ERYFKRAD
Barbarian
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2012
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Yeah this is the one I played.N1 - Against the Cult of The Reptile God by Rich Barker
Yeah this is the one I played.N1 - Against the Cult of The Reptile God by Rich Barker
Two handed weapons are goodin swordflight its required to bring along a henchman?
also what are some good weapons to specialize?
one henchman (Bard) is a necessary story character, but you're not with her 100% of the time... actually at times it feels like you're her henchman and she's the main character, but anyways you also get a few others that are optional, a Cleric, Sorcerer, Paladin, Fighter, Ranger... all of them temporary.in swordflight its required to bring along a henchman?
also what are some good weapons to specialize?
especially since in NWN1 Improved Critical stacks with the Keen property.I went for a scimitar. Took a long while before I got my first magical one, and Keen options are even rarer, but there's no arguing with the crits.
the Bard companion is mandatory. the others are optional I think but trust me, you'll want all the help you can get.can you play solo in swordflight?
you are always playing solo in swordflight, essentially. the mandatory companion has to be left at the start of every area after providing the PC with a few buffs, otherwise she'll die instantly. likewise there are some recruitable henchmen at various points, but again they all have terrible builds (like having power attack, something you cannot force them to disable, in an area where they will only be able to hit enemies on a 20) and you can only realistically use them as buffbots and leave them at the entrance of mapscan you play solo in swordflight?
Damn right it does.especially since in NWN1 Improved Critical stacks with the Keen property.I went for a scimitar. Took a long while before I got my first magical one, and Keen options are even rarer, but there's no arguing with the crits.
after Zarala got Improved Invisibility in my run she almost never falls in battle. I also gave her all my horded scrolls and wands so she can cast high-level Wizard spells with UMD. at level 24 now with all the defensive buffs on she's almost as tanky as my paladin lol.you are always playing solo in swordflight, essentially. the mandatory companion has to be left at the start of every area after providing the PC with a few buffs, otherwise she'll die instantly. likewise there are some recruitable henchmen at various points, but again they all have terrible builds (like having power attack, something you cannot force them to disable, in an area where they will only be able to hit enemies on a 20) and you can only realistically use them as buffbots and leave them at the entrance of mapscan you play solo in swordflight?
No you didn't speak of boss encounters only, what you said wasContradicts your experience with bosses specifically? Because I did specify that, in fairness. I'm specifically referring to the level 20 generals peppered throughout the demihuman army section. Sure, the companions can draw some aggro when you fight the trash mobs, but I found in both my swordflight playthroughs that a strong enough character to beat the bosses didn't need any help with the trash mobs, and the companions simply could not contribute meaningfully to the bossfights. Just letting them get near the fight resulted in their AI doing something so stupid that they immediately ate multiple critical sneak attack AoOs and died.
which is nonsense, even Zarala isn't that bad. Even though she has the annoying tendency to run up to melee, cast a bard song or curse song or whatever, then shoot crossbow in melee, triggering AoOs.you are always playing solo in swordflight, essentially. the mandatory companion has to be left at the start of every area after providing the PC with a few buffs, otherwise she'll die instantly. likewise there are some recruitable henchmen at various points, but again they all have terrible builds (like having power attack, something you cannot force them to disable, in an area where they will only be able to hit enemies on a 20) and you can only realistically use them as buffbots and leave them at the entrance of maps
It depends on how hard you want to go into Wizard. IIRC, Bard would be a better choice if you are only dipping into it for AA. If you are asking whether AA itself is good then the answer to that is that it's kind of meh imo. You can go through Swordflight with anything (the worst option would be a Shifter and it's still viable), so if you are dead set on playing AA, then all the power to you.How fucked am I for thinking about playing elven rogue/wizard/arcane archer (9) through Swordflight? Or should I just stick with rogue/wizard and avoid disappointment?
Pretty much balls deep - I was thinking about AA9 for +5 arrow enchantment, as many Rogue levels as I'll need for skill points (and setting traps), the rest going to Wizard. Fighter/Wiz/AA would probably be waaay better combat-wise, but I just love having a ton of skill points.It depends on how hard you want to go into Wizard.
AA is good but it's not really a caster with a bow (like the AA in Pathfinder) as much as it is an archer with some neat SLAs. you don't actually need to be able to cast spells, just have a level in an arcane casting class, so 1 level in Bard is usually the best for the song and skillpoints. and it's best paired with a high BAB class because otherwise it comes online way too late. if you want casting and skillpoints, Ranger is a great option. Bard/Ranger/AA gets you most of the useful skills from Rogue (except lockpicking and disarming) while being much better in combat. traps are quite useful in Swordflight, so it could work well.How fucked am I for thinking about playing elven rogue/wizard/arcane archer (9) through Swordflight? Or should I just stick with rogue/wizard and avoid disappointment?
One point about using Bard rather than Wizard to qualify for AA as is being recommended: if you are playing an Elf Bard can cause an XP penalty for not being a favored class, which Wizard avoids. Elf generally makes sense for AAs, as the Elven DEX bonus is helpful in ranged combat and the Elven Weapon Proficiency feat makes you automatically capable of using longbows so you do not need to worry about whether any other classes in the build have an appropriate proficiency. If playing a Half-Elf then Bard will indeed typically be better, likewise if there is no third class or the third class is also a prestige class.
Rogue/AA with a single token caster level should work ok in Swordflight. The Rogue skills will be quite useful, both benefit from High DEX, and you will eventually become quite formidable at ranged combat. The downside as Plem notes is that a Rogue's lowish BAB means it will take some time to qualify for AA, meaning that in the early parts of the series you will for all intents and purposes just be a Rogue. Straight Rogue is playable though not the easiest class to manage.
Rogue(or Ranger, etc.)/Wizard/AA with lots of wizard levels is indeed a somewhat questionable build concept, as you risk falling between two stools, not being that good at either magic or combat. As a rule Fighter/Mage-type builds do not work well in 3E without specialized prestige classes allowing you to increase caster levels simultaneously with a warrior-type build, and this feature was not implemented in NWN. Ironically, the caster-oriented prestige classes in NWN (AA, Red Dragon Disciple, Palemaster) tend to complement actual caster classes very badly, though they are all strong classes in their own right, making Warrior Class/1 token caster level (or several to provide a handful of utility spells)/AA or RDD or PM good builds (as a general rule).
If determined to play a real wizard/AA build, I would suggest taking most AA levels pre-epic (to max your BAB) and most Wizard levels post-epic, with the occasional Rogue level taken for skill dumps. That way you will be reasonably effective as a ranged combatant at lower levels, and eventually become a somewhat capable caster as well at high levels. Alternatively, throwing a small handful of Rogue and AA levels into what is primarily a Wizard would not cripple your spellcasting ability too much while providing a little additional versatility.
How do you think the 3 e "fighter/mage" type builds stack up vs pure wizards or sorcerers of equivalent level in nwn in general?