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The activity on GB for NWN2 caused me to start playing again.

My character (OC) is a cleric/bard/RDD.. So that's one tank.

Elanee is going to take dino companion and zen archery and be:

1. Archer
2. Buffer
3. Caster
4. Main tank, dino
5. off tank to protect other ranged characters as an animal form

Grobnar is going to be an AOE friendly ranged caster (I don't like puppet and Quara will blow us to kingdom come... never tried sand... (I'm not sure on taking Grobnar)

Neeshka is going to be a flanker but the main problem I've had with her would be taking too much damage. I wonder if I could give her shield profiency and use a light shield with +3/4 enhancement. That would reduce hits by 20-25 percent. Only -1 on skills checks. I'll also use her as an archer at times.


I looked up shields, but I'm not sure what the best is. Zalantar gets +2 AC but does not stack with enhancements unfortunately. Adamantium is supposed to give 1 DR


Usually I give her Dual Wielding, but the biggest problem I have with her is keeping her alive. She is great except for the hardest battles she goes down. She'll often have: barkskin, protection from evil to get two other forms of AC.


So maybe

level 6 shield
level 9 rapier focus
level 10 ??
level 12 shortbow focus
level 13 ??
level 15 ??
level 16 ??
level 18 ??
level 19 ??

I always have her as a ranged attacker, and build her that way. She just gets creamed otherwise. (..also her settings in the character sheet are important - close enough to sneak attack and attack of opportunity, but far enough not to be in the "fray" to much. Medium distance from PC.)

Conversely I always have Elanee as a melee attacker - part of the reason is getting her pet to engage (which requires close proximity to opponents). The other reason is her best area attack spells (the "lightening" variety) are all centered on her. Plus she can be armored pretty well and still use those spells.

But what do you think of both ranged and melee. She can cause havoc tumbling through attacks of opportunity (AoO) and likewise giving the tanks in front their own AoOs. Like she can create a train of two or three enemies running around in circles and getting cut down by AoOs.

I'll check out Elanee's spell book and see if there are other options than lightning. But why not make her dual rolled? Zen archery will give a high AB with the wisdom buffs. And she can use a longbow owing to being an elf.

We all have such individual strategies. Probably the only way of seeing is to try it and see what happens.

I'm improving from my first run. We hardly took any damage in the graveyard and crypts. Though I think that's in part to having cleric buffs.

With the dino, what happens if you broadcast a command 'attack nearest'? I didn't realize you couldn't 'control' the dino as a companion? The animal summons are also a part of a druid. The druid may spontaneous cast a summon!



But is there a flaw in improving her AC with a light shield?

This depends on how you manage the characters.

If you "puppet" Neeshka, then it's a different game. (..and if you are going to do that I'd probably forget about her almost entirely and puppet Quara and/or Sand.) I don't know how to get her to "kite" on auto-anything.

Note: you can get a "chime of opening" for chest opening duty from the older lady (seller) in the Docks district (road behind the guard station). Basically just using Neeshka for her personal quests, and the "chime" for everything else.


Elanee depends a lot on her spell-casting settings. IF you keep it at "Overpowered" then she just wades into the fray and starts casting her Lightening spells. (..though often she'll cast her most powerful summon first if you have it in her spell-book.) Keeping her loaded-up with AC items includes a Shield and precludes bow use. Considering how much "threat" she draws it's a good idea to keep her AC as high as possible. She's also a really good healer after a few Lightening castings with Healing Kits (not healing spells) when not shape-shifted. Finally she's rather excellent with melee as a Treant or Earth Elemental at higher levels - and Natural Spell is a very nice feat to have in those instances.

Speaking of Natural Spell, there are so many good feats for a Druid that IMO it's a waste to put any feats into Bow use. In fact, I always try to pick her up as quickly as possible so that I can select her 6th level feat - otherwise she selects something I don't think is worth-while. (i.e. West Harbor to Inn to Fort Locke - straight to Neeshka and then straight to the Fort Locke exit path to pick-up Elanee.. only then going back and doing the Swamp Cave map, Bandit Camp map, Graveyard map, etc..)


Note: I used to use Elanee as an archer and Neeshka as melee..


Yes, you select Elanee and then give the command to her pet. The problem is that the Dino sometimes is more than a little "late to the party".
Remove spontaneous casting and auto-summon. Also make sure you unsummon before exiting a map (..and rest so that when you get to the next map you can summon your pet again.)


Neeshka and a light shield, no real flaw.. BUT you can't get her AC up high enough for her not to get killed most of the time (on auto). You can however improve this by having her at a "far" distance from your character so that she starts late into the melee. (..though this doesn't work for "canned" fights.)

Here is what I think I can get with Neeshka on AC:

10 + 2 (tumble) + 4 barkskin + 5 (light shield +4) + 8 (mithril chain shirt + 4) + 2 (protection from alignment) + 6 (dexterity) + 3-5 dodge boots

= 40-42



As far as 'late to the party' I use a lot of 'broadcast commands'. I often stand ground or use missile. I started that way to avoid trap damage. Often neeshka is hidden in shadows scouting out.

With that setup they come to me.

Claudius wrote:Here is what I think I can get with Neeshka on AC:

10 + 2 (tumble) + 4 barkskin + 5 (light shield +4) + 8 (mithril chain shirt + 4) + 2 (protection from alignment) + 6 (dexterity) + 3-5 dodge boots

= 40-42

That's late in the game and there are a lot of critical immune opponents then (..generally). However you are using a Cleric character and you could select the crafting feats for early enchanting. The only limitation then would be the particular gem-stones in combination with the level cap.

When I've played it she had Nammara (Rapier) for daze effect to get more "sneaks" in (take from Galen's body after killing him). But getting good armor and shields? Nope. I think at best for most of the game it was something like Armor of Loyalty and a +1 Light Shield (upgraded later to +2). Killed at Bandit Camp. Killed at both Orc camps. Killed at Warehouse. Killed at both Gith locations. etc.. Anytime there were large groups with decent attack numbers.

It's not really a big deal with her death.. you can always rest - but it get tedious after awhile.

(Btw, the Loyalty armor was nice - Neeska has low Will saves.)

You can buy the arcane archer chain (+2 mithril chain shirt) early in the game is at least something for her early. For shields the merchant in the first area has a +3 light shield. She didn't die in the bandit camp. (moving the party around to make them 'come to you' helps in the bandit camp) (also having a cleric protagonist gives buffs like protection from evil, bless, and healing).

I sold the loyalty armor because she has prot evil and the loyalty armor nets 8000 gold to buy other things. I have a +3 light shield for her and Elanee has the elven court bow +3 enhancement and mighty +3... That bow is awesome for the first area!!

I'll report back how my plan is working .

I'm wondering how much range grobnars + damage song extends to. If it's short range that would be a benefit of archery.

You can buy the arcane archer chain (+2 mithril chain shirt) early in the game is at least something for her early. For shields the merchant in the first area has a +3 light shield. She didn't die in the bandit camp. (moving the party around to make them 'come to you' helps in the bandit camp) (also having a cleric protagonist gives buffs like protection from evil, bless, and healing).

I sold the loyalty armor because she has prot evil and the loyalty armor nets 8000 gold to buy other things. I have a +3 light shield for her and Elanee has the elven court bow +3 enhancement and mighty +3... That bow is awesome for the first area!!

I'll report back how my plan is working .

I'm wondering how much range grobnars + damage song extends to. If it's short range that would be a benefit of archery.

Khelgar has 24 AC with full plate and a tower shield +1
Neeshka has studded +1, Nasher's boots, and light shield +3

Just an added bonus I have discovered is that when Neeshka is 'point' ,(leader of moving place to place), the following distance of all the other members is greatly reduced. I may try making her a feinter with finches chapaeu +4 bluff, but I'll lose then from her thief skills. Edit: Shadow Thief leather armor gives +6 bluff