Dependent on Rogue?

[Zuvio]

Ok, im a powergaming paladin/fighter/sorcerer, right, and I have gotten as far as 5 in disable trap and 4 in open locks (which I can bash BTW).
Levels are: 1 paly/2 fighter/6 sorcerer. Now i want the red tiger dude to be my henchman, cuz we rock together. But im stuck on that Tomi Underbelly guy, cuz hes the only one that can disable traps and open locks with some succes! Where's the level 3 mage spell knock?

How do you people cope with traps and locks, im stunned here!

I hate Tomi !!

[Luvian]

I like Tomi. He can fight very well, and I have yet to see him fail with one of his thief skill.

Try to get your ennemies to turn their back to him and he's going to take care of them very fast.

[ 08-18-2003, 05:44 AM: Message edited by: Luvian ]

[Zuvio]

Well yeah, Tomi's a good NPC, no question about that. But I want some other NPC for a change, but I'm completely stuck on him because he's a rogue and I'm not. So when not taking Tomi along, how do you people deal with traps and such? I only get succes will never be possible or something like that...

[Luvian]

I guess you have to shrug off the damage and keep going.

[Zuvio]

UGH bummer dude...

[Granamere]

If you want to do the traps yourself look for things that bump up your rouge skills. That will help. Also the spell you really need is find traps because it get rid of them also. [img]smile.gif[/img] Also if you can find something that gives you true seeing you will at least see the trap so you know to cast the find trap spell.

Granamere

[Cerek the Barbaric]

I started off with a straight elven wizard until I ran into the same problem. I found that just 1 level in Rogue allowed me to Disarm every trap I encountered. It also expanded the weapons I could use and gave me a better chance to hit with them.

My lockpicking skills aren't quite as good (even though I have the same score in both Pick Locks and Disarm Traps). I'm successful about 70% of the time (so far anyway). When I can't pick a lock, my Rogue level allows me to use those nifty Thieve's Tools I keep finding...and they improve my LockPicking skills dramatically.

But before taking a level in Rogue AND before taking Tomi as a henchman, I just used my familiar - a pixie. She was very good at opening locks, detecting traps, and disarming them. I also used Summon Animal and they would also attack any chest I couldn't open.

My question to you is....WHY did you take levels as a fighter when you already had paladin skills? (or did the paladin level come later - that would make more sense). As mentioned above, just ONE level in Rogue would eliminate almost all of the problems you have with traps and then you could use Daelan Red Tiger and his brute force to help with any chests or doors you can't open.

Of course, I kinda liked Tomi myself. I used him in the Peninsula District and he was very valuable. Then I let him go and hired the elven cleric, Linu La'Narel, to help with the undead in the Begger's Nest. After that, it was time to talk to that big half-orc with the even bigger double-axe!!! Red Tiger has been with me through the Docks AND Blacklake Districts.

[Stratos]

If your're a sorcerer there is a lv 2 spell called Knock which can open up locked doors and chests. You can also bash them open, or let your henchman do it, or you could use spells. If possible try to equip an item that does some kind of elemental damage as well. The Desert Wind scimitar does some fire damage and is an excellent 'bashing' weapon. That's how my druid opens all his chests and doors.

As for the traps, well, alot of them can be avoided once you have found them and considering that you can always rest as long as there's no enemies near, traps shouldn't be a problem. You can also use summons to trigger them ( a bit expensive I know) but since your're a F/P/S you should have great saves so I don't see how traps could be a problem.

[Nerull]

MINOR SPOILERS
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With levels in sorcerer, just summon a creature and send it ahead to blow up the traps. In fact, when you get later in the game, you get a ring that gives energy resistance, and another one that gives lesser resistance and regeneration. After that point, hp permitting, you can just run over traps. I took Sharwyn as an NPC with my fighter, and I was just fine. With all of the healing potions that you find in the game, and with the ability to go to temple and heal completely, you really don't need a thief in the game.

Chests have some of the nastiest traps. Just buy some energy arrows/bolts and shoot the trapped chest from a distance. Bashing chests is ridiculously easy once you get a weapon that does energy damage, so lockpicking is not needed. In fact, I just skipped the chests that I couldn't open in Chapter 1 (noting their location on the map with that function), and came back once I got an energy weapon.

My suggestion is to boost your Search skill instead of Disable Device and Pick Locks. That way you can see the trap beforehand, and use any of the above methods to get rid of it. If you take Sorcerer at first level, you should get a Wand of Unlimited Chest Bashing (oops, I mean the Unlimited Wand of Frost) for finishing your test.

[Zuvio]

Originally posted by Nerull: If you take Sorcerer at first level, you should get a Wand of Unlimited Chest Bashing (oops, I mean the Unlimited Wand of Frost) for finishing your test.

Aaaah, 2 bad, I took paly as my first class. As for the fighter levels, I'm supposed to take 1 or two more levels of fighter for the feats (cleave is suddenly amazing here for those hordes of enemies, takes a lot of time of ). But now I'm in the game, 1paly/2fighter/4sorcerer and I find myself to be quite the formidable fighter already, so I can go sorcerer all the way.

Really, with these bioware games I plan my char ahead for the game and try to find a superior character. But since you can only have yourself and a henchman + animal at most, every class has to be capable of completing the game, otherwise there would be some angry clients for BIS. Ergo, just do it, it won't matter, you'll finish the game anyhow....

But thanks for the tips, especially for the Pixie Familiar, never used those buggers up until now.

P.S.: remember Lionheart is out! Be sure to go get a copy, it rocks!!