Mask of the Betrayer Builds

[Annonchinil]

So I decided against NWN2 and am looking for tips for building a character. Can't really think of more to say except that I don't like mages.

 

[RK47]

Well, play a cleric. or Paladin. Fighter's boring. Most melee types are simply 'click and see the numbers roll' not to mention they don't have a lot of skill points to burn on Diplomacy or interesting dialogue skills (Rogues are exception to this).

Cleric has diplomacy, do a research on which God does what, then RP it for fun.

 

[Annonchinil]

What about a Favoured soul?

 

[The Rambling Sage]

Pure bard.

Seriously.

Well built they can be incredibly good spellswords, and with style to boot. They have access to all conversational skills, too.

 

[NiM82]

I'll second the cleric.

 

[RK47]

Fav soul is not a bad choice either. Definitely go that if you dislike picking spells to memorize and want instant-flexibility.

 

[cardtrick]

Bard with 2 - 4 levels of blackguard for the charisma bonus to saves and access to armor and weapon proficiencies. Bards are ludicrously awesome at high levels, so long as you take curse song and both song & hymn of requiem. Lingering song is nice too, specifically for song/hymn of requiem. If you take battle caster, you can wear mithral full plate using your blackguard proficiencies and still cast all your spells. Pump strength, and leave charisma at 16 (no need for higher). Bard's sonic damage isn't affected by magic resistance and hardly anything has specific sonic resistance. . . plus with hymn of requiem you're quite a powerful healer, and with curse song you've got by far the most powerful debuff in the game . . . all while still being quite a capable fighter. Besides their combat prowess, bards have all the skills frequently used in MOTB dialog (diplomacy, bluff, lore, spellcraft) as class skills, with the exception of intimidation, which you can pick up by spacing your blackguard levels out and saving skillpoints. Drows and humans make particularly good bards.

Alternately, I also played a spirit shaman with a couple of levels of fighter and 10 levels of Stormlord (using spears, not thrown weapons). That was very powerful as well.

Honestly, it doesn't much matter. MOTB is very easy, and any build will work fine . . . but it's just wonderful, nevertheless. Also, even if you don't normally play evil, you should consider it; this is just about the only RPG I can think of with an evil path (and glorious evil party member) that's at least as interesting as the good path.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Go Rogue 25/Invisible Blade 5. It's a death machine at higher levels.

 

[Azrael the cat]

I found bard very easy

I found bard very easy - just picked up one level of warrior for weapon proficiencies and took the casting-in-medium-armour feat. They get some truly insane buffs in NWN2 and they get even more ridiculous in MoTB - partially because their buffs stack with almost all other buffing spells, whereas most other class buff spells don't stack, or don't fully stack. They can also pump out some decent damage with a bow (meaning you can use con as close to dump stat, as you'll be staying out of the front lines) and decent spellcasting. But you're mainly going bard (a) for the buffs - which by MoTB are spammable because you have so many songs/day, and (b) never having to worry about missing out on social skill alternate paths/options. I played it through with bard, mage and cleric and found bard the easiest by a long way - EXCEPT (and this is a BIG except) for the first section where it is just you and one follower. Bards don't come into their own until you have a full party, even in MoTB where they are much stronger and more soloable than in PnP, and so you will be weaker until you get your NPC group, which fortunately happens reasonably early on.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

Try to pick a class with dialogue skills, otherwise it doesn't much matter. The combat's boring and easy anyway.

 

[fastpunk]

I made a thread about character builds in MotB some time ago and got quite a few interesting responses. Here it is:

http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22872

Knock yourself out! :wink:

 

[Krokar]

Here's my favourite build I made for MotB. It's dual kukri wielding Rogue 17/Fighter 12/Shadowdancer 1. I'm not into set trap/open lock/disable trap. kind of rouges but i love sneak attack and diplomacy that this class offers. I took one level of shadowdancer to get the awesome Hide in plain sight. There are so many fighter levels in the mix because of weapon specialisation and weapon focus.
I ended up with Epic weapon specialisation, Epic weapon focus, Epic precision and Epic dodge. Oh and also Perfect two weapon fighting.
Great thing about this build is that you deal halved sneak attack damage against creatures that are normally immune to sneak attacks (full damage to normal ones) and you can disappear in front of enemy eyes. You also get great smooth talker. Oh and epic dodge and perfect two weapon fighting is nice too.
So smooth talking stealthy tank?

 

[RK47]

Sigh, despite the raving reviews I still can't play it. I seem to hate D&D Epic levels mechanics. I just lost interest at the character level up screens after creation.

 

[cardtrick]

Sigh, despite the raving reviews I still can't play it. I seem to hate D&D Epic levels mechanics. I just lost interest at the character level up screens after creation.

Oh, come on, give it a little more time than that. Or if worse comes to worst, download a pre-made character from somewhere . . . I'm pretty sure the NWN Vault has a variety and no doubt a Google search would turn up more.

Try to force yourself to play for, say, 2 hours to give it a real try. 5 would be better.

 

[afewhours]

Try to pick a class with dialogue skills, otherwise it doesn't much matter. The combat's boring and easy anyway.

QFT. You start the module with an epic level mage who can cast permanent haste and meteor swarm. You don't need much more than that. Just go as wild with the builds as you want. I'll add my voice to those saying you should watch your skill points. Sacrificing a bit of combat usefulness for dialogue options is a worthy trade in MotB.

 

[Norfleet]

Fav soul is not a bad choice either. Definitely go that if you dislike picking spells to memorize and want instant-flexibility.

The non-memorization classes are basically designed for CRPG play. In CRPGs, the variety of spells in your spellbook is meaningless. You will never use more than like half a dozen of any given level, and classes like Fav Soul and Sorceror essentially play to these strengths: Not only do you have ALL of your half-a-dozen-or-so chosen spells at your disposal to use freely, you ALSO have a greater number of slots per volley. Whereas standard memorization-based caster would have to choose between splitting slots between frequently used and infrequently used spells (and thus having slots which are then idle and useless 90% of the time), or simply going with a full loadout of the thing you KNOW you will use for certain (and thus wind up at a disadvantage when you don't happen to have that infrequently used, highly situational spell), the spontaneous-cast classes suffer none of these drawbacks and all of the strengths. While in PnP, the spontaneous cast classes are disadvantaged by an extremely limited selection out of the possible domain of spells, in CRPGs, NONE OF THOSE SPELLS ARE USEFUL. You literally only need like 5 or 6 per level: An AOE nuke or two, a save-or-scratch or two for taking aim at specific weak saves, and and maybe a situational single-target blaster spell or buff spell or two. Practically nothing else is of any real use. This is why fav soul/sorceror is superior to cleric/wizard. As a side perk, the spontaneous classes are all charisma classes, which boosts up the social-based skills to make sure you can always catch all of the NPC-based plot exposition. Only a fool picks a fighter as a primary, because anyone can kill stuff. I have rarely, if ever, encountered a game where options are actually enabled specifically by your choice to be a dumb, axe-wielding brute. Most of the time options are closed to you, and while you certainly will do well at beating things to a pulp, let's face it: Anyone can do that.

 

[Andhaira]

Not true dumbass. Wizards were superior to sorcerors in BG2 and even in IWD2.

Sorcerors have a huge wekness in that they recieve their spells one level late.

Also, for a sorceror to spend a precious pick on something like identify really hurts, even though you need identify. Also, stuff like sleep and grease and charm

 

[spacemoose]

all magicfags are fags anyway so wahts the problem

 

[afewhours]

The spontaneous classes don't have it all easy. As you level up, certain spells become obsolete, and you have to be very careful what spells you pick. For MotB this is less of a problem as you can spec for level 18 straight off the bat, but as everyone is so powerful in MotB, the differences between classes aren't as pronounced. I always choose memorisation classes myself, because I was brought up on memorisation and none of this fancy spontaneity rubbish. I'm a sucker for nostalgia.

You have to be careful with Fav Soul/Spirit Shammy as well. They're multi-ability dependant. A Fav Soul requires a minimum CHA of 10 + spell's level to cast, but the power of their spells is dependant on WIS. If you compare this to pure Clerics who can pile all their attribute points into WIS, it's a big drawback. As a Fav Soul, you will be the ultimate healer, but don't expect your spells to do anything to the bad guys.

Sorcerers are t3h ultimate nukers, and it's best to play them that way. They're especially brutal once you start taking the metamagic feats. A Wizard will potentially have far more defensive options and better skills, so it's six of one and half a dozen of the other.

 

[Andhaira]

Wizards who specialize in Evocation and sleect spell focu evoc and greater spell focus evoc will be superior to srcies in the nuking dept aswell. Add into that wizards get 5 free metamgic feats (that basically all meta feats in 3e core right there) and wizards rule.

 

[cardtrick]

Wizards who specialize in Evocation and sleect spell focu evoc and greater spell focus evoc will be superior to srcies in the nuking dept aswell. Add into that wizards get 5 free metamgic feats (that basically all meta feats in 3e core right there) and wizards rule.

That's arguably true if you only consider base classes. But if you take sorceror with arcane scholar you continue your sorceror nuking spell progression and still get awesome metamagic.

 

[the return of mr. lamat]

High dexterity, intelligence and charisma rogue for talky skills and epic precision, level 20. Weapon master 7 for the meatgrinder dps. The stat requirements overlap a bit. Took three levels of sorc for the cat and colourspray... halfling character, yay rp... warlock for dark one's would have probably been much more practical.

Sorc, eldritch and arcane scholar worked well too. You wind up with a 40d6(?) or so horrid wilting spell and decent hp. Improved empower is a sin not to take as a caster class.

 

[Redeye]

Something that can spam Blade Barrier.

And be invisible.


Or maybe I'd go for a Zen Trapper (RP alert!). Use the ranger survival radar thingy along with an uber traps skill (high rogue). Level of SD or something with invisibility. Also extra speed to lure stuff into traps.

I think I would name the character "A. Priori".


lawl

I miss Wizard Eye.

 

[The Rambling Sage]

Also, for a sorceror to spend a precious pick on something like identify really hurts, even though you need identify. Also, stuff like sleep and grease and charm

Sorcerers are not situational - If the battle develops in such a way you are really depending on that level one spell to get you through it you should either be running away or casting invisibility and letting the warriors do their thing on whats left after the nuke-fest.

Once you get halfway through your sorcerer career the low level slots are only used for protections and buffs, anyway.

And... "Precious Pick" ? This is NWN2 we are talking about. Once you have two spells of a given level most of what is left is the kind of spell you pick for flavour or that "Once in a lifetime" situation that never comes.

They can also pump out some decent damage with a bow (meaning you can use con as close to dump stat, as you'll be staying out of the front lines) and decent spellcasting.

The bard's spellcasting mostly suck in the context of a CRPG - Or this CRPG, at least. They have... Four useful spells, total? Maybe five, six at most. Considering the number of picks they have, it is kind of very sucky. The rest never work (all those charm and illussion spells), are bugged (or i do not know how the fuck to use them: All those "remove" kind of spells that never remove anything), or are never needed in practice (everything that is not a buff).

But then they are so IMBA with the songs they got that it doesn't even matter.

 

[cardtrick]

The bard's spellcasting mostly suck in the context of a CRPG - Or this CRPG, at least. They have... Four useful spells, total? Maybe five, six at most. Considering the number of picks they have, it is kind of very sucky. The rest never work (all those charm and illussion spells), are bugged (or i do not know how the fuck to use them: All those "remove" kind of spells that never remove anything), or are never needed in practice (everything that is not a buff).

But then they are so IMBA with the songs they got that it doesn't even matter.

It sucks until you realize that the spells are being cast by a bard. They have tons of save-or-else mass spells, which are ordinarily pretty useless; but with a curse song going, the enemies' saves are lowered enough that those spells are actually quite reliable. Still, it's not like you need to bother with them in NWN2/MOTB, where the combat's so easy there's no need to think; but it's well worth remembering if you're ever playing a bard on a tough module.