soloing question

[Cheapy]

Just readin' this I wanna try a Barbarian, sheesh.

Maybe not SOLO...maybe just dual w/ Jaheria.

You can get a +2 2H sword really early, from the trapped Djinni in Jon's House O' Horrors.

Wait, Barbarians can't wear full plate...right?

[ 01-20-2003, 06:11 PM: Message edited by: Cheapy ]

[Rataxes]

Nope, but the Shadow Dragon Scale Armour, which is available quite early, is just as good as any normal Full Plate. If you got ToB, you can get White dragon scales with -2 AC quite early on in ToB, it's as good as it gets [img]smile.gif[/img]

[SixOfSpades]

Forget using a Shield, except against bosses. Just take the hits and suck down some Potions, you've got the HP. Your only Weapon Style points should go into Dual-Wielding.

On-hand weapons:
- Flail of Ages (see how I listed this one first?)
- Celestial Fury
- Adjatha the Drinker

Off-hand weapons:
- Defender of Easthaven
- Sword of Arvoreen (if you're a Halfling)

"switch-to" weapons: (Don't use 'em, just keep them in your Quick Weapons for when you'll need 'em)
- Azuredge
- Ras
- Daystar
- Ilbratha
- Mace of Disruption+2
- Sword of Balduran

Later on in the game, the Crom Faeyr and the Equalizer make good offhand weapons as well.

Don't worry about putting points into your offhand weapons, or any of your "switch-to" weapons except Azuredge. So, starting out, you should look like this:

Flail: **
2-Weapon Style: ***
Long Sword or Bastard Sword: *

The point in Swords is because there are no enchanted Axes or Flails in Jon's Dungeon, and by the time you escape, you'll hit Level 9, which will give you the star you need to put into Axe.

[Dundee Slaytern]

A Random Babble About Barbarians:
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Barbarians are different in design to Fighters, but they are mostly similar. Concepts that apply to Fighters, usually apply to Barbarians as well, and vice-versa. Both of them are Warriors, and though Warriors are generally one of the easiest class to play with, it does not hurt to do some pre-planning as well.

The following is not strict roleplaying( as it takes advantage of hindsight), but I do believe it does allow for a certain degree of roleplaying, even though some purists may scream that it is actually rollplaying. I leave it to the reader to decide what it actually is.

Optimal Stats:
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STR: 18/~~

Not much explanation needed here, as STR is one of the key statistics for a Warrior class. It improves your THACO and your damage, not to mention increasing your inventory weight capacity.

DEX: 18

Another no-brainer as 18 here will give you a -4 AC bonus. Less hits are always welcome.

CON: 18

More CON means more HP. Barbarians gain a huge advantage in the HP department as they roll 1d12s for their initial 9 levels. To ensure that you get the maximum amount of HP each time you level up, tone down the difficulty to Normal before you level up, then change it back to the original difficulty.

WIS: 10

Technically you can lower it even more, but 10 is the minimum if you do not want any Lore penalties. If you want to disregard Lore totally and assume that your Barbarian is a gullible naive twit( which sadly, the PC is doomed to be anyway...), lower it further by all means.

INT: 10

Again, 9 is technically the minimum so that you can use the Green Protection Scrolls, but 10 is where you will receive no Lore penalties.

CHA: 08

Yee be a stinking Barbarian. Jesting aside, 8 is a nice round number and incurs no reaction penalties from other people. It makes you neutral in appearance to put it one way, ignoring reputation.

This makes a total roll of 82 points. Very easily gotten.

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Barbarians are immuned to backstabs. I cannot emphasise how amusing it is to see Twisted Rune Assassins wave their short swords helplessly as their bladed weapons poke your character before getting their skulls smashed in. This ability makes some of the quests in the game amusingly easy, whereas other classes would find it daunting.

One quest in particular, seems to be tailored-made for a Barbarian. It is found in the Bridge District, and by the way, Barbarian Rage confers immunity to Hold( among other benefits), which also makes it useful in this encounter.

Speaking of which... remember those pesky Vampires? Especially those that ambush you at night? Consider them free XP now because, Ding-ding-ding! Barbarian Rage confers, you guessed it, immunity to Level-Drain! Due to this immunity, you render them as nothing more than over-sized mosquitoes worth 8000+ XP.

----

You start off with 6*. If you really want a powerhouse, Flails and Warhammers are really the way to go. Sword and Shield Style is utterly useless, rendered pointless by the presence of two shields in Ribald's store,

The Fortress Shield
The Shield of Reflection

Personally, I would put 3* in Two Weapon Style, 2* in Long Swords, and 1* in Flails at the start. The next * at level 9 maxes out the Flails.

The Flail of Ages should be retrieved ASAP, but try to buy the Girdle of Hill Giant Strength first, before setting out to the De'Arnise Keep. Note that you do not need to complete the quest to build the Flail of Ages, unless you have the Improved Torgal mod.

If you have the Bonus Merchants, get the Defender of Easthaven from Joluv in the Copper Coronet and place it in the off-hand. Keep it shiny, it is truly a lovely weapon. Other Flails to look out for include the Sleeper that Bernard sells. Not necessarily one of the most powerful weapons in the game, but it is deceptively potent.

You will want some +4 enchanted weapons though, and this is where Long Swords will come in. Do the Tradesmeet quest and if you play your cards carefully, you will get Flame Tongue. Failing that, you can always consider pumping points into Halberds and get Dragonsbane from the Cult of the Unseeing Quest, then upgrade to Dragon's Breath from the Underdark, and finally the Ravager from ToB.

Quarterstaffs are another viable option, with the Staff of Rynn +4 from Ribald, later to be switched with the Staff of the Ram in ToB. Just remember that to maximise your potential with 2-Handed Weapons, maximise your Two-Handed Weapon Style.

For Warhammers, the Giantkin Warhammer is +4 enchanted despite its' low damage, to be upgraded to Crom Faeyr in Chapter 6.

I suppose I could say more, but I am not the Barbarian expert around here. I dare say that would be Jim instead.

[Alson]

Dundee's comprehensive overview (good job!) left out a single, usually overlooked, but certainly not minor advantage of the Barbarian - Improved Movement Rate.

The Barbarian gets a +2 bonus to his movement rate. This may not seem all that hot at first, but it's actully a great benefit, which will allow you to give The Boots to other members of your party. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Of course, there's also the physical resistance thingie, but i already covered it in my earlier post.

Does the master approves his apprentice's work? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[ 01-21-2003, 12:50 PM: Message edited by: Alson ]

[Dundee Slaytern]

I'm nobody's master. It makes me sound so... possessive. [img]tongue.gif[/img] I just pass information around so that even when I am not around, others can still answer questions posed by newcomers, especially the extremely uncommon ones. I am just one of the old guard, hoping to preserve ancient data that I would not wish to disappear needlessly.

There is a lot of trivia in the game... so much in fact that even I have trouble keeping track of all of them. Having a logbook helps, but I believe even I have forgotten some of them already... ...

Almost every player and his/her pet whatever knows who Kangaxx is, but how many will know about the evil outcome of the Dyrads' Acorns? That you get more XP not killing the ghosts around Neb? That Death Spell grants you double the XP against Trolls? Cernd's quest? [img]tongue.gif[/img] Bard Stronghold Quest? Haer'Dalis' Incomplete Quest? Etc... ...

I learnt a lot from the Veterans before me, learnt a lot on my own, and still am learning today from others and myself. I cannot say I know everything about the game( SixOfSpades will just dare me to take his Trivia Quiz, the horror [img]tongue.gif[/img] ), but I am confident enough to say that I know a lot about it, and hope that nothing gets lost.

Rambling aside, your post about Flails was informative, Alson, although item location might be nice to add. Most people know about the FoA, but the DoE is relatively a known item only to those that discovered its' true statistics and appreciated its' abilities.

The DoE is +3 enchanted and deals 1d6+4 damage for those who do not know. The default item description for the enchantment and damage is wrong.

As for speed... Barbs with the Boots of Speed... drink an Oil of Speed... then cast Improved Haste on him... [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img] I had a Blade with a similar setup( Offensive Spin, not Improved Haste). Let's just say that it took seconds for him to travel across the city, less than 4-5 seconds. [img]graemlins/hehe.gif[/img]

[Alson]

Dudeee! I was just kidding... [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Jesting aside, i just want to say that i cannot agree more. Just like you, i had my "mentors" (mostly you, Xyx, SixOfSpades and Weimer), and on the same time, learnt a lot by myslef. [img]smile.gif[/img] I also notice that during this last year or so, since i began posting regularly, my level of English (as a non native speaker) in general, and my vocabulary in particular, has improved tremendously. More power to posting. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for my post about Flails - i saw no need to spoil item locations, as the post's purpose was to plug Flails. Then again, i was probably too excited and baffled from my new promotion to think clearly. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

To conclude, a word of advice. ^J. Travelling had never been easier.

[Pyrenk]

I'll take the location post, if you don't mind, Alson. SPOILERS AHEAD:
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-The Flail of Ages is assembled in Nalia's keep-to initiate the quest, walk into the Copper Coronet and wait for a girl to walk up to you (walk to the center of the Coronet first).
-The Defender of Easthaven is sold by Joluv, a bonus merchant. You find him in the C.C. standing near the first table (to the east of facing the pits).

[SixOfSpades]

One more thing about Barbarians: Your Armor Class is going to SUCK. You'd better get used to it, because (through most of SoA at the very least) you're going to be right out there in front of the party, with a big red bullseye painted on your chest--and you will get hit. Okay, so you can't wear Plate or Full Plate armor, and that wouldn't be so bad....if there was any good Splint Mail or Chain Mail that you could wear. Unfortunately, the best Splint Mail in the game is only +2, and you can either
A) Go back to that Chainmail+2 you found in the very beginning of the game, and cling to it for dear life,
B) Sacrifice some Boots of Speed in exchange for some Chainmail+5, or
C) Wait until Chapter 6 to get some Chainmail+6.
Alternatively, you can walk around in Shadow Dragon Scales for all of SoA, but just how strong is THAT, compared to things like Armor of the Hart and the Gorgon Plate? And don't forget that Plate and Full Plate armors provide excellent additional AC modifiers.....which Chain Mail certainly does not.

That's why, for a Barbarian, physical Resistances are SO important. Get the Defender of Easthaven, and NEVER put that puppy down.