Getting the best experience from MOTB

[Junior Boy]

So I'm hoping to finally play Mask of the Betrayer before I go back to school, and I really want to get the most out of it. In PST I did the whole max int/wis/cha thing and had a blast, pretty much entirely due to the great conversation skills I had which allowed me to see just about all the dialogue and backstory and really immerse myself in that shit. I understand MOTB has a lot of similarities to Torment in that certain aspects of the story are only revealed with proper skill checks involving dialogue. I really want the most plot/story/fun I can experience, so yeah.

My question is this: What kind of character build is best suited to have the best dialogue options and story opportunities, sort of like a Nameless One with really high wisdom and charisma? I searched the forums, and have been looking around, but most builds seem too powergamey. I'd like to not be a total pansy, but this game seems easy and character power isn't a huge concern. Gracias.

 

[nomask7]

I had so fun an experience with MotB that I doubt you are capable of comparable funness. I played the OC first, with a generic warrior, then continued to MotB with that same warrior. I tried to avoid meta-gaming, and played as though I was in a hurry, which my character seemed to be in. That resulted in a fun, immersive, staggering experience, but also made me overlook some parts of the game. I realized that, when I read more about the game after having finished it.

 

[deuxhero]

A rogue is best suited for MoTB. As unless you're evil, there is no rogue for the party (The red wizard's familer can pick locks, butr is subpar at the job) and hide in plain sight cheese makes the horrible combat go faster..

 

[DriacKin]

Personally, I found the evil path/ending to be the much more satisfying one.

 

[ElectricOtter]

I did a chaotic-evil wizard.

Was p. fun.

 

[Starwars]

There aren't that many "story unlocks" as with Torment with high stats, but there are a few with WIS. I don't think you need a super high score of it either.

If you do play a Rogue though (which I tend to like because of the many skill points), make sure to grab the feat that allows you to do sneak attacks on normally un-sneak attackable creatures. It still only does half damage I believe and like you say, it's not like MotB is very challenging (though a few of the optional fights are good), but it tends to make it a bit more fun when your Rogue can actually do something useful in combat.

 

[DriacKin]

The nice thing about a Rogue is that they have a bunch of important class skills (Diplomacy, Bluff, Intimidate, Lore). Throughout MotB, there were a bunch of dialogue options related to those class skills.

 

[Erebus]

Playing a wizard with high INT, WIS, Diplomacy, Spellcraft and Lore gave me access to quite a few dialogue options, but I don't think you'd miss an important part of the game with a less intellectual character (unlike PS:T, where you can miss a lot).

I suggest you play a good/neutral character the first time and a really evil one the second time (you really need to play MotB at least twice or you'll miss plenty of stuff).

 

[nomask7]

I always play the good guy, so I started with my good warrior. By the time the game ended, I was thoroughly evil and mad. It had been a slow descent to madness with certain identifiable key moments where I had had to compromise my integrity in order to survive. I really think that this thread is faggotry and should be renamed as "the best way to NOT get the best experience from MotB". If it weren't for my posts, that is.

 

[Kron]

I don't know how PS: T got mentioned along with MotB. Obsidian's mod for NWN 2 is nowhere near PS: T in terms of quality and depth.

Having said that, any kind of character will prove to give the same experience. There is no substantial difference between playing a wizard or a straightforward fighter.

The game will show more variety regarding the evil/good approach rather than the stats.

And it suffers from a severe case of NWN 2 enginitis, and D&D epicness also. That however has already been mentioned in the past...

 

[Junior Boy]

Ok, I think I'll just pick an appealing class and gimp it slightly by pumping the hell out of my dialogue skills, and just go with the flow. I'll have more fun that way than if I choose a class I don't really like. I really do want to play evil, but I'll resist and try being good the first time around. Although I am playing the nwn2 oc too, so if I'm too tempted to murder the gaggles of dorks that I see there I'll make the switch to the dark side.

 

[VentilatorOfDoom]

There are checks for Skills like Diplomacy and to a lesser extent Bluff and Intimidate.
So if you like to pass those checks a character that can have 20+ at those skills is a natural choice. That leaves Rogue and Wizard as options (due to the mere abundance of skillpoints) or -recommended- a CHA-based class (Sorcerer, Bard, Warlock, Favored Soul). With a max-CHA character you'll need approx. 10 ranks in the social skill + CHA modifier (with MOTB-style equipment) to pass all checks. Easily done if you don't neglect INT (I would take 14 INT even with a Sorcerer).

That said, playing it twice at least (good and evil with Okku and OneOfMany respectively) is also recommended because in that case it is worthwhile.

 

[Junior Boy]

Allright, I think I'm settling on a tiefling bard/duelist character who's a diplomat. Seems to be what I'm looking for. Thanks for the tips. And yeah, I'm definitely playing twice; the Codex review of the game really hooked me on One Of Many.

 

[Zomg]

IIRC you can do stupid shit like get a new dialog option for switching hats. It's still D&D, man, just make a random character and never, ever do crafting, which is the D&D game triple of boring, tedious and grossly overpowered.

 

[deuxhero]

Allright, I think I'm settling on a tiefling bard/duelist character who's a diplomat. Seems to be what I'm looking for. Thanks for the tips. And yeah, I'm definitely playing twice; the Codex review of the game really hooked me on One Of Many.

If you are going Tiefling, alter your racialsubtypes.2da (if you are running any mods, they should be in your override folder alreddy, if not, extract them yourselfs) and change the "ECL" under tiefling (and all the planetouched while you are atr it) to 0.

Neverwinter Nights 2 gives the planetouched none of the things that make them LA +1 in PNP, such as free proficiency with martial weapons and imunity to spells such as "Hold person" (as it targets humanoids it should not work on outsiders, but does anyways thanks to shoddy coding). It is only fair to reduce the LA.

Also, the duelist class sucks in both PNP and NWN2 and the NWN2 version rellies on the parry skill, a feature that flat out does not work in game. Go straight Bard (acctually somewhat decent in NWN) instead.

 

[WanderingThrough2]

Honestly? Here is the best way to get the most out of it. Build a melee-powerful character following one of those cheesy powerbuilds -- the best is probably "Dragonmaster Negotiator," I think it's called. Then get a character editor, and hack yourself in super equipment -- bump your stats up, lots of gold, great weapon and armor. Then ignore looting enemies except for bosses who give you unique plot-facilitating items, and power through combat.

Almost everything about the game is fun except for combat and equipment gathering, but those two things take up a huge amount of time (and are intimately linked together). If you are already taking the path of metagaming, why do your metagaming within an imbalanced system, rather than using an outside hack? It's all the same, anyway.

 

[deuxhero]

True enough, but HIPS cheese is honest about it (if you care about it).

 

[Junior Boy]

I'm not really metagaming, but rather trying to maximize my character's dialogue skills while still being decent at combat.

I played a little bit of the OC, and the combat is really not that spectacular. I hate how between animations, characters just stand around chilling only to attack again 3 seconds later. It's kind of...weird. I'm beginning to suspect the combat is one of the lesser aspects of the game, so I shouldn't trip over it too much.

I wish there were more hats in games.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Me <-- not as much a fan of the duelist (except the armor, which was fun as hell to do). I was glad when SoZ put in swashbuckler. Swashes needed to be buckled all over the place.

I wish there were more hats in games.

I COULDN'T AGREE MORE. Here is for you a true story:

After NWN2 was shown at GenCon, apparently there was a great reaction to the duelist in character creation, especially its "pimp hat." We had a ton of hat models, but because pretty much all of the items in NWN2 were imports from other NWN games, and there were FAR more helms than hats in those, we had a lot of models going unused. Upon returning, J.E. Sawyer went to me and said "make us some more hats." And with great glee I said YES SIR. That's how Finch's Fine Chapeau got its start, and the character of Finch to begin with. I had a description written for it, but because we were in stringref lockdown, I had to use an existing generic one.

And NOW you KNOW the REST of the TALE. Good DAY!

 

[FeelTheRads]

Upon returning, J.E. Sawyer went to me and said "make us some more hats."

Just what NWN2 missed! Good thinking!

 

[Kron]

The best build by far is the fighter-berserker-weaponmaster.
Choose your weapon and levels wisely, and you'll end up delivering a 200 damage critical hit every two blows you strike.
Hurrah for powergaming in D&D!

 

[LeStryfe79]

Fuck it, the best experience is your favorite class, so long as you start at the OC. The motherfucker's easy as hell. Althoug the story in the OC isn't as good, it makes MotB a better game in the long run. I personally like barbarians with full armor feats. I say fuck multiclassing in 3rd edition, that shit's for power gaming losers only looking to get off on their own piss poorness. That cuntshit ruined countless gaming sessions, and paved the way for the abomination of WoWishness that is 4ed. Use prestige classes if you suck dick and aren't a woman!


PS Annie did a pretty good job at Obsidian, which is the main reason I tolerate her BS.

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

Sorry, I just... I heard about the preorder for Scribblenauts, and was already thinking about hats, and then someone said something about hats here, and nobody's been posting fuckall on the Codex today, and it's hot as BALLS in Seattle, and brain no can work think thing that you do with your head... space... thing.

Shit. Anyhow.

I myself like multiclassing, mostly because I liked the combined experience of stabbing bitches with daggers and then pew pew with the spells. But people's reluctance to multiclass led to an unbelievable glut of base classes in 3.5 - during MotB I chuckled "prestige classes are SO 2 years ago." Oy vey, I wasn't far off. Hello there, Beguiler...

As for picking a straight class with no variation, I like rogue. I am the stabby type.

 

[Junior Boy]

Yeah, Portland may be hotter; it's about 105 here or something. I could murder someone in my car by just rolling the windows up. Northwest baby.

Fuck it, the best experience is your favorite class

This is good advice. I can't stand f2/r3/dls6/rdd7/d4/w5 type of characters. I'm probably now going to make a pansy ass fighter who likes to talk a lot. That will be more fun than playing through smoothly as a multiclass abortion, getting to the end of the game and thinking, "well that was pointless. time to masturbate."

 

[dolio]

If you don't mind some mods, one combination I've enjoyed playing recently is Swashblucker 4/Rogue X, using the 'daring outlaw' feat from Kaedrin's class pack. It makes levels for those two classes stack for the purpose of sneak attack and a couple of the swashbuckler's defensive abilities. That build has plenty of opportunity for skill points, too. And I go with feint (which is better than it should be) rather than hide in plain sight.

I think the two times I played through MotB were as a wizard and a warlock, though. Neither was particularly difficult (although I'd mod the cool down timer on the spirit eater thing for an evil run, because standing around doing nothing for 5 minutes while hunting spirits (which you might have to do sometimes if your craving is high) is quite boring).