Baldur's Gate : The Sword Coast Chronicles : NWN2 Persistent World

Full set of amulets against elements, with some points in search and disable device. THat way you can detect the trap and look it up, determining the amulet to equip and then spring the trap, a must have.

Other than that healing clickies, the vigor belt, the priest gloves, austruth flute. I don't spend a penny in healing unless I'm in a bind and must chuck a heal potion to survive. And of course regen cloak !

We are talking about fighters here. Mine doesn't have a single point of UMD.

You'll admit that's a particular kind of fighter, why would a fighter have points in heal instead ?

Either way you don't need UMD for vigor belt or amulets.

the boots and cloak wont need umd. if you have umd then wands (MI,IMA)can help. can get some pots to help out too if no umd. shield, MA, stone root etc.

get that AC up first. do whatever you need to do.

About that amulet of cold resistance - do they even drop nowadays? Never seen one at the auction or elsewhere to buy.

Never saw any either, the ones that drop are fire, electricity and acid, for the rest there's a cloak with 10 DR against cold .. and nothing against sound to my knowledge.

Thanks for all the advice so far, though a lot of them sound quite expensive, so are some of mine. Valefort's suggestion about elemental resistances is actually quite good, you find those surprisngly often and they sell cheaply, I never thought about that (besides cold?)

I can't help but feel that new warrior characters (as in new or poor players), that have to rely on solo'ing are going to be in a tough spot, since they won't be able afford most of the suggestions.

aaron22 is probably right, the best idea is to find people to play with :p

Buffing services might be a viable option as well.

-Regen cloak really helps a lot.
-Get that AC up. Tower shield maybe..I try to make my fighter dps usually, but that can also off tank when needed.
-Focus on mages first, in battle.
-Pull them.
-Save your special abilities (smites, rages, ki, etc) for when you get swarmed.
-pts in heal also a good tip.

Umd items like wands are too expensive to waste grinding but things like the vigor belt and ele resist items could be useful....gotta spend money to make money huh?

Vamp regen weapon. Make it your life's work to find an excellent one! Aside from that, everything else others have said will work. Except I don't think anyone has mentioned the old "the best defence is a good offense" , killing mobs quickly can often result in less damage done to you - this approach struggles against bosses for fighter types however.

*puts on his salesman hat*
No UMD, no problem! Find a friendly neighborhood Master Alchemist and they can craft you potions for any spell up to 7th tier. The brewing cost has been reduced so that a full 5 levels of MA costs 20gp*SL*CL so depending if you are planning to go somewhere with dispels or not you can possibly save money by purchasing the lowest possible CL on long duration potion. Of course if an area does have greater dispel mobs it may be worth it to get certain potions at CL30 to avoid having the wards stripped.

Wands/Potions (for no UMD) that can really help melee characters:
Improved Mage Armor - +6 Armor AC for a long duration (that is +2 AC even if you have +4 Armor)
Shield - +4 AC for 5 minutes if you don't have a +4 Shield or are playing a great weapon fighter
Barkskin/Spider Skin - +4 Natural AC if you don't have an amulet and/or need to switch out energy resistance amulets!
DeathWard - If you have low Will Saves or low Fort Saves or *shudder* both. Decent duration, protects against so many issues such as poison and disease, alongside save or x spells.
Energy Buffer/Prot from Energy/Energy Resistance - Like stoneskins, but for energy... If you get hit with a trap that does acid, then a trap that does electrical you might still have some protection left... Even if it gets stripped on the first trap, Endure Elements is a level 1 spell and can be purchased pretty cheap to reduce the damage a bit.
Feats - Fighters get a lot of friggin feats... If you use a Great Weapon, take Monkey Grip (or buy the Tower Shield that includes the feat if you can afford it). Being able to get your AC to ~50+ will reduce your damage intake a ton. Even in Nashkel Mines where the mobs can hit a 45 AC with relative consistency a 50 AC with mirror images and occasional displacement (when surrounded) will be nearly untouchable.
Also, consider potions of Deez's Repulsive Shadow Barrier... For some reason they are capped at CL15, but that is 15 minutes of +4 AC, 15% Concealment. If uncapped at CL16 it would be 20% concealment, I imagine that was considered OP on a minute per level potion.
Greater Magic Weapon can also be put on potions up to CL19 so you can make any weapon +4 for a long duration. Thus if you find a weapon with +3 Vamp Regen and/or 1d4 bonus damage you can make it in to +4 by using a CL16 potion of GMW.


Full Fighter type builds will gain benefit from the Evasion change. Evasion is only beneficial if you have solid Reflex saves since a failed save still takes full damage. Thus getting resistance to energy damage which stacks with other resistance items can likely result in less damage than if you take an evasion dip. The builds most hurt by evasion change aren't necessarily Fighter types (though their are plenty with high reflex saves that would prefer evasion). The builds most hurt by evasion change are the arcane/divine heavy/medium armored gishes who don't necessarily have enough spell slots to make themselves immune to every possible energy type. They generally have fewer hit points and do not get the resistance unless they took several non-caster progression class levels, but I don't think anyone is going to cry for the gishes...

chad878262 wrote:*puts on his salesman hat*
No UMD, no problem! Find a friendly neighborhood Master Alchemist and they can craft you potions for any spell up to 7th tier. The brewing cost has been reduced so that a full 5 levels of MA costs 20gp*SL*CL so depending if you are planning to go somewhere with dispels or not you can possibly save money by purchasing the lowest possible CL on long duration potion. Of course if an area does have greater dispel mobs it may be worth it to get certain potions at CL30 to avoid having the wards stripped.

Wands/Potions (for no UMD) that can really help melee characters:
Improved Mage Armor - +6 Armor AC for a long duration (that is +2 AC even if you have +4 Armor)
Shield - +4 AC for 5 minutes if you don't have a +4 Shield or are playing a great weapon fighter
Barkskin/Spider Skin - +4 Natural AC if you don't have an amulet and/or need to switch out energy resistance amulets!
DeathWard - If you have low Will Saves or low Fort Saves or *shudder* both. Decent duration, protects against so many issues such as poison and disease, alongside save or x spells.
Energy Buffer/Prot from Energy/Energy Resistance - Like stoneskins, but for energy... If you get hit with a trap that does acid, then a trap that does electrical you might still have some protection left... Even if it gets stripped on the first trap, Endure Elements is a level 1 spell and can be purchased pretty cheap to reduce the damage a bit.
Feats - Fighters get a lot of friggin feats... If you use a Great Weapon, take Monkey Grip (or buy the Tower Shield that includes the feat if you can afford it). Being able to get your AC to ~50+ will reduce your damage intake a ton. Even in Nashkel Mines where the mobs can hit a 45 AC with relative consistency a 50 AC with mirror images and occasional displacement (when surrounded) will be nearly untouchable.
Also, consider potions of Deez's Repulsive Shadow Barrier... For some reason they are capped at CL15, but that is 15 minutes of +4 AC, 15% Concealment. If uncapped at CL16 it would be 20% concealment, I imagine that was considered OP on a minute per level potion.
Greater Magic Weapon can also be put on potions up to CL19 so you can make any weapon +4 for a long duration. Thus if you find a weapon with +3 Vamp Regen and/or 1d4 bonus damage you can make it in to +4 by using a CL16 potion of GMW.


Full Fighter type builds will gain benefit from the Evasion change. Evasion is only beneficial if you have solid Reflex saves since a failed save still takes full damage. Thus getting resistance to energy damage which stacks with other resistance items can likely result in less damage than if you take an evasion dip. The builds most hurt by evasion change aren't necessarily Fighter types (though their are plenty with high reflex saves that would prefer evasion). The builds most hurt by evasion change are the arcane/divine heavy/medium armored gishes who don't necessarily have enough spell slots to make themselves immune to every possible energy type. They generally have fewer hit points and do not get the resistance unless they took several non-caster progression class levels, but I don't think anyone is going to cry for the gishes...

I don't know what people charge for potions, but it sounds like merely switching the gold use from kits to potions xD. I will however add this list to the main post, thank you!

I use a lot of wands on my warrior and it is a HUGE gold sink, which is why once my current wands expire, I'm not going to replace them, rather I can't, I'm broke.

As for the evasion discussion I'd rather not open it up in here, because it'll most likely get messy, I personally don't like it much. I'll send you a PM.

In areas like troll claws simply equipping a +4 Tower Shield will greatly increase survivability. Trying to solo that area with AC ~40 is bad news, but getting close to or above 50 will turn it in to an area with little risk.

chad878262 wrote:In areas like troll claws simply equipping a +4 Tower Shield will greatly increase survivability. Trying to solo that area with AC ~40 is bad news, but getting close to or above 50 will turn it in to an area with little risk.

I'm sitting at 45 AC, and the trolls are probably still the mobs that do the most damage to me, at least when they're nasty and gang up...

I don't know your specific build, but assuming a 'standard' warrior without Epic Gear 45 is pretty good. Once you have +4 Armor/Deflection/Dodge/Natural you should be able to push near 50 or above which changes things. I've said this in other threads, but it is important to note that Troll Claws are balanced around a party (i.e. ~3-5 PCs), not around a solo Fighter. Thus when you want to solo the area it is going to cost a lot more in consumables to be successful.

There is the consideration that DnD was built around a party system. Soloing is always going to be a bit difficult for properly matched monsters.

My advice, make friends with the bards. Bard+melee patry=free xp.

Bard pride aside, getting regular adventuring pals is the only real way to mitigate costs. Otherwise you are just reducing the damage to your profits.