My friends are starting a campaign this week, 3rd edition rules. I have decided to be a mage as the others are a psion, ranger, fighter, paladin and cleric. (not totally sure but they had no magic users) So I am probably going to choose elf, so what abilities and spells do you suggest for me to take? I have 18 int, 17 wis, 17 dex, 15 con 10 cha and 10 str. (not official yet) The reason I am asking is because I have not totally read the entire players handbook, nor the 3rd ed ones. So any help would be appreciated.

Good choice there Lilarcor, 3rd edition is as good as they come in Dungeons and Dragons, so here's your answer. I'd say you'd better get a high dexterity, intelligence, and constitution so you have a good chance of casting spells, good health, and are able to gain more spells as you go up more levels. I've been playing 3rd edition for 2 years and I still don't completely understand everything, so don't worry about it.

Have fun dude.

[ 04-14-2003, 10:22 PM: Message edited by: Gangrell ]

With being an Elf, I have 18 int, 18 con, 11 str, 10 cha, 17 wis and 17 dex. but thanks.

<font color="#ffccff">How the heck did an elf get an 18 con?
Edit: with all those 18's and 17's your character is a tad ubberish in my opinion. </font></font>

[ 04-16-2003, 03:59 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Hell, that's nothing Magik. In 3rd edition, a wizard (or any character's abilities for that matter) can go up as high as 50 :D

Hell, that's nothing Magik. In 3rd edition, a wizard (or any character's abilities for that matter) can go up as high as 50 :D </font>[/QUOTE]<font color="#ffccff">
yeah a VERY HIGH LEVEL character...but It was not stated that they were starting high level characters, so I assumed a 1st level and there is no way in 3rd edition for those stats to be legit. (without having a munchkin type DM)</font>

It doesn't have to be a very high level character, the character just needs a lot of ability points that they could easily obtain in many ways ;)

<font color="#ffccff">Like I said [img]smile.gif[/img] Uber Munchkin DM [img]smile.gif[/img] </font>

the 3rd edition rule is strange, if you are a mage you can still pump up his strenght until his strenght unstrenght the barbarian.

oh wait, on reflecting, it has 18 dex and 17 con... Well I don't have my sheet now, but I know the numbers are pretty correct. plus theres a thing called luck with the dice.

I don't know Lilarcor, I've been known to role 1's on occasion, cursed luck of mine is what it is [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Well according to my DM, you know how it works, you roll 4d6 and take the top 3 to get your ability score. you do this 7 times, taking the 6 highest scores. If the average of the scores is 13 or lower, you roll again. The first I rolled, my average was about 10, then the second time i got those scores (modified with elven traits). But you should know, the 18 for int had a 1, sure it had 3 sixes... but just because their high, doesn't mean I didn't roll some ones.

I recomend being a Necromancer [img]tongue.gif[/img] but mages are ok...

*points out how cool skin scribes are*

Well Lilarcor, the way my character work is different from other with their ability scores anyway. My uncle has a nice artifact called The Machine of Lum the Mad and it raises all of my characters abilities to 18 no matter the level. Then of course, I just add my remaining points and I'm done :D

Ps- It may seem like a corny thing to do, just don't call it cheating or cheesy! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

interesting...
a character with those stats would be impossible to make in nwn since you have 30 points to distribute and the higher your ability score the more points it costs.

Im curious, i thought nwn ran under the 3rd edition if this is so why is the stats from startup capped so low at 30 points to be distributed?

Stre - 10 -- Base 8 -- 2 points
Dex - 17 -- Base 10 -- 8 points
Con - 15 -- Base 6 -- 13 points
Wis - 17 -- Base 8 -- 13 points
int - 17 -- Base 8 -- 13 points
Cha - 10 -- Base 8 -- 2 points
So, as you can see it cost 51 points tomake this character which you say follows 3rd rules; which even taking into consideration if he were level 20 and got the 5 points from leveling he still has well over the startup points possible.

Anyone know how to hack the startup creation for nwn to make it actually run by the real 3rd rules if you really do roll a 4d6?

But annyhow enough of that tangent...id say make an illusionist or a necromancer! love scaring people to death *evil laughter*

Void Mages are pretty awesome too!

<font color="#ffccff">Hmmm I thought dice were out when creating a character..thought you started with base stats for the race and sex and then added a certain number of points to those. (IE Pool of Radience 2 and other 3ed CRPG's.) I don't play P&P any more... only CRPG's. </font>

Eh, I got into PoR awhile back but it just got so boring. It has interactions, but not on a scale like the BG series has.

I'm just a normal 1st level elven mage. Points? I have no clue what you are talking about. If its a CRPG then I'd more or less understand, but I'm talking about P&P and I don't see how points would be applied.

As for the spells I have memorized, my 1st level spell is shield and I can't remember my 0-level spells that are memorized.

Don't worry about it Lilarcor, you're not a high enough level to get them yet. The points we're talking about are ability points you gain every 5 level I think. So, after every 5 levels, you get another point you can add on to any of your abilities and at 10th, 15th, 20th and so forth.

Oh, for a minute there I thought the points were tied to the ability scores. So basically you're talking about feats, correct?

<font color="#ffccff">No what I was talking about was for your personal stats...strength, dex, wis, etc.

The CRPG's that use 3ed rules, start the character off with a base score in each (usually around 9 or so) and then give you a few points to distribute as you see fit...which usually leaves you with one or two scores in the mid teens and the rest at 12 or less. </font>

In PnP ability scores are determined via dice rolls, however, many DMs find it pretty unfair if a player gets several 18's on his roll only for the guy next to him get crappy 12's based on the luck of a dice roll, so some DMs do things CRPG style; giving players fixed scores and letting them distribute a fixed number of extra points to their liking.

No, similar to feats which you are given once per four levels, you can increase any ability score by one (i.e get one additional ability score point) every five levels.

no, its just the luck of the dice basically.

Always

I can give you what I rolled for my halfling rogue a few months back.
**Note, these include racial modifications**

STR 11
DEX 19
CON 12
INT 15
WIS 10
CHA 12

Basically, I'm an average roller. Though, I do have some ackward streaks. Rolled a critical miss then immediately after a critical hit. Broke a party member's leg that way..

Don't forget to add in your bonous to casting spells with a 18 int, you get to cast an extra 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th level spell. Magic Missle is a must it alloways hits wich is handy and you can sends each missle to a different target if you want as well.

Yeah, during an ambush in the 1st session, they all keep shouting at me to use magic missle and I said that I didn't have it as I had Mage Armor to improve my AC by 4...
So, how is Thaco determined in 3rd ed, still your AC-the opponents AC? because it goes up instead of down.

The 3E system is something like 1d20 + your attack bonus must beat (or equal?) your targets AC.

And mage armour isnt the best choice for a level 1 mage - all it will do is make you slightly tougher in melee, whereas the place for a mage is in the back ranks dealing ranged damage. With your attack bonus and HP, you dont want to be anywhere near anything more dangerous that a rat.

Not that a level 1 mage can make much use of Magic Missile, but that 1d4+1 damage can be useful at the right time, especialy for spellcaster disruption you dont want to risk on a bowmans accuracy.