Is Parry a worthwhile skill?

Aerith · Post by **Aerith** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 8:14 pm

Simply put, im not a huge fan of sitting there dodging attacks and not dishing the pain out. Is it a worthwhile skill? Is parrying even worth using.

Dakkon · Post by **Dakkon** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 9:04 pm

No its not i have put lot of points in it but not used it once yet........

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 9:14 pm

I can imagine certain situations where parry could be useful: to let your other party members in multiplayer or your henchman use missile weapons or spells while you keep an opponent busy. To hold a door or strategic spot while your party heals or even rests. Possibly to avoid getting hit as you drink buffing or healing potions.

Now as you can see I think it might be more useful in multiplayer. In the singleplayer campaign I think it is not useful at all. Note that you will occasionally make counter-attacks when in parry mode so it is not completely defensive, but in my experience you are more effective in HTH combat focussing on offense, doing as much damage as possible with 2 weapons or 2 handed or double weapons if you are a fighter.

I got a double axe somewhere that regenerates you 3 points per round - I guess I could go into parry mode and regenerate during combat now that I think about it.

Aerith · Post by **Aerith** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 9:18 pm

thanks

yeah i thought as much. I was just afraid that maybe i was missing something. But i started playing the game as a default fighter...i only got to level six so i figure I'll start over only this time i wont waste any skill points on parry. Thanks for the quick response! I dont know whether I want to fight with two weapons or one, this forum has present many arguments for and against so it bears further thought. On my brief play time with the game though i think the bard is totally useless, as henchmen are idiotic and the bard's songs wasted without a party.

THE JAKER · Post by **THE JAKER** » Fri Jun 28, 2002 10:39 pm

I've been switching between 2 handed and double weapons and I can't really decide which I like better honestly. You do save a lot of feats by going 2 handed - 2weapon or double-weapon really shines in the early part of the game because you are doubling your attacks. Once you get your second attack at level 5 for fighters, the difference is not as pronounced.

Kerwyn · Post by **Kerwyn** » Sat Jun 29, 2002 10:18 am

@ The Jaker
U can also get the improved two weapon fighting feat to get another attack with ur off-hand weapon (+9 base attack required). So u will end up with 6 attacks vs. 4 at lvl 20. Of course the off-hand weapon wont dish out as much damage - but still. This is not based on NWN knowledge, but general DnD knowledge though.

Amidala · Post by **Amidala** » Sat Jun 29, 2002 10:42 am

Well

There are attack penalties of 4/4 or 2/2 for a light off hand weapon and the seconds off hand attack get an additional -5.
Now there are the add 5 damage for -5 attack and the add 10 damage for -10 attack features.
If you use a normal weapon in off hand you will have -4 to all right hand attacks and -4/-9 to your offhand.
So I doubt that you could use the damage amplifiers with that attack penalties.

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Sat Jul 06, 2002 7:25 pm

I ran a few very quick tests on this, and if you have a really good parry skill, you become really hard to hit. You'll need to raise Parry as far as you can for this to work, though. You'll still dish out some damage in the form of counterattacks.

According to the documentation, counterattacks are made at your full Base Attack Bonus. Assuming you can counter half the time, you might even get in the same number of hits as a non-parrying fighter. Two swings at +20 is comparable to four swings at +20, +15, +10 and +5 (depends on the situation, really).

Drawback: Parry mode can't be combined with Knockdown, Power Attack or any other combat mode.

Will try more.

Magus · Post by **Magus** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 3:53 am

@Xyx: You only get one riposte per round.

I have a level 11/2 fighter/rogue with maxed parry, 24 DEX, improved parry, and wearing chain mesh (-2 to parry). This adds up to a parry skill of about 25. In most situations, however, I find it best to just turn on power attack and watch the enemies drop. I've run some tests soloing (parrying with a henchman present usually ends in the enemies turning on the henchman), and in the end I always end up taking more damage just parrying than attacking normally. Parry would become a *much* more useful skill if it could be turned on and off instantly, without having to wait until the end of the round. Then you could attack, parry the enemy's blow, and attack some more. Or. less cheaply, you could equip a disabling weapon like Feyduster +1, daze them with a riposte, hack at them until they come out it, parry some more, etc...

Raistlin · Post by **Raistlin** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 6:33 pm

Just a little warning : Do not equip a shield when in parry mode.

Magus · Post by **Magus** » Sun Jul 07, 2002 9:08 pm

Why not?

Crosswind · Post by **Crosswind** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 8:15 am

Ya, now I'm all curious...why not!

-Cross

Skilless · Post by **Skilless** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 3:18 pm

Parrying would be worthwhile if it increased your default defensive capability (between your attacks and parrying the incoming attack) while allowing you to access the option of going completely defensive. This would work sort of like catching arrows, the higher your parrying ability, the better swordsman you are (defensively speaking).

Raistlin · Post by **Raistlin** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 4:52 pm

If you use a shield on "parry mode" your parry skill drops incredibly .

Magus · Post by **Magus** » Mon Jul 08, 2002 11:00 pm

Oh, I see, you're referring to the armor check penalty. Depends what kind of shield...a small shield only applies a -1 modifier. But you definitely wouldn't want a tower shield equipped, now that I think of it. It was never really an issue for me, since I dual-wield.