MotB character builds

[fastpunk]

OK people, this thread is dedicated to character builds in Mask of the Betrayer. I want to replay it (since I can't seem to get into any game lately... and my VTMB saved game got corrupted) and I want to know more about some of the interesting characters you can create. So what build did you use in your playthrough? What builds would you say can get the most out of this game? And finally: anyone tried the Warlock class? How is it?

P.S.: Please include as many details as you can, especially concerning feats that are must-have for certain builds.

 

[Lumpy]

I played with a warlock. Nothing special. He was moderately strong. Also, I had a full caster party: Safiya, Gann, Kaelyn, so the game wasn't too easy, but always manageable.

 

[The Exar]

My build was wicked. Wood Elf (+2 dex + other bonuses) specifically created for two weapon fighting. Monkey grip feat. Pretty soon you're able to wield even the biggest two-handed weapons in just one hand, your attack is a bit lowered but thanks to the insane damage and number of attacks every opponent was dead (or almost) after the 1st round. He was a killing machine.

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Rogue/Invisible Blade is the ultimate build. Slaughters almost any opponent in a single round. Feint + Two-Weapon Fighting + Epic Precision FTW!

 

[Black]

How would Weapon Master manage to frag in NWN 2?

 

[fastpunk]

I played with a warlock. Nothing special. He was moderately strong. Also, I had a full caster party: Safiya, Gann, Kaelyn, so the game wasn't too easy, but always manageable.

Sounds painful! I read <a href="http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/file/939027/50834">this</a> FAQ, about a warlock build but the guy who wrote the FAQ didn't sound like he enjoyed it too much... although he did mention that you can get pretty powerful with a bit of patience.

Thanks to those who posted so far. Anyone played a bard? Keep 'em coming people!

 

[fastpunk]

How would Weapon Master manage to frag in NWN 2?

That was my first playthrough build... and it was easy. So basically, it would frag... hard!

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

Anyone played a bard?

I tried to, but the game is too combat-heavy for this class. One of the future releases of Kaedrin's PRC Pack will feature Seeker of the Song Prestige Class that should make the combat more enjoyable.

 

[Radisshu]

Last time I finished it I played a 11/9/10 (Favoured Soul, Monk, Divine Fist) and she fucking kicked ass. AND the character concept made sense, especially in her friendship with Kaelyn and the whole rebellion thing since she was a favoured soul of Ilmater.

 

[Shannow]

You could have at least mentioned whether you prefer warrior/mage/thief/cleric types. You can probably get the most out of the game if you make an intelligent rogue/x char. That way you will have lots of skill points to put into dialogue skills.
I made a bard 1/red dragon disciple 10/fighter 13/dwarven defender 6. High diplomacy skill through rdd, immune to fire and paralysis, some damage absorption, incredible strenght + two handed sword, insane amounts of hp, great ac even without a shield, greater (epic?) weapon focus/specialization power attack. The only weakness he had were mind affecting spells. Instead of dwarven defender one can take the berserker prc for epic power attack or juggle the build to accomodate a weapons master, but that puts a strain on the available feats.
You need 13+ dex for dodge which you need for dwarven defender. Other than that attribute distribution is up to you.
I went something like:
16(14) str
14 dex
16 con
14 int
10 (8) wis
13 char (req for bard)

Bards have to be chaotic and dwarven defenders lawful so either a lawful playthrough of nwn2 or abuse of the spirit meter is required.

This is already quite munchkinized but I'm sure you can find lots of builds with more dps if that is what you are looking for. There also are sites which list thousands of munchkin builds. Maybe you can find them yourself or someone has a link.

Lastly I want to say that I don't understand how somebody can ask for builds. Finding out yourself is half of the fun, isn't it?

 

[MetalCraze]

whatever you do - don't play as a mage.
because the whole of your walkthrough will go down to the constant twitching of the same spell shortcut. Mages didn't get anything really useful in MotB so it will be boring.

 

[fastpunk]

Lastly I want to say that I don't understand how somebody can ask for builds. Finding out yourself is half of the fun, isn't it?

It's not funny starting the game 2 or 3 times because you realize the character you just built sucks. I'm not a fan of experimenting anyway, I like to focus on the story so I want a character that's well rounded. Thanks for the build btw.

 

[RK47]

pure fighter sword + shield can't really go wrong albeit boring.

if anything try a druid if you like variety.

 

[Lumpy]

I only tried it for a short while, but http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Divine_Storm_Soul worked pretty well.
The character concept was that he was a guy who believed in one's own nature. Thus he would take full advantage of the spirit eater, eventually assume the role of Akachi and assault the wall.

 

[Ander Vinz]

I played with pure monk with high lore and it was the most incredible experience in D&D game for me because he kicked ass, didn't need any fancy shwords or armor, was immune to various veneral inconviniences and offered amazing roleplaying due to many wisdom and lore checks in MotB.

 

[Norfleet]

Warlock/Blackguard2/Rogue2 with Epic Resilience has the fun perk that you will never, ever, fail a saving throw, as the Warlock +Cha to all saves stacks with the Blackguard +cha all saves, resulting in 2x Cha to all saves. With Epic Resilience, you no longer autofail on a 1, so you are basically immune to anything that involves a saving throw.

Other than that, you have no particularly exceptional abilities. But hey, never fail a saving throw. Technically, you only need warlock1 to do this, so you could put your levels in any of the above or a 4th class if you want. Never fail saving throws again!

 

[Ander Vinz]

Never fail saving throws again!

IIRC there's identical perk for rogues at higher levels - to get auto reroll at fail. Correct me if I'm wrong.

edit: I *am* wrong. It was

Slippery Mind (Ex): This ability represents the rogue's ability to wriggle free from magical effects that would otherwise control or compel her. If a rogue with slippery mind is affected by an enchantment spell or effect and fails her saving throw, she automatically gets one reroll.

So your build rocks. But I'd like to test it agaist my monk :wink:

 

[Jaesun]

I played a "Smiting Paladin" of Ilmater. Focus on a high crit weapon, say scimitar and build up lots of CHA and build up smite.

STR 14
DEX 8
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 11 (+3 WIS item optional for spells)
CHA 17 +7pumps = 24

1 through 20 = paladin
21 through 30 = divine champion.

Always pump CHA.
skills: 132 points.
Tumble, Spellcraft, Concentrate, and 1 other skill can be maxed.

1: Luck of Heroes, Pwr Attack(prereq)
3: Weapon Focus: Scimitar (scimmy/rapier for maximum possible crit range)
6: Blindfight (do NOT want to miss a smite!)
9: Divine Shield or Might (mine as well)
12: Improved Crit (optional. Disregard if can guarantee a good keen
scimitar/rapier)
15: Extra Smiting (pumps BOTH Smite evil AND Smite Infidel!)
18: Toughness or Power Crit.

21 through 30: Great Smite 1 through 10.

variant: Rework stats: CHA max to 16. Pump STR to 22.
Gimps your divine might/shield and Wrath but pumps non Smite AB/dmg.

On my second run through, I played through the OC so I could import my character + his items (minus main weapon). That was sweet.

Also, If you are a follower of Ilmater, you get a 1 time influence with Kaeylin.

I am curious to play maybe in the future as a follower of Kelemvor...

 

[Petycon]

I imported my bard from the original campaign, and had an absolute blast playing him pure in MoTB. Admittedly, he had some sick items from the get-go (including a fortified +5 mithril breastplate - which made fighting any sneak-attacking enemy a simple affair), but I think even a newly roasted bard would have been fine. Inspirations and songs, already useful pre-20, become almost ridiculously overpowered in epic levels; 6 base skill points per level, plus a wide selection of class skills (including Use Magic Device), enables you to do whatever you want at any given point in the game; and the spells thrown in are just icing on the cake. The manual almost scared me off from playing, though, by stating that your alignment would edge towards lawful every time you used Suppress; happily, that wasn't the case.

Then again, my grotesque fetish for all things bardish might have influenced my opinion somewhat.

 

[Norfleet]

Was Luck of Heroes a prerequisite for anything in your build? Because I seem to recall that was one of those "waste of a feat" feats otherwise.

 

[Jasede]

+1 to all saves a "waste of a feat"? Are you insane? [Never played MotB, speaking from D&D 3.5 experience in general].

 

[Hümmelgümpf]

To saves and to AC.

 

[Lumpy]

Armor skin is an EPIC!! feat and it offers just +1 to AC (even though the manual says +2). LoH is win.

 

[JrK]

For my first playthrough I used a fighter2/paladin1/wizardx/eldritch knight 10 build. Focusing on martial combat powered by spells, so using spells like mage armor, shield, cat's grace, bull's strength, fire shield, mirror image, precognition, spider skin. Playing from the beginning of nwn2, this build always had a super high AC. (22 at the beginning, 40 at the start of MotB)

Note that I was foolish enough to take fighter levels instead of paladin, I wanted to focus on diplomacy, so needed to take the paladin level later because I was failing so many checks. A wise idea is to take 2 paladin levels instead of fighter levels. I considered going the sorcerer/paladin/eldritch route, but decided against it because spell gain is already a bit behind, and sorcerer is only going to make it worse. Nevertheless, I imagine it might be a more powerful build in the end.

The added boni of this build is the ability to craft your own stuff at max caster level (with practised caster feat), ability to fling the occasional spell for melee-resistant enemies, True Strike for high AC enemies and the amazing power of Fire Shield for defense! (say hello to 25 fire damage whenever you hit me!) The high int makes for a nice skill selection ( I took diplomacy, spellcraft, concentration, craft skills).

 

[cardtrick]

Luck of Heroes is the single best defensive feat in the game. It's only available at first level, but it should always be taken.

Anyway, I played a bard. I had 2 levels of blackguard (for the charisma saves.

I played as drow and maxed my starting dexterity, then kept pumping points into dexterity. I was able to get Perfect Two Weapon Fighting by level 21 or 22. I had Weapon Finesse, of course, and I used a rapier in one hand and a short sword in the other, both enchanted as high as possible. I was doing 10 attacks per round with something like +12d6 total elemental damage on each weapon, so I was doing hundreds of damage per round.

Bard is ludicrously overpowered. Get curse song as soon as possible . . . by the time you hit high bard levels, you're knocking off huge amounts of the enemies' AC and saves. It's the best debuff in the game, and I had 26 uses per day. Your courage inspiration is always on, and by the end of the game it's adding quite a bit to your damage and "to-hit" -- this is important, because that damage gets added to each attack, so w/ Perfect 2 Weapon Fighting a +4 to damage is actually +40 per round.

Plus as an epic bard you can get Song of Requiem and Hymn of Requiem. With the Lingering Song feat, Hymn of Requiem is just obscene . . . every single round, it does 15 damage to every opponent you can see and heals all your party members and yourself by 15 points. Moreover, it does sonic damage which doesn't get stopped by magic resistance and practically nothing is immune to. You can kill almost anything using just your songs.

Plus, you have some decent low-level spells (mirror image is wonderful, and you have lots of save-or-else spells that wouldn't be too useful except that with your curse song most enemies will have quite low saves).

The best thing about the bard, though, is that you have quite a few skill points, and lore, bluff, diplomacy, and spellcraft as class skills. These skills get checked very frequently in dialog, making the game much more interesting. The one downside for me was not having intimidate as a class skill, but I just saved up skill points and bought big chunks of it on my blackguard levels.