munchkin question about armored sorcerer

[Legacy_Sarpt]

               I never played a caster back in the day, and I wanted to try it now that I've had a craving to go through the SoU-Hotu saga again. Anyway, I know alot of people hate talk about powergaming or w/e, but that's what I'm going for.

I think I remember that among the supposedly awesome pvp builds, the "exalted sorceress"-link below- was pretty much the competitive arcane caster, but I don't really see the point of it... is that AC enough to avoid a pure melee's attacks, and it takes epic discipline as well... wouldn't you be better off taking spell focuses and CON than having STR for your heavy armor, which it will be against your style of gameplay to even utilize? Again, this is all in the frame of min-maxing

I know there's probably no pvp community anymore (and I never did it anyway), but I always use it as a benchmark of characters in any game that offers it.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Terrorble]

               

IIRC, the campaign difficulty accomodates people who do not like to min-max and those who just don't know what they're doing.  I was the latter the first time, and my attrociously built character made it.  The fact that I did not know what I was doing probably improved the game experience in one aspect because it made it more challenging.  Later, I did HotU again with a well built character and blew through it.

 

That said, a pure sorcerer with evocation and necromancy focus feats will do great and be fun.  If you want to copy the exalted sorcerer I'd caution you that HotU ends around level 27 and an exalted sorcerer is probably designed to mature much closer to level 40.  I forget exactly, but if the exalted sorcerer uses divine shield to boost dodge AC, their AC can be quite good.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Empyre65]

               

If you're looking for a great build, here are a couple links that will help you:

Epic Character Search Engine (Neverwinter Nights)

Neverwinter Nights Epic Character Builders Guild

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Jfoxtail]

               

I don't think it has to be considered a min max munchkin build if you role play a design.

 

SOU Hotu is a fine trial run. Take the same character onto some of the community post HoTu mods that are available at higher level.

 

The basic premise is 3 levels of Paladin stacked on your Sorcerer build to obtain the armor / weapons feet. Build charisma steadily to improve your paladin and sorcerer feats. More or less Paladin levels is a "choice" not a mandate though the 3 is generally accepted as being "enough".

 

Of course you also need to account for the fact that your need to gather the meta magic feats that allow you to cast in armor without spell penalty chance (Still cast IIRC) ; further you wont achieve these all these feats till at least around level 9 IIRC depending upon other selections ~ meaning you wont be able to cast your highest level spells in armor till mid teens when 7-8-9 become available anyway.

 

The heavy armor does not really get your AC high enough to be "game changing"... you are still using your spells to (1) minimize damage i.e. ghostly visage or improved invisibility or (2) take down opponents with reciprocal damage spells i.e. acid sheath. Stoneskin as always.

 

However the weapon proficiency and armor should allow you enough flexibility to wade into weak mobs of orcs / goblins without too much concern.

 

But in terms of concept nothing wrong. You can play most single player mods with this type of build - use the build link above to see better alternatives and progression.

 

Consider to be a Paladin or Divine champion of Mystra build for example. Would not the mistress of the weave indeed promote a spell casting champion ?? 

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

Why would you need 3 levels of paladin in this case?  That's going to really eat until your spellcasting for a while.  I'd just do something like Sorcerer initially for 4-6 levels, then grab one level of Paladin for the saving throws/weapon proficiencies/armor proficiencies, then return to Sorcerer until at least 20 Sorcerer.

 

And it is quite game changing compared to an unarmored sorc -- you'll be able to easily survive without paying attention to most defensive spells on nearly every enemy.  That said, a pure sorc will still blow through the campaigns...just in a different manner.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MrZork]

               

I echo MM's comment that the armor is a big deal in terms of wading into combat and taking minimal damage. The BW campaigns don't have that many opponents with high AB, so having armor plus arcane buffs and the sorts of items one typically finds is enough to make a build pretty rarely hit by most enemies.

 

One level of paladin is plenty inasmuch as armor and weapon proficiencies go and it gives the uber saves. The benefit of three levels is that the toon will have Turn Undead and (assuming he takes the other requisite feats) can take Divine Might and/or Divine Shield and take advantage of that high CHA.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MagicalMaster]

               

Problem is that, if you pick up EMA, you're likely looking at 4 Dodge from Haste, 1 Dodge from Mage Armor, 5 Dodge from EMA, and likely 5+ Dodge from boots...which means Divine Shield can only give 5 more Dodge AC max.  If we're talking HotU specifically, Deekin's Bard Song covers those last 5 points as well.

 

Though I'm not sure you can get better than boots with 3 Dodge/3 Constitution in the official campaigns without UMD or being a Monk.

               
               

               
            

[Legacy_MrZork]

               I agree that Divine Shield can run up against the cap in the HotU environment. I was just pointing out the build purpose of getting to that third Paladin level. And, Divine Might (unresistable bonus damage) can still be useful and the toon can only take one of the two feats with only 3 pally levels.

Also, even Divine Shield opens up the possibility of using different boots (e.g. dragon slippers for KD immunity and +1 DEX AC, etc.). Also, for most of HotU, I don't think Deekin's bard song will give +5 dodge and it may never give +5 dodge unless his default leveling is changed.