Fighter/Wizard/Thief Tips

Baked Goods · Post by **Baked Goods** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 8:29 pm

This is not my first solo but my first attempt with this multiclass player. My character is Faenor (LoTR) and I plan to stick to an elvish persona and items (ie long swords, elven chain mail, long bow etc etc).

Any tips at all will be much appreciated- on anything relevant -RP or soloing.

Cheers

Elemental ZOOT · Post by **Elemental ZOOT** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:12 am

1st of all, hightlight 2 read - if i do correctly
Its gonna be hard to get chainmail (elvish). You can get it in trademeet from that mage man. I think you should arm him with either Katanas, Warhammers or the short bow of gaeson. Well i would personally make him with dual katanas or Crom Faeyer and the Celestial fury.
I'll also add that a F/M/T is not the best of classess , due to having to wear evish chain mailIts gonna be hard to get chainmail (elvish). You can get it in trademeet from that mage man. I think you should arm him with either Katanas, Warhammers or the short bow of gaeson. Well i would personally make him with dual katanas or Crom Faeyer and the Celestial fury.

To make a person with thiefing abilties, i would dual a swashbuckler, and swashbucklers are execlent fighters.

BTW where in New Zealand r u

Stilgar · Post by **Stilgar** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:05 am

I soloed a f/m/t once through SoA and ToB.
Great game, and good soloing character.
I didn't wear any armor atall, i went for the robe of vecna, and still ended up with -9AC or something without using braces of defence (that can come in handy early in the game if you don't want to wear armor).

I think you can use any weapons you want with that chracter, i usually used spells, but dual-wielding can be very nice. In the end you will be proficient with almost every good weapon, so you can choose what you want, but if you have ToB i would choose crossbows over longbows, but eventually it's up to you.

[EDIT] PS Zoot, i think something went wrong with you're last post, if you want people to highlite to read, change SILVER into BLACK

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:40 am

Hmm..

*EDIT* redundant post, which for some reason, I can't delete.
Grr....

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 10:41 am

Hmm..

I'm clueless about the mechanics of soloing, since I never do it, but a couple of points you may want to think about: How do you plan to play your guy? As a (mostly) fighter, with some sneaky skills, and the ability to use mage buffs, wands & triggers, as a (mostly) mage but with disarm traps and a decent THAC0, or as a (mostly) thief who can cast spells and duke it out ok?

Those plans will tend to condition your gear choices, and you may want to shift emphasis over time - being mostly a fighter early on, and switching to a more arcane strategy as you level up.

Once you resolve your play strategy, your gear choices will tend to fall out of that.

One concrete advice from a pragmatic viewpoint, that you;re probably already aware of: If soloing, summon a bag of holding EARLY - otherwise the inventory management game tends to take over

Oh, a minor quibble, with a query - it's Feanor, not Faenor. Are you looking to RP a Noldo of the era of the wars of the Silmarils, or some other elf of a different era?

Have fun!

Baked Goods · Post by **Baked Goods** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 2:39 pm

Oh, a minor quibble, with a query - it's Feanor, not Faenor

Yeah, my bad, I realised that pretty qiuck but was I a hurry...

BTW where in New Zealand r u

Wellington

I didn't wear any armor atall, i went for the robe of vecna, and still ended up with -9AC or something without using braces of defence (that can come in handy early in the game if you don't want to wear armor).

Yeah I think i'm going to find the elven chain a little redundant by the time I get it, might just wear it anyway to stay in character.

So far I have done the keep and slavers etc etc and have aquired the elven court bow (keeping and using it for the rest of the game even if theres something better- I want this PC to really stick hard and fast to RP.)

summon a bag of holding EARLY

Cheat? naa. You're right, it is a pain in the arse though...

When I think Feanor, I'm thinking more warrior than anything (as in LoTR) but as an elder is very powerful in magic. And naturally elves are light of foot and swift of hand (a perfect rogue). Jon has my silmarills.....

What I'm trying to decide is the limitations on my elf. ie no war hammers, full mail etc etc. Hopefully this will make the game harder and more fun.

Elf stuff in game:
Elven chain mail
Elven court bow

Anything else, elf or forest gear?

Any suggestions on what is out of bounds?

Cheers

Xyx · Post by **Xyx** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 3:11 pm

Big tip: use the Mislead spell. It'll let you get off backstabs with every attack for the entire duration.

nephtu · Post by **nephtu** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 4:47 pm

Hmm...

Well, so long as you know how to spell it, that's all right, then

Elvish gear:
Elven boots (meh)
Cloak of Elvenkind (not bad for sneaking)
Amulet of the Seldarine (but it's such junk....)
Whizzo drow gear (use the ferret trick, the Piwafwi is the thing)
At least the elven chain is upgradable....

I think that's it that's specifically elven - maybe hack yourself a moonblade like Solaufein's, or hack Celestial Fury into a longsword

On the weapons: well, bows, swords (presumably including two handers and shortswords), staves, daggers, and spears are all plentifully used by the good guys - Prof. T seems to have reserved blunts for the baddies. A staff is probably a bit of a plebian weapon for a character like yours, so you'll probably be stuck with longswords, spear and bow - dual wield has no text justification I can think of, but flavour to taste.

Have fun!

Thufir Hawat · Post by **Thufir Hawat** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 6:25 pm

Well, if you want to truly RP as Feanor (I myself opted to RP his brother, Fingolfin), I suggest that you do not focus so much on his physical fighting skills. He was more renowned as being the most skilled of the Noldoli, and as such I would opt for him being more mage/thief oriented than fighter oriented. Also, I would choose mostly fire related spells, such as MMM, Fireball, Delayed Blast Fireball, Sunfire, etc. After all, Feanor's name isn't translated as being 'Spirit of Fire' for nothing! I would have him wielding a single sword more often than a bow or dual weilding, as Tolkien refers to him only using a single sword in Dagor-nuin-Giliath. Unfortunately, unlike Ringil, we are not given specifics as to the nature of Feanor's sword, but I would assume it is somehow fire oriented, as is often the case with Feanor. Harbringer sounds like it would be a good match for you to use. Well, I guess that is about it, so have fun and good luck!

Baked Goods · Post by **Baked Goods** » Thu Oct 23, 2003 8:39 pm

Thanks Thufir, interesting. I'm tempted to stay with the long swords so Harbringer is out. Ok heres were i'm at so far, let me know if you disagree with anything I am carrying (from a RP point of view):

Helm of Balduran
Robe of Vecna
Blade of Roses
Braces
Girdle of Giant strength
Daystar
Sword of Balduran
Cloak of Protection
Elven Court Bow
Arbans sword
Metaspell influence Amulet
Plus lots of rings....

Where is all the elven stuff as listed above?

BTW: Guarded compound was a piece of cake and so were the sewers group and this is at fighter 9 mage 11 thief 12 (core). Sweet, going to uber...still a challenge though.

Cheers

Numinor · Post by **Numinor** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 5:30 am

The Elven Boots and Cloak of Elvenkind are in Suldanessalar, the Amulet of the Seldarine is the reward from Elesime for saving the Tree of Life (you get it at the start of ToB).

Sker · Post by **Sker** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 10:31 am

(Spoiler)

Something to consider...

I realize that you want to play a character but, for maximum backstabbing ability (Highlight to read...)

The fully upgraded Staff of the Ram (TOB) is, by far, the best backstabbing weapon in the game, followed by Celestial Fury +5 (Weimer Module) and then Hindo's Doom. Even if you use Quietus (Weimer upgrade again) to increase the backstab multiplier of the katanas, the Staff of the Ram is considerably better. With XYZ's Mislead cheese, GWW, and the Staff of the Ram, you can put out around 1000 damage/round without strength modifiers.

I also recommend the Robe of Vecna since you won't have much spellcasting time in the heat of battle.

Trust me... F/M/T's can be wrecking machines and are the best class besides sorcerers for soloing to me.

There is also a Weimer Mod which removes the experience cap, making F/M/T's that much more powerful. They are good for soloing either way though.

For more (and better) tips with F/M/T's I would recommend XYZ's spell guide (link under his post) and UserUnfriendly's Cheese Guide. You'll need to get this from someone else since My internet access is limited and I downloaded my copy from another place...

Hesperus · Post by **Hesperus** » Fri Oct 24, 2003 6:02 pm

spoilers below

It looks like Angurvadal, the flaming longsword from Watchers Keep (+4 when found in L4 and upgradable to +5 in ToB), would be perfect for your character.

And, unless your game is nerfed, don't forget to pick up multiple assassinate HLAs (to hack like mad while improved hasted) when the time comes.

Sounds like single weapon fighting style would be sweet and in role, and the extra criticals and bonus to AC will help.

I second the XP cap remover, you'll fill up quickly

Baked Goods · Post by **Baked Goods** » Sat Oct 25, 2003 4:00 pm

It looks like Angurvadal, the flaming longsword from Watchers Keep (+4 when found in L4 and upgradable to +5 in ToB), would be perfect for your character.

Yeah, that would be perfect- good idea. might have to head over to WK soon.

Well, just charging through portal in the bridge district, F/M/T is amazing, hasted, improved invis, stoneskin, protec from normal weapons, reflect, non detection, ......

Destroyed the wardens pet in about 8 seconds plus his air elementals... with no spells and im still lvl 10/11/12. This PC is going to be uber.

I think i will go to single weapon style and occasionally dual when the protection bonuses of other weapons are required.

How many proficiency points do I get to dish out? so far i have 7 distributed

Sytze · Post by **Sytze** » Sun Oct 26, 2003 11:13 am

Download the tactics and Battles MoD, it will make your game MUCH harder.

I think you will need those moD's if you want the game to be interresting.........if every battle is a walkover, why do u even bother to play......since soloing is all about beating difficult battles alone...

Check the The BG reference crossroads (NO SPAM)....you will find the downloads there...

Baked Goods · Post by **Baked Goods** » Mon Oct 27, 2003 10:32 pm

I think you will need those moD's if you want the game to be interresting.........if every battle is a walkover, why do u even bother to play......since soloing is all about beating difficult battles alone...

.

yeah..........but, to solo those mods you really need to use every available item/weapon/cheese to succeed.

I'm trying to avoid uberness by staying in character and still be challenging (or else why play it

). By walkover, I mean everything I implemented worked first time, I don't want to begin to add up how many hours I've been playing now - so nothing is really new anymore and more importantly I know what to expect.

F/M/T: stoneskin, don't leave home without it...