BLADE

[Haldir]

Ok. I will try to do the game with Blade. CAn somebody tells me the advantages, and stuff. Oh yes and which spells does he have

[Daniel_M]

Hes a fighter with a cool undead slaying Katana, he dosent have spells but I believe you can duel him to a mage if you like. Oh yeah, and you have to take the serum before you rest otherwise he will die I think....

[Zuvio]

Cool, there is a Blade mod out? Show me please!

[Morgeruat]

Originally posted by Daniel_M: Hes a fighter with a cool undead slaying Katana, he dosent have spells but I believe you can duel him to a mage if you like. Oh yeah, and you have to take the serum before you rest otherwise he will die I think....

... where to start, ok first assuming he's not talking about the bard kit "blade" then he would be I would guess a wizard slayer (to resist their charms, and he is definitely not a paladin), or stalker (Ranger kit, with vampire as species enemy) He has a silver sword which does extra damage against undead(vampires are alergic to silver in the blade mythos), hmm, sunblade seems to fit the bill there.

[Pirengle]

I think Haldir's talking about the blade kit, not Wesley Snipes' character from the movie Blade.

Blades are kinda like fighter/bards. They get spells up to level 6, and have an interesting ability known as a spin--the offensive spin increases attacks per round, and the defensive ups Armor Class (I think), but the blade can't move when doing an offensive/defensive spin (I think). Blades also have bardic music and pickpocketing abilities, but no increased lore.

Before you create your own blade, try to find the NPC Haer'Dalis. That way you can figure out if a blade is useful to you before starting a whole new game.

[Raistlin Majere]

Originally posted by Pirengle: I think Haldir's talking about the blade kit, not Wesley Snipes' character from the movie Blade. Blades are kinda like fighter/bards. They get spells up to level 6, and have an interesting ability known as a spin--the offensive spin increases attacks per round, and the defensive ups Armor Class (I think), but the blade can't move when doing an offensive/defensive spin (I think). Blades also have bardic music and pickpocketing abilities, but no increased lore. Before you create your own blade, try to find the NPC Haer'Dalis. That way you can figure out if a blade is useful to you before starting a whole new game.

just keep in mind that a custom made Blade is slightly more powerful than 'Dalis

[Xen]

Haldir! Haven`t seen you for a loonng time!


Well back on topic... Blade rocks! I am currently soloing one and i am level 24 in Chapter II. [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img] He is great! He can steal wich is very handy,he can be pretty good Mage who can protect himself with Stoneskin,Mirror Image,PfMW etc...
Also with Tenser`s Transformation he can have a THACO of his level.(I.e if level 17 Blade casts TT he gets a THACO of level 17 Fighter)

[Pirengle]

Originally posted by Raistlin Majere: just keep in mind that a custom made Blade is slightly more powerful than 'Dalis

But then again, that's true with all the NPCs. [img]tongue.gif[/img] Having Haer'Dalis in a party gives the player a chance to see not only how a Blade works, but how to make a Blade better. (Like dualing a fighter to a cleric with 16+ WIS and 16+ DEX. It'll make a pretty solid character. Anomen Delryn points the way, leaving the player to improve upon the idea. )

[Faceman]

Assuming we're talking about the blade kit:
Spells:
all wizard spells are available like with a mage (scribe scrolls, memorize spell, rest ,cast). Your spellcasting ability maxes out at spell-level 6 (no lvl7, lvl8 or lvl9 spells). However with ToB it does not do so and (I think this is a glitch) you can cast lvl9 spells. In 3rd edition D&D (e.g. Icewind Dale II) the bard works more like a sorcerer, but that's not the point here.

Armor:
The Blade can wear chainmail and weaker armor, but like a fighter mage he cannot cast spells while wearing armor. Exceptions are Elven Chain Mail and the Melodic Chain (a special Bards-only elven chain). Blade cannot use a shield.

Dual-Classing:
not possible

Offensive abilities:
The blade works finest with dual-wielding (can put ** in DW), but can only put * on any weapon specialisation.
Offensive Spin (Special Ability) gives extra +2 THAC0, +2 dmg and an extra attack for 24 seconds (i.e. 4 rounds). It stacks with Haste spells. Cannot use at the same times as Defensive Spin

Defensive abilities:
Defensive Spin give you an AC bonus up to 10 depending on your level (1AC/lvl). You cannot move while using DS (not even with Free Action)
Cannot use at the same times as Offensive Spin

Bard song:
does not improve, i.e. will always stay a lvl1 bard song. However you can choose the ToB HLA bard song for better effects.

The blade gets ToB HLAs from rogues, but with some extra Bard abils.

My advice would be:
Dual-Wielding
some Elven Chain Mail (some Robe at the beginning)
use Stoneskins or other defensive buffs to make him a decent tank or backup tank with some enhancing offensive buffs (e.g. Strenghth) and Offensive spin.
Once you get the ToB bard song stay in back singing the song and use defensive spin for further AC bonus. You'll easily get your AC down to the max
2 base (Melodic Chain)
-4 DEX bonus (18 DEX)
-10 bard song
-10 Defensive spin
total: -22
This way you can rarely be hit and improve the performance of the rest of the party greatly.

[Zuvio]

Originally posted by Xen: Haldir! Haven`t seen you for a loonng time! Well back on topic... Blade rocks! I am currently soloing one and i am level 24 in Chapter II. [img]graemlins/showoff.gif[/img] He is great! He can steal wich is very handy,he can be pretty good Mage who can protect himself with Stoneskin,Mirror Image,PfMW etc... Also with Tenser`s Transformation he can have a THACO of his level.(I.e if level 17 Blade casts TT he gets a THACO of level 17 Fighter)

Maybe a dumb question, but with what mods do you play and on what difficulty? How did feel that the game has been so far: difficult or overly easy? Did you ever had the need to temporarily take along another NPC?