assassin->cleric anticipation

[Armen]

my current game is a solo assassin->cleric (with tactics installed)

i late dualled at level 24 (3,080,000 XP) for Use Any Item and have just about exhausted the chapter 2 XP possibilities (without going to watcher's keep) and am just 150,00 short of the magic 3,825,000 CP needed for level 25 cleric and the re-activation of assassin

i'll be heading off to the rest of the game 'between jobs' as it were but it won't be long now

packing for the trip last night was challenging - i've regretted having to leave some weapons behind and losing the girdle of bluntness was a wrench but there just wasn't room (i'm hanging onto the full plate for just a little longer before i swap it permanently for an antique robe i bought in the adventurers' mart)- i just need to finalise my scroll selection and i'm off

it's fun doing a high-level dual like this - you end up playing two solo characters one after the other in the same game - i'd never really used a cleric before but he's been good - buffing makes him easily good enough to melee (even with only 1* in dual-wielding) - skeleton warriors are indeed an amazing summon (i can see how people think bards are a walk in the park now . . .) and energy blades are just marvelous (i'm looking forward to seeing if i can poison them)

[ 01-18-2005, 10:58 AM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[Leslie]

Very interesting. Let us know how the char progresses.

Why do you want "use any item"?
Which "item" interests you so much? Staff of the Cheese, Carso, ... ?

[Armen]

the quests in the town where i arrived gave me the necessary XP for level 25 cleric to re-activate the assassin and (a nice bonus) grant me my holy symbol - my first one [img]smile.gif[/img]

Leslie, I'm not going nuts with UAI - i'd have waited 'til level 21 for the 7x backstab anyway so it's not too much longer - the main thing i fancied was to be able to use edged and pointed weapons as a (dualled) cleric - what i'm using so far that 'needs' UAI is dragonslayer sword, ilbathra, scarlet ninja-to, tuigan bow, and cloudkill wand, oh yeh, and the robe of vecna . . . and some emergency arcane spell scrolls that i'll probably forget/not need to use

the exciting thing (i'm easily excited) is that if you wait 'til UAI to dual to cleric, when you get you thief class back you do get your non-blunt profs back (unlike a normal cleric dual from, say, ranger) - i now have 1* in: katana, scimitar, dagger, war hammer, club, flail, mace, qstaff, short bow, dart, sling and the 'styles'

anyway, i've just packed my trusty full plate away in my new bag of holding and it's time to start sneaking around again

[ 01-18-2005, 07:14 PM: Message edited by: Armen ]

[Marty4]

I saw your intended dual class on another post, and my first reaction was "Why, of why would you dual to cleric?". Now I see why: you got a arcane casting, backstabbing, possibly fighting, bow shooting, sneaky, and divine casting priest. Not bad, not bad at all

Also, if you can poison energy blades...

[Desuma Malevois]

An assassin-->magician can poison his Melf's Meteors so I don't see why energy blades couldn't also be poisoned. This sounds like a great dual class combo!

[Neomi]

This fellow sounds quite fun. And very eeeeevil. Just the type of Bhaalspawn you might imagine usurping his father's throne. I'm looking forward to hearing whether energy blades can be poisoned. With the APR you get and the +10 to hit, then the poison damage multiplied per round... the computer might just freeze up trying to figure out the damage!

[Assassin]

Yes, you can. The Assassin's poison is interesting in that it will deal poison damage per second even if the creature makes his save. Which means that the strategy only works against creatures without immunity to poison. And there's the thing that Stoneskin blocks the poison damage. However, the pure damage of the Energy Blades is nothing to sneeze at either. Time Stop -> Breach -> throw 20 Energy Blades is a deadly combo.

[Armen]

thanks folks - you can indeed poison energy blades [img]smile.gif[/img]

spoilers

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i arrived at the fish city and was delighted to realise that i'd left my shield of reflection (and probably another couple of items i've forgotten) on the bar of the drunken monkey back in brynnlaw - 'oops', i thought but resisted the reload temptation (to be honest i couldn't sit through the cut scenes again - the boat ones were a bit buggy and i ended up with 3 silver blades . . .) and i set out to tactics fish city . . .

it wasn't as bad as i thought - stealth - backstab - mirror image and running away netted me a few fish men until i decided that it was just a magic item and XP pump so went for the priestess and the main quest items only - the priestess resisted quite a few tactics eventually falling to arrow of dispelling then poisoned arrows of biting as her summons flailed away at me

character-wise the guy isn't evil (he's lawful neutral) - i had him down as a sort of sophisticated nomad religious enforcer if that makes any sense at all - he's coming along and now uses his assassin skills a bit more 'justly' than before

i'nm playing him like an assassin with buffs mainly except in cirumstances that call for skeleton warriors or the like - large numbers of casting time zero 'sanctuaries' (robe of vecna) are handy for the assassin in trouble - i'm level 28-odd cleric though and my turn undead is still disappointing

outside this game - i picked up an old party SoA game to try ToB which i've managed to avoid up to now but i've been away from that party too long to 'care' so i'd like to take this guy forward but with a bit of company - to that end i've installed Sola and will probably pick up the other obvious fighting choice later

if you got this far - thanks for listening [img]smile.gif[/img]