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

So any comments about a Northlander Hewing using strength based Monk 11/Weapon Master 7/Fighter 12?


I may be feeling bit nostalgic here... About ugly elves stick brandishing elves!

Works well, especially if you got a quarter staff like Steve with a DC20 stun...

Biggest issue is AC, but with UMD this can be easily addressed. 14 DEX (+4 Bracers for 18), 14 WIS (+4 Amulet for 18), potions/scroll/wand of Spiderskin, potions/wands/use per day items for shield, wand of IMA should at least get you in to the low-to-mid 40's. Mirrors and Displacement for emergencies and your primary weakness is mostly accounted for. Damage wise it will do fantastic, obviously. Only issue really is lack of synergy between Weapon Master and Northlander Hewing since crits on a quarterstaff are going to end up doing about the same damage as non-crits. For this reason my thought is you'd be better with some other dip. Unfortunately WM is pretty unique in 7 being the 'magic number' of levels. However, this can still work out by giving you room for taking 4 levels of WoD/AK (opening up spellcraft, 4 skillpoints per level and getting blindfight/toughness for the 'price' of Iron Will which aint a bad feat anyway! The remaining 3 levels offer a couple of options. If you are making a DEX +2 race Shadow Dancer is, of course a strong option, though it might hurt your STR a little. Bodyguard is always a solid 3 level dip for situational 2d6 sneak damage and 10% movement boost without losing any BAB. Finally, you could go for some kind of strange EDM build by dipping 3 BG or Cleric, but this will drop AC even more and may be untenable.

Mmh. NH does not benefit much from Crits and hence WM since its benefits are not multiplied. Without WM, I'd go fists rather than Quarterstaff for the increased base weapon dmg and throw in FoF, M12, and another class to boot.

I know it might stretch your RP concept a bit, but you made me think of a way of optimizing Quarterstaff in some respects, though without NH, using a Crusader Paladin...
http://nwn2db.com/build/?288709

Weapon master makes the 2d4 20/x2 quarterstaff into a 2d4 18-20/x3 weapon.

Northlander Hewing Damage with 30 strength:
8 (Weapon damage dice maximised)
+ 15 (Strength)
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus)
+ 8 (Feats)
+ 10 (Northlander Hewing)
= 45

Critical hit damage:
2 (2d4 lowest roll) * 3
+ 15 (Strength) * 3
+ 4 (Enchantment Bonus) * 3
+ 8 (Feats) * 3
= 87

In my opinion, the Weapon Master actually increases the damage output. Not to mention that even on Northlander Hewing using characters of mine, I do not always use Northlander Hewing. Sometimes the overall damage is just higher when you can do as many crits as possible. Then, I could just make do with Monk's Flurry of Blows with those improved critical hit properties and get the extra attacks.

What about a M11/WS8/As8/NWN3 quarterstaff user?

Damage comes from strength and sneak/death attack. You get lots of attacks per round and have a reasonable chance to paralyse. Fast movement plus camoflage and swift tracking. It's a build I've always wanted to try but never quite got around to it. HiPS will help with the low AC of course - you also get a little AC bonus from Wilderness Stalker as well.

AC81 wrote:What about a M11/WS8/As8/NWN3 quarterstaff user?

BAB of 25, so it is missing the 6th attack. It still gets 8 attacks per round with Flurry of Blows, which is not enough to get four attacks into the first flurry by casting haste.

Then Quarterstaff is not a finesseable weapon. High strength is needed for AB, which will have negative effect on the stealth skills, and you do require dedicated stealth equipment to deliver those sneak attacks consistently.

Finally, critical hit immunities are a pain. Undeads can come with large amounts of DR, and your sneak attack dice does not really give you all that much against them.

The build would better for a dexterity base Kama User. High Dexterity at least results in high Expose Weakness bleed damage, and the 15 attacks, or 16 with haste, will transform any elemental damage on those Kamas into a far more considerable threat. Hence, the build can actually chip through the critical hit immune high DR undead.

AC81 wrote:It's a build I've always wanted to try but never quite got around to it.

If you do, I would recommend dexterity and kamas.

Rudolph wrote:I know it might stretch your RP concept a bit, but you made me think of a way of optimizing Quarterstaff in some respects, though without NH, using a Crusader Paladin...
http://nwn2db.com/build/?288709

Multiclassing experience penalty. I also tend to prefer more Paladin levels on Paladin builds. The only exception would be with some sorcerer build. Other than that, if someone is willing to tolerate the -20% experience, it will work.

Need 10 APR to get 4 sneak attacks in the first flurry. 9 will give 3/3/3.

chad878262 wrote:Need 10 APR to get 4 sneak attacks in the first flurry. 9 will give 3/3/3.

Such as 6 from BAB, 3 from Greater Flurry of Blows, and 1 from Haste.

Sun Wukong wrote:

chad878262 wrote:Need 10 APR to get 4 sneak attacks in the first flurry. 9 will give 3/3/3.

Such as 6 from BAB, 3 from Greater Flurry of Blows, and 1 from Haste.

Sun Wukong wrote:BAB of 25, so it is missing the 6th attack. It still gets 8 attacks per round with Flurry of Blows, which is not enough to get four attacks into the first flurry by casting haste.

I misread your post... missed the "not"

That would be a fun quarterstaff build for sure, eschewing AC for a ridiculous number of attacks and great damage. That one would be worth using the builder and playing around for sure. I haven't found any crazy staves yet, but I imagine with all that synergy you could just beat someone to death with a stick you grabbed off a tree

Here is a generic template that can be adjusted to easily fit most races: http://nwn2db.com/build/?293034

And same build done with a human: http://nwn2db.com/build/?293035

The damage per hit is slightly down from what was previously advertised. I am missing Greater and Epic Weapon Spezialization. Hence, regular hit damage is down by -4 points, and critical hit damage is down by -12 points.

Something like a:

Monk 12/Fighter 8/Breach Gnome 5/Weapon Master 5? The multiclassing experience penalty...

Sun Wukong wrote:And same build done with a human: http://nwn2db.com/build/?293035

Does NH work with flurry of blows ?