New Players

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2015 13:03:43 GMT -5 Mystic Warden said:

Just an idea: it would be good to have a forum sub-section (we can call it "What's up in Cormyr?"), listing each major settlement/geographical area in a separate thread, and with each, the current status of things there which are considered common knowledge. Even some rumors, as there are always rumors when something is not clearly known.

It would help a lot the new players, also old ones like me, who is not an expert on FR lore, to get on speed and more easily involved in the plots. Not to mention that server canon is different to FR canon.

I know we have a thread about what's happening in the realm, but with the format I suggested the information would be more clear-cut and faster and easier to find.

+1

Have seen and contributed to this sort of format on a couple other servers in the past, super helpful.

Maybe organize a sub-forum called current events that starts with Announced Quest then would have subforums for different regions/cities.

One stop shop for what is going on in Cormyr.

Could also have a History sub-forum, that starts at present day and 'archives' summaries of major happenings for 'server' memory.

[Deleted]

Nov 26, 2015 13:03:43 GMT -5 Mystic Warden said:

Just an idea: it would be good to have a forum sub-section (we can call it "What's up in Cormyr?"), listing each major settlement/geographical area in a separate thread, and with each, the current status of things there which are considered common knowledge. Even some rumors, as there are always rumors when something is not clearly known.

It would help a lot the new players, also old ones like me, who is not an expert on FR lore, to get on speed and more easily involved in the plots. Not to mention that server canon is different to FR canon.

I know we have a thread about what's happening in the realm, but with the format I suggested the information would be more clear-cut and faster and easier to find.

Yeah... I've been meaning to set up a section of "ask the staff anything" and "Timeline and Events" forum.

[Mystic Warden]

With this format, basic geographical and other information can also be added, rounding out the look of a place for the players even outside the NWN engine limitations.

[Ryoko Honda]

So, in terms of builds. Doing bladesinger build. I was thinking about Ranger 3, Wizard 7, Bladesinger 20? Does anyone have recommendations?

The idea is too, start off melee at first, and then acquire wizard skills later, then build up Bladesinger. Though I have few questions.

Can Epic spells be taken with Bladesinger PRC?

Would it just be better too do- Wizard 20, Bladesinger 10, ?

Could anyone post a build? hehe

[FaeFae]

Nov 26, 2015 18:34:50 GMT -5 Ryoko Honda said:

So, in terms of builds. Doing bladesinger build. I was thinking about Ranger 3, Wizard 7, Bladesinger 20? Does anyone have recommendations?

The idea is too, start off melee at first, and then acquire wizard skills later, then build up Bladesinger. Though I have few questions.

Can Epic spells be taken with Bladesinger PRC?

Would it just be better too do- Wizard 20, Bladesinger 10, ?

Could anyone post a build? hehe

You will need 9th level spells and an effective character level of 21 to qualify for Epic Spells. Bladesinger does have spellcasting progression so it would work if you meet the other per-requisites.

It seems like a melee class, so if you want 4 attacks per round you'll need 16 AB before 20 - so mixing with Ranger would help considerably in that regard. I don't know much about building, however!

Something to keep in mind is that the server has a script which requires a certain amount of RP XP in order to progress a level. It begins at level 8, with a 1000 requirement, and you can earn 300 a day with the exception of any quest you might find yourself on. That's 3.3 days for level 9, 6.6 for level 10, 10 for 11, and on from there. It's going to be a considerable amount of time investment and the server is fairly generous on re-levels so if you make a mistake, you can always request going back to fix it.

[Ryoko Honda]

Yes. I am aware of the slow level progression. I just like to have my build guide made before i start anything. That way that stress is solved, and I can just focus on palying, and knowing what I need to take as I level.

[Deleted]

Bladesinger has 1 caster level for every two levels progression, so if you want epic level spells you'll need to mix in more wizard.

Also keep in mind that it would be very difficult to get a +20 bladesinger AC bonus and I'm not sure you'd want to, as the bonus is a dodge bonus which would count against the total max dodge bonus.

By level 11 or 13 of bladesinger you've pretty much tapped out all that bladesinger can give you, unless you go really heavy INT (its a 36 to get +13 even, which isn't undoable just slightly lopsided) investment. You'll want a touch of strength for damage at least so you may prefer to be a touch more balanced.

I would look at Ranger 3/Wizard 7/Bladesinger 10 for level 20, Ranger 3/Wizard 16/Bladesinger 11 for level 30

That will give you 21 caster levels for epic spells, +11 on AC from bladesinger bonus (with a dodge bonus from boots and haste that will close to max out your 20 dodge bonus), and 4 attacks at level 20 (5 with song of fury).

You could go Ranger 3/Wizard 14/Bladesinger 13 and still hit all of those as well, but you might find that the early access to higher level spells (mind blank especially) is more valuable than the extra +1 to AC.

[Ryoko Honda]

Nov 26, 2015 19:06:30 GMT -5  @blessedcursenwn said:

Bladesinger has 1 caster level for every two levels progression, so if you want epic level spells you'll need to mix in more wizard.

Also keep in mind that it would be very difficult to get a +20 bladesinger AC bonus and I'm not sure you'd want to, as the bonus is a dodge bonus which would count against the total max dodge bonus.

By level 11 or 13 of bladesinger you've pretty much tapped out all that bladesinger can give you, unless you go really heavy INT (its a 36 to get +13 even, which isn't undoable just slightly lopsided) investment. You'll want a touch of strength for damage at least so you may prefer to be a touch more balanced.

I would look at Ranger 3/Wizard 7/Bladesinger 10 for level 20, Ranger 3/Wizard 16/Bladesinger 11 for level 30

That will give you 21 caster levels for epic spells, +11 on AC from bladesinger bonus (with a dodge bonus from boots and haste that will close to max out your 20 dodge bonus), and 4 attacks at level 20 (5 with song of fury).

You could go Ranger 3/Wizard 14/Bladesinger 13 and still hit all of those as well, but you might find that the early access to higher level spells (mind blank especially) is more valuable than the extra +1 to AC.

This is very helpful thank you!

[Fire Wraith]

We're generally quite willing to let people tinker with their build and relevel later (as long as it's not changing the core character concept, or the like), so no need to stress on it too much.

Generally, here are some thoughts for bladesinger-centric:

First, we look at the requirements:
Base Attack: +5
Feats: Combat Casting, Dodge, Expertise, Still Spell, Weapon Focus (longsword) or (rapier)
Skills: Concentration 4+ ranks, Lore 3+ ranks, Tumble 3+ ranks.

This is a total of 5 feats, which is probably your biggest hurdle. If you take it off of pure wizard, you can do it by level 9 (4 core + level 5 wizard bonus feat), but you can probably do it a bit earlier depending on what you other class is. I'm assuming that we're going with Wizard as your spellcasting class. Sorcerer and Bard are about to become usable for this, but then you suffer from a lack of stat synergy, since Bladesinger gets its main bonus from Intelligence, so I'd consider them less ideal for that purpose.

As far as your third class,  You might be better off with pure Fighter, though Eldritch Knight is also a possibility, since while that requires WP:Martial, it also gives you a free feat, so is a wash. Here are some thoughts on pros/cons:

Ranger - isn't bad, but you won't be able to make use of their free dual-weapon stuff since it negates your Bladesinger bonuses. The extra skill points probably won't be all that big since you'll have a lot from high INT anyway.
Fighter - extra melee feats. You can take this if you want to have better lower-level combat ability, since it will allow you to get to Bladesinger slightly earlier (probably starting around level 7, as a 3 ftr/4wiz is eligible to take Bladesinger if you pick your feats right).
Eldritch Knight - this would be a route for better magical ability. At level 5 wizard, you can take EK if you've picked WP:Martial as a feat. This is somewhat of a waste as an elf (you've already got WP:Elf for Rapier), but EK gets a free combat feat to make up for it. You'll get to Wiz5/EK4 and be able to start taking Bladesinger levels. This is probably the route I'd recommend offhand, since it gives you several extra caster levels.
Divine Champion - Doesn't really work too well because of the AB requirement. You'd already be into Bladesinger territory by the time you pick this up.
Duelist - Int bonus doesn't stack with the Bladesinger one. The feats requirements aren't bad (you'll have or want most of them anyway) but the AB requirement puts it into post Bladesinger level range as well.
Barbarian - Probably doesn't fit thematically for anyone save a wild elf, and rage isn't all that useful for a dex/finesse type.

So assuming we go with EK, the build looks something like this:

1 wiz -> 5 wiz -> 5wiz/4ek -> 5wiz/4ek/1bs -> 5wiz/5ek/10bs

You get a base AB of +17 at 20th level, and cast spells as a 15th level wizard.

Other notes:
Taking the feat "Practised Spellcaster - Wizard" will give you a +4 caster level bonus for duration/damage/etc, up to your character level, meaning that you'd still have 15th level spell slots and such, but for duration etc you'd be level 19 effectively, with that setup.

[Ryoko Honda]

You rock fire, ty! That is also very helpful!

[Fire Wraith]

As far as stats, I'd suggest sticking to DEX and INT. As most elven subraces, you'll get a bonus to one or the other (Sun Elves get +2Int, Moon Elves the standard +2dex, etc). Your target INT will probably be 20 (to let you cast 9th level spells), since with gear/buffs at/near epic you should be able to get +12 int on top of that, giving you 32 for +11 AC bonus.

This leaves the rest pretty much for Dex. If you use rapiers and take Weapon Finesse, you can put your Dex into attack bonus as well, so this is a pretty solid way to go. (There are also some pretty nice weapon models for elven-style blades as NWN rapiers)

If we assume you start with 16 in one and 16+2 in the other, you'll probably hit around 20 in each by epic levels. I'm not sure if that's the best way to go, as you may want to just get to 18 with natural + buffs and use Elven Chain armor (which caps at +4 dex), and put the rest into Int. But it's something to think about.

[Ryoko Honda]

So my biggest concern is being versatile at the low levels since I'm going to be living there for while with slow lvl progression.

[Fire Wraith]

At lower levels you'll be mostly a wizard under that build, though your spell progression slows after level 9. You should be pretty decent AB wise at least, once you start picking up EK levels.

[Deleted]

If you go dex/int eldritch knight, the only thing I'll caution is that you are going to probably gravitate to melee with that ridiculous AC you'll have and remember a 20 roll always wins so you get diminishing returns at the really top end of AC, especially if you plan to get epic mage armor. Sometimes uber-specializing in AC can be not quite as good as almost as good.

You will miss the extra melee damage of your strength/longsword/weapon specialization (4-6 point loss per hit for rapier and maxed dex build x 5 attacks = you'll miss it) especially since with elven chain mail you are really only talking about a 3-4 point swing in top end AC.

On another server with similar bladesinger setup I played a Fighter 4/Wizard 12/Bladesinger 11, low levels were tough but consumables at that time there were harder to come by, on CD that is not the case, its not the ultimate solo build but its not bad. Slower to pick up caster levels, but you make up with scrolls and the extra weapon damage. But by the time that character was mid epic, it was fairly ridiculous to the point where 9th level spells were fun toys to play with.

Here I played an wizard/eldritch knight/bladesinger that used a longsword. Not a bad mix, probably my best solo character to date. Strength/Int with just enough dex.

[Darvins]

Nov 26, 2015 19:29:29 GMT -5 Fire Wraith said:

As far as stats, I'd suggest sticking to DEX and INT. As most elven subraces, you'll get a bonus to one or the other (Sun Elves get +2Int, Moon Elves the standard +2dex, etc). Your target INT will probably be 20 (to let you cast 9th level spells), since with gear/buffs at/near epic you should be able to get +12 int on top of that, giving you 32 for +11 AC bonus.

This leaves the rest pretty much for Dex. If you use rapiers and take Weapon Finesse, you can put your Dex into attack bonus as well, so this is a pretty solid way to go. (There are also some pretty nice weapon models for elven-style blades as NWN rapiers)

If we assume you start with 16 in one and 16+2 in the other, you'll probably hit around 20 in each by epic levels. I'm not sure if that's the best way to go, as you may want to just get to 18 with natural + buffs and use Elven Chain armor (which caps at +4 dex), and put the rest into Int. But it's something to think about.

Yeah a Dex-Rapier Bladesinger is the best way to go, it's possible to do Longsword but your then being pulled in too many different directions in the build and well. Not saying it's impossible to get a good one that way, just it becomes a very thin wire your walking, and a step wrong will leave you tumbling into a lake of fire. While of course the strongest builds are not the point, Bladesinger is one of those PRC's that has no middle ground, your either kickass or you die every fight, and the latter is no fun at all. Also if you do go Rapier I'll get Galdern out of the cub-board he's originally from Evereska too so, it'll be fun.