Assistance Needed - Herald of Talos

[Garn Greymoon]

Hi everyone, so I'm relatively new. I started two weeks ago and thus far I've already made numerous mistakes so I'm hoping to get your assistance in helping me flesh out a build.

The theme is as follows:

Herald of Talos

A warrior who fights with spear and shield, fueled by the god of storms and thunder. I'm drawing a lot from norse mythology here.

I've come up with a rough build and would like your input and suggestions on if I should change anything to meet the following wants.

http://nwn2db.com/build/?242145

Skills:

Spellcraft
Tumble
UMD
Search / Spot / Listen (any are fine)
Survival / Knowledge Nature would be nice

This guy is from around the Spine of the World, he doesn't know much about the world but the frozen Tundra, he is a survivalist and almost primal in a way.

Now in a perfect world I would love for this guy to have epic divine might or epic divine shield to further represent his connection to Talos, not to mention it's a mighty fine feat! The character will be in the thick of things for the most part.

Thanks in advance for any tips and suggestions!

[fearknight2003]

The low dexterity will hurt your AC.

[Tsidkenu]

That build cannot qualify for EDM because there is no class granting you turn undead. You'd have a MUCH easier time with a NE Favoured Soul/Stormlord/Blackguard. You get Charisma to saves, heavy armour proficiency from blackguard and you wont miss half the extra fighter feats you chose at all really. You wont get tower shield prof unless you use a feat to get it, and BG/SL has few feats to spare.

FS 17/SL 10/BG 3 (or FS 16/BG 4 if you also want divine shield).

You don't need 15 tumble if its cross class; no point going past 10 (+1 AC)
You don't need 33 spellcraft if you're not getting Entropic Husk (or RP reasons); stop at 30.
Drop Persistent spell; it does not exist on our server (replace Persistent spell for one of Toughness or Divine Shield at the leve you have it in your build)
Drop disarm; its not that useful, knockdown is better if you want a combat feat like that (or cleave, to qualify for Blackguard)
Pick Divine Might on your 3rd level of Blackguard (this must be on a feat level, eg level 9, 12, 15 etc)
OPTIONAL - Pick Divine Shield on your 4th level of Blackguard (as above, this must be on a feat level)

End stats should be 21 STR, 21 CHA to qual for EDM around level 29 or so. You can use +3 Str/Cha items to have 24 (+7) and then omit even taking Eagle's Splendour (but still take Bulls as a spell because its useful to cast on party members if they need it). I personally would drop INT to 14 and put 2 points into CHA (16 base) and 2 points into your choice of Dex or Con. That will free up an extra epic feat you wont need to spend on one of Great Str II or Great Cha II for EDM.

You can, of course, take a small dip in fighter as well as Blackguard to help you with a few feats (esp at level 1), but you really want to aim for 30 caster level so that you don't get dispelled by epic level spellcasters (PvE or PvP). That means you will either have to sacrifice a few Fighter flavour feats for more spellcasting power, or spellcasting power for the extra fighter feats.

*shrug*

[finneas]

You cant get to CL 30 with that split on our server I don't think. Stormlord is only 6/10 here so with Blackguard 3 the best you could do is CL 27 even with practiced spellcaster. FS 20/SL 10 would probably work. FS is strong enough of on its own here at any rate.

[Tsidkenu]

Ah I did not read the custom change that SL was changed to a 6/10 CL class. Not that it really matters to me because I'll never build one for myself.

*shrug*

[finneas]

I messed around with trying to build one a few years back but I really detest playing anything that casts spells. Just figured I'd throw in that info for whoever was building one here though.

[Garn Greymoon]

Thanks for the advice and tips everyone, I appreciate it. Now let me ask this, is it worth going to EDM / EDS or would that better be used for other feats and spare ability points?

Also with no fighter / bg that would mean no heavy armor without taking the feat. Is it critical to try to hit that 30 CL?

[Tsidkenu]

When a single Greater Dispel turns your Avatar of Destruction into a flailing bowl of soggy ramen, you'll wish you had higher CL, yes.

If you want a slice & dicer, which Stormlords tend to be with all their weapon enhancement abilities, then EDM greatly assists in that end. Given how the class has been altered on our server for balance reasons, it could work with a pure cleric build to qualify for EDM and get 30 CL but EDM clerics put such a huge strain on starting stats its not funny (you basically need 16 STR, 16 WIS & 16 CHA to start, which means your other three stats are 8!)

Stormlord can get away without EDM due to their other innate weapon enhancement feats. FS 20/SL 10 is the easiest way to go about that. Given you don't need to min-max for EDM with such a build, you can just buy Heavy Armour Prof with one of the many feats you'll have for not trying to qualify for EDM (EDM is a 3 feat investment - Power Attack, Divine Might, Epic Divine Might). You can also max out STR, eschewing WIS entirely and leaving CHA at 16 with a +3 CHA item to grant access to 7-9th level spells.

[Theodore01]

and most take monkey grip to use a shield with a spear.

[Garn Greymoon]

Ok based on some of the suggestions I've updated to FS 20 / SL 10, let me know how it looks. I'm half tempted to take some feats to increase saves. I think I got the CL up to 30 now. Also half thought of switching out some great charisma > great constitution from some extra hp.

Lastly how are some of the custom server feats? Like rune of lightning?

http://nwn2db.com/build/?242145

Thanks again!

[Thorsson]

You don't need 15 tumble if its cross class; no point going past 10 (+1 AC)

This is not correct. You will need an adjusted Tumble score of 14 to avoid attacks of opportunity completely. Given the armor/shield malus that probably means you want to max out the ranks.

I would also point out that followers of Talos cannot be Lawful. I think that they're also KoS in some places, due to "His dogma is self-serving, demanding utter obedience from his priests and instructing them to spread destruction where they may."

[OrcHomelandCampaign]

Has anyone mentioned the difficulties of playing a Stormlord as your one of first characters on the server, after only a couple weeks here?

[TheTwiste11491]

Ok based on some of the suggestions I've updated to FS 20 / SL 10, let me know how it looks. I'm half tempted to take some feats to increase saves. I think I got the CL up to 30 now. Also half thought of switching out some great charisma > great constitution from some extra hp.

Lastly how are some of the custom server feats? Like rune of lightning?

http://nwn2db.com/build/?242145

Thanks again!

You wont need Spellcasting Proidigy your spells would have low dcs anyways and able learner or another feat would be better here. Also on your favored soul resistances pick anything but electrical because Stormlord makes you immune to electric damage.

[Garn Greymoon]

Great suggestions. I'll switch out prodigy for for able learner. Then adjust the resistance to something else. This guy will primarily be using his spells for enhancements to his melee. So perhaps also taking some great cha > great con or str.

He's not a priest yet. A favored soul per dnd doesn't necessarily know he's a chosen of God x y z. Also no one would really know unless your meta gaming. Story and narrative aside my goal is define a clear mechanical plan for him since I freely admit I'm extremely rusty on my 3.X building.

[finneas]

Has anyone mentioned the difficulties of playing a Stormlord as your one of first characters on the server, after only a couple weeks here?

If someone has a desire for a certain character idea I say go for it. Who are we to tell someone what they should or shouldn't play? They will surely have more fun playing a concept they are interested in than one they are not.