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Old 12-12-2003, 07:47 PM   #1
Kylospylon
The Magister
 

Join Date: December 11, 2003
Location: New Zealand
Age: 45
Posts: 119
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]
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Old 12-12-2003, 08:25 PM   #2
Ziggurat
Symbol of Cyric
 

Join Date: November 4, 2001
Location: Baltimore, Md
Age: 71
Posts: 1,106
Welcome, Kylospylon, to our obsessed little world. A Faerie Fighter does sound like quite a survivor and, yes, I would not have created one as a first or tenth choice. Someone else, maybe a year ago, was saying how good they can be. I take it you got the Zynaryx plate and maybe other robes, etc., later on? It makes me think of adding a Faerie Fighter or Rogue in the next game.

These random parties can be food for thought, and it shows how well they thought out the balance in setting up the pluses and minuses of each profession and class. Awesome!
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Old 12-13-2003, 05:57 AM   #3
Deathmage
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Join Date: October 26, 2001
Location: New Zealand
Age: 36
Posts: 116
Whoo! Another comrade from New Zealand! Welcome, fellow Kiwi!

Very interesting post. What made you play a fairie fighter in the first place?
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Old 12-14-2003, 12:02 AM   #4
Kylospylon
The Magister
 

Join Date: December 11, 2003
Location: New Zealand
Age: 45
Posts: 119
Deathmage, I was just 'lucky' enough to get a male faerie fighter when I randomly created my party. I did not feel lucky at the time tho. [img]smile.gif[/img]

The more I think about it, the more I think that a felpurr fighter may be even better, especially if a party is not as heavy tank-wise as my random one was. For many levels, the faerie could not tank very well up front and was ranger-like until he got his uber weapon. One of the reasons he actually worked was the fact that I didn't really need another frontline character at the beginning. That's what I like about this game, it actually makes you think about the intra-party dynamics. One think is for sure, I like my fighters fast and accurate over strong and tough. If I had better access to the haste spell maybe I'd max strength before speed, tho. Owww.. now my head hurts.
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Old 12-14-2003, 12:27 AM   #5
Ziggurat
Symbol of Cyric
 

Join Date: November 4, 2001
Location: Baltimore, Md
Age: 71
Posts: 1,106
Your head can hurt alot in this game... Not sure if that is good or bad but it won't lead to Alzheimers. Too many choices can be a good thing but it is not easy. Like a democracy with referendums. Watch out for those choices!
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Old 12-14-2003, 07:31 PM   #6
sultan
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welcome Kylospylon!

great party experience, thanks for sharing. someone around here was running a 6 faerie party some time ago, but the updates fizzled away, so i'm not sure how it turned out. but i remember his early reports saying that dual shillelah's was just awesome due to the sleep effects. 12 little sleep sticks really add up!

personally, i like to stretch myself with characters and party compositions i'm not entirely comfortable with, and it sounds like that's what your random party generator does for you. keep it up!
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