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

A Small Cute Cat wrote:Think I'm going to do the 14F, 5 FB, 7 WM, 4Rogue route.

Are there any "essential" feats this build needs? Such as Blind-Fight and Knockdown/Improved Knockdown, or those armor focus ones.

This build really lacks willsaves, and this will cost you very much (both in PvE and PvP), Anointed knight, Dervish, Dragon warrior or Divine champion levels can solve this problem, Steadfast determination feat is also to be considered (with possible addition of Indomitable soul feat).

Ouch, you're right - I checked in the NWN2DB build maker and I'd have 8 Will save at level 30...

I tried doing 12 Fighter, 7 WM, 5 FB, 6 Divine Champion - with Iron Will and Steadfast Determination, I'd end up with 16 Will save. I don't know how good that is, but mmm, those delicious bonus feats from Divine Champion.

just carry scrolls of PfA, that's 90% of PvM will save threats eliminated.

Intending to grab a wand of it, if I can find a wand maker and get above 4-digit gold

For skills - what exactly am I looking for?

I need 14 UMD to be able to pass class restrictions, since I've got a base -1 to Charismaa.
10 Tumble is the highest you can cross-class it and not waste any points.
16 Heal, as high as cross-classing will allow for.
1 point in Open Lock, for funsies as well as RP reasons.
3 Lore (Religion) for build requirement.
5 Lore (Arcana) for RP reasons.
15 Spellcraft, for the bonus to saves.
Intending to max Taunt, because that debuff is quite handy.
Intending to max Intimidate, for RP reasons (and because I love the mental image of a tiny warrior being intimidating)
I've thrown a bunch of points into Sense Motive for RP reasons - I think 7 so far?

Do I have all the "basics" down, or are there some key skills that I've missed? I'd like to make sure that I have all the essential skills before I start throwing more skill points to the for-RP-reasons skills.

A Small Cute Cat wrote:Intending to grab a wand of it, if I can find a wand maker and get above 4-digit gold

For skills - what exactly am I looking for?

I need 14 UMD to be able to pass class restrictions, since I've got a base -1 to Charismaa.
10 Tumble is the highest you can cross-class it and not waste any points.
16 Heal, as high as cross-classing will allow for.
1 point in Open Lock, for funsies as well as RP reasons.
3 Lore (Religion) for build requirement.
5 Lore (Arcana) for RP reasons.
15 Spellcraft, for the bonus to saves.
Intending to max Taunt, because that debuff is quite handy.
Intending to max Intimidate, for RP reasons (and because I love the mental image of a tiny warrior being intimidating)
I've thrown a bunch of points into Sense Motive for RP reasons - I think 7 so far?

Do I have all the "basics" down, or are there some key skills that I've missed? I'd like to make sure that I have all the essential skills before I start throwing more skill points to the for-RP-reasons skills.

I think you might add appraise to this list instead of heal. Unfortunately, none of your classes give access to two of the most important skills - spot and listen. Without them you will find people abusing stealth mode against you sooner of later. Also, I just checked - AK gives access to both spellcraft and tumble, so it is to be considered.

If you have AK max Tumble to 30 and if you can fit it in also soellcraft 30.

Spellcraft 5+ gives a skill synergy bonus of +2 to UMD. So you can lower your UMD to 12 if 13 points are your aim.

So THAT'S why my UMD skill is higher than it should be!

I've been under the impression all along that someone with bard song had really taken a liking to me...

AK is out of the question, unfortunately, due to pesky alignment restrictions.

I know I'm missing out on some handy class skills and skill breakpoints, but I'm just looking for any skills that this build can get which I might've missed in that list.

With UMD you can get by fine with low will, even as low as 8 in your proposed build above. I have similarly low will and with consumables or UMD it gets up around 20 in addition to mind spell immunity from evil and good from protection from alignment. There's items out there with casts per day of protection from alignment which will give you immunity to mind spells from that alignment. If you can find one of those it's preferable to a wand since it will never run out of charges.

Your proposed rogue dip would give you access to tumble as a class skill on those levels as well.

I'd planned on Divine Champion for the bonus feats, which I need for the build I'm trying to do.

Does the choice between Rogue and Divine Champion come down to preference? The sheer number of custom classes, and the variety in advice I'm getting, suggests that there's way more wiggle room for build diversity than I'm used to.

It would probably ultimately be a choice between more skillpoints and different class skill availability and a couple sneak dice for 2d6 damage while flanking as Rogue and better defensive capabilities from the +3 sacred bonus to saves and high AB progression as Divine Champion. Both seem like they would be viable, just different. If as you said earlier you have a negative CHA modifier it does take away a bit from some of the CHA powered stuff Divine Champion gets.

Bonus feats are of course always pretty awesome to have obviously, and you'd get two of them over the rogue build (which would get one from the extra fighter levels it has).

Winterborne wrote:Both seem like they would be viable, just different.

This is what I was looking for - thanks! I've spent too long on games where there's only a few "right" way to do things and any deviation from that path means you're mechanically inviable. Tough mindset to break.

I don't think I'll be missing out too much on the Charisma-powered abilities, as I'm only taking 6 levels in the class. Even if I had, say, a +3 charisma modifier, my Lay on Hands would only heal for 18.