How to build my evil Wizardslayer->Thief ?
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Hello everybody,
Looking for your great advice here.
I stepped upon a very nice portrait, it gave me an idea to play evil ranged. This is the picture of a hooded man wearing black clothes, he handles a bow.
Now, when I looked at what classes are good for ranged, there is :
- archer (ranger kit) but cannot play because it's only good-alignment
- fighter, since you can get more than 2 pips in the ranged weapon of choice
- probably blackguard to some extent
So, when looking at fighter, berserker and kensai wouldn't be good because they cannot invest more than 1 pips in bows/crossbows, and the man on the picture is obviously not a berserker. Kensai can be very good at range with daggers, but it would not fit the picture.
I was left with the newest wizardslayer, which looks not so bad since it now inflicts a cumulative miscast 25 % everytime they hit a spellcaster, including when the enemy has mirror image and stoneskin, even if your weapon is ranged (or at least I think this is the case in the current version of the game).
Of course, not being able to use magic equipment besides weapon and armor sounds like a real challenge, but I plan to dual from Wizardslayer 10 -> Thief. It fits well with the evil character flavourwise and I'll ultimately get the UAI HLA, allowing me to use any items. I know it would be considered better to dual at 9, but I like to have exactly 10% magic resistance as a bonus.
Now my question is about proficiencies.
- Is it okay to go with crossbows rather than bows ? I read that the light crossbow of speed makes it viable to play crossbows (it also has a lower speed factor, that's useful against spellcasters). Crossbows also look more evil than bows.
- As I'll be able to get grandmastery in one weapon (maybe even 2 weapons in ToB), which one do you recommend ? Is it worth it to become grandmaster at bows/crossbows ??
- As for my other weapons, I think I'd like to go with daggers, and I was wondering if grandmastery in daggers would not be better than bows/crossbows, since as a melee weapon the pips would give me 1 more APR. It would also make use of my Strength of 19 (after using a tome).
- What other weapons do you recommend when I'm thief ? Should I go Katana, 1H weapon for backstab, 2 weapons style ?
The general idea is to get an improved thief, with better HP, damage and Thac0, useful in fight. Being able to stack magical resistance is also cool.
Thank you very much for your insight!
Happy new year![:) :)](https://forums.beamdog.com/resources/emoji/smile.png)
PS : I'm aware you can get very strong towards the endgame thanks to Carsomyr, and get close to 100% magic resistance, but I don't know yet if I want to cheese in that direction.
Looking for your great advice here.
I stepped upon a very nice portrait, it gave me an idea to play evil ranged. This is the picture of a hooded man wearing black clothes, he handles a bow.
Now, when I looked at what classes are good for ranged, there is :
- archer (ranger kit) but cannot play because it's only good-alignment
- fighter, since you can get more than 2 pips in the ranged weapon of choice
- probably blackguard to some extent
So, when looking at fighter, berserker and kensai wouldn't be good because they cannot invest more than 1 pips in bows/crossbows, and the man on the picture is obviously not a berserker. Kensai can be very good at range with daggers, but it would not fit the picture.
I was left with the newest wizardslayer, which looks not so bad since it now inflicts a cumulative miscast 25 % everytime they hit a spellcaster, including when the enemy has mirror image and stoneskin, even if your weapon is ranged (or at least I think this is the case in the current version of the game).
Of course, not being able to use magic equipment besides weapon and armor sounds like a real challenge, but I plan to dual from Wizardslayer 10 -> Thief. It fits well with the evil character flavourwise and I'll ultimately get the UAI HLA, allowing me to use any items. I know it would be considered better to dual at 9, but I like to have exactly 10% magic resistance as a bonus.
Now my question is about proficiencies.
- Is it okay to go with crossbows rather than bows ? I read that the light crossbow of speed makes it viable to play crossbows (it also has a lower speed factor, that's useful against spellcasters). Crossbows also look more evil than bows.
- As I'll be able to get grandmastery in one weapon (maybe even 2 weapons in ToB), which one do you recommend ? Is it worth it to become grandmaster at bows/crossbows ??
- As for my other weapons, I think I'd like to go with daggers, and I was wondering if grandmastery in daggers would not be better than bows/crossbows, since as a melee weapon the pips would give me 1 more APR. It would also make use of my Strength of 19 (after using a tome).
- What other weapons do you recommend when I'm thief ? Should I go Katana, 1H weapon for backstab, 2 weapons style ?
The general idea is to get an improved thief, with better HP, damage and Thac0, useful in fight. Being able to stack magical resistance is also cool.
Thank you very much for your insight!
Happy new year
![:) :)](https://forums.beamdog.com/resources/emoji/smile.png)
PS : I'm aware you can get very strong towards the endgame thanks to Carsomyr, and get close to 100% magic resistance, but I don't know yet if I want to cheese in that direction.
3
Comments
Assassin -> Fighter is another strong ranged build that would fit.
And if your goal is to be a definitive killer of Wizard invest a lot of points in Detect Illusion. I did a run with a Thief -> Wizard Slayer with a 100% in this skill and no wizard had a minimal chance against my character (using SCS).
I had not thought about Assassin->Fighter but it also looks as a solid option to build a ranged character !
Also, the detect illusion is a great idea to kill those mages
I'm playing on MacOsX (Steam version) so not entirely sure how to mod my game
I guess wizardslayer/thief works but remember you will be playing two thirds of the trilogy (if with a party) until you finally get HLAs to remove the equipment restrictions and finally release the full potential. All that work and effort with a rather gimped character for the best part of the game just to get a payoff in ToB? Not my cup of tea
You miss out on the backstabbing potential of an Assassin by dual classing in the 1st game, but if you don't intend to choose an Assassin for backstabbing and instead the abilities to help out your archery (+1 to hit and damage plus poison weapon) then those will combo well with a Fighter and you can still backstab occasionally for a small bit of extra damage if you can make yourself invisible. You also won't have a gimped character for a good chunk of playing the games like the Wizard Slayer restrictions would bestow, and the Wizard Slayer's restrictions were always tremendously bad especially for the 1st game, not to mention the magic resistance hardly helps unless you play a single class Wizard Slayer (there are Paladin kits that IMO do the Wizard Slayer's job better and without the bad restrictions, though only the Blackguard is evil alignment).