The Ultimate Dwarven Defender

[Deathgrowl]

3.) Deities are alignment-based. To enable Auril, Silvanus or Istishia for example, you need to be lawful neutral. Eldath is the only option if you're lawful good, and no water deity is available to you if you're lawful evil.

For choosing Auril you have to be lawful evil, as she is neutral evil.

Oddly enough Lawful and Chaotic evil aren't available to clerics of Auril:
Cleric alignment: CN, NE, LN
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Auril

This is according to Faiths and Pantheons as well, so it's not just a weird NWN2 thing. I guess she's a little bit druidistic and wants her people to be neutral in one way?

[Theodore01]

Oddly enough Lawful and Chaotic evil aren't available to clerics of Auril:
Cleric alignment: CN, NE, LN
http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Auril

This is according to Faiths and Pantheons as well, so it's not just a weird NWN2 thing. I guess she's a little bit druidistic and wants her people to be neutral in one way?

I tried to choose her with a lawful neutral char. ingame - Auril is not available .
The only alignments ingame, which do allow to choose her, are: NE, LE, CE.

also from the wiki: http://nwn2.wikia.com/wiki/Cleric

Alignment Restrictions: A Cleric’s alignment must be within one step of his deity’s (that is, it may be one step away on either the lawful–chaotic axis or the good–evil axis, but not both). A Cleric may not be neutral unless his deity’s alignment is also neutral. For example, if your deity is neutral good, you can be lawful good, neutral good, chaotic good, or lawful neutral, but not True Neutral.

So regarding to that: Should she also have true neutral worshippers

[TheKai]

From a more RP perspective, and asking with a genuine interest, how does the Mordinsamman and their clerics view dwarven clerics of other gods? Like these water gods, for example? Even if just a three level dip, I would think to maintain being a cleric would require some kind of worship and prayer besides the every now and again "Thank you for the smooth seas and rain".

I've seen Elves express their feelings towards non-Seldarine elven clerics. Is it the same way?

EDIT: And I just read the description for a DD:

The dwarven defender is a sponsored champion of a dwarven cause, a dwarf aristocrat, a dwarven deity, or the dwarven way of life.

[ozmiz]

From a more RP perspective, and asking with a genuine interest, how does the Mordinsamman and their clerics view dwarven clerics of other gods?

The dwarven defender is a sponsored champion of a dwarven cause, a dwarf aristocrat, a dwarven deity, or the dwarven way of life.

When I read that description, I read it as,
"Champion of:
Dwarven Cause (OR)
Dwarven Aristocrat (OR)
Dwarven Deity (OR)
Dwarven way life"

I'm seeing "or", not "and".... it could be one or more, but doesn't mean it is all of those. Like in the description, a Dwarven Defender could just be some Snootty, rich Dwarfs Champion.

[Thorsson]

Yeah, it's like a Dwarven Bodyguard.

[ozmiz]

Well since you could be a Champion of a Dwarven way of life, it might would be fun to RP a dwarf that champions Drinking, the art of brewing, the purity of Ales, Hops, Wines and Meads.


Edit: Wonder what Deity would best fit that RP?

[AlwaysSummer Day]

Hey Karond, when the update rolls out are there any changes you would make to this build? I was thinking about rolling one but am not sure about weapon choice/if any new skills or feats are too good to pass up.

[Karond]

With the dispel fix and so on, this build just stands out more and more as a titan. People will get dispelled more, can't rely as much on UMD and so on. Neither is a point the ultimate dwarven defender cares about. The level 1 spells you can cast doesn't matter, and the UMD is still worth it even if you don't rely on it.

There are no new feats that are better either. It just can't be improved!

[AlwaysSummer Day]

Yes, new deities and domains are in the works. Current domains are planned to get more spells to choose from, 4-6 in total, or 8 with knowledge or magic domain, almost all of them pnp accurate.

What about this? I really don't want to RCR and have to RCR again in a month.

[Karond]

If there were no domain rules, one could probably pick water and luck/earth/darkness. That leaves one pre-epic feat open for...well, what? Power critical?

None of the new domains provide useful dipping bonuses, but if there is a deity with water + luck/earth/darkness, would that be worth it? What would that extra pre-epic feat be used for then?

Consider that, and for example Istishia. Water + Chaos allows for a reroll on will saves. That's a pretty good feat, and even better for the dwarven defender. I did the math once and it comes out to being slightly better than +4 Will saves. It almost makes you unable to fail in that department, and steadfast takes care of fortitude and evasion of reflex. It's like getting an epic feat (epic will).

So, without knowing what the new deities and their domains are, the question is more if it can be any better than Istishia? Power critical is questionable, and that seems to be the best option. None of the new pre-epic feats will top power critical in usefulness, and slippery mind seems better than this feat IMO. If there even is an alternative

[AlwaysSummer Day]

I am going to shamelessly bump this so I don't have to dig through a bunch of pages every time I need to find it

[Faren]

Hello Ozmiz.

1.) If you've the same intelligence score as this build (12), it shouldn't be hard to get heal up to 25. If you're going to copy this build, start out like this:

Level 1: Man-at-arms, 4 tumble, 1 UMD, 1 anything, Save 5
Level 2: Cleric: 5 spellcraft, 3 heal
Level 3: Fighter: Save 3 (pick able learner as a feat)
Level 4: Whatever class you want, skillpoints are easy to distribute now cross-class.
...

I wish you could add custom classes to nwn2db so I could build this out, other than 3 by 20, any other caveats?

Does anyone have a nwn2db build that uses some other class as a decent stand-in for the Man at Arms?

[Karond]

[ any other caveats?

Yes. You must get 3 Man-at-arms, 3 Cleric, 9 Dwarven Defender and 5 Fighter before level 20. If you take more fighter levels than 5 levels, you'll end up with more pre-epic feats and less epic feats, and so the build won't be as effective.

[Rudolph]

I'm playing around with a different build that has some similar attributes. Am wondering, Karond, or whoever else has played this defender: is the DR really needed/useful with an AC that high? In theory, it seems strange to maximise a feature (AC) that makes the use of the other (DR) less frequent...

[Sputnik]

I played one for a while.

Redundancy is what makes this build so survivable.
Lots of HP + great AC + 15 DR + impressive savng throws + Evasion + Steadfast Determination + Slippery Mind + UMD + 25 ranks in Heal = one tough SOB !

The DR may seem unnecessary, but critical hits happen, even if they don't confirm often. The DR will greatly aid your survivability in these cases (more often than one might expect).

Is it a bit overkill? Maybe, but what you must know in this game, is that if something can go wrong, it will.