Bone Phoneix - Weapon focus?

[Avilan]

Hello,
I have finally installed this game (and MotB) on my new laptop, and I
can finally play it... Before we only had one computer in the family
and it was too old, not only had I to fight for gaming time on it but
when I came to Neverwinter it lagged down so bad even on lowest
settings it was painful.

So. I am now playing a Bard / Fighter (to be RDD next level). I am
currently arriving at the Bandit camp from Fort Locke but I have
another question:
What weapon should I put my focus on? I have not picked anything yet,
but I have few ideas:

1) Morning Star. The Bone Phoneix is a great weapon to get for free
this early in the game, my Half Drow with Str 14 more often than not
does mid teens in damage with it and undead and lizards are mowed
through in a lovely pace.

2) Greatsword. For no other reason than that it looks cool with a two-
handed sword.

3) Bastard Sword. But then I need exotic weapons and I do not know if
there are good enough Bastard swords in the game to warrant this.

4) Long sword. But I rather not, it's so... Vanilla. ;)

Basically, what I am looking for is a mild spoiler: Is it any of the
two above that I definitely should NOT choose?


Character is (and I have no plans of making an optimized character, I
do not save skill points, for example):

Avaelynne Songcrow
Half Drow
Chaotic Neutral

STR 14
DEX 17 (16 at start)
CON 10
INT 14
WIZ 8
CHA 16

The plan is to put every second point in dex, every second in str.

Current lvl is Bard 3, Fighter 2
Plan is Bard 4, Fighter 6+, RDD 10. I do not know if I am going to
take another Prestige class or go straight with fighter for the rest
too.

Feats (as far as I remember, I am at work):
Luck of Heroes
Power Attack
Cleave (as you can see I am not going for weapon finesse...)
Dodge (Or was that my other character...? I will get it if I don't
have it)

[maxon]

Post by Avilan
Hello,
I have finally installed this game (and MotB) on my new laptop, and I
can finally play it... Before we only had one computer in the family
and it was too old, not only had I to fight for gaming time on it but
when I came to Neverwinter it lagged down so bad even on lowest
settings it was painful.

Ah me too - I'm just about to buy a new computer with a nice big cheque I
got for a job I did just before Christmas. I'm looking forward to it but
will have to decide soon issues like what video card to go with and such.

Post by Avilan
4) Long sword. But I rather not, it's so... Vanilla. ;)

You know, that's exactly why I would choose it. Somehow, with all the extra
options available, playing as a half-ogre barbarian berserker (or whatever)
doesn't appeal. I guess we're all different.

Best wishes
maxon

[Avilan]

Post by maxon

Post by Avilan
Hello,
I have finally installed this game (and MotB) on my new laptop, and I
can finally play it... Before we only had one computer in the family
and it was too old, not only had I to fight for gaming time on it but
when I came to Neverwinter it lagged down so bad even on lowest
settings it was painful.

Ah me too - I'm just about to buy a new computer with a nice big cheque I
got for a job I did just before Christmas. I'm looking forward to it but
will have to decide soon issues like what video card to go with and such.

Post by Avilan
4) Long sword. But I rather not, it's so... Vanilla. ;)

You know, that's exactly why I would choose it. Somehow, with all the extra
options available, playing as a half-ogre barbarian berserker (or whatever)
doesn't appeal. I guess we're all different.
Best wishes
maxon

Hmmm maybe... there is a decent longsword close to where I am at the
moment. Maybe I should be different and actually play with shield
+longsword this time, like in the old BG and BG2 days.
The reason have been a little allergic to longswords is because of
those two amazing games: If you were a tank character there were no
real reason to use any other weapon, since 80% of all good weapons
were longswords, at least in BG.

/Stefan

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by Avilan
What weapon should I put my focus on? I have not picked anything yet,
1) Morning Star. The Bone Phoneix is a great weapon to get for free
2) Greatsword. >
3) Bastard Sword.
4) Long sword. But I rather not, it's so... Vanilla. ;)
Basically, what I am looking for is a mild spoiler: Is it any of the
two above that I definitely should NOT choose?

Not really - some additional thoughts below - but it's best to (at
least initally) pick one weapon and stack up all your feats in that
one type (weapon focus, weapon specialization, Improved Critical, etc)

Morning star - decent general weapon, good against critters with DR vs
slashing (e.g., clay golems - iirc, skeletal warriers etc).
Drawbacks... threatens only on a 20

Greatsword - dishes out heavy damage (1.5 x STR bonus), some good
Greatswords to be found through the campaign, threatens on 19-20.
Drawbacks... no shield, which can be a substantial hit on your AC
(e.g., +3 tower shield improves your AC by 6 pts!)

Bastard sword - one thing I don't like about NWN is that you don't
have the option of using a BS with two hands. It's basically a
longsword that does d10 instead of d8 and requires a feat to use.

Longsword - you get to use a shield, some good longswords in the OC
(original campaign). Threat range 19-20; you get into the additional
feats one feat earlier than with a bastard sword. Only drawback is
that it is so common.

IIRC the best overall weapon in the OC is the Astral Sword
(longsword).

I started out with a focus on longsword in SoU, got all the weapon
feats for it, but by the time I was in the middle/end of HotU, I was
doing Two-Weapon fighting with bastard swords :-)
(with all the weapon feats, focus, specialization, Imp Crit, etc)

BTW - minor HotU spoiler - partway through the campaign, there is a
smith that will improve the weapon of your choice, so which weapon you
choose to focus on is up to you.

Post by Avilan
Character is (and I have no plans of making an optimized character,
STR 14
DEX 17 (16 at start)
CON 10
INT 14
WIZ 8
CHA 16
The plan is to put every second point in dex, every second in str.

Usually, it's best to pick on and stick with it. For a melee
character, especially since you are not going Finesse, it's STR
(though at this point, 18 DEX looks tempting!). You're going to start
looking at heavier armors for AC which will negate some of your DEX
benefits.

Post by Avilan
Plan is Bard 4, Fighter 6+, RDD 10. I do not know if I am going to
take another Prestige class or go straight with fighter for the rest too.

Bad news...You're limited to 3 classes in NWN, so no additional
classes are available :(

Good news... you're just starting NWN. You have lots of fun ahead of
you :)
General consensus... the OC is the least interesting of the campaigns,
SotU is an improvement (but you start over at 1st level) and HotU is
the best. Also, there a thousands (literally, 3,000+ last time I
checked) of user-written mods at the NWN vault, and several hundred of
them are as good/better than the OC.

[Avilan]

Post by a***@yahoo.com

Post by Avilan
What weapon should I put my focus on? I have not picked anything yet,
1) Morning Star. The Bone Phoneix is a great weapon to get for free
2) Greatsword. >
3) Bastard Sword.
4) Long sword. But I rather not, it's so... Vanilla. ;)
Basically, what I am looking for is a mild spoiler: Is it any of the
two above that I definitely should NOT choose?

Not really - some additional thoughts below - but it's best to (at
least initally) pick one weapon and stack up all your feats in that
one type (weapon focus, weapon specialization, Improved Critical, etc)
Morning star - decent general weapon, good against critters with DR vs
slashing (e.g., clay golems - iirc, skeletal warriers etc).
Drawbacks... threatens only on a 20
Greatsword - dishes out heavy damage (1.5 x STR bonus), some good
Greatswords to be found through the campaign, threatens on 19-20.
Drawbacks... no shield, which can be a substantial hit on your AC
(e.g., +3 tower shield improves your AC by 6 pts!)
Bastard sword - one thing I don't like about NWN is that you don't
have the option of using a BS with two hands. It's basically a
longsword that does d10 instead of d8 and requires a feat to use.
Longsword - you get to use a shield, some good longswords in the OC
(original campaign). Threat range 19-20; you get into the additional
feats one feat earlier than with a bastard sword. Only drawback is
that it is so common.
IIRC the best overall weapon in the OC is the Astral Sword
(longsword).
I started out with a focus on longsword in SoU, got all the weapon
feats for it, but by the time I was in the middle/end of HotU, I was
doing Two-Weapon fighting with bastard swords :-)
(with all the weapon feats, focus, specialization, Imp Crit, etc)
BTW - minor HotU spoiler - partway through the campaign, there is a
smith that will improve the weapon of your choice, so which weapon you
choose to focus on is up to you.

Post by Avilan
Character is (and I have no plans of making an optimized character,
STR 14
DEX 17 (16 at start)
CON 10
INT 14
WIZ 8
CHA 16
The plan is to put every second point in dex, every second in str.

Usually, it's best to pick on and stick with it. For a melee
character, especially since you are not going Finesse, it's STR
(though at this point, 18 DEX looks tempting!). You're going to start
looking at heavier armors for AC which will negate some of your DEX
benefits.

Post by Avilan
Plan is Bard 4, Fighter 6+, RDD 10. I do not know if I am going to
take another Prestige class or go straight with fighter for the rest too.

Bad news...You're limited to 3 classes in NWN, so no additional
classes are available :(
Good news... you're just starting NWN. You have lots of fun ahead of
you :)
General consensus... the OC is the least interesting of the campaigns,
SotU is an improvement (but you start over at 1st level) and HotU is
the best. Also, there a thousands (literally, 3,000+ last time I
checked) of user-written mods at the NWN vault, and several hundred of
them are as good/better than the OC.

Good advice, and I thank you for it, however this is NWN2 and Mask of
the Betrayer we are talking about. Therefore I can SO use 4
classes... :P

Btw I decided to go with the Longsword for this character, just to be
different (to what *I* usually play with, but it fits the character).
And i have decided to stack all my points in Dex and let the STR
bonuses from the RDD fill the need for increasing that stat.

/Stefan

[a***@yahoo.com]

Post by Avilan
Good advice, and I thank you for it, however this is NWN2 and Mask of
the Betrayer we are talking about. Therefore I can SO use 4
classes... :P

D'Oh! For some reason, I parsed "Fort Locke" as "the Fort at Luskan"

Post by Avilan
Btw I decided to go with the Longsword for this character, just to be
different (to what *I* usually play with, but it fits the character).
And i have decided to stack all my points in Dex and let the STR
bonuses from the RDD fill the need for increasing that stat.

Yeah, for NWN2, I'd just choose a weapon you like and build it up
using the recipes and your/henchmen's crafting skills. Nice/cheaper
to have a good base weapon to start, like your Bone Phoenix, but not
absolutely necessary.

i don't remember getting a Bone Phoenix for free, but it's been a
while since I played. I think I found an Astral Sword somewhere,
beefed it up a bit... found another sword later, beefed that up and
gave the Astral sword to one of the henchies.

[Avilan]

Post by a***@yahoo.com

Post by Avilan
Good advice, and I thank you for it, however this is NWN2 and Mask of
the Betrayer we are talking about. Therefore I can SO use 4
classes... :P

D'Oh! For some reason, I parsed "Fort Locke" as "the Fort at Luskan"

Post by Avilan
Btw I decided to go with the Longsword for this character, just to be
different (to what *I* usually play with, but it fits the character).
And i have decided to stack all my points in Dex and let the STR
bonuses from the RDD fill the need for increasing that stat.

Yeah, for NWN2, I'd just choose a weapon you like and build it up
using the recipes and your/henchmen's crafting skills. Nice/cheaper
to have a good base weapon to start, like your Bone Phoenix, but not
absolutely necessary.
i don't remember getting a Bone Phoenix for free, but it's been a
while since I played. I think I found an Astral Sword somewhere,
beefed it up a bit... found another sword later, beefed that up and
gave the Astral sword to one of the henchies.

The Bone Phoneix (Morning Star +1, 1T6 Fire damage) is the weapon used
by the Lizard Chieftain in the Swamp Cave on the way to Fort Locke. He
is polite enough to drop it when he dies.
The Astral Blade is what the Bandit Chief wields in their HQ outside
Fort Locke.

I have a bad habit of getting stuck in Character Creation, and lo and
behold I started a new character last night. I have a tendency to come
up with all these cool plans and then revert back to what I really
enjoy: Strength Based Fighter Characters, possibly with a Twist.

This time it's a human Ranger 4+ (to get Shadow, my
Panther) / ?? / ?? / ?? (haven't thought that far yet). Next level is
5, so I better start thinking. I am still thinking about these:

Ranger 4 / Barbarian X / FB / ??
Ranger X / Bard 1/ RDD 10
Ranger 4 / Fighter X / FB X / ??
Ranger 4 / Figher X / DC X / ??

Two weapon fighting, weapon focus morning star, STR based character
(but well balanced):
STR 17 (16 at the start)
DEX 14
CON 12
INT 14
WIS 12
CHA 10