Minsc dead again

[SixOfSpades]

Volothamp's Comeuppance is such a strong proponent of the "Unyielding Bastion of Defense" style of Tanking because the guide is aimed at relative newbies. True, the very best Tank there is is a Wizard protected by PfMW, Spell Immunity, and PfME, but tell a newbie that "Mages make the best Tanks" and you'll have one hell of a lot of angry newbies.

Overall, I prefer the "Fighter" Tank to the "Fighter/Mage" Tank, because it's just more useful. True, the Fighter/Mage is better against bosses, but for the other 95% of the game, I'd rather just toss Korgan into a steel cage full of Umber Hulks and let him back out when he's done. My current party is me (Archer), Korgan, Mazzy, Montaron, Valygar, and Keldorn. We haven't met anything yet that made us wish we could cast spells--if we're fighting a Mage or something, 1 or 2 Dispels from Keldorn and it's all over for Mr. Badguy. The entire party is a fire-and-forget weapon of terror, spearheaded by Korgan, with Montaron and Mazzy as Backup Tanks. Then again, I have an all-Wizard party led by a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist, and it kicks almost as much butt, but it requires a lot more work on my part.

[Dundee Slaytern]

Oops, I made an error.

In HoF mode, it's XP that's (XP*4)+2000

Trying to search how HP is calculated, but rest assured, the monsters get a healthy boost.

On a side note, I found this old post of mine,

Originally from here ~~ I don't know about you, but somehow... when the fight involves your Halfling Fighter/Thief and Human Paladin running around screaming for Priests while your Archer( Fighter) pelts the Fire Giants and the Elf... and you keep shouting at your Mage to fire off those Magic Missiles faster... and you imagine your Cleric to be snidely commenting whether her comrades could stop losing Hp faster than she can heal... ... Somehow, I don't think it can be called excellent tactics, but really desperate ones.

Ahhhh... the memories. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

ADD] Found it, the formula for HP calculation in HoF Mode is as follows.

Courtesy of Seraph,

Heart of Fury (HoF) mode does the following two things:
All monsters get 80 + 3x their normal HP.
A 8hp monster would have 80 + 3 * 8 = 104hp in HoF mode
A 30hp monster would have 80 + 3 * 30 = 170hp in HoF mode

Experence does a similar thing.
It goes by 2000 + 4x.
So a 1exp chicken is worth 2004 in Hof mode
a 3000exp mummey is worth 14,000 in Hof mode

[ 06-03-2003, 02:32 AM: Message edited by: Dundee Slaytern ]

[Russ]

Sir,

I would suggest that your tactics are deeply flawed. Anomen and Jaheira can sling and spell while equipped with good armors and shields, and can handily tank themselves. Minsc is an excellent missileer, particularly when using a two-handed weapon, rather than having to do the backpack-shuffle for duel-wielding.

Therefore, I would suggest that you travel in either a T or a Mob formation, since your formation liabilities are actually very limited.
In doing so, your undead hunter can easily take the lead, while all three of your second-rung heavy hitters inflict significant ranged damage during the softening-up phase... but when it comes time to mop up/start wading, there will be three other individuals, rather than one, for the bad guys to beat up on. This is REALLY IMPORTANT, because it's quite likely that Minsc is getting double or triple-teamed during the early melee engagement phase, hence the otherwise-unreasonable levels of damage he's picking up from what your posts are representing to me as only moderately difficult fights.

[Omicron]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: Volothamp's Comeuppance is such a strong proponent of the "Unyielding Bastion of Defense" style of Tanking because the guide is aimed at relative newbies. True, the very best Tank there is is a Wizard protected by PfMW, Spell Immunity, and PfME, but tell a newbie that "Mages make the best Tanks" and you'll have one hell of a lot of angry newbies. Overall, I prefer the "Fighter" Tank to the "Fighter/Mage" Tank, because it's just more useful. True, the Fighter/Mage is better against bosses, but for the other 95% of the game, I'd rather just toss Korgan into a steel cage full of Umber Hulks and let him back out when he's done. My current party is me (Archer), Korgan, Mazzy, Montaron, Valygar, and Keldorn. We haven't met anything yet that made us wish we could cast spells--if we're fighting a Mage or something, 1 or 2 Dispels from Keldorn and it's all over for Mr. Badguy. The entire party is a fire-and-forget weapon of terror, spearheaded by Korgan, with Montaron and Mazzy as Backup Tanks. Then again, I have an all-Wizard party led by a Gnomish Fighter/Illusionist, and it kicks almost as much butt, but it requires a lot more work on my part.

Overall, I prefer the Fighter/Mage to a Fighter tank, because its just more useful to toss him into a group of Umber Hulks and cast Death Spell/Cloudkill/Death Fog. Plus, he can kill everyone else he wants. Be him mage, cleric, lich, mindflayer. I'm seriously doubting that group of pure non casters can take on Kangaxx's defenders (from the tactics mod) on Insane. (Unless your not playing on insane/tactics). That gnome level 20 somethin Kensai has like a thaco of -15, Vorpal sword, 6 attacks per round... Try tanking HIM without spells.

[Alson]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: Volothamp's Comeuppance is such a strong proponent of the "Unyielding Bastion of Defense" style of Tanking because the guide is aimed at relative newbies.

OK, that makes sense.

Overall, I prefer the "Fighter" Tank to the "Fighter/Mage" Tank, because it's just more useful.

Methinks some paraphrasing would be in place. How about:

... because it just suits my personal playing style better.

That would be more accurate, right?

The "Fighter" Tank just cannot be "universally" more useful than the "Fighter/Mage" Tank - simply because the claim isn't true for every player. Me, for instance. Speaking from my personal gaming experience, the "Fighter/Mage" Tank is just as convenient to use as the "Fighter" Tank in type-(1) battles, and is vastly more powerful in type-(2) battles.

But hey... different strokes for different folks and all that. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SixOfSpades]

Originally posted by Omicron: I'm seriously doubting that group of pure non casters can take on Kangaxx's defenders (from the tactics mod) on Insane. (Unless your not playing on insane/tactics).

My next game (Cavalier) will be my first step into Tactics waters, and I don't hate myself enough to play on anything but Core Rules.
But let this party take a stand against Imp. Kangaxx anyway--I can use Ilbratha to block their CC-bomb, or just do the ever-popular duck-in-duck-out. From then on, it's just Keldorn dispelling their protections, Montaron kickin' ass with Azuredge, and everybody else flinging Bolts of Biting.

That gnome level 20 somethin Kensai has like a thaco of -15, Vorpal sword, 6 attacks per round... Try tanking HIM without spells.

Gee, a ToB-level Kensai/Illusionist with a Vorpal weapon and a hacked ApR, not to mention his TWO Familiars who cast 8th-level spells. Gee, that doesn't sound cheated at all. Boy, it's a good thing that Montaron's Simulacrum can read PfMW scrolls....I would probably Doom (cast by Valygar or my Archer) the Gnome, and then pelt him with Kuo-Toa Bolts until the Stun kicks in. (Or does his Greenstone Amulet confer immunity to Stun?)

[Russ]

You know, with all the high-power mods floating around, it increasingly feels like I'm reading people talking about an entirely different game...

[Alson]

Originally posted by SixOfSpades: quote: That gnome level 20 somethin Kensai has like a thaco of -15, Vorpal sword, 6 attacks per round... Try tanking HIM without spells.

Gee, a ToB-level Kensai/Illusionist with a Vorpal weapon and a hacked ApR, not to mention his TWO Familiars who cast 8th-level spells. Gee, that doesn't sound cheated at all. [/QUOTE]You're confusing the Fighter/Illusionist (which is one component of Tactics) with the Gnomish Kensai, one of Kangaxx's Guardians (which is another component of Tactics). The Kensai has a Vorpal weapon (undroppable! ), and certainly less than 6 ApR unless Improved Hasted, while it's the Fighter/Illusionist who's accompanied by the two infamous Imps O' Cheese.

And neither of them was made by Weimer. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

ADD] Greenstone Amulets do protect from Stun. How else would they save you from Psionic Blast?

[ 06-03-2003, 03:22 PM: Message edited by: Alson ]

[DJG]

Originally posted by Russ: You know, with all the high-power mods floating around, it increasingly feels like I'm reading people talking about an entirely different game...

I know how you feel Russ......

[DJG]

My tactics (Since we're talking about tactics, I think. I can't make much sense of the conversation! 'Vorpal sword wielded by an Improved Tactics Mod' and 'That's in the gnome/illusionist'. All I'm hearing is rubbish! [img]tongue.gif[/img] ) consist of....

Bhaalspawn Swashbuckler tanking
Jaheira, Minsc, Anomen, Imoen and Nalia on ranged support slash spells.

Actually, my PC has an ac of -13, which is better than anyone elses in the party! Jaheira slings Creeping Dooms, Call Lightnings etc about, Anomen casts Regenerate on me and buffs me up and slings a few Flame Strikes about, Minsc uses nice arrows, Nalia and Imoen do the mage stuff.

Simple, and it wins most battles!