[SixOfSpades]

Evil Bard, huh? Well, let's see, two Bards is a bit much (If you want to do the Bard thing, do it right--party of 6 Bards), so let's say you've got
Marilyn Manson,
Edwin,
Jan.
Your Wizard spells and Thieving abilities are more than adequately covered there, but you have no Priest and only half a Tank. I suggest
Korgan,
Anomen, and
Jaheira.

You've got 1 Tank, 2 Backup Tanks, 1 Wizard, 2 Backup Wizards, a Thief, and good solid representation on both halves of the Priest Scroll. The entire party is Evil/Neutral. I hope you don't mind trying to Romance Jaheira.... (Note: CN Anomen has completely different dialogues in ToB from the LG Anomen. No more "Ill-concieved group!")

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On the Shapeshifter issue, I disagree with you--when you say that the original Shapeshifter was balanced. It wasn't. When Weimer posted the list of differences between the normal GWW and the Shapeshifter's GWW, I was shocked as all the discrepancies that BioWare never filled in: Poor Regeneration, worse Magic & Elemental Resistances, and to top it all off, your paws were only +1, so you couldn't hit crap. I agree with Weimer in that BioWare really shortchanged the Shapeshifter.

But I still prefer the original Shapeshifter to the Unbalanced Shapeshifter. I don't know what Weimer was smoking when he finished The Paw and said, "Yeah, that looks about right," but it must have been some pretty good stuff. I'm going to counter some statements now....

Originally posted by Zuvio: Note that you encounter greater werewolves in the game. They are the same as Cernds greater werewolve-form.

In my one-and-only game with Rebalanced Shapeshifter installed, I took Cernd to the Windspear Hills, stripped him naked, and tossed him into a room with 3 Wolfweres and 2 Greater Wolfweres, using nothing but his "Standard Attack" AI. Guess who won?

Druids aren't better tanks then fighters, only the shapeshifter at level 13+ is, temporarily.

Temporarily? Temporarily? Given that The Paw

• Does not block spellcasting (like all other Polymorphs do)
• Does not prevent talking to NPCs (like all other Polymorphs do)
• Lasts forever (and you can always create more if you need 'em)
• Is essentially a Big Metal Unit, available free of charge and in Chapter 2
• Can be used by anyone with Use Any Item (can I get extra cheese with that?), and
• Does not incur so much as a CHA penalty for being a gigantic wolf with red, glowing eyes strolling through downtown Athkatla,

What possible reason would you EVER have for taking it off?

Against mages, they fare pretty weak, think PfMW.

PfMW? You've got to be kidding me. Think Magic Resistance, Insect Plague, and Nature's Beauty.

He's a better tank than most of your NPC's early on.

He's a better Tank than pretty much ALL of the NPC's, for practically the entire game. The statement I am about to make will sound absurd, but is absolutely true: The Rebalanced Shapeshifter is the only character I have ever seen that would make a good Tank even while wearing the Ring of Folly. True--under the simple logic that about 90% of the enemies/battles in SoA simply cannot damage him faster than he heals. Most physical attacks are shrugged off by his AC, while spells have to get past his MR and Saving Throws. Anything that DOES get through is repaired in less than a round. Cernd can stand there like a drooling idiot while the bad guys use up all their spells, while your party finishes their hand of canasta. Cernd can easily take on a string of Adamantite Golems, one after another for hours on end, and feel no pain. Name me another Tank who can do THAT.

Original Shapeshifter--Bad.
Rebalanced Shapeshifter--Worse.

[ 06-28-2003, 03:57 AM: Message edited by: SixOfSpades ]