GameBanshee Forums

Hello all!

After a "few" months of absence (got hooked onto Medal of Honor while waiting for NWN), I'm back again.
NWN night is not yet out here in Europe, but I'm already planning what I will use as a character.
During this stage, I've run into a few questions:

1) Dual-wielding: the description of the "Two-weapon fighting" feat says that you only get -2/-2 penalties when yu use a light weapon offhand (and have ambidexterity). Which weapons are considered "light"? Does a short sword qualify?
2) In the character generator from WotC, it says you can use a quarterstaff dor dual-wielding. How exactly does this work in relation to the penalties (-4/-4 or -2/-2)?
3) Which skills are useful in the game? I wanted to go for a ranger dual-wielding short swords, and seem to have a nice focus on Hide, Move SIlently, Listen, Spot, Heal, Parry, Concentration, Persuade, Search. Are there any vital skills missing?

Thanks,
Geert

If you're going to be meleeing, discipline is good.

Prevents you from getting violated by knockdown, etcetera.

-Cross

the short sword is considered a small weapon and not a light weapon. they are looking for something like daggers. my character is using a rapier (or sabre, i forget) and a dagger. the quick item slots are great. you can switch to a bow really fast.

The Player Hand Book describe Light Weapons as one that is smaller in size than your character. So for medium size characters - human, elves, half-elces, dwarves, half-orcs - a short sword is considered as a Light Weapon, since its size is Small. For small characters - gnomes, halflings - a dagger would be Light, while Short Sword is not. Size categories includes; Unarmed, Tiny, Small, Medium and Large - Unarmed is always counted as Light Weapons.

If you use the Quarterstaff as a double weapon, the penalty is the same as sif you're using a one-handed and a light weapon, so it would be -2/-2 - with Ambidexterity and Two-Weapon Fighting feat.

So I won't be using two short swords
Took a look at the rapier, and it seems close to RP too

I edited my (temporary) character, and this is how he looks:

Enaloindir
Human Male Ranger
3rd level

12 Str
16 Dex
12 Con
14 Int
12 Wis
10 Cha

Skills:
Hide (6), Move Silently (6), Parry (6), Spot (4), Listen (4), Heal (4),
Search (4), Discipline (cc)(2), Persuade (cc)(1)

Feats:
Ambidexterity (Ranger), Improved Parry, Two-Weapon Fighting
(Ranger), Weapon Finesse, Weapon Focus (Rapier)


Any comments?

Geert


P.S. Messed around a bit with the character editor, and just try to hit this guy

Human Male Rogue/Ranger
10th/10th level

12 Str
20 Dex
12 Con
14 Int
13 Wis
10 Cha

Skills:
Hide (23), Move Silently (23), Parry (23), Spot (23), Listen (23),
Heal (23), Search (23), Discipline (cc)(11), Persuade (23), Disable
Device (21), Use Magic Device (4)

Feats:
Ambidexterity (Ranger), Dodge, Improved Parry, Improved Critical
(Rapier), Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (Ranger), Mobility, Point-
Blank-Shot, Two-Weapon Fighting (Ranger), Weapon Finesse,
Weapon Focus (Rapier), Weapon Focus (Dagger)

Rogue Ability: Skill Mastery (Hide, Move Silently, Parry, Spot,
Listen)

A +14 bonus on top of all normal combat bonusses, parrying 4 attacks each round...should be hard to hit. Perfect scout if you ask me

Don't have the game yet so I don't know how closely it follows 3ed, but you might consider raising Wisdom to 14 - since according to the PHB, you need 14 to access level 4 Ranger spells.

I was planning to do that with the ability increases you get each 4th level...

Originally posted by MegaToerist
Perfect scout if you ask me

Well, if you ask me, a 20th level character tends to be perfect at whatever they do....

If you played ToB, a 20th level character got his behind kicked quite hard...

I've heard that even lower-level characters are quite powerful in 3E...Anybody with experience knows that?

Any weapon one size category or more smaller than yourself is considered light for means of two weapon fighting, as well as rapiers and any double weapon, and yes a short sword qualifies. For some reason though I don't think they made quarterstaffs double weapons in NWN.

Originally posted by MegaToerist
If you played ToB, a 20th level character got his behind kicked quite hard...

I've heard that even lower-level characters are quite powerful in 3E...Anybody with experience knows that?

That was also 2nd edition rules, and you were playing with GOD-LIKE characters.