Is this a good character?

[Ravager]

[QUOTE=Fljotsdale]I've never been on a plane. Not scared - just not had the opportunity or the cash to travel much. I prefer books and computers, anyway![/QUOTE]

*nods* That's the same for me.
Though I couldn't stand long plane flights. I'd probably end up bored and restless quite quickly. Train journeys are bad enough.

[QUOTE=Fljotsdale]Ravager much more often than me!
[/QUOTE]

Oh, I think you've played through Lionheart at least as much as I have by now.

[QUOTE=Fljotsdale]Go read a Philip Pullman book if you want good story-telling skills.[/QUOTE]

Yep, those are good. I'm a fan of the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.
I also like Forgotten Realms books and the Inheritance trilogy (Eragon and Eldest released so far).
What about trying the Da Vinci Code?

Hmm...specific Lionheat items (Yay, I can link this post to the game! :laugh
Try allying with the Beggars in the sewers under Barcelona and killing the Goblin Khan for the River Dryad, both of these quests result in a potion that increases your Luck by 1 permanently.
Finding the green Ways Crystals (starting with the one in Le Calle Perdida seems to have reasonable rewards too.
Helping Cervantes results in some nice Gauntlets and the Cortez quest leads you to a cave filled with treasure.

[BallOfFire]

Actual Lionheart question: If I am going to be some sort of a mage, what kind of spells should I get? Fire? Ice? I've never tried any of them.

Does only Charisma affect mana capacity on level up, or Perception too?

Does casting speed increase in any way? At my current cast rate I could fire an arrow or two before casting a second time, so I'm wondering if I should get some ranged too or something.

How does unarmed work? What exactly does putting points into the skill do? Will it still be good if I put no points in it?

Ewww... Dickens... one of those writers who everyone praises for a style that seems to have been designed to torture the reader until cognotive dissonance theory takes effect: you devote so much time and energy to his books that you need some way of justifying this to yourself, so you convince yourself that he is a good writer. Can you tell I'm majoring in Psychology? ^^

As for the Da Vinci Code, I've heard that it is all myth presented as fact, and considering its popularity I feel the need to avoid it out of my rebellious nature.

As for it hard being able to imagine an ADHD boy reading a lot, try this: I used to read 15-20 hours per day, on the bus, while walking between classes, during classes, during lunch, at home, in bed, always. Every waking moment was devoted to reading, it was my entire life. I miss being able to immerse myself in the world of books like that, but I haven't been able to find any worth my time in the last few years. Ironically, Philosophy of Dummies was the only book worth the time I spent on it. That book changed my life, lol. It put into words and convincing arguments the things I had been considering all my life, so I finally was convinced of them.

Thanks for the other item list Ravager.

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=BallOfFire] Actual Lionheart question: If I am going to be some sort of a mage, what kind of spells should I get? Fire? Ice? I've never tried any of them.[/quote]

Well... Thought magic skills are all good in their own way. But I personally have found the most useful to be Ice magic, and the least useful to be Fire magic.

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]Does only Charisma affect mana capacity on level up, or Perception too?[/quote]
The manual says: 'Magic wielders use this ability (Perception) to understand their spirit, so Mana is partially determined by this attribute.'

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]Does casting speed increase in any way? At my current cast rate I could fire an arrow or two before casting a second time, so I'm wondering if I should get some ranged too or something.[/quote]

Casting speed is determined by how long it takes a spell to replenish before you can cast it again. This is NOT determined by the amount of mana you have, but the amount of mana it takes to cast the spell. So a spell that takes 10 mana to cast replenishes quite quickly, but a spell that costs 20, 40, 80, etc mana to cast will take a correspondingly longer time to replenish. However, you CAN cast other spells while it is replenishing.

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]How does unarmed work? What exactly does putting points into the skill do? Will it still be good if I put no points in it?[/quote]

Exactly the same as it does with other skills, of course - it improves it! And no, if you put no points into any skill, you will be rubbish at it.

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]Ewww... Dickens... one of those writers who everyone praises for a style that seems to have been designed to torture the reader until cognotive dissonance theory takes effect: you devote so much time and energy to his books that you need some way of justifying this to yourself, so you convince yourself that he is a good writer. Can you tell I'm majoring in Psychology? ^^[/quote]

Heh! I couldn't read Dickens now! But I loved the books when I was a kid. Back then, we loved lots of highly detailed description! We didn't even imagine the instant gratification that TV has taught you younger people to expect! I doubt most of you could read the stuff we read back then.

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]As for the Da Vinci Code, I've heard that it is all myth presented as fact, and considering its popularity I feel the need to avoid it out of my rebellious nature.[/quote]

Never read it. It was recommended to me by some people, disparaged by others, and I decided there were other things I'd rather read. Currently I am reading Britain B.C. by Francis Pryor, which is fascinating.

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]As for it hard being able to imagine an ADHD boy reading a lot, try this: I used to read 15-20 hours per day, on the bus, while walking between classes, during classes, during lunch, at home, in bed, always. Every waking moment was devoted to reading, it was my entire life. [/quote]

That sounds like me as a child, teen, and even adult - though adulthood reading was limited by childrearing. And it makes it very difficult for me to believe you suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder!

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]I miss being able to immerse myself in the world of books like that, but I haven't been able to find any worth my time in the last few years. Ironically, Philosophy of Dummies was the only book worth the time I spent on it. That book changed my life, lol. It put into words and convincing arguments the things I had been considering all my life, so I finally was convinced of them.[/quote]

Meh. Psychology and Philosophy bore the socks off me. You learn more about people by observation and talking to them than you ever get out of a book, imo. Some such books talk an inordinate amount of rubbish! And the ideas propounded are constantly changing, too. Which the behaviour and inate nature of people doesn't.

[BallOfFire]

Bah, I just started my character today before I saw your message. I'm a fire mage, but I'm concentrating on Unarmed to start with. The plan was that I would cast a spell, punch, punch, cast a spell, etc. But if I can cast other spells while one cools down... maybe I'll just use Unarmed against things immune to fire, if there is such a thing. I have almost no perception, so I hope it isn't TOO important for mana later on. Thanks for the answers.

As for learning more about psychology by viewing people, it really depends. If you're talking like self-help type psychology, that is all a bunch of theories and opinions with little relation to reality. What interests me is the experiments and the things they have proven. It's amazing some of the things people do in extreme circumstances, and sometimes counterintuitive. I learn a lot by observing people, but you would be surprised how much of what most people assume is wrong, that only a very controlled experiment is likely to be able to prove.

I like how you clumped psychology and philosophy together. You really are old =P.

[BallOfFire]

Well, if I ever go through with my plans for world domination, you should be able to figure out that it's me. There aren't a lot of supergeniuses out there conspiring to take over the world who actually follow through with some degree of success. I'll be the first.

Otherwise, I'll give you a name, but not on this thread because my enemies might track me down...

By the way, is Celestial Smite good and efficient enough to use as a primary method of dealing damage?

Think we should just choose one thread and stick with it? This whole forum is starting to feel like our little playground chat room to run around and play in, lol.

[Ravager]

Heh! Yeah, we'll have the Mod telling us off if we aren't careful! Though the Mods in here seem pretty ok and tolerant so long as we also give hints and tips. Which we do. Ravager is less of a chatterbox than you or me, and generally sticks pretty well to the game.

You can stick with one thread if you like. I don't mind. If so, it should probably be this one, as the other is much longer.

Hah! That's ironic. You should see the amount of posts I have in the Speak Your Mind section. :laugh:
I've tried to stick to the game somewhat to avoid getting the threads shut down, you know? I doubt it'd happen, but if it strays to far off the game, they'll do something about it...

I think it's possible for Moderators to merge threads. We could consider that. *shrugs*

As for Forgotten Realms books, there is a page somewhere that has some good listings of them: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/frng
I can probably recommend a few more, if you want.

By the way, is Celestial Smite good and efficient enough to use as a primary method of dealing damage?

It's not bad, though using in such a way drained my Mana very quickly, so I doubt it's too sustainable over the long term.

[BallOfFire]

Okay, so now I really don't know what to play. My ice mage worked pretty well, up till I started playing him on multiplayer. Now I run out of mana in no time and then can't hit things with my bow. So enough experimenting: which are the best skills to tag? Is unarmed better than ranged? Is using ice with unarmed better than using ranged with unarmed? How about smite? The best options I can gather from experience and your suggestions are

ranged, ice, protective
unarmed, ranged, ?
unarmed, ice, ?
unarmed, smite

I shouldn't need fortitude since the other guy has that. Please choose the best skills for me, I trust each of your judgment far more than my own on the matter. I just want a solid character that I know is strong enough to make it to the end, and do so better than almost any other character, so I can actually play past level 9 for once.

[Ravager]

Well, in my current game I have Unarmed and Ranged tagged, which is a good combination, but then I've always preferred the relative simplicity of attacking using those rather than spells.
You could consider tagging the Divine Favour spells, those are quite powerful too.

[Mr.FZ]

One-handed melee...

Have read a bit of your discussion, and would just like to give some comments on what I think is a good character. Have only played trough once, but to me it seems that one-handed melee is quite good. Have you considered the benefits from both having a weapon and a shield? Two items give a double amount of benefits, as compared to have just a bow or some two-handed weapon. At the end of the game I had mace that did 6 -11 + 4 damage, plus had a + 15 to hit, a plus 5 acid damage and 2 – 8 disease damage. This combined very well with a small shield: just 2 AC but, + 12 to ice and cold protection and 7 one-handed melee skillpoints, and additionally 9 % fire protection and 9 % to fire damage and 9 one handed melee skill points, and last but not least added 2 points to charisma. I think that just one item couldn’t mach these things combined. I haven’t tried anything else, so it might very well be that I am wrong.

I play a sylvant (I went for a mage strategy, and then sylvant seemed as the best choice), with a divine spirit. My traits are: fire ancestry, one-hander and small frame. These traits create quite good synergy with my tagged skills (one-handed melee, fortitude and fire).

My stats were at the end:

Level 46

ST: 6 (7)
PR: 7 (8)
EN: 5 (7)
CH: 10 (12)
IN: 11 (12)
AG: 9
LK: 5

Fighting skills:
One-handed melee: 230 (tagged)
Evasion: 88 (with full plate armor, minus 15 to evasion)

Thieving skills:
Find trap: 88
Lock pick: 115
Sneak: 53
Diplomacy: 54 (80 to speech)

Magic:
Fortitude: 155 (tagged)
Smite: 128
Fire:141 (tagged)

The other stats aren’t worth mentioning.


I also found it very useful to use the “target” function. When on “hectic” you easily hit the enemy 3 times pr round, and the enemy can only hit you once. Then with a high agility and quite a large amount of skill points (on one-handed melee) you can compensate for less strength. This is good when you go for a mage (which I did), then you can put more points on CH and IN (you need that for mana and skill points).

As I encountered the last stages, there was no problem using magic as ballistic weapon (just before facing the old man I had 1682 mana points (that is maximum) and 108 mana elixirs in my inventory) . At some point I missed a bow a bit, but my fire magic actually did the job without to much sweat. And this potion that reduces arrow damage with 50 % is also really helpful.

And BoF, about the psychology studies, you should read some sociology. There is some quite good positivism criticism in sociology that hits psychology rather hard. Check out Foucault “Birth of the Clinic” for instance. To you seeing all the psychology experiments as rubbish, you might be very right, but the neurologically based research done the last ten years or so, I find hard to reject, and also quite useful. fMRI is a good thing isn’t it?

It seems that you encounter quite a lot of frustration in the “university culture,” check out Spivak “Can the Subaltern Speak” to read a well formulated essay that argues that more or less all scientific knowledge (from the U.S and Europe at least) are produced for no other purpose but to legitimate the hierarchy of power that already exists in the world today (the relationship between the North and the South). This text shows a very concrete way to argue against a lot of the “established” science. I miss some concrete examples in you argumentation in why psychology is so bad

Hopefully this was to some extent enlightening to this thread…

Please excuse my wording and gramar, I am no native English speaker.

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=Ravager] Hah! That's ironic. You should see the amount of posts I have in the Speak Your Mind section. :laugh:
I've tried to stick to the game somewhat to avoid getting the threads shut down, you know? I doubt it'd happen, but if it strays to far off the game, they'll do something about it...

I think it's possible for Moderators to merge threads. We could consider that. *shrugs*[/quote]

Yeah... I've seen you in here almost every time I visit! :laugh: Shoulda told me something, hey?

[QUOTE=Ravager]As for Forgotten Realms books, there is a page somewhere that has some good listings of them: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=books/frng
I can probably recommend a few more, if you want.[/quote]

Thanks for the link, Ravager. I've added it to my Favourites so I can browse it at leisure.


[QUOTE=Ravager]It's not bad, though using in such a way drained my Mana very quickly, so I doubt it's too sustainable over the long term.[/QUOTE]

I agree. You really need an adequate weapon skill, unless, like FZ, you carry a LOT of spirit potions around with you. I do, actually. My current char has 102 at the moment. But she is a Feralkin and uses weapons more than aggressive magic.

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]Okay, so now I really don't know what to play. My ice mage worked pretty well, up till I started playing him on multiplayer. Now I run out of mana in no time and then can't hit things with my bow. So enough experimenting: which are the best skills to tag? Is unarmed better than ranged? Is using ice with unarmed better than using ranged with unarmed? How about smite? The best options I can gather from experience and your suggestions are

ranged, ice, protective
unarmed, ranged, ?
unarmed, ice, ?
unarmed, smite

I shouldn't need fortitude since the other guy has that. Please choose the best skills for me, I trust each of your judgment far more than my own on the matter. I just want a solid character that I know is strong enough to make it to the end, and do so better than almost any other character, so I can actually play past level 9 for once.[/QUOTE]

Oh, hell, BOF, it's not that easy! It really depends on what YOU want to play.

But, ok... you know I like Thought:Ice. It is VERY useful both early in the game, with the Lava Trolls, and at the very end. But I don't think you actually need to tag it, so long as you keep feeding points into it.

Tag any Divine Magic branch. I like Smite, if you don't need Fortitude.

Your game partner has Ranged, so you don't need it.
Two-Hand melee is powerful, but rather slow and looks clumsy.
So Tag Mr FZ's suggestion of One-Hand melee. He is perfectly right about the extra value of using a shield.
As for the 3rd Tag skill - if you don't want a Thief skill, I would suggest you Tag Evasion; it adds nicely to your armour level.

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ] Have read a bit of your discussion, and would just like to give some comments on what I think is a good character. Have only played trough once, but to me it seems that one-handed melee is quite good. Have you considered the benefits from both having a weapon and a shield? Two items give a double amount of benefits, as compared to have just a bow or some two-handed weapon. At the end of the game I had mace that did 6 -11 + 4 damage, plus had a + 15 to hit, a plus 5 acid damage and 2 – 8 disease damage. This combined very well with a small shield: just 2 AC but, + 12 to ice and cold protection and 7 one-handed melee skillpoints, and additionally 9 % fire protection and 9 % to fire damage and 9 one handed melee skill points, and last but not least added 2 points to charisma. I think that just one item couldn’t mach these things combined. I haven’t tried anything else, so it might very well be that I am wrong.[/quote]

Hullo, Mr FZ! Nice to see someone new in here.

Yes, crushing weapons are excellent against some enemies. It is also good to have a bladed weapon as well, though. You can find/buy some very good ones during the game.

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ]I play a sylvant (I went for a mage strategy, and then sylvant seemed as the best choice), with a divine spirit. My traits are: fire ancestry, one-hander and small frame. These traits create quite good synergy with my tagged skills (one-handed melee, fortitude and fire). [/quote]

I like Sylvants myself. But I prefer the Polyelemental Ancestry Trait, because you get +10 to Acid, Cold, Fire, Electrical Poison and Disease resistances. You DO suffer a -5 reduction to crushing, piercing and slashing resistances, but that is easily remedied with armour and protective spells.

As traits, I tend to opt for Ascetic, for the extra 10 skill points at start-up; and either Studious Tinkerer or Good Natured. I've tried some of the others, but keep coming back to two of those 3.

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ]My stats were at the end:

Level 46

ST: 6 (7)
PR: 7 (8)
EN: 5 (7)
CH: 10 (12)
IN: 11 (12)
AG: 9
LK: 5

Fighting skills:
One-handed melee: 230 (tagged)
Evasion: 88 (with full plate armor, minus 15 to evasion)

Thieving skills:
Find trap: 88
Lock pick: 115
Sneak: 53
Diplomacy: 54 (80 to speech)

Magic:
Fortitude: 155 (tagged)
Smite: 128
Fire:141 (tagged)

The other stats aren’t worth mentioning.
[/quote]

Looks like a nice char.

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ]I also found it very useful to use the “target” function. When on “hectic” you easily hit the enemy 3 times pr round, and the enemy can only hit you once. Then with a high agility and quite a large amount of skill points (on one-handed melee) you can compensate for less strength. This is good when you go for a mage (which I did), then you can put more points on CH and IN (you need that for mana and skill points).[/quote]

Yes, it can be handy, I agree. But I don't usually bother with it.

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ]As I encountered the last stages, there was no problem using magic as ballistic weapon (just before facing the old man I had 1682 mana points (that is maximum) and 108 mana elixirs in my inventory) . At some point I missed a bow a bit, but my fire magic actually did the job without to much sweat. And this potion that reduces arrow damage with 50 % is also really helpful.[/quote]

Yeah, I know that bit! :laugh: But a ranged spell works fine, as you say. My last game I didn't use Ranged at all, nor in my current game.

[QUOTE=Mr.FZ]Please excuse my wording and gramar, I am no native English speaker.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't have thought so, on first reading of your post. Second reading, to check yes, I think I see the odd hint you are not a native English speaker. But you have nothing to apologise for! If you hadn't said, I wouldn't have known.

[BallOfFire]

I've decided to tell you guys what my current character is to make this easier.

level 7 sylvant
frost ancestry
gifted
renaissance man

S 2
P 9
E 8
C 9
I 9
A 9
L 3

tagged skills are ice, thought: protective, and ranged

I primarily use ice spells, and use ranged when I run out of mana (which is often now). My mana boost per level will be at the maximum pretty soon, once i get the gain attribute perks. I chose thought: protective to get myself more mana by putting points in it, and to have a couple defensive spells like mana shield and another one that I forget the name of, and so I could get the Halo of Frost for cold damage and slowing.

What I'm really wondering is this: will ice continue to work as my main attack up until the end? And I'm guessing no one here knows that, so is there any other improvement you can see that could be made on this character? Keep in mind I'm playing multiplayer with a ranged character who has all the thief skills other than diplomacy, and has fortitude.

Just tell me my character is perfect so I can be satisfied and play on. =P

Edit: WHOA, I'm an Exalted Member now! ^^ I never thought that would happen since I edit posts instead of double posting. Like now.

Edit again: I just put my mouse over the blue thing above Fljotsdale's picture, and a word popped up. "Old." I kept trying it on other people to see if it would say "Young," but all it said was "Unread." Now I get it.

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]I've decided to tell you guys what my current character is to make this easier.

level 7 sylvant
frost ancestry
gifted
renaissance man

S 2
P 9
E 8
C 9
I 9
A 9
L 3

tagged skills are ice, thought: protective, and ranged

I primarily use ice spells, and use ranged when I run out of mana (which is often now). My mana boost per level will be at the maximum pretty soon, once i get the gain attribute perks. I chose thought: protective to get myself more mana by putting points in it, and to have a couple defensive spells like mana shield and another one that I forget the name of, and so I could get the Halo of Frost for cold damage and slowing.

What I'm really wondering is this: will ice continue to work as my main attack up until the end? And I'm guessing no one here knows that, so is there any other improvement you can see that could be made on this character? Keep in mind I'm playing multiplayer with a ranged character who has all the thief skills other than diplomacy, and has fortitude.

Just tell me my character is perfect so I can be satisfied and play on. =P

Edit: WHOA, I'm an Exalted Member now! ^^ I never thought that would happen since I edit posts instead of double posting. Like now.

Edit again: I just put my mouse over the blue thing above Fljotsdale's picture, and a word popped up. "Old." I kept trying it on other people to see if it would say "Young," but all it said was "Unread." Now I get it.[/QUOTE]

BOF, dear - it's perfect! Just play the damn game! :laugh: :laugh:

[Ravager]

As much as I hate to agree with Fljotsdale...just kidding.
Go ahead and play the game for once BoF.

@Mr.FZ, thanks for your insights.
I used to go down shield and weapon route, but it didn't make that much of a difference to me, enemies can still hit the majority of the time and other than the shields that increase Charisma or damage dealt I rarely bother with them (other than keeping some good ones in my inventory which I'll probably never use).

[Fljotsdale]

[QUOTE=Ravager]As much as I hate to agree with Fljotsdale...just kidding.
Go ahead and play the game for once BoF.

@Mr.FZ, thanks for your insights.
I used to go down shield and weapon route, but it didn't make that much of a difference to me, enemies can still hit the majority of the time and other than the shields that increase Charisma or damage dealt I rarely bother with them (other than keeping some good ones in my inventory which I'll probably never use).[/QUOTE]

I agree regarding the shields. Even as a two-hander I keep a Small Shield of Charisma in the inventory for those... er... tricky encounters.

[BallOfFire]

Which is better, unarmed or ranged (or something else), assuming the guy I am playing with is already ranged?

[Ravager]

I'd say unarmed, those encounters were ranged is more useful can be handled by the person you're playing with.

How about that for a speedy response? -Ravvy!

[fable]

[QUOTE=BallOfFire]Think we should just choose one thread and stick with it? This whole forum is starting to feel like our little playground chat room to run around and play in, lol.[/QUOTE]

Personally, I think all of you should go to SYM and continue this, because if there are anymore spamming posts in Lionheart threads, posting privileges will be revoked.

No replies are necessary.

[BallOfFire]

I'm making a new unarmed character. So, as always, I have questions that I'd appreciate answers to!

What does Unarmed chance to hit and damage depend on? I know that Perception and Agility affect the starting skill level, and Strength affects the damage, at least at the beginning, but what in all is involved in determining damage and chance to hit for Unarmed? Do they increase per level, or merely when you put points in the skill?

Also, I think I'm going to get some of the Divine skills, as well as maybe Nature's Fury for Nature's Balance, and I'm wondering if the affects of the spells on me and on the enemies will stack, and if I'm likely to have enough mana for casting them all with my character.

Here is my character so far:

Feralkin male
Tusks

S 8 (9)
P 2 (3)
E 8 (9)
C 5 (6)
I 8 (9)
A 8 (9)
L 2 (3)

Ascetic
Gifted

Divine Spirit

Divine Favor
Smite
Unarmed

I'll probably pump points in Unarmed, much of the Divine branch, Diplomacy, and maybe Nature's Fury. Would I be better off spell-wise by just focusing on Smite and ignoring the others?

Can anyone please suggest any improvements?