Some thoughts on Dorn. Others welcome to add theirs.
Wise_Grimwald
Member Posts: 3,860
Having now played with Dorn in the party just three times, I have come to the conclusion that for me personally it is great to have him in the party to get the amulet from Kryll and again to fight Simmeon to get the Bastard Sword, but other than that to concentrate on developing other NPCs who are more to my liking.
Whilst having a good attack, he is far too weak defensively even with the gauntlets of dexterity. If he gets hit by a couple of ankhegs , he can be near death.
Yes, you can give him a shield, but his pips have been put in two-handed weapons!
Not too great as a tank!
Yes he's fine with a crossbow + poisoned bolts, but then his strength is of no great value.
His low constitution will always be a problem I think.
Low constitution and two handed weapons will always be a poor combination.
A Blackguard who pretends to be good, a bit like Sarevok is more to my liking.
Whilst having a good attack, he is far too weak defensively even with the gauntlets of dexterity. If he gets hit by a couple of ankhegs , he can be near death.
Yes, you can give him a shield, but his pips have been put in two-handed weapons!
Not too great as a tank!
Yes he's fine with a crossbow + poisoned bolts, but then his strength is of no great value.
His low constitution will always be a problem I think.
Low constitution and two handed weapons will always be a poor combination.
A Blackguard who pretends to be good, a bit like Sarevok is more to my liking.
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Comments
What about when you get to Dragonspear?
Presumably the same tactics in SoA but using Korgan as the tank.
Second, Spider's Bane isn't just good for walking over your own webs. But it's arguably a more tanky setup in any encounter versus spellcasters. It nullifies things like hold person and some stun abilities as well. Dorn will often be the one charging first instead of Kagain/ST in certain fights. The free action modifier is quite strong for the second half of BG1. Frankly, it's generally better than the +3 sword from a practical standpoint, in all but a few fights.
Third, don't get a ranged weapon. Adopt flails instead. You can use a shield plus flail set up against slashing resistant enemies. But this setup also works if you're trying to cast a spell or perhaps use an ability with Dorn, to add a bit of tankiness to avoid interrupts. Alternately, you could take advantage of his two-handed investment to add quarterstaff. You'll have the same range as the sword, and end up with a slightly better damage output than flail and shield, in BG1 at least.
I have just been reading up about Dorn in Dragonspear and have come to the conclusion that I won't want to play him there, not because he isn't powerful enough but because he turns out to be a right B*****d!
In BG1, yes he is evil, but the things that he wants you to do are things that even a paladin might do.
In RL we live with a lot of lawful evil characters, from politicians of all hues to businessmen with few scruples. Those I can cope with, it's those who do evil things for cruelty's sake that I can't: such as Hamas, and some of the murderers that we've had in the UK recently. Dorn turns out to be one of the latter!
better yet, give him 2 pips in scimitars and a helm of opposite alignment and now he can use defender +3 for even more AC
i believe when i use dorn he usually hits around -8 AC and i never have a problem with him surviving ( although to be fair i keep max hp on level up on ) plus for those extra hard battles, you can use potions of fortitude which will set his CON to 18
another nice perk of dorn is that he can use the claw of kazgaroth with very little down side, the -2 CON doesnt give him less HP ( unless you use the potion of fortitude now, it will only set it to 16 ) but the advantages he gets from it more than outweigh the disadvantages
I hadn't thought of using the Helm in order to use Defender +3.
i sometimes do this with shar-teel as well, make her hit level 7 as a fighter than dual over to a thief, stop at level 3, then grow to level 8, so you can put 4 points into scimitar ( while she be waiting she can use a short bow in the meantime ) and if you can survive the wait, she will seriously punish baddies in melee
or you can do this with two handed swords as well, since there is a nice +3 two handed sword in TotSC, better yet, you can have 4 points in two handed sword and 1 point in two handed weapon style for her ( dual classing at the right time just like above) to do some serious damage, thanks to her great dexterity you can give her the mits of ogre power and a claw of kazgaroth and let her go to work
i always do this with shar teel as well, although sometimes will do the level 6 -> 9 route if i want 5 points in longsword instead
the EEs basically made it mandatory to dual class shar-teel thanks to her ass ugly proficiency choices that beamdog gave her, although its not all doom and gloom because i usually max out her trap setting and detect illusions skills and let another thief type worry about the locks and traps and it works out pretty well
I really don’t like him, but I gotta give him that the 19 str and his low HP pairs well with a throwing axe. Especially the +2 returning one.
Give him a shield and some missile protection and keep him away from the front line. If there was a returning dagger in BG1 that would be a better option off course, but the axe works.
You can buy the reguler throwing axes until you have the returning one, but use them wisely - I remember them being heavy, but I am not sure.
The axels can be his main weapon until the end. In ToB there is a +4 returning option, and in BG1, SoD and BG2 there are some options in the +2 and +3 range.
ps. Sarevok is a much better Blackguard than Dorn. Dorns claus should be “Murder Hobo”, which fits him more.
I agree with the axe or throwing dagger suggestions, plus the daggers go well with his poison ability.
Just gonna note extremely briefly that Shar-teel does just fine as a single class fighter with the dagger of venom and a shield. Yes, her pips are still wasted, but she can fill the frontline tank role in your party just fine. Frankly, not much worse than Kagain, and she doesn't require taking the dexterity gloves. Plenty of free constitution potions in the game too.
The longbow strategy can work, especially if you recruit her later, waiting for the 32,000 XP threshold. However, you end up with only one pip in your melee weapons. This limits her contributions in some of the critical late game boss fights. The difference between what a bow Shar-Teel does versus Karoug and a dagger Shar-Teel is immense, for example.
I generally tend to think strategies in BG1 that grant you early game power as opposed to late game power are best. The simple fact is that over the course of your adventure, you're likely to acquire a crapton of gear, high-level spells, and a fat load of gold to help you. Early BG1, without cheese or extreme metagaming, can be quite hard, the resources you have access to are scarce.