Tips for an assassin start?

[JudasIscariot]

Hey all,

I am trying to get an assassin off the ground and I'd prefer to stealthily kill my way through Teron. That being said, I keep finding myself in what seems at first glance some unavoidable fights such as

Spoiler

the two spies quest from the Boatmen

and of course

Spoiler

the part where your guild house gets burnt down

.

I am trying to avoid combat but it seems I might be thinking this assassin thing the wrong way. My initial stats are the default ones for an assassin and I put 4 in Sneak, 4 in CS, and I have some Dodge at the very start.

So, basically, what am I doing wrong? Am I playing the assassin background wrong and they are supposed to get into some fights and I should invest in swords instead of daggers for better armor piercing or what?

 

[Esquilax]

Yes, assassins in this game are primarily quick, precise fighters that rely on precise attacks like critical. That being said you can make an assassin who is good at disguising themselves and is a bit more charismatic/social as well. Sadly, the sneak skill is not terribly useful in this game. It's not bad, but it is only useful in certain situations (the Aurelian Outpost has a great use for sneak, btw) and doesn't have the wide applicability of combat.

First off, what are your stats? I am assuming, given your description, that you have a smart, quick, perceptive character with charisma as a dump stat.

Second, don't worry about swords - daggers, especially when combined with high skill in critical strike to complement it, are unbelievable. Right now you might have trouble digging into the heavy armor that the Guards are wearing in that battle outside of the guild house, but in time you'll be scoring criticals and carving foes up easily in combat with proper investment. Ranged weapons, particularly throwing, are somewhat underpowered in this game and need a boost, but every melee weapon class (sword, dagger, axe, hammer, spear) works great depending on your character's strengths.

As for build, I would put sneak at no more than 3 in character creation, instead perhaps putting those points into alchemy, which is very useful. Poison is insanely effective. Crafting can work too if you prefer that, but for dagger users, I tend to prefer alchemy since you can get guaranteed damage with poison even if you don't land a critical, and you have a free hand with which you can use bombs/nets.

If this is your first time playing the game, you may have missed some quests. Check out what Lord Antidas has to offer, or look around for some of the mini-quests in the kebab stand by the shanty town, behind the tavern, and by the main gate (which leads to the Aemolas' Gold quest). Also, if you have a high CS/sneak build, you have the perfect build for infiltrating Antidas' palace, so give that a shot as well.

 

[Elhoim]

There are some paths in the AG questline for "silent" or dialogue CS kills, but at some point you will have to fight. We'll see about adding a few more were applicable.

 

[Cadmus]

guys I could use some advice for Assassin in Teron as well!
here goes:

Spoiler

I'm now in the 2nd fight in the attack on the barracks. It's the part where you kill the guards with the Fuvlio something guy, enter barracks, find everyone dead and then find Neelos alone fighting against 2 guys. We manage to kill the first weak soldier easily but there's a tank legionnaire and he always kills the 3 of us.

I don't need to do this quest, I already talked with the main guy in the castle and unlocked the 2nd city so I can leave and let the assassin guild burn, got a save before the last quest started but I'd like to try to see what's next in this quest line. Thing is, I have no idea how make a dent in the legionnaire's armor. I got like 46 SP to distribute before this fight so I can keep trying different things. I got STR with 0 bonus, 31 HP at the start of combat, Precision with 10 Bonus, 11 AP. Dagger skill is 4 dodge 5 crit 3, or something. I got one iron 3 AP dagger, 1 iron 4 AP dagger. Can you give me some advice on how to do any damage to this guy? Neelos and the Filio guy can't do shit agains the armor and shield and he just slowly wipes us out. Poison does 0 damage to him, berserker potion does fuckall for me, all critical strikes do shit, like 1 damage. I once had a lucky roll with powerstrike 13 damage but then we died anyway.

Any tips, please?

 

[JudasIscariot]

guys I could use some advice for Assassin in Teron as well!
here goes:

Spoiler

I'm now in the 2nd fight in the attack on the barracks. It's the part where you kill the guards with the Fuvlio something guy, enter barracks, find everyone dead and then find Neelos alone fighting against 2 guys. We manage to kill the first weak soldier easily but there's a tank legionnaire and he always kills the 3 of us.

I don't need to do this quest, I already talked with the main guy in the castle and unlocked the 2nd city so I can leave and let the assassin guild burn, got a save before the last quest started but I'd like to try to see what's next in this quest line. Thing is, I have no idea how make a dent in the legionnaire's armor. I got like 46 SP to distribute before this fight so I can keep trying different things. I got STR with 0 bonus, 31 HP at the start of combat, Precision with 10 Bonus, 11 AP. Dagger skill is 4 dodge 5 crit 3, or something. I got one iron 3 AP dagger, 1 iron 4 AP dagger. Can you give me some advice on how to do any damage to this guy? Neelos and the Filio guy can't do shit agains the armor and shield and he just slowly wipes us out. Poison does 0 damage to him, berserker potion does fuckall for me, all critical strikes do shit, like 1 damage. I once had a lucky roll with powerstrike 13 damage but then we died anyway.

Any tips, please?

Get some nets, some poison, and use aimed arm attacks, to reduce accuracy and possibly disarm the guy to make him waste APs, in tandem with arterial strikes.

 

[Cadmus]

Dude thats not helpful as i said poison does 0 dmg. Used all nets and bolas on the previous 2 fights. Making him waste 1 ap putting the weapon back wont save me. Besides, out pf 4 reloads i managed to knock his weapon out once only. I consistentl have trouble with heavy armor enemies so I think Im doing spmething wrong. Cant seem to do any damage, like 1 or 2 dmg max. Plus the shield deflects half.my hits. Whats a good strategy to deal with this as dagger guy? Should I put more into dagger or crit? Sry for spelling semt from phone

Question: does malus from hitting guy in arms and reducing his acc stack? As in i do it 3 times and reduce by 3x amount?

I dont understand the torso aimed strike effect, isit for the hit or for some duration?

 

[JudasIscariot]

Dude thats not helpful as i said poison does 0 dmg. Used all nets and bolas on the previous 2 fights. Making him waste 1 ap putting the weapon back wont save me. Besides, out pf 4 reloads i managed to knock his weapon out once only. I consistentl have trouble with heavy armor enemies so I think Im doing spmething wrong. Cant seem to do any damage, like 1 or 2 dmg max. Plus the shield deflects half.my hits. Whats a good strategy to deal with this as dagger guy? Should I put more into dagger or crit? Sry for spelling semt from phone

Have you done all the other quests in Teron for SP? I used a 4 AP dagger, invested in Dodge a bit to get higher chances for a counterstrike, and hit his arms often to reduce his accuracy and sometimes strength. Making him waste 1 AP can be a life saver since after putting his weapon back he'll only get one swing instead of two or three if he's right next to you. I also used arterial strike wherever I could to potentially add a bleed to him.

 

[Militiades]

Cadmus
Take off your clothing and buy a shovel, it's a secret weapon in Age of Decadence. Tell you what, send me your save, I'll win this fight for you and send a save with this fight won. I won't input any trojan, honest.

 

[Cadmus]

Cadmus
Take off your clothing and buy a shovel, it's a secret weapon in Age of Decadence. Tell you what, send me your save, I'll win this fight for you and send a save with this fight won. I won't input any trojan, honest.

Hey...you are lucky I didn't skin you alive. You think this is some kind of a joke?

 

[Goral]

Well, he might be right about that save. Or have you beaten the fight already?

As for tips for assassin, name your saves "ass 1", "ass 2", etc. It saves time.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I played a bowman so my experience might be different than a dagger dude, but here's some general stuff.

1. Ignore the normal guy and focus on the centurion from the getgo. The regular guardsmen is a scrublord.

2. Three attacks are your friends: Open up with aimed legs to increase your THC and then follow up with artery strikes or aimed torsos if the AS don't work. The trick here is simply not to trust your %THC, because it's misleading - the guy will prob block your hit but he won't evade all the damage, even if it shows your thc as 20% or sth, and considering the artery strike damage is already ridonk high to begin with, he'll take a lot even if half of that is absorbed. Aimed torso works as an ersatz because it also penetrates sum DR.

 

[Cadmus]

I played a bowman so my experience might be different than a dagger dude, but here's some general stuff.

1. Ignore the normal guy and focus on the centurion from the getgo. The regular guardsmen is a scrublord.

2. Three attacks are your friends: Open up with aimed legs to increase your THC and then follow up with artery strikes or aimed torsos if the AS don't work. The trick here is simply not to trust your %THC, because it's misleading - the guy will prob block your hit but he won't evade all the damage, even if it shows your thc as 20% or sth, and considering the artery strike damage is already ridonk high to begin with, he'll take a lot even if half of that is absorbed. Aimed torso works as an ersatz because it also penetrates sum DR.

Tried ignoring the first guy, it's a bad idea, he dies in 2 rounds if I focus him with Neelos. If I don't he lasts a long time and does damage.

2. I don't do any damage on 90% of the attacks. This leads me to believe one of my skills is too low. Powerstrike does fuckall, arterial strike does fuckall, hand/leg attacks get deflected by the shield. If I do damage, it's 1-2 max.
I'll try again tonight with more points in Dagger skill.

 

[Elhoim]

Question: does malus from hitting guy in arms and reducing his acc stack? As in i do it 3 times and reduce by 3x amount?

It stacks.

Is Fulvio alive or it's just you and Neleos?

 

[Cadmus]

It stacks.

Is Fulvio alive or it's just you and Neleos?

Great, thanks for the answer!
Now could you kindly explain the effect of the Torso strike? I hit the guy and it says something like "armor reduced to 0,75% of its value" which sounds strange..Is that true? How long does it last?

I killed the Legionnaire, it was me and Fulvio and Neelos. The problem was very clearly that I only had 4 points in dagger and whatever I did it got deflected. I put 2 more points and finally could deal damage so I chipped away his health with Arterial strikes, both my friends survived!

Now

Spoiler

I swam in the well in the Slums in the 2nd city, drowned upon exiting the room with the safe, strange mask and power tubes and on reload I couldn't get out, couldn't open any menus, just click and nothing happens, same with the sewer hatch so I terminated the game process and here I'm, taking a break

By the way Elhoim I was so happy when my Body Count was checked in an intimidation dialogue, I had no idea it would do that, lol. That's such a nice way to do intimidation, you know? I can't remember if I ever saw it in any other game, probably not since you always kill thousands of enemies anyway.

 

[JudasIscariot]

There are some paths in the AG questline for "silent" or dialogue CS kills, but at some point you will have to fight. We'll see about adding a few more were applicable.

Thanks but please don't go against the game's original intent for the assassin I am just going to have to get good I guess so I am trying out a sword using assassin and really exploiting alchemy for all I can :D

 

[Elhoim]

Great, thanks for the answer!
Now could you kindly explain the effect of the Torso strike? I hit the guy and it says something like "armor reduced to 0,75% of its value" which sounds strange..Is that true? How long does it last?

I killed the Legionnaire, it was me and Fulvio and Neelos. The problem was very clearly that I only had 4 points in dagger and whatever I did it got deflected. I put 2 more points and finally could deal damage so I chipped away his health with Arterial strikes, both my friends survived!

Yeah, 4 is not that much.

[Journeyman] You've learned to hit targets. Most of the time. If they don't move.

Now

Spoiler

I swam in the well in the Slums in the 2nd city, drowned upon exiting the room with the safe, strange mask and power tubes and on reload I couldn't get out, couldn't open any menus, just click and nothing happens, same with the sewer hatch so I terminated the game process and here I'm, taking a break

Can you send me that savegame to info@irontowerstudio.com? Thanks!

By the way Elhoim I was so happy when my Body Count was checked in an intimidation dialogue, I had no idea it would do that, lol. That's such a nice way to do intimidation, you know? I can't remember if I ever saw it in any other game, probably not since you always kill thousands of enemies anyway.

Yep, we check it in several places

 

[Eirikur]

Definitely take a cue from this:

 

[JudasIscariot]

Definitely take a cue from this:

Nets definitely help a ton :D

 

[Carrion]

Made it to Maadoran as an assassin. In the demo I got stuck in the final tough fights and decided to eventually take an easier way out with a certain choice just before shit hits the fan, but now I decided to go all the way.

I think Assassin is initially a tough background because it's hard to properly narrow down your skill set. You kill people, so naturally you'll want to have a combat skill and a defense skill. You'll want Critical Strike, especially once you realize it's used for instakills in dialogue. There are also a ton of civil skills that you might find really tempting based on your initial vision of what an assassin is supposed to be: Sneak is one seemingly obvious one, allowing you to get near enough to cut your target's throat, perhaps even adding Lockpick to it since those two pretty much go hand in hand. Impersonate might be useful for the same reasons, because who wouldn't want to play a Hitman-type character in an RPG? Lore is a supporthing skill that might be helpful in that, especially since there are several instances in Teron where you can disguise yourself as a loremaster. It's AoD, so you'll want social skills in the form of Persuasion and Streetwise. You'll want Alchemy because, well, poison. Go with all this and you'll inevitably spread your points too thin. In the end, Assassin is mainly a combat character, no matter how cool it would be to play a character who sweet-talks, sneaks and disguises himself everywhere, kills his targets and escapes before anyone realizes that a murder has even taken place.

My current playthrough has been going something like this:

Spoiler

Having forgot about most of the demo, I again did the mistake of putting a ton of points into Sneak (after Teron I have five points in it). Aside from that I initially went for Critical Strike, Dagger, Dodge and Impersonate, also putting a couple of points into Persuasion and Streetwise just because. Wanted to have decent Charisma and high Intelligence as well, so sacrificed a point from Dexterity and Constitution for that. Quite quickly I realized that Sneak wasn't going to help me all that much, so I started to focus on CS, Impersonate and especially Dagger and Dodge. The first part that posed any problems was the fight against the third spy, mostly since I had only a handful of hit points left from the initial fight and had already used the two nets I brought to the fight. I probably could've beat him by just praying to the RNG, but after getting killed a dozen times or so I just reloaded the last quick save, saved one net for the later fight and got through both fights with relatively little trouble. I had several side quests left as well as over twenty unused skill points, so it's not like that would've been a game-stopper in any way.

The end fights outside the burning guild house and later on in the barracks were tough, partly because you'll still have to fight not one but two fights in a useless robe if you talked your way out of the inn. The first fight I can get, but the second? Come on. Anyway, your buddies are so strong that I mostly just chose to sit and watch, using bombs and other items to cause some destruction while my bros slaughtered everything. The first fights in the game were against lightly-armored opponents that suited my dagger build very well, but heavier armor in the last fights started to pose some serious trouble since it was hard to get any real damage through except with Arterial Strikes.

The centurion was the tough one, because of that fucking armor. Neleos was the only one who could get any real damage through, but he was also the one that the centurion attacked first and usually killed rather quickly. Fulvio had his crossbow that wreaked havoc in the fight, except he only had three bolts left at that point, which he chose to aim at the other guy rather than the centurion, and his dagger was fucking useless. Initially I just wanted to kill the other guy as fast as possible, and if Fulvio and Neleos got proper hits it was possible to kill him with an Arterial Strike or two within two rounds, allowing everyone to concentrate on the Centurion. I had only nine hit points left at that point (just had to go and get myself involved in the previous fight a bit more than necessary), so there wasn't all that much I could do except hope that Neleos would get the job done. The only way to really damage the centurion was with criticals, but those had a pathetically low success rate. I tried poisoning him, but it did zero damage (what's the deal with that?), and usually getting within attacking distance got me instantly killed since the centurion's attacks got easily past my leather armor. Crossbows had a THC of 1%. Had nothing to throw at that point either. At best we got the centurion to Almost Dead, but even that required a greatly favorable RNG, and it didn't seem likely that it would get better any time soon.

So, I reloaded the save just before the final fight and used the rest of my skill points to raise Alchemy from 2 to 3. This allowed me to brew liquid fire (the ingredients I got from the outpost using Sneak, so it was useful after all), which was something I could actually use in the fight. One more point would've allowed me to make armor-corroding acid, which would've been immensely useful, but just didn't have enough points for that. In any case, three pots of liquid fire allowed me to do about 10-15 more points of damage against the centurion, but most importantly it allowed me to isolate the centurion from the battle, forcing him far away from Neleos at the start. I quickly killed the second guy with Fulvio and Neleos, then threw some liquid fire at the centurion and forced him into the corner of the room. After that he attacked Fulvio rather than Neleos. Fulvio sadly got killed, but Neleos got to fight a centurion that was already in a fairly bad shape, rather than the perfectly healthy one that he had to fight earlier on. After a few attempts Neleos managed to take him down with the help of a couple of good criticals. There's a lot you could criticize about that last segment if you wanted to, but damn if it didn't feel good to beat it.

It's still possible that the build comes to bite me in the ass later on. Low Constitution combined with light armor means that long fights become very risky, so I'll probably need a really high Dodge. Although I put an extra point into Charisma, it doesn't really seem to be getting me anywhere, which might be partly because of my low Persuasion. At this point I'd rather just have an extra point in Dexterity from the way things are going. Still, I got this far despite making a few pretty bad choices already, and now I think I finally know what to focus on.

 

[Kuattro]

Okay, I'm man enough to know when I'm beaten and its time to start crying and begging. So hear me please.

How on earth are you people dealing with the combat in front of your guild (and the two that come after that!)? I tried with a crossbow, and I could as well have been shooting foam arrows (armor piercing bolts, they are called!). When they didn't block the damage, the armor reduced it to nothing, or they dodged it completely (this bulky men with lorica segmentatas dodge more than me with my leather). I tried it with daggers, aimed attacks as has been said here. Again, block, block, block, DR to hell. Meanwhile my companions are doing their best, god bless them, but not before I get reduced to hamburguers.

One time, ONE, I managed the first fight, only to discover that I had to deal with two more blokes before getting to the end fight. Spending all my ammo on that second fight was NOT a good idea, but even then, peltering the centurion and his groupie with acid, liquid fire, bombs, nets, bolas, and anything I could find on the floor, should have some results other than, again, hamburguers (I specially enjoyed when the centurion skewered me with a pilum, for no reason at all as my companions where in melee range (not that they were having any effect on him, again, block and DR), I felt the game was trolling a bit. "I just felt like throwing this towards you and ending your suffering early, haha"). Obviously I tried to restart from an early save, but now I can't even get past the first one.

I have 8 PER, 8 DEX, 4 STR and 4 CON. I have no combat skills (it's an even earlier save, of course I put points in either crossbows or daggers and dodge before those other tries) amd 99 unassigned skill points. ¿Is there any possible skill combination that will get me through this? ¿Did I fuck up? ¿Am I screwed? I spent quite a bit of time trying to get as many free social skill points as possible because I want a talky assassin that is not just about stabbing (or shooting), but doing it in style. ¿Do I really have to start over (I won't, screw assassins), forget about intelligence and charisma and make a brute simpelton that's good only for killing people as long as you point him in the right direction?

I know that I can just skip this, either completely or taking another way and seeing how that goes, but I really wanted to do this...

I'm starting to believe that I'm very bad at this.

 

[JudasIscariot]

Okay, I'm man enough to know when I'm beaten and its time to start crying and begging. So hear me please.

How on earth are you people dealing with the combat in front of your guild (and the two that come after that!)? I tried with a crossbow, and I could as well have been shooting foam arrows (armor piercing bolts, they are called!). When they didn't block the damage, the armor reduced it to nothing, or they dodged it completely (this bulky men with lorica segmentatas dodge more than me with my leather). I tried it with daggers, aimed attacks as has been said here. Again, block, block, block, DR to hell. Meanwhile my companions are doing their best, god bless them, but not before I get reduced to hamburguers.

One time, ONE, I managed the first fight, only to discover that I had to deal with two more blokes before getting to the end fight. Spending all my ammo on that second fight was NOT a good idea, but even then, peltering the centurion and his groupie with acid, liquid fire, bombs, nets, bolas, and anything I could find on the floor, should have some results other than, again, hamburguers (I specially enjoyed when the centurion skewered me with a pilum, for no reason at all as my companions where in melee range (not that they were having any effect on him, again, block and DR), I felt the game was trolling a bit. "I just felt like throwing this towards you and ending your suffering early, haha"). Obviously I tried to restart from an early save, but now I can't even get past the first one.

I have 8 PER, 8 DEX, 4 STR and 4 CON. I have no combat skills (it's an even earlier save, of course I put points in either crossbows or daggers and dodge before those other tries) amd 99 unassigned skill points. ¿Is there any possible skill combination that will get me through this? ¿Did I fuck up? ¿Am I screwed? I spent quite a bit of time trying to get as many free social skill points as possible because I want a talky assassin that is not just about stabbing (or shooting), but doing it in style. ¿Do I really have to start over (I won't, screw assassins), forget about intelligence and charisma and make a brute simpelton that's good only for killing people as long as you point him in the right direction?

I know that I can just skip this, either completely or taking another way and seeing how that goes, but I really wanted to do this...

I'm starting to believe that I'm very bad at this.

Get 10 DEX 8 STR, 10 PER, try swords instead of daggers as you can still do arterial strikes and manage to get some armor penetration. Work on your Dodge and wear armor with the lowest armor penalty. You can buy some silk Ordu armor that gives you 0 armor penalty because armor penalty is a death sentence for dodge assassins.

 

[Darth Roxor]

The trick to that fight (those fights in fact) for a non 10/10/10 character is to manoeuvre around to make all the gourdsmen target based Fulvio while you pepper them from afar with aimed shots and poison. The AI in this game is pretty damn stupid so all you have to do is park the enemies next to Fulvio and then run away, they'll forget about you instantly. Plus, Fulvio's stats are so high he can literally tank them all day with constant dodging and live to tell the tale.

I did it on first try with 6/10/6/8/6/4 and skillz decently divided between talky and shooty categories. Only had trubble later with the final centurion fight, but it was nothing some improvisation couldn't fix.

 

[Kuattro]

Get 10 DEX 8 STR, 10 PER, try swords instead of daggers as you can still do arterial strikes and manage to get some armor penetration. Work on your Dodge and wear armor with the lowest armor penalty. You can buy some silk Ordu armor that gives you 0 armor penalty because armor penalty is a death sentence for dodge assassins.

I'll try that when I get my morale up after the beatings I've endured and I restart an assassin in a couple of... weeks, months, years? But as I said, I wanted those sweet INT and CHAR

The trick to that fight (those fights in fact) for a non 10/10/10 character is to manoeuvre around to make all the gourdsmen target based Fulvio while you pepper them from afar with aimed shots and poison. The AI in this game is pretty damn stupid so all you have to do is park the enemies next to Fulvio and then run away, they'll forget about you instantly. Plus, Fulvio's stats are so high he can literally tank them all day with constant dodging and live to tell the tale.

I did it on first try with 6/10/6/8/6/4 and skillz decently divided between talky and shooty categories. Only had trubble later with the final centurion fight, but it was nothing some improvisation couldn't fix.

And I'll try that too, although I went as far as creating a liquid fire wall that funneled them pretty nicely to my companions, and still, I kept shooting them to no effect.

I don't know, I'm getting a "No Country for Hybrids" vibe from AoD, and apparently I'm not the only one.

On the other hand, people seem to be getting through this, so it's probably a problem at my end. Maybe a straight up fighter that doesn't talk with anyone and hits any problem until it stops moving/being a problem will be easier for me.

Thanks to both of you

 

[JudasIscariot]

I'll try that when I get my morale up after the beatings I've endured and I restart an assassin in a couple of... weeks, months, years? But as I said, I wanted those sweet INT and CHAR



And I'll try that too, although I went as far as creating a liquid fire wall that funneled them pretty nicely to my companions, and still, I kept shooting them to no effect.

I don't know, I'm getting a "No Country for Hybrids" vibe from AoD, and apparently I'm not the only one.

On the other hand, people seem to be getting through this, so it's probably a problem at my end. Maybe a straight up fighter that doesn't talk with anyone and hits any problem until it stops moving/being a problem will be easier for me.

Thanks to both of you

If anything, go for the arms as much as possible to reduce accuracy although daggers are kinda bad at doing that unless you have an AP 4 dagger then it reduces accuracy 10 points per hit.

I am sure you can make it as a hybrid but it's best to know the game first, I suppose

 

[~*´¨¯¨`*·~-.¸-AIN'T]

I don't know, I'm getting a "No Country for Hybrids" vibe from AoD, and apparently I'm not the only one.

Nah, it's just that the game is designed so that even characters focused purely on combat will still have difficult fights. So what is a "difficult fight" for a dedicated combat specialist can feel impossible for a hybrid. Hybrids are perfectly viable if you try to avoid the bigger fights (which usually have warnings before them - for example right after the fight outside the assassin's guild you can tell them you're out instead of invading the imperial guard HQ). As you get better at character building and combat tactics, you'll find that most of the more difficult fights are winnable with hybrids too, especially if you're not too stingy with your consumables. A 5 point investment in alchemy is highly worth it just to let you make your own poisons, which are extremely useful for fighting heavily armored dudes.

If you really want to see a good hybrid in action, I would recommend trying a loremaster with a lot of crafting, since crafting is great for combat and also used in a lot of the text adventures.