hkt
Novice
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2021
- Messages
- 13
After taking my sweet time with Swordflight Chapter II, I'm happy to say that I've completed it. All of the good things said about it weren't a bit exaggerated, it really is a Baldur's Gate-esque adventure with myself liking certain parts of the experience more than Swordflight's spiritual ancestors. I don't think there ever was a moment where I was incredibly frustrated or bored with the module and there are many stand-out moments, but my favorite part of the game was the Forest of Mir goblin army quest. Prior to leaving the city I was starting to kick ass and had a comparatively easy time, as much as one can have an easy time in the series. But the moment I entered Tebnas, the goblins and their hill giants started assraping me like crazy, I really had to think about my strategy this time around and was forced to avoid overlooking even the most minute and minor advantadge I could use. It was a big jump in difficulty, but a welcome one at that. Smashing the gobbos was incredibly satisfying and the quest presented arguably the most difficult encounter of the chapter - Gorav, Ulaz and the Aranea caster. Apart from the humanoid army portions, the class quest for evil rogues and the one for monks were excellent and one of the most memorable parts of my playthrough.
The companions I also found to be quite interesting. Lead performer in that regard is naturally Zagash the fucking baller. Dude made life so much easier for me on so many occasions due the merit of being undead or having a fear aura around him. I got used to him so much that I started to dread doing the "Help Zekar" quest with Talu and Snajagh who I didn't even gear up or adventure with beforehand - instead opting for Chelys and Barazh. Thankfully much difficulty was offset by Snajagh being a Cleric and the temporary Harper companion having an undead instakill rapier. The Helmite orc duo henchmen and their quest were likewise quite cool, as was the brief half-fiend companion you could have for the Zekar tower.
The RP options and reactivity are as great as they were in Chapter I, so in summary - excellent. As a player of an evil PC I really liked that being a baddie was not penalized nor discourgaged as much as it is in some of the classic CRPG titles. If anything, it's probably more optimal to play an evil or at the very least neutral, leaning to evil, character due to Zagash being so useful as well as the half-fiend quite literally being able to solo the tower for you.
Now, I'm gonna have to ask again for tips on my build here, since epic level character building are uncharted waters for myself. I've had a pretty good time with this build and as I've said above I can't say I ever hit a wall and struggled for a very long time with an encounter. It is a bit worrisome for me that my sneak attacks are most likely going to get increasingly irrelevant as time goes on and more enemies wind up being immune to crits and sneak attacks. I've been very greedy with the two-handed feats and I am yet to take the almost essential Blind Fight, which should be my last feat before epic levels, unless you guys think something else is more worth it. For the other things I don't have much idea in all honesty, be it spreading my levels and taking feats after lvl 20, so any help is welcome!
Your build is pretty locked in you mainly have to decide how far you're willing to take monk.
Lvl 11 for poison immunity or all the way to 20 for mind immunity with the trade-off being less skillpoints and sneak damage.
Personally I'd take 20 monk for comfort and to avoid losing my dodge and tumble bonuses when hit by some mind effect. (don't take slippery mind in rogue special bonus feats then)
In epic levels I agree with Rogueknight if you're capable of reaching 25 dex unbuffed you should go straight for epic dodge.
After that it becomes kinda up to you
2 greater dex feats = 1ab/1ac/1skillpoint/1reflex save
epic prowess + armor skin = 1ab + 2ac and you give up the latter
Sometimes there's an angle for epic skill focus I like it on taunt but among rogue skills I don't know if there is one that warrants an epic feat for a +10 bonus.
A ch3 specific tip your build benefits from is buying scrolls of Owl's Insight at the druid vendor.
It's the only place that sells them and the buff gives more AC/saves than Zarala. I mainly use it on very big boss fights if I know it won't be dispelled.
Second part of ch3 has different content based on your race.
The human path has the least sneak immune enemies in my experience. Had you picked halfling you were heading to what is possibly the hardest zone + boss as a rogue.
Good luck