help me pick a class
Allbrother
Member Posts: 261
I decided I want to go through the entire saga with an archery based character
Sounds like a no-brainer - archer
Here's the kicker though - I hate being forced into an alignment. So no rangers for me, thank you very much
Also, I don't want dual or multiclass
That leaves me with base fighter, barbarian, assassin and blade
With a fighter I get great thac0, grandmastery and heavy armor but there's nothing really special about it, which kinda bugs me
With a barb I get to be a bit extravagant setup and a lot of special bonuses but they're geared towards melee and are kinda redundant for a ranged char. Sure, the immunities and increased speed could be handy but the cost is loss of grandmastery and heavy armor.
An assassin loses access to long bows & heavy armors, can't even specialize, has crap thac0 and low health... I'm not even sure why I'm considering it
There's utility of course and... does sneak attack apply to ranged weapons?
Now for the blade. The offensive roll and spellcasting sound nice but in addition to all the drawbacks of the assassin, the blade also can't be an elf. So that's another +1 to hit and damage out the window
So... am I missing something (or some class)? Any input, advice... help me decide
Sounds like a no-brainer - archer
Here's the kicker though - I hate being forced into an alignment. So no rangers for me, thank you very much
Also, I don't want dual or multiclass
That leaves me with base fighter, barbarian, assassin and blade
With a fighter I get great thac0, grandmastery and heavy armor but there's nothing really special about it, which kinda bugs me
With a barb I get to be a bit extravagant setup and a lot of special bonuses but they're geared towards melee and are kinda redundant for a ranged char. Sure, the immunities and increased speed could be handy but the cost is loss of grandmastery and heavy armor.
An assassin loses access to long bows & heavy armors, can't even specialize, has crap thac0 and low health... I'm not even sure why I'm considering it
There's utility of course and... does sneak attack apply to ranged weapons?
Now for the blade. The offensive roll and spellcasting sound nice but in addition to all the drawbacks of the assassin, the blade also can't be an elf. So that's another +1 to hit and damage out the window
So... am I missing something (or some class)? Any input, advice... help me decide
0
Comments
Elf only gives you +1 to hit
While being shoe horned into an alignment sucks, Archer really is the best way to go about this. Your alignment only affects your starting reputation however. As long as you keep your reputation above 7, you can still progress as an archer.
[Spoiler]Evil dream rewards start coming in at reputation 9. Although for maximum effectiveness you should want your last 2 dreams to be good for draw upon holy might, further improving your Arrowiffic devastation[/Spoiler]
It's not about gameplay mechanics really, it just seriously annoys me when an alignment is shoved down my throat, making me feel like I have to play my char a certain way
Edit:
Also, fallen rangers and paladins lose all their class-specific bonuses and abilities
In the archer's case that means all the thac0 and damage bonuses, call shot and druid spells
That would just leave me with a gimped fighter
@elminster
I haven't ruled those four out. On the contrary, I've narrowed it down to them.
I was just laying down my thoughts on them, hoping to get advice on which to pick
As for the wizard slayer - spell failure STILL doesn't apply to ranged attack. That was a let down... I thought the devs were out to fix the broken stuff.
Anyway, if it did apply, that would've been my first choice but as it stands I lose the only advantage this kit has
I was going to suggest Fallen Archer as well!
So fallen archers can't add proficiency points to bow? That seems silly. No reason why a fallen nature warrior couldn't continue to get better at warrior stuff, right?
They haven't, I tested it
And yeah, I know it's not gonna be as good as the archer. I'm quite content to settle for the runner-up. Just trying to figure out which one it is
And yeah, I know whose fault my quiet descent to insanity is
Although it does feel like your cheating the entire time
As for the alignment thing, how would playing CG, let's say, really pose a problem in practice? Because you don't have to save the world as a CG character. CG is ruggedly individualistic, indifferent to law and order, with a "streak" of kindness and benevolence.
I'm playing a CG Fighter-Mage right now with a mercenary bent and mixed alignment party. In order not to have rep get above 18 I'm not doing the quests that get rewarded with +1 rep. (Or I might do them, but just don't speak with the questgiver at the end.) Simply from following the plotline and not being evil, rep is creeping up, though. I'm soon going to have to invent to creative ways to have evil (Dorn, Viconia) and chaotic (Neera) party members act up so that I lose some reputation points. But that sort of adds to the fun of the game.
If you're reputation goes above 18, I believe you can kick Viconia out instantly resulting in a +2 increase (But only goes up to 20) and then invite her back into the party dropping you back down to 18.
Imoen, can get caught practicing her burglary skills, as if she's just working on improving her skills at picking locks. But otherwise I'm kind of looking forward to the creative challenge of having Dorn, Viconia, and Neera do things that can lead to a loss of rep. I'm going to avoid having Dorn and Viconia wantonly kill. But I want to see if bar fights and use of some of their powers that aren't intended to kill (at least not directly) can get them into trouble. Neera I can have practice magic in a public place and eventually something will go awry.
Thanks, FrozenCells and thanks to everyone else for pitching in