Questions on some items, abilities, and what not...

[Jimbo]

Okay, I really enjoy the game Has had me up way to late to many nights, but I still have some questions I would like cleared up.

1. Control of henchmen/women, summoned critters, and familiars. Man, they seem to have taken stupid pills at times. Why can't I get my spunky little pixie to stay back and get that dang dire boar charging!

2. Taunting off of henchmen/women. I am playing a fighter, and even if I tell my henchmen to stay way back and use range attacks, it seems like after one hit by the henchman and the monster turns off me and goes bee-line for them. And I have no way of getting them back onto me it seems like.

3. Duel welding. Okay, I know about the ranger getting 2 weapons and ambidextrious for free, and I know as a fighter I should get those, but what about the weapons? It says to use light weapons for best results on one skill, but on another it says for best results to use a light weapon in the off hand. So, is it better using light weapons in both, or with the right skills is it okay to use a big weapon in main and light in off hand? By okay, I mean will the penalities be low enough to be compensated by dex and str?

4. That dang smith book has got me confused sometimes. Well, mostly on the scale armor, as I can't get it to work. I was able to make a breast plate and my great sword, but not the scale armor. Is it actually wrong and you need a diffrent type of armor?

5. Question on multi-classing; I understand the racial class lets you take a class without having to worry about an exp penality. What is not clear is how it affects humans and half-elves. Does it as it implies that since that any class is favored, that say going 19/1 wouldn't be penalized? Am I reading to much into it? My main is just a straight fighter, but I have been messing around with a rogue/fighter and would like to try a wizard/fighter. The wiz/fighter would be mostly wiz, but was wondering how slower he would level up if he didn't keep the levels close (human again).

Thanks in advance [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Gabrielles blades]

1. i have problems with this too
2. tell your henchman to use a ranged weapon if he/she is not of the tanking class - this will usualy keep them out of agro range.
3. Any single-wielded weapon in primary + a small weapon in secondary will yield best attack bonus results for duel wielding (i like katana/short sword, or a two-bladed weapon myself); Note - as a fighter you will have Immense attack rating at level 20. If you have max strength, all the attack bonus feats, and best weapon youll have around 30-35 attack with a single weapon equiped. The penalty for duel wielding with a light off-hand is -2 primary -2 secondary; if you go with a heavy off-hand its -4 primary -4 secondary; a level 20 fighter with ~30 attack is perfectly fine; if you were a rogue doing this however you definatly need that extra 2 attack so cant afford to use a heavy secondary.
4. yes, its best to save before you have him do anything to your stuff since u never know just what youll get.
5. Im prety sure you could multiclass any way you want with a human and have no experience penalty.

[Lord Starshadow]

For a favored class of Any (Humans, Half Elves):

The highest level class is ignored in terms of multiclassing. That means you won't get a exp. penalty no matter what if you dual-class. If you go triple class, then your two lower class levels must be within a level of each other. Therefore, a character with 9/5/4 levels will not get a penalty, but one with 10/6/4 would.

Hope this helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Legolas]

1) Yes, this is a problem and the only way to get around it is to write your own scripts. Which you either know how to do, in which case it's simple, or not, in which case it's nearly impossible

2) Henchmen usually keep using missile weapons if you tell them to, even if the enemy is standing right in front of them getting attacks of oppertunity. To stop the charging in, give the 'follow' command whenever they start running off.

3) The size of the weapon ion your main hand doesn't matter. The one in your off-hand should be small for best results. GB already explained it.

4) The type of armour you need is mentioned in the recepy. What counts is the total armour class, so if you need an enchanted suit of armour with an AC 6, you should use a suit with AC 5 and a +1 enchantment, or AC 4 with a +2 enchantment, and so on.

5) You're not reading too much into it

[Jimbo]

Thanks everyone!

A couple of more questions, again though...

On duel-welding, will a fighter be penalized for wearing heavy armor? I understand for rangers it does, but other than loosing some dex bonus, it should be okay? I kinda want to make my dwarf beserker, wearing studded or better, weilding a big hammer and light axe. I've played this type in BGII and DAoC games, and I'm kinda of attached to my beer drinking, butt kickin dwarf

I have found that the taunt system isn't really a taunt system like in Everquest or DAoC, in that it helps lower the defense of the said target, but doesn't make them attack you. I've been trying to use the landscape to keep them from attacking my henchmen/women, which can work.

I've also been using the posses the familiar ability to keep my pixie from charging into battle.

Thanks again!

[Legolas]

I kinda want to make my dwarf beserker, wearing studded or better, weilding a big hammer and light axe. I've played this type in BGII and DAoC games, and I'm kinda of attached to my beer drinking, butt kickin dwarf

Sometimes, wearing armour can remove class bonusses. The main example is the monk, who, when wearing armour, cannot benefit from increased movement speed or some unarmed fighting bonusses.
For dual-wielding, it makes no real difference. Heavy armour just means you'll not benefit from your dexterity, which is used for missile weapons and AC. Regular fighting isn't really influenced by DEX and, by my knowledge, neither is dual wielding.

You'll have to check the manual to see if berserkers keep their benefits when wearing heavy armour, but other than that there's nothing to stop you from creating your stinking, rock-eating, unshaven, axe-wielding killing machine affectionately known as a dwarf.

[Jimbo]

Okay another thoughts I have had;

1. Dex on a fighter. Besides some skills and feats, it isn't that necessary if you are using medium or large weapons. Dodge and mobility come to mind, along with some rogue skills that require higher dex, but then the armor you wear can limit how much is added to those skills (full plate only gives 1 bonus of dex vs scale with 4 dex bonus you can have). So, unless you are going for a finess fighter (light weapons and possibly duel welding) dex isn't as important as the old rules.

2. Having high intel on my fighter helps out a lot. I can get improved disarm and more points on level up. Having high lore, discipline, healing, and taunt help. So much for the dumb grunt

3. Weapon speed. I don't see that big of a diffrence between using a great axe vs using a dagger. The dagger user should have been like a blender on crack, but per damage over time I'm not noticing it that much. Maybe it gets better later on, but I can still interupt spell casters with my knock-down and 2-handed sword very well, seems that there should have been a bit more notice on weapon speeds.

4. Is there an AC cap? I swear at level 5 and 6 I could put on scale male +1 and full plate and would have an AC of 19. The scale was lighter and had more dex bonus, the plate looked cooler [img]smile.gif[/img] I noticed that at level 7 the AC went up. Hmmm....kinda makes you think that taking the scale for weight and dex bonus if you want may not be a bad thing at lower levels. I noticed I could raise my AC with potions though, but still couldn't with my armor at the lower levels.

5. How much exp does henchmen/women take?

6. I miss the beserker of old ADnD 2nd edition. The barbarian sounds fun, but the lack of feats and the so so barb rage isn't that appealing. Plus it would take forever to make a duel-welding dwarf barb [img]smile.gif[/img] I'm sure people miss like the undead hunter and some of the other sub-classes too.

Have a great weekened! Back to adventuring!

[Gabrielles blades]

1) yes, dex isnt as important for a plate-wearer that uses a polearm - for a duel wielding fighter it is important to have 15 dex however since you need 15 dex for ambidexterity, and you need ambidexterity for improved 2 weapon fighting.
2) the grunt will of course have more grunt power than the inteligent warrior (either more strength, more constitution, or more dexterity) so you are gaining the use of those skills in exchange for either lower defence (hp) or lower offence (atk per round or atk rating)
3) all weapons are the same speed (lame!)
4) No AC cap per say, it is determined by dex bonus, ac on your armor, and the varous bonuses to your natural ac, dodge ac, deflection ac, shield ac, armor ac etc etc - most classes will end up with around 40 ac (some a bit higher some a bit lower depending on power of their equipment and character design)
5) 22% or so
6) yes, barbarions in nwn are prety weak compared with their prior prowess in bg2; their berserker rage lasts very very short time and no longer grants the various immunities it used to; Plus, if you cast the rage when your IN a fight youll notice you just stand there and take a beating for a couple of rounds before you start fighting back again - so always use it before you get into a fight (it should work as a quickened spell in my opinion, but it dont)

*edit* found out percent hench takes

[ 02-21-2003, 01:07 PM: Message edited by: Gabrielles blades ]