No longer Low-Level Friendly?
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It -is- harder to be a low level these days. Not because the server is harder. But because the amount of low levels has lessened, and because people can more or less reach lvl 5 in a day or two, if they have enough play time.
If you then also play a non fighter / cleric, then you will have an even harder time, because you need someone who can "tank" for you. Meaning, unless you are lucky, you have to wait a long while to get to the higher levels.Case in point; Amelia Blackwood. A Bard/ranger. Horrible build many say, unless you go Dex build. I of course say… "No... I thought a longsword looked cooler than a rapier, so I didnt make it a high dex build".
Amelia was created on Febuary 7th. Amelia reached level 7 for the first time on April 16th.
But she is a werewolf Olouth, Werewolves are OP. Polaris laughed at me. Everyone laughs at me. Because she is HORRIBLE! At equal levels, she gets the shit kicked out of her, buffed, by a non buffed fighter of the same level.
Rule of advice? Dont hold back on potions. Know your mechanics. If you dont, ask someone who does. And dont frontline in studded leather armor.
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I did not laugh!
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I did not laugh!
You said I am the only idiot who can die to an Ettin while shapeshifted, because you build the subraces yourself!
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Ranger/bard pretty niffy in my book…
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Well, yes, but I phrased it much more politely.
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Niffy as in good and useful. There powerful and useful in the right hands. O'louth seems to have a nice up to me. :)
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All too often i see people dying and they got tons of consumables on them that they're saving up or something and die instead.
USE them consumables, they save your life.
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And this is where Cake trumps Olouth by dying to Froidocs bats with a were-spider.
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@O'louth:
I did not laugh!
You said I am the only idiot who can die to an Ettin while shapeshifted, because you build the subraces yourself!
Don't feel bad. Pol used to troll my cleric/rogue werepanther as teh suxors. Admittedly, I am not very good with builds so it was deserved…
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Additionally, find ways to turn your character's weaknesses into strengths by use of allies, consumables, feats or any combination there of. If you can -possibly- get a group that'll put this foolish notion of everyone soloing in the same direction aside for some team tactics, you wouldn't believe what a shot in the arm your survivability will take. Seriously. Back in the day we'd run Orc Camp with 3-4 people who were by no means mechanical powerhouses but we'd do it with patience and tactics and 8/10 times we'd come out on top. Sometimes a bit poorer for it, but it was -fun-.
Hope something in that mess helps, I'm kind of woozy right now x_x
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@Kathrine:
Additionally, find ways to turn your character's weaknesses into strengths by use of allies, consumables, feats or any combination there of. If you can -possibly- get a group that'll put this foolish notion of everyone soloing in the same direction aside for some team tactics, you wouldn't believe what a shot in the arm your survivability will take. Seriously. Back in the day we'd run Orc Camp with 3-4 people who were by no means mechanical powerhouses but we'd do it with patience and tactics and 8/10 times we'd come out on top. Sometimes a bit poorer for it, but it was -fun-.
Hope something in that mess helps, I'm kind of woozy right now x_x
A few years ago, I experienced a group consisting of a lvl 4 druid, and three lvl 1-3 elves, take on and KILL a Grey Render without any casualties.
I have also seen group formations and tactics beyond (Frontline, mage buff, cleric heal behind them, scout fire an arrow around the corner, lure monsters around corner, death, repeat.)
My easiest time EVER on Kantheas was a lvl 10 mage, a lvl 7 druid, and myself as a rogue/cleric in leather armor and with 12 str.
I wonder if I can locate my survivors guide to Arabel which one of my characters worked on a few years ago.
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The biggest difference you'd EXPECT to see between higher level chars is use of tactics, but honestly, the horrid reality is that you often see level 9's and 10's using the same 'charge-everything' tactic' as you'd expect to see in nada's. This results in violent deaths much more often than needed.
Tactics can and WILL save your life.
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You can't roleplay well without knowing NWN well. Mechanics and roleplay are one- so many roles will be unavailable to you if you lack knowledge of mechanics, and your potential for violent conflict will be severely stifled.
The easiest way for you to get better is to seek out danger and death as much as you can. Make characters that get in trouble with the law, with good people, with elves, with orcs, with humans- whatever you can think of. Have goals that put you in direct opposition with certain factions and character types. Die repeatedly as you battle them. Only then will you grow in experience.
Here are some generic questing tips…
All characters:
- Keep HP full at all times
- Let your friends know to heal you once you reach badly wounded
- Prefer being healed to healing yourself
- Don't trigger AoO
- Focus on 1
- Kill casters first, then sneak attackers, then HP soaks
- If things turn sour, turn invisible, run, heal
- Buff proportionally to the resistance you encounter
- Learn what every spell and spell effect does mechanically - most characters at higher levels can be expected to know the most common potion and wizard effects.
- AC is king, but AB and damage modifiers are just as important. What is dead can't hurt you.
- Improved Expertise is a crutch and will make you worse at positioning and PvP
Fighters/Barbarians:
- Unless you are the hero-type, let some idiot get hit instead of yourself to save healing
- If you are the one who has to get hit, keep your AC up: Barkskin, Protection from Evil. Use Blur, Speed, Displacement potions when crap hits the fan as needed.
- Always stay healed
- Never panic
- Try not to run; teach your friends to heal you instead. Running is often riskier.
- Don't trigger AoO when charging/moving. Use run and walk wisely.
- It is critical you get your AB/damage as high as possible. You will end up being the main damage dealer. It is important to kill things as quickly as possible. Beat your wizard friends into submission if they want to memorize magic missile over magic weapon or combust over flame weapon. Even a barbarian knows that a fire weapon is better than a one time
damage spell over time. - Buy arcane healing wands and given them to your caster friends; tell them to heal you while invisible
- If you do not have at least 30 potions of various kinds on hand you are doing it wrong. You need to get a stash of potions you can use to survive when things turn sour. Certain quests will even require you to have them just so you can complete them.
- You should probably organize your hotbar smartly. Main bar: emergency PVP potions, healing, shift bar: defensive buffs, ctrl bar: offensive buffs
Wizards:
- Don't shoot a crossbow
- Don't melee
- Invisible if in doubt
- Heal others with arcane wands
- Memorize sensible spellsets. Are you in conflict? Make sure you have gank-prevention spells up as you travel. On quests, buffing fighters does more damage than all your damage spells ever will. Buff your fighters. Being good at evocation is very difficult (but rewarding).
- You don't have to be a buff-bot. It's fine, even good roleplay to memorize spells that suit your character over buffs. But ask yourself if you can use them to contribute! Will they be helpful? Don't go memorizing charm spells when fighting the undead, just because your character is an Enchanter.
- Never run near a monster. AoO will kill you.
- Keep your HP at max; a single bad trap can kill you.
- Protect yourself with spells: invisibility, mage armor, endurance- the list of spells to chose from is endless. You are the most valuable team member as long as your spell choices are sensible.
- Have some wands to zap for emergencies. A wand of invisibility can save many parties. So can the cheaper wand of color spray, used correctly.
- Know exactly what every spell does. Check NWN wiki.
If you don't know mechanics you can't roleplay. Good luck being a master Red Wizard and not knowing how the DC on spells is determined!
Edit: Oh, and if I ever catch anyone luring monsters around a wall again I swear I am making a character who believes in the god of "kill people who lure monsters around corners, then walk backwards a lot".
Edit 2: There is also a god in Arabel that hates you for thinking that using a wand when you could have used two potions is smart because it avoids AoO. That god is just waiting to send his bloodhounds at you. In an emergency, drink a cure crit potion or better two! Your healing wand is not going to trigger before the surrounding monsters made their attacks.
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Edit: Oh, and if I ever catch anyone luring monsters around a wall again I swear I am making a character who believes in the god of "kill people who lure monsters around corners, then walk backwards a lot".
Really sorry, I do not want to derail the discussion but this point puzzled me. I understand moonwalking is an AI exploit and is therefore rightfully bad. How does using a wall to break LOS qualify as an exploit? I mean, don't tell me if it breaks AI somehow (and by that I mean don't tell me what the exploit is, but by all means tell me it's an exploit so I know not to do it) but I would think that would be the preferred tactic against large groups or ranged/caster heavy spawns.
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You can't roleplay well without knowing NWN well. Mechanics and roleplay are one- so many roles will be unavailable to you if you lack knowledge of mechanics, and your potential for violent conflict will be severely stifled…..If you don't know mechanics you can't roleplay. Good luck being a master Red Wizard and not knowing how the DC on spells is determined
Why oh why… do I agree with Jasede.
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I can tell you from personal experience that any DMs reaction to you "pulling" a single monster from a group by moving behind a wall will be to send half the monsters in the area at your party.
Well, that's what I would do, anyway.
I probably phrased that poorly. Using walls to help evade ranged attacks and spells is fine, do not worry. The problem is when people move a little, just enough to aggro 1 monster, then run around the wall so it follows them, then kill it safely. The NWN AI won't help the poor lonely monster, even if it has a dozen friends standing right next to it. You should always try to aggro the entire clump of monsters that can be reasonably expected to help their allies to make it fair. That is the difficulty the quests were balanced around.
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Jasede has spake. All hail Jasede.
But seriously, sticky that first post of his. It's golden for survival tactics.
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Draco Edits!
Wizards:
- Don't shoot a crossbow without understanding agro properly
- Don't melee things that can kill you easy, do melee things you can handle. Don't run away from every little thing like a headless chicken and cause the front line to disintegrate because there chasing whats chasing you. Blur and barkskin can help you with this.
- Invisible if in doubt, learn stealth if you wish to have peace of mind from unexpected back attacks and over-reliance on a spell.
- Heal others with arcane wands
- Memorize sensible spellsets. Are you in conflict? Make sure you have gank-prevention spells up as you travel. On quests, buffing fighters does more damage than all your damage spells ever will. Buff your fighters. Being good at evocation is very difficult (but rewarding).
- You don't have to be a buff-bot. It's fine, even good roleplay to memorize spells that suit your character over buffs. But ask yourself if you can use them to contribute! Will they be helpful? Don't go memorizing charm spells when fighting the undead, just because your character is an Enchanter. If your playing a sorcerer use metamagic to keep all your spell levels useful in every situation, the real fun doing it within your theme.
- Never run near a monster. AoO will kill you.
- Keep your HP at max; a single bad trap can kill you.
- Protect yourself with spells: invisibility, mage armor, endurance- the list of spells to chose from is endless. You are the most valuable team member as long as your spell choices are sensible.
- Have some wands to zap for emergencies. A wand of invisibility can save many parties. So can the cheaper wand of color spray, used correctly.
- Know exactly what every spell does. Check NWN wiki.
*** Don't be afraid to take levels in other classes and none arcane feats. A rounded out mage can often do better for himself in a server with dead magic zones and long waits between rests**
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*remember the deliveries are your friend, use those to build up a surplus of gold to purchase supplies for the dangerous quests, set a level of supplies for each specific quest. longer ones will take more. never quest when healing, restore, invisible supplies dip below a certain level, try to have spares to help your friends. (remember exploring should also not be done without supplies as well)
*watch the latency, i gauge this by talking to the npc's who have conversation trees, if the response is slow, over a one thousand one, one thousand two count, use your online time to do the deliveries and RP
*never ever RP in a spawn zone, move to a more sensible place