Recomendations for an all ranged party
Darkspell
Member Posts: 18
Hey guys i just did recently an all ranged playthrough with a PC archer with the Fire tooth crossbow, Jaheira throwing daggers, Mazzy with Tesheron/Gesen, Korgan with the returnable hammer but mostly tanking, Anomen slinging and Jan with the crimson dart, and i had a lot of fun. Thinking about repeating the dose but with a custom party instead. Can you guys give me heads up on what the most meta ranged and thrown weapons with the pc possible custom character to wield then? I did some googling but there were too many graphs and patches and updates that is hurting my head. Thanks in advance.
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One dwarf fighter (sling and warhammer) dwarf for best shorty saves and use of Dwarven Thrower warhammer later
One dwarf berserker (axes and daggers) good alignment needed for use of Azuredge, also shorty saves and berserker gives you rage for even more immunities
One halfling fighter (dart and later sling specialist) shorty saves, bonus with slings, strength not needed for darts
Very light on magic but you said 'all ranged' meaning to me that you want that your main focus. The dwarves can more than gold their own in melee too in a pinch.
dwarf fighter/cleric (sling/warhammer)
gnome fighter/Illusionist (dart/sling)
half-orc fighter/thief (daggers)
1) Starting with the dumb one - what's the difference again between 2 pips in a weapon and a grandmastery? I really want to get the most of my firing squad so i'm aiming to go full GM in most of these weapons, but i forgot the math about it and if it's really worth it.
2) Need suggestons about what kit to use for a thief that is going to dual to fighter (using thrown daggers), and at what level is the most reccomended. Also at what level do you start the game again?
3) Last but not least deciding on the 6th party member - i need a meatshield and also someone to cast basic arcane spells and i was wondering if some kinda of bard would work, singing in the frontlines and tanking with mirror image/stoneskin. Is it any good? What kit would you reccomend?
2) Swashbuckler hands down. Bonus damage, armour class and to hit. I'd go level 11 (+2 to hit, +2 damage and -3 ac)
3) Blade gets nice bonuses with its displays - offensive or defensive depending on your needs, songs aren't great but that doesn't sound like the role you want for one anyway. Skalds are ok too but high level abilities makes its bonus songs redundant (blade can get improved bard song too)
Edit: Forgot to mention, don't take any pips in daggers to start with your Swashie. They won't transfer back to your fighter when you get your levels back. I'd take longswords and darts to start. Take another pip in longswords at level 4 and whatever you want at level 8 (maybe shortbow since you can use Tuigan with some regular arrows if you want or use the Mana Bow with unlimited ammo)
I know the azuredge, my dwarf hammer thrower will be a LG non-cleric char to use it as a seconday weapon. Wished him to be full axe prof. using the +3 returnable axe and switching to azuredge for undead while the cleric handles the throwable hammer, but to get the +3 axe i need to side with Bhodi, and the hammer can only be used by dwarves, and dwarves can't dual, so he could either multi or single class cleric, which would mean no GM. Therefore a single class dwarf fighter for the hammer and azuredge, and figher -> cleric dual gets the uncool sling
Btw the question was if bards are viable as party tanks. Are they or is it a shitty option?
Sorry, thought I answered. The Blade (a bard kit) makes an excellent tank.
if you want a versatile thief you have to maximize the thieving points he has, so no kit with reduced points on leveling up and dual at a higher level to have points to grow more skills.
the proposed swash is a fighter with some better damage and thac0 and better AC, with enough points to be a good thief, but no backstab.
no arcane capability in your setup, and imo adding a bard is not going to change it much, they are powerful at the beginning as they progress faster then the mages, but as only arcane caster they have few spells/day and never get more then lev 6 spells.
i would suggest instead a dual or multi FM that is also a better ranged fighter as the blade is stuck to 1 apr.
a fm can tank with his spells and summons can help him.
and is true that a blade is a really good tank, but defensive spin (-10 ac) pin him to the ground, so to do it some finesse is needed, you must lure the enemies to try to hit him. i like to play blade, but i don't see it the perfect choice for your party.
a FM will have up to 1.5 apr more ranged (2 if dual at 13), will have high level arcane spells and can tank as good, in a party that does not really need a dedicated tank as the dwarf beserker and the F->C are good tanks.
about the slings they carry the str bonus, and a cleric can boost his str with his spells, for a damage bonus up to +14/hit at 25 str, that should be possible somewhere in soa. and if you build the 25 str hammer don't give it to the cleric, is the only one of your party that can reach that str without it, while for each other is a fantastic weapon.
also the sling damage is boosted both by the launcher and ammo enchantment, while for the other ammo the enchantment does not boost damage. so it is important that for the tough battles the sling user equip the best enchanted ammo he can use to add damage to his hits, while in minor skirmishes the regular damage of the returning sling is enough.
I don't have that button on my screen. The three buttons at the bottom are from left to right: Back, Accept, Import. The ones at the lower right of the screen from top to bottom are Biography and Cancel. What gives?
And yeah i gave up on the bard thing. Started a game with a blade charname and run through the first few rooms of irenicus dungeon and i did not like how the spins works. My problem with a fighter/mage is that he is kinda of op and will take a good chunk of damage out of my firing squad and i'd like to keep the theme on.
he can bomb the enemies with high level damaging spells and this is not good for how your pary is themed.
but he can also be the one that breach the enemy defenses, haste your fighters, summon meat shields to tank, the turbo in the engine of the party that boost the power of the others.
i would probably play a mage in the latter way in a party like yours, and would choose the dual, at lev 13, but maybe even at lev9 (1/2 apr less). the more he gets mage levels and the faster he does it the better he can cover the role of playmaker and real engine of the team, the perfect role for a charname.
about spins
offensive spin:
For the next 4 rounds the Blade gains:
Double Movement rate (the blade moves fast as if hasted, 4x if also hasted)
-2 THAC0 bonus and +2 damage rolls bonus (self explaining...)
+1 extra attack per round (does not stack with haste spells and potion apr bonus)
All attacks deal maximum damage. (with a weapon that rolls for 1D8 damage all attacks are an automatic 8)
defensive spin:
During the next 4 rounds, the Blade:
Is rooted to the spot (can not move, the only way to have him moving again is to use an offensive spin, that overrides the defensive one completely deleting its effects. up to -10 AC is a very good bonus, and some of his spells, like blurr and improved invisibility can make it even better. powerful, but tricky to use, to have your tank pinned to the ground and the enemies skipping him and reaching the other party members is quite annoying)
Gains -1 bonus to Armor Class per level, up to a maximum of -10 bonus.
you can activate the spin and move or physically attack in the same round.
you can not activate the spin and cast a spell or use the magic effect of an item (so drink a potion, use a wand, use the special effect of an item like the haste from the ring of gaxx).
for the next 4 rounds (24 seconds) the blade is under the effect of the chosen spin, after the round in which the spin is activated expires the bard can cast or use item effects for the remaining 3 rounds.
maybe is the reason why you had problems using the spin, if the toon has already used a potion or a spell in the round the spin fail to activate (but is not wasted).
No idea. What platform are you using?
@JuliusBorisov: Do you know why OP wouldn't have a Create Party button?