Need help building the right character for a completionist run

Darigaaz87

Hello everyone.

I want to play a completionist run of the game, but I'm not sure which kind of character to build. I've started with a paladin, but such character would lock me out of some "not-so-good-aligned" quests (only for roleplay reasons, which for me are a thing), so I thought that maybe a character with more "ethical freedom" would do better in such playthrough.

First I thought that maybe a rogue/wizard would come in handy, for the sheer amount of utility it has, but then I've also thought that a rogue/cleric could work, except that I couldn't really find a domains combination which would suit him (again, for roleplay reasons, not technical). Another option that really interests me is the cleric/wizard, but I'm not that certain it would work. Other options I've thought of are rogue/fighter (not a great fan though), fighter/cleric, or fighter/wizard, but these three aren't that appealing to me as the other three.

That said, I'm here to hear your suggestions about a character that could tackle every quest in the game. Note that I'm not using any mod that alters gameplay or introduces new player options (I've tried the PRC one, but the amount of new options was overwhelming), for the time being I want to play the game as vanilla as possible.

Thank you in advance for your help and time.

sarevok57

if you are talking about just NWN campaign without going into HotU then it really doesn't matter what class combo you make;

any melee focused class combo will easily tackle the game, especially if you have plenty of potions of heal ( which you can get if im not mistaken by chapter 2 and they are only like 2000 gold each )

if you are going to play a wizard type class, then again no sweat there, just make sure to buy plenty of extra scrolls of damaging spells like chain lightning or horrid wilting ( that is IF you even need to because you no doubt will find lots of these spells laying around so keep them and do not sell them ) the only reason why i even say this is because you cannot rest in the last boss area so having some extra scrolls of stuff is useful, plus in chapter 4 you can buy infinite scrolls of level 8 and 9 spells so again, no biggy

the only real problem here is if you plan on going into HotU ( the epic levels campaign ) which if you are a beginner, it favors more towards a melee focused type character, but even with that said, that doesn't mean it cannot be beat with a caster, just a bit more difficult that is all ( make sure to have extra copies of those spells handy ! )

so other than that, if you want to go wizard ( which for someone newer is a better choice than sorcerer just because your spell selection is much higher ) then i say go with that, having any levels of rogue is unnecessary because either a) you can hire tomi or b) your offensive spells can break any chest that a rogue can pick ( except for 1 chest in helm's hold which is ONLY pickable by a rogue, but it won't break your character for not getting in there ) or even c) i think one of the familiars can even pick locks so even more the reason not to be a rogue, usually if you are going to arcane caster route you really want to focus on that and if you want to dip into something else, it is best done pass level 20 ( again if you even play HotU )

so if you go with wizard, make sure to crank that INT to 18 and give 'er

if you are going to go a melee route, there are 2 extremely strong choices you can take;

fighter
bard
dragon disciple

or

fighter
monk
weapon master

the fighter/bard/dragon disciple can do the mage quests in chapter 1 for that extra bag of holding, plus you can get some extraordinary STR with that combo, even if you start with 16 STR

or

if you go with fighter/monk/weapon master, you will have insane AC and once you get to level 7 in that weapon master class you will destroy universes with your weapon of choice, the only disadvantage with this combo is, is that you MUST stay lawful or else lose the monk abilities which you don't want


when it comes to melee classes, the 2 best weapon choices are based if you are going weapon and shield or two handed, when it comes to weapon and shield the best is; warhammer, because at level 17 you can get the hammer of thunderbolts, which is the best 1 handed weapon in NWN, or if you want to go the 2 handed route you go with scythe, that x4 critical is diabolically brutal and its not unheard of dealing over 100 damage on critical hits even in NWN

for a wizard, you will eventually get a staff of the magi ( which should be a no brainer ) and also you may find a club of smiting which can kill golems in one hit, keep that around for golems

also note, regardless of class you are playing for every 5 ranks you have in tumble you get a +1 bonus to AC, and for every 5 ranks in spell craft you get a +1 bonus to all saving throws ( even though it only says its vs spells, but it seems to be vs everything ) and also spell craft is used to see what spells other classes are casting as well

also, for casters if you can, discipline is a great skill to put ranks in, lots of enemies will use knockdown on you if you have low discipline/str scores, so if you can get those ranks up ( although with a human wizard with 18 INT you should get 7 skills to choose from, so it shouldn't be a problem )

also if you play a wizard you will be able to build any of the "special recipe items...?" in the game since every single one of them require wizard spells ( except of jared's castle where you can make potions based on cleric spells, but those things can easily be bought )

Darigaaz87

Thanks @sarevok57 for your explanation, it's very useful.

I'm thinking I'll go cleric for this playthrough, just need to decide what kind of cleric to play (caster or combat), and whether to multiclass or not (wizard if caster, fighter if combat). I don't think I'll dabble in prestige classes, from what I've heard they're too powerful for the OC. I also will build another character for SoU/HotU, probably a bard or a paladin, so for the time being those two campaigns don't really matter.

For the kind of playthrough I want to do I lean toward a combat cleric, simply because I could make it a CN cleric of Tempus, and that would let me avoid moral biases roleplay-wise. I admit that I'm more interested in the caster cleric, a NG cleric of Mystra, but that alignment wouldn't really fit a "mercenary" kind of character in my opinion. I've dumped the idea of a stealthy cleric because I really don't know how to build it effectively, not to say that it would be most probably an halfling, and I prefer to play humans and half-elves.

I guess that I just need to make up my mind then, but if someone has anything to suggest please do, I always welcome new ideas and opinions.

sarevok57

well if you want to go the combat cleric, perhaps be a human or dwarf ( you have to remember that certain races can get XP penalties if you dual class incompatible classes, which really makes humans great because any class is their "favored" class while with dwarf, fighter is their favorite class )

but anywho

human might be better thanks to their extra feat and extra skill

for a perfect combat cleric i would go fighter 4/ cleric the rest, with those 4 levels of fighter you can weapon focus in your weapon of choice, grab an extra fighter feat at level 2, and then take up weapon specialization for your weapon of choice at level 4 ( again, warhammers is a good choice since you can get hammer of thunderbolts, although that doesn't have a chance of appearing until level 17 ) morningstars is also a decent choice because of the weapon drone, which is easy to make, and in chapter 3 you can make the +4 version of it, or if you want to go exotic thanks to your extra feat from those fighter levels you could go with katana and hopefully get that +3 katana that deals electrical damage and i believe it also stuns ( if im not mistaken the katana pool is quite decent )

just make sure to keep that wisdom score up, because if you want to cast those high level cleric spells you need the corresponding ability score to do so ( aka 16 WIS for level 6 spells, 17 WIS for level 7 spells ect )

ArchMage_Splat

Battle cleric is all i understood , btw nice posts sarevok57 :O)

What do you think about mine @ lvl 40 with +5 ac items only on the server it was made in question, think theirs +6 ac full plate armor but the rest would all be +5.

Ac 93 pail master half cleric with epic warding and shield anyone, works for me in team pvp as a heal spammer

You ever do your toons on paper first OP then test in a build editor ?

Most toons @ level 40 can't hit that ac.

ArchMage_Splat

Theirs all so 21 cleric 18 monk one SD when you want to be a dick, healer wise, can't kill what you can't see or catch and the min i'm not attacked i start spamming heal or buffing team mates ...fun ... *grins*

Ps high stealth skills dex based with hips + 18 monk movement speed hehe

Use to like that one a lot too, tends to piss everyone off with comments on shout like "F4G runner" and the like ...O'well

Katzerchen

For a completionist run of the OC (as in doing ALL quests), a build suggested on the old forum of the vault by user "HipMaestro" would work best. Don't know how to access the old forum now, but saved the text of the post in a document.
Note that this was for 1.69, not EE, but shouldn't make much of a difference (unless they added new quests during the last couple upgrades).

"NG male Dru14/Brd4
Suggested split: STR 16(18), DEX 8, CON 14, WIS 15(17), INT 14, CHA 8
Feats: Blind Fight, WF Scimitar, ImpCrit, Extend spell, PA/Cleave, KD/IKD
Skills: as close to max with each of Discipline, Spellcraft, Taunt, Tumble, UMD, Animal Empathy.  Perform net 9 (for song #3)
Dump levels (bard): 3, 8, 13, 17"

For SoU+HotU it probably is impossible to get it all in one run. You'll need to run HotU several times anyway before you have seen all possible outcomes.