who's got the coolest high level abilities?

[StarVid]

I'm buying ToB soon, and I'm trying to figure out what character to christen it with. I was looking at a faq and reading about the high level abilities and see a lot of nice things, but I wondered what the players thought just looked good and wasn't and what they thought were good. I usually play a mage, but I'm not sure how impressed I am with their high level abilities. So what do you all think?

[Neb]

Thieves get the ability to use ALL weapons, ALL wands, ALL scrolls, equip ALL equipment, drink ALL potions and so on, this is probably the best ability in the game since thieves can now do everything that fighters can do, also, thieves get the ability to randomly create potions and scrolls for free and some cool abilities to help them avoid death, as well as the ability to set some new cool traps, some of which do up to 2D10 damage, mages and clerics get a few cool spells, fighters get some abilities that they can use to temporarily give them more attacks and such.

[StarVid]

actually, I have another question...how often does a character get a new high level ability? Surely not every level, and how would you rank order them for a thief?

And with the use any item ability, isn't that the bard's domain. I mean, they can use pretty much anything to begin with. (this is a tangent) Playing a thief sounds fun (and I would frequently play one in PnP), but in a combat oriented cRPG, it doesn't sound like they would be so effective. No spellcasting and weak fighting...

[This message has been edited by StarVid (edited 10-17-2001).]

[Neb]

Bards get most thief abilities as well, I believe that special abilities are acquired at every level up above 21, can't remember for sure though.

[masteraleph]

Yep, Use Any Item is pretty crazy.

Note though, that it's not without penalties. Granted that a thief can use weapon, but they can't use, say, The Silver Sword (from SOA) as well as a fighter with 5 *s in 2 handed swords could. Likewise, when you put on plate thieving abilities are disabled, and when you use a weapon not normally useable by thieves (i.e. a bastard sword, 2 handed sword, etc) you can't backstab. Not a big problem for my duel-wielding swashbuckler, however (who's got an AC of -18 and regenerates slightly more than 5 HP/round- 2 rings of gaxx and blackrazor).

In terms of the other abilities, I'd probably say that the traps (esp. spike) and Whirlwind are the best. Time Trap isn't great (big bosses are immune), and the scribing scrolls/making potions just isn't too good, they're not great items that you make.

In terms of the other classes, it depends. Fighter classes (Fighters, Barbarians, Monks, Paladins and I think Rangers too) pick up Greater Whirlwind, which is great. Hardiness is useful too, but GWW is the best- get multiples, as it'll rock powerful opponents' world. Avoid Critical Strike; although it looks sweet a lot of bosses are wearing hemets/have artificial helmets (are immune to critical blows).
Paladins also get an undocumented Summon Deva. Not as good as Summon Planetar but not a bad choice either (also, they get it as a special ability rather than a spellslot).

Clerics/Druids pick up some eh ones. Mass Raise Dead isn't bad, I've used that a time or two. Elemental Summoning is useful, and Druids' Greater Elemental Summoning brings in beasts- just make sure that you summon them when you need them (they only last for a minute) and summon them away from other stuff (some of them have fireshields, globes of blades, etc that will damage your other summons and make them hostie to you). Summon Deva, same as Paladin summon deva, but it takes up a spell slot. Otherwise, some of the defensive ones are kind of nice.

Mages- Improved Alacrity is quite useful; I guarantee that Time Stop Spell Trigger of Lower Resistances, Chain Contingency of Abi Dalzim's, IA, and more Abi Dalzim's works quite well. The extra 6th, 7th, and 8th can be useful, esp. the 7th and 8th- probably fill them with Mordakainen's sword and Abi Dalzim's, the 6th level one's up to you (MS is still an awesome summon). Dragon's Breath seems better than comet, and Summon Planetar is an awesome summon.

I think that's about it. There are other abilities, but those are the main ones I've found useful. Note that bards and thieves draw petty much from the same pool; as do druids and clerics; and the fighter classes as well. Mages are all the same.

[This message has been edited by masteraleph (edited 10-17-2001).]

[Darth Bob]

They get them every level past level 20, as for the first question, all the classes have some great ones, some usefull ones, and some crap ones. But remember about the thieves, even if they can use any item, they cant get more than 1 star in it, and dont get the same things as fighters (like the occasnal things like +1 thaco or +1ac they get some levels, dont know what levels) Also, theyer just not going to use them as well as a fighter, for skills purposes and also beacuse theives werent made touse them, as fighters were.

[Amergin]

my F/T particularly enjoys assassination as most if not all of the boss guys are immune to critical hits; assassination applies the backstab modifier to each hit that round. three rounds of that from a spell-buffed (improved haste especially) dual-wielding character pretty much chunks everything once you get the protections out the way.

[StarVid]

actually, I started a F/T in BG1 that I'm going to take to BG2. He's doing well, but now I'm looking at the high level abilities and I notice that I'm planning to get mostly thief abilities (and maybe a few GWW from the fighter). I'm wondering if it's worth being a F/T, or if I should have just been a fighter and dualed over to a thief at like level 9. What do y'all think?

[Jorath Calar]

I like the Mage spell Dragon fire, Instant Badguy BBQ

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[Debaser]

all in all, i would definitely have to say that greater whirlwind is by far the most useful ability of all....at least it's the one that makes the hugest, most significant difference in the long run. like, when it comes down to the Melissan fight, it's not any mage abilities that make the cut...i think that fight would be unbeatable without the existence of Greater Whirlwind.