Post by Cinerith on Jan 31, 2007 1:43:28 GMT -6
This guide analyzes the different classes on NWN and the changes made to them on Netheria.
Key:
AB: Attack Bonus
AC: Armor Class
DR: Damage Reduction
HP: Hit points
Arcane Archer
The biggest strength of Arcane Archers is their AB. Enchant Arrow means +1AB and damage every 2 levels, up to +15AB/Damage at AA level 29. The drawback is it only applies to ranged weapons, and ranged weapons have poor crit range and no Keen. This means low damage.
Besides their AB they don't have much else to boast about. The ingame description about "using magic to supplement their combat prowess" is BS. Arcane Archers are one trick ponies. You shoot arrows, they die. If not you're dead. Their most significant changed ability on Netheria is Imbue Arrow which can stun targets caught in its shockwave if they fail a Will save. This gives them a bit more versatility.
AAs have quite a bit of ground to cover with their multiclasses. Look for classes that give Uncanny Dodge, have Discipline and/or Tumble as class skills, have something that lets you get bonus damage like Sneak Attacks or extra AC like Pale Masters. Archers should move around a lot so Tumble is especially important to avoid Attacks of Opportunity and the AC to compensate for the lack of a shield. Rogue is a good candidate, plugging most of these holes, but there are other possible combinations as well.
Magic Numbers: Any odd number is good. AA 19 is a popular stopping number though, giving +10ab from Enchant Arrow and 2 AA bonus feats. Any bonus feat number is probably good too, ie 14, 18, 22, 26, 30.
Class Combos:
Rogue 19/Wiz 2/AA 19 - Good AB and sneak attack damage
Rogue 13/Wiz 8/AA 19 - Imp Invis abuser
Bard 16/Rogue 13/AA 11 - Support archer
Bard 16/PM 10/AA 14 - High AC archer
Assassin
Assassins are generally regarded as a weak class on the Bioware forums. Put bluntly they are Rogues with less skill points and no bonus feats. To make up for it they get feats that cast low level Mage spells, of which only 1 of them has any practical use, and they have a weak Devastating Critical wannabe aka Death Attack.
However, they do have a few tricks up their sleeve. For one, their feat-spells are undispellable. Second, they can take Great Dexterity as a bonus feat in epic levels.
As is par for the course for all Sneak Attack classes, you should try to maximize the number of attacks per round you can do as an Assassin. This means any combination of good BAB management, Monk levels, Cleric Divine Power/Mage Tenser's and dual wielding. You should also try to create situations where you can do Sneak Attacks on your target. Options include Knockdown/IKD, Bigbys (Sorc/Wiz), Improved Invisibility (your own feat-spell or multiclass with any caster that has it), Word of Faith (Cleric), HiPS (Shadowdancer) and flanking your target.
The spell system here lets you add your Assassin level to your caster level when casting Wizard spells of level 4 and below. For example, an Assassin 23 Wizard 7 casting Improved Invisibility is considered as having a caster level of 30, and will get a duration of 30 rounds for the spell.
Note: Death Attack will never paralyze an enemy in LL areas due to their fort saves so don't bother building for Death Attack DC.
Magic Numbers: As high as possible. Try to stop at an Assassin bonus feat (22, 26, 30) or the Death Attack dice right after that (23, 27)
Class Combos:
Monk 6/Fighter 8/Assassin 26 - 10 attacks and 17BAB if done right.
Ranger 10/Wizard 7/Assassin 23 - Imp Invis abuser
Ranger 10/Shadowdancer 1/Assassin 29 - Max Death Attack damage, 17BAB and HiPS
Barbarian
Barbarians tend to fall behind at higher levels due to rage bonus counting towards the +12 stat cap. On Netheria Mighty Rage adds AB, Damage and Temporary HP so that limitation is circumvented somewhat.
As for what Barbarians are good for, it's HP, skill points and being the only base class with both high BAB and Uncanny Dodge. On the flipside they don't get many bonus feats and their Damage Reduction comes at a rate that's too slow to be significant, compared to Dwarven Defenders.
Barbarians have potential to be good tanks, but not through Damage Reduction alone. A combination of Damage Reduction, AC and HP should work well. Mighty Rage does not reduce your AC so it's perfectly viable.
Magic Numbers: 24 and every multiple of 4 after that, ie the levels with bonus feats. 29 is a good number too, being a level where the Barbarian gets 1 DR right after a bonus feat.
Class Combos:
Barbarian 28/Bard 2/PM 10 - Blasphemy, weirdness etc but it gives crit immunity + AC + HP + DR + 20BAB.
Barbarian 36/Blackguard 3/Rogue 1 - Divine Shield + Tumble cheese
Bard
Top tier. Great buffing ability, great skillset, decent spells and gives you access to 2 of the most stupidly overpowered prestige classes in the game - RDD and PM.
In case you didn't know already Bard Song was altered here. It's +1 to AB at level 1, +1 to Damage at level 2, +1 to all saves at level 3, +1 to all skills at level 4, +1 to AC at level 5, +6 temporary HP at level 6 then it starts all over.
Bards can get the highest indirect AB using Curse Song to lower a target's AC and Concentration skill. Take advantage of their weakened Concentration score to use Taunt, dropping their AC further. Curse Song is also the only one of 2 ways to drop an enemy's AC, the other being Taunt.
The Bard's weaknesses are average BAB, low HP, reliance on a questionably useful stat ie Charisma and a voracious appetite for feats - you have to juggle your song feats, Extend/Still Spell and combat feats. Cover these by multiclassing to a Fighter-type class.
Magic Numbers: 23 and every 3 levels thereafter. My old Bard was 16 but I found the song to be a little too weak for me after the song change.
Class Combos:
Bard 26/Fighter 4/RDD 10 - Very standard str fighter
Bard 23/AA 15/Assassin 2 - Assassin for uncanny dodge.
Blackguard
Another SoU prestige class thought to be weak. It's like a Paladin that trades spells for Sneak Attack but gains them at an excruciatingly slow rate and has no way to land them on its own. Also, there's plenty of evil to smite in general but good enemies are few and far between.
In the Blackguard's defense, it is the only Sneak Attack class with high BAB progression and Turn Undead for Divine Might/Shield. It also gets faster bonus feats than the Paladin.
The most notable changes to Blackguards on Netheria are that their Inflict Critical Wounds ability was changed to a reverse Lay On Hands, dealing 10 + Blackguard Level multiplied by the Blackguard's Charisma modifier as damage. This recharges every 75 seconds. Also, Blackguard/Clerics with Evil domain add their Blackguard level to their caster level when casting level 4 spells or lower.
Making a Blackguard is a delicate balancing act. One of their prerequisite feats is Cleave, which requires either 13+Str or 1 level of Monk to get. To get the most mileage out of their abilities, you also need decent Charisma and Divine Might/Shield. If not you're just a Fighter/Rogue, minus the feats and the skillpoints and the special Rogue abilities, so a Fighter/Rogue will do everything you can and more. The other thing is you should take advantage of your Sneak Attacks, otherwise you should have gone with Paladin. If you decide to go with Imp Invis for your sneaks then you either risk a thin stat spread or arcane spell failure, and heavy investment in a caster class = less sneak attack dice. Finally, between prerequisites and Divine feats I'd say Blackguard can be quite a drain on feats as well.
Class Combos:
Ranger 9/Blackguard 25/Monk 6 - IKD for sneaks. 10 attacks and good AB but low AC.
Monk or Rogue 3/Cleric 9/Blackguard 28 - Imp Invis for sneaks.
Champion of Torm
It's a Fighter that's missing the level 1 feat, doesn't have Weapon Specialization and runs out of steam after level 10. In exchange it gets the Paladin's Lay on Hands (lol there's heal potions), a built in Ring of Resistance that counts towards the +20 cap to all saves and its own combat buff, Divine Wrath. In its favour, CoT can take Great Wisdom with its bonus feats and Divine Wrath is boosted here so that it soaks damage from up to +20 weapons like Epic Warding. It also recharges every 3 minutes.
When taking CoT, your build should get all the proficiencies it needs from other classes and use either Wisdom (for Great Wis bonus feats) or Charisma (CoT abilities). Otherwise Fighter would be a better choice.
Like Fighter, taking CoT to high levels will give diminishing returns. Use CoT bonus feats and abilities to augment another classes' abilities instead.
Magic Numbers: 5 (Divine Wrath), 6 (Bonus feat after Divine Wrath), 10 (Divine Wrath upgrade + bonus feat), 14 (bonus feat), 15 (Divine Wrath upgrade right after bonus feat)... see a pattern here?
Class Combos:
Monk 3/Cleric 15/CoT 22 - Wis-based Zen Archer or Dex-based dual kama
Monk 9/Shadowdancer 5/CoT 25 - Dex based epic dodging dual kama CoT
Cleric
Clerics are powerhouses, dropping spells that hurt and meleeing for high damage when fully buffed. Clerics also have great synergy with Monks, which lets them use their Wisdom for both spellcasting and AC and spam flurries of Divine-Powered™ flaming kama attacks and gives them access to Tumble and Discipline as class skills. Zen Archery is an option for Clerics as well, letting them use their Wisdom bonus for ranged attacks.
Of special note is their Divine Power spell, which buffs your AB and attacks per round to match that of a Fighter of equivalent level. One way to take advantage of this is to manage your BAB such that it falls just short of the next attack you will get, for example taking Rogue 12 Cleric 8 will net you 15 BAB, just 1 short of a 4th attack per round. Divine Power will give this build +5AB and an extra attack at its highest BAB. This may sound nice but if you get hit by Mordenkainen's Disjunction in an unfavorable situation it can mean Game Over.
The weakness of Clerics is their skill selection, which is missing critical skills like DIscipline and Tumble (though as mentioned above taking Monk can solve this). Another is the need to balance both the caster and melee aspects of the Cleric, which can be a drain on feats.
For Domain selection, Magic Domain is good for any high level Cleric with Empower/Maximize for Ice Storm and other spells. Air Domain is good for Clerics with high DCs on their spells to use Chain Lightning. Trickery is good for Sneak Attack classes.
Clerics lack the mage's battlefield control spells like Bigbys, Thunderclaps and Iron Horn. Also, Fortitude saves on monsters prevent death spells from working effectively in level 40+ areas. A Cleric focusing solely on spells might have trouble doing well. You should have a backup plan if you intend to take Cleric into high levels. This can be Zen Archery or a more conventional form of melee. Note that if you intend to go with melee it means investing heavily in either Strength or Dexterity and taking Weapon Focus feats or you'll have a lot of trouble hitting at level 40+. This can detract from your spellcasting power, though you do stand to gain in other ways - access to Devastating Critical or Epic Dodge.
Magic Numbers: 15 for level 8 spells, 26 for undispellable buffs, every 3 levels after 26 up to 38 for the bonus feat, 36 for the extra damage dice on spells right after a bonus feat.
Class Combos:
Cleric 38/Ranger 1/Monk 1 - Caster cleric. Ranger 1 at level 1 for Longbow Proficiency and skill points or lv21+ to get a free bonus feat. Monk 1 at the end for Tumble/Discipline and Monk AC.
Cleric 35/Fighter 4/Harper Scout 1 - Devastating Critical. Harper for Tumble, Discipline and Improved Combat Casting.
Monk 9/Cleric 26/Shadowdancer 5 - Epic Dodger
Key:
AB: Attack Bonus
AC: Armor Class
DR: Damage Reduction
HP: Hit points
Arcane Archer
The biggest strength of Arcane Archers is their AB. Enchant Arrow means +1AB and damage every 2 levels, up to +15AB/Damage at AA level 29. The drawback is it only applies to ranged weapons, and ranged weapons have poor crit range and no Keen. This means low damage.
Besides their AB they don't have much else to boast about. The ingame description about "using magic to supplement their combat prowess" is BS. Arcane Archers are one trick ponies. You shoot arrows, they die. If not you're dead. Their most significant changed ability on Netheria is Imbue Arrow which can stun targets caught in its shockwave if they fail a Will save. This gives them a bit more versatility.
AAs have quite a bit of ground to cover with their multiclasses. Look for classes that give Uncanny Dodge, have Discipline and/or Tumble as class skills, have something that lets you get bonus damage like Sneak Attacks or extra AC like Pale Masters. Archers should move around a lot so Tumble is especially important to avoid Attacks of Opportunity and the AC to compensate for the lack of a shield. Rogue is a good candidate, plugging most of these holes, but there are other possible combinations as well.
Magic Numbers: Any odd number is good. AA 19 is a popular stopping number though, giving +10ab from Enchant Arrow and 2 AA bonus feats. Any bonus feat number is probably good too, ie 14, 18, 22, 26, 30.
Class Combos:
Rogue 19/Wiz 2/AA 19 - Good AB and sneak attack damage
Rogue 13/Wiz 8/AA 19 - Imp Invis abuser
Bard 16/Rogue 13/AA 11 - Support archer
Bard 16/PM 10/AA 14 - High AC archer
Assassin
Assassins are generally regarded as a weak class on the Bioware forums. Put bluntly they are Rogues with less skill points and no bonus feats. To make up for it they get feats that cast low level Mage spells, of which only 1 of them has any practical use, and they have a weak Devastating Critical wannabe aka Death Attack.
However, they do have a few tricks up their sleeve. For one, their feat-spells are undispellable. Second, they can take Great Dexterity as a bonus feat in epic levels.
As is par for the course for all Sneak Attack classes, you should try to maximize the number of attacks per round you can do as an Assassin. This means any combination of good BAB management, Monk levels, Cleric Divine Power/Mage Tenser's and dual wielding. You should also try to create situations where you can do Sneak Attacks on your target. Options include Knockdown/IKD, Bigbys (Sorc/Wiz), Improved Invisibility (your own feat-spell or multiclass with any caster that has it), Word of Faith (Cleric), HiPS (Shadowdancer) and flanking your target.
The spell system here lets you add your Assassin level to your caster level when casting Wizard spells of level 4 and below. For example, an Assassin 23 Wizard 7 casting Improved Invisibility is considered as having a caster level of 30, and will get a duration of 30 rounds for the spell.
Note: Death Attack will never paralyze an enemy in LL areas due to their fort saves so don't bother building for Death Attack DC.
Magic Numbers: As high as possible. Try to stop at an Assassin bonus feat (22, 26, 30) or the Death Attack dice right after that (23, 27)
Class Combos:
Monk 6/Fighter 8/Assassin 26 - 10 attacks and 17BAB if done right.
Ranger 10/Wizard 7/Assassin 23 - Imp Invis abuser
Ranger 10/Shadowdancer 1/Assassin 29 - Max Death Attack damage, 17BAB and HiPS
Barbarian
Barbarians tend to fall behind at higher levels due to rage bonus counting towards the +12 stat cap. On Netheria Mighty Rage adds AB, Damage and Temporary HP so that limitation is circumvented somewhat.
As for what Barbarians are good for, it's HP, skill points and being the only base class with both high BAB and Uncanny Dodge. On the flipside they don't get many bonus feats and their Damage Reduction comes at a rate that's too slow to be significant, compared to Dwarven Defenders.
Barbarians have potential to be good tanks, but not through Damage Reduction alone. A combination of Damage Reduction, AC and HP should work well. Mighty Rage does not reduce your AC so it's perfectly viable.
Magic Numbers: 24 and every multiple of 4 after that, ie the levels with bonus feats. 29 is a good number too, being a level where the Barbarian gets 1 DR right after a bonus feat.
Class Combos:
Barbarian 28/Bard 2/PM 10 - Blasphemy, weirdness etc but it gives crit immunity + AC + HP + DR + 20BAB.
Barbarian 36/Blackguard 3/Rogue 1 - Divine Shield + Tumble cheese
Bard
Top tier. Great buffing ability, great skillset, decent spells and gives you access to 2 of the most stupidly overpowered prestige classes in the game - RDD and PM.
In case you didn't know already Bard Song was altered here. It's +1 to AB at level 1, +1 to Damage at level 2, +1 to all saves at level 3, +1 to all skills at level 4, +1 to AC at level 5, +6 temporary HP at level 6 then it starts all over.
Bards can get the highest indirect AB using Curse Song to lower a target's AC and Concentration skill. Take advantage of their weakened Concentration score to use Taunt, dropping their AC further. Curse Song is also the only one of 2 ways to drop an enemy's AC, the other being Taunt.
The Bard's weaknesses are average BAB, low HP, reliance on a questionably useful stat ie Charisma and a voracious appetite for feats - you have to juggle your song feats, Extend/Still Spell and combat feats. Cover these by multiclassing to a Fighter-type class.
Magic Numbers: 23 and every 3 levels thereafter. My old Bard was 16 but I found the song to be a little too weak for me after the song change.
Class Combos:
Bard 26/Fighter 4/RDD 10 - Very standard str fighter
Bard 23/AA 15/Assassin 2 - Assassin for uncanny dodge.
Blackguard
Another SoU prestige class thought to be weak. It's like a Paladin that trades spells for Sneak Attack but gains them at an excruciatingly slow rate and has no way to land them on its own. Also, there's plenty of evil to smite in general but good enemies are few and far between.
In the Blackguard's defense, it is the only Sneak Attack class with high BAB progression and Turn Undead for Divine Might/Shield. It also gets faster bonus feats than the Paladin.
The most notable changes to Blackguards on Netheria are that their Inflict Critical Wounds ability was changed to a reverse Lay On Hands, dealing 10 + Blackguard Level multiplied by the Blackguard's Charisma modifier as damage. This recharges every 75 seconds. Also, Blackguard/Clerics with Evil domain add their Blackguard level to their caster level when casting level 4 spells or lower.
Making a Blackguard is a delicate balancing act. One of their prerequisite feats is Cleave, which requires either 13+Str or 1 level of Monk to get. To get the most mileage out of their abilities, you also need decent Charisma and Divine Might/Shield. If not you're just a Fighter/Rogue, minus the feats and the skillpoints and the special Rogue abilities, so a Fighter/Rogue will do everything you can and more. The other thing is you should take advantage of your Sneak Attacks, otherwise you should have gone with Paladin. If you decide to go with Imp Invis for your sneaks then you either risk a thin stat spread or arcane spell failure, and heavy investment in a caster class = less sneak attack dice. Finally, between prerequisites and Divine feats I'd say Blackguard can be quite a drain on feats as well.
Class Combos:
Ranger 9/Blackguard 25/Monk 6 - IKD for sneaks. 10 attacks and good AB but low AC.
Monk or Rogue 3/Cleric 9/Blackguard 28 - Imp Invis for sneaks.
Champion of Torm
It's a Fighter that's missing the level 1 feat, doesn't have Weapon Specialization and runs out of steam after level 10. In exchange it gets the Paladin's Lay on Hands (lol there's heal potions), a built in Ring of Resistance that counts towards the +20 cap to all saves and its own combat buff, Divine Wrath. In its favour, CoT can take Great Wisdom with its bonus feats and Divine Wrath is boosted here so that it soaks damage from up to +20 weapons like Epic Warding. It also recharges every 3 minutes.
When taking CoT, your build should get all the proficiencies it needs from other classes and use either Wisdom (for Great Wis bonus feats) or Charisma (CoT abilities). Otherwise Fighter would be a better choice.
Like Fighter, taking CoT to high levels will give diminishing returns. Use CoT bonus feats and abilities to augment another classes' abilities instead.
Magic Numbers: 5 (Divine Wrath), 6 (Bonus feat after Divine Wrath), 10 (Divine Wrath upgrade + bonus feat), 14 (bonus feat), 15 (Divine Wrath upgrade right after bonus feat)... see a pattern here?
Class Combos:
Monk 3/Cleric 15/CoT 22 - Wis-based Zen Archer or Dex-based dual kama
Monk 9/Shadowdancer 5/CoT 25 - Dex based epic dodging dual kama CoT
Cleric
Clerics are powerhouses, dropping spells that hurt and meleeing for high damage when fully buffed. Clerics also have great synergy with Monks, which lets them use their Wisdom for both spellcasting and AC and spam flurries of Divine-Powered™ flaming kama attacks and gives them access to Tumble and Discipline as class skills. Zen Archery is an option for Clerics as well, letting them use their Wisdom bonus for ranged attacks.
Of special note is their Divine Power spell, which buffs your AB and attacks per round to match that of a Fighter of equivalent level. One way to take advantage of this is to manage your BAB such that it falls just short of the next attack you will get, for example taking Rogue 12 Cleric 8 will net you 15 BAB, just 1 short of a 4th attack per round. Divine Power will give this build +5AB and an extra attack at its highest BAB. This may sound nice but if you get hit by Mordenkainen's Disjunction in an unfavorable situation it can mean Game Over.
The weakness of Clerics is their skill selection, which is missing critical skills like DIscipline and Tumble (though as mentioned above taking Monk can solve this). Another is the need to balance both the caster and melee aspects of the Cleric, which can be a drain on feats.
For Domain selection, Magic Domain is good for any high level Cleric with Empower/Maximize for Ice Storm and other spells. Air Domain is good for Clerics with high DCs on their spells to use Chain Lightning. Trickery is good for Sneak Attack classes.
Clerics lack the mage's battlefield control spells like Bigbys, Thunderclaps and Iron Horn. Also, Fortitude saves on monsters prevent death spells from working effectively in level 40+ areas. A Cleric focusing solely on spells might have trouble doing well. You should have a backup plan if you intend to take Cleric into high levels. This can be Zen Archery or a more conventional form of melee. Note that if you intend to go with melee it means investing heavily in either Strength or Dexterity and taking Weapon Focus feats or you'll have a lot of trouble hitting at level 40+. This can detract from your spellcasting power, though you do stand to gain in other ways - access to Devastating Critical or Epic Dodge.
Magic Numbers: 15 for level 8 spells, 26 for undispellable buffs, every 3 levels after 26 up to 38 for the bonus feat, 36 for the extra damage dice on spells right after a bonus feat.
Class Combos:
Cleric 38/Ranger 1/Monk 1 - Caster cleric. Ranger 1 at level 1 for Longbow Proficiency and skill points or lv21+ to get a free bonus feat. Monk 1 at the end for Tumble/Discipline and Monk AC.
Cleric 35/Fighter 4/Harper Scout 1 - Devastating Critical. Harper for Tumble, Discipline and Improved Combat Casting.
Monk 9/Cleric 26/Shadowdancer 5 - Epic Dodger