Any useless skills in HOU?

[Legacy_Artas1984]

               I wish HOU had an influence system like NWN 2 OC, so that the decisions of my henchmen in the end had been checked not by my charisma modifier, but rather by my overall influence though out the game.

Anyway HOU is the best of all NWN games, because it uses the most of the skills: first of all as i noticed HOU mostly rewards rogues with their high search, appraise, hide, move silently and all of their special trap handling skills - it is a heaven of joy; i only regret that the a level 15 rogue is too strong to truly enjoy all of it - he can simply bash his way through most of monsters rather than hide from them and search for clues if he had been weaker, what would make the game thrilling. Also any ranger with high spot and listen skills will truly enjoy the first part of the game in the dungeons, although all of those hidden places are not realy crucial.. There is not plenty of situations to use charisma skills like in NWN OC, but they are crucial non the less. Even parry is useful when you want to gain additional XP  by keeping spawning vampires and going for a walk to return later for more experience.. Are the any useless skills in HOU? Aaa.. Crafting skills perhaps? Animal ephanty?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Artas1984, 14 mars 2012 - 08:26 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Guest_Fauna Dragonwing_*]

                Oh, nobody's answered this one yet?

I do not know whether there are any useless skills in the campaign to tell the truth. However, what has caught my attention in your post is this:

Artas1984 wrote...
Are the any useless skills in HOU? Aaa.. Crafting skills perhaps? Animal ephanty?

I must say that, playing mostly as a druid, I enjoy playing the campaign immensely. There aren't that many chances to use Animal Empathy - not as many as in SoU which was absolutely wonderful in this aspect - but there are quite enough to keep me happy.  So... I wander around, talking to rats and cattle and whatnot.  The animals in the game can share a lot useful information about their surroundings, hidden things in the area etc. Sometimes, they can even help you out a little. In one part of the game, you can persuade a rat to pull a lever in a locked room for you. Another one tells you about a secret switch that will deactivate a pretty nasty trap that might otherwise kill you. Etc.
Sometimes, however, the animals don't have anything useful to add and only say something amusing instead. Like when you meet a certain chicken in the Undermountain that "wishes it could be your companion; ridding on your shoulder as you go off into battle and pecking out the eyes of your foes. It always dreamed of becoming a chicken-of-war."  I had so much fun with this skill!
Otherwise, I think I needn't point out the obvious - you can always befriend the animals you meet. You can get some interesting animal companions like that - once, I managed to dominate a manticore, for example - and reduce the number of your enemies by turning one of them into your ally when you fight such creatures. Even if for a limited amount of time.

I think that HotU and also SoU are so well done that every character will find something interesting to do with their special abilities. I've never felt the need to take the crafting skills but I woudln't be surprised if they had some special use in the game, as well.

Just my two "gold pieces" on the matter.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Fauna Dragonwing, 10 avril 2012 - 09:17 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_simomate2]

               I know this was a year ago but there was a crafting system developed where you could craft your own weapons and this would use the crafting skill.^ However, this system was not used in HOU to my knowledge. What it did do, however, was allow you to EDIT your current armors APPEARANCE. But this is completely irrelevant to HOU as this feature is in all modules by default. Not to mention it is an entirely useless ability as again, all it did was changed what you look like. I regretted putting points in that skill.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Groove Widdit]

               That's pretty much a useless activity like having wings or a tail.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MrZork]

               I would assume some of the above comments are tongue-in-cheek. But, it's worth noting that many people really get into customizing how their toons look. Shops and NPCs that allow such customization are popular on many PWs. Obviously, that's a different kind of fun than beating up drow. But, if those players have fun doing it, then it's worth it to them.

That said, the default crafting system isn't especially well-developed to actually create new armors and weapons. (It's actually not too bad for traps.) There are a few craftable armors, for instance, that one might put to some combat use, such as the mithral shield. But, better items are almost always available in shops and there are too few craftable items to make the skill a good investment if one isn't a customizer.

Of course, I can see some reasons for including only such a limited system in the default game (whether it was Bioware's reason, I don't know). If one allows, by default, more powerful items to be crafted, then it becomes difficult for anyone to make a low-magic module or a low-gold module. For that matter, even a higher-magic modules become tough to balance if PCs can craft +15 armors and so on. Similarly, the costs of crafting in the BW system are balanced with the setup of the OC/SoU/HotU shops. If a builder creates shops with higher buy prices, then he has to be careful about a variety of other things or the default crafting system might let someone create infinite gold. Perhaps the Bioware crafting system was intended mostly as a template for module-makers interested in creating more extensive crafting systems, but BW kept it limited so as not to cause balance issues for others.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

               <getting up...>

As far as useless skills in HotU go, did anyone really get any use out of Ride?
I mean, *really*? Riding a Deeproth at a charge, perhaps? <the old man hates horses>
I do not! <really?>
They hate me *looks injured* <hmm, you have a point>

<...on his high horse>
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_werelynx]

               Ride - it was introduced in 1.69 as far as I know and if you are a paladin you can summon a mount wherever you are. Don't know if it would work in HotU though.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_WhiZard]

               

werelynx wrote...

Ride - it was introduced in 1.69 as far as I know and if you are a paladin you can summon a mount wherever you are. Don't know if it would work in HotU though.

2 ranks in ride are required for PDK.  Besides that it is a waste in HotU as the module doesn't use the heartbeat script that makes mounted combat work.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Greatpanda]

               

Groove Widdit wrote...

That's pretty much a useless activity like having wings or a tail.

I just tried the game HOU with a Wizard/pale master(13/11). I found the lich arm nearly useless. '>

Some skills in the game may not as effective as expected, e.g.bluff(you can got a chance even if you had only one point in this skill),craft weapon/trap/armour(not much craft components can be found in NWN 1), move slient/initmidate/set trap(nearly no chance to apply if you work out as spell casters),Tauant(useless),Use magic device(no special devices in HOU)

On the other hand, some skills are more helpyful if you have 5 or 10 points:

Appraise(price in store decrease when this skill up),Lore/Spot/search(the value of items found can inprove if you have high skill point in lore), Spellcraft(Epic spells! Total max. point = level +3).

Concentration is useful if you are spell caster and don't want to dispruted in the middle of combat.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               Taunt is quite good - it gives the enemy -6 AC for 5 rounds unless they have concentration (also 30% spell failure for casters, but those are more likely to have concentration).  It's even better with henchmen who can also take advantage of the opening.

What are you taking about by saying "value of items found can improve if you have high skill point (sic) in lore?"

And spellcraft also gives +1 saving throws per 5 ranks (counts against the +20 maximum), so it's good in general (really only one epic spell worth taking - Epic Warding).
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Greatpanda]

               

MagicalMaster wrote...

Taunt is quite good - it gives the enemy -6 AC for 5 rounds unless they have concentration (also 30% spell failure for casters, but those are more likely to have concentration). It's even better with henchmen who can also take advantage of the opening.

What are you taking about by saying "value of items found can improve if you have high skill point (sic) in lore?"

And spellcraft also gives +1 saving throws per 5 ranks (counts against the +20 maximum), so it's good in general (really only one epic spell worth taking - Epic Warding).

Taunt require good ability because it also provoke attack of opportunity, if the target is very close to you, one hit can damage you 40+ ...

Ride is only useful when you play expansion other than SOU/HOU. In the original campaign and SOU/HOU, no horse exists!