Some HLA questions
Thrasymachus
Member Posts: 903
For Bards (esp. Blades), Use Any Item looks essential. Beyond that, what's good to get? Spike Trap looks good, but highly situational. Enhanced Bard Song also looks good (although I normally prefer to use my Blade to attack). Alchemy, Magic Flute, and Scribe Scrolls look useless. I'd appreciate any advice on what to choose (specifically for a Blade).
For Warriors, Greater Whirlwind Attack looks superior to the other HLAs, though Critical Strike and Smite also look good. Is my impression correct?
Also, can Greater Whirlwind (and Whirlwind) be used with missile weapons? And since it sets attacks/round at 10, does this mean that warriors with 2 weapons lose their additional attacks (i.e., a character may as well use a shield or 2-handed weapon)?
For Clerics, is Summon (Fallen) Deva better or worse than Elemental Summoning? It seems clearly better, but perhaps I'm missing something.
Thanks in advance!
For Warriors, Greater Whirlwind Attack looks superior to the other HLAs, though Critical Strike and Smite also look good. Is my impression correct?
Also, can Greater Whirlwind (and Whirlwind) be used with missile weapons? And since it sets attacks/round at 10, does this mean that warriors with 2 weapons lose their additional attacks (i.e., a character may as well use a shield or 2-handed weapon)?
For Clerics, is Summon (Fallen) Deva better or worse than Elemental Summoning? It seems clearly better, but perhaps I'm missing something.
Thanks in advance!
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Comments
Also, the reason to get elemental summoning is that you can only have one celestial summon out at a time. So if you have a planetar out, you can't summon a deva until either the duration on the planetar runs out or it's killed.
That means, that with insufficient mage support around Greater Whirlwind is a good deal. But if you have enough mages in your party, Improved Haste is the better option.
Spike Trap is cheese trap, 'nough said. Time Trap is a poor man's Time Stop, and their only regenerating ability to access it.
For Warriors, then, perhaps Smite when Hasted, and Greater Whirlwind for other times is a sensible strategy?
I have to confess that I'm a bit lazy and frequently find myself in fights without being 'prepped' for them. Hence the appeal of something like Greater Whirlwind, which I can simply activate when necessary, and does not depend on my mages casting spells ahead of time. (Also, I only have one mage -- Imoen -- and one blade, so my party's a bit thin magic-wise.)
Greater Whirlwind Attack is good, but as someone mentioned it is more effective to go for high native APR and use Improved Haste (= doubles APR) instead. With that you can have dual-wielding fighters at 10 APR for considerable amounts of time, and don't waste a turn action activating GWW either. Improved Haste is hands down the best spell in the entire game; there is no shame in loading up your lvl6-slots with it, and using it gratuitously.
Critical Strike is very powerful. Several enemies (e.g. most bosses) are immune to critical strikes however, so keep that in mind. Still, even against them this skill is far from useless: while you don't get the bonus damage from a natural 20 roll, it does make the attack an automatic hit, regardless of AC/THAC0. That can be a substantial advantage against highly armored opponents, especially when combined with the high APR/Improved Haste combo mentioned above.
Hardiness should also be mentioned, as it is the next powerful HLA. It lasts for quite some time and gives substantial damage resistances, though you should keep in mind that it only protects against physical damage - and a lot of the damage you take (particularly the dangerous parts) are magical in nature. Still, this is a pretty good skill.
Most of the other fighter HLAs are fairly weak unfortunately. There are some fringe uses, but for the most part you'll just keep picking CS and Hardiness... Same with Rogues pretty much, nothing beats Assassination and Spike Trap (since UAI is a one-time thing).
Under IH your off-hand gets 2 attacks instead of it's normal 1 (it's the only effect in the game that gives the off-hand an additional attack, all other effects add extra attacks to the main-hand).
It's true that GWW has a slight advantage in that, especially if you unequip your (probably weaker) OH. Even accounting for that, though, I'm fairly sure IH remains the better choice, if you can build around it. There are still cases where you may want to use GWW, though, e.g. with ranged or 2h weapons, or in a fight with frequent dispels. On average though it will be worse than IH.
*Some moments of research later.* NOOOOOOO! It turns out it's a 7th level spell and Bards can't reach it. I'm going to cry somewhere...
And get Greater Whirlwind, that's always some good stuff. I might have to get Hardiness for my Dwarven Defender.
Agreed though that's its easier to use imp haste and crit strike, since imp haste will last awhile.
Smite is a terrible ability often, as you whack everyone away. Situationally it's useful, but its often not as useful as one would expect.
As for HLAs, I'd recommend taking one or two GWW just in case IH gets dispelled or runs out at an inconvenient time.
For Bards: Use Any Item, Improved Bard Song, some Spike Traps, and eventually Magic Flute. Are there any other Bard HLAs worth getting? (Improved Evasion?)
As for the Mislead/Song trick, that has become somewhat of a staple of bards, but is I believe fixed by several mods due to its somewhat abusive nature. Same goes for Mislead + Backstab, which allows for some pretty silly plays...
Throw a Greater Malison (and Doom if you want) and Power Attack makes a great mage-disabler. It doesn't usually work on fighter types or mini-bosses in ToB just because of how ridiculously low their saving throws are, even with those two spells working together.
Also, in my experience, mage Planetars are better than cleric/paladin Devas. They have more spells available to them and they seem to be tougher.
Planetars are indeed very good, likely the best summoned minions of all.
However, for Blades, would a timestop trap + offensive spin (or improved haste) be a good tactic? It strikes me as pretty decent, possibly worth picking one or two timestop traps...
Still, it's a neat trick to have. There are certainly enemies not immune to it that can be dispatched quickly with TS, especially in modded games (improved fire giants come to mind). The TS trap on the other hand is much worse than its spell counterpart. Not only does it not last as long, it also requires setting up beforehand. It's certainly a valid tactic in some scenarios, but it's probably going to be worse than Spike Trap in most cases.
Which others are immune to time stop?