Campaign/Expansions Build - The Bearded Battlewitch

[Legacy_MrZork]

               

Just a quick note, I am thinking there are some feats better than Great Cleave for this build. There aren't all that many opponents that this sort of toon will one-shot in melee by the time he has Great Cleave, so more than one cleave per round will be a bit rare. Meanwhile, other feats might be better for either the melee or casting aspects of the build. E.g. Blind Fight, Toughness for some extra HP, Expertise to get some cover, or even Craft Wand. A wand of Evard's will help against many enemies and is decent dispel bait for those casters who might otherwise debuff you.

 

(BTW, I know that craft/scribe/brew feats will diminish XP, which is annoying in the SP campaigns. But, as long as one doesn't go crazy with the high-XP-cost wands, they are handier than scrolls and HotU has the electrifier, so you only need to craft a wand once. They extend your offensive and rebuffing ability between rests. Of course, some people play casters by resting between each battle, in which case, disregard that. Anyway, my comment was more that there are feats beside Great Cleave that may be better for the build. I am not proposing that any particular other feat is indispensable.)

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Flying Rodent]

               

Just a quick note, I am thinking there are some feats better than Great Cleave for this build. There aren't all that many opponents that this sort of toon will one-shot in melee by the time he has Great Cleave, so more than one cleave per round will be a bit rare. Meanwhile, other feats might be better for either the melee or casting aspects of the build. E.g. Blind Fight, Toughness for some extra HP, Expertise to get some cover, or even Craft Wand. A wand of Evard's will help against many enemies and is decent dispel bait for those casters who might otherwise debuff you.

 

 

Yeah it's a bit of a throwaway feat, there are lots of others that could be taken. Given that it's a fighter bonus feat, in order to replace it with something like Craft Wand, then Improved Critical would need to be taken in its place, say at 14 wizard 2 fighter. 

 

 

I like the idea of a permanently charged Evards or Lesser Spell Breach wand, they could come in handy. That said, I also personally liked the extra attacks from Great Cleave in the big fights. I played this build fairly heavily in melee the whole way through, and often wouldn't rest it until the minute/level buffs were starting to run out. I don't like resting in between each fight, breaks the flow of play. That and it's probably a habit from playing PW with 5-10 minute waiting times between rests.

 

I'll leave that to the discretion of whomever wants to build it to switch it around, and for now leave Great Cleave in.  '>

 

Edit: Decided I like the wand idea, #3 modified!

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Flying Rodent]

               

So! Went back and played #2 through the OC, and found out a few things. 

 

 

First of all, I did miss having less spells a little throughout the game. There was less variety in options to kill things, and not having Ghostly Visage at level 3 was a little sad. That said, the extra skills and feats that this build gets as compensation turn it into a scary melee character. For the entire game.

 

For the first Chapter, given the lack of Ghostly Visage to start, I visited Beggar's Nest first and cleared out the main level and houses of monsters [which *just* got me to level 4], then went back through Peninsula, Docks, Beggars and Blacklake.

 

Cleave and Splint Mail very much help in the first Chapter. With Heavy Armour on, buffs have to be cast before fighting. I tried Great Cleave at level 9, and it was silly. Nothing like a 1 attack per round pseudo-wizard smashing through a horde of zombies in 10 seconds!

 

Melee was so effective in fact (again, Cleave is awesome) that I found myself rigging out my spellbook at level 7 wizard with 2 Ghostly Visages, Bulls Strength, Flame Weapon, Mage Armour and Extended Shield, and the rest of spells as Expeditious Retreat, Haste and Extended Haste, to maximise running and bashing capacity. That is until Robes of Dark Moon came along in Chapter 2, by which time the spellbook was just Darkness, Fireball/Empowered Fireball and Buffs. To get extended haste, I delayed the rogue til level 9, which is still in the 1st Chapter. 

 

I rarely used offensive spells throughout. The high number of caster levels however were not wasted. They helped to attain Max Flame Weapon Damage. Forceful Hand, Shadow Shield and +5 Greater Magic Weapon, as well as slots for extended damage shields once the character had enough levels to stock a few of them. 

 

All in all, super strong from start to finish, albiet a little more boring than #1. Though it was rather efficient at beating everything to a pulp.  '>

 

Obligatory selfie, Pre Morag fight. 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_The Flying Rodent]

               

Went through the expansions one more time with #3. Gave the build a couple more edits, and now there's a little play/tip guide at the end of the first post.


Enjoy!