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

So, I was thinking about what may dish out the best damage below level 10. The best I came up with is a dual wielding fighter with a dip of warlock for hideous blow and practiced invoker.

What else is there?

archer

^ To add to the above, a crossbow sniper build gets really nice damage early on when compared against other builds. Like warlocks, they lose some of their early "wow" factor in teen and epic levels though.

Any noncaster melee build dominates the field in the early levels too, especially after they get their second attack per round (level 6). But become more of a struggle to play at high levels as well unless you use wands and potions, or make friends with a mage who shares buffs.

Archer, longbows.

Maecius is right, with the right gear (which thanks to a recent decision you can now have from the off), nothing beats a Crossbow Sniper at early levels.

Reasons: 1.5x damage on Dex + Str; can get to 3 attacks early (4 with Haste); double damage from Manyshot.

Archers overtake them in the long run, but at low levels it's no contest.

If count low-levels as ~1-15,
I particularly like WM builds for this purpose.

If you have flame weapon wand+enlarge person wand, giberling heart for +4 str&con, and whetstone for crits, you get really good damage, and with performance weapon crit much more often then bow/crossbow builds.

Got 100+ crits at 11 lvl with 15-20x3 like this.

Crossbow sniper hafling, I don't think it can be beat in damage at low level.

Shad wrote:If count low-levels as ~1-15,
I particularly like WM builds for this purpose.

If you have flame weapon wand+enlarge person wand, giberling heart for +4 str&con, and whetstone for crits, you get really good damage, and with performance weapon crit much more often then bow/crossbow builds.

Got 100+ crits at 11 lvl with 15-20x3 like this.

But a Crossbow Sniper can be dealing almost that per hit without critting.

Thanks for the replys. I had forgotten how ridiculous a X-bow sniper can be in the early levels.

Don't let the big bursty numbers of the crossbow fool you, longbows still pump out more consistent damage even at early levels, especially when you consider ease of access to a good longbow (Bonecrusher +3, for sale in Beregost) versus finding a comparably powerful crossbow.

But at early levels, you're limited to the same amount of attacks as a crossbow more or less when using a bow. And since the crossbow can easily provide damage bonuses from dexterity, and it does more damage to start, I too would say that crossbow users are best damage dealers at early levels.

I played a tanarukk crossbow user from level 1-15 some time ago, before I deleted him. At one session with 3 party members, I counted the amount of kills I did as opposed to them. It ended up at 237 for me, 3 for them.

Crossbows are brutal early on, but it evens out in epic levels. Last, remember that its also safe damage from a distance

Crossbow vs longbow is a lot like debating whether you're gonna instantgib something or instantgib something.

If it's ranged dmg, you're probably going to have a super-easy time levelling up because nothing will ever touch you.

Crossbows are for peasants, though.

So, what kind of builds are we talking for the X-bow snipers?

I saw someone dip warlock for one of those too. Is Bard one of the best ways to go?

http://nwn2db.com/build/?100502


That's probably your best bet from 1-10 out of all the classes. But if you want the most damage at endgame don't pick that. But early game, pick that definitly.