[Kylospylon]

Hey everybody! (I'm new)

I'm posting from New Zealand, so many of you (Americans etc.) will see my posts the day before I write them, due to the international dateline bug (no current patches I know fix it). To all of you I say that, yes, tomorrow will come, so now you don't have to worry 'bout that. [img]smile.gif[/img] Why I'm I posting? - good question, I'm getting to that honest. I've completed the game 3x, and like I lot of you have started the game too many times to count (at least with fingers and toes anyway - my prefered counting method).

My previous completed party was, by far, the most enjoyable I have ever played (yet). It was a randomly generated one that looked kind of like this:

Male Dwarf Lord (tank 1)
Male Rawulf Rogue (tank 2)
Female Knome Valkyrie (flanker/spellcaster)
Female Human Ninja (back/spellcaster)
Male Human Gadgeteer (center/sniper/spellcaster)
**Male Faerie Fighter** (flanker/sniper)

Very melee heavy by nature, obviously.

When I first began the game with this party I had no idea what I was going to do with a faerie fighter amongst so many other tanks. Most weapons were off limits to the tiny dude, and forget armor. Solution... Archer. As soon as got a bow, he moved to the flank (AC 3 you understand). To help his AC I put points into speed and dexterity, best thing I have ever done.

Now things get a little spoilery......
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I got a quarter staff for the little punk (the only extended weapon I could find that he could use) - so glad I did. I had a feeling that a faerie could use the staff of doom, but wasn't sure. Although I had the faerie shoot his bow more often than bash his staff, he was good at both, just poor damage compared to what I've come to expect from a fighter. Interesting was how high his stats were in close and ranged combat skills. After Trynton, his intelligence was at 60, and I had casually boosted his senses to help his ranged attacks, I 'blame' his high intel. and senses for his accelerated combat learning. Coupled with his very high speed, he'd almost never miss even while bezerking.

Even before I got the doom, that little dude saved my bacon. With very little magic buffs, I had a lot of trouble with enemy casters, none more so than the 2 heads in the monastery. I remember 3 insane characters, lord, rogue and gadgeteer, and one tiny sane faerie knocking a 'head' unconscious with his bow while being pummled from all his so-called friends. The whole party survived because of that faerie. Why? His low AC and no stealth meant he was always a target, even to his buddies. Although I had not touched his starting vitality he had more hit points than that my Lord (who I was boosting vitality with) for most of the game. I had found the cure for insanity without the sane mind spell (which was a long way off). I placed the faerie fighter in the centre, and all my insane characters would attack him and he would still stand (sometimes drinking health potions to help the matter).

Another effect of his low AC was that he was often targeted with enemy missle fire, which was handy since quite often I didn't have any missile shield up. He could take any missile that hit him without too great an effect. With demonsting's extra chance to K.O. on top of the natural fighter's ability, he became very good at knocking things out at a distance, due to all the swings/hits he got from his pumped speed and dexterity. If you can hit something at range a few times with a decent chance to K.O., you usually will.

The staff of doom proved to be the greatest weapon in my arsenal that game. It reminded me of the coveted COC in its effectiveness. Great chance to kill, paralyze etc (+K.O. from natural fighter skill). It had great damage when in the hands of a super fast and dexterous bezerker too. Only uber monsters could stand against it for more than a round or two. Best of all it was seldom (if at all) used against my own party (add marten's helm to faerie's natural resistance). By the end of the game I had found enough specialty armor and items to give my faerie fighter an AC comparable to my valkyrie.

Now I'm not saying that faeries make better fighters. A lot of the effectiveness of this character was due to him being a fighter not a faerie, so any other race treated the same way could be just as effective. My point is that I wouldn't have ever created a fighter the way I created this one unless he was a faerie. I thought I knew what a good fighter was, and I was wrong. The faerie turned out to be the most effective fighter I have ever run, but the ultimate surprise to me was that he wasn't at all boring to play. [img]smile.gif[/img]