Let's Vote! Mask of the Betrayer!

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Xiao_Caity, Dec 2, 2009.

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  1. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    As mentioned in my Arcanum LP thread, my copy of Arcanum is acting like a class-A bitch. And has been for the better part of a week. Needless to say, this does not make me a happy Xiao.

    However, grumpy Xiao is also crazy-prepared Xiao, and I have a whole list of backup games to LP until I get the bitch sorted - or until someone else volunteers to save Pixie from psycho manipulative pyromaniac hell.

    And top of the list the an incredibly awesome expansion campaign to a horrendously poor original campaign - Mask of the Betrayer, the first expansion to the notoriously slow, frustrating and poorly conceived OC for Neverwinter Nights 2.

    MotB is everything NWN2 wasn't. It's got a tight plot, really fun, interesting NPCs, an Influence system that doesn't suck Ao's Overgodly Balls, some absolutely gorgeous areas that take full advantage of the game's engine, and a tone that makes the game both intensely personal and frighteningly epic at the same time.

    In other words, MotB is every Dungeon Master's dream campaign. :lol:

    And y'all get to vote on how I tackle it!

    First vote will be on class, but I'm asking for a little time to write up the classes I'm willing to use, because this is D&D and a quick Pros/Cons recee is required. So don't vote yet, I'll let you know when to start throwing opinions into the metaphorical ring.
     
  2. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    BARD
    * Can't be Lawful
    * Spontaneous Arcane Casting (With lots of tasty buffs)
    * Reasonable Weapons and Armour
    * Second Best Skill Set and Skill Points in the game
    * Lore Bonuses
    * Inspirations for extra buffs
    * Bard Songs for even more buffs and a very nasty debuff

    Pros
    * Jack of All Trades
    * Social Skills like WHOA
    * Excellent Buffer
    * Passable Combatant

    Cons
    * Unfocussed
    * Their healing sucks
    * Low HP for a melee combatant

    Prestige Classes
    * Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
    * Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
    * Red Dragon Disciple

    CLERIC
    * Any Alignment
    * Lousy weapons but most armour
    * Prepared Divine Magic with Spontaneous 'Conversion' for emergency Heals (Or Inflicts!)
    * Domain Abilities
    * Turn Undead

    Pros
    * Best healer in the game, full stop, end of story
    * Divine magic means spellcasting in Full Plate 8)
    * Decent in Melee

    Cons
    * Low skill points
    * Suck offensively until high levels
    * There's a Cleric NPC and a Spirit Shaman NPC, so another Cleric isn't all that useful

    Prestige Classes
    * Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk first)

    DRUID
    * Must be at least partially Neutral
    * Prepared Divine Spellcasting with Spontaneous Conversion for 'Summon Monster' spells
    * Poor weapon choice, reasonable armour selection
    * Animal Companion
    * Lots of useful stuff for the outdoors
    * Wild Shape (turn into animals!)
    * Immune to Poison

    Pros
    * Amazing Summoners
    * Reasonably talented melee combatant
    * Animal Companion means free extra fighter
    * Some nice buffs

    Cons
    * Very Restrictive Alignment
    * Not much healing for a Divine Caster
    * Stupidly limited weapon choice
    * Animal companion can't be controlled

    Prestige Classes
    * Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk)

    FAVOURED SOUL
    * Any Alignment
    * Good Saves across the board
    * Spontaneous Divine Magic (cheesy but fun)
    * Free Weapon Proficiency/Focus/Specialisation depending on diety
    * Energy Resistance
    * Free Haste spells at Level 17
    * Damage Reduction

    Pros
    * Spontaneous Healing :D
    * Free weapon training depending on diety
    * Massive Saves
    * Resistances and Damage Reduction

    Cons
    * Crappy Skill Points
    * Awkward Spellcasting Stats (Charisma for spell level, Wisdom for power... it gets weird fast)

    Prestige Classes
    * Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Monk)

    More in the next post...
     
  3. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    MONK
    * Must be Lawful
    * High Saves across the board
    * Lousy Weapon Selection, but that really doesn't matter
    * No Armour
    * Flurry of Blows/Ki Strike/Quivering Palm
    * Evasion/Improved Evasion
    * A metric fuck-ton of self-buffs

    Pros
    * A Monk is Jackie Chan incarnate :roll:
    * d20 damage with one's hands, as opposed to a mere d8 with the Monk's best weapon
    * Tiny Buffing Gods
    * Define Epic

    Cons
    * No Armour
    * Shitty weaponry
    * Can be fiddly to use

    Prestige Classes
    * Duellist
    * Invisible Blade
    * Sacred Fist (Multiclass with Cleric, Druid or Favoured Soul)
    * Shadowdancer

    ROGUE
    * Any Alignment
    * Best Skill Set and Skill Points in the game, end of story
    * Passable weapon selection
    * Trapfinding
    * Sneak Attack!
    * Uncanny Dodge/Improved Uncanny Dodge
    * Special Rogue-Only Feats from Level 10

    Pros
    * Skill Whores
    * Only class able to do anything with traps
    * Sneak Attack!!

    Cons
    * Low HP for a melee combatant
    * Sneak Attack!!! only works on some enemies, and getting it to work on all enemies is difficult at best
    * If they can't flank or get flanked themselves, they're utterly screwed

    Prestige Classes
    * Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Sorcerer or Wizard)
    * Assassin (Evil)
    * Duellist
    * Invisible Blade
    * Shadowdancer

    SORCERER
    * Any Alignment
    * Spontaneous Arcane Casting
    * Familiar

    Pros
    * Spontaneous Casting is just plain more entertaining
    * More Spells/Day than a Wizard
    * Very Flexible

    Cons
    * Less Spells Known than a Wizard
    * Learn spells slowly
    * Can be tricky if you choose your spells on a whim or without planning

    Prestige Classes
    * Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
    * Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
    * Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Rogue)
    * Pale Master (Non-Good)
    * Red Dragon Disciple

    WARLOCK
    * Chaotic and/or Evil
    * Eldritch Blast
    * Invocations/Eldritch Essences/Blast Shapes
    * Lore Bonus
    * Damage Reduction/Energy Resistance/Fiendish Resilience

    Pros
    * We will never, ever run out of magic, EVER
    * Casting in light armour :p
    * Dispels become a minor inconvenience
    * Self-Buffing can be obscene
    * Insane damage once we hit Epic

    Cons
    * Crappy damage before Epic
    * Extremely limited selection of Invocations
    * No Prestige Classes (Not that we'll need them!)

    WIZARD
    * Any Alignment
    * Prepared Arcane Magic
    * Familiar
    * Bonus Feats

    Pros
    * More Spells Known than the Sorcerer
    * Metamagic Feats turn you into a tiny god
    * Specialisation actually means something

    Cons
    * Less Spells/Day than the Sorcerer
    * We define Squishy Mage
    * No weapons worth jack
    * No Armor

    Prestige Classes
    * Arcane Archer (Elf or Half-Elf)
    * Arcane Scholar of Candlekeep
    * Arcane Trickster (Multiclass with Rogue)
    * Pale Master
     
  4. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

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    Favoured Soul sounds fun for a LP.
     
  5. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    *pants* Alright, that's done. Vote time!

    Look at the classes outlined above. Those are the ones I'm willing to play. Decide which one you want to see me play, make a note on whether any of the available Prestige Classes sound interesting, vote. Feel free to argue amongst yourselves on this, incidentally, because I may be able to suggest alternatives should we get deadlocked on something, and because you people are fun when you argue.

    Once I feel we've got a class/classes/setup planned, I'll work out which races will fit it and the voting will begin again.

    And now, I sleep. Damn you, frail human form!
     
  6. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Warforged Soulknife.

    Failing that, I'd like to see a melee oriented bard. Get the Battle Caster feat, multiclass to Barbarian to get some nice rage going and craft yourself a suit of mithril full plate (counts as Medium Armour, being mithril and all).
     
  7. rroyo

    rroyo Active Member

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  8. Mesteut

    Mesteut New Member

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    Rogue. Go for a Duelist with the Prestige Classes.
     
  9. magikot

    magikot Well-Known Member

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  10. Charonte

    Charonte Member

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  11. Osiris

    Osiris New Member

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    To quote the second Gamers movie, "Dude, bards suck".
     
  12. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    You've seen Dorkness Rising? Awesome! Best gamer movie ever, in my opinion.
     
  13. Osiris

    Osiris New Member

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    I'm partial to the first one. Personally.
     
  14. Ramidel

    Ramidel New Member

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  15. Xiao_Caity

    Xiao_Caity New Member

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    Additional Note: I've opened voting to some guys and gals over at True Magic to get some different opinions, so voting might take a smidgen longer than it did with the Arcanum thread. Besides, those guys are pretty damn funny, and the really good questions will get answered in the main thread.
     
  16. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    You don't like the warrior classes, do you?
     
  17. Wolfsbane

    Wolfsbane Well-Known Member

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    Go red dragon disciple via warrior -> bard -> frenzied berserker, and then go blackguard to get some of the awesomest criticals in the history of...

    No warrior classes, huh? Forget what I said, then.
     
  18. Osiris

    Osiris New Member

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    I have an affinity for Mage classes. But I generally try to play a game through with a warrior or range class first.

    I'd try Druid from that list, to test out the Summoning aspect. But I'd be fearful of the Druid being too weak defensively. You stated reasonable armor. So... Why not?
     
  19. Grossenschwamm

    Grossenschwamm Well-Known Member

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    Warforged Monk. You start out with slightly higher natural armor (+2), and it's supplanted by the AC bonus you gain from either your wisdom or dexterity, as it won't stack with anything else . On top of that, your character won't fatigue, is naturally immune to disease and poisons (that aren't magical), and you can gain feats such as silver or cold-iron tracery that will bypass damage reduction from devils and demons, with your unarmed attacks.
    Unfortunately, normal warforged can't wear magical armors of any type (no shirts of defense on your monk, ect.). So, to bypass THAT, you can actually have a feat when you start out to take away the natural armor bonus inherent to the warforged, allowing you to wear all manner of magical accoutrements.
     
  20. Dark Elf

    Dark Elf Administrator Staff Member

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    Problem is, Warforged do not appear in NWN2, as it takes place in the Forgotten Realms, not Eberron. :p

    A guy in my PnP group is playing one of them robotic fuckers though. My necromancer accidentally hit him with a Ray of Sickness this weekend (which was fortunate, seeing as he couldn't be affected by it).
     
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