Somebody can help me with character development?

[baldurs_gate_2]

Hello

 

First of all: English is not my native language, but i try my best.

 

Acutally i got both DLC's and what i want is, a guide (because the sticky ones are outdated) for my party.

 

I want to play: Ranger with Bear, Fighter 2H, Paladin, Wizard, Druid and Priest.

 

With each different class, what race should i pick, abilities / talents / skills / spells and the stat points (CON, INT, etc)? And i mean, exacty, which class ability or talent, i should pick for level 2, 3 up to max level?

 

I got it allready for my ranger, i will use the stormcaller hunting bow and the persistence hunting bow:

 

Race: Island Aumaua

Stats: 21 3 18 18 15 3

Bear Comp.

Land of the Living

All points in Mechanic

 

1. Wounding Shot

2. Res. Comp.

3. Vicious Aim

4. Vicious Comp.

5. Predators Sense

6. Merciless Comp.

7. Driving Flight

8. Stalkers Link

9. Wpn. Focus Peasant

10. ???

11. Stunning Shots

12. ???

13. Twinned Arrows

 

I need it like that, for my other 5 party members. Maybe somebody wants to help me.

 

[Boeroer]

Vicious Aim and Twinned Arrows don't work together. I would skip Vicious Aim. Takedown is a nice ability for the animal companion. 2 knockdowns per encounter can save your sorry a**. If you combine it with Brutal Takedown and crit a foe with it who's already suffering from wounding and an affliction you not not only knock him down but also do crazy amounts of damage. Then there is Marked Prey and Binding Roots. Binding Roots is 5 per rest and lasts like forever. In tough encounters like bounties you put 5 melee foes on the bench for the whole fight with that.

You should also get Penetrating Shot and Marksman. You max. level will be 16 - so there's some more room for additional talents/abilities.

You don't need to put all points into mechanics. 10 is enough. Rest should go into survival, which ist really powerful now. I would aim for 10 points in order to get +15 ACC camping bonus against certain races. Leftover points you can put in mechanics again if you really want.

Why Island Aumaua? For the additional weapon slot? If you have Stormcaller you don't ever want to use another weapon. That's my experience. Optimal choice would be Hearth Orlan or Wood Elf. But if you really like Island Aumaua it's totally OK of course.

[Elric Galad]

Bear is meh. It's 33% slower attack speed than other pets for no reason with no bonus. Check Attack Speed Connundrum thread.

 

Vicious Aim don't stack with Twinned Arrow.

Stat are ok if you want to min max. I don't like to min max but that's up to you.

Stalker Link is not a talent. You can't pick it up at level 8. Take Predator Sense at lvl 5 and Stalker Link at lvl 7 instead.

 

For remaining talents, Marksman, Apprentice Sneak attack, Interrupting Blow are good choices. Penetrating shot is also very important with bows due to the number of target with high DR.

[Boeroer]

As for the rest of your party: there are builds in this forum for every one of them. Just search for [CLASS BUILD] or have a look at the build index. It's the thread right on top. It's up to date.

[Elric Galad]

If you want to pick up an Aumaua, Coastal ones have a more solid bonus if you want to focus on a single weapon. Resistance to Prone and Stun is never wasted.

[Boeroer]

What I forgot: if you want to use Stormcaller you might want to take Heart of the Storm (I would want it). It will provide +20% damage to the bow AND the Returning Storm it procs.

 

Also: make sure that the party members have some shock based attacks if possible. Since Stormcaller lowers shock DR this is one of the best ways to overcome enemies' DR. For example the druid has some really nice shock spells. Put shocking lashes onto your weapons and so on.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Boeroer

[Stasis_Sword]

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.

[Elric Galad]

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.

Even in PotD you only need barely optimized stats )

[bigwillystyle]

"How I Buffed the Others" makes everything must easier.  

[baldurs_gate_2]

Hmm ok, this one link is pretty interesting. But i'm not quiet sure how much athletics, lore etc i should put in for each party member. I know that one character should put almost everything in mechanics. But isn't it good, if every party member gets a decent amount of sneak / stealth and equip a gun to kill the weak mages etc in the first round? Also i read they changed survivability?

Edited May 12, 2016 by baldurs_gate_2

[Braven]

I have found stealth to be a pretty useless skill. You can start battle with a gun from stealth with no points invested. Even if they see you, you start with no recovery so your attack is not delayed by much. The only exception is for a rogue with backstab talent.

 

For companions, I would invest mostly in survival and at least one point in athletics for second wind. If you want, you can put a few more point in athletics, but each point only adds 4 endurance to the healing so it is only a small benefit, but better than nothing. Have at least one character invest to 8 lore for scrolls. Another could go to 4-6 lore for the lower level scrolls.

Edited May 12, 2016 by Braven

[Stasis_Sword]

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?

Edited May 12, 2016 by Stasis_Sword

[Braven]

Athletics no longer influences fatigue. Still not a bad idea to have around 3-5 anyways since it is still cheap to invest at that point and the healing is helpful early.

 

I have never seen a check that needs more than 5.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Braven

[Boeroer]

There's a lore check in WM that needs 6. But it doesn't do anything special.

 

For me it's:

Stealth: totally useless unless you are playing solo and want to avoid fights

Athletics: weak. But as Braven said I put like 4 or 5 into it.

Lore: it depends on the class and the build and the party. If I have no priest I will have one char with 10 or even 12 lore. A rogue with good ACC, MIG and INT will get 10 also. Scrolls work with Deathblows. Fighters, rangers, chanters and monks will get 6 (for Fireballs).

Survival: the rest. I want to put at least 10 points into it in order to get +15 ACC against certain foes. This is immensely powerful - especially against enemies with high defenses like dragons. When I want a build with maximum endurance recovery, I try to reach +60% healing received.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Boeroer

[rheingold]

Just a point about vicious aim and twinned arrows, yes you can't use both of them at the same time, but you only get twinned arrows really really late. I get a huge amount of mileage out off vicious aim until then. In theory you could respec once you get twinned arrows and drop vicious aim but I don't like the idea so I end up having both. And let's face it - there are one or 2 fights where the extra accuracy really helps. I'd agree with the takedown pet talent - it is really useful as an extra crowd control tool,.

[Boeroer]

You can get Stormcaller pretty early if you want. No fighting involved except Dazir in Stalwart. Then I would always choose Swift Aim and Driving Flight in order to proc Returning Storm as often as possible and to spread the -6 shock DR around for my fellow party members. I can see where Vicious Aim might be very useful - with Persistence for example, combined with Outlander's Frenzy (the speed buff from Frenzy negates the speed debuff of Vicious Aim, and both together give you +29% damage and a nice bonus to ACC). But with Stormcaller I always want to be faster. Up to  -11 DR (-5 from Pen. Shot and -6 from Stormcaller) are great for very fast attacks - besides the Returning Storm thing. When I get Twinned Arrows (and took Swift Aim) I will retrain and remove Swift Aim. 

[baldurs_gate_2]

Ok thank you.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the paladin and the fighter. Because in these guides, they got only 9 and 7 CON (rauatai paladin and lady of pain). Is that enough to tank? Because this Sanguine Plate for the Fighter is not early to get i think.

[Stasis_Sword]

Ok thank you.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the paladin and the fighter. Because in these guides, they got only 9 and 7 CON (rauatai paladin and lady of pain). Is that enough to tank? Because this Sanguine Plate for the Fighter is not early to get i think.

 

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.

[baldurs_gate_2]

 

Ok thank you.

 

I'm a bit concerned about the paladin and the fighter. Because in these guides, they got only 9 and 7 CON (rauatai paladin and lady of pain). Is that enough to tank? Because this Sanguine Plate for the Fighter is not early to get i think.

 

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.

 

I understand. Tidefall that great sword can be found in the searing falls cave or? Do i have to battle any enemies to get it? Can i get it b4 defiance bay?

[Psychevore]

There's a lore check in WM that needs 6. But it doesn't do anything special.

 

For me it's:

Stealth: totally useless unless you are playing solo and want to avoid fights

Athletics: weak. But as Braven said I put like 4 or 5 into it.

Lore: it depends on the class and the build and the party. If I have no priest I will have one char with 10 or even 12 lore. A rogue with good ACC, MIG and INT will get 10 also. Scrolls work with Deathblows. Fighters, rangers, chanters and monks will get 6 (for Fireballs).

Survival: the rest. I want to put at least 10 points into it in order to get +15 ACC against certain foes. This is immensely powerful - especially against enemies with high defenses like dragons. When I want a build with maximum endurance recovery, I try to reach +60% healing received.

 

Hm. I tend to specialize characters for some events. I don't remember where exactly, but in WM2 there's some evens where you need 12+ mechanics, 12+ athletics, 6+ sneak 10+ survival. By specializing chars I can always get through these evens completely or relatively unscathed.

 

For the same reason every character gets to 3 athletics by level 3 (to get into Raedrics hold from the top without getting fatigued), 4 by level 6 (to sneak into the Cliaban Rilag without a fight and without getting injured) and I get eveyone to 5 athletics at some point.. though I'm unsure this has much practical value.

[Boeroer]

You can do that. It's very efficient. But it's also a big fuzz. I don't like that much micromanagement. Maybe because I did a lot of playthroughs and most of the time don't want anything that slows me down.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Athletics no longer influences fatigue. Still not a bad idea to have around 3-5 anyways since it is still cheap to invest at that point and the healing is helpful early.

 

I have never seen a check that needs more than 5.

What does Athletics now? Except for the climbing and swimming.

[DreamWayfarer]

 

 

Athletics no longer influences fatigue. Still not a bad idea to have around 3-5 anyways since it is still cheap to invest at that point and the healing is helpful early.

 

I have never seen a check that needs more than 5.

What does Athletics now? Except for the climbing and swimming.

It grants a once per encounter(I think) instant self-heal.

[baldurs_gate_2]

Thanks

 

Got another 3 questsions:

 

1. Is there any particular order, i should upgrade the fortess?

2. Faith and Conviction. In the beginning (except for raedrics hold) i do the quest alone with my ranger. Do i have the paladin with me for the granted reputation bonus?

3. As a Shielbearer of St. Elga should i side with Raedric or with Kolsc? Because i tried the Raedric fight one time in the past and could not beat him, kolsc was pretty easy on the other hand.

Edited May 14, 2016 by baldurs_gate_2

[Loren Tyr]

 

 

Athletics no longer influences fatigue. Still not a bad idea to have around 3-5 anyways since it is still cheap to invest at that point and the healing is helpful early.

 

I have never seen a check that needs more than 5.

What does Athletics now? Except for the climbing and swimming.

It grants a once per encounter(I think) instant self-heal.

 

 

It's Fast rather than Instant, actually. It heals 20 + 5*Athletics (plus any bonuses from Might, etc.), so putting a couple of points in nets you some very cheap healing.