NWN2MOTB Multiskilled or not

[laclongquan]

Finish Zehir yesterday. Overall good run, though a bit too easy. Should I choose to do a replay, definitely choose a party of ECL+2 just for shits and giggles. I love humans, but they make for an overpowered team. OF course, ECL+2 at the beginning will get gangraped, hard.

So folks! I am thinking about the holy grail Mask of the Betrayer. As I understand it's a proper singlePC RPG in the veins of Original Campaign, with skills of your heroine determine outcome of dialog and quest.

I try a Eldricht Knight of Candle Keep build (Sor6/Pal4/EK5/ASOC3) with full concentration on Diplomacy only. Combat is a cakewalk, unless I am careless. Problem is, the Barrows and the start of Mulsatir hint at other skill check than Diplo.

So, I need advice. Should I do a multiskilled human or not. This is fully for dialog and quest purpose. Safiya could do craft very well already so I guess i wont invest in craft after all. Hide/Move and Search her familiar could also do well. Heal can wait. ANd so is Parry. Howabout other skills?

 

[Snufkin]

How about bard? Diplomacy, bluff, spellcraft, lore are used in conversations.. and you won't get bored with gameplay with all songs, inspirations, spells.. you can get level of fighter to access intimidate skill, heavy armor and all martial weapons. You can cast spells in mithral full plate with battlecaster feat . Human is way to go. You can add one level of rogue, nothing stops you, and you will be able to disarm traps. Inspire competence at level 19 adds +6 to all skills while active, so it's easy to do jack of all trades build with bard.

Or if you want to be cheap 14fighter/1bard/10rdd/5frenzied berserker. You won't have spells and songs BUT with able learner, human and 14 intelligence you can have all convo skills..

 

[laclongquan]

Strange as that may sounds, I didnt use bards much. Not my fondest class. BUT I will think about it. Perhaps a chance to try something new. Roguing wizard is in use too often already.

 

[Kitako]

I used a level 1 Thief and rest of levels all in Ranger. I got the dualwielding I wanted for fighting, and a crapload of thief skills.
The talent that let you count cross class skills as class skills (if you have at least one level) is great with the ranger, which has a lot of skill points to spend.

Edit: ah, there, I found the prototype of my levelling I did at the time. This is what I mean: http://nwn2db.com/build/?61016

 

[laclongquan]

Ro1/Rg29 has potential. I can modify some skill/feat choices, but overall it's interesting. Prolly some high ECL race just to make the game harder. I must think further.

Pro:
- Skill and feat out of your ears. Which is good.
- Good melee. And since it's our hero who must approach potential gangbangers to try some rat diplomacy, good survivability is a big plus.
- Companions dont have ranger. ANd Kaji make for bad Searcher
Con:
- Very lacking in offensive magical capability. IIRC, Ranger spells are horrible in that aspect. This is the biggest killer, as I find ranged magical offensive is better than physical in most games.
----Counter-con: high UMD can help with wands... Expensive and may make the game harder... okay, worth considering
- Need careful buffs for damage absorption, as light armor is not very sturdy. The way thing goes, one stoneskin last maybe the opening round.
----Counter-con: prolly must use Kaelyn the Dove to help buffing? As that is one hot chick, I dont mind it much, but it IS a restriction.

Guys? Any better idea?

 

[Azalin]

Strange as that may sounds, I didnt use bards much. Not my fondest class. BUT I will think about it. Perhaps a chance to try something new. Roguing wizard is in use too often already.

Neither do I but Bards are a viable option in this case,they have been given some good abilities here(curse song and others) and you can make some good builds

 

[Gord]

I found offensive magic to be a bit lacking in MotB, due to bad scaling of magic vs melee in epic level settings.

Not that you can't deal damage with it (you can, and a lot of it), it's just that most spells simply don't increase in strength after level 20. You might be ble to deal more of them, or overcome resistances a bit easier, but they don't get much stronger on a per spell level.

 

[Snufkin]

Rangers are fun to build, but in reality they are just as boring to play as fighters.. It's just click and watch numbers, meh. Every ecnounter will look exacly the same.. With bards you have much more options to keep you not bored, which i found is a good thing.

 

[Volrath]

Spellcraft is a skillcheck that comes up a lot during MOTB. Be sure not to neglect it.

 

[laclongquan]

No no. Concentrate and Spellcraft is two must-invest for me, as I usually play magic-user.

 

[laclongquan]

I am thinking about a variant of the Sorc6/ASOC/EK as above. this time its Bard4/Sorc6/ASOC/EK
http://nwn2db.com/build/?99789 basically.

This means Bard1/Sorc2-6/Bard7/Sorc8/EK9-12/ASOC13/Bard14-15/EK16-20/ASOC21/EK22/ASOC23-30

So so Perform and UMD. Mediocre Tumble and Taunt. Tumble could prolly change to another.

Very good Lore and Diplomacy to help out in campaign...

Yet I am not entirely satisfied.

 

[Snufkin]

How about this? http://nwn2db.com/build/?49595

high ac, high dc, lot of spell slots, lot of skillpoints

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

The most fun and at the same time the easiest playthrough of MOTB I had was with the pale master I imported from the OC. It's Wizard 5, Eldrcth Knight 10, Pale Master 10 and Red Wizard 5 (could also have just wizard 10, doesn't matter that much). Since you get so powerful strenght boosting items, you can actually melee pretty well, and the necromancy focus feats make it easy to just kill everything with save-or-die spells. With Pale Master, you have okay saves and are immune to some annoying crap, the loss of spellcasting ability is not so important when you get epic spells anyway. The undead graft / summon crap spells completely suck though.

Easy as shit, I tell you. The actual configuration at the start of MotB was something like wiz 5 / EK 8 / PM 7 IIRC.

 

[deuxhero]

I went through MotB twice, once with a Rogue with some method of HiPS then with a Warlock. Both worked rather well dialog wise, having a good variety of skills (Rogue had rroguy stuff and social skills, Warlock got bluff, intimidate, concentration, spellcraft and I think sense motives, and a charisma focus) and alignments (Warlock was evil, Rogue was neutral)

Beware being good without being a skill monkey though, the only one you will get is the wizard's familiar, who has issues meeting most of the DCs.

 

[laclongquan]

One, it's my quirk that I dont like to play evil route. Bored to my eyeball. And what with MOTB being what it is, I will get more than good enough to get out of evil or chaotic zone. I prolly could build an early warlock then evolve into something else to fake a redemtion playthrough ( being very naughty early in life, for example) but from what I hear warlock is one of the few pure class, meaning a few level of it doesnt give much good...

And Two, OC and Zehir is too easy. Sure, the very early fights raped me pretty hard. The very late fight also okay if I dont grind beyond 18 levels. But they're easy. So this MOTB run I dont intend to choose powerbuild. priority on enjoying the writing, quests and extras.