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Mask of the betrayer: character creation

hell bovine

Arcane
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Divine spellcasters were quite overpowered from what I recall, although druid shapeshifting would always get cancelled during cutscenes, which was very annoying. But I don't remember any challenging battles, and I made it through with a bard not particularly skilled in combat (as the druid got too annoying to finish) without any problems.
 
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my first attempt has been a rogue/assassin, i've been beaten to death by the first mobs, came here and read it wasn't my fault. so i made a blackguard.
i'm being rotflstomped by everybody nonetheless :'( i made it to the veil theatre, barely survived the first encounter, the other mage just makes fun of me, i'm killed by every kind of magic before i can ever reach him.

what did i miss?
 

Crichton

Prophet
Joined
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Well, there are basically three things that determine your ability to stay alive in D&D 3.5:

1) Number of hit points

2) Resistance to magic (primarily through saving throws, spell resistance, immunities and elemental resistances also help)

3) Ability to heal yourself

Clerics are the gold standard for defense in 3.5 because they have a decent number of hit points, can heal themselves the best and have both defensive magic and two good saving throws. In NWN2, favored souls aren't far behind as they share the same spell list (albeit less effectively) and have three good saving throws. Druids and Spirit Shaman can eventually heal themselves to an extent have some defensive magic and also have two good saving throws.

Most other classes have some of these tools, Monks have three good saving throws and immunities, Wizards only have one good saving throw and lousy hit points but have good defensive magic, Bards have lousy hit points but two good saving throws and some defensive magic and a very limited ability to heal themselves. Rogues and Fighters are probably the worst defensive classes in the game; only one good saving throw, no defensive magic, no special defenses like immunities and no ability to heal themselves.

Of course the best defense is a good offense but as Rogues and Fighters have no offensive magic and hence are vulnerable to things like concealment, high AC and distance/mobility issues, they kind of stink at that too...

My advice is that if you're new to the game and want a cushion as you learn to play, play a cleric. If you're new to the game and don't want to spend time learning how the magic system works, play a monk.
 
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i have plenty of experience with dnd and role playing game in general, pnp or on computer.
i've been able to kill that wizard only because on normal there's no friendly fire.
 

Sergiu64

Arcane
Glory to Ukraine
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i have plenty of experience with dnd and role playing game in general, pnp or on computer.
i've been able to kill that wizard only because on normal there's no friendly fire.

What wizard? What build were you using? What kind of an incomplete post is this dammit?

Anyway, with epic characters and all that nonsense the normal experience with dnd doesn't apply very well.

One of the things that makes melee chars a lot more powerful in this game is the weapon enchantments. You can stack a lot of d6 of elemental damage on weapons, add something like Perfect Two Weapon fighting feat and you'll be doing a lot of elemental damage on casters even when their stoneskin is in effect since elemental damage bypasses it.

Make sure to use buffs provided by your Red Mage girl ally, Permanent Haste really helps for example.

If you're a caster yourself you shouldn't really be having trouble other then the hunger meter stuff. Just use good spells like Evard's Tentacles, etc.
 
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Gentle Player

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I should be ashamed of myself, but NWN2's clusterfuck real time combat (which makes one miss even the IE games' combat) with atrocious party AI and abominable camera made me switch the difficulty down to normal, which disables friendly fire, without guilt. I then proceeded to turn off my brain and have my sorceror and the red wizard nuke everything in sight with meteor swarm, in true popamole fashion. Wail of the banshee, with points in spell focus - necromancy, is also great for low fortitude groups; and don't forget Isaac's greater missile storm, empowered or maximised, which is devastating on single targets.

The sorceror is also great for dialogue checks, as you'll be pumping points into charisma. I managed to have diplomacy, intimidate, and bluff all above 20, whilst still maximising spellcraft (which also has many dialogue applications, surprisingly) and concentration, though I had to miss out on lore entirely. I also learned that you can afford to skimp on points in intimidate if you take the "evil" route and become chummy with One-of-Many - at high approval he gives you an aura which boosts intimidate, amongst other stats, and, not knowing this beforehand, I ended up with a score of 54 which is obviously overkill. Finally, again if playing an evil character, if you use your devour ability as a finisher on five separate enemies during a certain boss battle which I shan't spoil (but the moment in question should be obvious to you when you reach it) and obtain five essences, you can craft a powerful mask which gives various bonuses, wisdom included, such that in the last third of the game I was getting wisdom dialogue options even with a base stat of 9. Of course you could also just craft your own item and give it a +wisdom enchant if need be.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

Administrator
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i have plenty of experience with dnd and role playing game in general, pnp or on computer.
i've been able to kill that wizard only because on normal there's no friendly fire.
I guess you started a new game then without importing from the OC? So, no equip and a pretty empty spellbook? Sounds like a learn to play problem though, even Safya alone should be able to handle everything, when you get the spirit shaman and cleric companions it's just roflstomping.
Remember, Safiya is a transmuter (she gets +5 on spell DC for transmutation spells) so just have her memorize lots of disintegrate, empowered disintegrate etc. Have her learn Finger of Death and Wail of the Banshee, get her the INT ring +6 from the vendor in the city, perhaps pick up some Great INT epic feats. When you get the cleric, slay living, word of faith, implosion etc. It's actually better to use lots of instant death spells, because enemies have massive HP and good saves so a 10d6 fireball won't do much.
 

eremita

Savant
Joined
Sep 1, 2013
Messages
797
my first attempt has been a rogue/assassin, i've been beaten to death by the first mobs, came here and read it wasn't my fault. so i made a blackguard.
i'm being rotflstomped by everybody nonetheless :'( i made it to the veil theatre, barely survived the first encounter, the other mage just makes fun of me, i'm killed by every kind of magic before i can ever reach him.

what did i miss?
Ok, I assume your base class is Fighter? Doesn't matter much, you're obviously melee oriented warrior. And because of that (at least in case of Veil): 1) Your Will + Reflex saving throws are probably pretty low, which means that majority of spell-casters are gonna fuck you up (especially with mind-affecting spells) unless you make Safiya to do something about it. She's a Transmuter, which means that majority of buffing spells (school: Transmutation) is stronger in her hands. Before the fight, buff your guys with spells with long duration. During the fight, buff them with the rest (like Haste). That mage is your first priority, but because he's also buffed, you have to debuff him first... Be sure to have spells like Dispel Magic (Mordenkainen's Disjunction is probably the best disrupting spell). You don't wanna get fucked by him in the meantime so at first, use stuff like Spell Mantle on Safiya and Mind Blank for both of you.

If properly buffed, Safiya should be fine for the majority of time during the fight, but if things are getting nasty, use Ethereal Jaunt/Etherealness. Your guy should be able to withstand some punishment, especially in case of trash mobs (Gnolls helping the first mage).

General rule: Know your spells and use them properly. This should help: NWN2.wikia.com
 
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eremita

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Messages
797
i have plenty of experience with dnd and role playing game in general, pnp or on computer.
i've been able to kill that wizard only because on normal there's no friendly fire.
I guess you started a new game then without importing from the OC? So, no equip and a pretty empty spellbook? Sounds like a learn to play problem though, even Safya alone should be able to handle everything, when you get the spirit shaman and cleric companions it's just roflstomping.
Remember, Safiya is a transmuter (she gets +5 on spell DC for transmutation spells) so just have her memorize lots of disintegrate, empowered disintegrate etc. Have her learn Finger of Death and Wail of the Banshee, get her the INT ring +6 from the vendor in the city, perhaps pick up some Great INT epic feats. When you get the cleric, slay living, word of faith, implosion etc. It's actually better to use lots of instant death spells, because enemies have massive HP and good saves so a 10d6 fireball won't do much.
You have some equipment in the begining. Also, your guy is level 18 (manually or automatically) so you should have whatever spells you want...
 
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Daemongar

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Codex Year of the Donut
MotB isn't really particularly hard, so any vaguely competent character should get you through.
I disagree. I created a Dragon-disciple which I thought was pretty powerful, monkey-gripped 2 handers and a 30 ST or so. Waded through everything, then ran into some monks and almost lost my mind. Min-maxing may not seem necessary, but there are definitely bad builds, especially when you have to pick 18 levels right off the bat (though character creation is one of my favorite parts of MotB.)
 

StaticSpine

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Bros, is MotB battle-heavy? And how's the battle system?

Anything useful stuff I must read before playing (if I didn't play OC)?
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
Bros, is MotB battle-heavy? And how's the battle system?

Anything useful stuff I must read before playing (if I didn't play OC)?

You play the same character in MotB that you played in the OC, and some characters return, but you can create a new character and the excellent narration does a good job of explaining things to you. A playthrough of the OC is not required, but it is quite nice to see some of your feats mentioned here and there.

There are some battle heavy areas like Shadow Mulsantir and the Hag's Coven (or whatever its called), but apart from that there aren't that many fights. The game is focused more on dialogue and interaction with the game world.
 

StaticSpine

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Bros, is MotB battle-heavy? And how's the battle system?

Anything useful stuff I must read before playing (if I didn't play OC)?

You play the same character in MotB that you played in the OC, and some characters return, but you can create a new character and the excellent narration does a good job of explaining things to you. A playthrough of the OC is not required, but it is quite nice to see some of your feats mentioned here and there.

There are some battle heavy areas like Shadow Mulsantir and the Hag's Coven (or whatever its called), but apart from that there aren't that many fights. The game is focused more on dialogue and interaction with the game world.
Yeah, I know the info from the first part of your post.

Is it possible to make a peaceful character then? A healer maybe, so the companions make all the fights?

And how does the battle system feels like? Like in IE games?
 

Deleted member 7219

Guest
Bros, is MotB battle-heavy? And how's the battle system?

Anything useful stuff I must read before playing (if I didn't play OC)?

You play the same character in MotB that you played in the OC, and some characters return, but you can create a new character and the excellent narration does a good job of explaining things to you. A playthrough of the OC is not required, but it is quite nice to see some of your feats mentioned here and there.

There are some battle heavy areas like Shadow Mulsantir and the Hag's Coven (or whatever its called), but apart from that there aren't that many fights. The game is focused more on dialogue and interaction with the game world.
Yeah, I know the info from the first part of your post.

Is it possible to make a peaceful character then? A healer maybe, so the companions make all the fights?

And how does the battle system feels like? Like in IE games?

The battle system is RTwP, it isn't like the IE games but I thought it was ok. Many Codexers don't like it, but personally I think the combat tends to be shit in most RPGs. MotB is a good game despite the combat.

I tend to go for fighter-based builds so I don't know how well healers do, others could speak to that better than I.
 

Xor

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Messages
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Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
You can't play a pacifist. You will get into fights, and killing monsters accounts for probably 60% of xp gains.
 

Commissar Draco

Codexia Comrade Colonel Commissar
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Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Its cause XP should be awarded for using your skills not kills; MOTB does it but only sometimes with XP for lockpicking but not trap disabling. Made a Doomguard now and its quite fun to play with since there's nice class gear, many undead to destroy and some story points which suit the warrior-priest of Kelemnvor well.

P.S. As the added bonus you can say this L1beral stupid cunt Dove Frack you now.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Since MOTB is about a belief and planar stuff, picking Cleric would fit in well.
Go for it IMO.
 

VentilatorOfDoom

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MotB isn't really particularly hard, so any vaguely competent character should get you through.
I disagree. I created a Dragon-disciple which I thought was pretty powerful, monkey-gripped 2 handers and a 30 ST or so. Waded through everything, then ran into some monks and almost lost my mind. Min-maxing may not seem necessary, but there are definitely bad builds, especially when you have to pick 18 levels right off the bat (though character creation is one of my favorite parts of MotB.)
I understand that those epic vampire monks can kick ass, but how can you have serious problems with those if you have a cleric with such superhuman stats in your party? Undeath to Death or - lol - Mass heal will kill them right away. of course, if you don't want to just kill them, but farm them for essences you need a character with very high AC.
 

eremita

Savant
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Sep 1, 2013
Messages
797
If you don't give a shit about fights, it really doesn't matter and Fighter is a good choice, because it's quite a simple class for micromanagement (in case you at least give a fuck about useful builds, if not, you might as well go with anything), but bear in mind that there's a lot of combat in this game. If you want to have some fun with your build (it's high level adventure) definitely go with casters (as has been said, cleric is cool from the plot perspective, also Favored Soul...) or Jack of All Trades (Bard, multi-class - I personally like Eldritch Knight).
 

StaticSpine

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If you don't give a shit about fights, it really doesn't matter and Fighter is a good choice, because it's quite a simple class for micromanagement (in case you at least give a fuck about useful builds, if not, you might as well go with anything), but bear in mind that there's a lot of combat in this game. If you want to have some fun with your build (it's high level adventure) definitely go with casters (as has been said, cleric is cool from the plot perspective, also Favored Soul...) or Jack of All Trades (Bard, multi-class - I personally like Eldritch Knight).
Actually, I do not dig that multiclass DnD stuff and I do not usually bother making a perfect build, so I Just pick fighters cause they are always pretty much straightforward.
 

StaticSpine

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Holy shit, the roleplay system is too complicated to get into it fast:negative:

I must read some FAQs and build guides first. I'm too old and too lazy for that, though I feel ashamed of that. Hopefully I'll dig the stuff in close days to play the shit from MotB.
 

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