Melee characters (final)

[Ragash]

I need some help selecting good melee chars for a new game.. it's my, oh.. fifth party perhaps that I'm starting. I think I've gotten the hang of most of the mechanics of the game whether it's magic or melee, now I just need to know which classes to play (I'm such a pain in the @**)

So we have the Lord.. I was never impressed by his dual wielding or his priest spells since I either have Vi with me or a Valkyrie of my own since I like them.

Now, the Samurai seems cool, but I'm worried he'll turn out to be just another Lord except with mage spells instead.. and the bishop sort of takes care of that, I guess..

Then there's the pure Fighter, nuff said.. I like Fighters, but they somehow lack depth even though I cackle like a maniac at their berserk damage sometimes.

Ranger, Ninja and Monk strike me as support melee mostly, correct me if I'm wrong.. what with the ranged attacks with the ranger, the roguish stealthy thing with the ninja (also ranged with his thrown attacks) and the monk.. bah, I don't even know what I'm rambling about [img]tongue.gif[/img]

The party I'm playing now (Lord, Valk, Bard, Bishop) has a lot of divinity, especially since I travel with Vi, so how would you change it? As you can see I'm pretty confused as to what to balance everything out with, so aaaany tips would be greatly appreciated.

Would dual-classing the Lord be an option?

[Holywhippet]

In general, dual-classing is a bad idea. Some, like Monk to Ninja aren't too bad since they use a lot of the same skills, but generally it isn't worthwhile.

Samurai are good warriors with the occasional burst of excellence. The samurai has a chance of performing a lightning strike where they take about 4-6 swings at the enemy with one attack. Fighters might be a bit vanilla but there is no finer front line soldier. Their good hitpoints and high attack damage are a huge advantage. Their lack of spellcasting and other specials is ignorable - I generally don't use the spellcasting skills of secondary spellcasters much. I always take a ranger along with every party because of their constant searching ability and their ranged criticals can save you a lot of time when they work. Monks can be excellent when built up but generally I just pick up RFS-81 if I want a monk.

[Ziggurat]

Although dual-classing can be less than perfect I have been having much fun with it lately. Here are two I tried:

Mage -> Sam (5 as Mage to get Missile Shield and Enchanted Sword)

Alc -> Nin (9 as Alc to get some decent offensive spells)

These were both in small parties of four. The other chars weren't dualed. Since you get a few more levels to play with in a smaller party, they get pretty powerful by the end. The true charm is the versatility.

[Ziggurat]

P.S. The dualed Samurai was getting an occasional Lightning Strike (maybe once every 30th round) even up to level 21. It's cool to see those 7x hits, most of them landing!

[Scatter]

Yah, i like Sam's, too, even not for the Wizardry sometimes. I've switched many a Bard to Sam and liked them all. Muramasa!!!

[Horpner Sneed]

Ragash wrote:
> So we have the Lord.. I was never impressed by his dual wielding
> or his priest spells since I either have Vi with me or a Valkyrie
> of my own since I like them.

A Lord can be a terrific meat shield, but he can't keep up with the other classes in melee ability. My favorite Lord build is this:

Human or Hobbit or Dwarf Lord
On creation, max Dexterity and Vitality. Try to make sure Strength and Piety are at least 50 (to avoid penalies).
Advancement plan: Dexterity and Vitality. Shield, Weapon/Close Combat and Modern Weapons.

After reaching level 5, the skill alotment can change to Shield, Weapon/Close Combat and Divinity, if you wish to cast spells (and you proably should).

This character is almost impossible to kill. In tough battles, he will be buffed and can stand alone against any foe without flinching.

He opts for Modern Weapons because nobody else will, and they work well for characters with low strength.

If you're willing to munchkinize his Shield skill (train it against seekers) you will be able to free up 3 extra skill points to spend on something frivolous like Artifacts. But you really won't need to do this; his Shield attributes will be maxed out, so it should go up quickly.

The Lord is a better meat shield than a Fighter, in my opinion, due to HP regeneration, and divine spells.

If you want him to do heavy damage, too, you can go for Bloodlust (since you are maxing his Dex), but he would then stink on toast from thrown distance out.

> Now, the Samurai seems cool, but I'm worried he'll turn out to
> be just another Lord except with mage spells instead.. and the
> bishop sort of takes care of that, I guess..

I believe a Samurai should go for Power Cast, since Mage spells are wonderful for attacking. He need not learn any distance weapon then.

> Ranger, Ninja and Monk strike me as support melee mostly,

Ranger and Ninja are excellent skirmishers (distance fighters),
but can be poor melee fighters. Monk is a great melee fighter
using Martial Arts.

You should consider using a Priest as a melee support unit. They
can do quite well with maces or staffs if you max Int and Str.

Horpner Sneed

[Scatter]

Lord: Hobbit or Rawulf. Dual Wield from the start. If Rawulf, bring Speed up to 50, else; Str2 Dex3 Vit1 to max Dex, then Str2 Vit2 Spd/Sen 1 each. That's what i did for my Solo Lord, the first time i didn't do Stealth training.

Sam: Str2 Dex2 Vit1 Spd1. Dual from the start. Keep the load very light and you'll get many Lightning Strikes. No powercast, unless you don't care that they don't fight very well. I reserve Powercast for Bishops and Pure casters, because their main weapon is magic, whereas a Sam's main weapon is Sword. If you start as a Mage (Enter as Sam to get the Swords, then recycle) you get more Dex and some free points in Wiz and the four Element realms.

[Ragash]

Enter as Sam, then recycle? ... huh? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Ah, the replace character button? Nifty thing..

Gah, the frustration! [img]tongue.gif[/img] I tried entering as samurai as you suggested, then created a mage.. I maxed str, vit and dex and then tried to get past the first three crabs 10 times in a row or so before giving up since they'd kill me outright in one 2x hit :/

I seriously don't understand how you do it, I tried casting sleep on them before going at them with the staff, I tried offensive magic (which was a bad idea since I was out of spell points before even one of them was dead) and I tried casting terror, and still they'd kill the poor mage on the first hit... maybe it's my destiny to play with a full party

[ 01-14-2004, 04:08 PM: Message edited by: Ragash ]

[Scatter]

The Sam suggestion was more for in a party, though i have done that as a solo.
You can try just ignoring those crabs for now and see if the slimes are any easier. In either case, you can drag them to the door and open it (even in combat) and get on the other side of the opening, so only one opponent can get to you at a time. After either the slimes or the crabs, you'll need one more fight to make level. With luck, it won't be too hard. Since all the mobs you meet right away are generated when you enter, you can restart to try for something easier. You can also camp for just a few minutes and as the mobs wander around, you can change which ones you meet first. (aside from the fixed ones)

[Ragash]

Sat and thought on that replace character-thingy.. I think I'm going to create a two char party, a hobbit samurai and a dracon lord using the tactic you described for the samurai.. and I'll start the Lord as a fighter [img]smile.gif[/img]

LOL, crap! That didn't work, the Fighter won't dual-class.. ah well, back to the drawing board [img]smile.gif[/img] Maybe I should have checked minimum requirements..

[ 01-15-2004, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: Ragash ]