If playing a bounty hunter as main... and a few other questions resting, f/m/t etc
rickcr
Member Posts: 77
I still haven't played through BG1:EE yet (have a few classes started there), and I'm liking the concept of a bounty hunter... stealthy, still can backstab, and tons of traps. Whatever I build in BG1 I'm wanting to cary over into BG2 so posting in this forum.
My questions are...
1) How many traps do you end up with as the game progresses? I don't mind resting a lot early to get my traps back (although it seems sort of weak.. but I guess not much weaker than a magic user doing the same?) Later on, are you so full with traps that resting is not really an issue?
2) Not BH specific, but resting in general - Is there a penalty for just ending the resting animation early. I can start to rest then just click and I'm done resting and it seems like I received the full affect for resting? That's nice if that's the case, but if there isn't a penalty for resting (other than certain timed quests) I would think this would be so easy to abuse? I would think the resting animation would have to complete its cycle to at least make resting annoying to do.
3) F/T or F>T... I don't need a long discussion about which is better (since that has come up a lot in my research), but I am curious with changing armor... I would think as F/T does it get annoying using your thief abilities in one set of armor and then switching out to something like plate for melee?
4) Out of curiosity how viable is playing F/M/T in a party if the goal of this char is to be a back-stabbing/trap-finding/setting thief with a lit bit of buffed melee strength when needed. I was thinking the benefit here is that I could use some mage abilities (invisibility) to augment my low skill in sneaking for backstabbing. Later on when backstab isn't as useful switch over to sitting back with offensive or buff/debuff spells and act like a weaker F/M. The drawback of course being very slow leveling especially with a party (but I wouldn't minding grinding some on the side while I break up the party if need be.)
My questions are...
1) How many traps do you end up with as the game progresses? I don't mind resting a lot early to get my traps back (although it seems sort of weak.. but I guess not much weaker than a magic user doing the same?) Later on, are you so full with traps that resting is not really an issue?
2) Not BH specific, but resting in general - Is there a penalty for just ending the resting animation early. I can start to rest then just click and I'm done resting and it seems like I received the full affect for resting? That's nice if that's the case, but if there isn't a penalty for resting (other than certain timed quests) I would think this would be so easy to abuse? I would think the resting animation would have to complete its cycle to at least make resting annoying to do.
3) F/T or F>T... I don't need a long discussion about which is better (since that has come up a lot in my research), but I am curious with changing armor... I would think as F/T does it get annoying using your thief abilities in one set of armor and then switching out to something like plate for melee?
4) Out of curiosity how viable is playing F/M/T in a party if the goal of this char is to be a back-stabbing/trap-finding/setting thief with a lit bit of buffed melee strength when needed. I was thinking the benefit here is that I could use some mage abilities (invisibility) to augment my low skill in sneaking for backstabbing. Later on when backstab isn't as useful switch over to sitting back with offensive or buff/debuff spells and act like a weaker F/M. The drawback of course being very slow leveling especially with a party (but I wouldn't minding grinding some on the side while I break up the party if need be.)
1
Comments
1) This is explained in the Character Generation page when you select the bounty hunter class.
For both 'set snare' and 'set special snare' : gains one use at level 1 and an additional use every 5 levels thereafter.
+HLAs traps (XP > 3M)
2) No.
3) Heavy armours prevent you from using your thieving skills. You can continue using your thieving skills while wearing the other types of armour, with penalties though.
4) Deadly in a solo game - much less impressive in a full 6 member party (relative lack of XP resulting in a distribution of medium levels for the three classes). Full continuum in-between.
Edit: please have a look at https://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/39041/the-solo-no-reload-adventures-of-norgath-dwarven-bounty-hunter-of-candlekeep
They will actually never be very far of a FT multi.
Before 3mxp they will be 1-2 levels lower than a FT. The mage levels more than compensate this.
For that reason, whatever the size of you group the FMT is a better choice than a FT.
FMT is absolutely the most impressive and fun build. Yes, at some points it lags a little in a full party but a min maxed bhaalspawn is so far ahead of other characters anyway that you are still definitely winning and the build absolutely shines in exactly the ways that you want.
No armour issues with the FMT either as you can just cast shield or spirit armour on yourself. First few levels of bg1 i tend to go with armour though.
It's furthermore important to keep in mind that both the regular traps and the BH's special traps grow more powerful with levels, so considering the viability of traps throughout the game is not only a matter of quantity but also one of quality. The special traps and their development are mentioned in the kit description. The regular traps are a bit more mysterious, but Chris Lee's excellent Thief Guide (a worthwhile read not only for its traps section) documents the regular traps' progress:
Level 11 Trap: Deals 2d8+5 damage to any enemies within the area of effect of the Trap when it goes off. In addition, for the next three rounds, it deals 2d6 poison damage per round (hence resistence or vulnerability to poison also affects the damage). In addition, this extra damage also disrupts spell casting (like Melf's Acid Arrow).
Level 16 Trap: Deals 3d8+5 damage plus 4d8+2 fire damage to any enemies within the area of effect of the Trap when it goes off. Like poison, any vulnerability or resistence to fire also effects the extra damage. Level 21 Trap: Deals 3d8+5 damage plus 20 poison damage to any enemies within the area of effect of the Trap when it goes off. Plus, enemies must Save vs Death with a +4 bonus or die instantly. Again, the poison damage can be reduced or increased according to resistence/vulnerability.
This guide was written for vanilla Baldur's Gate (SoA), but I think the EE traps behave in the same manner. Not sure what damage they do at levels 1-5 though. My guess is 1d8+5.
3) Personally, I don't like switching armor all the time, and prefer to have my Thief clad in light armor at all times. There are good armors in BG1, SoA and ToB that will allow your Thief or Fighter/Thief to use thieving skills without it making your character very vulnerable. In BG1 there are various items that modify your AC against missile attacks (the most dangerous type of attacks in that game), taking away the need for heavy armor, unless you want to frontline a lot, in which case you'd be playing te character as a warrior rather than a rogue.
4) F/M/T is a very fun, powerful and versatile class, but like @Musigny, I find them most enjoyable in solo runs or in a small party of say 3 people.
I have a bounty hunter started but it seems like for me to really enjoy this class particularly (over another thief kit) I really need to leveraging their traps - which I certainly enjoy doing... it just feels goofy having to rest all the time to get them back. Then again, with no penalty for resting, I guess it's not a big deal (although it does break the RPG experience a bit.)
But keep in mind that any non-Mage kit on a multi class that includes Mage as a class will give your character an extra spell per level, without suffering the loss of any opposing school(s), unless this has been addressed. But really, if you're using a kitted multi class, you probably don't care about being even more OP.
One more comment on mage combos. Do not overlook the spell progression table.
Sometimes I almost wish I only had like fighter, thief, cleric and mage to choose from so that I wouldn't be inclined to try the gazillion possible charnames!
OP:
2) I use to feel like that I got a lot more ambushes when I clicked during resting, but I guess it was just in my head.
3) Yeah, it is annoying IMHO. Stick to light armor. Depending on your party you may want to have a plate or something for those occasions you wanna throw your F/T into the fray, but it's not necessary. Depends on your playstyle. Also, I prefer MC over DC, so I would pick F/T over F->T.