High Level Ability Question

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:00 am

Is it possible to combine Assassination and Greater Whirlwind Attack (character is a F/M/T)? Since both improve combat in the next round, I wonder if it's possible to turn them on quick enough, e.g. under a Haste spell.

The result could be devastating, 10 attacks with backstab multiplier, combine with Luck, Black Blade of Desaster, Strength Modification (Draw Upon [Un]Holy Might), Time Stop, Tenser, ... no idea how the THACO would be calculated with such a spell mix btw. But I imagine up to 1000 HP damage dealt at +5 could be possible and 500 would be likely. And of course, 10 saving saving throws vs. disintegration would be required from the target too.

BBoD is 2-24 damage, add strength, multiply with 50 (5 for backstab and 10 for Whirlwind) and imagine the best case carnage. Other weapons, especially all vorpal, level or stat draining weapons could be fun as well of course.

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:43 am

I don't know if you can stack the 2 abilities, but definetly you wan't get both the total benefit, because both last for one round and you will be using part of the round of the first ability to activate the second; but why use GW if you can use Imp. haste? You wan't have 10 att/rnd, but you will be close if dualwielding and it will last much longer. And why use assassination, just cast mislead and all your attacks will be backstabs for the duration of the spell

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Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:27 am

Well, why, uhhhm ... just for the ability of killing basically everything within one round.

I know there are other ways of dealing terrible damage with GW/spell combos, but if one could activate these two HLAs in the same round and use them both in the next round this could be ... very very powerful if combined with certain spells. I take it Mislead is the easy way out here, combine with GW?

And btw, HLAS don't happen to work spell-like, i. e. Alacrity would not remove the pause between activations I guess?

Nimiety · Post by **Nimiety** » Sat Mar 12, 2005 9:09 pm

@Phantom, as far as I knew, it would... you could always clua in a scroll, then clua yourself enough EXP to get the HLAs, then give it a try (and then, of course, restore the previously saved game with the knowledge that it worked or not)...

Let me know, as I was wondering the same thing.

N...

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 4:16 am

My current character just started to get his first HLAs (currently he's a F13/M13/T15 - triple class characters are kinda funny creatures, I can't cast a 7th level spell, but I get my hands on the real interesting things).

As you can see from the levels, 10th level spells are still some million XP away though - Improved Alacrity won't come soon. So far I chose UAI (of course), Assassiation and additional 6th and 7th level spells (I wanted to know if I can get my first 7th level spell this way - unfortunately I didn't). Whirlwind / Greater Whirlwind will be next and in case I manage to trigger Assassination and GW in one round, Critical Strike would be the next HLA to consider.

Simple math with BBoD (2-24 dmg), no other aspects (strength, specialization, whatever):

24 (Critical Strike) * 10 (GW) * 5 (Assassination) = 1200 dmg

Btw, I tried mislead and it works like Assassination, permanent backstab effect. Thanks for the tip, Lompo!

Saron · Post by **Saron** » Sun Mar 13, 2005 5:28 pm

No. You can activate only one HLA per round, and since both only last a round, by the time you get to activating the next ability, the first one had run out.

lompo · Post by **lompo** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 3:15 am

There are much better HLA for you to choose instead of GW and Assassination. As I said before the Mislead-imp.haste combo is way more powerful/effective than the two HLA toghether: imp. haste doubbles you number of attack/rnd for 3+1 rnd/lev and mislead last 1 rnd/lev so the combo will last for much, much, much more time than you double HLA combo; as for the n° of attacks with dual wielding you could have 9/5 att/rnd naturally (a 13th lev fighter with specialization dual wielding a +1 att/rnd weapon [scarlet ninja to

]), with imp. haste will have 9 (!!!) attack/rnd.

Phantom Lord · Post by **Phantom Lord** » Tue Mar 15, 2005 11:23 am

Currently I have 7/2 attacks (F14, Weidu GM) and my average backstab delivers around 65 damage (staff +4). That's not too much, but it's OK for a start. No dual wielding for me, because it's either staff, long bow or long sword and shield for me.

I don't have imp haste yet, so whirlwind will have to do until I get near a spell dealer (I am currently in Brynnlaw).