, too late in the campaign to be useful, and now you bring armor into it????

 

actually, you brought armour into the equation. Gromnir would ever build his character based on feats received through magic items... particularly if we is planning to use character in motb. if you is building a high dex character who you wish to be combat effective, it makes sense to get weapon finesse... but depend on armour to get it? *snort*

 

 

HA! Good Fun!

Why not seems like a good idea to me, why waste a feat that is needed if you can get it through other means? I can rely on buff for protection anyway, don't plan to do much toe to toe combat. Hit n run seems to go well with this particular character build no?

 

stuck with crappy armour 'cause it provides a necessary feat to make your character work. what is likelihood of finding better armour or being able to make better armour? high? near 100%. nevertheless, you stick with crap armour 'cause you need feat. gonna keep armour if you play motb? sure, you can make armour enchanted up to +8, but you is gonna stick with armour 'cause you need weapon finesse. what level is you when you take prestige class, has 'nuff money, and can access deekin's inventory anyways? you waiting for 7 or 8 levels to finally get weapons finesse for your dex based combatant? okie dokie.

 

is silly on multiple levels... might as well tell us that your character concept relies on wielding the sword o' gith.

 

21337's falchion issue for motb makes sense. is patent ridiculous that some character concepts is only workable with certain equipment. you got a character that is based on doing damage through crits... but virtual every opponent in motb is immune to crits. if you not take falchion, you gotta accept playing gimped... but the weapon finesse ain't same thing. is not that kel can't get weapon finesse. is instead that he thinks he is getting for free. 'course, truth is that he is still paying. you get 7 or 8 feats in oc. 'stead o' using 1 feat to pay for weapon finesse you is willing to keeps relative crap armour that probable won't be available to you til end of first 1/3 of game anyways.

 

not make much sense to us... multiple levels.

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited August 4, 2009 by Gromnir

[Humodour]

You're getting a bit worked up though gromnir. If he's playing a silly character let him figure it out (heck, maybe he'll find if fun where you didn't) instead of repeatedly trying to convince him of your feelings.

[Kelverin]

You're getting a bit worked up though gromnir. If he's playing a silly character let him figure it out (heck, maybe he'll find if fun where you didn't) instead of repeatedly trying to convince him of your feelings.

I like to f with the G man, he takes this all too seriously and have breezed through the OC so far, can't craft yet not high enough level and no essences to be found, I also took Power Attack when I should have taken Weapon Finesse so there's my excuse for taking the SD armor and it looks cool, while fits in a role-playing way, but I like Cleave (must be the fighter in me)

[Gromnir]

You're getting a bit worked up though gromnir. If he's playing a silly character let him figure it out (heck, maybe he'll find if fun where you didn't) instead of repeatedly trying to convince him of your feelings.

 

how can you tell Gromnir is worked up? 'cause we tel kel that he is being foolish? HA! kel uses sandpaper 'stead o' toilet paper, 'cause they both is paper. is funny... am enjoying the funny.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Humodour]

lol gromnir. I'm not sure where that came from, but it was amusing.

 

Anyway guys, I'm about to enter the Blacklake district with my Bard and I have to say, the game is far better once I arrived at Neverwinter.

 

Also, my Bard is insanely powerful. She regularly survives combat that wipes the rest of the party out (including Khelgar) and not only that, she continues on to wipe out the rest of the map while they're still snoozing on the ground. I'm playing on Hardest to boot.

 

I'm thinking bards are as powerful as clerics - perhaps more esoteric. The inspirations are really good, the Hymn will be insane once I get it, and dual-weapons tear through anything as long as there's a little bit of elemental damage on them. Still haven't got curse song, which I will take once I hit 12 - then it'll be like a hot knife through butter. The other songs I'm looking forward to are Legionairre's March and Song of Heroism. Those look insane.

 

Do multiple bard songs (of different type) stack?

 

Right now I'm annoyed because I received Shadow Conjuration at lvl 11 but can't cast it till level 12. Woo, magic missiles!

[Mamoulian War]

AFAIK they don't stack

[Humodour]

So I've got Shadow Magic Missle, Shout, and Cacophonic Burst. All my nuking needs! Soon to get Ice Storm, too!

 

Oh, and I beat the crap out of Lorne within seconds. I died the first time though. The trick was to beat on him for a round or two, then cast Haste and run off till his invulnerability ends then hit him once. Because if he gets 2 critical hits in (each 50 to 60 dmg), game over.

[Kelverin]

How did you like the trial? Do you handle it or did you have sand take care of it? I will be going through it today and attempting myself. I am currently in the Bryce crypt and will be tackling it soon, one of the better parts of this game.

[Humodour]

I handled it myself. I am a bard so my chance to hit is the same as that of a fighter due to inspirations and dexterity (weapon finesse) and such, and I had haste, mirror image, and 4 attacks per round from dual-wielding. Also my AC was about 30 due to my dexterity. Sand didn't offer, but Qara, Casavir, and Khelgar did. I think Casavir and Khelgar would've died quickly. Qara would've beaten it easily as long as you picked haste or expeditious retreat as one of her spells.

 

Right now I'm a bit bored with the game because the combat is way too easy and this is on Hthe hardest difficulty. I hope MotB is harder.

 

Edit: Also, I suspect I get to kill Bishop eventually, but I hope it's soon. I'll let Qara roast him slowly. Although I'm concerned about her loyalty as well.

Edited August 20, 2009 by Krezack