Favorite F/T build with ranged damage? (BGEE)
triclops41
Member Posts: 207
Want to do evil playthrough- need some rogue skills (primarily finding and disarming traps) in party but don't want to be a pure rogue. Party could also use some ranged attack.
Elf F/T? Could that use composite longbow?
Dwarf F/T for saving throws, skill bonuses, and high con?
Elf F/T? Could that use composite longbow?
Dwarf F/T for saving throws, skill bonuses, and high con?
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One thing to note: at BG1 levels, you don't have enough skill points to get the essential dungeoneering skills and the fun stuff with combat applications on the same character. So if you want to play with backstabs or traps, get more than one thief in your BG1 party and split the skills up. Montaron's another fine fighter/thief, Shar-Teel can dual into thief for some incredibly powerful backstabs, and Imoen won't leave no matter how bad you reputation gets.
For melee, long sword is typically best, or if you are good-aligned but don't mind killing Drizzt, then his scimitars are hard to beat. That said, sometimes I just go with short swords for the hell of it; you can still get a +2 short sword early on, a +3 one late game, and in SoD there are some very good short swords. The quarterstaff is of course the best backstab weapon; there's Aule's +3 quarterstaff available super early and then The Staff of Striking available from Durlag's, so the quarterstaff and 2H weapon style should also be in the discussion when choosing your weapons.
In terms of thief points, I start by putting them all into Open Locks at the start so that I can loot Candlekeep and other early areas. Then Find Traps. Then whatever. Obviously your stealth will lag behind, but locks and traps are more important, and you can still backstab just fine by using invisibility, or by just pressing the hide-in-shadows button many times.
Thanks! I've already got my front line, divine and arcane magic covered for my evil playthrough- so I'm trying to use my Charname to get just enough rogue for traps and then some good ranged damage.
I've also been considering Swashbuckler 5 then fighter to accomplish this goal. I really like the shorty saves but grandmaster in bows seems awesome.
Thanks! I've already got my front line, divine and arcane magic covered for my evil playthrough- so I'm trying to use my Charname to get just enough rogue for traps and then some good ranged damage.
I've also been considering Swashbuckler 5 then fighter to accomplish this goal. I really like the shorty saves but grandmaster in bows seems awesome.
However, I didn't want to be on the frontline at the start of BG1, and longbows are great. So I focused on that role in combat. I have had to pull him on to some off-tanking now in later content, such as the Balduran island. I had enough skill points to basically max out find traps, open locks and set traps. I'm now boosting detect illusion. Dwarf base points plus the tomes really skyrocket the character. 19 Str, 18 Dex, and 20 Con are all major bonus unlocking levels for each of those stats.
I'm planning on totally eschewing sneaking in BG2 as well and even focusing on fighter weapons, like axes and war hammers. Trap finding thieves tend to be on the front lines in a dungeon crawl anyways for the saga, so I think this tanky-focused build can work.
But I do think a backline elf focused on bows and longswords will be overpowered too. BG1 mostly longbows. BG2 mostly swords and maybe some short bow.
In original BG1/TotSC, it was possible to get where you should have been able to reach Grandmastery: By taking a Fighter to Level 6 & getting High Mastery in a weapon (for example, Large Sword ** and Bow ****), and then Dual-classing to Thief, upon reaching Level 8 you would get your next proficiency point, which you could stack on top of those you'd earned as a Fighter. So you could theoretically reach Grandmastery while still under the BG1 EXP cap. Unfortunately, BG1 was hardcoded to not allow you to Grandmaster: It would let you put your new proficiency in Large Sword (for ***), but not Bow (for *****). But now that the Enhanced Edition has no bar to Grandmastery (the Black Pits is proof of that), maybe the Fighter->Thief proficiency stack is now finally viable.
True, a Fighter(6)->Thief Dual loses out on the critical 1/2 ApR gain at Fighter Level 7. But with 19 Strength, Eagle Bow, and Grandmastery, slamming enemies with an extra 12 damage on every ranged hit does sound pretty damn appealing.
Grandmastery in BG1EE is still locked out. Fighter(6)->Thief still does not let you add your Level 8 proficiency point on top of what is already High Mastery. You can add it anywhere else, just not there.
Neither the undroppable bow that Marek uses, COMPB08, nor the one that he actually drops, BOW08, add the user's Strength damage. There seems to be absolutely no functional difference between the two items, so the only logical reason for having two of them was that in the original game, the undroppable version did indeed add STR damage--which, in EE, it no longer does.
With either version of the Eagle Bow (and High Mastery), you get a damage of 1D6 +6 per hit:
Arrow: 1d6, Proficiencies: +4, Protector of the Dryads +2: +2
Testing confirmed this. With COMPB08, I was getting 7-11 damage per hit. (It should have been 7-12, but I guess I never rolled max damage.)
Nope. There's a loophole you didn't find.
The restriction on how many dots you can put in a proficiency is based on your level at the time you assign the dot. You need to be level 3 for the third dot, level 6 for the fourth dot, and level 9 for the fifth dot. That last thief proficiency comes at level 8, which would ordinarily block you from reaching grand mastery, but you can trick the system.
Rather than leveling up from thief 7 to thief 8 at 32K+70K XP and then thief 8 to thief 9 at 32K+110K XP, hold that level in reserve and go straight from thief 7 to thief 9 at 32K+110K XP. Now you're adding that proficiency dot at level 9, and the restriction is lifted - it can be used to give you grand mastery in a weapon.
I've used this trick multiple times with Shar-Teel, for super-powerful longsword backstabs. I've never been tempted on a protagonist; you're giving up a lot of long-term power by not getting that APR boost at fighter level 7.
As for the Eagle Bow, I no longer have access to pre-EE BG1, but as I now recall, even the droppable version of it added the STR damage. I once made an Elven Fighter specifically to take advantage of it, and doing up to 20 damage (40 on a crit) with regular arrows was just ridiculous, most "fights" were a joke.
Crossbows and quarterstaffs ftw.
Crossbow of speed is great and easy to get early in bg. And incredibly powerful crossbows in bg2/tob
Quarterstaffs are the best backstabbing weapon throughout the series.
Don't worry about hide in shadows too much. Invisibility spells/potions are plentiful. Focus on detect traps/open locks.