Print Page - Dual-wielding Melee Mage

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 22, 2014, 02:44:30 pm

               Now that my Bard / Arcane Archer is on her way, I'm planning something completely different: a dual-wielding melee wizard based on Webshaman's notes to his official Melee Mage. I've put in much the same feats that he suggests, but it would be great to get some advice specific to SoU / HotU.

I really like being able to melee low-level opponents instead of running in fear from any physical encounter. Granted, it takes a few levels to get there, but being completely dependent on spells is just too much PT for me.   And Int is high enough that I can get decent levels in cross-class skills, to make things more interesting.

I've done some low-level testing of the strength MM in the OC, and he just blew through things so fast that I stopped at about Level 6 because it was getting boring.   Is there an equivalent to the NWN2 Rod of Preparation, to automate buffing? That is the biggest downside of this build from a personal enjoyment angle.

Wizard(40), Elf
STR: 10
DEX: 16
CON: 12
WIS: 8
INT: 18 (36)
CHA: 8

Spell School: Illusion

Elf: (Hardiness vs. Enchantments, Keen Sense, Low-light Vision, Skill Affinity: Listen, Skill Affinity: Search, Skill Affinity: Spot, Sleeplessness)

01: Wizard(1): Toughness, {Scribe Scroll}
02: Wizard(2)
03: Wizard(3): Weapon Finesse
04: Wizard(4): INT+1, (INT=19)
05: Wizard(5): Extend Spell
06: Wizard(6): Empower Spell
07: Wizard(7)
08: Wizard(8): INT+1, (INT=20)
09: Wizard(9): Maximize Spell
10: Wizard(10): Quicken Spell
11: Wizard(11)
12: Wizard(12): INT+1, Two-Weapon Fighting, (INT=21)
13: Wizard(13)
14: Wizard(14)
15: Wizard(15): Ambidexterity, Spell Penetration
16: Wizard(16): INT+1, (INT=22)
17: Wizard(17)
18: Wizard(18): Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
19: Wizard(19)
20: Wizard(20): INT+1, Greater Spell Penetration, (INT=23)
21: Wizard(21): Epic Spell Penetration
22: Wizard(22)
23: Wizard(23): Combat Casting
24: Wizard(24): INT+1, Great Intelligence I, (INT=25)
25: Wizard(25)
26: Wizard(26): Great Intelligence II, (INT=26)
27: Wizard(27): Great Intelligence III, (INT=27)
28: Wizard(28): INT+1, (INT=28)
29: Wizard(29): Great Intelligence IV, (INT=29)
30: Wizard(30): Great Intelligence V, (INT=30)
31: Wizard(31)
32: Wizard(32): INT+1, Epic Spell: Epic Mage Armor, (INT=31)
33: Wizard(33): Epic Prowess
34: Wizard(34)
35: Wizard(35): Epic Spell: Epic Warding
36: Wizard(36): INT+1, Great Intelligence VI, (INT=33)
37: Wizard(37)
38: Wizard(38): Great Intelligence VII, (INT=34)
39: Wizard(39): Great Intelligence VIII, (INT=35)
40: Wizard(40): INT+1, (INT=36)

Hitpoints: 240
Skillpoints: 378
Saving Throws (Fortitude/Will/Reflex): 17/21/19
Saving Throw bonuses: Spells: +11, Mind Effects: +2

BAB: 20AB (max, naked): 24 (melee), 24 (ranged)AC (naked/mundane armor/shield only): 17/17

Spell Casting: Wizard(9)Alignment Changes: 0

Appraise 7(20), Concentration 43(44), Discipline 21(21), Heal 27(26), Hide 15(18), Listen 10(11), Lore 27(40), Move Silently 15(18), Search 21(36), Spellcraft 43(56), Tumble 21(24), remaining skillpoints 18

                     ModifiÃ© par brendonwp, 22 janvier 2014 - 07:20 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 22, 2014, 07:19:51 pm

               Edit: Sorted out build formatting!

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Empyre65 on January 23, 2014, 03:54:21 am

               WebShaman still drops by these forums occasionally. I just saw a post he left 12 dayas ago. If you wait a while, he will likely see the name of this topic and answer.

I do want to warn you about a null-magic zone in the Underdark in HotU. Valen should be of great help there.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 23, 2014, 05:11:07 am

Empyre, I'll hold on for WS then. I've heard rumours of that perilous zone. At least none of the physical stats give negative modifiers, unlike a lot of mage builds that I've seen. I think she's up to the challenge

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 23, 2014, 05:11:43 am

               Duplicate post removed

                     ModifiÃ© par brendonwp, 24 janvier 2014 - 08:52 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 23, 2014, 11:30:48 pm

brendonwp wrote...

Is there an equivalent to the NWN2 Rod of Preparation, to automate buffing? That is the biggest downside of this build from a personal enjoyment angle.

Not unless the module implements it, no.

brendonwp wrote...

32: Wizard(32): INT+1, Epic Spell: Epic Mage Armor, (INT=31)

I wouldn't get EMA. Without full plate, high dex, or some other source of AC (like Monk Wisdom or something) your AC is going to be low enough that you'll be getting hit a lot with or without EMA. Drop that and Epic Prowess for two more Great Intelligences.

brendonwp wrote...

Appraise 7(20), Concentration 43(44), Discipline 21(21), Heal 27(26), Hide 15(18), Listen 10(11), Lore 27(40), Move Silently 15(18), Search 21(36), Spellcraft 43(56), Tumble 21(24), remaining skillpoints 18

No point in going past 20 Tumble ranks, no benefit.

In general, I question the value of this build -- you're going to have a rough first few levels with no Weapon Finesse and low HP and you can't dual-wield for a while anyway. It's basically a Strength build except inferior. I suppose you have 2-3 more AC at very low level where wizard AC matters...but your offense will be terrible relatively speaking as a result.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 24, 2014, 01:30:06 am

               A few comments:

1) There is at least one NWN version of the Extended Rod of Fast Buffing. It should work in any module with tag-based scripting enabled. I am not sure if SoU or Sands of Fate (or even HotU) have it enabled by default, but I think Bioware's default x2_mod_def_load enables it and tag-based scripting would not be hard to enable in those modules. There is at least one tutorial on enabling tag-based scripting (google for others) and a recent thread in the scripting forums here may also be useful.

One approach to getting the rod into a module (once tag-based is enabled) is to import the erf into the chapters where you want it available and add it to a couple of the merchants. I would suggest the magic shop in Waterdeep for Chapter 1 and the magic shop in Lith My'athar (Gulhrys' store) for Chapter 2. Another approach is to drop the UTI file and NCS file into your override and then use the console to import the item.

(For some reason, the Rod's creator, loudent, didn't include support for metamagic casting. I added metamagic for my use and the override files for the version with metamagic enabled are available here.)

2) As per Webshaman's suggestion in his MM thread, you should upgrade the Tenser's Transformation spell when possible. I suggest Moskwa's PnP Tenser's Transformation. The Bioware TT is flawed to the point that nearly no one uses it. Moskwa's version does what the spell is supposed to: Provides a short-term buff a that allows a mage to hit something during melee.

3) MM, the OP seems to make it clear that his intent is to make a mage who is able to "melee low-level opponents". Any pure wizard is going to lack the AC to hold up in melee against tough bosses in Sands of Fate (and maybe even the Bioware modules), but a mage can do what is asked for against many low-level opponents. IMO, the +5 dodge AC from EMA is a pretty good bump against those types. Of course, by level 32, this toon will be well into Sands of Fate, and it's possible that the items there will allow him to cap dodge AC without EMA. I recall some very high-AC boots and so on by the second chapter of the module, but I don't recall if a mage would run into the dodge cap there.

                     ModifiÃ© par MrZork, 24 janvier 2014 - 01:35 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 24, 2014, 09:07:17 am

               MM - It's a fun build, not for power play. I'll use spells against the bosses, but like to melee too for variety. Unlike the OC, there are no "free" level-ups, so I agree that will be tough until Level 3 and Weapon Finesse. No worse than a "pure" wizard build though.

Webshaman did a few calculations on the build page I linked, comparing the build to a pure fighter at Level 20. The results were good, but I suspect this will fall off over the next 20 levels as fighter types add Str or Dex, and this character is stuck with 16 Dex. Using items I can boost this to 26 Dex but then hit the cap. I worry more about AB than AC at high levels, but I've never played a mage beyond level 6 so advice is appreciated.

MrZ, thanks for the advice on buffing and TT - this makes the toon playable! Will shout if I get stuck on the technical bits. UMD and monk boots will probably also help in melee.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 24, 2014, 06:57:37 pm

               You will be fine in SoU, even without Weapon Finesse for the first couple of levels. Really, in my view, the melee mage is best off not engaging in melee for the first few levels anyway since the HP are low enough that a couple bad rolls during a fight can be the end. That's what your crossbow is for and, particularly with the elven senses to help ensure sneakers don't get the drop on you, you can pick opponents off at a distance. The AC bumps at level 1 are nice, but it's once the melee mage gets the ability-boosting spells and some damage resistance that he comes into his own, IMO.

Even later on (and this applies as well with more traditional and STR-based melee toons) many people underestimate the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge. Just get the hot key timing down on the weapon swap and entering stealth mode to avoid AoOs. :-)

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 24, 2014, 07:31:40 pm

MrZork wrote...

Any pure wizard is going to lack the AC to hold up in melee against tough bosses in Sands of Fate (and maybe even the Bioware modules), but a mage can do what is asked for against many low-level opponents.

But against enemies that weak the 5 AC won't matter anyway, that's the thing. Those enemies will die fast enough, hit softly enough, have low enough AB, and/or won't get through the other defensive spells. It's like taking a feat which makes you take 50% less damage from attacks which deal 5 damage or less -- the enemies who fall into the category which the feat would affect don't matter at all.

brendonwp wrote...

MM - It's a fun build, not for power play. I'll use spells against the bosses, but like to melee too for variety. Unlike the OC, there are no "free" level-ups, so I agree that will be tough until Level 3 and Weapon Finesse. No worse than a "pure" wizard build though.

Why do you find it more fun than the strength version, if I might ask?

And non-meleeing mage could invest more points in Constitution, for example for 20% more HP at low levels, since it doesn't care about str or dex.

MrZork wrote...

Even later on (and this applies as well with more traditional and STR-based melee toons) many people underestimate the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge. Just get the hot key timing down on the weapon swap and entering stealth mode to avoid AoOs. :-)

Quite the reverse -- most people OVERESTIMATE the benefit of this at higher levels. Switching to a bow that does 1/3 of the damage per hit and hits 20% as often is immaterial. Let's say you manage to get two full rounds of attacks off -- this means you'll deal 13%ish of a combat round in melee. In other words, firing at range for 12 seconds saves you less than a second of melee combat.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 24, 2014, 10:11:22 pm

               Why Illusion?

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 24, 2014, 10:30:04 pm

               Because except for Mass Haste the school of Enchantment is usually pretty irrelevant, and in many environments Mass Haste is often unneeded. And you want a school specialization for the extra spell per level.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 24, 2014, 11:37:28 pm

               I didn't make myself clear. Why that school? Wouldn't a school with more buffs be better? It's not like he can wear armor.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 25, 2014, 12:42:49 am

               I don't think you understand how wizard school specialization works.

http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Spell_school

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 25, 2014, 01:39:50 am

               I'll just stick with Sorc.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 25, 2014, 02:03:32 am

[Sorry for the home-made quotes. The forums seem to be functioning marginally at the moment.]

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...
Any pure wizard is going to lack the AC to hold up in melee against tough bosses in Sands of Fate (and maybe even the Bioware modules), but a mage can do what is asked for against many low-level opponents.

But against enemies that weak the 5 AC won't matter anyway, that's the thing. Those enemies will die fast enough, hit softly enough, have low enough AB, and/or won't get through the other defensive spells. It's like taking a feat which makes you take 50% less damage from attacks which deal 5 damage or less -- the enemies who fall into the category which the feat would affect don't matter at all.

Without some statistics on how the ABs of low-level opponents are distributed in a given module, I don't see how one can be sure one way or the other. My subjective experience is that many such opponents are non-humanoids with levels in non-full-AB monster classes (like giant, animal, beast, etc.) but enough strength to do damage that adds up significantly on a mage with 14 CON. Or humanoid bandits and such with 3/4 AB classes (like rogue) who are doing damage with sneaks which is at the same threat level. Those guys may not hit all the time, even a robe-wearing mage. But, the goal is to take on those mobs without them burning through one's Premonitions and wasting heal pots and not having to rest every few minutes like some winded chump. Obviously, if they are only hitting on 20s anyway (which is not my default assumption for a mage), then +5 AC isn't advancing the goal. My contention is that +5 AC will take those shots that were hitting on 14 or 15 and relegate them to the 19 or 20 category. But, I don't have the stats on what those mobs are like or what gear a wizard would have in Sands of Fate at level 32 (which is about the right context for this question, I think, since that's when the OP was thinking to take EMA).

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...
Even later on (and this applies as well with more traditional and STR-based melee toons) many people underestimate the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge. Just get the hot key timing down on the weapon swap and entering stealth mode to avoid AoOs. :-)

Quite the reverse -- most people OVERESTIMATE the benefit of this at higher levels. Switching to a bow that does 1/3 of the damage per hit and hits 20% as often is immaterial. Let's say you manage to get two full rounds of attacks off -- this means you'll deal 13%ish of a combat round in melee. In other words, firing at range for 12 seconds saves you less than a second of melee combat.

I am not sure what benefit is being overestimated here and compared to what. Or who most people are, for that matter. To clarify a bit, I am referring to the tactic of staying at range (outside of mob perception usually), pulling mobs singly, and getting that round or two of ranged attacks before swapping to melee weapons. As opposed to running up to a pile of mobs and engaging in melee as the first action. The benefits of the ranged-pull approach are several, though its value is as much an issue of play-style preference as anything else. If the player doesn't have the patience to pull mobs, then he won't like it even if it increases survivability.

I am also unsure where "hits 20% as often" against low-level opponents comes from? In the comment above, where "later on" simply means some point after the toon hits level 3 (where he gets the weapon finesse the OP had mentioned), it is of limited value to make level 40 assumptions. Additionally, does the 20% figure take into account that that first arrow or two is typically against a flat-footed opponent without the benefit of DEX or dodge AC? Does it account for the increased likelihood that a mob's rage and other short-term buffs may wear off sooner, helping the PC? Also, such ranged attacks can disrupt the spells or spell-like abilities of many opponents (shamen, etc.) who tend to start a fight with some minor buffing, but who have very low concentration skill (not to mention warning the PC that the opponent has at least some casting ability). And, more generally, free damage against an opponent (damage you can deal before he has any chance to hit you) will be an advantage, even if it is small. If the mob gets one fewer attack against the PC because the mob entered melee with fewer HP, that helps.

Now, are ranged-pulling tactics worth enough that a feat-starved toon should potentially cripple melee effectiveness to take WF:Bow or PBS or whatever to make ranged attacks marginally more effective? Of course not. I don't know what others are saying, but I wouldn't argue that ranged feats are anything approaching a necessity for most melee toons. At the same time, it should be noted that most SP modules will easily accommodate toons that take such feats, even when they aren't optimal from a power-building perspective. The player should feel free to do it if it makes the toon more fun for him to play.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 25, 2014, 02:19:10 am

               Westan, the approach usually taken with wizard spell school specialization is to analyze the prohibited school, not the specialization school. The toon really gets very minimal benefits with regard to spells from the specialized school, so the major benefit to specialization is the extra spell slot per level (which can be used for an spells the wizard can cast) and the major cost is the loss of access to spells of the prohibited school. SInce the benefits are generic and the costs are specific, one makes a school decision based on the costs.

So, the reason to specialize in illusion is because the prohibited school, enchantment, has spells that one can often do without in many modules, particularly those where many opponents have immunity to mind-affecting spells or paralysis. Illusion is likely the most common specialization choice, though some choose necromancy in modules where divination spells like True Seeing and Premonition won't be useful.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 25, 2014, 04:23:28 am

               @ MrZork You should post that at the link MM gave me. Sorry MM but I already read that item. MrZork told me what I did not know. That is what the reason was based on. I was looking at what you got in spells not what you lost.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 25, 2014, 04:26:28 am

               Btw. ShaDoOow gave me that link some time ago. It is in my fav folder.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 25, 2014, 06:04:14 am

               And I had already explained how Enchantment (the barred school for Illusion) had spells you could easily afford to give up several posts ago: http://social.biowar...810877#17819227

Will answer MrZork tomorrow.

                     ModifiÃ© par MagicalMaster, 25 janvier 2014 - 06:08 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 25, 2014, 03:38:42 pm

Quote

MagicalMaster wrote...

Quote
brendonwp wrote...

MM - It's a fun build, not for power play. I'll use spells against the bosses, but like to melee too for variety. Unlike the OC, there are no "free" level-ups, so I agree that will be tough until Level 3 and Weapon Finesse. No worse than a "pure" wizard build though.

Why do you find it more fun than the strength version, if I might ask?

And non-meleeing mage could invest more points in Constitution, for example for 20% more HP at low levels, since it doesn't care about str or dex.

I enjoy dex toons over strength ones, and the image of two weapons tracing a fiery trail of destruction is so much more appealing than whaling away with a single flaming greatsword //shrugs//

Quote

MagicalMaster wrote...

Quote
MrZork wrote...

Even later on (and this applies as well with more traditional and STR-based melee toons) many people underestimate the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge. Just get the hot key timing down on the weapon swap and entering stealth mode to avoid AoOs. :-)

Quite the reverse -- most people OVERESTIMATE the benefit of this at higher levels. Switching to a bow that does 1/3 of the damage per hit and hits 20% as often is immaterial. Let's say you manage to get two full rounds of attacks off -- this means you'll deal 13%ish of a combat round in melee. In other words, firing at range for 12 seconds saves you less than a second of melee combat.

[/quote]

I can't comment in general, but I've just replayed the fight with Brother Toras with an unoptimised melee bard 9 ftr 2, and Daelan. I had managed to get BT down to injured. While BT was distracted with Daelan, I nailed him with a couple of acid arrows from a mighty bow, after casting from a buff removing scroll. BT went down surprising quickly, after killing me a number of times over previously no matter my other tactics!

                     ModifiÃ© par brendonwp, 25 janvier 2014 - 03:40 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 25, 2014, 03:42:45 pm

               @MagicalMaster. what I did not know(or understand) is that you were looking at the cost in spells not the gain in spells. If I look at the cost of taking Illusion the cost is zero because I don't use those spells anyway.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 26, 2014, 08:05:20 am

Westan Willows wrote...

@MagicalMaster. what I did not know(or understand) is that you were looking at the cost in spells not the gain in spells. If I look at the cost of taking Illusion the cost is zero because I don't use those spells anyway.

Are you saying you thought the following was an explanation of why we weren't suggesting Enchantment as the focus?

"Because except for Mass Haste the school of Enchantment is usually pretty irrelevant, and in many environments Mass Haste is often unneeded."

I made that statement assuming you knew how opposing schools worked and how choosing Illusion locked out Enchantment...and thus explained why Enchantment was pointless.

And then when you seemed confused I provided the link explaining about how wizard school specialization worked.

brendonwp wrote...

I enjoy dex toons over strength ones, and the image of two weapons tracing a fiery trail of destruction is so much more appealing than whaling away with a single flaming greatsword

I suppose, just seems odd since you can't even dual-wield properly until level 15-18 with that build.

brendonwp wrote...

I can't comment in general, but I've just replayed the fight with Brother Toras with an unoptimised melee bard 9 ftr 2, and Daelan. I had managed to get BT down to injured. While BT was distracted with Daelan, I nailed him with a couple of acid arrows from a mighty bow, after casting from a buff removing scroll. BT went down surprising quickly, after killing me a number of times over previously no matter my other tactics!

We're not talking about archery as a general tactic, we're talking about the idea of being a strength character and switching to a ranged weapon WHILE an enemy is closing in on you rather than charging ahead to meet him. In this case, Daelan was ALREADY in melee -- meaning your situation isn't what we're talking about at all.

The equivalent would be something like telling Daelan to stay put while you shot enemies and then only had Daelan attack once they reached you.

MrZork wrote...

My contention is that +5 AC will take those shots that were hitting on 14 or 15 and relegate them to the 19 or 20 category.

Here's why I can safely say they won't: because the mage doesn't have any other significant AC. A full plate wearer will have an extra 4-5 AC from the full plate (possibly more, I'm being generous with the mage's Dexterity bonus) alone with an extra 8 AC from a +5 tower shield (and in something like Sands of Fate the shields go to much higher than +5). In addition, the full plate guy will have Armor Skin for another 2 AC. That's an extra 14-15 AC compared to this wizard (pre-EMA). So if we assume those humanoid mobs or rogue types are hitting our full plate wearer on a 15 (unless you're assuming they're only hitting on 20s or something?) then they're hitting our mage on a 1 or better. Even if the mage gets 5 extra AC they're still getting hit on a 5 or better which is an 80% chance -- which means the mage is getting wailed on either way and is going to be getting beat up badly.

Similar situation when comparing a mage to a high dex character.

MrZork wrote...

To clarify a bit, I am referring to the tactic of staying at range (outside of mob perception usually), pulling mobs singly, and getting that round or two of ranged attacks before swapping to melee weapons. As opposed to running up to a pile of mobs and engaging in melee as the first action.

It sounded like you were saying that if you saw a single mob in the distance, switching to a ranged weapon and shooting it as it approached you would do MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE compared to just meeting it in melee.

Hell, you specifically said

"the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge"

That's talking about getting in extra damage, not about pulling mobs away so you don't have to engage a huge group by charging in. Pulling mobs away is a good tactic. Expecting to do gazillions of damage at range as a strength character is not.

MrZork wrote...

I am also unsure where "hits 20% as often" against low-level opponents comes from? In the comment above, where "later on" simply means some point after the toon hits level 3 (where he gets the weapon finesse the OP had mentioned), it is of limited value to make level 40 assumptions.

I was simply referring to something like level 10+, certainly not just level 40. Ranged combat definitely makes far more sense before you get heavy feat investments in the melee weapon and before strength and dexterity diverge to a massive extent via leveling and magic items.

MrZork wrote...

And, more generally, free damage against an opponent (damage you can deal before he has any chance to hit you) will be an advantage, even if it is small. If the mob gets one fewer attack against the PC because the mob entered melee with fewer HP, that helps.

On the flip side, spending time plinking away at a buffing caster rather than beating his face in can be a MASSIVE problem in many fights. Sometimes there are priority targets which need to be put down fast.

I can safely say I have never been in a situation post level 10ish where I felt switching to a ranged weapon to "soften up" an approaching enemy would ever matter. Pulling, yes. But the actual damage dealt? No.

                     ModifiÃ© par MagicalMaster, 26 janvier 2014 - 08:06 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 26, 2014, 12:17:33 pm

@MagicalMaster No. I did NOT understand how opposing school worked. Nor did I understand how you decided which school to use.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 26, 2014, 01:43:59 pm

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

My contention is that +5 AC will take those shots that were hitting on 14 or 15 and relegate them to the 19 or 20 category.
Here's why I can safely say they won't: because the mage doesn't have any other significant AC. A full plate wearer will have an extra 4-5 AC from the full plate (possibly more, I'm being generous with the mage's Dexterity bonus) alone with an extra 8 AC from a +5 tower shield (and in something like Sands of Fate the shields go to much higher than +5). In addition, the full plate guy will have Armor Skin for another 2 AC. That's an extra 14-15 AC compared to this wizard (pre-EMA). So if we assume those humanoid mobs or rogue types are hitting our full plate wearer on a 15 (unless you're assuming they're only hitting on 20s or something?) [...]

LOL, yes, quite often that's about right. Not always, of course, but these are mobs in SP modules! These modules are not typically built with power builders in mind and, particularly in the epics where the OP is looking at EMA, their mobs aren't going to really touch a decently-built and well equipped sword+board fighter one-on-one unless they get somewhat lucky. And, frankly, while I wouldn't consider the average mob to be a big threat (maybe the mob commanders would be a bit more) even to a robe-wearer, I think that's fairly typical of mobs in SP modules. They primarily present a danger in numbers. For certain, it is not unusual for mobs in SoF (and I am pretty sure HotU is no different). Once again, most SP modules have plenty of mob fights where, insofar as straight combat is concerned (not accounting for traps, combat spell casting, etc.) a well-equipped fighter isn't going to get hit much.

BTW, I just checked an old saved game from Sands of Fate 2, when my character (my first epic NWN wizard) was a level 32 elven mage (29 wizard, 3 rogue) at the start of the module with 16 DEX. Now, of course, she had some tumble AC going and had gotten the nice DEX items in SoF 1 so her DEX was capped at 28, but she was not wearing AC boots leaving the first chapter (and there are some like +6 or maybe even +8 AC boots for sale in chapter 2) and her AC was 50 with EMA and a permahasted item. The mobs in one of the early encounters (greater sand beetles in the Choices in the Sand area) were attacking with AB 37. By your estimate of a well equipped fighter's AC, those mobs would only be hitting him on 20s. And, frankly, that's no surprise to me for a SP module.

(Also, I haven't played SoF in about 3 years, since it was my first non-Bioware module. But, I just checked a couple other random encounters in the sewer areas beneath Aqualis, where I recalled fighting lots of trolls. According to the Toolset, those mob trolls have AB 23! Now, of course, though there are several of those encounters, they are among the easier ones in the module. The Greater Otyughs, which are somewhat tougher overall, have AB around 34. So, basically, even a mage is at a point where EMA makes a difference.)

So, again for a couple of encounters and the mobs in the encounter would be hitting a nicely equipped fighter only on 19 or 20. They were hitting my mage on 13s with EMA, which would soon change to 19 or 20 as she made it a priority to upgrade to +6 or +8 boots pretty quickly.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

To clarify a bit, I am referring to the tactic of staying at range (outside of mob perception usually), pulling mobs singly, and getting that round or two of ranged attacks before swapping to melee weapons. As opposed to running up to a pile of mobs and engaging in melee as the first action.
It sounded like you were saying that if you saw a single mob in the distance, switching to a ranged weapon and shooting it as it approached you would do MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE compared to just meeting it in melee.

Hell, you specifically said

"the value of softening up low-level opponents (and even the tougher ones if you can hit them) with ranged attacks before they close enough to engage in melee. Getting in one or two shots (and more at higher levels) while that opponent is running to you can be a nice edge"

Really?!? You are joking, right? It is a total stretch to interpret my note about getting an edge with some extra ranged damage on a pulled mob as if I had said the PC "would do MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE". Not even close. I am sorry, but you are too smart to need that sort of internet strawman hyperbole.

MagicalMaster wrote...
That's talking about getting in extra damage, not about pulling mobs away so you don't have to engage a huge group by charging in. Pulling mobs away is a good tactic. Expecting to do gazillions of damage at range as a strength character is not.

Except that I never said anything vaguely resembling "gazillions of damage". Yes, there's some extra damage the PC gets in while a mob is running up while being pulled. It's just an edge, as I said it was. In my view, starting melee with one's opponent alone and 10 or 20 HP down (more or less depending on what level we are talking about and what gear is being used) before he has had a chance to touch you is an edge. You may well disagree about the tactic or about whether it's an edge you don't care about. But, don't pretend that I claimed it was the key to some thumping victory.

BTW, I am curious if your melee types bother with magical arrows? I mean, if it's only an extra d6 per hit and they are hardly hitting anyway, there's no reason to pay more than 1 gp for a stack of mundane ammo, right?

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

I am also unsure where "hits 20% as often" against low-level opponents comes from? In the comment above, where "later on" simply means some point after the toon hits level 3 (where he gets the weapon finesse the OP had mentioned), it is of limited value to make level 40 assumptions.
I was simply referring to something like level 10+, certainly not just level 40. Ranged combat definitely makes far more sense before you get heavy feat investments in the melee weapon and before strength and dexterity diverge to a massive extent via leveling and magic items.

I certainly agree that the advantage of the chosen specialized form of attack increases as the levels go up. I would be surprised to see 20% at level 10 or so. At least, I am pretty sure that most of my STR toons are into the epics before their ranged attacks are only hitting 20% as often as their melee attacks. You threw out a hard number (and then used it for a further calculation) so I was curious how you got it. I am an engineer myself and I generally enjoy the analytical perspective that you add to these discussions.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

And, more generally, free damage against an opponent (damage you can deal before he has any chance to hit you) will be an advantage, even if it is small. If the mob gets one fewer attack against the PC because the mob entered melee with fewer HP, that helps.
On the flip side, spending time plinking away at a buffing caster rather than beating his face in can be a MASSIVE problem in many fights. Sometimes there are priority targets which need to be put down fast.

Totally agree. Particularly if the PC can get the caster alone, rushing in (preferably from cover, invisible, hasted or all three) is almost always a better approach than letting him cast Invis / Greater Sanctuary / Time Stop, then buff, call summons, and start spamming Bigbys, Wails, or missile storms.

MagicalMaster wrote...
I can safely say I have never been in a situation post level 10ish where I felt switching to a ranged weapon to "soften up" an approaching enemy would ever matter. Pulling, yes. But the actual damage dealt? No.

That's your call. And, once again, let me be clear that I am making no claim that damage is so substantial that battles turn on it; it's typically an issue of how many HP a toon will have lost at the end of taking down a pile of mobs or how much of his DR remains. I haven't run numbers on this, but if my toon gets a couple hits in on a mob before he gets to me, that's a bit less time the mob survives while we are in melee. Even if it only shaves a flurry off the lifetime of every few mobs, so much the better. Meanwhile, since I am pulling anyway, not swapping to a melee weapon earlier than I have to helps ensure that my toon doesn't run too far toward the target mob and alert his buddies that I am there.

                     ModifiÃ© par MrZork, 26 janvier 2014 - 02:10 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 26, 2014, 08:09:37 pm

MrZork wrote...

LOL, yes, quite often that's about right. Not always, of course, but these are mobs in SP modules! These modules are not typically built with power builders in mind and, particularly in the epics where the OP is looking at EMA, their mobs aren't going to really touch a decently-built and well equipped sword+board fighter one-on-one unless they get somewhat lucky.

Where did I mention power builders at all? All I've considered is wearing full plate, wearing the standard items that give AC, and taking Armor Skin. Haven't even factored in stuff like Tumble, Expertise, Dodge, RDD/PM AC bonus, etc. Just what a fighter built with the recommend button would have.

That said, I would generally agree -- many enemies in the poorly balanced modules like the ones we're discussing have absolutely atrocious AB. In fact, their AB is often so low that the EMA doesn't matter because the mobs barely hit the mage in the first place and are also incredibly weak in general! I mean, you're basically saying "I want to spend an epic feat to make it so incredibly weak and meaningless enemies hit me 5% of the time instead of 15% of the time." These enemies are such a non-issue that they're not even worth considering.

MrZork wrote...

So, basically, even a mage is at a point where EMA makes a difference.

The question is not whether it makes a difference at all, it's whether it makes enough of a difference. Imagine if there was an epic feat which made all physical hits that dealt 5 damage or less deal 2 less damage (so 1 or 2 is reduced to 0, 3 to 1, 4 to 2, 5 to 3, and 6 and above deal normal damage). Is this feat worth taking if you have good alternatives?

Hell no, because the only things hitting you for 5 damage or less in epic levels are enemies that are completely irrelevant in the first place.

MrZork wrote...

Really?!? You are joking, right? It is a total stretch to interpret my note about getting an edge with some extra ranged damage on a pulled mob as if I had said the PC "would do MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE". Not even close. I am sorry, but you are too smart to need that sort of internet strawman hyperbole.

How are you defining "soften up" then? My point is that if it takes 30 seconds to melee a mob to death, then shooting at it for 2 rounds as it approaches will deal a whopping 3-4% of its HP (since you deal about 3.33% HP per second and you save about 1 second of melee combat per my earlier numbers).

To me, "softening something up" means WAY more than "doing 3-4% damage and saving 1 second of melee combat."

MrZork wrote...

BTW, I am curious if your melee types bother with magical arrows? I mean, if it's only an extra d6 per hit and they are hardly hitting anyway, there's no reason to pay more than 1 gp for a stack of mundane ammo, right?

Depends if gold is relevant. If gold is tight then no, I wouldn't spend (relatively speaking) tons of money on magic arrows when that gold would be better invested into healing back any extra damage I might take (I'm better off spending 100 gold to heal 30 extra damage I take over the course of 5 fights than spending 500 gold on arrows to avoid that damage).

If I have plenty of gold, why not?

Of course, in most modules I don't even bother using magical arrows on Arcane Archers unless I'm truly overflowing with gold.

MrZork wrote...

I certainly agree that the advantage of the chosen specialized form of attack increases as the levels go up. I would be surprised to see 20% at level 10 or so. At least, I am pretty sure that most of my STR toons are into the epics before their ranged attacks are only hitting 20% as often as their melee attacks. You threw out a hard number (and then used it for a further calculation) so I was curious how you got it. I am an engineer myself and I generally enjoy the analytical perspective that you add to these discussions.

Technically, on that 20%, I did a calculation at 40 which resulted in the bow hitting 7.7% of the time and I just tripled that number to be safe.

But let's look at a calculation for level 12. Let's assume fighter hits 75% of the time on the highest attack (which I've heard is a general standard from many people) and we started with a standard 17/13/14/14/8/8 spread. We'll also assume we have +6 strength from items. This means our Str modifier is 8 and our Dex modifier is 1. We also have a weapon focus in melee so our total AB gap is 8.

Melee attack is therefore 75/50/25 = 1.5 HPR. Ranged is 35/10/5 = 0.5 HPR. So that's hitting 33.3% as much.

If we look at a hasted level 16 who now has +9 strength from items we have an STR modifier of 10 and Dex of 1 plus that weapon focus which means an AB gap of 10.

Melee attack is therefore 75/50/25/5/75 = 2.3 HPR and ranged is 25/5/5/5/25 = 0.65 HPR which is 28% as much. If we drop the Haste we get 75/50/25/5 = 1.55 HPR versus 25/5/5/5 = 0.4 HPR which is 25.8% as much.

Once we hit epic levels and see Epic Weapon Focus, Great Strs, and further stat boosts come into play this gap widens even more.

But let's assume we're on a level 20 max server with Haste. Strength should wind up at 12 modifier (22 base plus 12 from gear) while dex is still at 1. Weapon focus means gap of 12. Melee is 75/50/25/5/75 = 2.3 versus ranged of 15/5/5/5/15 = 0.45 which is 19.6% as much. If we even lower relative AC by 4 to try to make it more likely for ranged attacks to hit we get 95/70/45/20/95 = 3.25 melee versus 35/10/5/5/35 = 27.7% as much. Let's even say we add 3 dex modifier from gear -- now ranged is 50/25/5/5/50 = 1.35 HPR which is 41.5% as much. So our best case scenario if we can add 3 dex modifier (instead of needing to use all of our gear to max strength and possibly constitution) and the enemy has relatively low AC and we have Haste has the ranged weapon hitting about 40% as much.

And, like I said, this gets dramatically worse with more levels because instead of just having the +1 Str increase every 4 levels you also get +1 Str every 3 levels from Great Str and you get an extra +2 AB from Epic Weapon Focus.

MrZork wrote...

That's your call. And, once again, let me be clear that I am making no claim that damage is so substantial that battles turn on it; it's typically an issue of how many HP a toon will have lost at the end of taking down a pile of mobs or how much of his DR remains

Here's the thing, though -- you're either obsessing over something that doesn't matter or you'd be better off moving faster.

The obsessing part is if you're in single player modules with a finite amount of resources -- because I have never seen a single player module where resources are actually tight enough that you seriously need to be concerned about saving a healing potion every fight or three (again, once you get past the first few levels at least). You're effectively just wasting time and focused on conserving resources that don't NEED to be conserved. Even the most consumable focused and most difficult combat campaign I've played, which would be Swordflight (note that a module needs to be both relatively difficult AND focused on limited consumables to meet this criteria), still had plenty of resources for healing if needed and you didn't need to conserve every least healing potion.

And on a PW, you're better off saving time per combat because you'll make more anyway. In our 2 rounds case you wind up saving 11 seconds each time you just charge and meet the mob versus shooting from range. That means you basically save a minute every 5 combats. If we assume you're making like 100 gold per minute then having to spend an extra 50g per minute on healing potions is still a net 50 gold per minute gain for you.  Time IS money, remember?

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 26, 2014, 10:04:41 pm

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...
LOL, yes, quite often that's about right. Not always, of course, but these are mobs in SP modules! These modules are not typically built with power builders in mind and, particularly in the epics where the OP is looking at EMA, their mobs aren't going to really touch a decently-built and well equipped sword+board fighter one-on-one unless they get somewhat lucky.
Where did I mention power builders at all? All I've considered is wearing full plate, wearing the standard items that give AC, and taking Armor Skin. Haven't even factored in stuff like Tumble, Expertise, Dodge, RDD/PM AC bonus, etc. Just what a fighter built with the recommend button would have.

Fair enough. And, honestly, I shouldn't have used the term power building at all, since I was more thinking that those modules accommodate toons that not only aren't built optimally, but where the players also make decisions that aren't always great, like wearing a +3 will ammy into mundane combat instead of the AC ammy, or not knowing that the +2 AC vs. dragons and elementals on that Chromatic Breastplate +3 is functionally worthless. (On that latter, I suspect the Bioware guys didn't know, either!)

MagicalMaster wrote...
That said, I would generally agree -- many enemies in the poorly balanced modules like the ones we're discussing have absolutely atrocious AB. In fact, their AB is often so low that the EMA doesn't matter because the mobs barely hit the mage in the first place and are also incredibly weak in general! I mean, you're basically saying "I want to spend an epic feat to make it so incredibly weak and meaningless enemies hit me 5% of the time instead of 15% of the time." These enemies are such a non-issue that they're not even worth considering.

I am not sure I'm convinced. As I mentioned, there aren't just the mobs with the very low AB. Those other AB 37 mobs were hitting my AC 50 toon fairly often (even critting) and doing between 35-40 HP per hit. For a mage (particularly an elf without high CON), that adds up. Now, as I say, she would quickly get better gear. But even with +6 Dodge AC, she is going to get hit on 14-15 without EMA and 19-20 with it. Meanwhile, EMA lets that toon equip other gear in those slots that might be more useful.

Of course, now, knowing what that sort of opponent can do (their CR from the examine function was "Easy"), I might decide not to try to melee them or at least make sure I use damage shields to speed up their demises. But, not knowing how tough a given opponent really will be is part of the game.

BTW, I suspect that many players play the Bioware modules and then some community favorites very much like Sands of Fate. So, poorly balanced or not, this will be a common situation.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

Really?!? You are joking, right? It is a total stretch to interpret my note about getting an edge with some extra ranged damage on a pulled mob as if I had said the PC "would do MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE". Not even close. I am sorry, but you are too smart to need that sort of internet strawman hyperbole.
How are you defining "soften up" then? My point is that if it takes 30 seconds to melee a mob to death, then shooting at it for 2 rounds as it approaches will deal a whopping 3-4% of its HP (since you deal about 3.33% HP per second and you save about 1 second of melee combat per my earlier numbers).

To me, "softening something up" means WAY more than "doing 3-4% damage and saving 1 second of melee combat."

Then just say that we have different notions of softening up or that the softening up I am considering has negligible impact (which I think is your point, ultimately). Don't characterize my statement as a claim of uber damage output from ranged attacks that I never made.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

I certainly agree that the advantage of the chosen specialized form of attack increases as the levels go up. I would be surprised to see 20% at level 10 or so. At least, I am pretty sure that most of my STR toons are into the epics before their ranged attacks are only hitting 20% as often as their melee attacks. You threw out a hard number (and then used it for a further calculation) so I was curious how you got it. I am an engineer myself and I generally enjoy the analytical perspective that you add to these discussions.

Technically, on that 20%, I did a calculation at 40 which resulted in the bow hitting 7.7% of the time and I just tripled that number to be safe.

But let's look at a calculation for level 12. Let's assume fighter hits 75% of the time on the highest attack (which I've heard is a general standard from many people) and we started with a standard 17/13/14/14/8/8 spread. We'll also assume we have +6 strength from items. This means our Str modifier is 8 and our Dex modifier is 1. We also have a weapon focus in melee so our total AB gap is 8.

Melee attack is therefore 75/50/25 = 1.5 HPR. Ranged is 35/10/5 = 0.5 HPR. So that's hitting 33.3% as much.

If we look at a hasted level 16 who now has +9 strength from items we have an STR modifier of 10 and Dex of 1 plus that weapon focus which means an AB gap of 10.

Melee attack is therefore 75/50/25/5/75 = 2.3 HPR and ranged is 25/5/5/5/25 = 0.65 HPR which is 28% as much. If we drop the Haste we get 75/50/25/5 = 1.55 HPR versus 25/5/5/5 = 0.4 HPR which is 25.8% as much.

Once we hit epic levels and see Epic Weapon Focus, Great Strs, and further stat boosts come into play this gap widens even more.

But let's assume we're on a level 20 max server with Haste. Strength should wind up at 12 modifier (22 base plus 12 from gear) while dex is still at 1. Weapon focus means gap of 12. Melee is 75/50/25/5/75 = 2.3 versus ranged of 15/5/5/5/15 = 0.45 which is 19.6% as much. If we even lower relative AC by 4 to try to make it more likely for ranged attacks to hit we get 95/70/45/20/95 = 3.25 melee versus 35/10/5/5/35 = 27.7% as much. Let's even say we add 3 dex modifier from gear -- now ranged is 50/25/5/5/50 = 1.35 HPR which is 41.5% as much. So our best case scenario if we can add 3 dex modifier (instead of needing to use all of our gear to max strength and possibly constitution) and the enemy has relatively low AC and we have Haste has the ranged weapon hitting about 40% as much.

And, like I said, this gets dramatically worse with more levels because instead of just having the +1 Str increase every 4 levels you also get +1 Str every 3 levels from Great Str and you get an extra +2 AB from Epic Weapon Focus.

Thanks for detailing that. And, that's pretty much what I was getting using similar assumptions and what had me thinking that the 20% number mostly applies to epics.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

That's your call. And, once again, let me be clear that I am making no claim that damage is so substantial that battles turn on it; it's typically an issue of how many HP a toon will have lost at the end of taking down a pile of mobs or how much of his DR remains
Here's the thing, though -- you're either obsessing over something that doesn't matter or you'd be better off moving faster.

The obsessing part is if you're in single player modules with a finite amount of resources -- because I have never seen a single player module where resources are actually tight enough that you seriously need to be concerned about saving a healing potion every fight or three (again, once you get past the first few levels at least). You're effectively just wasting time and focused on conserving resources that don't NEED to be conserved. Even the most consumable focused and most difficult combat campaign I've played, which would be Swordflight (note that a module needs to be both relatively difficult AND focused on limited consumables to meet this criteria), still had plenty of resources for healing if needed and you didn't need to conserve every least healing potion.

And on a PW, you're better off saving time per combat because you'll make more anyway. In our 2 rounds case you wind up saving 11 seconds each time you just charge and meet the mob versus shooting from range. That means you basically save a minute every 5 combats. If we assume you're making like 100 gold per minute then having to spend an extra 50g per minute on healing potions is still a net 50 gold per minute gain for you. Time IS money, remember?

LOL. Point taken. I will keep that thinking in mind as I play more melee toons.

For the most part, my toons are not typically short on cash, but I usually take a more slow-going approach for other reasons. For one, my experience with melee toons is somewhat limited, so I haven't worked out a great way to zip through areas without getting swarmed or, worse, getting my buffs dispelled, which can be a particular hazard when soloing a non-caster and relying on potions or scrolls for buffs. If I knew what every encounter was going to be like, I might be more aggressive about it, but the server where I play has the challenge rating of the "examine" function disabled, so it isn't always easy to know if those orc raiders are 25 HP, 8 AB mobs that my level 10 toon can wade in and take down in a couple rounds, usually without getting hit, or if one or two of them are a 130 HP, 15 AB opponents who may fry my bacon if I am not careful.

                     ModifiÃ© par MrZork, 26 janvier 2014 - 10:05 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 27, 2014, 03:38:06 am

MagicalMaster wrote...

MrZork wrote...

BTW, I am curious if your melee types bother with magical arrows? I mean, if it's only an extra d6 per hit and they are hardly hitting anyway, there's no reason to pay more than 1 gp for a stack of mundane ammo, right?

Depends if gold is relevant. If gold is tight then no, I wouldn't spend (relatively speaking) tons of money on magic arrows when that gold would be better invested into healing back any extra damage I might take (I'm better off spending 100 gold to heal 30 extra damage I take over the course of 5 fights than spending 500 gold on arrows to avoid that damage).

If I have plenty of gold, why not?

Of course, in most modules I don't even bother using magical arrows on Arcane Archers unless I'm truly overflowing with gold.

Were can I get magic arrows for only 500gp?
BTW: My Arcane Archer is complainting that he only gets 99 +4 arrows for his 1gp. (:lol:he has over 80,000gp the crybaby)

                     ModifiÃ© par Westan Willows, 27 janvier 2014 - 03:38 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 28, 2014, 12:09:27 am

MrZork wrote...

And, honestly, I shouldn't have used the term power building at all, since I was more thinking that those modules accommodate toons that not only aren't built optimally, but where the players also make decisions that aren't always great, like wearing a +3 will ammy into mundane combat instead of the AC ammy, or not knowing that the +2 AC vs. dragons and elementals on that Chromatic Breastplate +3 is functionally worthless. (On that latter, I suspect the Bioware guys didn't know, either!)

Fair enough. I suppose it's true that most people don't really understand the impact of AB/AC and how significant they are.

And yeah, I /facepalm a lot when I see things like Longswords +5 with 1d8 slashing bonus damage.

MrZork wrote...

I am not sure I'm convinced. As I mentioned, there aren't just the mobs with the very low AB. Those other AB 37 mobs were hitting my AC 50 toon fairly often (even critting) and doing between 35-40 HP per hit. For a mage (particularly an elf without high CON), that adds up. Now, as I say, she would quickly get better gear. But even with +6 Dodge AC, she is going to get hit on 14-15 without EMA and 19-20 with it. Meanwhile, EMA lets that toon equip other gear in those slots that might be more useful.

You do effectively have infinite healing potions, though, in Sands of Fate as I recall (as you import from HotU).

Also, I personally think Sands of Fate balancing was horrendous in general and mostly loathed it as I played through (especially many of the insanely cheap tricks). I would *DEFINITELY* not call it a classic -- it's nowhere near the level of Aielund/Swordflight/ADWR/HeX code/etc (with the etc being like 20 more modules). There's a reason I have NEVER recommended people play Sands of Fate. Never..

MrZork wrote...

Then just say that we have different notions of softening up or that the softening up I am considering has negligible impact (which I think is your point, ultimately). Don't characterize my statement as a claim of uber damage output from ranged attacks that I never made.

"Soften up" means a significant difference. I believe its origins are in the military where you soften something up by bombing or shelling it (and whether that is the actual origin it's the main source of the common phrase as far as I know). For example, an infantry squad is told to capture a fortified position. Therefore, they call in an air strike to soften up the enemy position and dramatically reduce its effectiveness by destroying equipment and killing men. The whole point is to substantially weaken your opponent to make it much easier to win.

So to me, "softening up" would mean something like taking out 30% of the opponent's HP with ranged attacks before they reach you. Think of it this way: if instead of firing at the enemy for 12 seconds you cast 4 spells which each make the enemy take 1% more damage, would you really consider that "softening up" the opponent?

"Good news, I softened up the opponent by making him take 4% more damage!"

No, you wouldn't use the phrase "soften up" in such a situation. So your use of the phrase implied that you DID think you'd do something like take out 30% of your opponent's HP and make a significant impact. Maybe that's not what you meant but that's what you said.

MrZork wrote...

If I knew what every encounter was going to be like, I might be more aggressive about it, but the server where I play has the challenge rating of the "examine" function disabled, so it isn't always easy to know if those orc raiders are 25 HP, 8 AB mobs that my level 10 toon can wade in and take down in a couple rounds, usually without getting hit, or if one or two of them are a 130 HP, 15 AB opponents who may fry my bacon if I am not careful.

This is one of many reasons I hate servers that do that. If you've fought orcs before, you could tell at a relative glance whether these new orcs look formidable or not. You could tell how their armor looked, how good their weapons appeared to be, etc. Yes, "levels" and "challenge rating" are game abstractions -- but so are HP, AB, and damage!

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 28, 2014, 11:24:41 am

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

I am not sure I'm convinced. As I mentioned, there aren't just the mobs with the very low AB. Those other AB 37 mobs were hitting my AC 50 toon fairly often (even critting) and doing between 35-40 HP per hit. For a mage (particularly an elf without high CON), that adds up. Now, as I say, she would quickly get better gear. But even with +6 Dodge AC, she is going to get hit on 14-15 without EMA and 19-20 with it. Meanwhile, EMA lets that toon equip other gear in those slots that might be more useful.
You do effectively have infinite healing potions, though, in Sands of Fate as I recall (as you import from HotU).

Also, I personally think Sands of Fate balancing was horrendous in general and mostly loathed it as I played through (especially many of the insanely cheap tricks). I would *DEFINITELY* not call it a classic -- it's nowhere near the level of Aielund/Swordflight/ADWR/HeX code/etc (with the etc being like 20 more modules). There's a reason I have NEVER recommended people play Sands of Fate. Never..

Not sure what you mean by infinite healing in Sands of Fate. As I recall, there is an item strip at the beginning of SoF. Were healing pots not stripped? Anyway, I don't recall any infinite heal items dropping, but I also don't recall potions being all that hard to get.

For sure, there are balance issues in Sands of Fate and I certainly think there are better modules (Aielund is the one I have played that lets a player use the same character from start to mid-30s). But, I also had fun playing SoF, in no small part because the character was the one I had come to enjoy in SoU and HotU. I think that many players enjoy the story as much as how well the module balances encounters. And, I don't doubt that much of SoF's popularity derives from its position as a module where a player can come out of HotU and start playing SoF without re-rolling a character or getting used to greatly modified game mechanics.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

Then just say that we have different notions of softening up or that the softening up I am considering has negligible impact (which I think is your point, ultimately). Don't characterize my statement as a claim of uber damage output from ranged attacks that I never made.
"Soften up" means a significant difference. I believe its origins are in the military where you soften something up by bombing or shelling it (and whether that is the actual origin it's the main source of the common phrase as far as I know). For example, an infantry squad is told to capture a fortified position. Therefore, they call in an air strike to soften up the enemy position and dramatically reduce its effectiveness by destroying equipment and killing men. The whole point is to substantially weaken your opponent to make it much easier to win.

So to me, "softening up" would mean something like taking out 30% of the opponent's HP with ranged attacks before they reach you. Think of it this way: if instead of firing at the enemy for 12 seconds you cast 4 spells which each make the enemy take 1% more damage, would you really consider that "softening up" the opponent?

"Good news, I softened up the opponent by making him take 4% more damage!"

No, you wouldn't use the phrase "soften up" in such a situation. So your use of the phrase implied that you DID think you'd do something like take out 30% of your opponent's HP and make a significant impact. Maybe that's not what you meant but that's what you said.

LOL, I don't remember saying 1% or 4% was what I meant, so we are edging into strawman territory again. If we are really looking to quibble over definitions, then I would stick with my complaint about your use of "MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE" and I think I would be on pretty solid ground. ;-) However, it's probably more productive to do an example and just see the sort of damage a strengther melee type does to a mob with his ranged weapon and you can call it what you want.

Say my level 20 fighter (STR build, 12 DEX with items) approaches a pile of mobs and gets in 2 rounds of ranged combat firing standard fire arrows from his standard +3 composite longbow (which is not rare at level 20 even in low-mid magic modules). I tested the timing with some normal speed mobs who don't stop and buff themselves (which would give the PC more ranged attack time) and two rounds is about right. First test case: Drow Militia (nw_drowfight020). This guy has AC 20 (19+Dodge), 74 HP, and is rated "easy" in the PC's examine widget, e.g. not tough but not "effortless" either. I.e. he is a mob. The PC averages 5.85 hits over the two rounds and he averages 12 hp damage per shot, so over 77 hp damage to the drow, 100% of his total.

Of course, drow have crummy hit points, so that isn't the fairest comparison, though I was having a little trouble finding "easy" mobs for a level 20 fighter among the demihumans in the standard palette. So, let's move to a standard Elder Earth Elemental (nw_eartheld), a tougher guy than the drow and rated "moderate" in the examine widget with AC 23 and HP 228, closer to the other end of the mob HP spectrum. My toon averages 5 ranged hits in the two rounds and does 65 HP, which is over 28% of the mob's total.

So, yes, in either case, I feel pretty comfortable saying that the ranged damage softened these guys up. If you think that the term doesn't fit or that the damage isn't worth doing, that's fine.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

If I knew
what every encounter was going to be like, I might be more aggressive
about it, but the server where I play has the challenge rating of the
"examine" function disabled, so it isn't always easy to know if those
orc raiders are 25 HP, 8 AB mobs that my level 10 toon can wade in and
take down in a couple rounds, usually without getting hit, or if one or
two of them are a 130 HP, 15 AB opponents who may fry my bacon if I am
not careful.
This is one of many reasons I hate servers that
do that. If you've fought orcs before, you could tell at a relative
glance whether these new orcs look formidable or not. You could tell
how their armor looked, how good their weapons appeared to be, etc.
Yes, "levels" and "challenge rating" are game abstractions -- but so
are HP, AB, and damage!

Agreed. Servers that hide opponents' challenge ratings make it unecessarily hard to make appropriate combat decisions. Do I use a single Magic Missile or Time Stop and flurries of IGMS? Or, do I decide to get the hell out of Dodge! Moreover, it means wasting time fighting 2 XP mobs because there is no way to tell that they aren't level-appropriate. I certainly understand module designers' point that knowing the CR is unrealistic and some realism helps the immersion. But, knowing the CR is no more unrealistic than a group of 5 HD orcs deciding to attack my epic mage as he walks down the road, glowing like a Las Vegas casino with all of his buffs. ;-)

                     ModifiÃ© par MrZork, 28 janvier 2014 - 12:07 .

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 28, 2014, 06:02:53 pm

MrZork wrote...

Not sure what you mean by infinite healing in Sands of Fate. As I recall, there is an item strip at the beginning of SoF. Were healing pots not stripped? Anyway, I don't recall any infinite heal items dropping, but I also don't recall potions being all that hard to get.

I don't recall an item strip -- and I see comments on the Vault saying stuff like "But any fighter with Sword and Shield should have great AC after playing through Hordes. I had +6 shield, +7 armor and +9 ring of protection. Throw in amulet of Natural AC, some nice boots and perma haste and my AC was around 60. Most stuff simply couldn't even hit me. For offense you should have a +10 weapon with elemental damage/keen. You should also have items to give +12 on your strength."

Even if there was an item strip, I'm pretty sure there were stores selling an infinite number of Heal potions which are quite cheap -- I didn't literally mean an infinite heal item, just that walking around with 200+ Heal potions was quite simple to achieve. Effectively infinite.

MrZork wrote...

For sure, there are balance issues in Sands of Fate and I certainly think there are better modules (Aielund is the one I have played that lets a player use the same character from start to mid-30s). But, I also had fun playing SoF, in no small part because the character was the one I had come to enjoy in SoU and HotU. I think that many players enjoy the story as much as how well the module balances encounters. And, I don't doubt that much of SoF's popularity derives from its position as a module where a player can come out of HotU and start playing SoF without re-rolling a character or getting used to greatly modified game mechanics.

Quite possibly -- but the reason I loathed it was mainly the cheap tricks rather than the actual balance. Like you walk into a puddle of water that looks exactly like other puddles and your boots melt. TIME TO RELOAD AND UNEQUIP MY BOOTS! Just stupid stuff like that which greatly detracted from the story.

I mean, hell, I'm perfectly fine with modules that have ZERO combat or irrelevant combat -- see the Eternum series or the HeX coda series as two examples. I'm fine with modules that have easy combat. I'm not fine with modules that have stupid combat and cheap tricks.

MrZork wrote...

LOL, I don't remember saying 1% or 4% was what I meant, so we are edging into strawman territory again. If we are really looking to quibble over definitions, then I would stick with my complaint about your use of "MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE" and I think I would be on pretty solid ground. ;-)

4% is what you'd actually do versus an opponent that takes 30 seconds in melee to kill per our numbers earlier -- I didn't invent that out of thin air.

And I don't think you would be, actually, if we look at stuff like your Drow and Earth Elemental examples down below. Versus the drow you actually DO deal "MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE" and you still deal a lot of damage to the Earth Elemental -- DEFINITELY within the realm of "softening it up." But both of those examples are fatally flawed for reasons below.

MrZork wrote...

First test case: Drow Militia (nw_drowfight020). This guy has AC 20 (19+Dodge), 74 HP, and is rated "easy" in the PC's examine widget, e.g. not tough but not "effortless" either. I.e. he is a mob.

So, let's move to a standard Elder Earth Elemental (nw_eartheld), a tougher guy than the drow and rated "moderate" in the examine widget with AC 23 and HP 228, closer to the other end of the mob HP spectrum.

I went ahead and bolded/italicized the massive issue here -- the AC of those mobs. Let's put this in perspective. A fighter built by the recommend button will have 20 BAB, 21 str, weapon focus, and let's say Ogre Gauntlets and Fire Giant Belt for 28 str total (which isn't very high, assumes no potions, assumes no other str gear, etc). So far we have 20 + 1 + 9 = 30 AB and let's say a +3 longsword for 33 AB. His attack schedule is thus 33/28/23/18 (and possibly another 33 with Haste). So let's say he enters melee with the drow. HE CANNOT MISS ON ANY ATTACK EXCEPT A ONE. Let me repeat that: HE CANNOT MISS ON ANY ATTACK EXCEPT A ONE. The only way for our recommend button fighter friend to miss is to roll a one for ANY attack, even his last attack.

But hey, he's a fighter, right? Let's look at...say...a rogue! Well, we'd expect a similar Dex score with Weapon Finesse, we just lack 5 BAB. So we get 28 AB for a schedule of 28/23/18. Notice anything?

HE STILL CAN'T MISS ON ANY ATTACK UNLESS HE ROLLS A ONE.

Or, to rephrase it: you could give that Drow 0 AC and it wouldn't change anything. That's how low its AC is for a level 20 character.

I mean, hell, a fighter wearing NOTHING but a standard full plate will have 19 AC at level ONE! 19 AC is atrocious. Absolutely atrocious -- and 23 AC is barely better. That's a fighter with +1 full plate, +1 deflection ring, +1 natural armor amulet, and +1 dodge boots. If we go by our earlier statement of "Fighters hit the enemies 75% of the time on the highest attack" then even looking at the recommend button build we'd expect to fight enemies with an AC of 39. Even if we make it so a fighter has to roll a 1 to miss on the first attack that's still 35 AC.

So 35 AC is like your MINIMUM AC for an opponent for a level 20 PC assuming we're balancing around a recommend button fighter who hits 95% of the time and who only has a +3 weapon, only +7 strength from gear, and no buffs (either from potions or players).

20 AC? That's a disgrace. No wonder you did MASSIVE AWESOME DAMAGE with your bow!

MrZork wrote...

So, yes, in either case, I feel pretty comfortable saying that the ranged damage softened these guys up. If you think that the term doesn't fit or that the damage isn't worth doing, that's fine.

I'd say you annihilated the drow and softened up the earth elemental. But that's like saying you annihilated your laptop computer in a kickboxing match and softened up a man with no arms or legs in a sword fight.

MrZork wrote...

But, knowing the CR is no more unrealistic than a group of 5 HD orcs deciding to attack my epic mage as he walks down the road, glowing like a Las Vegas casino with all of his buffs. ;-)

Well, theoretically orcs might be stupid -- but you think human bandits would run the other direction if a group of five knights in magically glowing full plate and flaming swords are coming in their direction.

WoW does something interesting where being higher level than the mob means they'll aggro (notice) you from a shorter distance while being lower level means they'll notice you from farther away -- but I don't think that's really implementable in NWN. Well, you might be able to do something like changing the underlying AI to NOT have the creature attack and just continue standing there depending on the distance between the creature and PC and based on the level difference -- but seems it might be rather buggy and a pain to do.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 28, 2014, 08:17:14 pm

               I think we are pretty much in agreement on the other points. (BTW, the item strip in SoF might not have happened if the difficulty setting was too low. And I totally remember that boot dissolve trap. Pointless.)

Regarding the issue of ranged damage for STR melee toons: You can't turn around and say that the examples I picked are no good because the mobs' AC doesn't meet your standard. The OP is playing Bioware's modules and these are Bioware's mobs. For better or worse, they are the standard and they are what I used. I deliberately picked creatures with challenge ratings above "effortless" and below "challenging" in both cases. If you were writing the module (or if I were, for that matter), then there might not be mobs with AC at that level. But, there are in many modules, including the ones the OP will play. Bioware's mobs may not be what you'd like in a mob, but they are mobs in the context of this thread.

And, no, the standard isn't that all mobs in SP modules will have their ACs balanced around what a full-AB fighter would hit 75% of the time. These are just mobs, not bosses or lieutenants. The mobs used in many modules may not meet your standard, but the context of this thread is for someone going through Bioware's modules and possibly Sands of Fate. Bioware has plenty of mobs like that. Look at the OC's Chapter 4. There are definitely mobs in the War Zone with AC well below the standard you are picking, even noting that the PC is level 16 or 17. (Frankly, there are even boss opponents like the Half Dragon Balor with lower AC than you are talking about.) So, no, you don't get to decide that the relevant mobs will have AC that the PC will seldom hit with his ranged weapon and then claim that he won't do any ranged damage to them.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_rogueknight333 on January 29, 2014, 02:09:53 am

               I did not have time to read through this thread exhaustively, so I am not sure I have anything else to contribute, but I can clarify one point: Sands of Fate employed a partial item strip at the beginning, in which players kept any items that were actually equipped (weapon, armor, rings, etc.), but lost everything else in inventory (like healing potions). If the difficulty level was set low enough, then even this partial item strip would be disabled.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 29, 2014, 02:23:28 am

MrZork wrote...

I think we are pretty much in agreement on the other points. (BTW, the item strip in SoF might not have happened if the difficulty setting was too low. And I totally remember that boot dissolve trap. Pointless.)

I really don't remember but shall we agree that, regardless, healing and gold were more than plentiful?

MrZork wrote...

Regarding the issue of ranged damage for STR melee toons: You can't turn around and say that the examples I picked are no good because the mobs' AC doesn't meet your standard. The OP is playing Bioware's modules and these are Bioware's mobs. For better or worse, they are the standard and they are what I used. I deliberately picked creatures with challenge ratings above "effortless" and below "challenging" in both cases. If you were writing the module (or if I were, for that matter), then there might not be mobs with AC at that level. But, there are in many modules, including the ones the OP will play. Bioware's mobs may not be what you'd like in a mob, but they are mobs in the context of this thread.

Let's talk about Bioware's "standards." I went ahead and did a similar experiment -- I took a character and picked a standard creature which was above effortless and below challenging. I used a level 40 fighter with a +7 Mighty bow with a full +12 dex from items which gave me 30 BAB + 7 Bow + 7 Dex + 1 Epic Prowess = 45 AB. Unfortunately, against this "moderate" opponent I could NEVER hit my opponent except on a 20 for any attack because my opponent's AC was 70. Even getting a +10 bow with Epic Weapon Focus in bow meant I still had to roll a 19 to hit on my highest attacks and 20 on everything else.

Using level 40 not fair? We'll stick at 20, then.

I picked a Balor (also CR 15 like the Drow Militia). AC of 30.

I picked Harat (actually CR 9!). AC of 30.

Pit Fiend? CR 15, AC of 30.

Adult Red Dragon? CR 15, AC of 29.

Diamond Golem? CR 14, AC of 30.

Emerald Golem? CR 12, AC of 28.

Battle Devourer? CR 11, AC 30.

How about Drow Warrior, CR 14, AC 27?

So...yeah.

MrZork wrote...

And, no, the standard isn't that all mobs in SP modules will have their ACs balanced around what a full-AB fighter would hit 75% of the time. These are just mobs, not bosses or lieutenants. The mobs used in many modules may not meet your standard, but the context of this thread is for someone going through Bioware's modules and possibly Sands of Fate. Bioware has plenty of mobs like that. Look at the OC's Chapter 4. There are definitely mobs in the War Zone with AC well below the standard you are picking, even noting that the PC is level 16 or 17. (Frankly, there are even boss opponents like the Half Dragon Balor with lower AC than you are talking about.) So, no, you don't get to decide that the relevant mobs will have AC that the PC will seldom hit with his ranged weapon and then claim that he won't do any ranged damage to them.

I entirely realize they're mobs and you might expect lt/boss AC to be a few points higher (so a fighter might only hit 50-60% of the time, maybe even much higher than that in some modules).

Sands of Fate has entirely custom mobs and from the comments I've seen on the first module when I was checking on the item strip many of them have far more reasonable AC (some complaining the AC is way too high, even).

And think about what you're saying -- you're advocating that against completely weak and meaningless opponents that will get completely trounced in seconds that a bow could hit them enough to maybe deal decent damage? Well, sure, but what kind of statement is that? In such an environment you're better off ignoring the boss and charging in precisely BECAUSE nothing can threaten you.

The whole point of attacking from range is, to use your phrase, to "soften up" an opponent -- but you only care about softening up a threatening opponent in the first place! If the enemy is non-threatening and merely a speed-bump in your path then you have no NEED to try to soften them up.

You're basically advocating a certain tactic that is only effective in precisely the environment where you don't NEED a tactic and you're better off not using it! See the paradox?

Weak mobs which will die easily and can't threaten you? Just charge into melee.
Dangerous mobs that pose a threat? Will barely scratch them from ranged, still better off charging into melee.

Unless you're pulling a dangerous mob away from a dangerous pack or are low level there is no good reason to try to use ranged combat as a strength character.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 29, 2014, 02:24:42 am

rogueknight333 wrote...

I did not have time to read through this thread exhaustively, so I am not sure I have anything else to contribute, but I can clarify one point: Sands of Fate employed a partial item strip at the beginning, in which players kept any items that were actually equipped (weapon, armor, rings, etc.), but lost everything else in inventory (like healing potions). If the difficulty level was set low enough, then even this partial item strip would be disabled.

Ah, gotcha, thanks for the clarification.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 29, 2014, 04:45:29 am

I have a lv 16 fighter you can use. He is in HotU ch1.
AC=29 BA 16. ABA +30/+25/+20/+15
STR 22=8=30
Aramil's Blade =3

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 29, 2014, 04:48:25 am

               BTW: I disable the Auto fail on 1 in my game

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 29, 2014, 05:06:33 am

               Disabling autofail doesn't disable auto-miss on one for attack rolls, just the saving throws.

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_Westan Willows on January 29, 2014, 05:31:11 am

MagicalMaster wrote...

Disabling autofail doesn't disable auto-miss on one for attack rolls, just the saving throws.

Ouch!

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MrZork on January 29, 2014, 06:01:16 am

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

I think we are pretty much in agreement on the other points. (BTW, the item strip in SoF might not have happened if the difficulty setting was too low. And I totally remember that boot dissolve trap. Pointless.)
I really don't remember but shall we agree that, regardless, healing and gold were more than plentiful?

From the Shadows_over_Heliopolis_readme.txt

John McA wrote...
On being transported to this new world, PCs will arrive with only their carried equipment and a small bag of gold on their person. If you are desperate to keep your six pages of inventory and millions of gold pieces, switch the game difficulty to below hardcore before starting. (You can switch it back later.) However, you will be given some nice items on starting!

(By "carried" he means "equipped".) And, yes, I agree that there is plenty of gold to be found and merchants with unlimited heals to be purchased.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

Regarding the issue of ranged damage for STR melee toons: You can't turn around and say that the examples I picked are no good because the mobs' AC doesn't meet your standard. The OP is playing Bioware's modules and these are Bioware's mobs. For better or worse, they are the standard and they are what I used. I deliberately picked creatures with challenge ratings above "effortless" and below "challenging" in both cases. If you were writing the module (or if I were, for that matter), then there might not be mobs with AC at that level. But, there are in many modules, including the ones the OP will play. Bioware's mobs may not be what you'd like in a mob, but they are mobs in the context of this thread.
Let's talk about Bioware's "standards." I went ahead and did a similar experiment -- I took a character and picked a standard creature which was above effortless and below challenging. I used a level 40 fighter with a +7 Mighty bow with a full +12 dex from items which gave me 30 BAB + 7 Bow + 7 Dex + 1 Epic Prowess = 45 AB. Unfortunately, against this "moderate" opponent I could NEVER hit my opponent except on a 20 for any attack because my opponent's AC was 70. Even getting a +10 bow with Epic Weapon Focus in bow meant I still had to roll a 19 to hit on my highest attacks and 20 on everything else.

Using level 40 not fair? We'll stick at 20, then.

I picked a Balor (also CR 15 like the Drow Militia). AC of 30.

I picked Harat (actually CR 9!). AC of 30.

Pit Fiend? CR 15, AC of 30.

Adult Red Dragon? CR 15, AC of 29.

Diamond Golem? CR 14, AC of 30.

Emerald Golem? CR 12, AC of 28.

Battle Devourer? CR 11, AC 30.

How about Drow Warrior, CR 14, AC 27?

So...yeah.

Yeah, what? I'm not sure what your point is. You start out mentioning an opponent that you can't hit at all with a bow at level 40 and then list several that are pretty hittable at level 20. We have already agreed that a STR toon's ability to hit at range is going to get relatively worse approaching level 40 as the disparity between STR and DEX becomes extreme. Is the point that there are also mobs with higher AC? I certainly haven't been arguing that there aren't any. It seems like you have shown what I have been assuming all along: mob ACs can be all over the map because the CR isn't based only on AC. If you think I am claiming that ranged attacks are the best way for a STR toon to take down every mob, then we may have been talking past each other.

(BTW, most of those guys still have AC less than the 35 you had mentioned was the minimum AC a couple posts ago.)

Meanwhile, your level 20 is still hitting that Pit Fiend or Diamond Golem over 3 times before he gets to melee. I didn't check, but probably something similar for the others. For many of those guys, that's nothing (and many have ways of attenuating that damage), but there are a few for whom that going to sting.

MagicalMaster wrote...
MrZork wrote...

And, no, the standard isn't that all mobs in SP modules will have their ACs balanced around what a full-AB fighter would hit 75% of the time. These are just mobs, not bosses or lieutenants. The mobs used in many modules may not meet your standard, but the context of this thread is for someone going through Bioware's modules and possibly Sands of Fate. Bioware has plenty of mobs like that. Look at the OC's Chapter 4. There are definitely mobs in the War Zone with AC well below the standard you are picking, even noting that the PC is level 16 or 17. (Frankly, there are even boss opponents like the Half Dragon Balor with lower AC than you are talking about.) So, no, you don't get to decide that the relevant mobs will have AC that the PC will seldom hit with his ranged weapon and then claim that he won't do any ranged damage to them.
I entirely realize they're mobs and you might expect lt/boss AC to be a few points higher (so a fighter might only hit 50-60% of the time, maybe even much higher than that in some modules).

Sands of Fate has entirely custom mobs and from the comments I've seen on the first module when I was checking on the item strip many of them have far more reasonable AC (some complaining the AC is way too high, even).

And think about what you're saying -- you're advocating that against completely weak and meaningless opponents that will get completely trounced in seconds that a bow could hit them enough to maybe deal decent damage? Well, sure, but what kind of statement is that?

Umm... an accurate and uncontroversial one, as I intended? One in response to someone concerned that he would have to rely on ranged attacks until he got Weapon Finesse at level 3? LOL. You seem disappointed that I wasn't making some provocative claim that needs to be refuted.

MagicalMaster wrote...
In such an environment you're better off ignoring the boss and charging in precisely BECAUSE nothing can threaten you.

Usually, but not necessarily. That you can hit an opponent doesn't guarantee that he is no threat. Are you assuming that an opponent with low AC must also have low AB and low damage? I don't know that that's always the case, but I would keep an eye out for glass cannons. And, even when those mobs are all-around wimps, in some encounters (the better ones, IMO), the mobs are going to be there to keep you busy while sneakers and casters do the real damage once you engage the cannon fodder.

But, I agree: If those mobs also have no chance of hitting you and they aren't near a lt/boss who can, then you may as well wade in and take them down as fast as you can. Or, if you can pull the boss, then take him down alone first and then wade into the mobs. Or, as you say, ignore the mobs altogether and clean them up after you have rushed past them to get to the boss.

If it still isn't clear, let me state that I am not proposing that a STR-based melee toon should used ranged tactics against every mob. Why would I say something so broad that it's almost bound to be wrong? Pulling is a useful tactic in many situations and there are some mobs against whom the damage done with the ranged attacks serves to soften them up. The comment came up in the context of a melee mage using his ranged attack early on in his career in SoU (until level 3) and I mentioned that it would still be useful later on and even help a strengther soften up soften up some mobs before they arrive for melee. Suddenly my innocuous comment is some outrageous claim that needs refuting. LOL. But, I didn't actually say anything very provocative (and may not have mentioned it at all if I hadn't been responding to someone new at playing a melee mage and concerned about not having weapon finesse right away).

MagicalMaster wrote...
The whole point of attacking from range is, to use your phrase, to "soften up" an opponent

No, the point is that pulling from range is often useful and those ranged attacks can soften up an opponent. They obviously won't do great damage against every opponent. (Which is why I never said they would.) But, they will hurt some mobs and that's a good thing. It seemed to me that the OP was anxious to get his melee attacks started and I was trying to assure him that the ranged attacks would serve him until he got Weapon Finesse and often be useful later on. Not a grand claim, but I didn't say it was.

MagicalMaster wrote...
-- but you only care about softening up a threatening opponent in the first place! If the enemy is non-threatening and merely a speed-bump in your path then you have no NEED to try to soften them up.

You're basically advocating a certain tactic that is only effective in precisely the environment where you don't NEED a tactic and you're better off not using it! See the paradox?

Weak mobs which will die easily and can't threaten you? Just charge into melee.
Dangerous mobs that pose a threat? Will barely scratch them from ranged, still better off charging into melee.

Unless you're pulling a dangerous mob away from a dangerous pack or are low level there is no good reason to try to use ranged combat as a strength character.

But, you are attacking from range anyway when pulling, why discount the damage being done then? Even accepting your premise that there is no middle ground (either a target is dangerous and ranged attacks will pull him but do no damage or the target is wimpy and the damage done at range is irrelevant because he would go down quickly anyway), the reality is still that you can't rush into every crowd and the ranged damage will soften up some of those mobs. It actually doesn't matter if you don't need them to be softened up, it happens anyway

Title: Dual-wielding Melee Mage
Post by: Legacy_MagicalMaster on January 30, 2014, 02:29:47 am

MrZork wrote...

From the Shadows_over_Heliopolis_readme.txt

I'm way too busy arguing to read anything, sheesh.

MrZork wrote...

Yeah, what? I'm not sure what your point is. You start out mentioning an opponent that you can't hit at all with a bow at level 40 and then list several that are pretty hittable at level 20.

(BTW, most of those guys still have AC less than the 35 you had mentioned was the minimum AC a couple posts ago.)

My point is that Bioware sometimes has wildly inconsistent "standards" with that level 40 enemy and then my second point was that something closer to 30 AC was far more typical for a CR 15 mob.

In response to the last bit I'd ALSO point out that CR 15 mobs are meant to be fought by level 15s -- which is at least 5 AB lower which means that's pretty close to what I said.

MrZork wrote...

If you think I am claiming that ranged attacks are the best way for a STR toon to take down every mob, then we may have been talking past each other.

If it still isn't clear, let me state that I am not proposing that a STR-based melee toon should used ranged tactics against every mob.

You seemed to be claiming that a strength toon should always fire at mobs from ranged rather than charging in because it was an effective way to deal a significant amount of damage to enemies and soften them up.

Which is quite often true in other games. But not in NWN. If that's not what you meant then we have been talking past each other.

Bioware Archive

Bioware Archive V2 => Shadows of Undrentide Official Campaign => Topic started by: Legacy_PracticalKat on January 22, 2014, 02:44:30 pm