Ideal Stats for a Blade
Dragonspear
Member Posts: 1,838
I've finally settled down on what I want for my first character and I've decided that I want her to be a Blade.
The problem is the best you can manage is 10, 18, 16, 18, 10, 18
I want strength so I can hit things, preferably without requiring a belt or a mage spell, on the other hand I want the high int to improve my Lore, I can't decrease my wisdom so I can keep my Lore, I need 18 Cha since I'm running with an evil party and the 18 dex (yay pickpocket) and 16 con speak for themselves.
This is going to be my following party setup:
Blade: Debating between a Crossbow or bow at the start and Longswords and then getting points in dual wield at 4 and 8 or whether to go 1 into longsword and 1 into dual wield at the start.
Dorn: Rawr 2h Sword Slash
Monty: Trap finder, might try to use him for backstab but really have a lack of front line at the moment, at least until lateish game with my bard and defensive spin
Viconia: It's a tough job but someone has to heal it
Xzar: One of the Job Arcana.
Edwin: The other Job Arcanist.
Except for Monty the party SHOULD level exceptionally fast. But early game I will be exceptionally frail relying on sleep, blind, web, etc as my mages/bard/viccy go up in power. If I pick bows, then Dorn will probably end up taking Crossbows and vice versa. Also considering giving Xzar a dual class into cleric to double up on the divine but I don't think I'll need it.
Anyway as the topic says, what would you do stat wise for the bard. The wisdom tomes are likely going Viconia, will probably give Con to Dorn, and otherwise the rest will probably go on my main (depending on how high strength I start out with. Otherwise its mage strength when I go into melee combat and possibly increasing Monty's strength or giggling my way to Dorn having 20 str.
The problem is the best you can manage is 10, 18, 16, 18, 10, 18
I want strength so I can hit things, preferably without requiring a belt or a mage spell, on the other hand I want the high int to improve my Lore, I can't decrease my wisdom so I can keep my Lore, I need 18 Cha since I'm running with an evil party and the 18 dex (yay pickpocket) and 16 con speak for themselves.
This is going to be my following party setup:
Blade: Debating between a Crossbow or bow at the start and Longswords and then getting points in dual wield at 4 and 8 or whether to go 1 into longsword and 1 into dual wield at the start.
Dorn: Rawr 2h Sword Slash
Monty: Trap finder, might try to use him for backstab but really have a lack of front line at the moment, at least until lateish game with my bard and defensive spin
Viconia: It's a tough job but someone has to heal it
Xzar: One of the Job Arcana.
Edwin: The other Job Arcanist.
Except for Monty the party SHOULD level exceptionally fast. But early game I will be exceptionally frail relying on sleep, blind, web, etc as my mages/bard/viccy go up in power. If I pick bows, then Dorn will probably end up taking Crossbows and vice versa. Also considering giving Xzar a dual class into cleric to double up on the divine but I don't think I'll need it.
Anyway as the topic says, what would you do stat wise for the bard. The wisdom tomes are likely going Viconia, will probably give Con to Dorn, and otherwise the rest will probably go on my main (depending on how high strength I start out with. Otherwise its mage strength when I go into melee combat and possibly increasing Monty's strength or giggling my way to Dorn having 20 str.
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Comments
@Quartz
I summon you and your knowledge bombs.
15 should be enough charisma. Just learn the first level Friends spell for when you need a face (+6 cha).
On my blade I dropped wis to seven since I'm planning on using all the tomes on CHARNAME anyway.
Lore is mostly just a convenience, honestly. You can always memorize a bunch of IDs for whenever
INT isn't super important for bards. All it determines is number of spells scribable per level and scribing success rate. The latter can be addressed with int raising potions, and with 16 int you'll have plenty of space for the good spells per level.
You reduce those stats as suggested, and you could then pump STR to 18, dramatically improving your melee success.
If you're going to dump all the tomes on yourself, wouldn't it make sense to drop Con by 1, and put that point either into Cha (allows you a natural 18 with a pickpocketable cloak) or int for a higher chance of scroll scribing?
My default blade build is pretty much what you've got going on, except because I whore out all tomes on myself I go down to 7 wisdom (all 3 = 10 = no more lore penalty).
I disagree with Deucetipher's opinion of INT. I'd rather have a high INT score than a high strength score. Strength is as easy as liberal applications of the mage spell "Strength" anyway, which you should whore like like crazy. Even if you get 18, you can only get 18 without exceptional bonuses, so casting the spell is technically better anyway. Maxing INT means less reloads due to the game screwing you out of spells, or simply just max spells known per level. Both of which are pretty neat. Also even if you do hit a penalty to lore by nerfing your wisdom, it's not that big a deal because the INT will boost it back up so at level 3 or 4, identifying anything should be cake.
I do agree with his opinion of Charisma. Charisma is such a joke stat, really. Bard's minimum required charisma + Friends = MORE charisma than you need to hit the max shop bonus. Or, you could just use the charisma book to get it to 16, then equip Algernon's Cloak (you can steal it yourself as a blade!) to sit at 18.
With the same theoretical roll that you came up with, you could go 17 strength, 7 wisdom, 15 charisma instead and have a much more dangerous toon out of the gate.
I also HIGHLY recommend doing my patented Friendly Arm Inn/Beregost Pyramid Leveling Scheme. Just those two zones with your PC and Imoen or some other plucky NPC before talking to or picking up any other guy. You should easily hit 2 or 3 from the quest experience, and the most difficult thing you get to do is fight the Spiders in Beregost (which you can just not do that part if it's too hard). Very little combat involved, as completing all the quests in both those zones is basically hobgoblins, ogres and Silke. You can either have an entire party full of guys at 2 or 3 before going into Nashkel, or not have them at level 3 til you clear half the entire coast. They really should have made it so all those quests offered quest XP rather than XP split up between your entire party.
Honestly, I don't think there are any real benefits to having a CHA north of 20. Friends puts me above 20 from whenever I can start casting spells. I usually pull it off some random monster before I have to buy it as well. You miss out on some loot in candlekeep, but other than that it's not too bad.
I don't drop CON to 15 because I like to do no reload runs, and I like having that extra hit point when I run into a wolf on the coast way. It's not totally useless, as I can sacrifice it in the dream sequence in BG2, assuming I live that long. My Int is probably a little high, because if you're willing to use INT pots, you can get away with 16 or even 15 if you mass-scribe spells.
EDIT:
Sorry, was drafting this post and didn't see sandman's post till after I submitted. Sandman, what about the benefits of STR 19 w/tomes? That lets you net an additional +2 to your thac0, including over the Strength spell.
Getting str and dex up to 19 with tomes, and 16 int and 13 wis and 16 cha (plus algernons cloak).
I gave the con tome to Yeslick :-)
Str: 18
Dex: 18
Con: 16
Int: 18
Wisdom: 9
Cha: 15
I think I'm going to go ahead with Longsword and Xbow for my 2 initial weapons, and might put 1 point into single weapon style next in the early game just to have it.
This still allows me to get my lore up relatively fast (only requires 1 wisdom tome which means I can still give 2 to Viconia should I desire, otherwise I can just take it to 12 for no reason), and with a Charisma tome and Alagorns Cloak I can have 18 Charisma without a friends spell.
The only two times I'm really going to be lenient with reloads is pick pocketting or role-playing while turning in quests. I've played good for so long, I'm literally completely turning myself on my head by playing evil. For example, I just killed the ogre, and unless its a decent amount of XP and gold, chances are I'll prolly reload and just keep the belt instead. It's not MY fault that they lost it to the Ogre. And I said that I'd get it back for them. I just never specified WHEN I'd return with it.
17, 17, 6, 18. 18 15 ....
**** you 6.
However, her 18 int is making her wonder whether she really should have pissed off that crotchity old grey haired baffoon with the pointy hat along the road. We'll see if she's more civil to that guy in the future. Or if her ego kicks back in.
Went with Ninjato and Shortbow. Ninjato don't break and are d8 slashing, so that's nice, and bows have 2 attacks.
Spoilers follow.
BG2, in part. Tuigan bow is available early and is really good, and Gesen is pretty awesome to use against hard to hit enemies (Adamantite golems, Kangaxx, etc.). IIRC you could also use ammo with the gesen and stack the lightning with the regular damage, for something like 1d8+1d6 damage (though you no longer get the benefit of of the +4 hittable marker). Tansheron's Bow did something similar, but I liked Gesens +4 enchantment for determining what is hittable.
I don't like accessing WK till after SoA because it can make SoA trivial, so I won't have access to Firetooth till ToB.
In BG you lose out on the Army Scythe, The Dead Shot, and Composite Long Bow +1 but the Eagle Bow is pretty good in its own right. It loses one point of to hit v. Dead Shot or one point of damage vs. composite. Vs. Army Scythe, you get 3-8 damage instead of 2-9, and it used to grant STR bonuses, weirdly enough. I'm not sure if that is still the case. Haven't made it to BG yet.
To be fair, you can get Army Scythe extremely early in the game.
Taken as a whole, I prefer shortbows, even if Eagle no longer grants STR bonuses.
STR: 18
DEX: 18
CON: 18
INT: 18
WID: 7
CHA: 15
I actully rolled those stats a total of 3 times, (scrapped the first to change a proficiency, the second to change alignment). The first 2 times took remarkably little time for such a high roll (like 20-30 min), the 3rd time I rolled longer than I care to say. Anyways if you're wondering why I have 18 CON, it's to use the claw of kazgaroth.
Human True Neutral Blade
Str 15 Dex 16 Con 15 Int 17 Wis 10 Cha 18 profs - short sword and long bow (next profs on two weapons style)
Not an overpowered physical character , but I also made it that way for roleplaying reasons :
-blades aren't really fighters , they know how to swing a blade , and know tricks on how to look intimidating , but they're still artists.
-I gave him a high charisma and intelligence 'cause he's a natural leader - all blades have an air of self confidence, I suppose. Having a lore of 5 per level still helps the party, and charisma 18 provides some benefits in BG, such as trading discounts and some reaction benefits in dialogues.
-Short sword proficiency is good 'cause in BG2 there is a short sword which provides an extra attack (there's also a scimitar that does the same) , in BG1 there are great short swords (a sw +2 and a sw+3 ).
This is my first time through EE, so I didn't know they changed the Eagle. I stand by my reasoning with the information I had at the time.
Combines bard, thief, and versatility.
Abilites:
- normal bard songs
- gains open locks and detect / disarm traps
- can put maximum points into any weapon style
- 4 proficiency points to spend at level 1
- 10 thief points per level
- No backstabs, snares or set traps ability. Bard HLAs only.
Then you have an ideal solo class without having to dual class.